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Volume 1 , a-k, index Josef W. Meri, Editor

Medieval Islamic

Civilization

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA

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Medieval Islamic
Civilization

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA

Volume 1

A-K

INDEX

Medieval Islamic
Civilization

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA

Volume 1

A-K

INDEX

Josef W. Meri

Editor

Q Routledge

Taylor &. Francis Group
New York London

Published in 2006 by
Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group
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New York, NY 10016

Published in Great Britain by
Routledge

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International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-96691-4 (Vol 1), 0-415-96692-2 (Vol 2), 0-415-96690-6 (Set)

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-96691-7 (Vol 1), 978-0-415-96692-4 (Vol 2), 978-0-415-96690-0 (Set)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Medieval Islamic civilization : an encyclopedia / Josef W. Meri, editor ; advisory board, Jere L. Bacharach ... [et al.].
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-415-96691-4 (v. 1 : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-415-96692-2 (v. 2 : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-415-96690-6 (set : alk. paper)

1. Civilization, Islamic— Encyclopedias. 2. Islamic Empire— Civilization— Encyclopedias. I. Meri, Josef W. II. Bacharach, Jere L.,
1938-

DS36.85.M434 2005

909'.09767'003— dc22 2005044229

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CONTENTS

Maps

vii

Introduction

Medieval Series Note

Editorial Board

xvii

Contributors

xix

List of Entries A to Z

xxvii

Thematic List of Entries

XXXV

Entries A to Z

Index

MAPS

vii

Arab Empire, 700-850 CE

MAPS

Asia, 1211-1239 CE

INTRODUCTION

The study of Islam as a religion and the languages of the Middle East, especially Arabic and Persian, has gained in
prominence. In the West, a common misperception exists that there is something intrinsic in Islam as a religion
that engenders acts of violence and terrorism and that Islamics history is replete with instances of pogroms against
non-Muslims. On the contrary, the origin of violent acts lies not in the ontology of any given religion whether
Islam, Judaism, or Christianity, in any given Scripture whether the Qur’an, Torah, or Bible, or in any given
civilization whether Islamic, Greek, or Roman, but rather in a number of factors, including the psychology of
human behavior and the often desperate and trying human conditions that compel humans to carry out desperate
acts in times of war and peace, sometimes in the name of religion. The historian of any civilization or historical
epoch is keenly aware that no premodern (medieval) society was left unscathed by warfare and political conflicts.
Lamentably, until now the paucity of easily accessible English language reference sources about the medieval
Islamic world has led to a situation in which some discourses concerning the clash of civilizations, current affairs,
and modern ideologies and nationalisms have become synonymous with the whole of Islamic civilization. By
contrast, the scholar is able to communicate the defining characteristics of a civilization and is moreover, able to
critically understand and engage the Islamic world on its own terms — as heir to one of the world’s greatest
civilizations, not simply as heir to a world religion whose adherents have historically been in conflict with
adherents of other faiths.

Despite increased and indeed, highly successful efforts in the academy to teach about Islam as a religion and the
Arabic language, the larger civilizational contextual framework of which both are a part is often ignored and
marginalized. Medieval Islamic civilization left an indelible mark on Europe in the transmission of knowledge
and ideas in such diverse fields as science, medicine, mathematics, literature, and philosophy.

Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia represents a collaborative effort at bridging the gap between
that which we perceive Islam and Islamic civilization to be about and what it really is by providing the reader with
an easily accessible reference work presented in a concise language.

Such fundamental questions as to what Islamic civilization is and what Muslims did to contribute to European
understanding of the sciences, mathematics, arts, literature, philosophy, and government remain largely unan-
swered. What was the nature of “interfaith” relations in the Islamic world, and what roles did Jews and Christians
play in medieval Islamic societies? As a number of the entries highlight, Jews and Christians attained prominent
government posts under various Islamic dynasties from Andalusia and Egypt to Iraq and contributed to the
preservation and translation of philosophical and theological texts from Greek, Syriac, and Hebrew into Arabic
and other Islamic languages, as well as to the creation of new literary and cultural syntheses borne of a common
Islamic cultural milieu. These are among the themes that the entries in this work seek to explore. It is our hope
that this work will go a long way toward filling the gaps in knowledge.

Audience

The English-speaking world lacks a single reference work that presents Islamic civilization in a manner intelligible
to the nonspecialist. Specialist reference works are numerous and offer more detailed and technical articles about
various aspects of Islam from pre-Islamic times to the present. The nonspecialist who desires to understand
Islamic civilization is left with few choices except to consult general reference works or works devoted to the
European Middle Ages, which only give a fragmented picture of medieval Islamic civilization.

It is to be hoped that the nonspecialist reader, as well as university and secondary school students and teachers,
will benefit from this work.

INTRODUCTION

Conception and Genesis

Medieval Islamic Civilization was conceived to share our knowledge as experts in the held of Islamic history and
civilization and to correct the misconceptions and misinformation that exist. This impetus encouraged me to take
up the challenge of helping to produce a unique reference work. However, it must be emphasized that this is very
much an international collaborative effort that includes contributions by leading experts in their fields from North
America, Europe, and Asia. Contributors come from various academic backgrounds and employ a diversity of
approaches. Each of the entries adopts a unique approach to a given topic and is written dispassionately without
regard to current political exigencies or political considerations. Medieval Islamic Civilization presents cutting-
edge research into such pivotal themes relating to daily life, the ethnic and religious communities of the Islamic
world, their beliefs and practices, interfaith relations, popular culture and religion, cultural, economic, and
political contacts and exchanges with Europe and Asia, learning and universities, and travel and exploration. It
provides a comprehensive portrait of the artistic, intellectual, literary, medical, and scientific achievements of
Muslims, Jews, Christians, and others who contributed to the flourishing of one of the greatest civilizations
known to humankind. Most of the authors are the leading international experts in their field. Yet all the
contributions represent the highest standards in scholarship on the Islamic world.

Choice of Entries

While it is impossible to discuss every facet of Islamic civilization in a two-volume reference — nonspecialist
encyclopedias are selective by nature — the choice of entries reflects the diversity of the subjects that are covered
herein. The editorial board discussed the entries extensively, and certain additions and emendations were made to
compensate for underrepresented themes. Unlike other volumes in this highly acclaimed Routledge series on the
Middle Ages that are more geographically specific and are focused on the European Middle Ages from the fifth
through sixteenth centuries CE, Medieval Islamic Civilization posed a considerable challenge given the geographi-
cal expanse of the Islamic world, from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to the Middle East, South and
Southeast Asia from roughly the sixth through seventeenth centuries. Unlike other reference works, Medieval
Islamic Civilization has de-emphasized historical themes in favor of an original synthesis that gives greater
prominence to aspects of daily life and to the non-Arab elements of Islamic civilization.

The Islamic Middle Ages is taken to represent the period from 622 CE, or the first year of the Hijra of the
Prophet Muhammad to Medina, which also marks the first year of the Islamic calendar, though we have also
included entries that deal with pre-Islamic themes, peoples, and societies down until the seventeenth century in the
case of Southeast Asia, where no significant written records exist for earlier periods.

Indeed, the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries represent the most significant period for written records
in Southeast Asia. However, this demarcation is somewhat arbitrary. Indeed, it may be argued that certain
continuities existed in Islamic civilization down until the advent of modern secular and national ideologies in the
nineteenth century CE.

Acknowledgments

The Board is pleased that so many of our colleagues from around the world recognized the value of Medieval
Islamic Civilization as not simply another reference work and so enthusiastically answered the call to contribute.
We are especially grateful for their inspiring level of commitment and dedication to this initiative and their high-
quality contributions.

I would also like to thank the advisory board members for their unstinting dedication, the associate editors
Julia Bray and Lutz Richter-Bernburg for expending considerable efforts in commenting on and suggesting
revisions to various entries, and to Jere Bacharach for his overall invaluable contributions to Medieval Islamic
Civilization. I am also grateful to Asma Afsaruddin and Donald Whitcomb for their recommendations. I am
especially grateful to the former for agreeing to write a number of significant entries.

xii

INTRODUCTION

This work would not have been possible without the indefatigable efforts and abiding enthusiasm of the editors
and publishers at Routledge, in particular Marie-Claire Antoine and Jamie Ehrlich. Also, thanks to the various
Routledge staff members who were involved in the early stages of the project.

Finally, it is only fitting that I should pen these words from the Middle East after last having lived here nearly
eight years ago.

Josef (Yousef) Waleed Meri
Amman, Jordan

MEDIEVAL SERIES NOTE

The Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages

Formerly the Garland Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages, this comprehensive series began in 1993 with the
publication of Medieval Scandinavia. A major enterprise in medieval scholarship, the series brings the expertise of
scholars specializing in myriad aspects of the medieval world together in a reference source accessible to students
and the general public, as well as to historians and scholars in related fields. Each volume focuses on a
geographical area or theme important to medieval studies and is edited by a specialist in that field, who has
called upon a board of consulting editors to establish the article list and review the articles. Each article is
contributed by a scholar and followed by a bibliography and cross-references to guide further research.

Routledge is proud to carry on the tradition established by the first volumes in this important series. As the
series continues to grow, we hope that it will provide the most comprehensive and detailed view of the medieval
world in all its aspects ever presented in encyclopedia form.

Vol. 1 Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Phillip Pulsiano.

Vol. 2 Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Edited by William W. Kibler and Grover A. Zinn.

Vol. 3 Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, and
Joel T. Rosenthal.

Vol. 4 Medieval Archaeology: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Pamela Crabtree.

Vol. 5 Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages. Edited by John Block Friedman and
Kristen Mossier Figg.

Vol. 6 Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia. Edited by John M. Jeep.

Vol. 7 Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Norman Roth.

Vol. 8 Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia. Edited by E. Michael Gerli.

Vol. 9 Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Christopher Kleinhenz.

Vol. 10 Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Sean Duffy.

Vol. 11 Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Stephen J. Livesey.

Vol. 12 Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Richard K. Emmerson.

The present volume, Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia , edited by Josef W. Meri, is Volume 13 in
the series.

EDITOR

Josef W. Meri

Fellow and Special Scholar in Residence
Aal al-Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought, Amman, Jordan

EDITORIAL BOARD

Jere L. Bacharach
Department of History
University of Washington

Julia Bray

University of Paris - St. Denis

Lutz Richter-Bernburg
Orientalisches Seminar
Universitdt Tubingen, Germany

Asma Afsaruddin

Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies
University of Notre Dame

Donald Whitcomb

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
University of Chicago

xvn

CONTRIBUTORS

Rachid Aadnani

Wellesley College

Anne K. Bang

University of Bergen

Asma Afsaruddin

University of Notre Dame

Meir M. Bar-Asher

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Roger Allen

University of Pennsylvania

Carol Bargeron

Texas State University

Adel Allouche

Yale University

Cedric Barnes

University of London

Ilai Alon

Tel Aviv University and University of Chicago

Doris Behrens- Abouseif

University of London

Suat Alp

Hacettepe University

Persis Berlekamp

University of Texas, Austin

Zumrut Alp

Istanbul Bilgi University

Lutz Richter-Bernburg

University of Tubingen

Joseph P. Amar

University of Notre Dame

Zvi Aziz Ben-Dor

New York University

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

Universite de Paris-Sorbonne

Thierry Bianquis

University of Lyon

Reuven Amitai

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt

Ruhr- Universitdt Bochum

Glaire D. Anderson

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Michal Biran

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Ali Asani

Harvard University

Nader El-Bizri

Institute of Ismaili Studies

Mahmut Ay

Ankara University

Khalid Yahya Blankinship

Temple University

Sussan Babaie

University of Michigan

Jonathan M. Bloom

Boston College

Patricia L. Baker

Independent Scholar

Michel Boivin

EHESS/CNRS, Paris

xix

CONTRIBUTORS

Stuart J. Borsch

Assumption College

Jamsheed Choksy

Indiana University

Ross Brann

Cornell University

Aboubakr Chraibi

Institut National des Langues et Civilisations, Paris

Julia Bray Niall Christie

University of Paris, St. Denis University of British Columbia

William M. Brinner Paul M. Cobb

University of California, Berkeley University of Notre Dame

Sebastian Brock

University of Oxford

Rainer Brunner

Universitdt Freiburg

Richard W. Bulliet

Columbia University

Birsen Bulmus

Georgetown University

Charles E. Butterworth

University of Maryland

Amila Buturovic

York University

Carmen Caballero-Navas

University College London

Pierre J. Cachia

Columbia University

Giovanni Canova

Universita di Napoli

Stefano Carboni

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mark R. Cohen

Princeton University

David Cook

Rice University

Michael Cooperson

University of California, Los Angeles

Farhad Daftary

Institute of Ismaili Studies

Touraj Daryaee

California State University, Fullerton

Olga M. Davidson

Harvard University

Richard Davis

Ohio State University

Cristina de la Puente

Institute of Philology, CSIC, Madrid

Jesus De Prado Plumed

Universidad Complutense, Madrid

Jonathan P. Decter

Brandeis University

Michael G. Carter

University of Oslo

Paola Carusi

Universita degli Studi di Roma

Khalid Dhorat

Dar-al Salam Islamic Center

Eerik Dickinson

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Brian A. Catlos Amikam Elad

University of California, Santa Cruz Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Driss Cherkaoui Alexander E. Elinson

College of William and Mary Queens College, City University of New York

CONTRIBUTORS

Amira El-Zein

Tufts University

Claude Gilliot

University of Aix-en-Provence

Gerhard Endress

Ruhr- Universitdt Bochum

Robert Gleave

University of Bristol

Daphna Ephrat

Open University of Israel

Valerie Gonzalez

Clark University

Muhammad H. Fadel

Independent Scholar

Matthew S. Gordon

Miami University

Rizwi Faizer

Independent Scholar

William Granara

Harvard University

Sunni M. Fass

Indiana University

Frank Griffel

Yale University

Paul B. Fenton

Universite de Paris-Sorbonne

Christiane Gruber

University of Pennsylvania

Maribel Fierro

Institute of Philology, CSIC, Madrid

Beatrice Gruendler

Yale University

Reuven Firestone

Li Guo

Hebrew Union College

University of Notre Dame

Finbarr Barry Flood

Kim Haines-Eitzen

New York University

Cornell University

Daniel Frank

Leor Halevi

Ohio State University

Texas A&M University

Yehoshua Frenkel

Philip Hallden

University of Haifa

Lund University

Bruce Fudge

Abbas Hamdani

New York University

University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee

Adam Gacek

McGill University

Marie Hammond

University of Oxford

Roland-Pierre Gayraud

Le Laboratoire d'Archeologie Medievale

Andras Hamori

Mediterraneenne

Princeton University

Eric Geoffroy

Eric Hanne

Universite Marc Bloch

Florida Atlantic University

Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

Tilman Hannemann

Reed College

Universitdt Bremen

Antonella Ghersetti

Universitd Ca ’ Foscari

Gerald R. Hawting

University of London

CONTRIBUTORS

Bernard Haykel

New York University

Gisela Helmecke

Staatliche Museem zu Berlin

Konrad Hirschler

Universitdt Kiel

Jan P. Hogendijk

University of Utrecht

Livnat Holtzman

Bar-Ilan University

Th. Emil Homerin

University of Rochester

James Ho ward- Johnston

University of Oxford

Rachel T. Howes

California State University,
Northridge

Qamar-ul Huda

Boston College

Colin Imber

University of Manchester

Tariq al- Jamil

North Carolina State University

Jan Jansen

Universiteit Leiden

Steven C. Judd

Southern Connecticut State University

Yuka Kadoi

University of Edinburgh

Hossein Kamaly

Columbia University

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak

University of Maryland

Hassan Khalilieh

University of Haifa

Nurten Kilic-Schubel

Kenyon College

Hilary Kilpatrick

University of Zurich

Leah Kinberg

Tel Aviv University

David A. King

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

Verena Klemm

University of Leipzig

Alexander Knysh

University of Michigan

Philip G. Kreyenbroek

University of Gottingen

Kathryn Kueny

Lawrence University

Scott A. Kugle

Swarthmore College

Michael Laffan

Princeton University

Arzina R. Lalani

Institute of Ismaili Studies

Ruth Lamdan

Tel Aviv University

Hermann Landolt

Institute of Ismaili Studies

George Lane

University of London

Margaret Larkin

University of California, Berkeley

Gary Leiser

Independent Scholar

Judith Lerner

Independent Art Historian

P. Lettinck

International Institute for Islamic Thought and
Civilization, Kuala Lumpur

Yaacov Lev

Bar-Ilon University

XXII

CONTRIBUTORS

Keith Lewinstein

Bridgewater State College

Joseph E. Lowry

University of Pennsylvania

Scott C. Lucas

University of Arizona

Al-Husein N. Madhany

University of Chicago

Roxani Eleni Margariti

Emory University

Louise Marlow

Wellesley College

Andrew Marsham

University of Cambridge

Ulrich Marzolph

Enzyklopddie des Mdrchens

Christopher Melchert

University of Cambridge

John L. Meloy

American University of Beirut

Charles P. Melville

University of Cambridge

Josef W. Meri

Aal al-Bavt Foundation for Islamic Thought

Alan Mikhail

University of California, Berkeley

Isabel Miller

Institute of Ismaili Studies

Colin Paul Mitchell

Dalhousie University

Jawid Mojaddedi

Rutgers University

Janies E. Montgomery

University of Cambridge

Shmuel Moreh

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Michael G. Morony

University of California, Los Angeles

David Morray

University College, Dublin

Robert Morrison

Whitman College

Suleiman A. Mourad

Middlebury College

Hasan M. al-Naboodah

United Arab Emirates University

Azim Nanji

Institute of Ismaili Studies

John A. Nawas

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Angelika Neuwirth

Freie Universiteit Berlin

Andrew J. Newman

University of Edinburgh

Mehri Niknam

The Maimonides Foundation

York Allan Norman

Georgetown University

Alastair Northedge

Universite de Paris-Sorbonne

Erik S. Ohlander

Indiana University/Purdue University, Fort Wayne

Mehmet Sait Ozervarli

Center for Islamic Studies, Istanbul

Oya Pancaroglu

University of Oxford

Irmeli Perho

Finnish Institute in the Middle East

Andrew Petersen

United Arab Emirates University

Daniel C. Peterson

Brigham Young University

xxiii

CONTRIBUTORS

Karen Pinto

American University of Beirut

Peter E. Pormann

University of London

Venetia Porter

The British Museum

David Stephan Powers

Cornell University

Tahera Qutbuddin

University of Chicago

Intisar Rabb

Yale University

Babak Rahimi

University of California, San Diego

Leonhard E. Reis

Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Gabriel Said Reynolds

University of Notre Dame

Lutz Richter-Bernburg

Universitdt Tubingen

Sajjad H. Rizvi

University of Exeter

Cynthia Robinson

Cornell University

James I. Robinson

University of Chicago

Michael J. Rogers

The Nour Foundation

Leyla Rouhi

Williams College

David J. Roxburgh

Harvard University

D. Fairchild Ruggles

University of Ilinois, Urb ana- Champaign

Adam Sabra

Western Michigan University

Noha Sadek

Institut Francais du Proche Orient

Marlis J. Saleh

University of Chicago

Walid Saleh

University of Toronto

Paula Sanders

Rice University

Nil Sari

Istanbul Universitesi

Huseyin Sarioglu

Istanbul Universitesi

Mufit Selim Saruhan

University of Ankara

Tsugitaka Sato

University of Tokyo

Sara Scalenghe

Georgetown University

Sabine Schmidtke

Freie Universitdt Berlin

Fred Scholz

Freie Universitdt Berlin

Warren C. Schultz

DePaul University

Stuart D. Sears

Roger Williams University

Recep Senturk

Center for Islamic Studies, Istanbul

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Institute of Philology, CSIC, Madrid

Mustafa Shah

University of London

Reza Shah-Kazemi

Institute of Ismaili Studies

Ayman Shihadeh

University of Glasgow

xxiv

CONTRIBUTORS

Boaz Shoshan

Ben-Gurion University of the Nagrev

Kcmal Silay

Indiana University

Adam Silverstein

University of Cambridge

John Masson Smith

University of California, Berkeley

Pieter Smoor

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Manu P. Sobti

Georgia Institute of Technology and Southern
Polytechnic State University

Jochen Sokoly

Virginia Commonwealth University School of
the Arts, Qatar

Bruna Soravia

Luiss University

Denise A. Spellberg

University of Texas, Austin

Peter Starr

Living Human Heritage, Zurich

Devin J. Stewart

Emory University

Paula R. Stiles

University of St. Andrews

Norman A. Stillman

University of Oklahoma

Ian B. Straughn

University of Chicago

Gotthard Strohmaier

Freie Universiteit Berlin

Sarah Stroumsa

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Fahmida Suleman

Institute of Ismaili Studies

Mark N. Swanson

Luther Seminary

Sarny Swayd

San Diego State University

Richard C. Taylor

Marquette University

Baki Tezcan

University of California, Davis

Marina A. Tolmacheva

Washington State University

Shawkat M. Toorawa

Cornell University

Houari Touati

EHESS, Paris

Alain Touwaide

Smithsonian National Museum of History

William F. Tucker

University of Arkansas

Richard Turnbull

Fashion Institute of Technology

John P. Turner

Kennesaw State University

Geert Jan van Gelder

University of Oxford

Maria Jesus Viguera-Molins

Universidad Complutense,

Madrid

Knut S. Vikor

University of Bergen

Paul E. Walker

University of Chicago

Seth Ward

University of Wyoming

Rachel Ward

The British Museum

Anthony Welch

University of Victoria,

British Columbia

Brannon Wheeler

University of Washington

xxv

CONTRIBUTORS

Clare E. Wilde

Georgetown University

Stefan Winter

Universite du Quebec a Montreal

Jonathan David Wyrtzen

Georgetown University

Huseyin Yazici

Istanbul Universitesi

Yetkin Yildirim

University of Texas, Austin

Netice Yildiz

Eastern Mediterranean University

Douglas Young

Stanford University

Hayrettin Yucesoy

Saint Louis University

Homayra Ziad

Yale University

xxvi

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

‘Abbasids

‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

‘Abd al-Rahman III

Abu Bakr

Abu Hanifa

Abu ’l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri

Abu ’1-Fadl al-Bayhaqi

Abu ’1-Fadl ‘Allami

Abu Nuwas

Abu Shama

Abu Tammam

Abyssinia

Adab

Aden

‘Adud al-Dawla

Adultery

Afterlife

Aghlabids

Agra Red Fort

Agriculture

‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr

Akbar

Alchemy

Alcohol

Aleppo

Alexander

Alexandria

Algebra

Alhambra

‘Ali al-Rida

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib

Almohads

Almoravids

Alp Arslan

Alphabets

Amir Khusraw

Amuli, al-

Andalus

Angels

Animal Husbandry
‘Antara ibn Shaddad
Apostasy
Apprenticeship

Aqsa Mosque

Aqueducts

Arabia

Arabic

Arabs

Aramaeans

Aramaic

Architecture, Secular — Palaces
Architecture, Secular — Military
Archives and Chanceries
Aristotle and Aristotelianism
Arwa

Ascetics and Asceticism

Askiya Muhammad Touare

Assassins, Ismaili

Astrolabes

Astrology

Astronomy

‘Attar, Farid al-Din

Autobiographical Writings

Aya Sophia

‘Ayn Jalut

Ayyubids

Azhar, al-

Babar

Backgammon

Badr al-Jamali

Badshahi Mosque, Lahore

Baghdad

Bahrain

Bakri, al-, Geographer

Balkans

Baraka

Barani, Zia’ al-Din,

Basra

Baths and Bathing

Baybars I, Mamluk Sultan

Beauty and Aesthetics

Berber, or Tamazight

Berbers

Beverages

Bible

xxvn

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

Bijapur

Bilal al-Habashi

Biography and Biographical Works
Biruni

Black Death

Books

Botany

Brethren of Purity

Buddhism and Islam

Bukhara

Bukhari

Burial Customs

Burids

Buyids

Byzantine Empire

Cairo

Caliphate and Imamate

Calligraphy

Camels

Carpets

Cartography

Central Asia, History (750/1500)

Ceramics

Charity, Islamic

Charity, Jewish

Chess

Children and Childhood

China

Chishti

Chivalry

Christians and Christianity
Circassians
Circumcision
Climate, Theories of
Clothing and Costume
Coins and Currency

Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil
Commentary

Companions of the Prophet

Concubinage

Constitution of Medina

Consultation, or Shura

Coptic Language

Copts

Cordoba

Cosmetics

Court Dress, Abbasid
Court Dress, Fatimid
Court Dress, Mamluk
Credit

Crime and Punishment

Crusades

Cursing

Customary Law
Cyprus

Damascus

Dancing

Dara Shikoh

Dates and Calendars

Death and Dying

Decadence, Notion of

Degrees, or Ijaza

Desserts and Confections

Dhimma

Diplomacy

Disability

Divination

Divorce

Dome of the Rock

Dreams and Dream Interpretation

Druze

Earthquakes
Education, Islamic
Education, Jewish
Egypt
Elegy

Emigration, or Hijra

Epic Poetry

Epics, Arabic

Epics, Persian

Epics, Turkish

Epidemics

Eschatology

Espionage

Ethics

Eunuchs

European Literature, Perception of Islam
Excellences Literature

Farabi, al- (Alfarabius or Avennasar)
Fatima bint Muhammad
Fatimids
Ferdowsi

xxviii

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

Festivals and Celebrations

Fez

Floods

Folk Literature, Arabic
Folk Literature, Persian
Folk Literature, Turkish
Folk Medicine
Food and Diet
Foreigners
Franks, or Ifranj
Freethinkers

Funerary Practices: Jewish
Funerary Practices: Muslim
Furniture and Furnishings
Fustat

Gambling

Gang-i Shakar, Farid al-Din

Gardens and Gardening

Gender and Sexuality

Genghis Khan

Geniza

Geography

Geometry

Gesudaraz

Ghana

Ghassanids

Ghazali

Ghaznavids

Gibraltar

Gifts and Gift Giving

Glassware

Gnosis

Grammar and Grammarians
Grammar and Grammarians, Hebrew and
Judeo-Arabic
Granada
Greek

Guilds, Professional

Hadith

Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya

Hafsids

Hajj

Hakim, al-, Fatimid Caliph
Hamadhani, Badi‘ al-Zaman
Hamdanids

Harawi, al-, ‘Ali B. Abi Bakr

Harizi, Judah, al-

Harun al-Rashid

Hasan al-Basri, al-

Hassan-i Sabbah

Hebrew

Hebron

Herat

Heresy and Heretics
Heroes and Heroism
Hilli, al-, al-‘Allama
Hippology

Hiraba, or Brigandage

Horticulture

Houses

Humanism

Humayun

Humor

Hunayn ibn Ishaq
Hunting
Husayn ibn ‘Ali

Ibadis

Ibn al-‘Adim
Ibn al-Athir
Ibn al-Furat

Ibn al-Haytham or Alhazen
Ibn al-Jawzi
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘

Ibn al-Nafis

Ibn al-Rawandi

Ibn ‘Arab

Ibn ‘Asakir

Ibn Babawayh

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Ezra, Abraham

Ibn Ezra, Moses Ben Jacob

Ibn Gabirol, Solomon

Ibn Hamdis

Ibn Hanbal

Ibn Ishaq

Ibn Jubayr

Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khurradadhbih

Ibn Naghrela, Samuel

Ibn QadI Shuhba

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya

Ibn Qutayba

Ibn Quzman

Ibn Rushd, or Averroes

Ibn Sa‘d

Ibn Shaddad

Ibn Shahin, Nissim ben Jacob

xxix

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

Ibn Sina, or Avicenna

Ibn Taghri Birdi

Ibn Taymiyya

Ibn Tufayl

Ibn Tulun

Ibn Tumart

Ibn Wasil

Ibn Yunus

Ibn Zur‘a

Idolatry

Idrisi

Idrisids

Ikhshidids

Ilkhanids

Illuminationism

Imam

India

Inheritance
Intellectual History
Interfaith Relations
Iranian Languages
Isfahan

Isfahani, al-, Abu Nu‘aym

Ishaq ibn Ibrahim

Islam

Ismailis

Istanbul

‘Izz Al-Din

Kalila wa Dimna

Karaites

Karbala

Khalid ibn al-Walid
Kharijis

Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-
Khurasan

Khuza‘i, Ahmad ibn Nasr
Kilwa

Kindi, al-, Historian
Kindi, al-, Philosopher
Kirmani, al-, Hamid al-Din
Konya
Kufa

Kulayni, al-

Kurdish

Kurds

Land Tenure and Ownership, or Iqta‘

Law and Jurisprudence

Libraries

Linguistics, Arabic
Love Poetry

Ja‘far al-Sadiq
Jahiz, al-
Jami
Java

Jerusalem

Jesus

Jewelry

Jews

Jihad

Jinn

Judah ha-Levi
Judeo-Arabic
Judges
Juha

Jurjani, al-
Juwayni

Ka‘ba, or Kaaba
Kabbala

Madrasa

Mahmud of Ghazna
Mahmud-al-Kati, African Scholar
Maimonides
Majlisi, al-

Majusi, al-, or Haly Abbas

Malay Peninsula

Mali Empire

Malik ibn Anas

Malikism

Malikshah

Mamluks

Ma’mun, al-

Mansa Musa

Manuscripts

Manzikert

Maqama

Maqqari, al-

Maqrizi, al-

Marinids

Markets

Marriage, Islamic

xxx

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

Marriage, Jewish
Martyrdom
Mashidi, al-

Mathematical Geography
Mathematics
Mawardi, al-
Mecca

Medical Literature, Hebrew
Medical Literature, Persian
Medical Literature, Syriac
Medical Literature, Turkish
Medina

Mediterranean Sea

Mental Illness

Merchants, Jewish

Merchants, Muslim

Messianism

Metalwork

Meteorology

Minerals

Mining

Mir Damad

Mirrors for Princes

Monasticism, Arab

Money Changers

Mongol Warfare

Mongols

Mosaics

Moses

Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo
Mosques

Mu’ayyad fi al-Din, al-
Mu‘tazilites
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim
Muhammad, the Prophet
Mulla Sadra
Music

Muslim Community and Polity, or Umma
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Muslim-Byzantine Relations
Muslim-Crusader Relations
Muslim-Mongol Diplomacy
Mutanabbi
Mysticism, Jewish
Mythical Places

Nafs al-Zakiyya
Names
Navigation
Navy

Nawruz

Nezami

Nile

Nishapur
Nizam al-Din
Nizam al-Mulk
Nomadism and Pastoralism
Numbers

Nur al-Din ibn Zanki
Nur Jahan
Nusayris

Oaths

Oljeitii

Oman

One Thousand and One Nights

Ophthalmology

Optics

Ottoman Empire

Painting, Miniature

Painting, Monumental and Frescoes

Palermo

Palestine

Paper Manufacture
Party Kingdoms, Iberian Peninsula
Peace and Peacemaking
Peasants

Performing Artists

Perfume

Persian

Persians

Pharmacology

Philosophy

Pigeons

Pilgrimage

Plato, Platonism, and Neoplatonism

Poetry, Arabic

Poetry, Hebrew

Poetry, Indian

Poetry, Persian

Police

Political Theory
Popular Literature
Post, or Barid
Poverty, Islamic

xxxt

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

Poverty, Jewish

Prayer

Precedence

Predestination

Primary Schools, or Kuttab

Prisons

Processions, Religious
Processions, Military
Prophets, Tales of
Prostitution
Ptolemy

Qayrawan
Qazwini, al-
Qur’an

Qur’an and Arabic Literature
Qur’an, Reciters and Recitation
Qutb Minar

Raniri, al-, Nur al-Din
Rashid al-Din
Rasulids

Razi, al-, Fakhr al-Din
Razi, al-, or Rhazes
Razia Sultana
Reform, or Islah
Renewal (Tajdid)

Rhetoric
Road Networks

Romance Languages and Literatures of Iberia
Rosewater

Sa‘adyah Gaon
Sacred Geography
Safavids

Saints and Sainthood, Christian

Saladin, or Salah al-Din

Salman al-Farisi

Samanids

Samarqand

Samarra

Sasanians, Islamic Traditions
Scholarship

Schools of Jurisprudence
Scribes, Copyists
Scriptural Exegesis, Islamic
Scriptural Exegesis, Jewish
Sculpture
Sedentarism
Seeking Knowledge
Selimiye Mosque, Edirne
Seljuks

Seven Sleepers
Seville

Shadow Plays
Shafi‘i, al-
Shah ‘Abbas
Shahnama
Shajar al-Durr
Shawkani, al-
Shi‘i Law
Shi‘i Thought
Shi‘ism

Ships and Shipbuilding

Sibawayhi

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi

Sicily

Silk Roads

Sinan

Sindh

Singing

Sira

Sirhindi, Ahmad
Slavery, Military

Slaves and Slave Trade, Eastern Islamic World
Slaves and Slave Trade, Western Islamic World
Socializing
Songhay Empire

Southeast Asia, History and Culture

Southeast Asia, Languages and Literatures

Spices

Sports

Sudan

Suffering

Sufism and Sufis: South Asia
Suhrawardi, al-, Shihab al-Din ‘Umar
Sulayhids

Siileymaniye Mosque
Sultan

Sunni Ah, Songhay Ruler
Sunni Revival

Surgery and Surgical Techniques

Suyuti, al-

Synagogues

Syria, Greater Syria

Syriac

xxxn

Usama ibn Munqidh
Usury and Interest
Uthman ibn 'AITan

LIST OF ENTRIES A TO Z

Tabari, al-
Taj Mahal

Talismans and Talismanic Objects

Tamerlane, or Timur

Tawhidi, al-, Abu Hayyan

Technology, Mills: Water and Wind

Textiles

Theater

Theology

Time, Concepts of

Timurids

Titles

Trade, African

Trade, Indian Ocean

Trade, Mediterranean

Translation, Arabic into Hebrew

Translation, Arabic into Persian

Translation, Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic

Transoxiania

Travel

Tribes and Tribal Customs
Tulunids

Turkish and Turkic Languages

Turks

Tus

Tusi, al-, Muhammad ibn Hasan
Tusi, al-, Nasir al-Din

Viziers

Waqf
Waqidi, al-
Weather
Wine

Women, Jewish
Women, Patrons
Women Poets
Women Warriors

Ya'qub ibn Killis
Yaqut
Yazidis
Yemen

‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz

‘Umar ibn al-Farid

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus

Umayyads

Urbanism

Zankids

Zayd ibn Thabit

Zaydis

Ziryab

Zoroastrianism

xxxiii

THEMATIC LIST
OF ENTRIES

Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Hunting

Agriculture

Animal Husbandry

Aqueducts

Camels

Horticulture

Hunting

Nomadism and Pastoralism
Sedentarism

Arts and Architecture

Agra Red Fort
Alhambra
Aqsa Mosque

Architecture, Secular — Military
Architecture, Secular — Palaces
Aya Sophia

Badshahi Mosque, Lahore

Baths and Bathing

Beauty and Aesthetics

Books

Carpets

Ceramics

Dome of the Rock

Furniture and Furnishings

Gardens and Gardening

Glassware

Houses

Jewelry

Madrasa

Metalwork

Mosaics

Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo

Mosques

Music

Musical Instruments

Painting, Miniature

Painting, Monumental and Frescoes

Paper Manufacture
Performing Artists
Poetry
Qutb Minar
Sculpture

Selimiye Mosque, Edirne

Shadow Plays

Shahnama

Sinan

Singing

Sulcymaniyc Mosque
Sunni Revival
Taj Mahal

Talismans and Talismanic Objects

Textiles

Theater

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus

Urbanism

Women, Patrons

Ziryab

Commerce and Economy

Cartography

Chess

Credit

Land Tenure and Ownership, or Iqta‘

Markets

Merchants, Jewish
Merchants, Muslim
Minerals
Mining

Money Changers
Navigation
Road Networks
Ships and Shipbuilding
Silk Roads

Slaves and Slave Trade, Eastern Islamic World
Slaves and Slave Trade, Western Islamic World
Spices

Technology, Mills, Water, and Wind

xxxv

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Textiles
Trade, African
Trade, Indian Ocean
Trade, Mediterranean
Usury and Interest
Weather

Daily Life

Alcohol

Alphabets

Backgammon

Baraka

Baths and Bathing
Beverages
Charity, Islamic
Charity, Jewish
Chess

Children and Childhood

Circumcision

Clothing and Costume

Concubinage

Court Dress, ‘Abbasid

Court Dress, Fatimid

Court Dress, Mamluk

Cursing

Dancing

Decadence, Notion of

Death and Dying

Desserts and Confections

Disability

Divorce

Ethics

Festivals and Celebrations
Food and Diet
Funerary Practices, Jewish
Funerary Practices, Muslim
Furniture and Furnishings
Gambling

Gardens and Gardening
Gifts and Gift Giving
Heroes and Heroism
Humor
Hunting

Interfaith Relations
Markets

Marriage, Islamic

Marriage, Jewish

Music

Names

Nawruz

Perfume

Pigeons

Pilgrimage

Popular Literature

Poverty, Islamic

Poverty, Jewish

Processions, Religious

Rosewater

Seven Sleepers

Socializing

Spices

Sports

Suffering

Wine

Diplomacy, Government, Politics, and
Cultural Exchanges

Archives and Chanceries
Diplomacy
Gifts and Gift Giving
Mirrors for Princes
Muslim-Byzantine Relations
Muslim-Crusader Relations
Muslim-Mongol Diplomacy
Peace and Peacemaking
Police

Post, or Barid
Political Theory
Viziers

Dynasties, Empires, Rulers, and Statesmen

‘Abbasids

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

‘Abd al-Rahman III

Abu Bakr

‘Adud al-Dawla

Aghlabids

Akbar

Almohads

Almoravids

Alp Arslan

Arwa

Askiya Muhammad Touare

Ayyubids

Babar

Baybars I, Mamluk Sultan

Burids

Buyids

Byzantine Empire
Fatimids
Genghis Khan

xxxvi

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Ghassanids

Ghaznavids

Hafsids

Hakim, A1-, Fatimid Caliph

Hamdanids

Humayun

Ibn Naghrela, Samuel

Ibn Tulun

Ibn Tumart

Idrisids

Ikhshidids

Ilkhanids

Mahmud of Ghazna
Mali Empire
Malikshah
Mamluks

Ma’mun, al-, ‘Abbasid Caliph

Mansa Musa

Marinids

Nizam al-Mulk

Nur al-Din ibn Zanki

Nur Jahan

dljeitii

Ottoman Empire

Party Kingdoms, Iberian Peninsula

Rasulids

Razia Sultana

Saladin, or Salah al-Din

Samanids

Sasanians, Islamic Traditions

Seljuks

Shah ‘Abbas

Shajar al-Durr

Songhay Empire

Sulayhids

Sultan

Sunni Ali, Songhay Ruler

Tamerlane, or Timur

Timurids

Titles

Tulunids

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab

Uthman ibn ‘Affan

Umayyads

Ya‘qub ibn Killis

Zankids

Zaydis

Geography

Bakri, al-, Geographer

Cartography

Geography

Ibn Khurradadhbih
Idrisi

Qazwini, al-

Mathematical Geography
Sacred Geography
Yaqut

History and Historical Concepts

Abu Shama

Barani, Zia’ al-Din, Historian of Pre-Moghul India

Biography and Biographical Works

Cairo

Geniza

Ibn al-‘Adim

Ibn ‘Asakir

Ibn al-Athir

Ibn al-Furat

Ibn al-Jawzi

Ibn Khaldun

Ibn QadI Shuhba

Ibn Shaddad

Ibn Taghri Birdi

Ibn Wasil

Intellectual History

Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-

Kindi, al-, Historian

Mahmud al-Kati, African Scholar

Maqqari, al-

Maqrizi, al-

Mas‘udi, al-

Rashid al-Din

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi

Tabari, al-

Waqidi, al-

Language

Arabic

Aramaic

Berber, or Tamazight
Coptic Language
Grammar and Grammarians
Grammar and Grammarians, Hebrew and
Judeo-Arabic
Greek
Hebrew

Iranian Languages
Kurdish

Linguistics, Arabic
Persian

Romance Languages and Literatures

xxxvii

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Sibawayh

Syriac

Turkish and Turkic Languages
Urdu

Law and Jurisprudence

Abu Hanifa
Adultery
Apostasy
Bukhari, al-

Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil

Constitution of Medina

Consultation, or Shura

Crime and Punishment

Customary Law

Disability

Divorce

Ethics

Heresy and Heretics

Idolatry

Ibn Hanbal

Inheritance

Ja‘far al-Sadiq

Judges

Land Tenure and Ownership
Law and Jurisprudence
Maimonides
Malik ibn Anas
Marriage, Islamic
Marriage, Jewish
Mawardi, al-
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Prisons

Reform, or Islah
Renewal (Tajdid)

Schools of Jurisprudence

Sa‘adyah Gaon

Schools of Jurisprudence

Shafi‘i, al-

Shari‘a

Shawkani, al-

Shi‘ism

Usury and Interest

Waqf

Zaydis

Learning

Azhar, al-
Degrees, or Ijaza

Education, Islamic

Education, Jewish

Humanism

Libraries

Madrasa

Manuscripts

Primary Schools, or Kuttab

Scholarship

Seeking Knowledge

Translation, Arabic to Hebrew

Translation, Arabic to Persian

Translation, Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic

Literature

Adab

Amir Khusraw

‘Antara ibn Shaddad

‘Attar, Farid al-Din

Autobiographical Writings

Biography and Biographical Works

Decadence

Elegy

Epic Poetry
Epics, Arabic
Epics, Persian
Epics, Turkish

European Literature, Perception of Islam

Excellences Literature

Ferdowsi

Folk Literature, Arabic
Folk Literature, Persian
Folk Literature, Turkish
Foreigners

Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya
(Andalusian Poetess)

Harizi, Judah, al-

Humor

Ibn Gabirol

Ibn Hamdis

Ibn al-Muqaffa

Ibn Naghrela, Samuel

Ibn Qutayba

Ibn Quzman

Ibn Sa‘d

Ibn Shahin, Nissim ben Jacob

Jahiz, al-

Jami

Judah ha-Levi
Jurjani, Al-
Kalila wa Dimna
Love poetry
Maqama

xxxviii

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Mirrors for Princes

One Thousand and One Nights

Poetry, Arabic

Poetry, Hebrew

Poetry, Persian

Poetry, Indian

Popular Literature

Prophets, Tales of

Rhetoric

Shahnama

Sira

Translation

Magic and Divinatory Arts

Astrology

Divination

Dreams and Dream Interpretation
Talismans and Talismanic Objects

Medicine

Black Death

Death and Dying

Disability

Folk Medicine

Food and Diet

Hunayn ibn Ishaq

Ibn al-Haytham, or Alhazen

Ibn al-Nafis

Ibn Sina

Maimonides

Majusi, Al-

Medical Literature, Hebrew
Medical Literature, Persian
Medical Literature, Syriac
Medical Literature, Turkish
Mental Illness
Ophthalmology
Optics

Pharmocology

Razi, al-, or Rhazes

Surgery and Surgical Techniques

Mythical Beings and Places

Angels

Jinn

Mythical Places

Natural Disasters and Weather

Climate, Theories of
Earthquakes
Floods
Meteorology

Personal Hygiene and Cosmetics

Baths and Bathing

Cosmetics

Perfume

Personal Hygiene

Persons

Individuals

‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

‘Abd al-Rahman III

Abu ’l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri

Abu Bakr

Abu’l-Fadl ‘Allami

Abu ’1-Fadl al-Bayhaqi

Abu Hanifa

Abu Nuwas

Abu Shama

Abu Tammam

‘Adud al-Dawla

Akbar

Alexander

‘Ali al-Rida

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib

Alp Arslan

Amir Khusraw

Amuli, al-

‘Antara ibn Shaddad
Arwa

Askiya Muhammad Touare
Awliya’, Nizam al-Din
Babar

Badr al-Jamali
Bakri, al-, Geographer
Barani, Zia’ al-Din, Historian of
Pre-Mughal India
Bayazid, Yildirim
Baybars I, Mamluk Sultan
Bilal al-Habashi
Biruni, al-

xxxix

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Chishti

Companions of the Prophet
Dara Shikoh
Farabi, al-

Fatima bint Muhammad
Ferdowsi

Gang-i Shakar, Farid al-Din
Genghis Khan
Gesudaraz
Ghazali, al-

Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya
(Andalusian Poetess)

Hakim, al-, Fatimid Caliph

Hamadhani, al-, Badi‘ al-Zaman

Harun al-Rashid

Harawi, al-, ‘Ali ibn Abi Bakr

Hasan al-Basri, al-

Hassan-i Sabbah

Hilli, al-, al-‘Allama

Humayun

Hunayn ibn Ishaq

Husayn ibn ‘Ali

Ibn al-‘Adim

Ibn ‘Arabi

Ibn ‘Asakir

Ibn al-Athir

Ibn Babawayh

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Ezra, Abraham

Ibn Ezra, Moses Ben Jacob

Ibn al-Furat

Ibn Gabirol, Solomon

Ibn Hamdis

Ibn Hanbal

Ibn al-Haytham, or Alhazen

Ibn Ishaq

Ibn al-Jawzi

Ibn Jubayr

Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khurradadhbih

Ibn al-Muqaffa

Ibn al-Nahs

Ibn Naghrela

Ibn Qadi Shuhba

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya

Ibn Qutayba

Ibn Quzman

Ibn al-Rawandi

Ibn Rushd, or Averroes

Ibn Sa‘d

Ibn Shaddad

Ibn Shahin, Nissim ben Jacob
Ibn Sina, or Avicenna
Ibn Taghribirdi
Ibn Taymiyya

Ibn Tufayl
Ibn Tulun
Ibn Tumart
Ibn Wasil

Ibn Zur‘a, Christian Philosopher
Idrisi

Isfahani, A1-, Abu Nu‘aym
Ishaq ibn Ibrahim
Ja‘far al-Sadiq
Jahiz, al-
Jami

Judah ha-Levi
Judah al-Harizi
Jurjani, al-
Juvayni

Khalid ibn al-Walid

Khatib al-Baghdadi, Al-

Khuza‘i Ahmad ibn Nasr

Kindi, al-, Historian

Kindi, al-, Philosopher

Kirmani, al-, Hamid al-Din

Kulayni, al-

Mahmud of Ghazna

Mahmud al-Kati

Maimonides

Majlisi, al-

Majusi, al-

Malik ibn Anas

Malikshah

Ma'mun, al-

Mansa Musa

Maqqari, al-

Maqrizi, al-

Mas‘udi, al-

Mawardi, al-

Mir Damad

Moses

Mu’ayyad h al-Din, al-
Muhammad, the Prophet
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim
Mulla Sadra
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Mutanabbi, al-
Nafs al-Zakiyya
Nezami

Nizam al-Mulk
Nur al-Din ibn Zanki
Nur Jahan
Oljeitu

Plato, Platonism, and Neoplatonism

Qazwini, al-

Raniri, al-, Nur al-Din

Rashid al-Din

Razi, al-, Fakhr al-Din

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Razi, al-, or Rhazes
Razia Sultana
Sa‘adyah Gaon
Saladin, or Salah al-Din
Salman al-Farisi
Shali‘i, al-
Shah Abbas
Shajar al-Durr
Shawkani, al-
Shirazi, al-, Sadr al-Din
Sibawayh
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
Sinan

Sirhindi, Ahmad

Suhrawardi, al-, Shihab al-Din ‘Umar

Sunni ‘Ali

Tabari, al-

Tamerlane, or Timur

Tawhidi, al-, Abu ’1-Hayyan

Tusi, al-, Nasir al-Din

‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz

‘Umar ibn al-Farid

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab

Usama ibn Munqidh

‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan

Waqidi, al-

Ya‘qub ibn Killis

Yaqut

Zayd ibn Thabit
Ziryab

Peoples

Arabs

Aramaeans

Berbers

Circassians

Copts

Jews

Kurds

Mongols

Persians

Turks

Philosophy and Thought

Amuli, al-

Aristotle and Aristotelianism
Brethren of Purity
Freethinkers
Gnosis

Kirmani, al-, Hamid al-Din

Ibn al-Rawandi
Ibn Rushd
Ibn Sina
Ibn Tufayl
Ibn Zur‘a
Illuminationism

Farabi, al- (Alfarabius or Avennasar)

Kindi, al-

Maimonides

Mu’ayyad fi al-Din, Al-

Mulla Sadra

Plato, Platonism, and Neoplatonism

Philosophy

Razi, al-, or Rhazes

Shirazi, al-, Sadr al-Din

Tawhidi, al-, Abu Hayyan

Tusi, al-, Muhammad ibn Hasan

Time, Notions of

Places and Place Study

Abyssinia

Aden

Aleppo

Alexandria

Andalus

Arabia

Baghdad

Bahrain

Balkans

Basra

Bijapur

Brunei

Bukhara

Cairo

Central Asia, History

China

Cordoba

Cyprus

Damascus

Egypt

Fez

Fustat

Ghana

Gibraltar

Granada

Hebron

Herat

India

Isfahan

Istanbul

Java

Jerusalem

xli

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Ka‘ba, or Kaaba

Karbala

Khurasan

Kilwa

Kufa

Malay Peninsula
Mecca

Mediterranean Sea

Medina

Nile

Nishapur

Oman

Palestine

Qayrawan

Samarqand

Samarra

Seville

Sicily

Sindh

Sudan

Syria, Greater Syria

Transoxiana

Tus

Yemen

Professions, Groups, and Societies

Apprenticeship
Eunuchs
Franks, or Ifranj
Guilds, Professional
Merchants, Christian
Merchants, Jewish
Merchants, Muslim
Money Changers
Peasants

Performing Artists

Qur’an, Reciters and Recitation

Scholars

Scribes, Copyists
Singing

Tribes and Tribal Customs
Urbanism

Religion and Theology

Abu ’1-Fadl al-Bayhaqi

Kulayni, al-

Afterlife

Angels

Aramaeans

Ascetics and Asceticism
Ash‘aris

Assasins, Ismaili
Awliya’, Nizam al-Din
Bible

Buddhism and Islam
Bukhari

Caliphate and Imamate
Christians and Christianity
Copts

Dates and Calendars

Dhimma

Disability

Druze

Emigration, or Hijra
Eschatology

Funerary Practices, JewishMuslim

Funerary Practices, Muslim

Ghazali, al-

Hadith

Hajj

Heresy and Heretics
Hilli, al-, al-'Allama
Ibadis

Ibn Babawayh

Ibn Hanbal

Ibn Taymiyya

Idolatry

Imam

Islam

Ismailis

Ja‘far al-Sadiq

Jesus

Jews

Jihad

Ka‘ba

Kabbala

Karaites

Kharijis

Khuza‘i, Ahmad ibn Nasr

Majlisi, al-

Malik ibn Abas

Malikism

Marriage, Islamic

Marriage, Jewish

Martyrdom

Mawardi, al-

Mecca

Medina

Messianism

Mir Damad

Monasticism, Arab

Mu’ayyad fi al-Din, al-

Muhammad, the Prophet

Muhammad al-Baqir

xlii

THEMATIC LIST OF ENTRIES

Muslim Community and Polity, or Umma

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj

Mu’tazilites

Mysticism, Jewish

Nusayris

Oaths

Pilgrimage

Prayer

Precedence

Pre-Destination

Qur’an

Qur’an and Arabic Literature
Qur’an, Reciters and Recitation
Razi, al-, Fakhr al-Din
Reform, or Islah
Renewal, or Tajdid
Saints and Sainthood
Sa’adyah Gaon
Scriptural Exegesis, Islamic
Scriptural Exegesis, Jewish
Shali‘i, al-
Shi‘i Thought
Shi‘ism

Suhrawardi, al-, Shihab al-Din ‘Umar

Sunni Revival

Suyuti, al-

Synagogues

Syriac

Tusi, al-, Muhammad ibn Hasan

Waqf

Yazidis

Zayd ibn Thabit
Zaydis

Zoroastrianism

Science and Mathematics

Alchemy

Algebra

Astrolabes

Astrology

Astronomy

Biruni, al-

Botany

Cartography

Climate, Theories of

Dates and Calendars

Geometry

Hippology

Mathematics

Meteorology

Numbers

Pharmacology

Ophthalmology

Optics

Ptolemy

Surgery and Surgical Techniques
Tusi, al-, Nasir al-Din

Travel, Pilgrimage, and Exploration

Cartography

Hajj

Harawi, al-, ‘Ali ibn Abi Baler

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Jubayr

Pilgrimage

Road Networks

Silk Roads

Travel

Warfare and Warfare Technology

‘Ayn Jalut

Chivalry

Espionage

Hiraba, or Brigandage
Khalid ibn al-Walid
Manzikert
Mongol Warfare
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim
Navy

Processions, Military
Seljuk Warfare
Slavery, Military
Women, Warriors

Women, Gender, and Families

‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr
Arwa

Children and Childhood

Gender and Sexuality

Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya

Razia Sultana

Shajar al-Durr

Women, Jewish

Women, Patrons

Women, Poets

Women, Warriors

xliii

‘ABBASIDS

The ‘Abbasid Dynasty (r. 750-1258) came to power
after a revolution (747-750) that resulted in the over-
throwing of the Syrian-based Umayyad dynasty
(r. 661-750). Scholars have divided the period of
‘Abbasid rule into two main eras: (1) 750-945, the
“Golden Age” of ‘Abbasid rule and the beginning of
its decline; and (2) 945-1258, the period after the
‘Abbasids’ loss of autonomy to regional warlord
dynasties and ending with the Mongol execution of
the last ‘Abbasid caliph in 1258. This division, which
is largely artificial in nature, has affected the nature of
the modern study of the ‘Abbasids, with the majority
of work being done on the earlier period of ‘Abbasid
rule.

Taking their name from an uncle of the Prophet
(i.e., al-‘Abbas), the ‘Abbasids sought legitimacy for
both the revolution and their subsequent rule by
emphasizing their family lineage to the Prophet and
the alleged transference of authority to their family
line by a descendant of ‘Ali b. Abi Talib. Supporters
of the ‘Abbasid dynasty argued that the ‘Abbasids
were part of a literal revolution (dawla) in the sense
that the ‘Abbasid Caliphate would bring the Islamic
community back full circle to its earlier mores as
found during the time of the Prophet and the four
Rightly Guided Caliphs. Rather than ruling as an
elitist Arab dynasty (a crime of which they accused
the Umayyads), the ‘Abbasids sought to govern in a
more universal fashion as symbols of a unified Sunni
community. To that end, the ‘Abbasid caliphs used
honorific titles (laqab/pl. alqab) such as al-Mahdi,

al-Ma‘mun, and al-Qadir to denote their links to
Allah, and they adopted the title al-Imam in addition
to the traditional titles of Caliph and Commander
of the Faithful. Another change from the Umayyad
period was that Persian culture (i.e., political, literary,
and personnel) was more fully integrated into
‘Abbasid society; a key example was the central role
played by the Persian Barmakid family of viziers
during the early ‘Abbasid government. Modern scho-
lars continue to debate the nature of the ‘Abbasid
revolution and the later ‘Abbasid rule, focusing on
such issues as the ethnolinguistic and regional back-
grounds of those that fought for the ‘Abbasid cause
(the abna’ al-dawla); later disputes about the role of
the caliphs in determining correct belief; and the
nature of the Islamic polity in light of the loss of
‘Abbasid autonomy to regional powers starting in
the tenth century.

During the decades after the revolution, the
‘Abbasids successfully consolidated and strengthened
their control over their lands. Al-Mansur (r. 754-775)
was instrumental during these early years in two dis-
tinct ways: (1) he removed any potential/actual rivals
to ‘Abbasid rule through direct assassination and/or
putting down localized revolts; and (2) he founded
Baghdad as the new capital city for the ‘Abbasids in
central Iraq. Baghdad soon became the economic,
cultural, and intellectual locus of the Muslim world,
with the caliphs and their viziers patronizing scholars
and promoting the vast translation efforts that
integrated works from the ancient world and surround-
ing cultures into the larger Islamic consciousness. This

‘ABBASIDS

cultural flowering built upon earlier developments in
Islamic theology and law, and it laid the foundation
for developments in Islamic philosophy and mysticism
as well as advances in the natural sciences (e.g., optics,
medicine, chemistry). Over time, Baghdad would be-
come a conduit for scholarship and the exchange of
ideas throughout Muslim lands.

In the ninth century, the ‘Abbasids began to face
problems on a variety of fronts, all of which ham-
pered their ability to rule effectively. A disastrous civil
war between two brothers, al-Amin (r. 809-813) and
al-Ma‘mun (r. 813-833), over the succession to the
Caliphate highlighted the weaknesses inherent in the
‘Abbasid support base. The ‘Abbasid caliphs began
acquiring new troop support in the form of
slave-soldiers (ghulam/pl. ghilman) from the Turkish
population on their eastern borders. To maintain
the loyalty of these slave-soldiers, al-Mu‘tasim
(r. 833-842) established a new capital city, Samarra,
to the north of Baghdad. The slave-soldiers would
eventually turn against their caliphal masters in 861,
precipitating the Samarran captivity (861-870), where-
in ‘Abbasid caliphs were placed on the throne and
removed by competing troop factions.

Throughout the rest of the ninth century and into
the tenth century, the ‘Abbasids were faced with
dwindling resources (e.g., financial, troop support)
and increased pressure from newly independent
dynasties in formerly ‘Abbasid-controlled lands.
Most notable were the Samanids (819-1005) in east-
ern Iran, the Fatimids (909-1171) in Egypt, and
the Buyids (945-1055) in Iraq and Iran. It was the
Shi‘is Buyid amirs who would bring the ‘Abbasids to
their lowest point in 945, deposing the ‘Abbasid ca-
liph al-Mustakfi and replacing him with another of
Buyid choosing. Within a century, Buyid control was
replaced by that of the Seljuks, a dynasty of Turkish
Sunni Muslims (1055-1194). Although the ‘Abbasids
began to regain some independence of action during
the late eleventh century, they would never regain
their former glory. The Mongol sacking of Baghdad
in 1258 put an end to the ‘Abbasid presence in Iraq.
Although a scion of the ‘Abbasid family would estab-
lish a Shadow Caliphate in Egypt that would last until
1517, these ‘Abbasids were merely titular figureheads
that were far removed from their ancestors with
regard to power and authority.

Eric Hanne

See also Baghdad; Buyids; Caliphate and Imamate;
Fatimids; Historical Writing; Intellectual History; Al-
Ma‘mun; Political Theory; Samanids; Seljuks; Slavery,
Military; Slaves and Slave Trade: Eastern Islamic
World; Sunni Revival; Translation, Pre-lslamic
Learning into Arabic; Umayyads; Viziers

Further Reading

Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the
Islamic Polity. London and New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1980.

El-Hibri, Tayeb. Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography:
Harun al-Rashid and the Narrative of the Abbasid
Caliphate ( Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization ) .
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Early Abbasid Caliphate: A Political
History. London: Croom Helm, 1981.

Lassner, Jacob. The Shaping of Abbasid Rule. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.

. Islamic Revolution and Historical Memory: Abbasid

Apologetics and the Art of Historical Writing. New
Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1986.

Shaban, M.A. The ‘Abbasid Revolution. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1970.

. Islamic History. A New Interpretation. Vol. II: A.D.

750-1055. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1971-1976.

Sharon, Moshe. Black Banners from the East: The Estab-
lishment of the ‘Abbasid State — Incubation of a Revolt.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983.

‘ABD AL-LATIF IBN YUSUF
AU-BAGHDADI, MUWAFFAQ AU-DIN
ABU MUHAMMAD (557/1162-623/1231)

‘Abd al-Latif was a broadly educated scholar from
Baghdad whose studies in grammar, law, tradition,
medicine, alchemy, and philosophy are documented
in his autobiography, which also vividly depicts con-
temporary methods of study. Having first followed
Ibn Sina as his philosophical mentor, ‘Abd al-Latif
later devoted himself exclusively to the works of the
ancients, particularly Aristotle, only admitting al-
Farabi as interpreter. After extensive travels with
periods of residence in Mosul (585/1189), Damascus
(586/1190), the camp of Saladin outside Acre (587/

1191) (where he met Baha’ al-Din Ibn Shaddad and
‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani and acquired the patronage
of al-Qadi al-Fadil), he settled in Cairo. It was here
that he met Maimonides and, most importantly,
Abu ’1-Qasim al-Shari‘1, who introduced him to the
works of al-Farabi, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and
Themistius, which turned him away from Ibn Sina
and alchemy. After shorter stays in Jerusalem (588/

1 192) (where he met Saladin) and Damascus, ‘Abd al-
Latif returned to Cairo only to set off a short time later
for the East again. He spent some years at the court of
‘Ala’-al-Din Da’ud of Erzindjan, until the city was
conquered by the Seljuqid Kayqubadh. Having
returned in 621/1229 to Baghdad, ‘Abd al-Latif died
there two years later.

‘Abd al-Latif is an encyclopedic author whose work
covers almost the whole domain of the knowledge of

‘ABD AL-RAHMAN III AL-NAS1R

his time. Most widely known is his Kitab al-ifada wa-l-
1‘tibar, which is a short description of Egypt that was
translated into Latin, German, and French. His intel-
lectual autobiography is preserved by Ibn Abi Usay-
bi‘a; it was originally embedded in an extensive
historiographical narrative (al-Sira) that has partly
survived in al-Dhahabi’s Ta’rikh al-Islam. ‘Abd al-
Latif composed a compendium of Aristotelian meta-
physics, Kitab ma ba’cl al-tabi’a, which was based
on the exegesis of Alexander of Aphrodisias and The-
mistius. The latter’s otherwise lost paraphrasal of
Book Lambda — known to English speakers, however,
through a Hebrew translation — has survived in
Arabic only through ‘Abd al-Latif.

Angelika Neuwirth

See also Maimonides; Intellectual History; Philosophy;
Ibn Shaddad

Primary Sources

Cahen, Claude, ed. and comm. “ ‘Abdallatif al-Baghdadi,
Portraitiste et Historien de Son Temps” ( Al-Sira , par-
tial). Bulletin d’Etudes Orientates 23 (1970): 101-28.
Neuwirth, Angelika, ed. and trans. ‘Abd al-Latif al-Bagda-
di’s Bearbeitung von Bitch Lambda der Aristotelischen
Metaphysik (Kitab ma ba’d al-Tabi’a, Maqalat Lam).
Wiesbaden, 1976.

, ed and comm. "Neue Materialien zur Arabischen

Tradition der Beiden Ersten Metaphysik-Buecher”
(Kitab ma ba'd al-tabia, maqalat alif). Welt des Islams
XVIII (1978): 84-100.

Thies, H.J., ed. and trans. Der Diabetestraktat. Bonn, 1971.
Zand, K.H., and J.A. and I.E. Videan, eds. and trans. The
Eastern Kev (Kitab al-Ifada wa-l-i’Tibar). London,
1965.

Further Reading

Richter-Bernburg, Lutz. Der Syrisclie Blit:. Saladins Sekre-
taer Zwischen Selbstdarstellung und Gescliichtsschrei-
bung. Beirut/Stuttgart, 1998.

Toorawa, Shawkat M. “Language and Male Homosocial
Desire in the Autobiography of ‘Abd al/Latif al-Bagh-
dadi.” Edebiyat 1 (1996): 251-65.

‘ABD AL-MALIK IBN MARWAN

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the Umayyad caliph
who ruled from 65/685 until 86/705. He inherited a
fractured polity from his father, who was apparently
murdered in his sleep by one of his wives. The rebel
Ibn al-Zubayr controlled the holy sites in the Hijaz,
along with significant areas of Iraq, where both he
and ‘Abd al-Malik confronted ‘Alid and Kharijite
rebels. Only Syria remained firmly in Umayyad
hands, and even there ‘Abd al-Malik faced a revolt
led by ‘Amr b. Sa‘id al-Asdaq, a family rival, in
69/688-689. These internal threats forced ‘Abd al-
Malik to sign a treaty with the Byzantines, paying

them tribute in 70/689-690. He was able to restore
order and consolidate his power by 73/692. ‘Abd al-
Malik continued to face occasional revolts in Iraq and
farther east in Khurasan, but his viceroy Hajjaj ibn
Yusuf contained these threats ably (and sometimes
viciously).

‘Abd al-Malik devoted the remainder of his reign
to centralizing power in the capital at Damascus. He
depended on his own family for sensitive positions,
which was in contrast with his predecessors’ reliance
on local elites. He used his powerful Syrian army to
crush any provincial resistance. ‘Abd al-Malik intro-
duced the first distinctly Islamic coinage. In con-
trast with older Muslim coins, which were based on
Byzantine models, ‘Abd al-Malik’s coins were devoid
of pictorial images and included Qur’anic phrases
instead. The remarkable uniformity of these coins
demonstrates the degree to which ‘Abd al-Malik cen-
tralized the control of minting money. His coins re-
mained the model for coins throughout the Umayyad
and ‘Abbasid periods. In addition, ‘Abd al-Malik
began the long process of establishing Arabic as the
standard administrative language of the realm and
invested heavily in agricultural development, particu-
larly in Iraq and the Hijaz. At his death in 86/705 at
the age of 60, he was succeeded by al-Walid, the first
of four of his sons to ascend to the caliphate.

Steven C. Judd

Primary Sources

al-Baladhuri, Ahmad b. Yahya. Ansab al-Ashraf. Damas-
cus, 1996.

al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir. Ta’rikh al-Rusul Wa-1-
muluk , ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901.

Further Reading

Hawting, G.R. The First Dynasty of Islam. London: Croom
Helm, 1987.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.
London: Longman, 1986.

Wellhausen, Julius. The Arab Kingdom and its Fall, trans.
Margaret Weir. Calcutta, 1927.

‘ABD AL-RAHMAN III AL-NASIR

‘Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. ‘Abd Allah, the
first and the greatest of the short-lived line of Marwa-
nid caliphs of al-Andalus, was born in Cordova in
AH 277/891 CE, the grandson of the ruling emir
‘Abd Allah. In AH 300/912 CE, as the emir ‘Abd
al-Rahman III, he took on his grandfather’s war-
ridden and deeply divided reign, during which
local strongmen of Iberian or Arabic descent had
successfully revolted against the emiral authority

‘ABD AL-RAHMAN III AL-NASIR

and established themselves as independent rulers in
most of the territory. Although the fiercest and most
well known of ‘Abd al-Rahman’s triumphs was the
defeat inflicted on Ibn Hafsun, the muwallad (Iberian
Muslim) lord of Bobastro, in the southeastern part of
the country, ‘Abd al-Rahman was also able — in less
than ten years — to restore the emiral authority to the
rest of al-Andalus. Most notably, he achieved this aim
not only by way of militarily crushing the revolted
warlords but also, in many cases, by making peace
deals with them or by having them join his ruling
elite. At the same time, ‘Abd al-Rahman kept facing
the Christian Iberian armies on the northern border,
trying to contain the antagonism of the kings of Leon
and Asturia, with uneven results. The defeat of
Simancas (also known as “The Battle of the Ditch,”
or Alhandega) in AH 327/939 CE ended ‘Abd al-
Rahman’s campaigns against the Christian kings
and provoked a brutal purge in the army, starting a
fateful trend toward a more pronounced role being
assigned to mercenary troops. Nonetheless, it did not
significantly alter the balance of power; this was still
favorable to the Muslim side, because the Christian
kings remained subject to an annual tribute to the
Marwanide ruler.

In AH 316/929 CE, ‘Abd al-Rahman proclaimed
himself caliph (amir al-mu’minin) of al-Andalus,
adopting the honorific title of al-Nasir li-din Allah
(“the winner for the religion of God”). This act has
been widely interpreted as not only celebrating the
reunification of al-Andalus under the Marwanid
rule but also challenging the concomitant rise of the
Fatimid power in North Africa. From this time on,
most of the new caliph’s military and diplomatic
efforts were directed at contrasting the Fatimid in-
fluence in North Africa by supporting the local
rulers and tribal leaders who were opposed to the
new Shi‘is dynasty and establishing military alliances
with them. This policy, although not leading to any
significant territorial gain aside from the peaceful
capture of Ceuta in AH 319/931 CE, would eventu-
ally result in the increased influence of the Berber
element on the Andalusian army until the end of the
Caliphate.

On a more internal plan, ‘Abd al-Rahman’s action
was directed at contrasting the influence of the
Marwanid traditional clients (the mawali) over the
governmental bureaucracy. To enforce his absolute
authority and will over the wheels of the administra-
tion, he increased — among other things — the influ-
ence and scope of his personal retinue and guard,
which comprised many former slaves and depended
strictly on his command. He also distanced himself
from the view of the general population and created a

stricter set of rules for the court protocol and admin-
istration. In AH 325/936 CE, al-Nasir started the
construction of an entirely new caliphal city, Madinat
al-Zahra’ (the “City of al-Zahra,” after his favorite
concubine), which was about five kilometers northwest
of Cordova. He eventually retired there with his court,
thereby truncating the link between the Marwanid
house and its turbulent capital. The construction
of Madinat al-Zahra’ was supervised by ‘Abd al-
Rahman’s son and heir al-Hakam. The process lasted
for about ten years and absorbed most of the caliph’s
concerns and financial resources: sources describe his
endless search for precious materials and skilled
craftsmen, which were found in North Africa, the
East, and Byzantium. It was also at this new caliphal
residence that ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir received
the ambassadors of many Islamic and Christian
kings and potentates, especially the ones sent by the
Byzantine emperors, who were actively pursuing an
alliance against the Fatimid expansion in the eastern
Mediterranean and acknowledged ‘Abd al-Rahman’s
influential role and power.

‘Abd al-Rahman Ill’s very long reign, which lasted
for half a century until his death in AH 350/961 CE, is
unanimously described as the golden age of the Mus-
lim civilization in the Iberian Peninsula. Conversions
to Islam started to peak thanks to his politics of
integrating religious and social minorities into the
mainstream Ibero-Muslim society, the cohesion and
vitality of which were greatly increased. At the same
time, his patronage of scientific and literary excellence
allowed for a fuller expansion of the Andalusian in-
tellectual elite’s potential. Although the contributions
of Jewish and Christian scholars brought about a
remarkable enhancement of philosophical and scien-
tific knowledge, the introduction of many contempo-
rary Eastern literary texts and the imposition of more
cogent rules on official court writing resulted in the
birth of a full-blown Andalusian literature, which
was to reclaim its legitimate place within the overall
Arabic literary heritage. On the other hand, ‘Abd al-
Rahman Ill’s legacy of unchecked authority, in com-
bination with his increased reliance on the mercenary
element in the military, was partly responsible for the
confiscation of power by the Amirid regency under
his feebly determined and less-gifted successors.

Bruna Soravia

Further Reading

Soravia, Bruna. Rome (850 words; actual main body of
text, ca. 860).

Levi-Proveneal, E. Histoire de I’Espagne Musuhnane, vol. Ill:
Le Siecle du Califat de Cordoue. Paris, 1950.

ABU HANIFA AL-NU‘MAN

ABU BAKR

Abu Bakr b. Abi Quhafa, as his full name is usually
given, was from the clan of Taym of the prominent
tribe of Quraysh. He is said to have been born two
to three years after Muhammad, so he was probably
born around 572 CE in Mecca. Sources report that
he was a wealthy merchant before his conversion to
Islam and that he had expert knowledge of the genea-
logies of the Arab tribes. He married four times and
had six children, the most famous of whom was
‘A’isha, who became the Prophet’s youngest wife.

Sunni sources eulogize Abu Bakr’s position as one
of Muhammad’s most preeminent Companions as a
result of his early conversion to Islam (some sources
report that he was the first male to do so) and his
subsequent devotion to the Prophet and the cause of
Islam. Abu Bakr is said to have spent 40,000 dirhams
(or dinars) in charity before his emigration (hijra) to
Mecca in 622, much of which went toward the manu-
mission of slaves. Among his best-known sobriquets
are al-'Atiq (this generally means “freed slave,” but in
this case it was explicated by Muhammad himself to
refer to Abu Bakr as “freed from hell-fire”) and al-
Siddiq (“the truthful,” “one who believes”; this par-
ticularly applied to his having believed the Prophet’s
account of his nocturnal journey to Jerusalem, which
is known as isra’). In Medina, Abu Bakr took part in
all of the major expeditions that were led by the
Prophet, and he was frequently the Prophet’s advisor.

After Muhammad’s death in 632, Abu Bakr was
selected as the first caliph at the portico (Saqifa) of the
Banu Sa‘ida, after some contentious debate. Many
were convinced that he was the obvious successor to
Muhammad as a result of the fact that he had been
appointed to lead the pilgrimage during the ninth year
of the hijra and because he had been designated as the
prayer leader during the Prophet’s illness; he also had
a positive general record of service to the nascent
community. He ruled for only two years, until his
death in 634, and he decisively quelled the uprising
of some of the Arab tribes against the Medinan gov-
ernment in what have come to be known as the ridda
(so-called apostasy) wars. He is the first of the Rightly
Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafa’ al-Rashidun), and the
Sunni literature of excellences (fada’il/manaqib) gen-
erously records his many virtues and his loyalty to
Islam.

Asma Afsaruddin

See also Caliphate and Imamate
Further Reading

Afsaruddin, Asma. Excellence and Precedence: Medieval

Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership. Leiden,

2002 .

Watt, W. Montgomery. Art. “Abu Bakr.” The Encyclopae-
dia of Islam, New Edition, ed. H. Gibb et al. Leiden and
London, 1960. Vol. 1, 109-11.

ABU HANIFA AL-NU‘MAN

Abu Hanifa al-Nuhnan b. Thabit b. Zuta, theologian
and jurist, is the eponymous founder of the Hanafi
legal school. He was born in Kufa circa AH 80/699
CE and died in 150/767 in a prison in Baghdad at the
age of 70. His grandfather Zuta is said to have been
brought over from Kabul to Kufa, where he settled
after being set free.

There are not many details available about Abu
Hanifa’s life in Kufa. Sources report that he worked
there as a silk merchant and also that he acquired
scholarly training in the religious law and hadith. He
attended the lecture sessions of Hammad b. Abi
Sulayman (d. 120/738) in Kufa and possibly of ‘Ata’
b. Abi Rabah (d. AH 114 or 115) in Mecca. After
Hammad died, Abu Hanifa gained fame as the fore-
most scholar of religious law in Kufa, but he never
served as qadi (judge); however, he was offered judge-
ships by various rulers, such as Yazid b. ‘Amr, the
governor of Iraq during the time of Marwan ibn
Muhammad, who was the last Umayyad caliph.
When Abu Hanifa declined, Yazid had him whipped,
and the former escaped to Mecca, where he stayed for
five or six years. Abu Hanifa is counted among the
most illustrious of the Tab i’un (literally “the succes-
sors,” which refers to the second generation of
Muslims), and some sources relate that he met at
least four Companions of the Prophet, including
Anas b. Malik. In the eyes of the pious in particular,
this distinction conferred on him and his scholarly
activities great merit. His usual honorific is al-Imam
al-A'zam (“the Greatest Leader”), from which the
neighborhood around his mausoleum in Baghdad
derives the name al-A‘zamiyya.

There is frequent mention of Abu Hanifa’s great
scrupulousness (wara‘), abstemiousness (zuhd), and
charity. He is said to have spent generously for the
members of his household and given away an equal
amount as alms for the poor, and he would also meet
the needs of his indigent students. Like other pious
scholars, his day was given over to teaching and
prayer. His daily routine began with the morning
prayer in a mosque, after which he would answer his
students’ questions until about noon. After the noon
prayer, he would teach again until the night prayer.
Then he would return home and, after a short rest,
later go back to the mosque and worship until morn-
ing prayer. He is said to have recited prodigious

ABU HANIFA AL-NU‘MAN

amounts of the Qur’an regularly, and, according to
some sources, he performed the hajj fifty-live times.

Abu Hanifa himself did not leave behind substan-
tial works on religious law, but his legal thought
may be reconstructed from the writings of his stu-
dents. His best-known students were al-Shaybani
(d. 189/749-750) and Abu Yusuf (d. 192/798), who
have preserved Abu Hanifa’s doctrines and opinions
in their works. From these works it becomes apparent
that Abu Hanifa’s legal thought was based to a con-
siderable degree on his personal opinions (ra’y) and
that his conclusions were derived through legal
reasoning (qiyas). In his theology, Abu Hanifa
showed concern for maintaining the unity and har-
mony of the Muslim community; his time was racked
with communal strife, and so he sought a middle
ground between extremes. In this propensity Abu
Hanifa shows the influence of the Murji’a (“those
who defer”), a group that came into existence during
the last third of the Umayyad era. The central con-
cern of the Murji’a was the issue of the early caliph-
ate; in an attempt to contain the dissension that had
erupted after the murder of 'Ut liman, they expressed
unequivocal support for Abu Bakr and ‘Umar but
deferred judgment on the respective merits of
‘Uthman and ‘Ali. The Murji’a also believed that an
individual’s faith did not increase or decrease and that
it did not include works such as the daily prayers. This
Hanafi-Murji’i attitude seminally shaped the political
and theological attitudes of the later fully formed Ahl
al-Sunna. In Abu Hanifa’s letter to the Basran juris-
prudent ‘Uthman al-Batti, which scholars regard as
authentic, the former defends his adherence to Murji’i
principles. In the creedal statement known as Fiqh al-
Akbar I, Abu Hanifa articulates ten articles of faith
that take issue with the positions of the Kharijites, the
Shi‘is, the Qadariyya, and the Jahmiyya. Abu Hanifa
probably did not compose this statement himself,
but the Fiqh al-Akbar is deemed to be an accurate
summation of his theological views.

The detractors of Abu Hanifa during the later
period attributed to him certain unpopular doctrines
that were derived not only from the Murji’a but also
from the Jahmiyya (the predecessors of the later
Mu‘tazila); for example, he is described as having
subscribed to the position that the Qur’an was created
and that hell was not eternal. The rijal works regular-
ly included Abu Hanifa among the weak transmitters
of hadith, and the traditionalists in general attacked
his perceived excessive reliance on personal opinion
and legal reasoning. His staunch supporters from
among the later Hanafi jurists attempted to exculpate
him of these accusations; his student Abu Yusuf
stressed that Abu Hanifa was profoundly learned in

hadith, and the Hanafi jurist Ahmad b. al-Salt (d. ca.
308/921) denied that Abu Hanifa had maintained that
the Qur’an was created. The Hanafi jurisprudent Abu
Ja‘far al-Tahawi (d. 321/933) wrote the Manaqib Abi
Hanifa, which recorded and praised the virtues of the
school’s eponym.

There are conflicting reports about why Abu
Hanifa was imprisoned late in life. Some say it was
as a result of his having refused to serve as a qadi
under the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mansur, whereas al-
Khatib al-Baghdadi relates that it was his rather
open criticism of al-Mansur during an ‘Alid revolt
that landed him in jail, where he eventually died in
767. Under the Saljuqi sultan Malikshah (AH 485),
one of Malikshah’s viziers had an elaborate dome
built over Abu Hanifa’s grave, and his mausoleum
was restored several times during the Ottoman
period.

Asma Afsaruddin

Further Reading

Dickinson, Eerik. “Ahmad b. al-Salt and his Biography of
Abu Hanifa.” JAOS 116 (1996): 408-20.

Hallaq, Wael B. “From Regional to Personal Schools of
Law? A Reevaluation.” Islamic Law & Society 8 (2001):
1-26.

Melchert, Christopher. The Formation of the Sunni Schools
of Law, Ninth-Tenth Centuries. Leiden, 1997.

Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurispru-
dence. Oxford, 1950.

ABU ’L-’ALA’ AHMAD IBN ABD
ALLAH, AL-MA’ARRI

Abu l-’Ala’ Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Ma’arri, born in
973 CE in Ma’arrat al-Nu’man in northern Syria,
traveled for his education to Aleppo and Baghdad
and returned to Ma’arra, where he died in 1058 CE.
Ma’arri was the blind author (by dictation) of prose
and poetry. He composed poems during his younger
years, and these are compiled in The Spark of the
Tinderbox ( Saqt al-zand), a collection of poems that
praised the Hamdanid King Sa’d al-Dawla, the
notables of Aleppo, and a few librarians in Baghdad.

Later, in The Self-Imposed Compulsion ( Luzum m&
Id yalzam), he uses a nonobligatory double rhyme,
but these poems are chiefly characterized by their
ironic and even cynical descriptions. They are uncon-
ventional as compared with the poetic form that is
usually found in the odes of this time, because they
contain many a thought on religion, death, destiny,
the sinful world, the afterlife, resurrection (the ques-
tion of whether it really shall occur), and the fate of

ABU ’L-’ALA’ AHMAD IBN ABD ALLAH, AL-MA’ARRI

slaughtered animals and their compensation in the
afterlife.

Ma’arri’s prose is not only found in his short,
flowery-styled letters but also in at least two very
extensive Epistles (Risdlas). The first letter, which
was written in 1021 CE, was always thought to have
been lost. However, its manuscript was discovered
in 1975 CE by the Egyptian scholar ‘A’isha ‘Abd al-
Rahman; she became the editor of this work, which is
entitled Epistle of the Neighing and the Braying
(Risalat al-sahil wa l-Shahij). In this text, various
animals are described, and they symbolize certain
personages from Ma’arri’s time. A mule suffering
from arduous labor that consists of drawing up
water from a deep well symbolizes the author himself.
The mule wants to send a petition of complaint to
someone, who, in reality, would have been the Fatimid
Governor of Aleppo, Abu Shuja’ Fatik ‘Aziz al-
Dawla. Several animals are asked to convey this
petition — a horse, a camel, and others — but all of
them refuse to do so, for different reasons. Finally, a
fox comes along and becomes involved in the sudden
imminent danger of a Byzantine attack, which had
occurred also in reality and which threatened the
territory around Aleppo. This attack was organized
by the conjoint rulers of the Byzantine Empire: Basil
Bulgaroctonus II and his brother Constantine VIII.
The mule and other animals, although frightened
and panicking, nevertheless discuss the conditions
prevailing in the empire.

In this manner the Risdla renders information
about the ideas prevailing in Ma’arri’s time in Syria.
The Epistle of the Neighing and the Braying is consid-
ered by its editor ‘A’isha ‘Abd al-Rahman to be a
preliminary exercise for Ma’arri’s subsequent Letter.

The second prose work composed by Ma’arri in
the year 1033 CE is his Epistle of Forgiveness ( Risalat
al-Ghufran) . This work consists not only of a descrip-
tion of the gardens of Paradise and the tortures of
Hell but also of a discussion about and a criticism
of many poetical fragments by Muslims and non-
Muslims, ranging from pre-Islamic poets to heretics
from Persia and polytheists from India. Some of these
poets and also grammarians and scholars enjoy a
comfortable afterlife in Paradise; although not
expected by them, their sins have been forgiven by
Allah the Merciful One.

In 2002, the first half of this work was translated
into German by Gregor Schoeler and entitled Para-
dies und Holle. In this part, an old correspondent
of Ma’arri called Ibn al-Qarih ‘Ali ibn Mansur
(“Dawkhala”) is ironically described as having died
and then entered (but not without great difficulties)
through the Gates of Paradise. After this, he visits

many places of interest, like the regions of Hell, where
Satan (Iblis) dwells and where a few poets are shown
being tortured by avenging angels.

The second half of the piece deals with questions
pertaining to aspects of religion. A discussion of ideas
is forwarded by the author with, it would seem,
cynical relish; these ideas are ascribed to Arabs who,
by the general public, were considered heretics who
should be executed.

Of the other books by Ma’arri, another is worth
mentioning here. Its incomplete manuscript version
was found in 1918 CE, and it was considered by some
scholars to be an imitation of the Qur’an, because of
its rhymed prose and typical Qur’anic oaths. It was
entitled Chapters and Endings, Glorifying Allah and
Offering Words of Warning (al-Fusul wa l-Gh&yat fi
Tamjid Allah wa l-Mawa’iz).

As for the author’s social relations with personages
of the Isma’ili persuasion, a short description of him
is found in the traveler Nasiri Khosraw’s book, Safar
N&mah, in which the author himself claims to have
kept some correspondence with a high Fatimid digni-
tary called Abu Nasr Musa ibn Abi ‘Imran.

For more information on al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-
Shirazi, see Margoliouth, Abu l-’Ala’ al-Ma’arri’s cor-
respondence on vegetarianism.

Pieter Smoor

Primary Sources

‘Abd al-Rahman, ‘A’isha. Risalat al-sahil wa l-Shahij , criti-
cal edition. Cairo, 1975.

. Risalat al-Ghufran. Cairo, 1954.

. Risalat al-Ghufran wa-ma'a-ha Risalat Ibn al-Qarih

Miftah Fahmi-hd, 3rd critical edition. Cairo, 1963.

Blachere, R. “Ibn al-Qarih et la Genese de 1‘Epitre du
Pardon d’ Al-Ma’arri.’’ In Revue des Etudes Islamiques,
1-15, 1941-1946.

Nicholson, R.A., ed. and trans. “Risalat al-Ghufran.” Jour-
nal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1900): 637-720; (1902):
75-101, 337-62, 813-947.

Saleh, Moustapha. “Abu ‘l-’Ala’ al-Ma’arri, Bibliographie
Critique.” Bulletin des Etudes Orientates XII (1969):
141-204; XXIII (1970): 199-309.

Historical Studies

‘Abd al-Rahman, ‘A’ishah. (“Bint al-Shati’”) “Abu l-’Ala’
al-Ma’arri.” In ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed. Julia Ash-
tiany, 328-38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1990.

Filshtinsky, I.M. Arabic Literature. Moscow: USSR Acad-
emy of Sciences, Institute of the Peoples of Asia, Nauka
Publishing, 1966, 146-60.

Smoor, Pieter. “Kings and Bedouins in the Palace of
Aleppo as reflected in Ma’arri’s Works.” Journal of
Semitic Studies, Monograph 8. Manchester, England:
University of Manchester, 1985.

ABU ’L-’ALA’ AHMAD IBN ABD ALLAH, AL-MA’ARRI

Further Reading

Monteil, Vincent-Mansour, trans. Abu l-’Ala’ al-Mci’arri
L'Epitre du Pardon Traduction, Introduction et Notes.
Paris: Connaissance d’Orient Collection UNESCO,
Gallimard, 1984.

Schoeler, Gregor, trans. Abu 1- 'Ala ' al-Ma’arri Parodies und
Holle Die Jenseitsreise aus dem «Sendschreiben iiber die
Vergebung.» Munich: C.H. Beck, 2002. [This offers the
translation of the first half.]

Smoor, Pieter. “The Delirious Sword of Ma’arri: An Anno-
tated Translation of his Luzumiyya Nuniyya in the
Rhyme-Form ‘Nun Maksura Mushaddada‘ In Fest-
schrift Ewald Wagner zum 65. Geburtstag, eds. Wolfhart
Heinrichs and Gregor Schoeler, Band 2 Studien zur Ara-
bischen Dichtung, 381 — 424. Beirut: Franz Steiner Verlag
Stuttgart, 1994.

Studies concerning The Spark of the Tinderbox

Cachia, P.J. “The Dramatic Monologues of al-Ma’arri.”
Journal of Arabic Studies I (1970): 129-36.

Smoor, Pieter. “Armour description as an independent
theme in the work of al-Ma’arri.” In Actes du 8me Con-
gres cle l‘Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants,
289-303. Aix-en-Provence, 1978.

. "The theme of travel in Ma’arri’s early poems.” In

The Challenge of the Middle East, Middle Eastern Studies
at the University of Amsterdam, eds. A. El-Sheikh, C.A.
van de Koppel, and R. Peters, 133-39, 209-11. Univer-
sity of Amsterdam, 1982.

Studies concerning The Self-Imposed Compulsion

Nicholson, R.A. “The Meditations of Ma’arri.” In Studies
in Islamic Poetry , ed. R.A. Nicholson, 43-289. Cam-
bridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Smoor, Pieter. “The Weeping Wax Candle and Ma’arri’s
Wisdom-Tooth: Night Thoughts and Riddles from
the Garni’ al-Awzan.” In Zeitschrift der Deutschen Mor-
genldndischen Gesellschaft, Band 138-Heft 2, 283-312.
Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1988.

Studies concerning Chapters and Endings, Glorifying

Allah and Offering Words of Warning

Fischer, August. “Der Koran des Abu ‘l-’Ala’ al-Ma’arri.”
Verhandlungen der Sachsischen Akademie der Wis-
senschaften, Phil. -hist. Klasse XCIV (1942), no. 2.

Hartmann, Richard. Zu dem Kitab al-Fusul wa l-Ghayat des
Abu 7- ’Ala ’ al-Ma 'cirri, Abhandlungen Pr. Ak. W., Phil.-
hist. Berlin: Klasse, 1944.

Studies concerning The Neighing and the Braying

Smoor, Pieter. “Enigmatic Allusion and Double Meaning
in Ma’arri’s Newly-Discovered Letter of a Horse and a
Mule.” Journal of Arabic Literature XII (1981) and XIII
(1982).

Studies on the short letters of Ma’arri

Margoliouth, D.S. “Abu l-’Ala’ al-Ma’arri’s Correspon-
dence on Vegetarianism.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society (1902): 289-312.

ABU ’L-FADL AL-BAYHAQI

Al-Bayhaqi, Abu T-Fadl (995-1077) was a secretary
and historian and the author of the monumental Per-
sian history of the Ghaznavid dynasty generally re-
ferred to as the Tarikh-i Bayhaqi. Of an original
thirty-odd volumes, only six have survived, and this
surviving portion, which deals with the reign of
Mas‘ud I (r. 1030-1041), is known accordingly as
the Tarikh-i Mas'udi. Bayhaqi, who was born in the
district of Bayhaq (modern Sabzavar) in Khurasan,
studied in Nishapur. In about 1021, he found employ-
ment in the Ghaznavid chancellery, where he first
served Mahmud of Ghazna (r. 999-1030) and then
several of Mahmud’s successors, including Mas‘ud I.
In his many years of service, Bayhaqi assisted the
head of the chancellery, Abu Nasr Mishkan
(d. 1039), and then (although less happily) Abu
Nasr’s successor in office, Abu Sahl Zawzani; under
‘Abd al-Rashid (r. 1049-1052), Bayhaqi himself briefly
directed the chancellery, but he fell from favor and was
imprisoned until the accession of Sultan Farrukhzad
(r. 1052-1059), whom Bayhaqi also served, although
possibly not at the Ghaznavid court (see Yusofi and
Meisami).

Bayhaqi’s History is a highly individual work in
which the author articulates and demonstrates a dis-
tinctive approach to historiography, providing a
wealth of detailed and carefully documented informa-
tion about the Ghaznavid court and administration,
integrating religious and philosophical perspectives in
his descriptions and commentary, and displaying
both erudition and subtlety in his masterful use of
the Persian language. His long term of administrative
service permitted Bayhaqi to observe directly — and
on occasion even to participate in — the events he
records. When he did not have personal experience
to draw from, Bayhaqi handled his sources with much
discernment, clearly identifying them and assessing
them with regard to their reliability. Furthermore,
during the course of his secretarial work, Bayhaqi
assembled not only his own detailed notes but also a
considerable number of documents, some of which he
reproduced in full in his narrative. His History thus
furnishes thorough accounts of military campaigns,
official correspondence, negotiations, and agree-
ments, and it sheds much light on local conditions
and customs, the culture of the elites, the lives of the
men and women of the Ghaznavid court, and many
other topics. The strikingly vivid quality of Bayhaqi’s
writing derives in part from his proximity to the
events and persons he describes, and it is enhanced
by his extensive use of direct speech. Although
Bayhaqi’s high standards of accuracy and his wide-
ranging subject matter have rendered his work a

ABU ’L-FADL ‘ALLAM1 (1551-1602)

particularly valuable source for the study of
Ghaznavid history (see especially Bosworth), it is
also clear that his personal outlook and literary style
are inseparable from his recounting of events (see
Waldman and Meisami). Bayhaqi gives distinctive
meaning to the events he describes, both in a moral
sense and in terms of the recurrent patterns he discerns
in the unfolding of history. To communicate these
meanings, he employs a variety of rhetorical techni-
ques, including suggestion by analogy, copious quota-
tions from Arabic and Persian poetry, digressions, and
flashbacks to episodes drawn from earlier Islamic his-
tory (references to Sasanian and other pre-Islamic
Iranian traditions are notably sparse). (For an exam-
ple of Bayhaqi’s methods, see Meisami’s analysis of
his account of the trial and execution under Mas‘ud
of Mahmud’s former vizier Hasanak, pp. 88-94.)
Bayhaqi’s History is, then, amply documented, replete
with specific information, and exemplary.

Many titles for Bayhaqi’s History — or portions of
it — are preserved in the sources, and the secretary
probably composed other works as well (see Yusofi).
Sa‘id Nafisi has collected two volumes’ worth of pas-
sages from lost sections of Bayhaqi’s History that
were cited in later works, together with quotations
from other lost works of Bayhaqi.

Louise Marlow

Primary Sources

Bayhaqi, Abu 1-Fadl. Tarikh-i Bayhaqi , 3 vols., ed. Kh.

Khatib Rahbar. Tehran: Sa'di, 1989.

Nafisi, Sa'id. Dar piramun-i Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, 2 vols. Teh-
ran: Kitabfurushi-yi Furughi, 1973.

Secondary Sources

Bosworth, C.E. The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghani-
stan and Eastern Iran 994-1040. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1963.

Meisami, Julie S. Persian Historiography to the End of the
Twelfth Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1999.

Waldman, Marilyn R. Toward a Theory of Historical Nar-
rative. A Case Study in Perso-Islamicate Historiography.
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1980.

Yusofi, G.-H. “Bayhaqi, Abu’l-Fazl,” Encyclopaedia Ira-
nica III: 889-94.

Further Reading

The literature on Bayhaqi is extensive. His History has been
printed in many editions and supplemented by glossaries
and lexicographical studies of the Persian text; the work
has also been translated (see Yusofi 1989). The above
bibliography is necessarily limited to the titles referred to
in the article.

ABU ’L-FADL ‘ALLAMI (1551-1602)

Historian, courtier, ideologue, and intellectual alter
ego of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, Abu ’1-Fadl was
born in 1551 in Agra. He was the son of Shaykh
Mubarak, a scholar front Nagawr in Rajasthan. A
precocious talent who had mastered Arabic, the reli-
gious sciences, and philosophy, and who was inclined
towards Sufism, Abu ’1-Fadl followed his brother
Fayzi, Akbar’s poet laureate, into service, appearing
at court in 1571. A forceful disputant and indepen-
dent thinker, Abu ’1-Fadl was constantly at odds with
the Sunni ulema, and he held their bigotry to be
responsible for the persecution and exile of his fa-
ther^ Shifis notable and a supporter of the
Mahdawiyya. He was thus quite happy to support
Akbar in his formation of a new religion, and he
provided the intellectual justification for Akbar as
the Perfect Man, the philosopher-prophet-king in
the Akbarnama.

Abu ’1-Fadl formulated the ideology of Akbar’s
reign, placing the monarch above the petty political
and religious squabbles of the court. Consistent with
the Iranian tradition, he considered the king to be an
emanation of God’s pure light, possessing the divine
power of sovereignty in his person and the wisdom to
deploy it as the Perfect Man of Sufism and the perfect
sage of the Illuminationist philosophical tradition.
The king as the benevolent face of God on earth
would treat all of his subjects — both Muslims and
non-Muslims — equally, thereby promulgating an
established Sufi ethic of universal peace (sulh-i kull).
This theory proposed that all religions are equal
representations of a single divine truth and that all
express a pure monotheism that lies at the heart of
each one of them.

His other major literary achievement was the A ’in-i
Akbari, which was a major gazetteer, a comprehensive
history, and a tax register of India.

As Akbar’s main spokesman, Abu ’1-Fadl was re-
sponsible for the development of the Mughal art of
epistolography (insha’); his letters became templates
and exemplars for later secretaries. Abu ’1-Fadl head-
ed the chancellery and organized the cultural program
of translating major Sanskrit works into Persian. Be-
cause of his outspoken advocacy of Akbar’s cause
and his closeness to the king, Abu ’1-Fadl aroused the
jealousy of other courtiers and the suspicion of the
heir, Salim, who conspired along with others to have
him murdered in August 1602. With Abu ’1-Fadl’s
death, Akbar lost a close friend and supporter.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Akbar; Illuminationism; Mughals; Sufism;
Shi‘ism

ABU ’L-FADL ‘ALLAMI (1551-1602)

Further Reading

Haider, Mansura, trans. Mukatabat-i ‘Allam, (Insha’-i
Abu'l-Fazl), 2 vols. New Delhi: Munshira Manoharlal,
1998-2000.

Jinarajadasa, C. Abul-Fazl and Akbar. Madras: Theosophi-
cal Publishing House, 1934.

Nizami, K.A. The Socio-Religious Outlook of Abu’l-Fazl.
Aligarh: University Press, 1972.

Rizvi, S.A.A. Religious and Intellectual History of the
Muslims in Akbar ’s Reign. New Delhi: Munshiram
Manoharlal, 1975.

ABU NUWAS

Abu Nuwas Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn Hani’ al-Hakami
(d. ca. 814) was one of the major Arabic poets of the
‘Abbasid age. He is known for his poems about wine,
love, and unbridled debauchery, but he was also the
foremost representative of the “modern” (muhdath)
poetry that developed during the late eighth century.

Abu Nuwas was born in the mid-eighth century to
an Arab father and Persian mother in al-Ahwaz in
Iran, but he moved with his mother to Basra and
Kufa, where he received a thorough philological and
religious education, studying with a number of poetic
authorities, most notably the poet and transmitter
Khalaf al-Ahmar (d. 796). He then traveled to Bagh-
dad, where he initially struggled to gain the favor of
the notable families of the day. Eventually he became
the drinking companion of the caliph al-Amin
(d. 813) and enjoyed great notoriety and popularity
until his death in Baghdad at some time between 8 1 3
and 815. There are countless anecdotes of Abu Nuwas
and his scandalous behavior in which the personage
corresponds with the libertine spirit of the poetry, and
the name has retained associations that are quite
independent of the poetry itself. (For example, a
completely unhistorical Abu Nuwas appears in some
of the tales in The 1001 Nights.)

With the wine poem (khamriyya), Abu Nuwas refined
a genre that had previously been an occasional element in
the polythematic classical Arabic ode (qasida). Wine
drinking provides the setting for a number of thematic
possibilities: a description of the wine, the seeking of
drink, the joys of drunkenness, anecdotes of drinking
bouts and their aftermaths, sexual escapades, and epi-
sodes of heartbroken or crapulent remorse. The celebra-
tion of hedonism and the flaunting of the norms of polite
and pious society are seen in the following famous lines:

Ho! a cup, and fill it up, and tell me it is wine,

For I will never drink in shade if I can drink in shine!
Curst and poor is every hour that sober I must go,

But rich am I whene'er well drunk I stagger to and fro.
Speak, for shame, the loved one's name, let vain
disguise alone:

No good there is in pleasures o'er which a veil is
thrown.

(trans. R.A. Nicholson)

In such verses Abu Nuwas was rebelling not only
against contemporary society but against the heroic
model of the pre-Islamic poet. The “modern” poetry
of his time was in part a reaction against the conven-
tions of the classical, pre-Islamic odes. Although he
demonstrates a deep knowledge and appreciation of
the older poetry, he is better known for mocking its
elements, most famously the prelude, which expresses
sorrow at traces of long-abandoned encampments in
the desert and the disappearance of those who once
dwelt there. Abu Nuwas laments instead the vanished
taverns or urges wine in place of nostalgia.

Although best known for his bacchanalia, Abu
Nuwas applied his talents to other genres as well,
such as panegyric, satire, and, notably, the hunting
poem. This latter type, like the wine song, had been a
single element in the classical qasida, but Abu Nuwas
gave it its own genre (in which he followed the
ancients’ use of a highly specialized vocabulary and
detailed descriptions of nature scenes). The majority
of his verses display a simplicity and elegance that
matches well his wit and lightheartedness; however,
the joys of wine and sex with boys were not his only
topics, and he was capable of various shades of sor-
row, regret, and awe and of giving voice to these
shades with fine poetic precision.

Bruce Fudge

Further Reading

Hamori, Andras. On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974.

Kennedy, Philip F. Abu Nuwas. Oxford: Oneworld Publica-
tions, 2005.

. The Wine Song in Classical Arabic Poetry: Abu

Nuwas and the Classical Tradition. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997.

Montgomery, James E. “Revelry and Remorse: A Poem of
Abu Nuwas.” Journal of Arabic Literature 25 (1994):
116-34.

Nicholson, R.A. A Literary History of the Arabs. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930.

Smith, G. Rex. “Hunting Poetry.” In The Cambridge His-
tory of Arabic Literature: 'Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed.
Julia Ashtiany. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1990: 167-84.

ABU SHAMA, ‘ABD AL-RAHMAN IBN
ISMA‘IL ABU MUHAMMAD SHIHAB
AL-DIN

Abu Shama was a religious scholar (1203-1268) who
spent his entire life in Damascus; he was most

ABU TAMM AM

renowned for his chronicle Kitab al-Rawdatayn fi
Akhbar al-Dawlatayn al-Nuriyya wa-l-Salahiyya ( The
Book of the Two Gardens on the Reports of the Two
Reigns [of Nur al-Din and Saladin]). This chronicle
treats the main events, including the Crusades, that
occurred during the rules of the Zankid ruler Nur al-
Din (d. 1174) and the Ayyubid ruler Saladin (Salah
al-Din, d. 1193) during the twelfth century. Although
written more than fifty years after the death of Sala-
din, the chronicle has enjoyed wide popularity, be-
cause it integrates a number of previous sources into
a coherent narrative. Abu Shama’s principal aim in
composing his chronicle was to present the two rulers
as examples of ideal Muslim rulers to be emulated by
later rulers.

Abu Shama came from a modest family that did not
belong to the civilian elite of Damascus, and he himself
was closely linked to its rather marginal immigrant
Maghribian community. Throughout his career he
held a number of minor teaching posts in madrasas
(colleges for higher studies), and it was only toward
the end of his life that he was able to briefly attain a
more prestigious post. This marginal position in the
town’s social texture was paralleled by his controver-
sial stances, which tended to criticize his contempor-
aries in sharp terms. Here he focused on the issue of
innovations (i.e., practices that he considered con-
trary to the teachings of Islam). He finally died by
the hands of attackers who beat him to death.

Besides history, Abu Shama’s oeuvre was focused
on religious sciences such as the variant readings of
the Qur’an, law/jurisprudence, hadith, and poems
praising the Prophet. It was in the first of these fields
that he gained a certain prominence among his con-
temporaries, especially by commenting on a didactic
poem written for students.

From a modern perspective, it is his continuation
(Dhayl) of the main chronicle that represents consid-
erable interest, because he included in his poems (such
as the poems about one of his wives and about his
moods of distress) as well as in his autobiographical
sections an unusual array of events that were linked to
his inner life.

Konrad Hirschler

See also Historical Writing
Primary Sources

Abu Shama. Kitab al-rawdatayn fi akhbar al-dawlatayn al-

Nuriyya wa-al-Salahiyya, 5 vols, ed. Ibrahim al-Zibaq.

Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1997.

Further Reading

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.

New York: Routledge, 1999.

Pouzet, Louis. “Abu Shama (599-665/1203-1268) et la
Societe Damascaine de son Temps.” Bulletin d’Etudes
Orientates 37/38 (1985/1986): 115-26.

Reynolds, Dwight F., ed. Interpreting the Self: Autobiogra-
phy in the Arabic Literary Tradition. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.

Robinson, Chase F. Islamic Historiography. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.

ABU TAMMAM

Abu Tammam was an Arab poet (ca. AH 189-232/
805-845 CE), allegedly the son of a Christian wine
seller, who rose from his provincial background in
Syria to become a panegyrist of the ‘Abbasid caliphs
al-Ma’mun, al-Mu‘tasim, and al-Wathiq and of their
great officers of state. He celebrated caliphal cam-
paigns and victories (most notably over the Byzantines
at Amorium in 223/838) in qasidas marked by the
bloodiness of their battle scenes and the stridency of
their religious propaganda. Nevertheless, he was
above all an intellectual poet of Mu'tazili leanings
who changed the course of Arabic literature by charg-
ing the sinewy and concrete pre-Islamic Bedouin
qasida with philosophical conceits and with the so-
phisticated wordplay and metaphors, known as badi‘,
that are typical of “modern” poetry. His originality
served as a focus for the Arabic “quarrel of the
ancients and moderns.” The issue was less whether
modern, urban Arabic poetry could stand in worthy
succession to its pre-Islamic, Bedouin precursors —
this was broadly conceded — than whether poetic
truth was a closed system or one that should evolve
with social and intellectual change and, if so, at what
pace. If poetry outstripped educated conservative
taste, would not the concepts of poetry and poetic
truth be reduced to playthings of fashion? Abu
Tammam’s experiments stimulated poetic criticism
as a systematic and scholarly discipline, particularly
from the century or so after his death; his example
took root within his own lifetime and was pervasive.
His diwan (collected verse) attracted commentaries as
voluminous as those devoted to pre-Islamic poets.
Al-Mutanabbi (d. 354/965) was his greatest poetic
heir.

Abu Tammam was also an anthologist; his most
famous compilation, al-Hamasa (Valor), proved no
less influential than his own poetry. Carefully crafted
from the tribal poetry of all periods to afford an
image of timeless Bedouinity, it chimed in with
an increasingly romanticized conception of Arab
tradition.

Julia Bray

ABU TAMMAM

See also Poetry: Arabic; al-Ma’mun; Rhetoric; Al-
Muntanabbi

Further Reading

‘Abbas, Ihsan. Ta’rikh al-Naqd al-Adab ‘Inda al-‘Arab. Bei-
rut: Dar al-Amana, 1971.

Abu Tammam. Diwan, with the commentary of al-Tibrizi,
ed. M.‘A. ‘Azzam. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1951-1965.

Abu Tammam. al-Hamasa, with the commentary of al-
Tibrizi, eds. G. al-Shaykh and A. Shams al-Din. Beirut:
Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 2000.

al-Amidi. al-Muwazana Bayna Shi'r al-fia’Iyyayn Abu Tam-
mam wa al-Buhturi, eds. A. saqr and ‘A. Muharib, vols. 1
and 2. Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif, 1961-1965; vols. 3 and 4,
Cairo, 1990.

al-Bahbiti, Najib M. Abu Tammam al-fia’i, hayatuh wa ayat
shi'rih. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1945.

Bray, Julia. “ ‘Al-Mu‘tasim’s ‘Bridge of Toil’ and Abu Tam-
mam’s Amorium qasida In Studies in Islamic and Mid-
dle Eastern Texts and Traditions in Memory of Norman
Colder, eds. G.R. Hawting et al, 31-73. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000. ( Journal of Semitic Studies Sup-
plement 12.)

Gamal, A.S. “The basis of selection in the Hamasa collec-
tions.” Journal of Arabic Literature 7 (1976): 28-44.

Hamori, Andras. On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature.
Princeton: Princeton University Press (1974): 125-34.

Klein-Franke, Felix. “The Hamasa of Abu Tammam,” I
and II. Journal of Arabic Literature 2 (1971): 13-36; 3
(1972): 142-78.

Stetkevych, Suzanne Pinckney. Abu Tammam and the Poet-
ics of the 'Abbasid Age. Leiden: Brill, 1991.

al-Suli. Akhbar Abu Tammam , eds. K.M. ‘Asakir et al.
Cairo: Lajnat al-Ta’lif wa al-Tarjama wa al-Nashr,
1356/1937.

ABYSSINIA

The appearance of Islam in Abyssinia (historical
Ethiopia) coincided with the first recognizable polity
in the Ethiopian region: Aksum. There are various
traditions of contact between ancient Ethiopia and
early Islam: the Prophet Muhammad is reported to
have written to the Aksumite king (Negus) inviting
“People of the Book” to reconsider the teachings of
Jesus; the emigration of Muhammad’s cousin Ja’far
ibn Abi Talib to Ethiopia to escape the Qurayshite
persecution and his claimed conversion of the
Ethiopian Negus; or indeed the tradition that the
second male convert to Islam was Bilal, a slave of
Ethiopian origin, whom the Prophet Muhammad
appointed the first mu’adhdhin to call the faithful to
prayer.

The emergence of the nascent caliphal state coin-
cided with the apogee of Aksumite power when the
Ethiopian fleet dominated the Red Sea. In retaliation
for an Aksumite attack on the Hijaz, Arab forces

occupied the Dahlak islands, which are opposite the
Aksumite port of Adulis (in modern-day Eritrea),
and Aksumite control of Red Sea trade ended,
which precipitated the kingdom’s decline. An inde-
pendent Islamic sultanate emerged on the Dahlak
islands, and friendly trade relations were established
with Aksum’ s successor Habasha — the term Arab geo-
graphers gave the people of the Ethiopian interiors —
states in the north of Ethiopia.

However, after the decline of Aksum, the successor
states of the Zagwe and Solomonic dynasties began
their historic antipathy to the emerging network of
Islamic peoples and polities to the southeast. The
political — rather than the religious — rivalry between
the Habasha Christian polity in Ethiopia and a suc-
cession of Islamic sultanates centered on the control
of trade. The most important trade route began at the
coastal Islamic settlement of Zayla, and the Islamic
faith had also traveled along this route. The network
of Islamic sultanates known to Arab geographers as the
“country of Zayla” consists of ethnically mixed popu-
lations of Semitic- and Cushitic-language-speaking
traders, agriculturalists, and pastoralists.

At the end of the Zagwe dynasty (c. 1269), an
Islamic sultanate of Shawa is documented as being
founded by the Makhzumite dynasty (a Meccan clan),
dating back to AH 283 or 896/897 CE. Shawa was
later eclipsed by the sultanate of Yifat, which was
founded by ‘Umar Walashama (who traced his origin
from the Arabian Quraysh but who was probably
of local origin). Yifat intervened in Shawa in 1280
(AH 678) or 1285, apparently with the compliance
of a Solomonic Christian emperor. The great Islamic
historian Ibn Khaldun mentions Yifat and its
Walashama sultans, such as Hakk Al Din I and Sabr/
Sa’d al-Din. Both Hakk Al Din I and Sabr Al Din
fought with the Habasha king (negus) Amda Seyon,
who occupied Yifat. It was not until 1376 that their
successor Haqq al-Din II successfully challenged the
Christian Solomonic dominance over Yifat, but the
Ethiopian ruler Dawit I later reasserted his authority
and killed Haqq al-Din II. Another Walashama, Sa’d
al-Din II continued to resist, but he fled to Zayla,
where he was killed by the Habasha forces of Yeshaq.
Scions of the Walashama dynasty took refuge with
the King of Yemen, but some returned and ruled
further east of Yifat, founding the Sultanate of Adal
around 1420.

The new Walashama dynasty in Adal grew larger,
expanding into Somali areas (the “black Berbers” of
the Arab geographers). The expansion of the power of
Adal culminated in the Sultan Ahmad Badlay’s
attempted reconquest of Muslim areas, which ended
in defeat at the hands of Negus Zara Yaqob. The
Sultanate of Adal then retreated to Dakar and then

ADAB

Harar, which was founded in 1520 by Sultan Abu
Baku Muhammad, where a reversal of fortunes cul-
minated in the defeat and destruction of the Christian
Solomonic empire (from 1529-1543) by a later mili-
tary leader of the Adal sultanate, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim
al-Ghazi, who was nicknamed Gran (the left handed).

Cedric Barnes

Further Reading

Braukamper, Ulrich. Islamic History and Culture in South-
ern Ethiopia. Munster and London, 2003.

Cerulli, Enrico. “Ethiopia’s Relations With the Muslim
World.” In Unesco History of Africa from the Seventh
to the Eleventh Century, ed. M. Elfasi, 575-85. Berkeley,
1998.

Kapteijns, Lidwien. “Ethiopia and the Elorn of Africa.” In
The History of Islam in Africa, eds. N. Levtzion and R.L.
Pouwels. London, 2000.

Tamrat, Taddese. “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn.”
In The Cambridge History of Africa, ed. Roland Oliver.
Cambridge, 1977.

Trimingham, J.S. Islam in Ethiopia. London, 1952.

ADAB

A dab is an Arabic term (pi. adab [pronounced with
long a]) for a key concept in medieval Islamic culture.
In the culture’s self-description, adab is both polite
learning and its uses: the improvement of one’s un-
derstanding by instruction and experience, it results in
civility and becomes a means of achieving social
goals. Adab requires a knowledge of history, poetry,
ideas, proverbs, parallels, precedents, and the correct
and pleasing use of language. It is the social and
intellectual currency of the elite and of those who
aspire to be part of it. Courtiers and politicians
should use adab in their dealings with the ruler.
Rulers and grandees should be patrons of learning
and adab. Adab can be displayed to them as a prod-
uct (the treatise or compendium); as a performance
(the disputation or reading); or simply the apt repar-
tee in the majlis (salon, social gathering; see Socializ-
ing and al-Tawhidi). Anyone who practices adab is an
adib (pi. udaba’); udaba’ see themselves as architects
of civilization and guarantors of its survival in the
teeth of political upheavals.

Under the ‘Abbasids and their successor dynasties,
adab was a route into office holding and sometimes to
the vizierate; see numerous examples in al-Tanukhi’s
(AH 329-384/940-994 CE) Table-Talk of a Mesopo-
tamian Judge and Yaqut’s (d. 626/1229) Dictionary of
Men of Adab ( Mu jam al-Udabaj, among others. The
concept of adab as mannerliness could be narrowed
to apply to particular groups, such as Sufis (e.g., ‘Abd
al-Qahir al-Suhrawardi, 490-563/1097-1168, Adab

al-Muridin, A Sufi Rule for Novices), or to a given
profession or situation (e.g., Ibn Qutayba, d. 276/
889, Adab al-Katib [ Skills of the Bureaucrat ] ; al-
Ghazali, d. 505/1 111, Adab al-Akl [Table Manners] ) ,
not least that of ruler (hence the numerous mirrors for
princes in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish).

Historically, adab evolved through several phases
from the end of Umayyad rule and over the first two
centuries of ‘Abbasid rule (mid-eighth to tenth cen-
turies CE). During all of these phases, the written
page took the place of the traditional oral study circle
(see Books). During a first phase, senior bureaucrats
wrote epistles that were designed to imbue caliphs
with Sasanian ideas of statecraft and to help them
manage the increasingly complex problems of empire
(see Ibn al-Muqaffa"). A second phase addressed the
senior or junior bureaucracy; thus al-Jahiz (d. ca. 255/
869) welcomed the rationalist trends arising from the
translation movement (see Translation: Pre-Islamic
Learning into Arabic) and championed the intel-
lectual leadership of an enlightened minority. Ibn
Qutayba, however, stressed the duty of even the mod-
erately literate to educate themselves through reading
and highlighted the imaginative appeal of the huge
body of exemplary stories made available by Arab
antiquarian scholarship and translations. In Muslim
Spain (Andalus), Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih (246-328/
860-940) synthesized these conceptions of adab in
an anthology, al-'Iqd (The Necklace), which lauds
rulership (sultan) and reason as given by God, adab,
and books as the vehicles of reason.

Meanwhile, a further type of adab had emerged in
which political or didactic messages are absent. In-
stead, poets, musicians, and udaba’ are foregrounded
as cultural heroes and exemplars of the human condi-
tion. The greatest exponent of this type of adab is
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (284-ca. 363/897-ca. 972),
whose compilations include the monumental Kitab
al-Aghani (The Book of Songs), which records the
careers and loves of the great men and women musi-
cians and the lives and legends of Arab poets and
poetesses down the ages; the slim al-Ima’ al-Shawa‘ir
(Slave Poetesses)’, and (perhaps) The Book of Stran-
gers (Kitab al-Ghuraba’), which contains miniature
anecdotes and poems of loss and longing, mostly by
obscure or anonymous contemporaries. Both themat-
ic anthologies and the commemoration of contempo-
rary udaba’ — obscure as well as famous — continued
throughout the medieval period, as did the tradition
of providing the common reader with syntheses of
the literary heritage (e.g., al-Baghdadi, 1030-1093/
1621-1682, Khizanat al-Adab [The Treasury of
Adab]) and handbooks of general knowledge (al-
Tha‘alibi, 350^129/961-1038, The Book of Curious
and Entertaining Information’, al-‘§mili, 953-1030/

ADAB

1547-1621, al-Kashkul [The Beggar’s Bowl]). The
patterns of human experience — especially love — held
up by adab also enriched religious thought, particu-
larly that of the Sunni Revival.

In modern scholarship, adab is sometimes taken to
represent the secular dimension of Islamic culture or
Islamic humanism, and the term adab literature has
been coined as a catch-all to denote any work (e.g., al-
Mas‘udi's Meadows of Gold) or literary form (e.g., the
maqama) that is both instructive and pleasurable.

Julia Bray

See also Courtiers; Socializing; al-Tawhidi; Yaqut; Ibn
Qutayba’ al-Ghazali; Mirrors for Princes; Ibn
al-Muqaffa’; Bureaucracy; al-Jahiz

Further Reading

Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani. al-Imci’ al-Shawa'ir , ed. Jalal al-
‘Afliyya. Beirut: Dar al-Nidal, 1404/1984.

. Kitab al-aghani. For editions, see Kilpatrick,

Hilary. Musiques sur le Fleuve: Les Plus Belles Pages du
Kitab al-Aghani , trans. Jacques Berque. Paris: Albin
Michel, 1995.

(attrib.). Kitab al-Ghuraba’, trans. Patricia Crone

and Shmuel Moreh In The Book of Strangers: Medieval
Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia. Princeton, NJ:
Markus Wiener, 2000.

al-Baghdadi, ‘Abd al-Qahir ibn ‘Umar. Khizanat al-Adab,
ed. ‘Abd al-Salam M. Harun. Cairo: Dar al-Katib al-
‘Arab, 1967-1986.

. Khizanat al-Adab, eds. M.N. Tarifi and I. Ya‘qub.

Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1998.

Bell, Joseph Norment. Love Theory in Later Hanbalite
Islam. Albany: SUNY Press, 1979.

Bosworth, C.E. Balia’ al-Din al-'Amili and His Literary
Anthologies. Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1989.

Bray, Julia. “Lists and Memory: Ibn Qutayba and Muham-
mad ibn Habib.” In Culture and Memory in Medieval
Islam: Essays in Honour of Wilfercl Modelling, eds. F.
Daftary and J.W. Meri, 210-31. London: I.B. Tauris,
2003.

. “Myth and Adab: Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih and Others.” In

On Fiction and Adab in Medieval Arabic Literature, eds.
Philip Kennedy and Sasson Somekh, 1-54. Leiden: Brill,
forthcoming.

Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater. London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. “Adab in Iran,” vol. I,
341-349, Dj. Khalegi-Motlagh; “Andarz,” vol. II,
11-22, S. Shaked and Z. Safa.
al-Ghazali. “Al-Ghazali on the Manners Relating to
Eating.” Kitab adab al-akl. Book XI of the Revival of the
Religious Sciences , Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din, trans. D. Johnson-
Davies. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2000.

Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih. al- ‘Icid al-Farid, eds. A. Amin et al. Cairo:
Matba‘at Lajnat al-Ta’lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr,
1359-1372/1940-1952.

. al-'Icjd al-Farid, ed. M. Qumayfla. Beirut: Dar al-

Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 1404 (1983).

Ibn Qutayba. Adab al-Katib, ed. Muhammad al-Dali.
Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1982.

. ‘Uyun al-akhbar. Cairo, Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya,

1343-1349/1925-1930. Preface trans. Josef Horovitz,
“Ibn Quteyba’s ‘Uyun al-Akhbar Islamic Culture 4
(1930): 171-84.

Kilpatrick, Hilary. Making the Great Book of Songs:
Compilation and the Author’s Craft in Abu 1-Faraj al-
Isbahani’s Kitab al-Aghcini. London and New York:
Routledge-Curzon, 2003.

al-Suhrawardi. Kitab Adab al-Muridin, ed. Menahem Mil-
son. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1978.

. A Sufi Rule for Novices. Kitab Adab al-Muridin of

Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi, introd. and abridged trans.,
Menahem Milson. Cambridge, Mass., and London:
Harvard University Press, 1975.

al-Tanukhi. Nishwar al-muhadara, ed. ‘Abbud al-Shalji.
Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1971-1973.

. The Table-Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge, trans.

D.S. Margoliouth. Part I: London: Royal Asiatic Society,
1922; Parts VIII and II: Islamic Culture (1929-1932): 3-6.

al-Tha‘alibi. Lcitci’if al-ma‘arif eds. I. al-Abyari and H.K.
al-Sayrafi. Cairo: Dar Ihya’ al-Kutub al-‘Arabiyya,
1960, trans. C.E. Bosworth.

. The Book of Curious and Entertaining Information.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1968.

Toorawa, Shawkat M. Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur and Arabic
Writerly Culture: A Ninth Century Bookman in Baghdad.
London: Routledge-Curzon, 2003.

Yaqut. Mujam al-Udaba’ (Irsliad al-Arib ila Narifat al-
Adib), ed. Ihsan ‘Abbas. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami,
1993.

ADEN

The Indian Ocean port city of Aden, Yemen, is locat-
ed in the southwestern corner of Arabia and about
ninety-five nautical miles east of the Bab al-Mandab,
which is the entrance to the Red Sea. The medieval
city stood on the eastern side of the homonymous
peninsula in an area that has been known since British
times as “the Crater.” The modern toponym reflects
local geology and topography; the site of the medieval
city is nestled in the crater of a defunct volcano, the
walls of which surround it on all but the seaward side.
Thanks to its general geographical location, defensi-
ble topography, and ample and easily accessible
anchorages (and despite its arid climate and shortage
of potable water), Aden has been the chief port in the
region for extended periods during its long history.

The political history of the city can be recon-
structed in detail only from the fifth/eleventh century
onward. The Sulayhid rulers of Yemen conquered
Aden in AH 454/1062 CE and eventually ceded the
administration of the port to the Zuray‘ids. The latter
initially remitted a portion of the lucrative port taxes
as tribute to their Sulayhid overlords. As Sulayhid
power waned, however, Zuray‘id Aden became an
autonomous state, with the port at its center and sub-
stantial hinterlands under its jurisdiction. In 530/1135,

ADEN

in an episode that highlights both the nature and the
rivalries of Indian Ocean maritime principalities, the
ruler of the Arabian Gulf island of Kish/Qais attacked
Aden and laid siege to the port unsuccessfully. After
the 569/1173 conquest of Yemen by the Ayyubids,
Aden lost its autonomy but maintained its promi-
nence as the country’s main port. The Ayyubids de-
veloped the physical and institutional infrastructure
of the port, as did their successors the Rasulids
(626-858/1229-1454). State-sponsored development
included the building of fortifications, harbor works,
warehouses, markets, and customs facilities that
marked the urban landscape, and the institution of
naval patrols that secured the maritime approaches to
the port. The Tahirids (858-923/1454-1517) wrested
power from the Rasulids when they captured Aden in
858/1454. Although the Portuguese failed to take
Aden during the early tenth/sixteenth century, the
Ottomans succeeded in 945/1538.

The commercial importance of medieval Aden can-
not be overstated. The fourth-/tenth-century Arab
geographer al-Muqaddasi described the port as “the
vestibule of China, entrepot of Yemen, treasury of the
West, and mother lode of all trade wares.” Several
travelers, including Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta,
passed through Aden and commented on its bustling
port. The most extensive account of commercial life
and the organization of trade in Aden appears in Ibn
al-Mujawir’s Tarikh al-Mustabsir, a seventh/thir-
teenth-century work that was quoted and supplemen-
ted by Adeni historian Abu Makhrama (870-947/
1465-1540). The Daftar al-Muzaffari, an administra-
tive document composed for the Rasulid sultan al-
Muzaffar (647-694/1249-1295), highlights the signifi-
cance of the port as a global market and a source of
commercial tax revenues. In letters, legal papers,
accounts, and lists dating primarily from the fifth/
eleventh to seventh/thirteenth centuries and preserved
in the document repository of the Cairo Geniza, Aden
emerges as the major Indian Ocean hub for the net-
work of Jewish merchants that operated across the
Islamic world from Spain to India and beyond. These
and other sources testify to the cosmopolitan nature
of the city and the ethnic, linguistic, and sectarian
plurality of its port society, which included Arabs,
Persians, Indians, Africans, Muslims, Jews, Hindus,
and Christians.

The urban growth of Aden in modern times, which
began with the British capture of the place in 1839,
appears to have erased most physical vestiges of the
medieval port. Among the scanty remains is an im-
pressive system of interconnected cisterns that served
the city’s water supply throughout the medieval peri-
od; their construction may date to pre-Islamic times.
Also impressive is a tall tower structure of disputed

function and date, which appears to have stood near
the shoreline of the medieval harbor. Alternatively, a
number of archaeological sites on the mainland op-
posite Aden testify to the manufacturing and agricul-
tural activity connected with the port during its
heyday.

Roxani Eleni Margariti

See also Arabia; Geniza; al-Muqaddasi; Yemen

Primary Sources

Abu Makhrama. “Tarikh thaghr ‘adan.” In Arabische
Texte zur Kenntnis der Stadt Aden im Mittelalter, ed.
Oscar Lofgren. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryck-
eri, 1936-1950.

Ibn al-Mujawir. “Tarikh al-Mustabsir.” In Arabische Texte
zur Kenntnis der Stadt Aden im Mittelalter , ed. Oscar
Lofgren. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri,
1936-1950.

Jazim, Abd al-Rahim Muhammad. Lwniere de la Connais-
sance : Regies, Lois et Coutume du Yemen sous le Regne
du Sultan Rasoulide al-Muzaffar. Sanaa: Centre Franqais
d’Archaeologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa, 2003.

Further Reading

Goitein, S.D. “From Aden to India: Specimens of the Cor-
respondence of India Traders of the Twelfth Century.”
Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 23
(1980): 43-66.

. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1973.

. “Two Eyewitness Reports on an Expedition of the

King of Kish (Qais) against Aden.” Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies 16 (1954): 247-57.

Hunter, Frederick M. An Account of the British Settlement
of Aden. London: Triibner, 1877.

Kay, Henry C. Yaman, its Early Mediaeval History. Lon-
don: E. Arnold, 1892

King, Geoffrey, and Cristina Tonghini. A Survey of the
Islamic Sites near Aden and in the Abyan District of
Yemen. London: School of Oriental and African Studies,
1996.

Margariti, Roxani E. “Like the Place of Congregation on
Judgment Day: Maritime Trade and Urban Organiza-
tion in Medieval Aden (ca. 1083-1229).” Ph.D. disserta-
tion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2002.

Prados, Edward. “An Archaeological Investigation of Sira
Bay, Aden, Republic of Yemen.” International Journal
of Nautical Archaeology 23.4 (1994): 297-307.

Rex Smith, Gerald. "More on the Port Practices and Taxes
of Medieval Aden.” Arabian Studies 3 (1996): 208-18.

. “Have You Anything to Declare? Maritime Trade

and Commerce in Ayyubid Aden: Practices and Taxes.”
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 25 (1995):
127M0.

Shamrookh, N. “The Commerce and Trade of the Rasulids
in the Yemen, 650-858/1231-1454.” Ph.D. dissertation.
Manchester: University of Manchester, 1993.

Whitcomb, D.S. “Islamic Archaeology in Aden and the
Hadhramaut.” In Araby the Blest: Studies in Arabian

ADEN

Archaeology, ed. D.T. Potts. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press, 1988.

‘ADUD AL-DAWLA

Abu Shuja‘ Fanna Khusraw (936-983) is usually
known by the honorific 'Adud al-Dawla, which was
granted by the Caliph al-Muti‘ in 962. ‘Adud al-
Dawla (“Aid of the Dynasty”) was the Buyid amir
who ruled in Baghdad from 977 until his death. The
son of Rukn al-Dawla, he was given control of Fars in
949 at the tender age of 13 or 14. It was there that he
spent the majority of his career learning statecraft
while focusing on expanding and entrenching his
own and his family’s power. In these endeavors, like
most rulers of the time, he was constantly in need of
funds. He took the unusual step of improving agri-
cultural infrastructure with the hope of increased
productivity and revenue; this largely worked. Conse-
quently, he was always able to muster greater
resources than his opponents. In 975, with his father’s
blessing, he moved his army into Baghdad to quell the
disorder that his cousin ‘Izz al-Dawla (also called
Bakhtiyar) was unable to control. It provided a con-
venient excuse to fulfill his ambition of unifying and
centralizing his hold on the Buyid domains.

Shortly after his arrival, he forced his cousin to
abdicate. However, family power dynamics took pre-
cedence. Rukn al-Dawla, as head of the family, was
none too pleased by this turn of events and ordered
his son to restore ‘Izz al-Dawla and withdraw. ‘Adud
al-Dawla complied, but the respite did not last long.
When his father died the next year, ‘Adud al-Dawla
restarted the machinations against his cousin. The
lack of clear lines of succession encouraged him in
his endeavor to become the dominant member of the
family. In 977, he defeated ‘Izz al-Dawla, entered
Baghdad, and was given the title Amir al-Umara’
(“Commander of the Commanders”). ‘Adud al-
Dawla worked with his brother Mu’ayyid al-Dawla
to fight and exile a third brother, Fakhr al-
Dawla, who had allied with ‘Izz al-Dawla. In the
process, ‘Adud al-Dawla firmly established his con-
trol over the Buyid family holdings and himself as
their head. His rule marks the high point of the dy-
nasty. He had diplomatic contacts with the Fatimids
and the Byzantines, he exerted real political control,
and he even had pretensions of using the title Shahan-
shah (“King of Kings”). He behaved as if he were an
independent king, but he recognized the limits on the
exercise of power. Therefore, he maintained the fic-
tion of his subservience to the caliph as a useful tool
for legitimizing his authority.

In the end, as he was dying, ‘Adud al-Dawla
attempted to formalize arrangements for his son to

succeed him. However, for three months, his advisors
had to hide his death to allow them time to transfer
the reins to Samsam al-Dawla; this highlights the fact
that his arrangements could not have been all that
secure or formalized if his advisors had to pretend
that he was still alive to make for a successful hand-
over. For all of his power and success in reforming
the government, he failed to solve many of the out-
standing problems of the dynasty, particularly the
question of succession and familial power-sharing.

John P. Turner

Further Reading

Donohue, John J. The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 334H./945
to 403H./1012. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Kabir, Mafizullah. The Buwayhid Dynasty of Baghdad.
Calcutta: Iran Society, 1964.

Mottahedeh, R.P. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early
Islamic Society. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2001.

ADULTERY

The legal notion of adultery in medieval Islam differs
in several respects from contemporary ideas. Muslim
jurists would not distinguish between forbidden sexu-
al relations of a married person and other forms of
intercourse prohibited by the Shari' a. On the one
hand, these acts were considered in accordance with
the judgments on zina (fornication; unlawful inter-
course) in the Qur’an and the hadith. On the other
hand, not all extramarital affairs necessarily establish
the charge of committing zina. Adultery constitutes,
on that ground, a subsidiary part inside of a broader
legal category that combines moral, religious, and
social values.

The noun zina and its grammatical derivations
(e.g., al-zani [the fornicator]) — without counting

ADULTERY

numerous paraphrases — appear in five verses of the
Qur’an. Three of these verses list zina together with
other sins, namely murder (17:32; 25:68; 60:12), infan-
ticide (17:32 and 60:12), theft, and false accusation
(60:12). They do not pronounce specific punishments;
however, 25:68 refers to the sufferings of fornicators
and murderers in the hereafter. The other two verses
imply more significant juridical consequences. Sura
24:2 states the Qur’anic penalty of one hundred lashes
for each fornicator, both male and female, and the
next verse (24:3) sets an impediment to marriage be-
tween fornicators and believers. Elowever, this latter
stipulation has been either considered abrogated or
taken as but a recommendation by most legal scho-
lars. Instead of following the Qur’anic prescription,
later jurisprudence sets the norm for the punishment
of zina with the example of the Prophet Muhammad
and of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, who pronounced the sen-
tence of stoning in five cases. The application of
the punishment relies on the testimony of four wit-
nesses in explicit terms or on the confession of the
perpetrator, which is to be repeated four times.

Committing zina figures prominently among the
most serious sins imaginable in Islamic ethics and
puts into question the actual belief of the perpetrator.
More than that, zina imposes one of the five “limit
penalties” (hudud, sing, hadd) specified in the Qur’an,
the only one that had been sharpened by the more
severe precedents in the hadith. Zina constitutes not
just a personal sin but a criminal offense against the
community to be judged by worldly legal authorities.
Accounting the properties of the crime, the Andalu-
sian jurist Ibn Rushd defines zina as “all sexual inter-
course that occurs outside of a valid marriage, the
semblance (shubha) of marriage, or lawful owner-
ship” (1996, vol. 2, 521). To appreciate the signifi-
cance of this statement, we shall briefly discuss those
sexual acts that give rise to uncertainty with respect to
their nature as zina.

First, there are a number of practices that are not
immediately conceived of as sexual intercourse. Some
jurists count masturbation among the manifest forms
of zina, but their position is contrasted, for example,
by a statement of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal comparing
masturbation to a mere phlebotomy. There is also
no consensus about whether copulation with animals
should be punished with the hadd penalty. Opinions
differ not less on homosexual intercourse: some jurists
impose stoning in any case, some distinguish between
the active and the passive partner, and others leave
the decision to the discretion of the judge (Bousquet
1990, 83M; Musallam 1983, 33-4; Peters 2002, 509).
Lesbian activities are rarely introduced in legal man-
uals; they are generally passed over in silence (see
Murray 2005).

Second, a nontrivial topic of legal reasoning on
zina consists of the attempt to circumscribe the proper
meaning of "lawful ownership.” Sexual intercourse
with one’s own slave is permitted. The category
of possession, however, raises economic issues that
collide with moral concerns. Typical conflicts are
cases in which parental and economical notions in-
termingle (e.g., the father who has intercourse with
his son’s slave). Opinions vary widely between the
application of the hadd penalty and the require-
ment of a possession transfer with restitution of the
slave’s value to the former owner (Ibn Rushd 1996,
vol. 2, 522).

Third (and this is related to the second point), an
important legal instrument with respect to zina con-
cerns the possible erroneous belief of the perpetrator
of having acted within the state of actually being
married (i.e., to have intercourse with somebody mis-
taken to be one’s wife or without fulfilling the legal
prerequisites of marriage). The avoidance of the hadd
penalty for errors resulting from resemblance
(shubha) follows from a noncanonical hadith (see
Powers 2002, 62-3, n. 40, for references).

The contradictions between the rigorousness of the
legal norm and the procedural as well as doctrinal
formulations against its strict application allow for
different conclusions about the function of the law.
One position advances that the entire criminal legisla-
tion on zina serves the sole aim of avoiding the “di-
vulgence of scandale” (Bousquet 1990, 89-90).
However, because the matrimonial relationship is cru-
cial to the whole fabric of family law in early Islam,
this legislation appears also as a “protective wall”
that ensures the maintenance of social and economic
rights and duties (Coulson 1979, 65-8).

Tilman Hannemann

See also Concubinage; Crime and Punishment; Family;
Gender and Sexuality

Further Reading

Bousquet, Georges-Henri. L’Ethique Sexuelle de Vlslam.
Paris: de Brouwer, 1990.

Coulson, Noel J. “Regulation of Sexual Behavior under
Traditional Islamic Law.” In Society and the Sexes in
Medieval Islam, ed. Alaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid-Marsot. Mal-
ibu, Calif: Undena Publications, 1979.

Ibn Rushd. The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer: A Translation
of Bidayat Al-Mujtahid, ed. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee,
2 vols. Reading: Garnet, 1996.

Murray, Stephen O. “Woman-Woman Love in Islamic
Societies.” In Women and Islam: Critical Concepts in
Sociology, ed. Haideh Moghissi, vol. 2. London and
New York: Routledge, 2005.

Musallam, Basim F. Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control
before the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1983.

ADULTERY

Peters, Ruud. “Art. Zina.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition, vol. XII, 510-11. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Powers, David S. Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib,
1300-1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002 .

Schacht, Joseph. “Adultery as an Impediment to Marriage
in Islamic and in Canon Law.” Archives d’Histoire du
Droit Oriental, NS 1 (1952): 105-23.

AFTERLIFE

“Think not of those who are slain in Allah’s Way as
dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the
Presence of their Lord” (Qur'an 3:169). Medieval
Qur’an commentators usually connect this verse to
the battle of Uhud (AH 3/625 CE), during which
the Muslims had been defeated and had suffered
many casualties. They further explain that the verse
had been revealed to console the bereaved. In trying
to be more specific as to the bliss bestowed upon
“those slain in Allah’s Way,” these commentators
adduce a prophetic tradition (hadith, q.v.) that states
that the souls of the shuhada’ (those killed in Allah’s
Way) wander in Paradise, in the bodies of green birds.
So wonderful is their bliss that, when God asks them
for their wish, their only desire is to return to the
present world so that they may be killed again. With
this notion in mind, it is not surprising that this
particular verse has become one of the most frequent-
ly cited verses in the last few years, mainly in relation
to suicide bombings.

It is not only the fate of the shuhada’ that has
created the eagerness to explore the world beyond
ours; this yearning is deeply rooted in religious anxi-
eties and aspirations of every pious person. Medieval
Islam was very much aware of this need and supplied
the “essential information” in various ways: Qur’an
commentaries, hadith, and theological and mystical
works, as well as more popular treatises. The latter
constitute an especially colorful and descriptive genre
that consists of hundreds or maybe thousands of tales
that provide meticulous details about the world be-
yond the present one: the encounter with the angels
Munkar and Nakir, the Barzakh, the delights of Par-
adise, the torments of Hell, and so on (see the relevant
entries in The Encyclopaedia of Islam and The Ency-
clopaedia of the Qur’an). Although these details an-
swer the curiosity of the believers and deliver some
comfort, their main purpose is to illuminate the enig-
ma of the Divine Providence. As a counsel to pious
Muslims who might wonder about the reason for the
scrupulous life they have to lead, this literature elabo-
rates on the ongoing communication between the
dead and the living, assuming a direct proportion

between the performance of duties in the present
world and the rewards granted in the next.

Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. AH 281/894 CE) may be
considered one of the earliest and most prolific writers
who developed this popular afterlife genre. He cov-
ered the different stages of the hereafter and presented
descriptions of the upper worlds in short treatises. His
works draw attention to three main ways by which the
living can learn about the dead:

1. Tales of people who woke up a few seconds

after their death, described their experiences,
and died again (Man 'Asha Ba'da al-Mawt
[Those Who Lived After Death] ) .

2. Tales of people who stayed in the vicinity of a

graveyard and encountered the dead, either
inside their graves or nearby, in forms that
indicate the taste of death (Kitab al-Qubur
[ The Book of Graves ] ) .

3. Tales of people who appeared in dreams after

passing away and portrayed their new abode;
dream narrations make the richest source of
information about death and the next world
/ Kitab al-Manam [ The Book of Dreams ] ) .

Regardless of the method chosen, each anecdote in
this genre creates the feeling of a physical contact
between the two worlds and alludes to the fact that
death is not the final stage of life. The dead in these
anecdotes are considered “living dead.” They meet
with each other and discuss occurrences of the present
world; they have doubts and desires; they are capable
of building relationships with the living; and they
always deliver reliable information. This makes the
living believe that they can learn from the experience
of the dead, which is accumulated in the dead’s new
vicinity. The dead are perceived as those who under-
stand the value of duties but who are incapable of
performing any, whereas living people can carry out
deeds but are not aware of their consequences in the
next world. Thus, the living choose to follow the
dead’s instructions about how to behave to guarantee
their own comfortable existence when their turn
comes. A large portion of these anecdotes focuses on
the fact that the dead’s sepulchral sufferings are miti-
gated through good deeds performed by the living.
These tales also illustrate how praying for the dead,
visiting their graves, and accomplishing their duties
are likely to reduce the agonies of the living after their
own deaths.

In accordance with this, the edifying nature of this
genre in general and the heritage of Ibn Abi al-Dunya
in particular become apparent. Although never
straightforward, this genre constantly encourages the
dwellers of the present abode to perform certain deeds
and refrain from others. Its picturesque and tangible

AGHLABIDS

descriptions expressed in simple daily language and
phrased in an unequivocal way answer human uncer-
tainties and ease the fears of death. These tales pene-
trate the heart and become a reliable authority
according to which pious life is conducted.

Leah Kinberg

See also Death and Dying; Dream and Dream Inter-
pretation; Hadith; Jihad; Mecca; Qur’an

Primary Sources

Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s treatises. K. Man ‘Asha ha' da al-Mawt.
Beirut, 1986.

. K. al-'Uquhat. Beirut, 1996.

Kinberg, L. The Book of Death and the Book of Graves by
Ibn Abi al-Dunya. Haifa, Al-Karmil Publication Series,
1983.

. Morality in the Guise of Dreams: Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s

K. al-Manam. Leiden: Brill, 1994.

Further Reading

Eklund, R. Life between Death and Resurrection According
to Islam. Uppsala, 1941.

Kinberg, L. “Interaction between This World and the
Afterworld in Early Islamic Tradition.” Oriens 29-30
(1986): 285-308.

. “The Individual’s Experience as it Appears to

the Community: An Examination of Six Dream Narra-
tions Dealing with the Islamic Understanding of Death.”
Al-Qantara 21 (2000): 425-44.

O'Shaughnessy. Muhammad’s Thought on Death: A The-
matic Study of the Qur’anic Data. Leiden: Brill, 1969.

Smith, Jane I., and Y.Y. Haddad. The Islamic Understand-
ing of Death. New York, 1981.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1960-2004. Bar-
zakh, Djanna, Hurriyya, Ibn Abi ‘L-Dunya, Munkar
wa-Nakir, Nar.

The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, ed. J.D. McOuliffe.
Leiden: Brill, 2003. Barzakh, Death and the Dead,
Eschatology, Hell and Hellfire, Houris, Paradise.

AGHLABIDS

The Aghlabid dynasty ruled the emirate of Ifriqiyya
(modern-day Tunisia) from 800-909 CE. During that
century, they consolidated the economic and military
position of the province, exercising considerable con-
trol over the Mediterranean after the conquest of
Sicily. A failure to overcome critical internal divi-
sions, however, weakened the Aghlabids and led to
their collapse before the Fatimid army of Kutama
Berbers.

Ibrahim b. al-Aghlab (800-812), governor of the
Zab region on the western border of the ‘Abbasid
empire, founded the dynasty after putting down a
revolt by the jund (Arab military class) in Qayrawan,

the capital of Ifriqiyya. He then negotiated his reward
with the ‘Abbasid caliph, Harun Al-Rashid. The ca-
liph appointed him emir (prince) and gave him virtual
autonomy after Ibrahim pledged forty thousand
dinars to the imperial treasury and agreed to forego
a one hundred thousand dinar subsidy normally
received by the province.

The revolt that brought the Aghlabids to power
was a portent of a perennial problem of the Aghlabid
rulers: the propensity of the volatile jund to rebel.
After two further revolts, Ibrahim I constructed a
fortified palace complex, the Qsar al-Qadim, which
was three miles south of Qayrawan and protected by a
special guard of black slaves. Although the third
Aghlabid emir, Ziyadat Allah (817-838), channeled
much of the revolutionary potential of the jund to-
ward a jihad (holy war) against Sicily, the Aghlabids
never successfully counterbalanced this force.

Another source of tension was the ulama, the in-
fluential class of religious scholars whose piety and
learning commanded the respect of urban and rural
society. The ulama critiqued excesses and injustices
they identified in the Aghlabid regime, including
usury, un-Islamic taxation (applying a land tax to
Muslim subjects and demanding payment of tithes
in money not in kind), and the production and sale
of wine. The ulama also censured the pleasure-seeking
lifestyle of the Aghlabid court as excessive and illicit.
In addition, tensions between the rival Hanafite and
Malikite schools of Islamic law were compounded by
controversy over mu‘tazilism (a rationalist approach
to Islam), which the caliph Ma’mun (813-833) made
the official doctrine of the empire. In Ifriqiyya, the
literalist Malikite approach (which was propagated
at Qayrawan by the eminent jurist Asad b. al-Furat
[d. 828]) took root and became the dominant school.
It was under the Aghlabids that Al-Furat’s student
Sahnun (d. 854) penned the authoritative digest of
Malikite doctrine, Al-Mudawanna. The emirs, who
were sensitive to public opinion, consistently selected
Maliki jurists for positions in their administration. As
prolific builders, the Aghlabids also attempted to
shore up religious legitimacy through the extensive
construction of religious buildings. Ziyadat Allah I
rebuilt the Great Mosque of Qayrawan in 836, and
the Zaytuna Mosque of Tunis was built by Abu Ibra-
him Ahmad (856-863). Great resources were also
invested in public works, particularly water projects,
including aqueducts and the famous circular cisterns
at Qayrawan.

These last projects increased the region’s agricul-
tural productivity, contributing to economic expansion
as Ifriqiyya regained prominence as a grain exporter.
Qayrawan also became an important terminus for

AGHLABIDS

trans-Saharan trade, primarily of slaves and gold. This
rise in east-west and north-south trade proved a
significant factor in the Aghlabids’ external policies.

With its land borders relatively quiet, the emirate
was most vulnerable on its coasts, and a series of
ribats (fortified monasteries) were built to guard
against Christian raids. Although they had diplomatic
exchanges with Charlemagne’s Christian empire
(which posed no naval threat), the Byzantines posed
a recurrent economic and military threat. In 827 C.E.,
a rebel Byzantine naval commander approached
Ziyadat Allah III to help invade Sicily. For the emir,
the invasion presented an opportunity to take over a
Byzantine base across from Ifriqiyya, to control east-
west Mediterranean traffic, and, not insignificantly, to
channel the domestic discontent of the ulama and jund
into a campaign against an external enemy. The emir
placed the jurist Al-Furat, who had argued for jihad
against Christian Sicily, in charge of the invasion
force, which left from the garrison port of Susa with
ten thousand men. They made early gains in the west
by taking Palermo in 842, but they took seventy-five
years to oust the final Byzantine forces. However,
while securing Sicily, the Aghlabids extended their
power considerably on the Italian peninsula, sending
repeated expeditions to Calabria and Campania, raid-
ing Rome in 846 C.E., and establishing a presence on
the Adriatic coast in Brindisi and Bari. By 902 C.E.,
they were well established in Sicily and dominated the
mainland through trade and military power.

Despite these external successes, the policies of
Ibrahim II (875-902 C.E.), who tried to consolidate
Aghlabid authority by slaughtering the Arab aristoc-
racy and the jund, undermined the Aghlabid position
in Ifriqiyya. His repression weakened the military and
provoked widespread resentment, thus paving the
way for the downfall of the dynasty. In 909 C.E.,
the last Aghlabid amir, Ziyadat Allah III, fled before
the Ismaili armies that helped establish the Fatimids.

Jonathan David Wyrtzen

See also Kharijis; Berber Revolt; Qayrawan; A1 Ma’-
mun; Tax and Taxation; Slaves and Slave Trade;
Western Islamic World; Trade, Mediterranean;
Muslim-Byzantine Relations; Sicily; Ismailis; Fati-
mids; North Africa

Primary Sources

Ibn Al-Athir. Kamil fi al-Ta'rikh. Beirut: Dar Sadir,

1965-1967.

Ibn ‘Idhari, al-Marrakushi. Al-Bayan al Mugrib. Paris: P.

Geuthner, 1930.

Al-Bakri. Abi ‘Ubayd. Kitab al-Masalik wa al Mamalik.

Qartaj: Al Dar Al-Arabiyah lil-Kitab, 1992.

Further Reading

Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib in the
Islamic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1987.

Ahmad, Aziz. A History of Islamic Sicily. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1975.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.

Julien, Charles Andre. History of North Africa: Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco, from the Arab Conquest to 1830,
trans. John Petrie. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1970.

Kreutz, Barbara M. Before the Normans: Southern Italy in
the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Marcais, George. L‘ Architecture; Tunisie, Algerie, Maroc,
Espagne, Sidle. Paris: A. Picard, 1926-1927.

Talbi, Mohamed. L'Emirat Aghlabide, 184-296, 800-909,
Histoire Politique. Paris: Librairie d’Amerique et d'Ori-
ent, 1966.

AGRA RED FORT

After his victory over the last ruler of the Lodi dynas-
ty, Sultan Ibrahim (1517-1526), the first Mughal em-
peror Babur (r. 1526-1530) installed himself in the
Lodi mud-brick fort at Agra and ordered the con-
struction of a large, three-story stepwell that was
completed in March 1527. It was only under his
grandson Akbar (r. 1556-1605), however, that impe-
rial patronage seriously focused on Agra and made its
fort into an immensely strong fortified palace city to
rival Delhi and Lahore. Akbar’s chronicler, Abu’l-
Fazl, referred to the emperor’s five hundred buildings
in Agra, an exaggeration that nevertheless suggests
the massive transformation Akbar and his architect
Qasim Khan Mir Barr u Bahr oversaw between 1565
and 1573. Although very few Akbar-period buildings
still stand, the early semicircular ground plan of the
Agra Fort is evident, with its 22-meter high walls
stretching over 2.5 kilometers.

Faced with red sandstone and white marble, the
Hathi (Elephant) Gate on the west was the main
public entrance. Built in the same materials is the so-
called Jahangiri Mahal, the best-preserved Akbari
building inside the walls. Adjacent to and overlooking
the Jumna River, its open architecture lets those in-
side the palace view the hectic river traffic and catch
cooling breezes off the water. Its several inner court-
yards, its overall layout, and its decorative stonework
are influenced by the non-Islamic palace traditions of
Gujarat and Rajasthan and of the massive fort at
Gwalior, an Akbari synthesis that is most strikingly
revealed in the imperial city of Fatehpur Sikri only 42
kilometers to the west, where the emperor resided
front 1569-1585.

Additions to the Agra Fort by Akbar’s son and
successor Jahangir (1605-1627) are also known

AGRA RED FORT

View of exterior. Moghul style, 1565. Built by Akbar. Credit: SEF/Art Resource, NY. Jahangiri Mahal, Red Fort, Agra, Uttar
Pradesh, India.

largely from texts. They included a small palace and a
public audience hall. Contemporary paintings also
show the Shah Burj (King’s Tower), from which
Jahangir suspended a belled Chain of Justice, pur-
portedly designed so that petitioners could ring it
and get his attention.

However, it was during the reign of Shah Jahan
(1627-1658) that the Agra Fort was transformed
through lavish and astute patronage. His regnal
name means “King of the World,” an image that
came to dominate almost all aspects of the arts
under his patronage. Between 1627 and 1637, most
of the fort’s structures were replaced with buildings
clothed in white marble or stucco. Materials reflected
rank, as did the order of structures. On the east side of
a large rectangular courtyard, the pillared public au-
dience hall was built of red sandstone that was cov-
ered with white stucco. The hall’s east side, however,
was lined with white marble and inlaid with precious
stones, for it presented a jharoka or balcony window
where the emperor made regular formal appearances
to his closest adherents, who were assembled accord-
ing to rank. On the east side of the courtyard was a
pillared hall with a throne room containing baluster

columns, a form that was explicitly derived from
European prints and used only in an imperial context.
To the north was a chahar bagh, a cruciform garden
with a central fountain that was particularly favored
by Mughal patrons, for whom it recalled their descent
from Timur and their origins in Samarqand. On its
east side was a private audience hall that contained a
Persian inscription likening the emperor to the sun, a
conceit that was reinforced by solar medallions in the
marble stone. The emperor’s private residence was
located next to an open court and looked out over
the river. His bedroom was so richly gilded that there
appeared to be a gold aura around his head during his
ritual jharoka appearances.

Within the fort is also a large white marble mosque
that was completed in 1653. In keeping with well-
established Mughal precedent, it has three white mar-
ble domes that rise above its qiblah wall. Stunning
black marble inscriptions convey images of paradise
and laud Shah Jahan as a world ruler.

Materials, imagery, and inscriptions weave a com-
mon theme. Interior gardens and their fountains
evoke the desirable order and pure water of paradise.
Forms like the baluster column are reserved only for

AGRA RED FORT

the environment in which the emperor lives. Other
forms appropriated from European prints include
the scales of justice and the solar orb; in the circum-
scribed environment of the Mughal court and the
Agra Fort, these forms were well understood, al-
though it is unlikely that they would have conveyed
much meaning to those outside of the purview of
court refinements. Likewise, the intense, concentrated
symmetry of architectural space is an expression of
social order that is remarkable for its consistency and
forcefulness. The ruler and his family were located on
an exalted plane. The Agra Fort presented not just
symmetry but also precise definition and regulation of
movement from courtyard to chamber to courtyard.
The temporal world was firmly set in place as well;
time was ritualized, and the emperor’s set appear-
ances guaranteed that the elaborate system continued
to function. It is no wonder that European visitors
so admired the Mughal court and that European
rulers saw court ceremonies and imagery worth imi-
tating. The Mughals had mastered the political art of
fabricating a monarch who was also the empire’s
indispensable hero.

Anthony Welch

See also Akbar; Alhambra; Architecture, Secular: Civ-
il; Architecture, Secular: Military; Architecture, Secu-
lar: Palaces; Architecture, Religious; Babar;

Bureaucrats; Delhi; Gardens and Gardening; Hindus;
Humayun; India; Mosques; Lahore; Mughals; Nur Ja-
han; Painting, Miniature; Persian; Persians; Qur’an;
Timurids; Turks; Water

Further Reading

Asher, Catherine B. “Architecture of Mughal India.” In
The New Cambridge History of India, 1:4. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Brand, Michael, and Glenn D. Lowry. Fatehpur-Sikri.

Bombay: Marg Publications, 1987.

Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls. New York:
Harper & Row, 1971.

Koch, Ebba M. Mughal Architecture. Munich: Prestel-
Verlag, 1992.

. Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology: Collected

Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Nath, R. History of Mughal Architecture. New Jersey:
Humanities Press, 1982.

Rizvi, S.A.A. Fathpur-Sikri. Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala
Sons, 1975.

AGRICULTURE

The history of Islamic agriculture (filaha) goes back
to very ancient times, to the time of the conquests
(seventh and eighth centuries). When the Muslims as

conquerors came to the different regions — and where
the inhabitants of the different regions became Mus-
lims — attention to the land became a concrete and
nondeferable matter. The decaying structure of the
landed estates of late antiquity, where they still
existed, was eliminated; the land was divided up
among the warriors and their families; land left
neglected and uncultivated for a long time started to
be tilled again. This was the start in the Islamic
countries of what some scholars have very aptly called
the “green revolution”: this revolution would later
form the basis of countless and advantageous
exchanges between the East — including the Far
East — and the West, and it points to the Muslims as
the pioneers of a new way of farming. Confirmation
of what took place can first be found in the many texts
and archaeological data concerning the development
of technology related to agriculture; several dams and
barrage systems that had already existed in pre-Islam-
ic times were restored, and other new ones were built.
Systems for transporting water (canals, aqueducts),
raising water [saduf, saqiya, na‘ura (noria)], and stor-
ing water (tanks with settling apparatus) spread until
they became commonplace in the countryside and in
towns; various types of water mills and windmills and
complex distillation equipment enabled a series of
processes related to agriculture (grinding cereals,
pressing olives, refining cane sugar, distilling rose
water/oil) to be at least partly automated.

In many different parts of the Iranian Plateau and
from Mesopotamia to Spain, the digging of a thick
network of canals (which made it possible to irrigate
the fields regularly) led, on the one hand, to the
introduction of crops that needed a lot of water all
year round into regions with an unfavourable climate
(i.e., the migration of plants from the Far East, accli-
mation in India, and movements over sea and land to
the coasts of Africa and Arabia). On the other hand,
it laid the foundations for another important aspect
of Islamic agriculture: the growing of flowers and
ornamental plants and, essentially, the development
of that marvel of art and thought that would continue
for centuries to be the art of the Islamic garden. The
written “scientific” tradition of the subject also stres-
ses its excellence. Among the many sources in
Greek — although there are also many contributions
from other cultures — some writings are outstanding:

1. The Georgika, which was attributed to Demo-

critus (the author, who is obviously not the
pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, may be the
same person as second century BC writer
Bolos of Mendes).

2. The Synagogue by Vindanios Anatolios of

Berytos (in Arabic texts he was called Anatolios

‘A’ISHA BINT ABI BAKR

or Junius; his work occurred during the fourth
and fifth centuries CE).

3. The Georgika by Kassianos Bassos Scholasticos
(sixth century CE), which was referred to by
Muslims as Qustus or Kassianos (this work
was translated from Greek into Arabic around
the year 827 with the title al-Filaha al-rumlya,
but there is also another translation, not from
Greek but from Pahlavi, which was entitled
Kitab al-zar‘).

A special case in the most ancient Arabic literature
is the monumental work al-Filaha al-nabatiya ( Naba-
tean Agriculture). The study of plants accounts for
more than half of the work, but it also says a lot about
agricultural techniques like grafting, soil improve-
ment, and so on. This work, which introduces itself
as being of pre-Islamic origin and being rearranged
and translated into Arabic (possibly during the tenth
century) by Ibn Wahsiya — but which may have been
written in Arabic between the eighth and ninth cen-
turies — contains many very old contributions of vari-
ous origins. The fact that, unlike other treatises from
the first centuries of Islam, it has come down to us in
its entirety makes it a tremendously important point
of reference.

In the truly Islamic textual tradition, there are many
treatises from different periods and regions. The earliest
works, written by grannnarians and lexicographers,
were concerned with defining the scientific Arabic ter-
minology of the subject; problems arose from the fact
that many plants were often called by different names in
different (although nearby) places. The works were
soon joined by other books that show how the subject
evolved. These include the following: in Egypt, the
Qawamn al-dawawin by Ibn Mammatl (d. 1209); in
Spain, the Kitab al-mugni fiTfilaha (1073) by Ibn
Haggag al-Isbill (the Sevillian) and, later, the Kitab al-
filaha by Ibn al-‘Awwam al-Isbill (twelfth-thirteenth
century); in modern times, in Syria, the ‘Alain al-malaha
fi ‘ilm al-filaha (1725) by ‘Abd al-Ganl al-NabulusI,
summed up an earlier great work, which has not
come down to us, by Riyad al-Din al-'Amin (d. 1529).

From the fourteenth century onward, Islamic agri-
culture began a slow but inexorable process of decline
(see, for example, the case of Egypt during the
Mameluke period; however, but the crisis period
started much earlier in several regions). The causes
identified include the increasing rigidity of Islamic
culture, which was accompanied by less attention to
scientific developments and technology; the depopu-
lation of the countryside as a result of wars, invasions,
epidemics, and policies that were not favorable
to agriculture; and the progressive economic and
commercial growth of Europe, which became more

and more competitive as time went on. By the eve of
the modern age, no traces would remain of the Islamic
“green revolution” of the first centuries; however, the
valuable contribution of the Muslims is still univer-
sally recognised today in the history of agriculture in

both the East and the West. _ _

Paola Carusi

See also Aqueducts; Technology, Mills: Water and
Wind

Further Reading

Ashtor, Eliyahu. A Social and Economic History of the Near
East in the Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1976.

Fahd, T. “Botany and Agriculture.” In Encyclopedia of
the History of Arabic Science , eds. R. Rashed and R.
Morelon, 3 vols, vol. 3. London, New York: Routledge,
1996.

al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. and Donald R. Hill. Islamic Technol-
ogy: An Illustrated History. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press; Paris: UNESCO, 1986 (reprinted 1992).
Hill, D.R. “Engineering.” In Encyclopedia of the History of
Arabic Science , eds. R. Rashed and R. Morelon, 3 vols,
vol. 3, 751-95. London, New York: Routledge, 1996.
Udovitch, Abraham L., ed. The Islamic Middle East,
700-1900. Studies in Economic and Social History. Prin-
ceton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1981.

Watson, Andrew M. Agricultural Innovation in the Early
Islamic world: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Tech-
niques, 700-1100. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.

‘A’ISHA BINT ABI BAKR

‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr (d. 678 CE), the second wife
of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), attained both a
revered and reviled status in medieval Islamic civili-
zation. Controversies abounded in the depiction of
her life within both Sunni and Shi'is Muslim sources.
‘A’isha’s remembrance, which was recorded exclu-
sively by men, defined her central role in debates
about female sexuality, politics, and sectarianism.

‘A’isha was the wife of the most important man in
Islamic history and the daughter of Abu Bakr
(d. 634), a staunch companion of the Prophet and
the first political leader after his death. ‘A’isha’s mar-
riage to the Prophet at the age of nine was an exten-
sion of the close bond between her famous husband
and father. ‘A’isha, along with the other wives of the
Prophet, became a member of a special female elite in
Muslim society that is defined in the Qur’an by the
phrase “Mothers of the Believers” (33:6). The Qur’an
also specifically directed these women to “stay behind
a curtain” (hijab) (this is currently defined as a veil)
and to “stay in their houses” (33:33), an injunction
that was eventually used in the medieval period to
separate all women from the public sphere.

‘A’lSHA BINT ABI BAKR

‘A’isha attained the status of Muhammad's fa-
vorite wife after the death of his first wife, Khadija
(d. 619), but her reputation was threatened at the age
of fourteen by an accusation of adultery. Her inno-
cence was revealed by the Qur’an (24:11-20), but the
incident was interpreted differently by the Shi‘i Mus-
lim minority, who claimed that the revelation was not
directed at ‘A’isha, whose name does not appear ex-
plicitly in these verses. The accusation of adultery
thus became a cause of Sunni-Shi‘is Muslim friction
during the medieval period.

After the Prophet’s death, ‘A’isha opposed the
fourth caliph, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), the first
Shi‘is Muslim leader, at the Battle of the Camel
(656). Her defeat and the deaths of so many Muslims
on both sides of the conflict made ‘A’isha an object of
shared Sunni and Shi‘i Muslim censure. Both groups
used this political disaster as a lesson to all medieval
Muslim women about the dangers of their participa-
tion in politics.

The role of ‘A’isha as a source of the Prophet
Muhammad’s words and deeds as recorded in medie-
val collections of hadith (traditions) became central to
Sunni legal thought during the medieval period. By
contrast, Shi‘is Muslims rejected ‘A’isha as a deeply
flawed and unreliable source for their interpretation
of Islamic history and law. Sunni Muslims, however,
continue to revere her as an object of revelation and
the source of much of their faith.

Denise A. Spellberg

See also Abu Bakr; Muhammad, the Prophet
Primary Sources

Spellberg, D.A. Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The
Legacy of ‘A’isha hint Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1994.

Stowasser, Barbara F. Women in the Qur’an: Tradition and
Interpretations. New York: Oxford University Press,
1994.

AKBAR (R. 1556-1605)

Abu’l-Fath Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar was the
most celebrated, powerful, and controversial Mughal
emperor of India. Succeeding to the throne at the
death of his father Humayun in 1556 when he was
thirteen years old, he transformed a weak dynasty and
administration into a Mughal Empire that controlled
most of India from the capital at Agra and that
established patterns of administration and rule (elo-
quently laid out in A ’in-i Akbar ) that would persist for
a couple of centuries after him. The first Indian-born
Mughal, with a Central Asian father and a Persian

mother, Akbar embodied the cultural synthesis that
marked out his reign, during which Persianate cultur-
al interaction with Indian vernacular cultures was at
its apogee.

In 1560, Akbar brought the regency of Bayram
Khan to an end and set out to consolidate his power
by a mixed policy of conquest and marriage alliances.
He established his power in the Gangeatic plain by
conquering Bihar (1574) and Bengal (1576) and ex-
tended his power into Malwa and Rajasthan through
marriage alliances that brought capable non-Muslim
notables (e.g., the organizational genius Raja Todar
Mai and his companion Birbal) to court. Akbar per-
petuated the Mughal policy of importing talented
Persian warriors, bureaucrats, poets, and scholars
into India. At the height of his power, his empire
included Kashmir (taken in 1587) and parts of the
Deccan plateau (taken in campaigns in the 1590s).
His incorporation of northern India into the empire
meant that, for the first time since Asoka, the ruling
dynasty controlled most of the subcontinent. In the
Akbarnama, his friend Abu ’1-Fadl ‘Allami (d. 1602)
celebrated him as the shadow of God on earth, whose
authority and wisdom was supreme in matters tempo-
ral and spiritual. From the 1570s, Akbar began host-
ing religious dispute in his new ‘Ibadatkhana in his
retreat of Fatehpur Sikri; in 1579, he declared himself
to be the ultimate religious authority in the land,
which angered most of the Sunni ulema at court. He
created his own religion, which he named the divine
faith (din-i ilahi). This was a unique synthesis of
Islamic and Indian forms of religiosity. His patronage
of fine arts and projects to translate and depict Vedic
epics such as the Mahabharata (rendered as the Razm-
nama ), his encouragement of philosophers, free thin-
kers, and Shi‘is notables at court, and his bibliophilia
despite his illiteracy further alienated the ulema. Dis-
content and the failure of the Deccan campaigns to-
ward the end of his reign led to the rebellion of his son
Salim, the future Jahangir. When Akbar died in 1605,
his religious innovations had failed to make a lasting
impression, but the Mughal Empire was arguably at
the height of its power.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Abu ’1-Fadl ‘Allami; Dara Shikuh; Humayun;
Mughals

Primary Sources

Abu ’1-Fadl ‘Allami. Akbarnama , tr. H. Beveridge, 3 vols.

Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1897-1921.

. A 'in-i Akbar, tr. H. Blochmann & Jarret, 3 vols.

Habib, Irfan, ed. Akbar and His India. New Delhi: Oxford

University Press, 2000.

ALCHEMY

Hottinger, Arnold. Akbar der Grosse (1542-1605):
Herrscher iiber Indien Durch Verschnung der Religionen.
Munich: W-Fink, 1998.

Moosvi, Shireen, ed. Episodes in the Life of Akbar: Contem-
porary Records and Reminiscences. New Delhi: National
Book Trust, 1989.

Nizami, K.A. Akbar and Religion. Delhi: Idara-i-Adabiyat-
i-Dilli, 1989.

Rizvi, S.A.A. Religious and Intellectual History of the
Muslims in Akbar ’s Reign. New Delhi: Munshiram
Manoharlal, 1975.

Streusand, D. The Formation of the Mughal Empire. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.

ALCHEMY

The term ktmiya, which means “alchemy” in Arabic,
apparently derives from the Greek chymeial chemeia, a
term that was already used to indicate the science
of alchemy in late antiquity in Alexandria, Egypt
(see also ched [to pour] and chyma [fused metal,
particularly gold]).

According to a tradition found in the Fihrist of Ibn
al-Nadim (tenth century), the Muslims may have ac-
quired their very first knowledge of alchemy at the
beginning of the eighth century, when the Umayyad
prince Khalid ibn Yazid (d. 705), desiring to know
and study the science of the Greeks, brought philoso-
phers from an Egyptian city (presumably Alexandria)
and commissioned them to translate a number of
scientific texts, including early treatises in alchemy.
The texts reached Syria, thus becoming available to
Muslim scholars.

Very little is known about which texts were trans-
lated into Arabic in the Umayyad period, both al-
chemic and others. However, it was probably from
this time onward — during the earliest years of the
‘Abbasid caliphate and certainly more intensively
later — that a substantial number of alchemical writers
in Greek gradually came to be taught in Arabic in
Baghdad: from the pseudo-Democritus, Pythagorus,
Hermes, the pseudo-Apollonius of Tyan, Zosimos
of Panopolis, Mary the Jewess, and Theodorus to
Cleopatra. These figures were considered by Muslim
alchemists at every stage of their history as the un-
disputed masters of an ancient tradition. Over time,
other authors of various origin were added to the
Greeks — Syrians, Persians, Indians, and perhaps Chi-
nese — so that, between the end of the eighth century
and the beginning of the ninth, the time was ripe to
start producing new treatises in Arabic. Just a few
famous names suffice to recall the importance and
continuity of the Islamic alchemical tradition: Jabir
ibn Hayyan, who was credited with a corpus of some
three thousand titles (eighth/ninth centuries); Muham-
mad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (Rhazes); Ibn Umayl

al-Tamimi and Maslama al-Majriti (tenth century);
and al-Traqi, al-Jildaki, and al-Izniqi (thirteenth-
fifteenth centuries). In accordance with the most an-
cient customs of the discipline, the treatises were soon
followed by their respective commentaries: from the
tenth century on, many alchemical treatises took the
form of commentaries on preceding authors, either
pre-Islamic or — in the case of the later alchemists —
Muslim. Textual materials were thus gradually layered
and sedimented to form a palimpsest that became
ever more difficult to read.

In Islam, as in ancient times, alchemy revolves
around a mysterious central nucleus that is its
innermost heart. A very high level of craftsmanship
embraces firstly the arts of fire (metallurgy, particu-
larly the working of precious metals, ceramics, and
glass [colored glasses, precious synthetic stones, and
ceramic enamels]) and then extends to the preparation
of various types of coloring (from fabric dyes to
artistic materials for book production). Around this
nucleus is arranged the chemical knowledge of the
alchemists, and from this precious core of objects
the less esoteric chemistry probably grew and pros-
pered (i.e., Islamic society’s skills in the extraction of
cane sugar, the industrial preparation of rose water
and various essences, and the perfecting of relatively
sophisticated chemical apparatuses).

The link with art probably lies at the origin of the
most mysterious and incomprehensible features of
alchemy. This link is suggested by the universally
accepted need to maintain a secret (in this case, pro-
duction secrets); the prime role played by the relation-
ship between nature and the human creator (nature,
which produces, and the creator, who then perfects
the work of nature), and above all the particular
interpretation placed by the alchemist on alchemical
operations. For the alchemist, who observes his work
in the process of formation, what he performs in his
laboratory is a real act of creation (cosmogony): his
product is the cosmos, and the alchemist its creator.
The whole process is then narrated through allegories
that are drawn, with no distinction made with regard
to genre, from scientific and literary texts, poems, and
mythological tales, thereby testifying simultaneously
to both the author’s learning and his desire to exalt
his discipline.

The philosophy on which the alchemist constructs
his theory of transmutation, which embraces the find-
ings of other sciences that study physical bodies (e.g.,
mineralogy, medicine), is Pythagorean in origin (albe-
it a Pythagorism that knows its Aristotle). Every
composite body can be decomposed into four simple
bodies (the elements: water, air, fire, and earth), and
the elements in their turn can be decomposed into
incorporeal “natures,” which relate to each other in

ALCHEMY

particular numerical ratios. Operating a chemical
transformation — or transmutation — means decom-
posing a body into its elements; going beyond its
material texture into its natures; correcting or mod-
ifying the mathematical ratios between these incorpo-
real natures; and then, by degrees, recomposing a
new, “modified” body. In the conceptual framework
of alchemy, which always strives towards perfection,
the most sought-after composition is that of a fifth
nature, the perfect nature, which is able not only to
produce a perfect body but also to change all other
natures into itself; this is the elixir (Arab, iksir, Gr.
xerion) that the alchemists recognize as the supreme
aim of alchemy.

Paola Carusi

See also Abbasid; Aristotle; Ceramics; Medicine;
Precious Metals; al-Razi; Umayyad

Further Reading

Carusi, Paola. “II Trattato di Filosofia Alchemica «Miftah
al-hikma» ed i suoi Testimoni Presso la Biblioteca Apos-
tolica.” In Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vatica-
nae IX. Citta del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, 2002.

Holmyard, Eric J. “Alchemical Equipment.” In A History
of Technology , ed. Ch. Singer et al, 8 vols., vol. 2. Ox-
ford: Clarendon Press, 1954—1984.

. Alchemy. New York: Dover, 1990. (First edition:

Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957.)

Kraus, Paul. Jdbir ibn Hayyan. Contribution a l'Histoire des
Iclees Scientifiques dans I'lslam. Jdbir et la Science Grec-
que. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986. (First edition: Le
Caire: Imprimerie de PInstitut Franpais d’Archeologie
Orientale, 1942.)

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, 9 vols.,
vol. 4. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967-1984.

Ullmann, Manfred. Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften
im Islam ( Handbuch der Orient alistik, Erganzungsband
VI, 2 Abschnitt). Leiden Koln: E.J. Brill, 1972.

ALCOHOL

The English word alcohol originates from the Arabic
al-kuul (English, kohl), an antimony which, when
pulverized finely, is used for darkening the edges of
the eyelids. The meaning of the English is said to
derive from an analogy between alcohol’s highly re-
fined spirits and the fineness of the pulverized black
powder.

The oldest recipe or instruction on human record
is for the creation of an alcoholic beverage. Its origin
is Sumerian Mesopotamia; not surprisingly, this is
also one of the earliest locations in which crop

agriculture was practiced. Beer and wine are thus
ancient products of human invention, almost certain-
ly discovered by accident from the natural fermenta-
tion of grains and fruits. Their utility extended beyond
that of their effect on consciousness and the human
nervous system, for they also likely preserved the nutri-
ents in juices that might otherwise spoil. They were
also invented and developed in Western Asia, which
is the same general location out of which emerged the
three great monotheistic scriptural religions.

Alcoholic beverages were invented and developed
in agricultural economies, and the communities or
polities of these areas naturally benefited from control
over the production and distribution of these pro-
ducts. Members of pastoral and nomadic econo-
mies — not unsurprisingly — have tended to outlaw or
distrust the use of alcohol, probably for this reason.

There are two main groups of alcoholic beverages:
those that are obtained through fermentation, such as
beer and wine, and those that are obtained through
distillation, such as whiskey, vodka, and brandy. Be-
cause there is no historical evidence of distilled bev-
erages before approximately 1000, Islamic rulings
forbidding the use of alcohol referred to wine and
beer.

References to the consumption of alcoholic bev-
erages in the Qur’an are not consistent. Verse 16:67
celebrates strong drink from the fruit of palm trees
and grapes, associating its inebriating quality (sakar)
with good nourishment (rizq hasan). Verse 2:219
associates wine (al-khamr) with games of chance and
finds some benefit in both, in addition to greater sin.
Verse 4:43 suggests only the prohibition against in-
toxication while engaged in prayer (wa’antum
sukaraa), but only until sober (“until you know
what you are saying”) (Cf. Lev. 10:8-10). Verse 5:90
associates wine (al-khamr) with games of chance,
idolatry, and divination, considering them all to be
the work of Satan. These verses are understood by
most Muslim commentators and jurists as having
been revealed in sequence. In the earliest period of
Muhammad’s prophetic career, the consumption of
alcohol was not forbidden. Wine became forbidden
only after the excessive drunken behaviors of
Muhammad’s generation seemed to get out of control.

Much discussion in the medieval Islamic juridical
literature treated the definition of wine, because a
number of drinks were prepared from dates, grapes
or raisins, figs, and other fruits, and Arabic words
other than khamr referred to beverages that were or
were not fermented. Moreover, some beverages were
not intentionally fermented but would become so
after being preserved for a long time in storage.
Despite the religious prohibition, medieval Muslim

ALEPPO

anthologists list the ingredients of a wide variety of
fermented beverages that were made and consumed
by Muslims as well as Jews and Christians.

Because wine was used in both Jewish and Chris-
tian religious ritual, it was always permitted for those
communities living among Muslims in Islamic lands.
This sometimes caused tension and even violence be-
cause of the cognitive dissonance between Islam’s
legal support for the consumption of alcohol by the
otherwise socially restricted religious minorities while
maintaining its strict prohibition for Muslims. There-
fore, although they were legally forbidden for Mus-
lims, alcoholic beverages were always accessible
through Christians and Jews, if not directly from
Muslims themselves.

Notwithstanding the strict prohibition against im-
bibing actual alcohol, spiritual or poetic drunkenness
through the bacchic wine poem (labeled technically as
the “wine poem” or hamriyya only during the modern
period) was a regular theme in the repertoire of the
Arabic poets. Beginning even before the emergence of
Islam, it reached its poetic heights during the second
Islamic century with Abu Nuwas (Al-Hasan b. Hani’
al-Hakami, d. 813-815), and it continued in various
forms into modernity. Perhaps the best-known forms
in the West include the spiritual intoxication that
epitomizes the medieval mystics, who are spiritually
drunk with their love for God.

A different expression is found in the poetry of
medieval Islamic Spain, where the bacchic poem is
associated with the pleasure of life, the quest for
love, and a deep and profound communion with na-
ture. The Andalusian wine poem became so much a
part of shared medieval culture that Christians and
Jews wrote them in Arabic as well. Jews also wrote
wine poems in their own unique genre of poetry in the
Hebrew language, which developed along the same
lines as the Arabic poetry of their day.

Pour me a drink, and another,
of the wine of Isfahan
or the wine of old Chosroes
or the wine of Qayrawan.

There is musk in the wine cup
or in the hand of the one who pours it;
or perhaps it was left in the wine
when they drew it from the jar.

Deck me with crown and diadem,
and sing me my own poems.

The wine cup is a springtime
you can touch with your fingers,
and the heat of the wine seeps slowly
from my tongue all the way to my feet.

Abu Nuwas

Reuven Firestone

Further Reading

Bencheikh, J.E. “Khamriyya.” In EI2 4 (998-1009).

Hussaini, Mohammad Mazhar, and Ahmad Hussein Sakr.
Islamic Dietary Laws and Practices. Chicago: Islamic
Food and Nutrition Counsel of America, 1983.

Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of
the English Language. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966.

Kueny, Kathryn. The Rhetoric of Sobriety: Wine in Early
Islam. Albany: State University of New York, 2001.

Lewis, Bernard. Music of a Different Drum: Classical
Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hebrew Poets. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf. The Lawful and the Prohibited in
Islam (Al-Halal Wal-Haram Fil Islam). (Translation of
Al-Halal Wal-Haram Fil Islam. Beirut: Dar al-Qur'an
al-Karim, 1978.) Indianapolis: American Trust Founda-
tion, undated.

ALEPPO

Aleppo (in Arabic, Halab) is a city in northern Syria,
and it is second in size and importance to Damascus,
which is the capital of the modern republic. The site
has been continuously inhabited since at least the
twentieth century BCE. The large, centrally situated
fortified mound that still dominates the city dates
from this period.

The mostly Christian population of Aleppo sur-
rendered to the conquering Muslim armies in AH
16/636 CE. After relative obscurity during the time
of the Umayyads and early 'Abbasids, the city
enjoyed a brief but splendid prominence as capital
of the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al-Dawla, who captured
Aleppo from its Ikshidid governors in 333/944.
Among the literary figures whom Sayf al-Dawla (see
Hamdanids) patronized at his court was the Syrian
poet al-Mutanabbi.

The interlude came to an end in the winter of
351/962, when the Byzantine general (later emperor)
Nicephorus Phocas stormed and sacked the city. Then
followed half a century of disorder during which Ham-
danid rule over Aleppo was repeatedly challenged by
the Fatimids, the Byzantines, and neighboring Arab
statelets. After a brief period of Fatimid rule at the
beginning of the eleventh century, the Bedouin Arab
Mirdasid dynasty took control of the city under the
nominal suzerainty of the Fatimids; fifty years of pro-
gressively weakening Mirdasid rule followed. An end
was put to Arab rule over Aleppo in 479/1086, when
the Seljuk sultan Malikshah captured the city and
installed a governor.

Turkish rule was to continue in one form or anoth-
er until Saladin took Aleppo in 579/1183. After the
death of Malikshah, a small Seljuk dynasty was
founded in Aleppo by Malikshah’s brother, Tutush.

ALEPPO

Aleppo. Detail of the entrance. Captured during the second crusade. Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, thirteenth to sixteenth c.
Credit: Werner Forman/ Art Resource, NY. Citadel, Aleppo, Syria.

Elowever, the state was too small and weak to offer
meaningful resistance to the Crusaders, to whom
Aleppo had to pay tribute in an effort to forestall
attack. Seljuk rule gave way to a short-lived period
under the ineffective control of the Ortoqid dynasty
of Mardin. The weakened and disordered city was
only saved from Crusader occupation in 518/1124 as
a result of the enterprise of the city’s qadi (Islamic
judge), Ibn al-Khashshab.

Aleppo’s fortunes began to change when, in 523/
1129, it was taken by ‘Imad al-Din Zanki, governor
of Mosul and atabak (guardian) of two sons of the
Seljuk Sultan Mas‘ud. Zanki’s military successes
took Frankish pressure off the city. After Zanki’s
death in 541/1146, his son Nur al-Din Mahmud
not only continued his father’s struggle against the
Crusaders but also restored Aleppo’s administrative
order and material fabric. Nur al-Din rebuilt the city’s
fortified walls, the citadel atop the central mound,
and the Great Mosque. To assert the orthodox
Sunni nature of Zankid rule in a city with a long
history of Shi‘is activity, he founded six madrasas
(Islamic schools) in which an orthodox curriculum
was taught.

Medieval Aleppo attained its greatest prosperity
under the next ruling dynasty, the Ayyubids. In 579/
1183, Saladin took the city from Nur al-Din’s succes-
sors. Three years later he gave it to his fourth son
Ghazi, who was first governor and then, after Sala-
din’s death, ruler, with the title of al-Malik al-Zahir.
Under al-Zahir and his two successors, Aleppo
became the capital of a strong and prosperous state,
the city itself benefiting especially from trade with the
Venetians, who established a permanent factory
there. As part of an extensive reconstruction pro-
gram, al-Zahir rebuilt the citadel, thereby creating
one of the most impressive military installations in
the Near East. Madrasas continued to be built, and
there developed a remarkable intellectual life that
nurtured people like the traveler and teacher ‘Ali ibn
Abi Bakr al-Harawi and the chronicler and encyclo-
pedist Ibn al-‘Adim.

But it was not to last. In 658/1260, Aleppo was
taken by the Mongols under Hulagu and sacked. The
last Ayyubid ruler of the city, al-Zahir’s grandson al-
Malik al-Nasir Yusuf II, who had abandoned Aleppo
to its fate, was later captured and killed. The city was
occupied by the Mamluks after their victory over the

ALEXANDER

Mongols at ‘Ayn Jalut in the same year, but it was
lost to the Mongols several more times before being
hnally recovered by the Mamluks at the beginning of
the following century.

Aleppo took years to recover from the depredations
of the Mongols. The situation was made worse by the
continuing threat of further Mongol attack and by
political instability. Another setback occurred in 803/
1400, when Tamerlane sacked the city.

This notwithstanding, the century before the
Ottoman occupation of Aleppo after the Ottoman
victory over the Mamluks at the battle of Marj
Dabiq in 522/1516 saw another revival in the fortunes
of the city. Aleppo benefited from disruption of the
existing commercial routes to the north and grew rich
on the trade that came its way. The suqs (markets)
expanded, khans (enclosed warehouses) proliferated,
and the walls of the city had to be extended to accom-
modate the increased population.

David Morray

See also Architecture, Secular: Military; Excellences
Literature; Madrasa; Merchants, Christian; Muslim-
Byzantine Relations; Muslim-Mongol Diplomacy; Silk
Roads; Sunni Revival; Trade, Mediterranean

Primary Sources

Ibn al-‘Adim. Zubdcit al-Halab fi ta’Rikh Hcdcib , ed. Sami
al-Dahhan, 3 vols. Damascus: Institut Frangais de
Damas, 1951-1968.

Further Reading

Edde, Anne-Marie. La Principaute Ayyoubide d’Alep (579/
1183-658/1260). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999.
Ibn al-Shihna al-Saghir. al-Durr al-Muntakhab fi Ta’rikh
Mamlakat Halab. (Translated by J. Sauvaget as Les
Perles Cboisies d’Ibn ach-Chihna. Materiaux pour Servir
a I’histoire de la Ville d’Alep.) Beirut, 1933.

Morray, David W. An Ayyubid Notable and his World: Ibn
al-Adim and Aleppo as Portrayed in his Biographical
Dictionary of People Associated with the City. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1994.

ALEXANDER

During the medieval Islamic period, Alexander the
Great was most closely associated with the figure
Dhu al-Qarnayn, who was mentioned in 18:83-101.
Many of the literary motifs and themes developed in
the Greek Alexander Romance, which in turn appears
to be based on the Epic of Gilgamesh, can be found in
Muslim exegeses, histories, and related genres.

Early Muslim exegetes identify the figure Dhu
al-Qarnayn with various historical and mythical

figures, including Moses, an angel, and different
South Arabian kings, although the identification
with Alexander predominates in later literature.
Other medieval recensions of the Alexander Ro-
mance, including the Ethiopic and Persian, likewise
identify Alexander with Dhu al-Qarnayn. The figure
of Khidr, which was alluded to in 18:60-82 just before
the account of Dhu al-Qarnayn, also appears in many
of the Islamic recensions of the Alexander Romance,
and he may be associated with figures mentioned in
Syriac, Greek, and Armenian recensions.

Other sources associate Dhu al-Qarnayn and
Khidr with the prophet Abraham. In his history,
Tabari relates that there were two Dhu al-Qarnayns:
one living in the time of Abraham and another being
Alexander. Muslim exegetes conflate Dhu al-Qarnayn
with Abimelech, the king who presides over Abra-
ham’s claim to the well of Beersheba in Genesis
21:22-34 in the Bible. Ibn Kathir preserves a number
of sources that report Dhu al-Qarnayn’s visit to Abra-
ham at Mecca during his building of the Ka‘bah.

Dhu al-Qarnayn is also conflated with Moses
and the Prophet Muhammad. The epithet “Dhu
al-Qarnayn” is usually understood to denote a person
with two horns or a person who traveled to the two
ends of the earth. Moses is portrayed as horned in the
Vulgate and in medieval Christian texts, and in his
encounter with Khidr in 18:60-82 is said to have
traveled to the ends of the earth. The Prophet
Muhammad’s night journey to the ends of the earth
appears to be modeled on the journeys of Dhu
al-Qarnayn and Alexander in the different recensions
of the Alexander Romance. The journeys of both the
Prophet Muhammad and Dhu al-Qarnayn to the two
cities at the ends of the earth, where a remnant of the
Israelites is living, may also be compared to the exe-
gesis in 7:159, Rabbinic traditions of the “Lost
Tribes,” and the pseudoepigraphical History of the
Rechabites.

Dhu al-Qarnayn’s world travels in 18:83-101 are
interpreted in the light of Alexander’s world con-
quests, and his building of the wall against Gog
and Magog is a motif that is found in a wide variety
of texts from Josephus to the medieval Jewish and
Christian apocalypses.

Brannon Wheeler

Further Reading

Anderson, A.R. Alexander’s Gate, Gog and Magog and
Enclosed Nations. Medieval Academy of American Pub-
lications 12. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1932.

Clay, George. The Medieval Alexander , ed. D.J.A. Ross.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956; reprint,
1967.

ALEXANDER

Ethe, C. Herman. “Alexanders Zug zum Lebensquell im
Land der Finsterniss.” Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen
Akademie der wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische
Klasse. Miinchen, 1871: 343-405.

Friedlander, Israel. Die Chadhirlegende und der Alexander-
roman. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1913.

Kroll, W. Historia Alexandri Magni. Berlin: Weidmannsche
Buchhandlung, 1926.

‘Ukasha, ‘Abd al-Mannan. Ya’juj wa Ma’juj: Sifatuhum wa
Adaduhum wa Makanuhum wa Qissat Dhi al-Qarnyan
ma'Ahwn. Cairo: Maktabat al-Turath al-Islami, 1989.

Wheeler, Brannon. Moses in the Quran and Islamic Exegesis.
Curzon Studies in the Quran. London: Curzon, 2002.

ALEXANDRIA

Alexandria, which is presently known as the shining
pearl of the Mediterranean, is the second-largest
city and the main port of Egypt. Situated north-
west of the Nile delta, it stretches along a narrow
land strip between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake
Mariut.

Founding

When Alexander the Great reached Memphis (Egypt)
on his expedition of conquest, he was welcomed by
the people who supported him in overthrowing Per-
sian rule. In 331 BCE, Alexander then ordered a city
to be founded there to serve as a regional capital. He
was later buried there.

The Roman City (30 BC-AD 641)

By the time the Romans conquered Egypt, there was
an Egyptian community centered around the old site
of Rhakotis, a Greek community downtown, and a
Jewish community occupying the eastern districts.
Octavian, the new Roman Emperor, founded a new
town, Nicopolis, just east of Alexandria (it is now
part of the greater city, known as El-Raml). Higher
taxes were imposed, but Octavian’s successors were
less harsh. Matters improved when the Red Sea Canal
was cut to link the Nile to the Red Sea, serving as a
forerunner to the modern Suez Canal.

During the early rule of the Romans in Egypt,
Christianity was introduced into Alexandria by St.
Mark, who was martyred in AD 62 for protesting
against the worship of Serapis. As Christianity took
root, leading ecclesiastical centers such as the oratory
of Saint Mark and later the Catechetical School were
established as the first of their kind in the world.

However, as the Christian population grew, so did
the Roman emperors intensify their persecution
against those who resisted it. Persecution reached
unprecedented levels during the “Era of the Mar-
tyrs” around AD 284, when an estimated 144,000
martyrs — including St. Menas, St. Catherine, and St.
Peter of Alexandria — were killed. When, in October
312, Emperor Constantine announced Christianity as
the official religion of the Empire, Alexandria was
ready for the change.

During the next two centuries, the spiritual power
of the Coptic Church in Alexandria grew among
Egyptians. However, the power of the “Royal”
Patriarchs, appointed by the Roman emperor, was
more political than religious. The Coptic Patriarchs,
on the other hand, had no political interests.

During the early seventh century, both the Persian
Empire and the Roman Empire started to fall apart.
In 617, the Persians peacefully captured Alexandria
for a short period of five years. By the time the
Roman Emperor Heraclius regained his forces and
recaptured the lost provinces, the world was ready
to witness the birth of a new power. From the deso-
late Arabian Peninsula came the Arab forces that
swept both the Romans and the Persians; they were
spiritually powered by the new religion of Islam, and
they established an empire that would last for over a
thousand years. After negotiating with the Roman
Patriarch, Cyrus, who was also serving as the
Roman ruler of Egypt, Alexandria was peacefully
captured by the Arab commander ‘Arm ibn al-'As
on November 8, 642 CE and ‘Amr and his soldiers
entered a city which “contained 4000 palaces, 4000
baths, and 400 theatres”.

The Arab-Islamic City

The Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, who ruled from
Medina, appointed ‘Amr ibn al-‘As governor of
Egypt, and he promptly relocated the capital to
Fustat, which was the nucleus of modern Cairo. For
the next thousand years or so, the glamour of Alex-
andria declined. However, the Arabs greatly admired
the city, and the most descriptive accounts of the
Pharos Lighthouse and the pre-Islamic monuments
come from Arab historical, geographical, and travel
accounts such as those from Ibn Khurradadhbih,
Ibn Jubayr, al-Harawi, and Ibn Battuta. Medieval
accounts also locate the tombs of Alexander and
Aristotle in the city.

When significant parts of the lighthouse collapsed
during the 956 and 1323 earthquakes, it was not
repaired. In 1498, the medieval fort of the Mamluk

ALGEBRA

sultan Qaytbay was eventually constructed on the
foundation of the Pharos. However, this failed to
bring Alexandria back to prominence after the discov-
ery of the new route around Africa to the Far East.

Alexandria was also an important port center for
Arab and foreign merchants down to the early four-
teenth century. European consulates and traveler hos-
tels such as those of the Venetians were established in
the city. Alexandria also served as a port of transit
for goods to and from India and the Far East. Like-
wise, it was an important center for the manufacture
of textiles.

During the Middle Ages, a number of famous sch-
olars and Sufis hailed from or came to be associated
with Alexandria, such as the famous hadith scholar
Abu Tahir al-Silafi (d. 1180); the Shadhili Sufi Ibn
‘Ata’ Allah (d. 1309), the author, an important work
of Sufi biography; and al-Busiri (d. 1294), the author of
the famous Ode of the Mantle (burda) of the Prophet
Muhammad.

Today, greater Alexandria stretches nearly seventy
kilometers along the Mediterranean coast, with urban
areas covering more than one hundred square kilo-
meters. Her rich population of more than four million
still reflects her ancient history and close ties to the
Mediterranean. With ethnic minorities including
Armenians, Greeks, Italians, Lebanese, Maltese, and
Syrians, among others, Alexandria is considered the
most culturally diverse of all Egyptian cities.

Khalid Dhorat and Josef W. Meri

Further Reading

Davidson, Basil. The African Past. London: Penguin, 1966.
Doi, ‘Abdur Rahman. Islam in a Multi- Religious Society:
Nigeria: A Case Study. Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen,
1992.

Fage, J. (ed.). Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge,
1978.

ALGEBRA

The word algebra is a Latinized form of the Arabic
word al-jabr, which means restoration. The word
appears in the title Book on al-Jabr and al-Muqabala;
this is the introductory treatise in Arabic on the solu-
tion of linear and quadratic equations, which
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote around
830 CE in Baghdad. During the twelfth century,
after Spain had been conquered by the Christians,
the work was translated as the Book on Algebra and
Almucabala, from which the field of algebra got its
name. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
the meaning of the word algebra has changed from

the science of the solution of equations to the science
of a particular class of mathematical structures.

Because al-Khwarizmi’ s work in algebra is funda-
mental, a brief summary is presented here. Al-Khwar-
izmi discusses linear and quadratic equations without
algebraic symbolism, and he even writes all numbers
out as words. For example, one of his equations is
called capital, and ten roots are the unknown amounts
of money. Because the product of the root times itself
is supposed to be equal to the capital, the equation
can be expressed in modern symbols as x 2 + lOx = 39.

Al-Khwarizmi does not use zero and negative
numbers, so he has to distinguish three different
types of mixed quadratic equations; in modern
notation these would be the following: x 2 + bx = c,
x 2 = bx + c, and x 2 + c = bx, with b, c > 0. He also
discusses the two simple quadratic equations x 2 = bx
and x 2 = c and the linear equation x = c. For each of
these six standard forms, he explains a general meth-
od of solution in words, using numerical examples.
The solutions of x 2 + bx = c, x 2 = bx + c, and x 2 + c
= bx are equivalent to the modern algebraic formula,
but al-Khwarizmi only gives positive roots. He cor-
rectly states that x 2 + c = bx only has a solution of
if > 4c, but he does not clearly explain that the
equation has two different roots if b 2 > Ac.

Al-Khwarizmi illustrates the solutions of the three
mixed quadratic equations using geometrical figures.
He then shows how any quadratic equation can be
reduced to one of the standard forms. Al-jabr (resto-
ration) is the operation of removing defective terms
in the equation. For example, if our equation is one
capital except two roots is equal to 10 dirhams, we
“restore” the missing two roots to both sides of
the equation, and we conclude that one capital is
equal to two roots and 10 dirhams. This equation
is in the standard form x 2 = bx + c, with b = 2 and
c = 10.

Al-Khwarizmi then presents a long series of exam-
ples of problems that can be reduced to equations,
and he explains how each equation can be solved
according to the preceding theory. He adds a brief
section on surveying, which has no relation to alge-
bra. His work was a great didactical success, and he is
rightly regarded as the founder of Islamic algebra.

In his preface, al-Khwarizmi says that his work
contains a certain amount of material that people
constantly use in computations. It is true that the
contents of his work were indeed known in 1000
B.C. in ancient Babylonia, which is the same area
in which he wrote his work. Al-Khwarizmi’ s state-
ment has been uncritically interpreted by modern
historians in the sense that Arabic algebra was
“practical” and that the quadratic equations were
motivated by practical applications. Al-Khwarizmi

ALGEBRA

presents “applications” of algebra in Islamic inheri-
tance problems, but his examples are very artificial
and only lead to linear equations in which bx = c.
As a matter of fact, there were few if any applications
of quadratic equations in the medieval Islamic tradi-
tion; the motivation for algebra seems to have been
primarily recreational.

Al-Khwarizmi’s work was translated into Latin
because it was available in Islamic Spain during the
eleventh century CE, just before Spain was recon-
quered by the Christians. In the meantime, algebra
developed in the Eastern Islamic world beyond the
level reached by al-Khwarizmi. During the late ninth
century, Abu Kamil started to solve equations that
had irrational coefficients such as root two. He also
studied systems of linear equations involving several
unknowns. Meanwhile, mathematicians were also be-
ginning to look at equations of higher degree. The
Iranian mathematician al-Mahani (ca. 860) studied a
problem that Archimedes mentioned but did not solve
in his work On the Sphere and Cylinder. The problem
was a preliminary to the division of a sphere by a
plane into two parts such that their volumes have a
given ratio. Al-Mahani showed that a problem that
Archimedes had left unsolved was equivalent to a
cubic equation (of the form ax 2 = x 3 + c). Unfortu-
nately, the formula for the solution of cubic equations
(discovered in Italy during the sixteenth century) pro-
duces x as the sum of two complex numbers. Such
numbers were meaningless to ancient and medieval
mathematicians, and therefore al-Mahani could not
solve the equation.

During the mid-tenth century, Abu JaTar al-
Khazin constructed a line segment of length x in a
geometrical way by means of a hyperbola. After this
breakthrough, other Islamic mathematicians also
started to work on geometrical solutions of cubic
equations. The famous Iranian mathematician and
poet ‘Umar al-Khayyam wrote a treatise on algebra
that contained geometrical solutions of all types of
cubic equations by means of parabolas, hyperbolas,
and circles. Just like al-Khwarizmi, al-Khayyam only
worked with positive coefficients, and therefore he
had to distinguish many types of cubic equations,
which were equivalent to the modern x 3 = ax 2 + c,
x 2 + ax 2 = c, x 3 + c = ax 2 , x 3 + c = ax 2 , x 3 + ax 2 =
be + c, and so on, with a, b, c > 0. ‘ Umar al-Khayyam
did not use modern symbolism. His work was not
complete according to medieval mathematical stan-
dards, because he did not use the precise conditions
for the existence of the solutions.

Other algebraic advances were also made. During
the tenth century CE, the Iranian mathematician
al-Karaji explained how one can draw the square

roots of a polynomial such as (in modern symbolism)
x 4 + 6x 3 + 13x 2 = 12x + 4. He did this by general-
izing the way in which square roots of decimal and
sexagesimal numbers were extracted. He only dis-
cussed cases in which the result comes out nicely (in
the above example, x 2 + 3x + 2). During the twelfth
century, al-Samaw‘al explained the same for negative
coefficients, and he showed how polynomials can be
divided by the same method as decimal and sexagesi-
mal numbers. Also during the twelfth century, Saraf
al-Din al-Tusi (who is not the same as Nasir al-Din)
discussed rather complicated methods for the numer-
ical approximation of the (positive) root of a cubic
equation. He also showed at what points the exact
roots of cubic equations exist, and thus he solved one
of the problems that al-Khayyam had left open. Nei-
ther al-Khayyam nor Sharaf al-Din realized that the
cubic equation x 3 + bx = ax 2 + c can have three
(positive) roots.

It is perhaps surprising that the Islamic advances in
algebra were made without algebraic symbolism. Dur-
ing the fourteenth century, Western Arabic mathema-
ticians used abbreviations of words in equations
in much the same way as Diophantus (c. 250) did in
his Arithmetica and as the mathematicians did in
sixteenth-century Europe.

Jan P. Hogendijk

Further Reading

Hogendijk, Jan P. “Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi on the Number of
Positive Roots of Cubic Equations.” Historica Mathe-
matica 16 (1989): 69-85.

Kasir, D.S. The Algebra of Omar Khayyam. New York:
Columbia University, 1931.

Rashad. R. Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi: Oeuvres Mathematiques,
2 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986.

Rosen, Fr., ed. The Algebra of Mohammed ben Musa.
London: 1831; reprints: Hildesheim: Olms, 1986; and
Frankfurt: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic
Sciences, 1997.

Winter, H.K.K., and W. Arafat. “The Algebra of ‘Umar
Khayyam.” Journal of the Roval Asiatic Society of Ben-
gal Science 16 (1950): 27-78. '

ALHAMBRA/ AL-QASR AL-HAMRA’

Alhambra/al-Qasr al-Hamra’ derives its name from
the Arabic hamra’ (red), which is probably a reference
to the color of the dirt that makes up the high hill (the
Sabika) beside the Darro river from which the Al-
hambra commands panoramic views of Granada
and the surrounding countryside. The complex dates

ALHAMBRA/ AL-QASR AL-HAMRA’

largely to the middle- to late-fourteenth century and to
the reigns of Nasrid sovereigns Yusuf III and
Muhammad V; only the Tower of the Infantas and
Christian alterations and additions are known to have
been added later. Somewhat removed from the city,
its placement follows traditions that began with the
‘Abbasids and that are also reflected in the ruling and
dwelling spaces built by the Ayyubids and Mamluks
in Syria and Egypt as well as Madinat al-Zahra’, the
earlier Andalusian palace built by the Umayyads out-
side of Cordoba during the tenth century. The high
walls and towers present a forbidding f'agade to the
visitor, who today approaches the palace through a
gate (known as the Puerta del Vino) some distance
down the hill; he or she is then confronted with the
Renaissance-style facade of the Palace of Charles V,
which was placed by Spanish architect Antonio
Machuca directly against the eastern side of the
Palace of the Lions and over the walkway that led
through the royal cemetery.

The earliest known architectural activity on the site
dates to the eleventh century CE, when Granada was
ruled by the Berber Taifa dynasty of the Banu Ziri.
This is perhaps connected to the patronage of the
Jewish vizier Samuel ha-Levi ben Nagrila; remains
from the Arabic al-Qasba (fortress) were found in
the southern tip of the complex, which is known as
the Alcazaba. These structures were largely function-
al, and their relationship to the putative vizier’s palace
has never been determined with certainty. It is also
believed that the fountain from which the Palace of
the Lions derives its modern name is owed to the
Jewish vizier’s patronage. It is with the Nasrids, how-
ever (the dynasty began in 1238 under Muhammad I
Ibn Ahmar, with Granada as its capital), that spaces
clearly planned for royal use were designed and built.
The earliest of these structures, the Palace of the
Generalife, was probably begun under Isma‘il in
1314 and destined for relaxation and pleasure in a
tradition that is often deemed a quintessentially
“Islamic” one, although it was also adopted by medi-
eval Christian sovereigns in Castile, Aragon, and
Sicily. The palace’s salons and miradors (related to the
Arabic manzara, or belvedere — a place from which to
enjoy a view) open onto a long, rectangular-pool-
and-garden complex that is now considerably re-
stored. Interiors are adorned with panels of vegetal
and geometric ornamentation; their similarities to
Nasrid textiles have often been noticed, but the true
object of contemplation is the constructed landscape
and gardens.

The Palaces of the Myrtles and the Lions (built
between 1333 and 1391) are the best preserved
and the most altered, whether during the adaptations

of the palace to Christian use carried out under
Ferdinand and Isabel (as well as their son, Charles
V) or during modern restoration; these two spaces
have also fostered the most contention among scho-
lars. Earlier schools of interpretation viewed the com-
plex composed by these two palaces as imbued with a
single plan and conception; recent studies have given
greater attention to the differences between the two
palaces and to the fact that each possessed its own
bath complex, orientation, and possibly even en-
trance, thereby stressing the particular architectural,
ornamental, and even poetic coherence of each. The
Palace of the Myrtles (in Spanish, arrayanes), which
is also referred to as the Palace of Comares, is the
earliest of the two; it was possibly begun by Isma’il
and substantially developed under Yusuf, but it also
owes much to the patronage of Muhammad V. It is
preceded by a still poorly understood area referred
to as the Mexuar (from the Arabic mashwar ), which
probably served administrative purposes (petitions
and other matters of civic import), although disagree-
ments exist regarding the specific function to be
attributed to each area. Corridors then lead past a
small oratory and into the throne room proper, which
is often referred to as the Sala de Comares. It looks
out onto a central patio and pool complex, and it is
separated from the latter by a long, narrow space
known as the Sala de la Barca (probably from the
Arabic baraka, or blessing); it is mirrored on the
opposite side of the pool by a similar complex of
rooms. The stunning effects produced by reflections
of the architecture in the still rectangular pool have
been commented on by numerous poets and modern
scholars; they contribute to a sense of stasis that is
echoed in the throne room (and, according to specia-
lists, in the panegyric and battle-centered subject mat-
ter of the poetic compositions that adorn the walls),
for which a cosmological reading based in what most
read as a representation or evocation of the seven hea-
vens in the ceiling. The poetic inscriptions — verses
throughout the palace — were taken from longer com-
positions by three principal poets: Ibn al-Jayyan, Ibn
Zamrak, and Ibn al-Khatib, although those authored
by the latter would have been effaced after his fall from
grace serve to support this interpretation. Again, the
throne room participates in a particularly Andalusi
tradition of royal spaces; however, Christian sover-
eigns such as Alfonso X and Muhammad V‘s contem-
porary Pedro I (“el Cruel”) did not hesitate to adapt
them to their own purposes, perhaps even contributing
to the development of the Islamic prototype.

During the fourteenth century, it is possible that the
two doorways that punctuate the impressive facade of
the Palace of the Myrtles were originally located on the

ALHAMBRA/AL-QASR AL-HAMRA’

southern extreme of the Patio of the Myrtles, which
constitutes the palaces’ most formal and elaborate
entrance, and which led directly into the throne room.
Entrance would have been effected through a small
space topped by a dome and followed by the Salon of
the Suras; this mirrors the Sala de la Barca, which
precedes the throne room. This debate has awakened
considerable controversy, and much work remains to
be done before the hypothesis can be fully substan-
tiated; however, such an arrangement would be in
keeping with the tradition of Hispano-lslamic palaces,
and it would help to explain Charles V’s decision to
place his palace where he did.

From the Palace of the Myrtles, one passes into
the Palace of the Lions. Here, with the exception of
the verses in the Mirador of Lindaraja (probably the
privileged position occupied by the sovereign when
this palace was in use), inscriptions concentrate
more on the themes of beauty — specifically those of
architecture and gardens — than did those of the Salon
of Comares. This fact gives rise to an interpretation
that is now believed by many scholars to overempha-
size the pleasurable (and even paradisiacal) aspects of
the palace and to give short shrift to what was possi-
bly an official or judiciary function. The patio, which
is oriented in the opposite direction of that of the
Myrtles and punctuated in the center by the famous
Fountain of the Lions, is flanked on all four sides by
rooms that are covered with spectacular muqarnas
vaults and embellished with small fountains that are
channeled from the central one. The east and west
rooms are preceded by porch-like structures that
evoke pavilions, and columns are grouped so as to
suggest movement and invite perambulation. Inter-
pretations of the Court of the Lions vary, as noted
earlier, from that of a pleasure palace with no other
purpose to a new Mexuar to a Sufi madrasa and tomb
complex.

Although scholars of the nineteenth century
viewed the Nasrid palace through a Romantic lens
that emphasized its uniqueness and quintessentially
Islamic qualities, the Alhambra in fact gives ample
evidence of interactions with contemporary cultures,
both Christian and Muslim. Relationships to Marinid
Morocco have been suggested on the basis of both
shared ornamental tastes and the particular plan of
the Palace of the Lions, which the structure in turn
shares with the original state of the cloister of a con-
vent of Poor Claires that was established in the Castil-
ian villa of Tordesillas by Pedro I “el Cruel” of Castile
in 1373 (the building was previously a palace built
under his and his father’s patronage). Numerous and
as yet incompletely studied interchanges are documen-
ted in the corpus of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century

architecture and ornament built or adapted by
Christian or Jewish patrons according to Islamic
models known as mudejar. The textiles that orna-
mented the Alhambra’s salons and walls evi-
dence intriguing similarities to those produced
throughout the Mediterranean, including Italy. The
painted leather ceilings, moreover, that adorn the
so-called Sala de Justicia at the eastern end of the
Patio of the Lions are clearly related to European
models, although their program has yet to be fully
deciphered. Finally, it is known that Isabel I spent
a considerable amount of time in the palace before
her death and was in fact buried (in the habit of the
Poor Claires) for a time in one of the miradors of
one of the complex’s older palaces that she had do-
nated to the Franciscan order so that a convent might
be founded on the palace grounds, which now
belonged to her.

Cynthia Robinson

See also Architecture, Religious; Architecture, Secular;
Civil Architecture, Secular; Palaces; Baths and Bath-
ing; Beauty and Aesthetics; Gardens and Gardening;
Painting, Monumental and Frescoes; Poetry, Arabic;
Poet; Water

Further Reading

Al-Andalus: The Islamic Art of Spain, ed. Jerrilynn D.
Dodds New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art;
Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Arie, Rachel, and Luis A. Garcia Moreno. Espaha Musul-
mcina: (Siglos VIII-XV), 1st ed., 16th printing. Barce-
lona: Labor, 1994.

. El Reino Nasri de Granada, 1232-1492. Madrid:

Editorial MAPFRE, 1992.

Bargebuhr, Frederick P. The Alhambra Palace of the Elev-
enth Century. Worcester, England: 1956.

Cabanelas, Dario. El Techo del Salon de Comares en la
Alhambra: Decoracion, Policromia, Simbolismo y Etimo-
logia. Granada: Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife,
1988.

. Literatura, Arte y Religion en los Palacios de la

Alhambra. (Discurso de apertura del curso Academico
1984 — 1985.) Granada: Universo de Granada, 1984.

Cabanelas, Dario, and Antonio Fernandez-Puertas,
“Inscripciones Poeticas del Generalife.” Cuadernos de
la Alhambra 14 (1978): 3-86.

. “Inscripciones Poeticas del Partal y del Palacio

de Comares.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 10-11
(1974-1975): 117-99.

. “El Poema de la Fuente de los Leones.” Cuadernos

de la Alhambra 15-17 (1979-1981): 4-88.

. “Los Poemas de las Tacas del Arco de Aceso a la

Sala de la Barca.” Cuadernos de la Alhambra 19-20
(1983-1984): 61-152.

Diez Jorge, Maria Elena. El Palacio Islamico de la Alham-
bra: Propuestas para una Lectura Multicultural. Gran-
ada: Universidad de Granada, 1998.

‘ALI AL-RIDA

Dodds, Jerrilynn D. “The Paintings in the Sala de Justicia
of the Alhambra: Iconography and Iconology.” Art Bul-
letin (1978): 186-97.

Fairchild Ruggles, D. Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the
Palaces of Islamic Spain. University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 2000.

. “The Eye of Sovereignty: Poetry and Vision in the

Alhambra’s Lindaraja Mirador.’’ Gesta 36, no. 2 (1997):
180-89.

Fernandez-Puertas, Antonio. The Alhambra, 2 vols. Lon-
don: Saqi Press, 1997.

. La Fachada del Palacio de Comares (The Facade

of the Palace of Comares). Granada: Patronato de la
Alhambra, 1980.

Garcia Gomez, Emilio. Poemas Arabes en los Muros y
Fuentes de La Alhambra, 2nd ed. Madrid: Instituto
Egipcio de Estudios Islamicos en Madrid, 1996.

. Ibn Zamrak, el Poeta de la Alhambra. Granada:

Patronato de la Alhambra, 1975.

. Foco de Antigua Lu: Sobre la Alhambra. Madrid:

Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islamicos en Madrid, 1988.

Gonzalez, Valerie. Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic
Art and Architecture. London: Saqi Press, 2001.

Grabar, Oleg. The Alhambra , 2nd ed., revised. Sebastopol,
Calif: Solipsist Press, 1992.

Jesus Bermudez y Pareja. El Palacio de Carlos V y la Al-
hambra Cristiana. Granada: Albalcin, 1971.

. “El Bano del Palacio de Comares, en la Alhambra

de Granada. Disposition Primitiva y Alteraciones.”
Cuadernos de la Alhambra 10-11 (1974-1975): 99-116.

. “Identification del Palacio de Comares y del Pala-
cio de los Leones en la Alhambra de Granada.” In Adas
del XXIII Congreso Internacional de Historia del Arte,
55-6. Granada^ 1976.

. Palacios de Comares y Leones. Granada: Caja de

Ahorros de Granada, 1972.

Lopez, Jesus Bermudez, and Pedro A. Galera Andreu. The
Alhambra and Generalife: Official Guide. Granada: Edi-
torial Comares, 1999.

Muhammad ibn Yusuf Ibn Zumruk, Yusuf, King of Gran-
ada. Diwan Ibn Zumruk al-Andalusi, ed. Muhammad
Tawfiq Nayfar. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1997.

Puerta Vilchez, Jose Miguel. Los Codigos de Utopia de la
Alhambra de Granada. Granada: Diputacion Provincial
de Granada, 1990.

. Historia del Pensamiento Estetico Arabe: al-Andalus

y la Estetica Arabe Clcisica. Madrid: Ediciones Akal,
1997.

. In Historia del Reino de Granada, ed. Rafael G.

Penado Santaella. Granada: Universidad de Granada:
Legado Andalusi, 2000.

Rubiera Mata, Maria Jesus. Ibn al-Jayydb, el Otro Poeta de
la Alhambra. Granada: Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria
de Cultura y Medio Ambiente: Patronato de la Alham-
bra y Generalife, 1984.

. “Los Poemas Epigraficos en Ibn Yayyab en la

Alhambra.” Al-Andalus XXV (1970): 453-73.

. “De Nuevo Sobre los Poemas Epigraficos de la

Alhambra.” Al-Andalus XLI (1976): 207-11.

Ruiz Sousa, Juan Carlos. “El Palacio de los Leones de la
Alhambra: Madrasa, Zawiya y Tumba de Muhammad
V?” Al-Qantara 22, no. 1 (2001): 77-120.

Santiago Simon, Emilio. El Pollgrafo Granadino Ibn al-Jatib
y el Sufismo: Aportaciones para su Estudio. Granada:
Excma. Diputacion Provincial, Instituto Provincial de

Estudios y Promotion Cultural: Departamento de His-
toria del Islam de la Universidad, 1983.

Seco de Lucena, Luis. La Alhambra de Granada, 8th ed.
Leon: Editorial Everest, 1986.

‘ALI AL-RIDA

Eighth Imam of the Twelver Shi‘is and heir to the
‘Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun, Abu ’1-Hasan ‘Ali
ibn Musa ibn Ja‘far al-Sadiq was born sometime
during the late 760s in Medina, the son of the seventh
Imam Musa al-Kazim and a Nubian slave wife. His
father designated him as his successor before he died
in prison in 799. None of his brothers claimed the
imamate, although some of them — along with his
uncle Muhammad ibn Ja‘far — revolted against the
‘Abbasids. The real split in the Twelver community
took place between al-Rida’s supporters and those
who insisted that al-Kazim was the messianic Mahdi
of the last days and that he had not died but merely
gone into occultation. The Waqiliyya, as they became
known (particularly in the heresiographies), were
prominent in Iraq and withheld the payment of the
khums from al-Rida. In Medina, al-Rida narrated
hadith from his forefathers, but it seems that he was
not received well by Sunni traditionists (or, rather, by
the later constructors of hadith criticism), because few
Sunnis transmitted from him; however, at the same
time, when al-Rida went to Khurasan, famous Sunni
traditionists such as Ibn Rahawayh and Yahya ibn
Yahya were said to have met him in Nishapur.

In 816, the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun invited al-
Rida to Khurasan and, in a radical policy shift, desig-
nated al-Rida, an ‘Alid, as his successor and married
his daughter Unun Habib to him. Some of the
sources, especially the Twelver accounts, make much
of al-Rida’s “royal progress” to Marv, although it is
unclear whether he had even accepted al-Ma’mun’s
proposal at the time. In an official ceremony in March
817, al-Rida was formally designated an heir ap-
parent. Historians have debated the intentions of
all the protagonists; recent research suggests that
al-Ma’mun had decided that the best candidates for
the caliphate ought to come from the wider pool of
Hashimites and that ‘Ali ibn Musa was the best can-
didate. He even gave him the title al-Rida, no doubt as
a preemptive move against Shi‘i rebels who often
raised the banner of al-Rida min A1 Muhammad,
the chosen (messianic) candidate from the family of
Muhammad. Al-Rida was given a high status at the
court of al-Ma’mun, where he often took part in
religious disputations; accounts of this were recorded
later in Ibn Babuwayh’s ‘Uyun akhbar al-Rida, the
main collection of reports about him. Twelver sources

‘ALI AL-RIDA

categorically state that al-Rida accepted the post
reluctantly; he had little taste for political power,
and he suspected bad faith on the part of al-
Ma’mun. Certainly there is a sense in which the dis-
putations were designed as set pieces to embarrass al-
Rida, and it seems unlikely that he would ever have
succeeded the much younger al-Ma’mun. Suspicions
were further raised by the sudden death of al-Rida at
Tus in September 818. Most accounts allege that he
was poisoned; most Twelvers historians blamed al-
Ma’mun. The sudden change in al-Ma’mun’s policy
and the attempt to eradicate his memory (despite the
immediate signs of grief and funeral arrangements
that placed al-Rida’s body in the tomb of Harun
al-Rashid) seemed to confirm these suspicions.
According to Twelver tradition, al-Rida was suc-
ceeded by his son Muhammad al-Jawad, whose mi-
nority raised issues about the ontological status of the
Imam and his knowledge. The tomb near Tus became
a major pilgrimage site for the Imam martyred in
foreign lands. Pilgrimage to his shrine city, which
was renamed Mashhad (place of martyrdom) in his
honor, was commended in Shi‘i pilgrimage manuals.
Miracles ascribed to him in his life multiplied after his
death; pilgrims were cured, dilemmas solved, and
spiritual guidance found.

Three works are attributed to al-Rida. Al-Risala
al-Dhahabiyya fi ’l-Tibb is a treatise on Prophetic
medicine that is said to have been commissioned by
al-Ma’mun and copied in golden ink. Despite ques-
tions concerning its provenance, it remains popular in
Twelver circles. Sahifat al-Rida is a collection of 240
hadith mentioned in some early Imami sources. Fiqh
al-Rida , which is a work that purports to record al-
Rida’s legal pronouncements, was unknown until the
Safavid period; it is in fact the legal work, Kitab al-
taklif of the Imami heresiarch Muhammad ibn ‘Ali
al-Shalmaghani (d. 934).

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also al-Ma’mun; Messianism; Nishapur; Shi’ism;
Shi‘i imams

Primary Sources

al-Mufid. Kitab al-Irshad: The Book of Guidance, trans.
I.K.A. Howard. London: The Muhammadi Trust,
1981, 461-79.

Further Reading

Bayhom Daou, T. The Imami Shi'i Conception of the Knowl-
edge of the Imam and the Sources of Religious Doctrine in
the Formative Period from Hisham ibn al-Hakam to al-
Kulini. Ph.D. dissertation. London: School of Oriental
and African Studies, University of London, 1996.

Buyukkara, M.A. The Imami-Shi'i Movement in the Time of
Musa al-Kazim and ‘Ali al-Rida. Ph.D. dissertation.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 1997.

Cooperson, M. Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the
Prophet in the Age of al-Ma’mun. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2000.

Gabrieli, F. al-Ma’mun e gli ‘Alidi. Leigzig: Pfeiffer, 1929.

Hakami, N. Pelerinage de TEmam Reza: Etude Socio-econ-
omique. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and
Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1989.

Madelung, W. “New Documents Concerning al-Ma’mun,
al-Fadl b. Sahl and ‘Ali al-Rida.” In Studia Arabica et
Islamica: Festschrift for Ihsan ‘Abbas, ed. W. al-Qadi,
333M6. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1981.

Modarressi, H. Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative
Period of Shiite Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press,
1993.

‘ALI IBN ABI TALIB

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 599-661) was the first cousin
and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad; the fourth
of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-khulafa’
al-rashidun); and the first of the Imams deemed by
all Shi‘is Muslims to be appointed by divine mandate.
The word Shi ‘is itself is derived from the term shi'at’
‘Ali, which means “partisans of ‘Ali.”

Few figures of nascent Islam had as pervasive and
enduring an influence — both symbolic and actual —
on the unfolding of Islamic thought, culture, and
spirituality as ‘Ali. Referred to by the Prophet as
the “gate” to the city of prophetic science, one of
the most noticeable features of his legacy for medie-
val Islam is indeed the range of disciplines — from
theology and exegesis to calligraphy and numerology,
from law and mysticism to grammar and rhetoric —
that are regarded as having been first adumbrated
by ‘Ali.

As Companion of the Prophet

‘Ali was about five years old when he was taken into
the household of Muhammad, and, from this time
until the death of the Prophet, was his constant com-
panion. He was one of the first to accept the mission
of the Prophet, although he was still but a youth.
After the migration (al-hijra) to Medina (622), ‘Ali
distinguished himself principally as the most out-
standing warrior in the early battles fought by the
Muslims, his valor and strength assuming legendary
dimensions through the reports of the battle of Khay-
bar in 629. He was also one of the scribes of the verses
of the continuing revelation of the Qur’an.

In Medina, the Prophet instituted a pact of broth-
erhood between the emigrants from Mecca and the

ALMOHADS

“helpers” (the Muslims of Medina), and he adopted
‘Ali as his brother. The Prophet married ‘Ali to his
daughter, Fatima, who was considered (along with
her mother, Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija) to be
a paragon of feminine sanctity in Islam. The Proph-
et’s ahl al-bayt (“people of the House”) — the mem-
bers of which the Qur’an refers to in 33:33 as being
purified of all defilement — was indicated by the Pro-
phet as consisting of himself, ‘Ali, Fatima, and their
two sons, Hasan and Husayn.

In one of the most famous and controversial say-
ings of the Prophet, known as the Hadith al-Ghadir,
‘Ali is referred to as the mawla (guide/master/nearest)
of all those who regard the Prophet as their mawla.
For Shi‘is, this implied a clear designation (nass) by
the Prophet of ‘Ali as his successor. It was belief in ‘Ali
as the true, divinely appointed successor (khalifa) and
heir ( wasi) of the Prophet that formed the theological
basis of the distinctive political philosophy of Shi‘ism.
Such Shi‘ite dynasties as the (Isma‘ili) Fatimids (q.v.)
and the (Ithna‘ashari) Safawids (q.v.) were founded
on this political philosophy.

As Caliph

The short caliphate of ‘Ali (656-661) was marked
principally by the first civil wars within Islam. He
fought three major battles: that of Jamal (656) against
the forces of Talha, Zubayr (two leading compa-
nions), and ‘A’isha (one of the Prophet’s wives);
that of Siffin against Mu‘awiya (657); and that of
Nahrawan (658) against the “Seceders” (Kharijites
[q.v.]; those who seceded from his own ranks). Al-
though victorious in the first and last of these battles,
the second resulted in a stalemate and an attempt at
arbitration. When this attempt collapsed, ‘Ali roused
his forces for a resumption of the war against Mu‘a-
wiya but was attacked by a Kharijite during morning
prayers at the congregational mosque in Kufa on
28 January 661; he died from his wounds two days
later.

Intellectual and Spiritual Legacy

The chief vehicle of ‘Ali’s intellectual legacy is the
Nahj al-Balagha, a text of sermons, letters, and aphor-
isms that was compiled by al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1016),
a renowned Shi‘i scholar of ‘Abbasid Baghdad. Few
texts have exerted a greater influence on the field of
Arabic literature and rhetoric than the Nahj. Despite
ongoing questions about the authenticity of the text,

recent scholarship suggests that most of the material
in it can in fact be attributed to ‘Ali (Djebli, 56). The
numerous commentaries on this text — the most im-
portant being that of the Mu‘tazilite, Ibn Abi 1-Hadid
(d. 655) — greatly amplified its influence on theological
speculation, philosophical thought, and literary
discourse.

With regard to ‘Ali’s spiritual legacy, this was
transmitted in the Sunni world principally through
the widespread Sufi brotherhoods (turuq, s. tariqa,
q.v.), all of which trace their spiritual genealogy
back to him through an unbroken chain of initiatic
masters. In the Shi‘i context, his spiritual influence is
discerned in the tradition of what came to be called
'irfan ( gnosis ; q.v.), which partly overlaps with Sufism
but is distinct from it in certain respects.

‘Ali’s shrine in Najaf, near Baghdad, remains one
of the most important places of pilgrimage in the
Muslim world.

Reza Shah-Kazemi

Further Reading

Chirri, Mohammad Jawad. The Brother of the Prophet
Mohammad , 2 vols. Detroit: 1979, 1982.

Djebli, Moktar. “Encore a Propos de l’Authenticite du
Nahj al-Balagha!” Studio Islamica LXXV (1992): 33-56.

Ibn Ishaq. The Life of Muhammad , trans. A. Guillaume.
London: 1968.

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad — A
Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: 1997.

Poonawala, I.K. ‘“Ali b. Abi Taleb.” In Encyclopedia Ira-
nica. Part i, 838M3.

al-Radi, al-Sharif. Nahjul Balaghah (The Peak of Elo-
quence), trans. Sayed Ali Reza. New York: 1996.

al-Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir. The History of
al-Tabari, trans. Adrian Brockett. New York: 7. See in
particular vol. XVI, “The Community Divided — The
Caliphate of ‘Ali I, A.D. 656-657/ A.H. 35-36” and
vol. XVII, “The First Civil War — From the Battle of
Siffin to the Death of ‘Ali, A.D. 656-661/ A.H. 36-40.”

ALMOHADS

The Almohads were the Berber dynasty that ruled
the Islamic West (Morocco, Algeria, Tunis) and al-
Andalus (Muslim Spain) from the sixth/twelfth century
to the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century.

The name Almohads derives from the Arabic al-
muwahhidun (the Unitarians), which was adopted by
the followers of an Islamic reformist movement origi-
nating with the teachings of the Masmuda Berber Ibn
Tumart, who led a doctrinal opposition against what
he saw as the religious and moral corruption of
Almoravid times. The sources of Ibn Tumart’s thou-
ght, which are to be understood within the theological

ALMOHADS

and legal debates about the acquisition of certainty in
the interpretation of God’s revelation, are still open to
discussion.

Ibn Tumart’s life in Almohad sources follows the
paradigm of the Prophet Muhammad’s biography,
which makes the disentangling of legend from history
difficult. Ibn Tumart performed an emigration (517/
1123) with his disciples to the village of Tinmallal
(Atlas mountains) to escape Almoravid persecution.
There, having gained the allegiance of neighboring
Berber tribes, the religious movement transformed
itself into a revolutionary army that engaged in mili-
tary fighting against the Almoravids. Purges of dis-
sidents were carried out, and Ibn Tumart proclaimed
himself (or was proclaimed) Mahdi (rightly guided
one), a title with Messianic overtones.

After Ibn Tumart’s death, his disciple ‘Abd al-
Mu’min (Zanata Berber) proclaimed himself caliph
(r. 524/1130-558/1163), eventually adopting an Arab
(Qaysi) genealogy. ‘Abd al-Mu’min was the foun-
der of the Almohad empire, managing to conquer
Marrakech (the Almoravid capital) in the year 542/
1147. He introduced changes in the composition
of the Almohad Berber army, incorporating the
Arab tribes (Sulaym, Hilal) that had been moving
westward in North Africa since the fifth/eleventh
century. ‘Abd al-Mu’min was also responsible for
the creation of the religious elites known as talaba.
Al-Andalus was partly occupied during ‘Abd al-
Mu’min’s times, and so was Tunis, where he defeated
the Normans of Sicily. His successors Abu Ya‘qub
Yusuf (r. 558-580/1163-1184) and Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub
al-Mansur (r. 580-595/1184-1199) had to face the
Almoravid Banu Ghaniya and internal opponents as
well as continue the struggle in the Iberian Peninsula
against both local Andalusi independent rulers and the
Christians. These groups were defeated at the battle of
Alarcos (591/1195), although some years later the
Almohads would prove unable to stop them; and by
the third decade of the seventh/thirteenth century,
major towns such as Seville and Cordoba were lost to
the King of Castile. The ruling dynasty was weakened
by internal splits, some of which were associated with
the maintenance or abandonment of the original
Almohad ideology. The empire disintegrated during
the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century, and
former Almohad territory was divided among the
Marinids in Morocco, the Hafsids in Tunis, and the
‘Abd al-Wadids in Algeria.

The Almohad movement had aimed at a complete
religious renewal that was conceived as a return to
the situation of the early Muslim community, when
the Prophet ensured the correct understanding and
implementation of God’s design for the believers. By
this, they were proclaiming a break with the existing

society, because it represented the degradation of
the original community. This break showed itself in
certain Almohad peculiarities that aimed at proving
the beginning of a new era: the qibla of the mosques
was changed; changes were introduced in the public
call to prayer; in the Almohad coins, the square shape
predominated over the round; and the study of the
fundamentals of belief and law was promoted. The
Almohad period also witnessed the flourishing of
Sufism in the Islamic West and also of philosophy;
the main representative of this was Ibn Rushd al-
Hafid (d. 595/1 198), known in the Latin West as Aver-
roes. The effort for propagating Almohad doctrine
among the population led to the use of the Berber
language in ritual and writings, while at the same time
the penetration of Arab tribes in Morocco would
eventually help the process of linguistic Arabization.

Maribel Fierro

Further Reading

Overviews

EI2, s.v. al-muwahhidun [M. Shatzmiller], Leiden, 1960.
Guichard, P. "Les Almohades.” In Etats, Societes et Cul-
tures du Monde Musulman Medieval: Xeme-XVeme Sie-
cle, 3 vols., vol. 1, 205-31. ed. Jean-Claude Garcin et al.
Paris: 1995.

Huici Miranda, A. Historia Politico del Imperio Almohade,
2 vols. Tetuan: 1956-1957. (Reprinted in Granada:
2000 ).

Viguera, M.J., ed. “El Retroceso Territorial de al-Andalus.
Almoravides y Almohades.” In Historia de Espaiia, ed.
R. Menendez Pidal, siglos XI al XIII, vol. VIII/2.
Madrid: 1997.

Partial Studies (Published in the Last Twenty Years )

Conrad, L.L., ed. The World of Ibn Tufayl. Interdisciplin-
ary Perspectives on “Hayy ibn Yaqzan.” Leiden: 1996.

Cornell, V. Realm of the Saint. Power and Authority in
Moroccan Sufism. Austin: 1998.

Ferhat, H. Le Maghreb aux Xlleme et Xllleme Siecles: Les
Siecles de la Foi. Casablanca: 1993.

Fierro, M. “The Legal Policies of the Almohad Caliphs and
Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid.” Journal of Islamic
Studies 10/3 (1999): 226M8.

Fricaud, E. “Les Talaba dans la Societe Almohade (le
Temps d’Averroes).” Al-Qantara XVIII (1997): 331-88.

Karmi, M. La Chute de I'Empire Almohade. Analyse Doc-
trinale, Politique et Economique. Lille: Atelier National
de Reproduction des Theses, 1998.

Nagel, T. Im Offenkundigen das Verborgene. Die Heilszu-
sage des Sunnitischen Islams. Gottingen: 2002.

Sabbane, A. Le Gouvernment et V Administration de la
Dynastie Almohade (Xlle-XIIIe Siecles). Lille: Atelier
National de Reproduction des Theses, 1999.

ALMORAVIDS

Urvoy, D. Pensers d‘al-Andalus. La Vie Intellectuelle a
Cordoue et Sevilla au Temps des Empires Berberes ( Fin
Xle Siecle-Debut Xllle Siecle). Toulouse: 1990.

Vega Martin, M., S. Pena Martin, and M. C. Feria Garcia.
El Mensaje de las Monedas Almohades: Numismatica,
Traduction y Pensamiento. Castilla-La Mancha: Servi-
cio de Publicaciones de Castilla-La Mancha, 2002.

ALMORAVIDS

The Almoravids were the dynasty that ruled Morocco
and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) from the fifth/elev-
enth century to the first half of the sixth/twelfth
century.

The Almoravids were recruited from among Berber
Sanhaja nomads who inhabited southern Morocco
and the Sahara and who were involved in the salt,
gold, and slave trades. They were known in Arabic as
al-murabitun , which means those who engage in ribat
(this term refers to a fortified convent on the frontiers
of Islam but also metaphorically to a spiritual disci-
pline that could be directed to military aims). The
origins of the Almoravid movement are connected
by sources to the desire of a leader of the Gudala
tribe to improve the religious life of his tribesmen
(and their relatives, the Lamtuna), convincing
a Maliki scholar, Ibn Yasin, to settle with them in
what is now Mauritania. Ibn Yasin, while keeping for
himself the political and religious leadership,
appointed Yahya ibn ‘Umar al-Lamtuni leader of
the army after the Sanhaja had been organized into
a raiding force. They conquered the Sahara and
southern Morocco. Ibn Yasin died in 450/1058 while
fighting the heretic Barghawata Berbers; although
mention is made of some spiritual successors, the
movement eventually united under a single religious,
political, and military leadership. Yahya ibn ‘Umar
died in 447-448/1055-1057 and was succeeded by his
brother Abu Bakr, who left for the Sahara to put
order there and who appointed as commander of the
army in Morocco his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashufin
(d. 500/1107). The latter became the supreme authori-
ty of the Almoravid movement, which he led to the
conquests of Morocco, part of Ifriqiya (see North
Africa), and al-Andalus. The capital of the empire
was established in Marrakech. Ibn Tashufin and
his successors, who claimed a Himyari (Southern
Arab) genealogy, adopted the title Prince of the
Muslims ( amir al-muslimin ) and are said to have
acknowledged the ‘Abbasid caliphate.

The Andalusi Taifa kings (see Party Kings [Iberian
Peninsula]), unable to stop Christian military advance
in the Iberian Peninsula, asked for Ibn Tashufin’s
help; he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, obtaining a
resounding victory at Zallaqa (479/1086). This and

later military interventions eventually led to the de-
thronement of those same Taifa kings, and al-Andalus
became part of the Almoravid empire.

The Almoravid dynasty was supported by the
Sanhaja murabitun, who constituted a military and
political elite, and by the employment of Christian
mercenaries and black slaves in the army.

In the religious and legal spheres, the Maliki jurists
had great influence, because the Almoravid rulers
usually tried to back their political and religious deci-
sions with fatwas (see Law and Jurisprudence). Al-
though the Almoravid movement has usually been
portrayed as fanatical and conservative, supporting
those Malikis who opposed theology and Sufism
(with the episode of the burning of al-Ghazali’s
Ihya ’ ‘ulum al-din [Revivification of the Religious
Sciences] figuring prominently in this regard), recent
scholarship indicates a more complex situation. The
Almoravid program of religious reform, which cen-
tered on jihad and the abolition of illegal taxes, went
in fact together with an increasing interest in theolo-
gy, the fundamentals of religion (usul al-din), and the
rational sciences, as well as with the flourishing of
Sufism, thus prefiguring in many ways the subsequent
Almohad intellectual and religious revolution.

The Almoravids, who were weakened by their fight
against the Christians of al-Andalus, lost their power
at the hands of the Almohads, who accused them of
heterodoxy for their un-Islamic dressing (the men
were veiled and the women were not) and for their
anthropomorphism. In al-Andalus, the disintegration
of Almoravid power was the result of the formation
of independent polities led by charismatic leaders
(e.g., the Sufi Ibn Qasi), military men, or urban nota-
bles (mostly judges). Almost all of these autonomous
political entities disappeared with the Almohad inter-
vention in the Iberian Peninsula. Only the branch of
the Massufa Banu Ghaniya managed to survive, rul-
ing first in the Balearic Islands and then in Ifriqiyya.

Maribel Fierro

Further Reading

Overviews

EI2, s.v. al-murabitun [H.T. Norris and P. Chalmeta], Lei-
den, 1960.

Bel, A. Les Benou Ghaniya. Paris: 1903.

Bosch Vila, J. Los Almoravides. Tetuan: 1956. (Reprinted
with an introduction by E. Molina; Granada: 1990.)
Codera, F. Decadencia y Desaparicion de los Almoravides en
Espana. Zaragoza: 1899. (Reprinted with an introduc-
tion by M.J. Viguera; Zaragoza: 2004.)

Dandash, I.A.L. Al-Andalus fi Nihayat al-Murabitin wa-
Mustahall al-Muwahhidin. Asr al-Tawa if al-Thani

ALMORAVIDS

(510-546 H./l 116-1 151 M.). Beirut: Ta’rikh Siyasi wa-
Hadara, 1988.

Guichard, P. “Les Almoravides.” In Etats, Societes et Cul-
tures du Monde Musulman Medieval: Xeme-XVeme Sie-
cle, ed. Jean-Claude Garcin et al, 3 vols. Paris: 1995.
Lagardere, V. Les Almoravides Jusqu'au Regne de Yusuf b.

Tashfin (1039-1106). Paris: 1989.

. Le Vendredi de Zallaqa (23 Octobre 1086). Paris:

1989.

. Les Almoravides. Le Djihad Andalou ( 1106-1143).

Paris: 1998.

Viguera, M.J., ed. “El Retroceso Territorial de al-Andalus.
Almoravides y Almohades.” In Historia de Espaha, ed.
R. Menendez Pidal, Siglos XI al XIII, vol. VIII/2.
Madrid: 1997.

Partial Studies

al-Q. Butshish, I. al-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi asr al-Murabi-
tin: al-Mujtama’, al-Dhihniyyat, al-Awliya’. Beirut: 1993.
Dandash, I.A.L. Adwa ‘ Jadida ‘ala al-Murabitin. Beirut:

1990.

Dreher, J. “LTmamat d’lbn Qasi a Mertola (Automne
1144— Ete 1145): Legitimite d’Une Domination Soufie?”
MIDEO 18 (1988): 195-210.

Fierro, M. “The qadi as ruler.” In Saber Religioso y Poder
Politico, 71-116. Actas del Simposio Internacional,
Granada, 15-18 October 1991. Madrid: 1994.

Messier, R. “The Almoravids, West-Africa Gold and the
Gold Currency of the Mediterranean Basin.” Journal of
the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17 (1974):
31M7.

. "Re-thinking the Almoravids, Re-thinking Ibn

Khaldun.” In North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean
World. From The Almoravids to the Algerian World, ed.
J. Clancy-Smith, 58-80. London: 2001.

Serrano, D. “Los Almoravides y la Teologia as‘ari: ^Con-
testacion o Legitimation de una Disciplina Marginal?”
In Estuclios Onomdstico-Biogrdficos de al-Andalus, ed. C.
de la Puente, XIII. Identidades Marginales, 461-516.
Madrid: 2003.

Urvoy, D. Pensers d’al-Andalus. La Vie Intellectuelle a
Cordoue et Sevilla au Temps des Empires Berberes
(Fin Xle Siecle-Debut XHIe Siecle). Toulouse: 1990.
Viguera, M.J. “Las Cartas de al-Gazali y al-Turtusi al
Soberano Almoravid Yusuf b. Tasufin.” Al-Andalus
XLII (1977): 341-74.

ALP ARSLAN

Alp Arslan (r. 1063-1073 CE) was the second sultan
of the Great Seljuk Empire. Born in 1029, he was a
son of Chaghri Beg, a grandson of Seljuk ibn Duqaq
(the eponymous founder of the Seljuk dynasty), and
a nephew of Toghril Beg, the first sultan of the
Great Seljuk Empire (of which Chaghri and Toghril
were cofounders). Soon after their conquest of the
Middle East began in 1040, Chaghri became ruler of
Khurasan, using Merv as his capital. Other regions
of the empire were subsequently parceled out to
other members of the family. Alp Arslan was close
to his father, who, as early as 1043, sent him as the

head of forces against the Ghaznavids. In 1050, he
plundered Fasa far to the west, in Fars. He fought
the Ghaznavids again, successfully, in 1053-1054.
When Chaghri died around 1059, Alp Arslan suc-
ceeded him as ruler of Khurasan and placed Nizam
al-Mulk, who had previously entered his service, in
charge of its administration. At about the same time,
he marched to Rayy, the capital of the Seljuk Empire,
to help Toghril crush a revolt by his cousin Ibrahim
Yinal.

Toghril died childless in 1063. Before he died, he
married one of Chaghri’s wives, whose son he desig-
nated his heir. With the support of powerful amirs.
Alp Arslan rid himself of his half-brother, overcame
rebellious family members (the most formidable of
whom was his brother Qavurt, the ruler of Kirman),
and took the throne at Rayy, placing Nizam al-Mulk
in charge of running the empire. Shortly thereafter,
the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Qa'im recognized him as
sultan; he then concentrated on continuing the
Seljuk conquests. In 1064, Alp Arslan marched to
Azerbaijan. From there he invaded Georgia and con-
quered the Armenian cities of Kars and Ani, and
afterward he returned to Rayy. In 1065, he consoli-
dated his hold on Transoxania and campaigned
beyond the Jaxartes (Syr Darya). In 1067, he turned
south to crush a revolt by Qavurt and then returned
to the western frontier where, in the meantime, Turk-
men raiders had been penetrating ever more deeply
into Byzantine territory. In 1068, he again invaded
Georgia, and, in 1070, he moved into northern Syria,
besieging Edessa and Aleppo. In 1071, while in
Syria, he made plans to overthrow the Fatimid ca-
liphate in Egypt. His attention was diverted, however,
when he learned that the Byzantine emperor Romanus
IV Diogenes was marching into eastern Anatolia.
The emperor had decided to put an end to the grow-
ing Turkish menace by taking the fortresses of Man-
zikert and Akhlat, thus sealing off major immigration
routes into Anatolia. At Manzikert, Alp Arslan
defeated the Byzantine army and captured the emper-
or. Byzantine defenses in Anatolia collapsed, and
Turkish immigration began on a large scale, driven
by a desire for booty and pastures. There is no evi-
dence that Alp Arslan ordered a systematic conquest
of Anatolia. Indeed, he immediately returned east to
face hostilities with the Qarakhanids in Transoxania.
In 1073, in the midst of this campaign, a captive
Castellan managed to stab him to death; his son
Malikshah succeeded him.

Gary Eeiser

See also ‘Abbasids; Armenia, Byzantine Empire; Fati-
mids; Muslim-Byzantine Relations; Raids; Seljuks;
Seljuk Warfare; Turks

ALPHABETS

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Athir. The Annals of the Saljuq Turks, trans. D.S.
Richards. London: Routledge-Curzon, 2002.

Further Reading

Bosworth, C.E. “The Political and Dynastic History of the
Iranian World (A.D. 1000-1217).” In The Cambridge
History of Iran, vol. 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods,
ed. J.A. Boyle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1968.

Luther, K.A. "Alp Arslan.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica.

ALPHABETS

The Arabic alphabet (abjad, abajad, or abu jad) con-
sists, in its present state (which has been attested to
since the end of the seventh century) of twenty-eight
graphemes that are consonantal phonemes. They are
as follows (here with a simplified transliteration and
numerical value): alif (’, 1), ba’ (b, 2), ta’ (t, 400), tha’
(voiceless gingival or interdental: th, 500), jim (j, 3),
ha’ (h, 8), kha’ (voiceless spirant fricative: kh, 600),
dal (d, 4), dhal (voiced gingival: dh, 700), ra’ (lingual
vibrant: r, 200), zay (z, 7), sin (s, 60), shin (voiceless
cacuminal spirant, hushing sound, 300), sad (voiceless
velar postdental, 90), dad (voiced velar occlusive,
800), za’ (voiced velar interdental spirant, 900), "ayn
(voiceless fricative spirant: 70), ghayn (voiced frica-

tive spirant: gh, 70), fa’ (f, 80), qaf (voiceless back-
velar occlusive, together with occlusion of the larynx,
100), kaf (k, 20), lam (1, 30), mini (m, 40), nun (n, 50),
ha’ (voiceless breath: h, 5), waw (w and long u, 6), and
ya’ (y and long i, 10).

Like other Proto-Sinaitic-derived scripts, Arabic
does not have letters for vowels (haraka [motion]).
However, at a later period, diacritical signs were
invented to mark the vowels of Arabic and other
phenomens of pronunciation. The marks for the
short vowels are as follows: fatha (a), kasra (i), and
damma (u). The marks of the short vowels, when
doubled, are pronounced with the addition of the
sound n (an, in, un); this is called tanwin ( nunation ,
from the name of the letter nun). The long vowels and
diphthongs are indicated by alif ( long a), ya ’ (for long
i and ay), and waw (for long u and aw).

When alif is not a mere letter of prolongation (i.e.,
a long a) but rather a consonant, pronounced like the
spiritus lenis, it is distinguished by the mark hamza,
which means compression, and is shown as follows: ’.
With the vowels u and a, it is written over the alif;
with the vowel i, it is written under. In special condi-
tions, it is put over a ya’ or a waw; in others, it is

directly on the line, without a support. The alif maq-
sura (the alif that can be abbreviated) and the ta’
marbuta (the tied ya’) are in their forms, respectively,
variants of the ya’ and the ha’.

The sukun (rest) corresponds to the sheva quiescens
of the Hebrew: it indicates the absence of vowel
or a consonant. A consonant that is to be doubled
without the interposition of a vowel is marked by a
shadda (strengthening mark). When the vowels with
hamza (’a, ’i, ’u) at the beginning of a word are
absorbed by the final vowel of the preceding word,
the elision of the spiritus lenis is marked by the sign
wasla (union).

There are at least two positions among Western
scholars regarding the origin of the Arabic alphabet
and writing: the Nabatean Aramaic one and the
Syriac one (via the towns of Anbar and Hira). It
should be noted that, for most of the ancient Muslim
scholars, the Arabic script came from these towns
to Mecca. There are also several legends surrounding
the origin of the Arabic script. According to the
Kufian Ibn al-Kalbi (d. AH 204/819 CE or 206/821),
the first to form it was a group of Bedouin Arabs,
whose names were Abu Jad (Abdjad), Hawwaz (or
Hawwiz), Hutti, Kalamun (or Kaliman), Safas (or
Safad), and Qurusa’at (or Qarishat, Qarashat).
These legendary persons are supposed to have been
kings of Midian (Madian). These names are actually
combinations of the letters of the alphabet in the
traditional order of the Semitic alphabet that have
been combined in groups of four, three, four, and
four, from aleph to taw.

Other languages are written in Arabic script:
Hausa, Kashmiri, Kazak, Kurdish, Kyrghyz, Malay,
Morisco, Pashto, Persian/Farsi, Sindhi, Tatar, Turk-
ish (before the reform of Ata Turk), Uyghur (in the
Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of China and
also in Afghanistan), and Urdu.

Also present are the following consonant alpha-
bets: ancient Berber, Divehi Akuru (Maldivian Indo-
Aryan language — “island letters” that were replaced,
after the conversion of the Maldives to Islam in 1153,
by a new Arabic-influenced alphabet known as
Thaana), Hebrew, Mandaic, Middle Persian, Naba-
tean, Parthian, Phoenician, Proto-Hebrew, Psalter (a
variant of Persian script), Sabean, Samaritan, South
Arabian, Syriac, Tifinagh, and Ugaritic. Tifinagh is
thought to have derived from ancient Berber script; it
could mean “Phoenician letters,” or it may come
from the Greek pinaks (writing tablets). Since Septem-
ber 2003, the Tifinagh alphabet has been taught in
primary schools in Morocco; it is also used by the
Tuaregs, particularly the women, for private notes
and decoration.

Claude Gilliot

ALPHABETS

Primary Sources

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah. In An Introduction to
History, trans. Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols., vol. Ill,
111-70. New York: Bollingen Foundation; Princeton,
NJ; Princeton University Press, 1967.

Ibn al-Nadim. “The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim.” In A Tenth-
Century Survey of Muslim Culture, ed. and trans. Bayard
Dodge, 2 vols., vol. I, 5-10. New York: Columbia Uni-
versity Press, 1970.

Further Reading

Czapkiewicz, Andrzej. The Views of the Medieval Arab
Philologists on Language and its Origin in the Light of
as-Suyuti’s “al-Muzhir.” Cracovia: Universitas Iagello-
nica (Acta Scientiarum Litterarumque, CMIX, «Schedae
Grammaticae», Fasciculus XCI), 1988.

Drucker, Johanna. The Alphabetic Labyrinth. The Letters in
History and Imagination. London: Thames and Hudson,
1995. '

Endress, Gerhard. “Herkunft und Entwicklung der Ara-
bischen Schrift.” In Grundriss der Arabischen Philologie,
ed. Wolfdietrich Fischer, 165-97. Wiesbaden: Ludwig
Reichert, 1982.

Gruendler, Beatrice. “The Development of the Arabic
Scripts. From the Nabatean Aea to the First Islamic
Century According to Dated Texts.” Harvard Semitic
Studies 63 (1993).

Naveh, Joseph. Early History of the Alphabet. An Introduc-
tion to West Semitic Epigraphy and Paleography. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1982.

Silvestre de Sacy, Antoine-Isaac. “Memoire sur POrigine et
les Anciens Monuments de la Litterature Parmi les Ara-
bes,” Memoires Tires des Registres de I’Academie Royale
des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres L (1785): 247 — 44 1 .

Troupeau, Gerard. "Reflexions sur POrigine Syriaque
de PEcriture Arabe.” In Semitic Studies in Honor
of Wolf Leslau, ed. Alan S. Kaye, vol. II, 1562-1570.
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1991.

AMIR KHUSRAW (1253-1325)

Nasir al-Din Abu ’1-Hasan, the son of a Turkish
soldier and Indian mother, was born in Patiala in
the Punjab in 1253. Perhaps the greatest Persian
poet of pre-Mughal India, he took great pride in his
Indian origins and was recognized as being the “Par-
rot of India” for singing its praises. As a boy, his
grandfather encouraged his poetic talents; once in
Delhi, he found patronage with Sultan Balban and
his son Boghra Khan. Amir Khusraw joined the
prince on campaign to Multan, which was promptly
sacked by the invading Mongols in 1284. The prince
was killed, and Amir Khusraw was taken prisoner.
Once released, he found favor with the Khalji sultans
of Delhi, especially ‘Ala’ al-Din (d. 1315), under
whose patronage he wrote most of his compositions.
Like other medieval poets, he moved from one royal

patron to another; this occurred quite often given the
vicissitudes of political life in the Delhi sultanate.

Amir Khusraw wrote a cycle of five epic poems
(khamsa) in imitation of Nizami, odes to the con-
quests of his patrons, and Hindi love poems and
riddles; he is credited with the invention of Hindu-
stani music. He was also a close disciple of the great
Chishti Sufi of Delhi Nizam al-Din Awliya’. Through-
out his work, Amir Khusraw stressed his Indianness
and even wrote a poetic work in nine meters entitled
Nuh Sipihr that was about nine spheres of existence,
with India elevated above all others. Amir Khusraw
died in 1325, shortly after his beloved Sufi master and
was buried next to him.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Delhi; Chishti; Epics, Persian; Poetry, Per-
sian; Sufism

Further Reading

Amir Khusraw: Seventh Century Celebrations. Hyderabad:
Abul-Kalam Azad Research Institute, 1972.

Brend, B. Perspectives on Persian Painting: Illustrations on
Amir Khusrau’s Khamsah. London: Routledge-Curzon,
2003.

Mirza, W.A. The Life and Works of Amir Khusrau. Cal-
cutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1935.

Rizvi, S.A.A. A History of Sufism in India. New Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983.

AMULI, Al-

Al-Amuli, Al-Sayyid Haydar al-Husayn (d. after AH
787/1385 CE) was an early proponent of the close
association between Sufism and Imami Shi‘ism and
of the notion that the Imams had been guides for their
own followers but also for travelers along the mystical
path. He was also one of the earliest Imami thinkers
to have incorporated the thought of Ibn al-‘Arabi
(d. 638/1240) into his writings.

Al-Sayyid Haydar initially studied in his home-
town of Amul, in Mazandiran, which was long
known for its Shi‘i proclivities, and then later in
Astarabad and Isfahan. Having returned to Amul,
he became close to and served the local ruler, whose
assassination in 750/1349 coincided with Haydar’s
abandonment of life at court for Sufism. He visited
different Shi‘i shrines and also traveled to Jerusalem
and the Hijaz, and thereafter he settled in Iraq. In
Baghdad he studied with such prominent Shi‘i figures
as Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Hilli
(d. 771/1370) (son of the famous Twelver scholar al-
Hasan ibn Yusuf, al-‘Allama) and Ibn al-Mutahhar
al-Hilli (d. 726/1325). He later resided in the Shi‘i
shrine city of Najaf.

AL-ANDALUS

Of the more than forty works authored by Amuli,
seven have survived, and some have been published.
Perhaps the most famous is Jami' al-Asrar (A Com-
pendium of Secrets), which was completed in 752/
1351. His Asrar al-Shari‘a, which was mentioned in
the Jami', has been translated into English as Inner
Secrets of the Path (1989) and includes Muhammad
Khajavi’s 1982 essay about Amuli and his thought.

Amuli insisted on the common origins of Shi‘ism
and Sufism, understanding all knowledge as having
derived from the Imams. His project involved an
effort to transcend both the normal literal/juridical
approach to Islam, especially Shi'i Islam, and those
dimensions of Sufism that rejected the grounding of
its doctrine and practices in those of the Imams.

The Compendium is especially noteworthy for
Anruli’s efforts to reconcile aspects of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s
thought with Twelver Shi‘isnr, particularly his refer-
ence to pure monotheism and inner/ontological
monotheism; in addition, he postulated that the for-
mer was taught by the prophets and the secrets of the
latter by the awliya’ (sing. wali). ‘Ali was the seal of
the universal walaya, and the Mahdi — who, for
Amuli, is the twelfth Imam — was the seal of the Mu-
hammadan walaya. By contrast, for Ibn al-‘Arabi,
Jesus was the seal of the former.

Amuli’s efforts to establish a synthesis between
Sufism and Shi‘ism were continued by Mir Damad
(d. 1630), Mulla Sadra (d. 1640), Hadi Sabzavari
(d. 1873), and the Ayatollah Khomayni (d. 1989).

Khajavi’s contribution and Corbin’s recently trans-
lated 1981 lecture remain the only English-language
essay-length studies of Amuli’s legacy. Kohlberg
offers a list of non-English editions of Amuli’s pub-
lished works.

Andrew J. Newman

Further Reading

Corbin (1986); Kohlberg, E. (1985); J. van Ess (1982)
[AJN],

Corbin, H. “The Science of the Balance and the Correspon-
dences Between Worlds in Islamic Gnosis, According to
the Work of Haydar Amuli, eighth/fourteenth century.”
In Temple and Contemplation, trans. Philip Sherrard.
London: 1986.

van Ess, J. "Haydar-i Amuli.” El 2 Suppl. 5-6 (1982):
363-65.

Kohlberg, E. “Amoli, Sayyed Baha’-al-Din Haydar.” Elr I
(1985): 983-85.

AMULETS

See Talismans and Talismanic Objects

AL-ANDALUS

Al-Andalus is the name used to refer to the Iberian
peninsula territories that were ruled by Islamic
regimes between 711 and 1492; scholars have yet to
reach agreement about the origin of this name. For
some, the meaning of al-Andalus is “the land of the
Vandals”; others suggest “the Island of the Atlantis,”
whereas some believe that it comes from the German
expression Landahlauts, which means “land allot-
ment.”

The expressions Muslim Spain and Andalusia are
inaccurate renditions of al-Andalus and should there-
fore be rejected, because they reflect neither the his-
torical nor the geographical reality of al-Andalus. The
territorial limits of al-Andalus varied over time, al-
though they diminished steadily from the eleventh
century onward. The political control of the territory
also varied significantly from urban centers to rural
areas and to the territories on the border with the
Christian kingdoms. However, certain elements were
constant, including the following:

1. Al-Andalus constituted an Islamic Mediterra-

nean society (which meant a disruption with
the previous Hispano-Ronran and Visigoth so-
ciety), and it was distinct from the feudal socie-
ties of Christian Medieval Europe. Another
important characteristic was its “frontier
society” character.

2. Al-Andalus has to be set in the wider context of

the premodern Islamic West. The discontinu-
ity with the previous historical reality is evi-
dent in the new forms of government, territory
organization, production, fiscal system, legal
system, religious life, and generational and
patrimonial transmission within the family.
In addition, a significant aspect of Andalusi
collective identity was its majority ascription
to the Maliki juridical school.

From the second half of the eighth century (after
the arrival of the Unrayyad prince ‘Abd al-Rahman
ibn Mu‘awiya), al-Andalus became an Umayyad
emirate. During this period, all kinds of exchanges
with the rest of the Islamic world occurred. At the
beginning of the tenth century, one of ‘Abd al-
Rahman’s descendants, ‘Abd al-Rahman III, pro-
claimed himself caliph. When the caliphate collapsed
at the beginning of the eleventh century, al-Andalus
was fragmented into a series of independent king-
doms (ta’ifas) that were unable to face the growing
strength of the Christians of the North. At the end of
the eleventh century, al-Andalus was under the ruling
of the North African dynasties of the Alnroravids and
Almohads. Lastly, Andalusi political power was

AL-ANDALUS

limited to the kingdom of Granada (thirteenth-
fifteenth centuries), which continued in a precarious
fashion until 1492.

Political power fluctuated between the two sides of
the Strait of Gibraltar, being marked by the suprem-
acy of al-Andalus during the first stage, whereas the
Maghrib had priority over al-Andalus after the end of
the eleventh century.

The Romance language was preserved in al-
Andalus. The Andalusi population spoke Romance
along with Arabic, although it is impossible to deter-
mine the actual scope of its use. However, the written
production that has been preserved had Arabic as its
main language of use. Andalusis’ input into the devel-
opment of Islamic culture was derived from East-
ern influences, sometimes advancing their Oriental
sources. Al-Andalus also played a significant role in
the transmission of classical thought and Islamic sci-
ence to the medieval Christian West. The end of the
Islamic state did not put an end to the presence of
Islam in the peninsula. Muslim communities, known
as mudejars, continued to be present in some of the
territories conquered by the Christians until the six-
teenth century. After the conquest of Granada, their
inhabitants were obliged to convert to Christianity.
Many of these neoconverts, known as moriscos, se-
cretly kept their faith until they were finally expelled
from the peninsula at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. By this time, some of these moriscos (mainly
the elite classes) had already migrated, with the
Maghrib as their main destination. To this date, an
Andalusi origin in the Maghrib is an important
identity mark of their descendants.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Further Reading

Arie, R. Espana Musulmana, Siglos VIII-XV. Barcelona:
Labor, 1993.

Chalmeta, P., et al. “Al-Andalus: Musulmanes y cristianos
(VIII-XIII).” In Historia de Espana Dirigida por Antonio
Dominguez Ortiz, vol. 3. Barcelona: Planeta, 1997.
Corriente, F. “Andaluz y andalus y Andaluz.” In Diccio-
nario de Arabismos y Voces Afines en Iberorromance.
Madrid: 1999.

Fierro, M. Al-Andalus: Saberes e Intercambios Culturales.
Barcelona: Icaria, 2001.

Fierro, M., and Samso, J., eds. The Formation of al-Andalus.
Part 2: Language, Religion, Culture and the Sciences.
Aldershot, Hampshire, UK, and Brookfield, Vt: Ashgate,
1998.

Garcia-Arenal, M. Los Moriscos. Granada: Universidad,
1996.

Garcia Sanjuan, A. “El Significado Geografico del Topo-
nimo al-Andalus en las Fuentes Arabes.” Anuario de
Estuclios Medievales 33/1 (2003): 3-36.

Glick, T. Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Mid-
dle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1979.

Guichard, P. Al-Andalus. Estructura Antropologica de una
Sociedad Isldmica en Occidente. Granada: Universidad,
1995.

Halm, H. “Al-Andalus and Gothica Sors.” In The Forma-
tion of al-Andalus. Part 1: History and Society , ed. M.
Marin, 27-50.

Jayyusi, S. Kh., ed. The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Leiden-
New York-Cologne: Brill, 1992.

Levi-Proven<;al, E. “Espana Musulmana Hasta la Calda
del Califato de Cordoba,” trans. E. Garcia Gomez.
In Historia de Espana Dirigida por Ramon Menendez
Pidal, vols. IV and V. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1950 and
1957.

Levi-Proven<;al, E., L. Torres Baibas, and G.S. Colins. “Al-
Andalus” In El 2 .

Makki, M.‘A. Ensayo Sobre las Aportaciones Orientates en
la Espana Musulmana y su Influencia en la Formation de
la Cultura Hispano-Arabe. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios
Islamicos, 1968.

Marin, M. Individuo y Sociedad en al-Andalus. Madrid:
Mapfre, 1992.

. Al-Andalus y los Andalusies. Barcelona: Icaria,

2000 .

, ed. The Formation of al-Andalus. Part 1: History

and Society. Aldershot, Hampshire, UK, and Brookfield,
Vt: Ashgate, 1998.

, coord, j, Como Entender al-Andalus? Reflexiones

Sobre su Estudio y Ensehanza. Madrid: Anaya, 1999.

Samso, J. Las Ciencias de los Antiguos en al-Andalus.
Madrid: Mapfre, 1992.

Vallve, J. “El Nombre de al-Andalus.” Al-Qantara 4 (1983):
301-55.

Vernet, J. La Cultura Hispano-Arabe en Orientey Occidente.
Barcelona: Akal, 1978.

. El Islam en Espana. Madrid: Mapfre, 1993.

Viguera, M.J. “De las Taifas al Reino de Granada. Al-
Andalus, Siglos XI a XV.” In Historia de Espana (His-
toria 16), vol. 9. Madrid: 1995.

. “Planteamientos Sobre la historia de al-Andalus.”

In El Saber en al-Andalus. Textosy Estudios, 2nd ed., ed.
J.M. Carabaza Bravo and A.T.M. Essawy, 121-32.
Sevilla: 1999.

, coord. “Los Reinos de Taifas. Al-Andalus en el

Siglo XI and El Retroceso Territorial de al-Andalus.
Almoravides y Almohades. In Historia de Espana
Menendez Pidal, vols. VIII- 1 and VIII-2. Madrid:
Espasa Calpe, 1994 and 1997.

Viguera, M.J., and Castillo, C., eds. Al-Andalus v el Medi-
terraneo. Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1995.

Watt, W.M. Historia de Espahci Isldmica. Madrid: Alianza,
1970.

Wycichl, W. “‘Al-Andalus’ (Sobre la Historia de un
Nombre).” Al-Andalus 17 (1952): 449-50.

ANGELS

The Arabic word for angel is malak (pi. mala’ika;
Persian, firishta). The Arab lexicographers and exe-
getes consider it original to Arabic, but in fact it dates
back to early north-west Semitic. In Ugaritic, ml'k
means “messenger” (Hebrew, malak', Aramaic,
mal’ak). Some Western scholars believe that the

ANGELS

approximate source of the word in Arabic was the
Ethiopian mal’ak (pi. mal’eket), which is presumably
a loanword into Ethiopic from Aramaic or Hebrew.
According to some scholars, it is more likely that the
word mal’ak had already crept from Abyssinia and was
known to the people of Mecca before Muhammad
used it.

To believe in angels is an article of Muslim creed.
The following is from the first article of one of the
Creeds that is attributed to Abu Hanifa:

"The heart of the confession of the unity of God and the
true foundation of faith consist in this obligatory creed: I
believe in God, His Angels, His Books, His Apotels, the
resurrection after death, the decree of God the good
and the evil thereof, computation of sins, the balance,
Paradise and Hell; and that all these are real."

The angels play a role in three major themes of the
Qur’an (creation, revelation, and eschatology), and
they play a still greater role in hadith and Qur’anic
commentary and in special books about them and
about eschatology. The imagination of Muslim scho-
lars with regard to angels seems to have no limit. In
the Qur’an, the angels are called the “heavenly host”
or “multitude” (al-mala’ al-a’la) (37:8; 38:69). They
are supposed to guard the walls of heaven against
the “listening” of the jinns. The Qur’an stresses the
absolute submission of the angels to God (21:19-20).

Some of the angels are named in the Qur’an. The
Meccan Qur’an mentions the spirit Gabriel that was
sent to Mary to announce the conception of Jesus
(19:17). Later in Medina, however, Muhammad
gave the name Gabriel (Jibril) as that of the messen-
ger by whom the Qur’an was communicated to him
(2:97). Muhammad possibly learned this name from
the Jews of Mecca, among whom was his secretary
Zayd b. Thabit (who knew Aramaic and/or Hebrew
before Muhammad came to this town, according to
al-Ka'bi [Abu 1-Qasim al-Balkhi, d. 319/931]). Mika’il
(or Mikal; i.e., Michael), which is a word that may
have come directly from the Hebrew or the Syriac, is
mentioned together with Gabriel, also in the Medina
Qur’an (2:98). Commentators claim that the two are
contrasted: Gabriel is the opponent of the Jews, and
Michael is their protector.

In the same sura (2:102), Harut and Marut meet.
Muhammad probably became acquainted with the
names of these mythical figures in the form in which
they are found in the Avesta (i.e., Harvotat and Amur-
tat — Perfection and Deathlessness). In the Slavonic
Book of Enoch, they appear as Orioch and Marioch.
The Syriac (Aramaic) Marut (Mastery, Lordship) may
have been known by the Jews of Medina, and especial-
ly by Zayd b. Thabit, the “Secretary of Revelation”
and one of the redactors of the Qur’an.

In sura 32:11, the mythical Angel of Death (malak
al-mawt) appears, but not by name; he is identified in
traditional Muslim literature as ‘Izra’il (’Azra’il).

Special books were written about the angels, in-
cluding al-Haba’ik fi Akhbar al-Mala’ik (The Orbits
of the Stars: On the Stories of the Angels), by Suyuti
(d. 911/1505). This is a collection of legendary and
mythical stories taken from Prophetic hadith or from
early Muslim scholars.

Claude Gilliot

Further Reading

Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali. Le Guide Divin dans le
Shi’isme Originel. Aux Sources de I’Esoterisme en Islam
(The Divine Guide in Early Shiism. The Sources of
Esoterism in Islam), trans. David Streight, Editions Ver-
dier, 1992. Albany: SUNY, 1994.

Eichler, Paul Arno. Die Dschinn, Teufel unci Engel im Koran.
Inaugural dissertation. Leipzig: Universite de Leipzig,
Lucka in Thiiringen, 1928.

Eickmann, Walther. Die Angelologie und Ddmonologie des
Korans im Vergleich zu der Engel-un Geisterlehre der
Heiligen Schrift. New York and Leipzig: 1908.

Gilliot, Claude. “Le Coran, Fruit d'un Travail Collectif?”
In al-Kitab, ed. Daniel De Smet. La acralite du texte
dans le monde de ITslam, Actes du Symposium interna-
tional tenu a Leuven et Louvain-la-Neuve du 29 mai au

1 juin 2002. Brussels: Louvain-la-Neuve, Leuven: Acta
Orientalia Belgica. Subsidia III, 2004, 185-231.

Jeffery, Arthur. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an. Bar-
oda: Oriental Institute, 1938.

. Jewish Proper Names and Derivatives in the Koran.

Hildesheim: Georg Olsms, 1964.

Niekrens, Wilhelm. Die Engel- und Geistervorstellungen des
Korans. Inaugural dissertation. Rohstock: University of
Rohstock, 1906.

O’Shaughnessy, Thomas. The Development of the Meaning
of Spirit in the Koran. Pontificium Institution Orientalium
Studiorum (Orientalia Christiana Analecta) 189 (1953):
51-7.

Sweetman, James Windrow. Islam and Christian Theology,

2 parts, 3 vols. London: Lutterworth Press, 1945-1967.

ANGELS

Vorgrimler, Herbert, et al. Engel Erfahrungen Gottlicher
Ncihe. Freiburg: Herder, 2001.

Wensinck, Arent Jan. The Muslim Creed. Its Genesis
and Historical Development. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1932.

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

Animal husbandry was critical to medieval Islam be-
cause of Islamic dietary laws. Some animals, such as
pigs, for example, were forbidden (haram) to eat be-
cause they were scavengers. However, shellfish and
most animals that lived underwater were lawful
(halal) and could be eaten, save for those that
breathed both air and water (i.e., amphibians and
crocodiles). This exception allowed for industries
like the ancient pearl fisheries in the south of the
Persian Gulf. Although what an animal ate deter-
mined its appropriateness for consumption, some ani-
mals were set outside of food purposes regardless.
Dogs were considered unclean, although not so
much as pigs. Other animals, such as cats, were fa-
vored by the Prophet and therefore forbidden as food.

Aside from the statutes in the Qur’an, some early
Islamic sources discussed the subject, showing a keen,
scientific interest in the raising of camels, horses, and
sheep. Ya’qub ibn akhi Hizam wrote about veterinary
matters in his book on horsemanship in 785 CE.
‘Abd al-Malik ibn Quraib al-Asmai (740-828), a phi-
lologist from Basra, wrote about zoology, human
anatomy, and animal husbandry. His books Kitab
al-Ibil ( The Book of the Camel ) , Kitab al-Khail ( The
Book of the Horse), Kit aba al-Sha (The Book of the
Sheep ) , and Kitab al- Wuhush ( The Book of Wild Ani-
mals) had great influence in the field through the
ninth and tenth centuries. During the same period,
Jabril Ibn Bakhtyshu (d. 828-829), a Christian physi-
cian, wrote a book about animal husbandry called
Manaeh al-Hiwan (The Uses of Animals). Their con-
temporary, Abu ‘Uthman Al-Jahiz (776-868), wrote a
book about zoology called Kitab al-Hawayan (The
Book of Animals), which discussed the effects of diet
on animals.

The early Islamic Meccan economy prized herd
animals like camels, horses, cattle, sheep, and goats.
In a dry environment in which agriculture was not
possible in many places, raising herd animals could
maximize the use of marginal land. Even then, pas-
ture land needed to be close to sources of good water.
The Qur’an stated that animals had as much right to
life as humans and that humans were only more
important than animals because of humans’ role as
stewards of the earth. According to Islamic law, ani-
mals should not be deprived of water where it is
available (an important consideration in a desert

environment), nor should an animal be forced to wit-
ness another animal being slaughtered before it or to
see the knife used to kill it sharpened before it. In
Islam, animals should be slaughtered as painlessly as
possible, with a single cut to the throat that would
bleed out most of the blood. Blood, carrion meat
from dead animals not slaughtered properly, and
meat taken from live animals were also forbidden;
this derived from the pre-Islamic Arabian practice of
cutting the humps off of camels or the tails off of sheep
so that the animals could be eaten yet kept alive for
further use. Muhammad condemned the practice and
forbade meat taken from living animals as carrion.

Islamic law also forbade the unnecessary caging of
birds and animals. The Qur’an frowned on the unnec-
essary killing of animals (i.e., for sport rather than
food) and favored kindness toward them, especially
cats. One early story states that a man who killed a
bird would answer to the creature at the Last Judg-
ment; another story put a woman who starved a cat to
death in Hell.

However, hunting was popular enough to make
hawk raising an important part of animal husbandry.
Hawks were used to hunt other birds, but only for
sport. Pigeons had the more useful function of carry-
ing messages. These usages, like the keeping of zoos,
indicate that practice could differ widely from law.

Camels were especially important for use in trans-
portation in addition to the production of milk, meat,
and hides, with early Meccan caravans including up
to 2,500 camels. Cattle also appeared repeatedly in
the Qur’an as an important commodity, providing —
like camels — milk, meat, and hides. Oxen also pulled
plows and provided the power for other agricultural
machinery. Sheep and goats provided milk, meat,
wool, and hides. Horses were prized and carefully
bred for racing, war, and transportation. By 1285,
Muslims were practicing artificial insemination on
these animals.

Animal husbandry was sufficiently lucrative to be
one of the commodities covered under the zakat
(alms) tax, specifically herds of camels, cattle, sheep,
and goats (but only over a certain number). This tax
was paid in kind. Animal husbandry represented the
management of a critical source of movable wealth,
especially among the more nomadic elements of
Islamic society.

Paula R. Stiles

See also Ayyubids; Camels; Hunting; Tulunids; Zoo-
logical Parks

Further Reading

Jayakar, A.S.G. Ad-damiri’s Hayat Al-Hayawan: A Zoolog-
ical Lexicon. Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co.,

1908.

‘ANTARA IBN SHADDAD

Lemu, B. Aisha. Animals in Islam. East Lansing, Mich:
Spectrum Books Ltd., 1993.

Stein, Gil J. “Medieval Pastoral Production Systems at
Gritille.” In The Archaeology of the Frontier in the Me-
dieval Near East: Excavations at Gritille, Turkey, ed.
Scott Redford, 181-209. Philadelphia: University Muse-
um Publications (Archaeological Institute of America
Monographs, N.S.3), 1998.

‘ANTARA IBN SHADDAD

‘Antara Ibn Shaddad, the Historical
Character

‘Antar (“the valiant one”), also known as ‘Antara
(“courage in war”), was a member of the ‘Abs tribe
who lived in Arabia shortly before Islam (c. 525-615
CE). ‘Antar composed one of the seven famous “sus-
pended odes,” which were known individually as
mu‘allaqa. ‘Antar’s factual and fictional exploits are
recorded in the Sir at 'Antar, the most important
romance of chivalry in Arabic literature; it is for his
exploits as recounted in this epic that he is best known
today.

Verifiable historic facts about ‘Antar are sketchy.
Classical Arab scholars such as al-Tibrizi (d. 1109)
and Ibn Qutayba (826-889) agree that ‘Antar was
the son of Shaddad, born a slave of a black African
mother. He is portrayed as a great knight and pre-
Islamic poet. Both literary and historical sources
mention that ‘Antar participated in the battle known
as Dahis wa al-Ghabra’ between the ‘Abs and Fazara
tribes. The most widely accepted account of ‘Antar’s
death is that he was killed by al-Asad al-Rahis, a
knight from the Tayyi’ tribe, with a poisoned arrow.

‘Antara Ibn Shaddad, the Poet

Ibn Qutayba recounts how ‘Antar composed his
mu‘allaqa in response to an insult about his skin
color. Respected scholars attribute various numbers
of verses to this poem; al-Tibrizi says it consists of 74
verses. The poem’s tripartite structure is common to
the highly stylized form of classical Arabic poetry: the
nasib (opening section) describes the poet’s beloved
‘Abla and the ruins of her nomad camp; the second
section, known as the journey section, describes
‘Antar on his horse and then describes a camel, the
pre-Islamic Arabs’ most important animal; the third

section is the poet’s “warrior’s boast,” which praises
his own nobility and generosity, his prowess in battle,
and his heroic deeds. ‘Antar’s mu‘allaqa is his most
famous poem.

The Sir at ‘ Antar

Many other poems are also attributed to ‘Antar in
the Sir at ‘Antar, the epic story of his life. This work
was discovered by Europeans in 1801, when the Aus-
trian Joseph Von Hammer-Purgstall came across a
manuscript of it in Cairo. In 1820, Terrick Hamilton
partially translated the work into English. No Euro-
pean-language translation of the 5,300-page work
exists.

The Sirat ‘Antar paints a striking portrait of the
Arabs before Islam and the qualities that the
Bedouins admired. Some of the epic’s highlights are
Shaddad’s capture of the beautiful Abyssinian slave
Zabiba; his later recognition of ‘Antar as the legiti-
mate son of this union; ‘Antar’s rise in importance in
the ‘Abs tribe; his adventures while seeking a dowry
to marry ‘Abla; his voyages to far-flung kingdoms;
and the hero’s death. The last volume of the Sirat
‘Antar touches on Islam and Muhammad’s miracles.
Thanks to the Sirat ‘Antar, ‘Antar remains alive as
an eternal hero in the popular mind throughout the
Arabic-speaking world.

Driss Cherkaoui

See also Abyssinia; Adab; Folk Literature, Arab;
Heroes and Heroism; Historical Writing; Ibn Qutayba;
Ibn Shaddad; Ka‘ba (Kaaba); Names; Poets; Popular
Literature; Sira; Slaves and Slave Trade, Western Is-
lamic World; Women Warriors

Primary Sources

Anonymous. Sirat 'Antar, 8 vols. Beirut: Al-Maktaba Tha-
qafiyya, 1979.

Ibn Manzur, Muhammad Ibn Mukarram. Lisan al-'Arab,
Beirut: Dar Sadir.

Ibn Qutayba, Abu Muhammad Abdullah. Al-Shi‘r wa l-
Shu'ara’. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1985.
al-Tibrizi, Yahhya Ibn ‘Ali. Shark al-Tibrizi 'ala Hamasat
Abi Tammam. Cairo: Bulaq, 1888.

Further Reading

Cherkaoui, Driss. Le Roman de ‘Antar: Perspective Litter-
aire et Historique. Paris: Presence Africaine, 2001.
. “Kings and Heroes as Friends and Foes: the Ex-
ample of Sirat ‘Antar.” Al-Arabiyyah: Journal of the
American Association of Teachers of Arabic 34 (2001):
1 - 21 .

‘ANTAR A IBN SHADDAD

. “The Pyramidal Structure in the Arabic Siyar, the

Example of STrat ‘Antar. ” Al-‘Usur al-Wusta, the Bulle-
tin of Middle East Medievalists, Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago (2001): 6-9.

Heath, Peter. The Thirsty Sword. Salt Lake City: University
of Utah Press, 1996.

Norris, H.T. The Adventures of Antar. Wilts, England: Aris
& Phillips Ltd., 1980.

Richmond, Diana. ‘Antar and ‘Ahla, A Bedouin Romance.
London: Quartet Books, 1978.

APOSTASY

Apostasy (irtidad) is the abandonment of Islam by
either a declared desertion of Islam in favor of anoth-
er religion or a clandestine rejection of Islam that is
often combined with secretly practicing another reli-
gion. From the earliest time of Muslim law in the
seventh century, Muslim jurists agreed that apostasy
from Islam bears the death penalty. During the early
period, jurists also developed institutions to circum-
vent this harsh punishment; these institutions set the
standard for what counts as apostasy from Islam so
high that before the eleventh century, practically no
judgment of apostasy could have been passed. This
changed during the eleventh century, when jurists
lowered the criteria that prevented the death penalty
from being executed. During the following centuries,
judges could interpret the law in various ways, setting
either high or low criteria for apostasy from Islam.

The Qur’an does not mention the case of explicit
rejection of Islam after conversion. However, it
does address the assumed clandestine apostasy of a
group of people at Medina called the hypocrites (al-
munafiqun). No worldly penalty is ordained for them
so long as they refrain from rebellion, but harsh pun-
ishments are proclaimed for them in the afterlife. In
Qur’an 49:14, a group of Bedouins is described as
Muslims but not believers. This led to heated discus-
sions of the criteria for being a Muslim, understood in
terms of legal membership in the Islamic community,
versus being a believer (Mu’min), understood as
someone deserving otherworldly salvation.

The dispute about the meanings of Muslim and
Mu’min is one of the subjects that led to the First
Civil War (656-662). One party, the Kharijs, claimed
that committing a capital sin (kabira) constitutes un-
belief (kufr). A group of radical Kharijis felt justified
to kill grave sinners as unbelievers and thus legiti-
mized the killing of the second caliph, ‘Uthman
(644-656). At about the same time, Muslims agreed
on the death penalty for apostasy from Islam; this
judgment is based on the authority of a report (hadith)
of the Prophet that said, “whoever changes his religion
has his head cut off.” After the Kharijis lost the First

Civil War, the various groups of their enemies, who
dominated the early development of Muslim law,
were terrified by the prospect of Muslims killing
each other over accusations of apostasy and worked
to abate the harsh punishment the Prophetical hadith
provides.

Muslim jurists agreed that actions other than the
explicit rejection of belief in Islam could not consti-
tute apostasy. In other words, committing a sin could
not be an act of apostasy. Apostasy was regarded as
the declared rejection of Islam and could only be
sufficiently established after a person accused of apos-
tasy had been invited three times to repent and return
to Islam. The legal institution of the invitation to
repent (istitaba) is mentioned neither in the Qur’an
nor in the Prophetical hadith; in early Muslim law, it
nevertheless became a necessary condition for con-
victing an apostate. It safeguarded the ability of an
accused apostate to have a chance to return to Islam,
fully avert punishment, and be reinstated in all rights
as a Muslim. Subsequently, only those Muslim apos-
tates could be punished who openly declared their
breaking away from Islam and who maintained their
rejection in the face of capital punishment.

Most early jurists understood that the general ap-
plication of the invitation to repent effectively ruled
out any penalty for apostasy. They allowed persons
accused of apostasy to declare their return to Islam,
even when it was understood to be nominal; this
became the accepted position in the early Hanafi
and Shafi‘i schools of law. Their views fit well into a
situation during the eighth and ninth centuries, when
conversion to Islam happened collectively and often
only nominally. Malik ibn Anas (715-795), the found-
er of the Maliki school of law, ruled differently,
saying that zanadiqa should not be given the right to
repent and could thus be killed straightaway. Zana-
diqa here means clandestine apostates, but later jurists
interpreted the term more widely. This ruling meant
that the Maliki school of jurisprudence was, in prac-
tice, less tolerant toward heterodox Muslim views
than the others, and it allowed Maliki jurists to
apply the death penalty to accused apostates who
had never explicitly broken with Islam. In these
cases, heterodox views were regarded as evidence of
clandestine apostasy.

During the eleventh century, the consensus of the
Hanafi and Shafi'i jurists regarding the general appli-
cation of the invitation to repent broke down.
Hanbali jurists had already argued that some points
of religious doctrine were so central to the Muslim
creed that a violation should be regarded as apostasy
from Islam and punished by death. During the middle
of the eleventh century, scholars from all schools
argued that, in the case of the political agents of the

APPRENTICESHIP

Isma’ili counter-Caliphate, no invitation to repent
should be granted, and the agents could be killed as
apostates. This view was shared by the influential
Shafi‘i jurist al-Ghazali (1058-1111), who wrote sys-
tematically about the criteria of apostasy. Whoever
held the views that the world was not created at one
point in time, that God is not omniscient, or that the
resurrection in the afterlife does not extend to the
body was, according to al-Ghazali, an apostate and
could be killed.

Frank Griffel

See also Hadith; Heresy and Heretics; Fatimids; Ibn
Hanbal; Kharijs; Malikism; Schools of Jurisprudence

Further Reading

Griffel, Frank. “Toleration and Exclusion: al-Shafifii and
al-Ghazali on the Treatment of Apostates.” Bulletin of
the School of Oriental and African Studies 64 (2001):
339-54.

. Apostasie und Toleranz ini Islam. Die Entwicklung

zu al-Gazalis Urteil Gegen die Philosophic und die Reak-
tionen der Philosophen. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Peters, Rudolph, and Gert J. J. de Vries. “Apostasy in
Islam.” Welt des Islam 17 (1976/1977): 1-25.

Jackson, Sherman A.. On the Boundaries of Theological
Tolerance in Islam: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali 's Faysal al-
Tafriqci. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

APPRENTICESHIP

Defined by a variety of terms (mubtadi, terbiye, nazil,
yigit, sagird), an apprentice was the lowest member of
a guild in the medieval Islamic world. He was always
initiated into a guild along with others who would
work under a master teacher (iistad, usta) and the
founder of the individual guild (pir). The apprentice’s
place in the hierarchy was indeed small; his master
and the guild founder were themselves part of a great-
er hierarchy in which masters would form their own
councils to select a founder, and the founders of a
city’s individual guilds played a prominent part in
representing the urban social order. At the top of
the order were a series of local judicial officials
(naib, muhtesib, kadi) who were in charge of keeping
the social and moral order of the town.

Although the apprentice was at the bottom step
of this urban social order, he immediately gained
important privileges. As a member of the guilds, he
was likely to live in the town or city itself, and he
had much less of a fiscal burden than many peasants
in the countryside. Peasants were often tied to the
land and forced to deliver a variety of customs
and dues. The apprentice was particularly privileged
if he was a Muslim urban resident, because only

non-Muslims were subject to a special poll tax
(harag, cizye).

The apprentice also had the chance to work his
way up the social ladder, changing from a novice to
journeyman and, if fortunate, becoming a master of a
craft. He could likewise participate in the various
social councils, and he might be able to represent his
trade, city quarter or even his whole town, if the
situation occurred. The role of guildsmen as manu-
facturers was confused at times with both religious
and military hierarchies. Beginning in the tenth cen-
tury, apprentices — like all guildsmen — tended to be
associated with Sufi orders, and they could play a
role in the formation of these institutions; sometimes
they could even rise to the level of sheikh (a head of a
Sufi organization and/or an urban district). During
the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire, guildsmen
were often associated with the janissaries (the slave
elite that had dominated the sultan’s army until the
seventeenth century). Association with the military
meant that guildsmen were even more autonomous
from central control, having the theoretical right to
practice arms, if need be.

These opportunities for an apprentice’s advance-
ment and social privileges created tensions within the
guilds. On the one hand, most apprentices were them-
selves sons of guild members who wished to carry on
the trade of their fathers. The urban hierarchy typi-
cally favored this succession and often created legal
measures to ensure it. For instance, there are a variety
of injunctions in the rules and regulations of guilds
that were drawn up in elaborate regulatory docu-
ments (fiitu wet-name). Eventually, by the sixteenth
century, the Ottomans gave many guildsmen the right
to pass on their place in the guild to their sons (gedik).
Nevertheless, many had ambitions to enter the guilds
despite all obstacles. Indeed, it is interesting that the
first mention of guilds after the Arabic conquest refers
to apprentices as fityun, a term that also meant
“young ruffians.” Such apprentices were allowed by
authorities in towns that were starved for working
populations; this was particularly true in frontier
societies, where the rulers themselves felt threatened
and needed a subject population that would support
their cause. The clearest examples of this phenome-
non can be seen in fifteenth-century Andalusia and in
the Ottoman outposts in the Magreb and the Balkans
during the mid-sixteenth century.

Scholars have also tended to see apprentices as
part of the stagnant urban order that characterized
the Islamic city. Apprentices were supposedly new
generations of Muslims who carried the ideal of a
noncompetitive social order, who promoted public
welfare, and who contended with one’s place at the
expense of competition, profit, and commercial

APPRENTICESHIP

authority. Although it is true that religious orders
played a prominent role in the guilds, there were
also times when the guilds would act according to
the needs of the market and the society around
them. This was demonstrated by the participation of
apprentices and guildsmen in the military-item mar-
ket and pious foundations in the emerging market
town of Sarajevo during the late fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries. The guild members played a criti-
cal role not only in supplying the empire’s military
needs but also in helping establish cash-credit institu-
tions that could give credit to parties independently of
the will of the central government. Thus, at least in
some cases, apprentices appeared to be the youngest
members of emerging Islamic civil societies.

York Allan Norman

Further Reading

Faroqhi, Suraiya. Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anato-
lia, Trade, Crafts and Food Production in an Urban
Setting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Inalcik, Halil. Capital Formation in the Ottoman Empire.
The Journal of Economic History 29; No.l, The Tasks of
Economic History (1969): 97-140.

Lewis, Bernard. The Islamic Guilds. The Economic History
Review 8 (1937): 20-37.

Norman, York A. “Urban Development in Sarajevo.”
In Islamization in Bosnia, 1463-1604. Forthcoming
Ph.D. dissertation. Washington, DC: Georgetown
University.

Raymond, A., W. Floor, and Ozdemir Nutku. “Simf.” In
Encyclopedia of Islam , online edition, 2001.

Yi, Euonjeong. Guild Dynamics in Seventeenth-Century
Istanbul: Fluidity and Leverage. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

AQSA MOSQUE

The Aqsa mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqsa) and the Dome
of the Rock in Jerusalem constitute the area known as
al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), which cor-
responds to the Temple Mount area and which is
regarded by large numbers of Muslims as the third
Islamic sacred sanctuary after Mecca and Medina.
The Aqsa mosque is located on the southern side of
al-Haram al-Sharif, and it has been identified in medi-
eval and modern Islamic scholarship as the place
referred to in the chapter of the Qur’an known as
“Al-Isra”’ (“The Night Journey”) (17:1): “Praise be
to Him who made His servant journey in the night
from the sacred sanctuary (al-masjid al-haram) to the
remotest sanctuary (al-masjid al-aqsa) which we have
surrounded with blessings to show him of our signs.” It
is primarily this identification of the Aqsa mosque as
the location of the Prophet Muhammad’s night jour-
ney that has bestowed on the site its most significant

religious importance in Islam; the legend describes
how the Prophet Muhammad rode the heavenly crea-
ture al-Buraq and was transported by night from
Mecca to Jerusalem, where he led the prophets in
prayers on the spot of the Aqsa mosque. It is not
clear when the association between the Quranic refer-
ence and the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was first
established, but it is almost certain that it was made
some time after the building was erected. Early Qur’an
commentators were in disagreement about the loca-
tion of the Qur’anic al-masjid al-aqsa; some located it
near the town of Mecca, whereas others associated it
with the Temple in Jerusalem. Gradually the associa-
tion with the Temple became cemented in Islamic
scholarship and popular imagination.

Another equally fundamental religious belief that
Muslims in later centuries have employed in explain-
ing the sanctity of the Aqsa mosque is that it was
erected by Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. AH
13-23/634-644 CE) when he visited Jerusalem. This
tradition is questionable as well, being another likely
case of later projection; the mosque built by Caliph
‘Umar, if he actually made it to Jerusalem, was adja-
cent to or part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
One can ascertain, however, that a small mosque built
by the Umayyad Caliph Mu‘awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (r.
41-60/661-680) stood on the site, and it was
destroyed to make room for the Aqsa mosque,
which was built by orders from the Umayyad Caliph
al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 86-96/705-715), the
son of Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 65-86/
685-705), who had ordered the erection of the Dome
of the Rock a few decades earlier.

The structure has been subjected to a number of
major renovations and even reconstructions over the
years, largely because of devastating earthquakes. For
instance, it is very likely that the dome was added to
the mosque in one of the reconstructions undertaken
by orders from the ‘Abbasids. The form of the current
structure, however, dates to the middle of the eleventh
century, because the Aqsa mosque was rebuilt by the
Fatimids after a devastating earthquake that leveled
most of the city of Jerusalem.

During the early Crusader period, the Aqsa
mosque was occupied by the Knights of the Templar
order, who used it as a residence and transformed
part of it into a chapel. Usama ibn Munqidh
(d. 584/1188) reports how his close friendship with
some of the Templars earned him permission to pray
in the Aqsa mosque, which was otherwise inaccessible
to Muslims.

The centrality of Jerusalem and the significance
of the Aqsa during the Crusader period are also
attested to by the efforts of Sultan Nur al-Din
(d. 569/1174) to employ them in his ideological and

AQUEDUCTS

religious propaganda to rally the Muslims of Syria
around him when fighting the Christian invaders. In
preparation for the liberation of Jerusalem, he or-
dered a masterpiece minbar to be built in the hope
that he would transport it himself to the mosque.
However, it was left for his successor Sultan Saladin
(r. 569-589/1174-1193) to bring the minbar, when he
reconquered Jerusalem in 1187 and ordered minor
renovations to the Aqsa mosque; the minbar in ques-
tion was unfortunately destroyed in the fire of 1967,
which destroyed parts of the mosque.

Suleiman A. Mourad

See also Jerusalem; Muhammad, the Prophet; ‘Umar
ibn al-Khattab; al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik; Usama ibn
Munqidh; Nur al-Din; Saladin

Further Reading

Busse, Heribert. “Jerusalem in the Story of Muhammad’s
Night Journey and Ascension.” Jerusalem Studies in
Arabic and Islam 14 (1991): 1-40.

Elad, Amikam. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship:
Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusa-
lem. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Johns, Jeremy, ed. Bayt al-Maqdis: Jerusalem and Early
Islam (Oxford Studies in Islamic Art IX. 2). Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999.

AQUEDUCTS

An aqueduct (L. aquaeductus) is a structure for artifi-
cially conveying a constant supply of water; it con-
sists of a channel that passes underground, that
continues on the surface (where topographical condi-
tions are not suitable), that is usually covered to
prevent evaporation and/or pollution, and that is
supported on piers over valleys, roads, and so on
and cut through hills. Numerous remains of aque-
ducts from the medieval Islamic civilization survived,
with the most impressive ones being in Istanbul.

Knowledge of water supply to the urban settle-
ments and irrigation of agricultural areas was based
on the ancient civilization. The shadouf, noria
(na’ura), quanat, saqiya, and hafirs are the inventions
of the Middle East. Besides these, available water
sources were utilized by transporting water under
pressure and over long distances with aqueducts dur-
ing the Roman period to supply the heavily populated
cities, which were one of the features that shaped the
urban landscape during the Roman times in the Mid-
dle East; this was continued in some areas during
medieval times. Traces of these aqueducts exist in
almost all areas that were once under Roman rule.

These pre-Islamic aqueducts did in fact need main-
tenance, and soon after most of them collapsed. Two
aqueducts in Ceasarea built during the reign of Herod
were such examples. The more monumental of the
two was renovated under Hadrian, and it is now
partially freed from the sand that buried it for so
long. Several other aqueducts were constructed dur-
ing the early Islamic period in the Middle East and
Europe. One notable example is the system that was
built for the holy city of Mecca by Princess Zubaida,
wife of the ‘Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid
(786-809 CE). This aqueduct was later repaired with
the addition of cisterns and bends (reservoirs/dams)
and extended into the city by Mihrimah Sultana (br.
1522), daughter of Suleyman the Magnificent. The
king Al-Mansur Ya’qub Ibn Yusuf also built an
aqueduct to supply the capital city Marrakech in
Morocco in 1190. The Magra-El-Oyon Aqueduct is
another important Islamic monument in Cairo, and
it extends between El-Saida Zeineb and Misr-El
Kadima. Many quanat (underground canals) discov-
ered in Jordan, Syria, and Iran are also connected to
or built in connection with the aqueducts. Noria (pad-
dle wheels) that were powered by either wind or ani-
mals, or water-driven ones mounted vertically in front
of an aqueduct, were also commonly used in medieval
Islamic countries. Aqueducts were also used to supply
power to the wheels of wheat or olive-oil mills in the
rural areas.

Istanbul is one of the most important cities in the
world, and aqueducts from both Roman and Ottoman
times can be encountered there. There were four main
systems built during Roman times: (1) the aqueduct
built by Hadrian (117-138), although there is no sign
of a definite route it followed; (2) another major line
that came from the Stranca Mountains (Yildiz
Daglari) in Thrace and that was most probably
begun by Constantine between 324 and 357; (3) one
built by Valens (364-378) that is thought to cross over
the Mazul Kemer Aqueduct; and (4) one built by
Theodosius I that runs through Belgrade Forest to
the north of the city.

When the Ottoman Turks conquered Istanbul,
they stopped using the Byzantine cisterns, for both
religious and hygienic reasons. Therefore, Mehmet
the Conqueror immediately ordered the restoration
of the old and damaged water-supply systems; this
was done, and new ones were also built to supply
water to the city. Monumental aqueducts, as well as
smaller ones, were used commonly throughout the
empire, with the most imposing ones being those
that supplied water to Istanbul. Uzun Kemer (710 m),
which had two tiers with fifty upper arches and forty-
seven lower arches, and Maglova Aqueduct (258 m
in length and 25.30 m in height) are the two aqueducts

AQUEDUCTS

of the Kirkqesme water-supply system that were
built during the reign of Suleyman II (Suleyman the
Magnificent) by Sinan, the great architect.

The main sources of water in Istanbul were the
bends (reservoirs) that were fed by the springs of the
Belgrade Forest. These waters were conducted to the
city by aqueducts; the grandest, which was two tiered,
was built by Justinian. This aqueduct and others car-
ried water to the taksim (distribution point) at Egri-
kapi, where the main flow reached the Aqueduct of
Valens in the middle of the old city between the
mosques of Fatih and Shehzade. These aqueducts
were repaired by the Ottomans and properly main-
tained. However, the Valens Aqueduct was consider-
ably rebuilt by Sinan, the great architect, during the
reign of Suleyman the Magnificent in the 1560s, which
resulted in the increasing number of fountains. It is
easy to distinguish the Turkish stonework, but it is
difficult to date some sections of the work, because
Mustafa II also ordered extensive repairs to the same
aqueduct. The Uzun Kemer (Long Aqueduct) on the
Belgrade Forest follows the Byzantine pattern of tiers
of tall arches that are pointed but not rounded, and
these may have been built in accordance with Sinan’s
plan; however, the short Kavas Aqueduct, which has
only eleven arches, is likely to date from soon after the
conquest.

The aqueducts of both Roman and Byzantine ori-
gin were usually of equal widths at both the bottom
and the top. For this reason, only very thick ones
survived, Valens being one of these. The aqueducts
built by Sinan demonstrate more engineering calcula-
tions. Unlike a normal aqueduct, over which water is
transported via an enclosed conduit that consists of a
series of arches supported on massive piers, the sys-
tem used in the Maglova Aqueduct shows further
technical solutions. Sinan designed the width of the
arches to be even smaller, and he enlarged the piers
perpendicular to the arches and extended them in
pyramidal shape, like buttresses, toward the ground,
thereby forming three-dimensional rather than two-
dimensional forms. For this reason, these aqueducts
are more durable against the horizontal friction
forces, and they retain the equilibrium force to remain
at a 1:3 ratio. In addition, on each of these piers Sinan
constructed three discharging arches to prevent any
damage during flooding; these, when incorporated
into the main piers, gave a sense of streamlined
unity. The structure is uniquely successful and almost
expressionist in nature; vertical, horizontal, and diag-
onal stresses are uniformly absorbed. The expressio-
nist effect is most obvious in the way in which the
static forces are distributed throughout the structure
and visibly expressed on that structure. This work of
Sinan represents the most important departure from

the traditional form of the aqueduct, which had
shown little change up to that point since classical
Rome.

There are several aqueducts in Balkan and African
countries that were under the Ottoman sovereignty,
some of which are attributed to the Roman times.
There is an aqueduct that is located two kilometers
northwest of Skopje (Yugoslavia) that is built of
stone and bricks and that has fifty-five arches sup-
ported on massive pillars; this structure used to be
attributed to Romans or Byzantines, but it was re-
cently discovered that it had in fact been built by isa
Bey during the sixteenth century. Several aqueducts
were built in Cyprus during the Ottoman period, the
most notable being the Bekir Pasha Aqueduct in
Larnaca, the harbor town in which the holy shrine
of Hala Sultan (Umm ul Haram bint Sultan) is also
located.

It has become clear through written records inher-
ited from medieval times and through manuscripts
and inscribed stone tablets that water systems of
the Islamic societies were built by local people as
charitable works of waqf. Three important sources
about the aqueducts constructed by Sinan during
the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent and others
are the books Tezkiretu‘1 Biinyan (1583-1584), Tez-
kiretu‘1 Ebnive (1586-87), and Tuhfetii‘1 Mimarin
(1590). Several inscription tablets still attached to
the monuments, in addition to manuscripts about
deeds performed by pious foundations, mention the
aqueducts.

Netice Yildiz

See also Irrigation; Mehmet, the Conqueror; Sinan;
Water

Further Reading

Aslanapa, Oktay. Turkish Art and Architecture. London:
Faber, 1971.

Ate§, ibrahim, ed. “Deed of Trust for Free Water Supply
Endowed by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.” In
Kanuni Sultan Suleyman ’in Su Vakfyesi. Ankara: Pub-
lications of Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 1987.
Aytore, A. Turkish Water Architecture. 1 st International
Congress of Turkish Art Proceedings, 1959. Ankara, 1962.
Binst, Olivier, ed. The Levant, History and Archaeology in
the Eastern Mediterranean. France: Konemann, 2000.
Ceeen, Kazim. Mimar Sinan ve Kirkgepne Tesisleri ( Sinan,
the Architect and the Water System of Kirkgegme) . Istan-
bul: iSKi, 1988.

C'cgcn, Kazim. IstanbuTun Osmanli Donemi Su Yollan
(Water Supplying Systems in Istanbul), ed. Celal
Kolay. Istanbul: ISKi', 1999.

Curl, James Stevens. Oxford Dictionary of Architecture.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Dalman, Olof Knut. Der Valens Aqudduktin Konst antinopel.
Bamberg, 1933.

Goodwin, Godfrey. Sinan. London, 1993.

ARABIA

. A History of Ottoman Architecture. London:

Thames and Hudson, 1997.

Harris, Cyril M., ed. Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Ar-
chitecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1977.

http://www.WaterHistory_org.htm

Lightfoot, Dale R. “Qanats in the Levant: Hydraulic Tech-
nology at the Periphery of Early Empires.” Technology
and Culture 38/2 (1997): 432-51.

Oliver, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of
the World, vol. I, Theories and Principles. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Sai Mustafa (JZelebi. Yapilar Kitabi: Tezkiretii’l-Bunyan ve
Tezkiretu’TEbniye ( Mimar Sinanin Amlari ) ( Memoirs of
Sinan, the Architect), eds. Hayati Develi and Samih
Rifat, transcribed by Hayati Develi, preface by Dogan
Kuban. Istanbul: Kogbank, 2002.

Sozen, Metin. Sinan, Architect of Ages. Ankara: Ministry of
Culture and Tourism of the Turkish Republic, 1988.

Yildiz, Netice. ‘‘Turkish Aqueducts in Cyprus.” Turkish
Art, 10th International Congress of Turkish Art Proceed-
ings, Geneve 17-23 Sept 1995, Fondation Max Berchem,
Geneve 1999: 775-84.

ARABIA

The Arabian peninsula lies in southwest Asia, with
Syria to the north, the Indian Ocean to the south, the
Persian Gulf to the east, and the Red Sea to the west.
Its highest elevations stand in the west, with the pen-
insula sloping downward to the east, except for the
Hajar Mountains of Oman. Most of Arabia is desert,
although there is ample vegetation in mountainous
areas.

Arabs of the peninsula are traditionally said to be
descendants of the tribes of ‘Adnan and Qahtan,
originating, respectively, from the north and the
southwest of the peninsula. The most important
groupings were as follows:

In the ‘Adnan group:

1. Rabi‘a: Bakr, Taghlib, ‘Abd al-Qays

2. Mudar: Tamim, Huthayl, Asad, Quraysh, Qays

Aylan

In the Qahtan group:

1. Kahlan: Tayyi’, Hamdan, Kinda, Azd

2. Himyar: Quda‘a(?), Tannukh, Kalb, Juhayna

Enmity existed between the Rabi‘a and the Mudar,
which often led the former to forge alliances with
Arabs of the southwest against the latter. Tribes
emerged on the basis of what was believed to be
genealogical origin, and tribalism (‘asabiyya) became
an essential factor in social life. This tendency facil-
itates understanding of many historical events before
and after the rise of Islam, along with much of
Arabia’s poetry and literature.

Two important commercial routes crossed the pen-
insula. One ran between Syria and Yemen; the other

linked Yemen to Bahrain, crossing through Yamama
and terminating in Iraq and Persia. Urban settlements
were established along these routes and thrived when
commerce flourished. This contributed to the diffu-
sion of foreign cultures and of Judaism and Christian-
ity during the pre-Islamic era.

Competition for leadership was common, and,
during the early history of the Arabs, a number of
powerful figures emerged; this was accompanied by
numerous wars. The people were known for their
courage and generosity and for their close attachment
to their tribal affiliations. The character of the Arabs
was shaped by their physical environment. The influ-
ence of the desert was evident in their lifestyle and
their means of expressing themselves. This can be seen
in early Arab poetry, with its frequent reference to the
sands and to the flora and fauna of the desert, and
in the ethics, traditions, and beliefs that governed
all aspects of life. Poetry was an important aspect of
Arab culture in both the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras,
together with the oral stories (“ayyam al-‘Arab”) that
people shared in social gatherings.

People ate simple food and wore simple clothes,
and medical knowledge was limited to herbal reme-
dies. The lunar calendar was observed, and it was
adapted to approximate the solar year to fix dates
for the religious and trading seasons.

The Rise of Islam

Islam had a powerful impact on the Arabs of the
peninsula, uniting them for the first time and enabling
them to conquer vast areas. The new religion helped
to eradicate tribal fanaticism, because it classed all
Muslims as equal, regardless of race. In addition,
the Arabs rallied in the belief that it was their
duty to spread the religion throughout the world,
because Islam was the last of the divinely revealed
faiths. This conviction inspired them to venture to
the lands of older civilizations, as far away as China
and Spain.

The conquests stimulated massive migrations out
of Arabia. This weakened the peninsula itself, dissi-
pating the unity that had been established during the
early years of Islam. Spectacular victories by the
Muslims in the Ridda wars, together with the initial
confrontations against the Byzantine and Sasanian
Empires, led Arabs to flock to take part in battle
and then migrate to the newly acquired territories.

Once there, the ideas and beliefs of the immigrants
were influenced by the culture of the local populace.
Persian converts to Islam, for example, did not aban-
don their traditions, and over time the melding of
cultures affected the doctrines and practices of

ARABIA

Islam, along with Arabic language and literature. The
Arabs also built on the heritage of the Greco-
Roman past, particularly in the domains of philoso-
phy and the sciences. All of these influences were
transmitted back to the peninsula. As a result, the
people of Arabia came to be intimately connected
with a wider Islamic world. The most tangible link
was the annual pilgrimage (hajj), which drew
thousands of Muslims to Mecca and Medina.

During medieval times, the most important pro-
vinces of Arabia were Hijaz, Yamama (or Najd),
Yemen, Oman, and Bahrain.

The Hijaz

With the emergence of Islam, the Hijaz became the
center of the new community and the destination of the
hajj. During the lifetimes of Muhammad the Prophet
and the Rashidun Caliphs (622-660 CE), Medina was
the capital of the Islamic state, and it was from there
that the first armies of conquest set out.

Even after the seat of government moved outside
of Arabia, Mecca and Medina remained the loci of
the conflicts that raged throughout the Umayyad and
‘Abbasid periods. These included activities by sects
whose ideas contravened the policies of the Umayyad
and ‘Abbasid authorities as well as violent rebellions
that depleted the economic and military capacities of
both states.

The Hijaz during the Umayyads
(661-749 CE)

During 680-692 CE, ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr rose
against the Umayyad government in Damascus
and, from Mecca, gained control over most of the
territory of the Islamic state. He was killed in Mecca
in 692 CE. Traces of his movement continued to
influence the Muslim community in Mecca, which
became the symbol of Sunni opposition to the central
authority.

In 746, Abu Hamza al-Khariji, a member of the
Yemeni movement led by Talib al-Haqq, was briefly
able to take control of Mecca and Medina.

Leading figures among the sons of the Compa-
nions of the Prophet, such as Ibn ‘Abbas and Ibn
‘Umar, concentrated on religious matters and set up,
in two mosques of Mecca and Medina, religious
groups that laid down the basis of the schools of
Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) that later emerged, be-
coming the well-known Sunni schools of law.

During the Umayyad era, poetry, song, and litera-
ture flourished in the Hijaz, with the salon of Sakina
bint al-Husain being the best-known gathering. Inter-
mingling among men and women was commonplace
in such salons, and strict rules regarding women’s
apparel had not yet emerged.

The Umayyads rebuilt the two grand mosques of
Mecca and Medina and introduced a number of new
facilities for residents and pilgrims alike.

Hijaz during the Abbasid Period
(741-1258 CE)

When the ‘Abbasids assumed power, the leaders of
the ‘Alawites refused to pledge allegiance to them. In
762 CE, Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya rose in rebel-
lion in the Hijaz, which became a major center of
‘Alawite opposition. Al-Husain ibn al-Hasan rebelled
in 785, followed by Ibrahim ibn Musa al-Kazim in
817, Isma‘il ibn Yusuf in 865, and Muhammad ibn
Sulayman in 913. Although these rebellions were sup-
pressed, the ‘Abbasids failed to eradicate ‘Alawite
political and religious influence in the region.

In 929, the Qarmathians invaded Mecca under
the leadership of Abu Tahir al-Qurmuti, carrying
the Black Stone to Bahrain, where it remained for
twenty-two years. From 942 to 968, the Ikhshidids
of Egypt controlled the Hijaz.

During the ‘Abbasid period, the Hijaz attracted
religious students and collectors of the traditions of
Muhammad the Prophet (hadith), the most renowned
of whom was Imam Malik. The influx of scholars
generated a tendency toward asceticism in local socie-
ty. At the same time, many of the region’s singers,
poets, writers, and merchants migrated to the more
congenial atmospheres of Baghdad and Egypt.

By the end of the ‘Abbasid era, the Shafi‘i school of
law replaced the Maliki school as the dominant body
of legal interpretation in the Hijaz.

The Hijaz during the Fatimids
(909-1171 CE)

The coming of the Fatimids to Egypt in 969 CE opened
the door for the ‘Alawite Sharifs of the Hijaz (969-1924
CE), who declared their own state during the same year
that the Fatimids founded Cairo. ‘Abbasids and Fati-
mids competed to win the loyalty of the Sharifs, hoping
thereby to enhance the legitimacy of their respective
caliphates. This competition, however, prompted
power to shift from one ‘Alawite family to another.

ARABIA

Fatimid influence affected religious and social life
more profoundly, and Shflism spread widely during
the years of Fatimid dominance. Meanwhile, trade
with Egypt became more active, and Jeddah’s harbor
thrived.

The Hijaz during the Ayyubids of Egypt
(1171-1250 CE)

Sharifian rule over the Hijaz persisted despite the
fall of their Fatimid allies and renewed efforts by
the ‘Abbasids to destroy them. Competition for hege-
mony over the Hijaz continued until the end of
the ‘Abbasid state in 1258. Throughout these years,
education was restricted to the study of religious doc-
trine and jurisprudence. The influence of Shi'ism
was reduced, and the Shafl‘i school of law prevailed
once again. Ibn Jubayr, who visited Mecca in 1183,
left lively descriptions of social life and economic
affairs.

The Hijaz during the Mamluks
(1250-1517 CE)

During their long rule in Egypt, the Mamluks inter-
vened in the Hijaz, forcing the Sharifs to recognize
their spiritual authority over Mecca and Medina.
Persistent tension marked the relationship, and this
was accompanied by many wars. In addition, the
rulers of Yemen moved in at the end of the thirteenth
century.

Mamluk influence peaked during the fifteenth cen-
tury, when the authorities in Cairo appointed and
removed the Sharifs at will. They paid great attention
to the pilgrimage and the ritual covering of the Ka‘aba,
which was sent from Cairo each year. Widespread
cultural and social exchange cemented relations be-
tween the Hijaz and the rest of the Muslim world.

Religious teaching remained the area’s most salient
activity, and the Hanbali school of law began to
spread.

Yamama

Yamama, which is now a term used for central Najd,
was applied during the medieval period to the whole
area between Bahrain and the Hijaz. It was a center
for Arab migration both northward and eastward.
In pre-Islamic times, Yamama’s capital was Hajr,

and the area was known for its abundant water and
fertile soil.

During the sixth century, the Hanifa tribe re-
placed the Kinda as the dominant power, deriving
its strength from commerce and wheat cultivation.
The Hanifa chief, Huda ibn ‘Ali, was closely allied
with the Sasanians. Other tribes included the Tamim,
the Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘a, the Bahila, the Dabba, the
Nurnair, and the Quda'a. In struggles for pasture
and water sources, weaker tribes generally allied
with stronger ones.

Although Nestorian Christianity was strong in
central and eastern Arabia at that time, pagan ele-
ments were also present. Yamama was one of three
important religious centers, the others being Mecca
and Ta’if.

Huda ibn ‘Ali died before the death of Muhammad
the Prophet in 632, and he was succeeded by Musay-
lima ibn Habib, who claimed to have received re-
velations from God. Musaylima resisted Islam and
defeated two armies sent against him by Caliph Abu
Bakr. His army of forty thousand men was eventually
defeated at the decisive battle of ‘Aqraba in 634 by an
army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid. This was the most
ferocious war yet fought by the Muslims, with many
people killed on both sides.

After the war, the Qur’an was collected and written
down for the first time. Yamama then lost its political
importance, instead becoming a center for amassing
armies to send against Iraq. During the Umayyad
period (660-749), the only event of importance in
Yamama was the rise of the Khariji movement.

‘Abbasid influence in Yamama weakened from the
middle of the ninth century, and the area fell to the
tribes and their neighbors in Bahrain.

During the ninth and tenth centuries, the tribes of
‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘a increased their power in central and
eastern Arabia. This coincided with the rise of the
Qarmathians (c. 900-1076), with whom they shared
political interests. Together they defeated the Y amama
rulers and the Banu al-Ukhaydir in 928; the Banu
‘Amir supported the Qarmathians in their wars in the
peninsula, Iraq, and Syria.

The trans-Arabian land route declined with the
growth of Red Sea navigation during the Fatimid
period. When Nasir-i Khusraw visited Yamama in
1051, he found it to be of minor importance.

From the twelfth century C.E. onward, Yamama
was intimately connected to Hasa (Bahrain).

Hasan M. Al-Naboodah

See also Arabs; Islam; Bahrain; Oman; Yemen; Mecca;
Medina; Poetry, Arabic; Hajj; ‘Abbasids; Umayyads;
Fatimids; Kharijis; School of Jurisprudence; Tribes and
Tribal Customs

ARABIA

Further Reading

Al-Askar, Abdullah. Al-Yamama in the Early Islamic Era.
Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2002.

Ashtor, E. A Social Economic History of the Near East In
the Middle Ages. London: Collins, 1976.

Brockelmann, C. History of the Islamic People. London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.

Browne, E.G. “Some Account of the Arabic Work Entitled:
Nihayatu‘l-irab fi Akhbar‘l-Furs wa‘l-Arab.” Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society (1900): 195-260.

Crone, P. “Were the Qays and Yemen of the Umayyad
Period Political Parties.” Der Islam 71 (1994): 1-57.

Donner, F.M. “Mecca’s Food Supplies and Muhammad’s
Boycott.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of
the Orient 20-3 (1983): 249-66.

. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton, NJ: Prin-
ceton University Press, 1981.

Hill, D.R. The Termination of Hostilities in the Early Arab
Conquests: A. D. 634-656. London: Luzac & Company,
1971.

Hitti, P. History of the Arab. London: The Macmillan Press
Ltd., 1982. '

Kister, M.J. Studies in Jahiliyya and Early Islam. London:
Variorum Reprints, 1980.

Krenkow, F. “The Annual Fairs of the Pagan Arabs.”
Islamic Culture 21 (1947): 111-13.

Lane, E.W. Arabian Society in the Middle Ages. London:
Curzon Press, 1987.

Lecker, M. Muslims, Jews & Pagans: Studies on Early Is-
lamic Medina. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.

Nicholson, R. A Literary History of the Arabs. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Nobiron, L. “Notes on the Arab Calendar Before Islam.”
Islamic Culture 21 (1947): 135-53.

O’Leary and D.D. De Lacy. Arabia Before Muhammad.
London: Kegan Paul, 1927.

Shaban, M.A. Islamic History: A New Interpretation, 2 vols.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Shoufani, E. AI-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.

Stillman, Y.K. Arab Dress From the Dawn of Islam to
Modern Times: A Short History. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000.

Teitelbaum, Joshua. The Rise and Fall of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Arabia. New York: New York University
Press, 200 i.

Van Grunebaum, G.E. “The Nature of the Arab Unity
Before Islam.” Arabicci 10 (1963): 5-25.

ARABIC

Arabic language includes the formal medieval and
modern written idioms (al-‘arabiyya al-fusha; Classical
Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic), past and present
dialects (Neo-Arabic), and varying degrees of mixture
between these two levels during the premodern period
(Middle Arabic).

Following Akkadian and Aramaic, Arabic became
the third Semitic lingua franca along the Eastern rim
of the Mediterranean as a result of the Islamic con-
quests, and it extended its linguistic reach to Central
Asia, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula,

coinciding with most of the areas formerly served
by Latin in classical antiquity. As the language of
Islam, it was further used in liturgy and, in epigraphic
form, in architecture by Muslim communities in
Middle Africa, Central Asia, Western China, Northern
India, and the Southeast Asian archipelago.

The basic grammar of Classical Arabic has remain-
ed stable over thirteen centuries. A language of pre-
stige, it developed a rich intertextuality, conferred
status on those who mastered it (irrespective of
their ethnic background), and retained a unique bi-
mod al transmission in which oral and written media
complemented each other.

Successor to both the Byzantine and the Sasanian
territories, Arabic-Islamic culture selectively incorpo-
rated part of its lexicon and written heritage, especial-
ly through the ‘Abbasid translation movement from
the eighth to the tenth century CE. Inversely, Arabic
terms and genres played an important role in the flour-
ishing of Medieval Hebrew, Old Spanish (Castilian),
and New Persian (Farsi) literature.

A Semitic Language

Arabic belongs to the Semitic language family, itself
forming part of the Afro-Asiatic phylum. Arabic exhi-
bits the typical Semitic features of emphatic (velarized)
sounds; a morpheme structure based on a triliteral root
that conveys a basic meaning; a highly integrated sys-
tem of inflection, derivation of word structures (inter-
nal flexion), and apophony, which adds semantic
nuances to the root; a verbal system with prefix and
suffix conjugation; a paratactic syntax; and a list of
vocabulary cognates. Nevertheless, the specific place
of Arabic within the Semitic family remains unre-
solved. Advocates of a genetic-tree model place it with-
in the Central Semitic group, together with Canaanite
and Aramaic, whereas proponents of natural language
change and linguistic drift assign it to the Southwest
Semitic group, together with the Ethiopian and South
Arabian languages, the latter model being perhaps
better suited to the close coexistence and succession
of related tongues within the same geographical area,
which characterize the Semitic family.

Proto-Arabic

Beginning with the ninth century BCE, Arabic
names and terms are seen in Akkadian, Biblical,
Greek, Coptic, and late Aramaic sources, whereas,
from the sixth century BCE. to the fourth century
CE, short epigraphic texts in Old North Arabian

ARABIC

(recorded in a derivative of the South Arabian alpha-
bet) survive in the Arabian Peninsula and Syro-
Palestine. Their language differs from later Classical
Arabic in many ways; for example, the article ha- is
seen, as opposed to later Classical Arabic al-.

Between the third and sixth centuries, five short
inscriptions in Syro-Palestine show the adoption of
a late Aramean (Nabatean) cursive by writers of Ara-
bic. From Nabatean, the Arabic script inherits salient
traits, such as the nondenotation of short vowels
(abgad type) and inflectional endings and the lam-alif
ligature. Sporadic positional variants and connections
and the mergers of letters (e.g., r and z) in late Naba-
tean were fully systematized in Arabic, and merged
letters were distinguished by diacritic markers.

Pre-Classical and Classical Arabic

The Arabian Peninsula was home to numerous
Arabic dialects that were sporadically recorded by
later medieval Arabic grammarians, which permits a
rough subdivision into a western (e.g., Hudhayl,
Tayyi’), an eastern (e.g., Tamim), and a southern
group of tribes (e.g., Kinda, Hamdan). Highly complex
heroic poetry was composed from the sixth cen-
tury CE in a supratribal idiom and was notably
characterized by inflectional endings (i'rab; literally
“making Arabic”), which were absent in many dia-
lects. Scholars still debate whether inflectional end-
ings in the early dialects disappeared long before the
onset of Islam or whether they were lost only during
the early conquests and the massive adoption of Ara-
bic by foreigners, with the former option being the
more likely one. The most influential Arabic text was
the Qur’an, which was revealed in 610-632 in a lan-
guage that was close to the poetic idiom but that
displayed certain Western traits.

The codification of Islam’s holy book as well as
communication within the rapidly expanding Arabic-
Islamic state required a unified official tongue, which
Arabic came to fulfill under the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd
al-Malik around 700. It then became the task of
grammarians during the mid-eighth century to syn-
thesize prestige literature (the Qur’an, prophetic tra-
dition [hadith], and pre-Islamic poetry and prose)
with data gleaned from qualified Bedouins, who
were considered experts in the pure Arabic lan-
guage (‘Arabiyya). Grammarians selected core
languages (e.g., those of the tribes of Tamim and
Hudhayl), and, when these diverged, they chose fea-
tures according to their prestige (e.g., the hamza [glot-
tal stop]), frequency, or analogical derivation (qiyas).
The result was a reduction and systematization of

morphology, syntax, and lexicon, and this was
completed with the works of al-Khalil (d. 793) and
Sibawayhi (d. 791), the respective founders of Arabic
lexicography and grammar. The grammarians, how-
ever, did not create Classical Arabic; however,
through established principles and fieldwork, they
homogenized and systematized its disparate and re-
dundant ingredients into a codified common tongue.
They then proceeded to link the varied phenomena of
language (furu‘) to a few underlying principles (usul)
to demonstrate the perfection of the language that
God had chosen for His revelation.

Classical Arabic sounds consist of twenty-eight con-
sonants and three short or long vowels. The noun (ism)
is modified by genus (male or female), number (singu-
lar, dual, or plural), state (indeterminate, determinate,
or construct), and inflection (subject, possessive, or
object cases). The verb (fi‘1) has both a prefix and a
suffix conjugation and expresses time or aspect (perfect
or imperfect), mood (indicative, subjunctive, or jus-
sive), voice (active or passive), person, gender, and
number. A third and indeclinable word type is the
particle (harf); its syntax includes both nominal clause
(topic or comment) and verbal clause (verb, subject, or
object), which may be built into compound sentences,
although the older language tends toward parataxis.

During the same period, Arabic script was made to
more accurately reflect spoken Classical Arabic by the
addition of (mainly) supralinear symbols for short
vowels, hamza, long alif (madda), the doubling of
letters (tashdid), and the elision of the initial vowel
(wasla).

From contact with preceding civilizations on its
territory and in particular the 'Abbasid translation
movement, Arabic incorporated vocabulary from
Aramaic, Greek, and Middle Persian (Pahlavi),
among others. The foreign words entered the lan-
guage as simple borrowings, or they were likened to
Arabic morphological patterns (jins; “species” from
the Greek genos ), recreated by derivation (ishtiqaq;
e.g., kayfiyya, which means “quality” or, literally,
“how-ness”), or again reproduced as Arabic caiques.
A further method was to extend an existing Arabic
root with a meaning it had in another Semitic lan-
guage; for example, darasa, meaning “to be effaced,”
was thus acquired in addition to the root’s Aramaic
meaning of “to study” (e.g., madrasa, meaning
“school; religious college”).

Neo-Arabic

The inflective, synthetic language represented by Class-
ical Arabic coexists with a noninflecting analytical

ARABIC

type called Neo-Arabic, thereby forming a situation
of diglossia. No agreement has been reached about
the date of the inception of Neo- Arabic, whether
it was extant long before Islam or brought about by
the Islamic conquests. Neo-Arabic has many regional
dialects, although they share a number of features.
Most of these may be subsumed under the analytical
trend (fixed word order, expression of the verbal
mood by prefixes and of the possessive and object
cases by the particle /- rather than by inflection) and
reduction of the paradigm (the loss of hamza and
of the interdentals dh and th, the merger of the em-
phatic d and z, the loss of the dual and feminine plural
forms, the merger of different types of defective verbs,
and the loss of inflection of the relative pronoun),
although some (e.g., the z'-vowel in the imperfect
verb) may derive from ancient Arabic dialects or
contact with other Semitic languages. The common
traits of Neo-Arabic are attributed to convergence,
drift, and parallel developments and are no longer
motivated by a koine that supposedly evolved in
the Islamic army camps, although the conquests un-
doubtedly propelled the development of Neo-Arabic.
One medieval dialect that, although extinct (unlike
most Arabic dialects, which survive today), has
been preserved in written documents is Andalusi
Arabic.

Middle Arabic

This label covers all texts whose writers strayed
from the rules of Classical Arabic (thus denoting not
a chronological period but a level of language). Mid-
dle Arabic is characterized by a mixture of dialectal
and Classical Arabic forms and pseudocorrections
(i.e., instances in which the writer aimed for and
missed the more prestigious register and created a
form that existed neither in Classical Arabic nor in
his native [Neo- Arabic] dialect). Accordingly, Middle
Arabic offers a wide spectrum, ranging from the
informal level of the uneducated scribe to the gram-
matical nonchalance or dramatic purpose of the liter-
ary author. Middle Arabic is generally divided into
three groups of Muslim texts (early papyri, scientific
texts, and historiographical and popular literature
since the thirteenth century CE), Jewish texts (or
Judeo-Arabic, written in Hebrew characters), and
Christian texts (occasionally written in Syriac script),
although the evidence for the last group is limited.

Today Arabic is the official language of approxi-
mately two hundred million speakers in twenty sover-
eign nations, of the Arab citizens of Israel and the
Palestinians, and of communities in Central Asia and

East Africa; it is the liturgical language of approxi-
mately one billion Muslims.

Beatrice Gruendler

See also Arabs; Arameans; Books; Bureaucrats;

Education; Libraries; Folk Literature, Arabic; Greeks;

Linguistics, Arabic; Persians; Qur’an and Arabic

Literature; Qur’an and Manuscripts; Scribes

Primary Sources

Bateson, Mary Catherine. Arabic Language Handbook.
Washington: 1967. Reprint: Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Bennet, Patrick R. Comparative Semitic Linguistics:
A Manual. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1998.

Blau, Joshua. A Handbook of Early Middle Arabic. Jerusa-
lem: Max Schloessinger Memorial Foundation, 2002.

Corriente, Federico. A Grammatical Sketch of the Spanish
Arabic Dialect Bundle. Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Arabe
de Cultura, 1977.

Ferrando, Ignacio. Introduction a la Historia de la Lingua
Arabe: Nuevas Perspectivas. Zaragoza: Navarro &
Navarro, 2001.

Fischer, Wolfdietrich, ed. Grundrifi der Arabischen Philologie,
vol. 1: Sprachwissenschaft . Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1982.

Holes, Clive. Modern Arabic. Structures, Functions and
Varieties. London & New York: Longman, 1955.

Khalil, Hilmi. al-Muwallad fi l- Arabiyya: Dirasa fi Numuww
al-Lugha al-' Arabiyya wa-Tatawwuriha ba‘d al-Islam
( Innovation in the Arabiyya: A Study of the Evolution of
the Arabic Language and Its Development in Islamic
Times") . Beirut: Dar al-Nahda al-‘ Arabiyya, 1985.

Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1997.

Al-Zaydi, G.Y. Fiqh al-Lugha al- ‘Arabiyya ("Arabic
Linguistics") . Mosul: 1987.

Zwettler, Michael. The Ora! Tradition of Classical Arabic
Poetry: Its Character and Implications. Columbus: Ohio
State University Press, 1978.

Further Reading

Arabica 48 (2001). (Contains articles reviewing the state of
research in various subfields such as Epigraphic South
Arabian, Middle Arabic, linguistic contacts between
Arabic and other languages, and Arabic sociolinguistics).

Bergstrasser, Gotthelf. Introduction to the Semitic Lan-
guages , transl. Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake, Indiana:
Eisenbrauns, 1983.

Blau, Joshua. Studies in Middle Arabic and Its Judaeo-
Arabic Variety. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988.

Chejne, Anwar. The Arabic Language: Its Role in History.
Minneapolis, 1969.

Fleisch, Henri. Traite de Philologie Arabe, 2 vols. Beirut,
1961-1979.

Hetzron, Robert, ed. The Semitic Languages. London:
Routledge, 1997.

al-Rajihi, ‘Abduh. al-Lahajat al-' Arabiyya fi l-Qira’at al-
Our’aniyya (Arabic Dialects in the Readings of the
Qur’an). Cairo, 1968. Reprint: Riyadh: Maktabat
al-Ma‘arif lil-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi‘, 1999.

Robin, Christian. “L'Arabie Antique de Karib’il a Maho-
met: Nouvelles Donnees sur 1‘Histoire des Arabes Grace

ARABS

aux Inscriptions” Revue chi Monde Musulman et de la
Mediterranee, 61 (1991-1993). Aix-en-Provence: Edisud.
Versteegh, Kees. Landmarks in Linguistic Thought III:
The Arabic Linguistic Tradition. London & New York:
Routledge, 1997.

ARABS

Arabs, who are considered to belong to Semitic tribes,
are the biggest community of these tribes. Aside from
where they may reside as a result of different unions,
it is accepted that their homeland is Arabia. The word
Arab came after Semite nations established various
states with different names in Yemen and Mesopota-
mia. The oldest information we have about the Arab
Peninsula and the communities that lived there is
found in the tenth chapter of Genesis in the Old
Testament of the Bible. Arab, which also means “des-
ert” and which has an origin that is still not clarified,
was first seen in an Assyrian document dating back
to 853 BCE.

There had been a long period of contact between
Arabs and Assyrians in the fields of politics and the
military. Both Assyrians and north Arabian tribes
were ruled by the Babylonian King Nabonidus. It is
possible that, when Alexander the Great conquered
Syria and Egypt, he also took north Arabia during his
Asian expedition. Meanwhile, The Arab peoples, then
a tribal society, and Persians had friendly relations.

Arab historians divide Arabs into two groups,
Arab Ba‘idah and Arab Baqiyyah. Ba‘idah Arabs
lived in ancient times and then disappeared. ‘Ad,
Thamoud, Madyan, ‘Ubayl, Jasim, Tasm, Jadis, and
Amaliqa are among the important branches of the
Ba‘idah. Information related to these groups is only
found in the Holy Books and in Arab poetry. Arab
Baqiyyah refers to still extant Arabic groups. These
are divided into two groups: Arab ‘Aribah and Arab
Mustahibah, which are mentioned in the Old Testa-
ment. Arab genealogists assume that all Arabs are
descendants of Abraham; the Old Testament is the
basis of this belief, and the Qur’an also states that
Arabs are descendants of sons of Abraham. Again,
according to the same genealogists, people of north
Arabia are descendants of Samuel, and the inhabi-
tants of south Arabia, who have a settled life, are
descendants of Qahtan. The people of both regions
were always migrating for economic reasons.

Arab ‘Aribah, whose homeland is Yemen, are also
called Qahtanis. The most famous tribes are Jurhum
and Ya‘roub. Ya‘roub also has two branches, Kahlan
and Himyar, and many tribes and branches descend
from these.

Arab Mustahibah (or Arab Muta‘arribah) were
comprised of tribes that were Arabized afterwards.

These were the majority of nomadic Arabs who set-
tled in the area in the central regions of Arabia
extending from Hijaz to Badiyah al-Sham; Adnanis,
Isma‘ilis, Ma‘addis, and Nizaris are included in these
tribes. Among the main tribes belonging to Adnan,
there are Adnan, Ma‘ad, Nizar, Rabi‘ah, Muzar,
Qays, ‘Aylan, Ghatafan, Ilyas, Kinanah, Quraysh,
Qusayy, and Abd Manaf. The tribes called Adnanis
are descendants of Adnan’s son Ma‘ad. Some tribes
of Adnanis settled in the south, where they united
with the Qahtanis and became the ancestors of
today’s Arabs. The states such as the Ma‘in, Saba’,
and Himyari Kingdoms were found in Yemen, and
the Nabati, Tadmur, Ghassani Hira, and Kindah
Kingdoms were founded in northern Arabia during
the tribal period.

The Arab Golden Age, during which a system
based on the principles of freedom and equality (es-
pecially in the tribes during the Jahiliyyah period) was
seen, started with Islam. During Caliph Abu Bakr’s
period, Damascus was conquered in 635 and Jerusa-
lem was conquered in 638. Iraq was conquered after
the Nihawand war in 642, opening the doors of Iran
to Islam. In addition, two important encampment
cities were founded in Iraq (Basra and Kufah), and
these played an important role in the conquest of
Iran. Meanwhile, Khalid Ibn Walid’s victory in the
war of Ajnadayn on July 30, 634, opened the doors of
Byzantium to the armies of Islam. Actually, this war
opened the doors of the Syrian and Palestinian states
to the Arabs and ended the Ghassani state, which was
founded as a buffer state of Byzantium.

In the Ajnadayn war, the Arabs defeated the
Byzantines soundly; after this war, they started con-
quering the fortresses and cities in Jordan, Syria, and
Palestine, and they finally conquered all of Syria dur-
ing the period of Caliph Umar. Amr Ibn As conquered
Egypt in 641 and Babylon in 641. Alexandria was
conquered on September 17, 642. During this period,
Arabs progressed from a small state to a major power.
During this expansion period, Amr Ibn As controlled
the general policies himself, and he determined policy
for the conquered lands.

Caliph Othman also continued the expansion peri-
od that was begun by Caliph Umar, and conquered
Tripoli, Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, and Crete. During
this time, important events such as the Jamal event
and the Siffin war took place, and control of Egypt
and Hijaz was lost. Afterwards he sent an army com-
manded by Abd al-Malik Hassan Ibn Nu‘man to
North Africa, and North Africa was completely con-
quered between the years of 697 and 703. During this
period, the Berbers of Moroccan tribes accepted Islam.

Islamic conquests, which came to an end as a result
of caliphate fights, began again after Mu‘awiyah

ARABS

dominated events in the country. In 647, Arab armies
passed the Ceyhun river and reached Na Wara’
al-Nahr. There was a temporary decrease in the con-
quests, but they accelerated again during the years
705 to 715, after Walid became the caliph.

The most important periods for Arabs were during
the reigns of the Umayyids and the ‘Abbasids, which
enlarged their borders considerably. They faced a
new page in their history after the ‘Abbasids took
over the caliphate. There were separations from the
Islamic State during this era, and new states were
formed. In the ninth and tenth centuries, new Islamic
states were founded in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and
Palestine, and this breakdown continued until the
reign of the Ottomans.

In 945, the occupation of Baghdad by Buwayhis
resulted in power being transferred to Iranians; after-
ward, the caliphs did not have any power. In 1258, the
occupation of Baghdad by the Mongols ended Arab
domination in Iraq, and, beginning in the thirteenth
century, Arabs withdrew from the political stage. The
conquests that began in 1517 with Yavuz and that
were continued by Kanuni resulted in the dominance
of the Ottomans in all the regions except the inner
regions of Arabia.

Huseyin Yazici

Further Reading

Abu ‘Ubaydah Mu'mar al-Muthanna al-Taymi. Kitab
Ayyam al-Arab qabla al-Islam. Beirut, 1987.

Ali, Jawad. al-Mufassal, I-IX.

Caetani, L. Islam Tarihi, transl. Huseyin Cahid. Istanbul,
1924.

(Jagatay, Ne§et. Islam Oncesi Arap Tarihi ve Cahiliye Qagi.
Ankara: 1982.

. Islam Tarihi. Ankara, 1993.

Caskel, W. Das Altarabische Konigreich Lihjan. Krefeld,
1951.

Dayf, Shawqi. al-'Asr al-Jahili. Cairo, 1986.

Fayda, Mustafa. Islamiyet’in Gtiney Arabistan’a Yayilip.
Ankara, 1982.

Furat, Ahmet Suphi. Arap Edebiyati Tarihi. Istanbul, 1996.
Grohmann, A., and others. “al-Arab." In El (Englih),
vol. I, 524-33.

Hasan, Hasan Ibrahim. Islam Tarihi VI, transl. Ismail Yigit
et al. Istanbul, 1986-1988.

Hitti, Philip K. Islam Tarihi, /-//, transl. Salih Tug. Istan-
bul, 1989.

Ibn Sa‘id al-Andalusi. Nashwah al-Tarab fi Tarikh
Jahiliyyah al-Arab, /-//, ed. Nusret Abdurrahman.
Jordan, 1982.

Islam Donemine Dek Arap Tarihi. Ankara, 1989.

Jabbour, Jabra’il S. Tarikh al-Arab. Beirut, 1986.

Lewis, B. Tarihte Araplar, transl. Hakki Dursun Yildiz.
Istanbul, 1979.

Mantran, R. Islam’in Yayih$ Tarihi, transl. ismet Kayaoglu.
Ankara, 1981.

Sa‘d Zaghloul Abd al-Hamid, Fi tarikh al-Arab Qabla
al-Islam ( Adil Jasim al-Bayati) . Beirut, 1986.

Von Kremer, A. Culturgeschichte des Orients, Vienna
1875-1877. Paris: Cl. Huart, Histoire des Arabes, 1912.
Wellhausen, J. Arap Devleti ve Sukutu, transl. Fikret I§iltan.
Ankara, 1963.

Wiistenfeld, F. Genealogische Tabellen der Arabischen
Stamme und Familien. Gottingen, 1852.

Yildiz, Hakki Dursun. “Arap.” In DIA, vol. Ill, 212-16.

ARAMAEANS

Aramaeans are first mentioned in Akkadian texts of
the late twelfth century BCE as dangerous enemies to
the west of the Assyrian empire. Their territories were
organized into independent city states that eventually
fell under Assyrian domination, the last being
Damascus in 732 BCE. Hostilities between these
states and ancient Israel are recorded in the historical
books of the Bible and in a fragmentary Aramaic
inscription from Tell Dan. The Aramaeans were
probably nomads who had settled along the Fertile
Crescent and who also spread to the southeast to
southern Iraq (Beth Aramaye in Syriac sources). Cer-
tain strands of the biblical traditions that con-
cern Jacob point to Aramaean connections, most
notably the following profession: “My Father was
a wandering Aramaean...” (Deuteronomy 26:5; the
passage has subsequently been given many different
interpretations).

By the time of the Achaemenid Empire, “Aramae-
an” had largely lost its ethnic sense and was used
instead to denote speakers of Aramaic. In the
Hellenistic and Roman periods, “Aramaean”
was understood as being synonymous with “Syrian”
(i.e., an inhabitant of the general area of Syria). In
both Jewish Aramaic and Christian Syriac sources,
“Aramaean” also took on a new meaning of “gentile,
pagan.” In later vocalized texts in both languages, a
distinction is made between Aramaye (Aramaeans)
and Armaye (gentiles, pagans). The appearance of
the personal name Aram in two different genealogies
in the Bible (Genesis 10:22 and 22:21) gave rise in
late antiquity to many different mythographic views
of the origin and relationship of the Aramaeans to
other ethnic groups. According to Strabo (Geography,
1.2.34; XVI. 4. 27), the Aramaeans were also iden-
tified by Posidonius (early first century BC) as being
featured in the works of Homer.

In the Middle Ages, Syriac writers continued
to equate Aramaye and Suryaye. Muslim authors
appear to have shown little interest in identifying the
ancient Aramaeans, but they used the term Nahat to
describe the Aramaic speakers of the conquered terri-
tories, especially the farmers and peasantry of Iraq.

ARAMAIC

The Nabataean Agriculture ( al-Filaha al-N abatiyya ) ,
which was translated into Arabic from the ancient
Syriac by Ibn Wahshiyya in the tenth century, is
now thought to be based on reworked late antiquity
writings that reflect local traditions. Besides agri-
cultural lore, it contains much about pagan religion
and magic. The latter materials were taken up by
the Andalusian pseudo-Majriti (dates uncertain) in
his Ghayat al-Hakim (The Aim of the Sage). Trans-
lated into Latin as Picatrix (1256), this work greatly
influenced Western magic.

During the late twentieth century, Aramaean has
been taken up as an ethnic identity by parts of the
Syrian Orthodox Diaspora.

Sebastian Brock

Further Reading

Fahd, Toufic. “Nabat, II.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd
ed. 7 (1993): 835-838.

Ibn Wahshiyya. al-Filaha al-Nabatiyya, ed. T. Fahd.
Damascus: 1993-1995.

Lipinski, Edward. The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History,
Culture, Religion. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 100.
Leuven: Peeters, 2000.

Pseudo-Majriti. Das Ziel der Weisen, ed. Hellmut Ritter.

Leipzig and Berlin: B.G. Teubner, 1933.

Pingree, David, ed. Picatrix: The Latin Version of the
Ghayat al-Hakim. London: Warburg Institute, 1986.

ARAMAIC

Aramaic, like Arabic, belongs to the central group
of West Semitic languages and is within the Syro-
Palestinian subgroup (with Ugaritic, Phoenician,
Hebrew, and others). Its closest affinities are with
Arabic. First seen in inscriptions of tenth/ninth
century BCE, Aramaic still continues to be used in
several modern dialects some three millennia later.
The earliest evidence of Aramaic comes from in-
scriptions and documents on papyrus and skin, but,
especially during the first millennium CE, it became
an important literary language for three religious
communities (Jewish, Christian, and Mandaean),
and extensive bodies of literature survive. For well
over a millennium, Aramaic (in different dialects)
served as the main language of the Middle East,
situated between Akkadian and Arabic.

Aramaic is known through many different dialects
and scripts, several of which have their own designa-
tions (e.g., Palmyrene, Syriac, Mandaic). Different
classifications of these dialects have been suggested,
but the following seems to be the most satisfactory:

1. Old Aramaic (tenth/ninth-eighth century BCE):

This is seen in inscriptions ranging from south-
east Turkey to northern Iran.

2. Official Aramaic (seventh-fourth century BCE):

Aramaic was already replacing Akkadian in the
Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires;
under Achaemenid rule, it became the official
language of communication. Besides inscrip-
tions, there are archives of documents from
Egypt and Afghanistan; those from Egypt in-
clude the oldest fragments of a literary text in
Aramaic, the story of Ahiqar, which is a political
fable followed by a series of wise sayings that
subsequently enjoyed great popularity in many
different languages.

3. Middle Aramaic (third century BCE-second

century CE): Many dialects had by now devel-
oped their own scripts (Nabataean, Palestinian
Aramaic, Palmyrene, Hatran, Old Syriac), and
a fairly standard form of literary Aramaic was
emerging. In addition to the Aramaic portions
of the biblical books of Ezra and Daniel ( which
preserve older features), further fragmentary
literary texts have come to light among the
Qumran manuscripts.

4. Late Aramaic (third century CE onward):

Several dialects were used for literary texts;
of the western dialects, Jewish Palestinian
Aramaic has the most extensive texts, whereas
those surviving in Samaritan Aramaic and
Christian Palestinian Aramaic are much
fewer in number. By contrast, the eastern dia-
lects have proved much more influential. Jewish
Babylonian Aramaic features most important-
ly in the Babylonian Talmud, but many addi-
tional texts survive; Mandaic is the vehicle for
the corpus of Mandaean religious texts, where-
as Syriac provides by far the largest corpus of
literary texts in Aramaic.

5. Modern Aramaic (seen in written form from the

seventeenth century onward in both Jewish
and Christian texts): The modern spoken dia-
lects fall into three groups: (1) Western dia-
lects, which are spoken only in a few villages
in the Anti-Lebanon; (2) Central Aramaic,
which consists of the dialects of Tur ‘Abdin
in southeast Turkey (collectively known as
Turoyo); and (3) the much more numerous
Eastern dialects (Jewish, Christian, and Man-
daean).

Aramaic has had a certain influence on Arabic, and
some Aramaic loan words are found in the Qur’an.

Sebastian Brock

Further Reading

Conybeare, F.C., Harris, J.R. and Lewis, A.S. The Story of
Ahikar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913.

Jeffery, Arthur. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran.
Baroda: 1938.

Kaufman, Stephen A. “Languages (Aramaic).” In Anchor
Dictionary of the Bible, ed. David N. Freedman. 4
(1992): 173-178.

Luxenberg, Christoph. Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des
Korans. Ein Beitrag zur Entschlusselung der Koran-
sprache. Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 2000.

ARCHITECTURE, SECULAR:
MILITARY

Islamic military architecture assumed a variety of
forms — fortified city walls, citadels, castles, and
palaces — that in general did not diverge significantly
from the Roman and Byzantine fortifications that
Muslim armies encountered in the eastern Mediterra-
nean world or those in Sasanian Iran or Soghdian
Central Asia. Many of the standard features of Islam-
ic fortifications (towers, bent entrances, portcullises,
machicolation, barbicans, and donjons or keeps) were
found not only in pre-Islamic military architecture
but in that of medieval Christendom as well. Evidence
of early purely Islamic fortifications is scarce, perhaps
because many preexisting fortified structures were
simply occupied and reused by Muslim armies as a
byproduct of conquest. As the Islamic world expand-
ed, the need for new fortifications (especially on the
frontiers) became paramount.

The earliest Islamic structures that might properly
be considered fortifications are the isolated walled
enclosures that were erected as rural or desert retreats
by the Umayyad dynasty of Syria (r. 661-750 CE) in
the eighth century. These structures (Qasr al-Hayr
East and Qasr al-Hayr West in Syria and Mshatta
and Qusayr Amra in Jordan) usually featured outer
walls with half-round solid towers that are descend-
ed in form rather than function from pre-Islamic
Roman, Byzantine, and local architectural traditions.

Among the earliest fortified cities in the Islamic
world were Raqqa in Syria and the Round City at
Baghdad, both dating to the eighth century and both
largely the creation of the 'Abba si d Caliph al-Mansur
(r. 754-775). The surviving walls at Raqqa are mud-
brick rather than stone, and there are remnants of
numerous towers on the inner wall of the city. The
Round City is today known only through literary
evidence, but it seems also to have had mud-brick
outer and inner walls punctuated by towers and a
moat between the two walls. One notable feature of
the Round City was the use of bent entrances in the

exterior gates, which forced anyone entering the city
to make a series of repeated turns in close quarters
that thus minimized the impact of frontal assaults.
The bent entrance was later used in monumental gate-
ways in many citadels and palaces (e.g., the Alhambra
in Granada, Spain), although its origin is pre-Islamic.

More tangible evidence of military architecture
survives from a later date in the walls and gates of
Cairo and the remarkable citadel at Aleppo. Cairo
was founded in 969 north of the old city of Fustat,
and it was originally surrounded by mud-brick walls
that were subsequently replaced with stone by the
Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali between 1087 and
1092. From this same period survive three monumen-
tal stone gates (each more than twenty meters high):
Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory ), Bab al-Futuh (Gate of
Conquest), and Bab Zuwayla. The masonry tech-
niques here are thought to derive from northern
Syria. These gates have straight rather than bent
entrances and in general more closely resemble earlier
Roman gates than, for example, the aforementioned
Islamic examples at Raqqa and Baghdad.

The Ayyubid dynasty (r. 1169-1260) constructed
fortified citadels at Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo, the
last of which is the most impressive and best pre-
served. The Aleppo citadel, which was built on an
enormous, partly artificial mound, was established
in 1209 and repaired in 1292 and again during the
early sixteenth century. It stands nearly forty meters
above street level and was preceded by a fortified
gate, a bridge, a moat, and a massive barbican. In-
side the enclosed citadel was a somewhat random
arrangement of baths, living quarters, a mosque,
and a royal audience hall — in essence a small city
within the city.

One area in which Islamic fortifications differ from
their European or pre-Islamic counterparts is the
relative lack of isolated castles in the Muslim world.
To be sure, these do exist in some areas (e.g., the
mountainous regions of northern Iran), but castles
in general functioned as adjunct structures to fortified
(or soon-to-be conquered) cities. An example of
the latter is the well-known Rumeli Hisar on the
Bosphorus north of Istanbul, which was built in
1451-1452 by the Ottoman sultan Mehrned II (also
known as Mehmed the Conqueror; r. 1445 and
1451-1481) on the site of an earlier Byzantine fortress.
It was used (along with its earlier sister fortress
Anadolu Hisar on the opposite Asian shore, which
was begun by Bayazid I [r. 1389-1402]) to control
water traffic and communication between Constanti-
nople (as Istanbul was then known) and the Black
Sea before the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453.
The changing nature of siege warfare during Ottoman

ARCHITECTURE, SECULAR: PALACES

times is marked by the provisions for gun ports in

both the barbican and the easternmost tower of

Rumeli Hisar.

Richard Turnbull

See also ‘Abbasids; Agra Red Fort; Alhambra; Architec-
ture, Secular: Ayyubids; Bayazid, Yildirim; Conquest;

Mehmet II, the Conqueror; Ottoman Empire; Palaces;

Umayyads; Urbanism; Warfare and Techniques

Further Reading

Creswell, K.A.C. Early Muslim Architecture, 2 vols.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932-1940; reprinted,
New York, 1979.

. “Fortifications in Islam Before A.D. 1250.” Pro-
ceedings of the British Academy (1952): 89-125.

. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols. Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1952-1959; reprinted. New
York, 1979.

Grabar, Oleg. “The Architecture of Power: Palaces, Cita-
dels and Fortifications.” In Architecture of the Islamic
World, ed. George Michell. New York: Thames and
Hudson, 1984.

King, D.J. “The Defences of the Citadel of Damascus,”
Archaeologia, XCIV (1951): 57-96.

Toy, Sidney. “The Castles of the Bosphorus.” Archaeologia
LXXX (1930): 215-28.

ARCHITECTURE, SECULAR: PALACES

Except for famous complexes — like the Topkapi
Saray in Istanbul, the Alhambra in Granada, Fateh-
pur Sikri near Agra, the Fort at Lahore, and the Red
Forts at Agra (all built c. 1565-1573 CE) and Delhi —
extant palaces in Islam are few. Essentially used as
settings for the ceremonial of princely magnificence,
they were often as flimsy as stage scenery. The lack of
information about this ceremonial (see “Marasim”
and “Mawakib” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.)
and its relation to neighboring cultures (this infor-
mation is enshrined in the Liber de Ceremoniis of the
Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus
[Stern 1950; Canard 1951; Sourdel I960]) complicates
the interpretation of excavated remains; literary
descriptions, which are frequently lacunary and mis-
leadingly hyperbolic, are limited to the public areas.

Islamic palace architecture is often vernacular or
domestic architecture writ large, but many palaces
exhibit features that are derived from Western Asiatic
cultures: a regular layout on built-up terraces, along an
axis of symmetry, and a deep axial iwan, fronting, as in
palaces of the first Sasanian ruler, Ardashir I (?— 242
CE) at Firuzabad (Huff, Encyclopaedia Iranica ),
a central domed throne room, while the great iwan of
the Taq (or Iwan)-i Kisra at Ctesiphon on the Tigris
south of Baghdad (Kroger, Encyclopaedia Iranica),

probably built by Khusraw I Anushiravan
(r. 531-579 CE), became a topos for palace architec-
ture throughout the Islamic world.

The Umayyad Caliphs in Syria and Palestine fa-
vored the villa rustica of late antiquity (a large-scale
agricultural enterprise with baths, audience halls, and
other amenities), and they progressed seasonally from
one to another. More elaborate is Khirbat al-Mafjar,
north of Jericho (Baer, Encyclopaedia of Islam), a
winter residence with a rectangular arcaded courtyard
fronting sets of apartments, a bath with rich mosaics,
and a porch with a standing figure in Caliphal robes.
Later Islamic rulers also made seasonal progresses,
and the stations on their route (e.g., the early
twelfth-century Seljuk Ribat-i Sharaf, between Tus
or Meshhed and Sarakhs) were built like major car-
avansarays, with inner and outer courtyards. Resi-
dences like Madinat al-Zahra outside Cordova and
the Seljuk palaces Kubdabad (c. 1220-1230 CE) on
Lake Bey§ehir (Ank 2000) in Anatolian Pisidia also
spawned local satellites (i.e., hunting lodges, garden
refuges from the heat of summer, race courses, and
grandstands [Northedge 1991]). In addition, the palace
of Topkapi (Eldem 1969-1973; Necipolgu 1991) ex-
panded both seasonally and over time to include pavi-
lions, gardens, and summer houses (yah) all the way
up the shores of the Bosphorus.

In palaces, space was ordered hierarchically, from
the public to the private domain. The outermost areas
included the King’s Musick (tabl-khana, naqqara-
khana), government offices, the archives, the mint,
the armory and stables, and the kitchens, with the
hall of public audience beyond. The private areas
included halls of private audience, the women’s quar-
ters, libraries, treasuries for heirlooms or relics, an
observatory, a menagerie, some luxury workshops,
and architectural follies, often with glamorous
names: Firdaws (The Paradise), Thurayya (The
Pleiades), and Chihil Sutun (The Forty Columns,
which is the traditional name for the ruins of
Persepolis). These might also include belvederes, like
those surmounting the towers of the Alhambra
(Fernandez-Puertas 1977-1978), or apartments that
were artificially cooled, employing running water
with weirs and runnels to decorative effect (Rabbat,
Encyclopaedia of Islam).

Palaces, as seen in Cairo and Aleppo, are often
fortified, both for the ruler’s security and for prestige
(Behrens-Abouseif 1988; Rabbat 1995). Tamerlane’s
most famous palace, the Aksaray at Shahr-i Sabz
(c. 1380 CE), had a colossal tiled entrance but no
protective walls. At Samarqand (Clavijo/Sreznevskj,
p. 244-45), he entertained in garden pavilions such as
the Dilkusha and the Bagh-i Naw, which were set on
artificial mounds that were approached by steps.

ARCHITECTURE, SECULAR: PALACES

These were wooden, with tiled dadoes and lavishly
painted and gilded ceilings that, as seen in Mughal
India, may be transportable. For receptions and
feasts, the pavilions were expanded by tents with
hangings of cloth of gold and silver (O’Kane 1993).
A typical Timurid pavilion is the C,' i n i 1 i Ko§k in
Istanbul, a two-story structure of brick and stone
that was built for Mehmed II in AH 877/1472-1473
CE below the walls of the Topkapi Saray, with a tiled
entrance iwan on a columned terrace. Its plan is
cruciform, with rectangular rooms in each corner
and a domed crossing on plaster fan pendentives, an
axial apse providing a view of the palace gardens
below. Under Tamerlane’s descendants, the formal
settings often included picture galleries (suratkhana).

In the Sasanian and Byzantine traditions, rulers
presented themselves as magnificent collectors. The
‘Abbasids’ marble halls, magnificent thrones, lion
fountains (e.g., the Patio de los Leones in the Alhambra
[Fernandez-Puertas 1997-1998]), golden trees with
mechanical singing birds and other automata, pools
of mercury or polished tin, displays of arms and armor,
and rich wall hangings were described in al-Khatib al-
Baghdadi’s account of the marvels (see Qaddumi
1996, paragraphs 161-64) encountered by an embassy
from the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyro-
genitus that was received at Baghdad in 917 CE; these
set a norm for palace decoration (Gabrieli 1959).

Audience halls in the Jawsaq al-Khaqabi at
Samarra (after 836 CE), the palace of the Ghaznavid
Mas‘ud III at Lashkari Bazar in Afghanistan (Bombaci
1960), the Qarasaray built at Mosul by the Atabeg
Badr al-Din Lu’lu’ (d. 1259 CE), and the contempo-
rary Qasr al-Dhahab of Baybars I in the Citadel
of Cairo (Rabbat 1995) bore monumental painted
friezes of the ruler’s amirs. Sometimes inscriptional
programs were also seen, as in the palace of Mas‘ud III
at Ghazni, where there are panels of verse from the
Shahnama of Firdawsi (Bombaci 1960), and on the
palace walls of ‘Ala al-Din Kayqubad I’s citadel
(c. 1220 CE) at Konya in Turkey (Laborde 1836;
Bombaci 1969). The elaborately displayed poetical
inscriptions of the Court of the Lions in the Alham-
bra (Fernandez-Puertas 1997-1998) paralleled those
of the main iwan (Melikian-Chirvani, 1991) at Takht-
i Sulayman in the mountains of northwest Persia,
which was built around 1270 CE by the Ilkhanid
ruler Abaqa and that included verses of Sufi poets
as well as more extracts from the Shahnama (al-
though there is no indication that his mastery of
Persian was such that he could read it). Later palaces,
like the Chihil Sutun at Isfahan (Luschey-Schmeisser,
Encyclopaedia Irani ca ), which was begun under
Shah ‘Abbas I (996-1038/1588-1629 CE) and remo-
deled by Shah ‘Abbas II in 1057/1647 CE, bore less

intellectually taxing but more splendid paintings of
victories and triumphal celebrations.

The Islamic palaces the Topkapi Saray in Istanbul,
which were built in the later 1460s C.E. for Mehmed
II, were inhabited for four hundred years, despite the
discomfort caused by the heat of summer and the
scanty protection against the savage winter climate
(Davies 1970; Eldem and Akozan 1982; Necipoglu
1991). To European visitors, the imposing view of
it from a distance did not bear closer inspection;
however, the interior plan exhibits a certain cumula-
tive effect in a processional sequence and, with its
intimate pavilions and belvederes that are named
after conquered kingdoms (thus evoking the imperial
pretensions of the Ottoman sultanate), it perhaps
reproduces the effect of the great Byzantine palace
of Constantinople.

Its three courtyards, each with a grand entrance,
were progressively less accessible. The outermost
housed the arsenal (the church of St. Irene) and the
mint, the second held the Council of State (the Divan)
and a large block of kitchens, and the third, with the
private audience chamber (Arz Odasi), was the sole
preserve of the Sultan and his attendants, including
the private treasury and a shrine complex, where
the Mantle of the Prophet was preserved. On three
sides there were landscaped gardens with fountains
and splendid views that stretched down to the old
Byzantine sea walls; in the late spring on a fine
warm day, these views might — according to the praise
of Ottoman chroniclers — be a reflection of paradise.

The Topkapi Saray is the only Islamic palace in
which the history of the harem quarters — virtually a
palace within a palace — is documented (Peirce 1993).
Under Murad III, these quarters were reorganized
and rebuilt (1578-1579 CE), with additional quarters
for the Queen Mother and the eunuch guards and
with permanent apartments for the Sultan, including
a bedchamber in a two-story domed pavilion, a domed
reception hall, two baths, and, from the late sixteenth
century onward, schoolrooms and apartments for
the princes.

Michael J. Rogers

See also Agra Red Fort; Alhambra; Gardens and Gar-
dening; Painting, Monumental and Frescoes; Furniture
and Furnishings; llkhanids; Mahmud of Ghazna; Sasa-
nians; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi; Shahnama; Tamerlane
(Timur); Timurids

Primary Sources

Andrews, P.A. “Mahall.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam ,

2nd ed.

Arik, R. Kubadabad. Selguklu Saray ve (finileri. Istanbul,

2000 .

ARCHIVES AND CHANCERIES

Badeau, J.S. “They Lived Once Thus in Baghdad.”
In Medieval and Middle Eastern Studies in Honor of Aziz
Suryal Atiya, ed. Sami A. Hanna, 38M9. Leiden, 1972.

Baer, Eva. “K/hrbat al-Mafrf/ar.” Encyclopaedia of Islam ,
2nd ed.

Bombaci, A. The Kufic Inscription in Persian Verses in the
Palace of Mas'ud III at Ghazni. Rome, 1960.

. “Die Mauerinschriften von Konya.” In Forschun-

gen zur Kunst Asiens. In Memoriam Kurt Erdmann, ed.
O. Aslanapa and R. Naumann, 67-73. Istanbul, 1969.

M. Canard. “Le Ceremonial Fatimite et le Ceremonial
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Caronia, G. La Zisa di Palermo: Storia e Restauro. Rome,
1982.

de Laborde, Leon. Voyage de VAsie Mineure. Paris, 1836.

Echragh, E. “Description Contemporaine des Peintures
Murales Disparues des Palais de Sah Tahmasp a
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Gabrieli, F. “II Palazzo Hammadita di Bigaya Descritta
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Kunst. Festschrift Ernst Kuhnel, ed. Richard Ettinghau-
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Galdieri, Eugenio. “Les Palais dTsfahan.” In Iranian Stud-
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Holod, 380-405. 1974.

Golombek, Lisa. “The Draped Universe of Islam.” In
Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic
World, ed. Priscilla P. Soucek, 25M9. State College,
PA: Penn State University Press, 1988.

Gonzales de Clavijo, Ruy. The Spanish Embassy to
Samarkand 1403-1406. London: Variorum Reprints,
1971.

Goodwin, Godfrey. “Topkapi Sarayi.” In Encyclopaedia of
Islam, 2nd ed.

Hakki Eldem, Sedat. Ko§kler ve Kasirlar, I— II. Istanbul,
1969-1973.

Hakki Eldem, Sedat, and Feridun Akozan. Topkapi Sarayi.
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Huff, D. “Architecture. III. Sasanian.” Encyclopaedia
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al-Iabi, Hilal. Rusim Dar al-Khilafa: The Rules and Regula-
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Keall, E.J. “Ayvan-e Kesra.” Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Kroger, Jens. “Ctesiphon.” Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Koch, Ebba. “Diwan-i ‘Amm and Chihil Sutun: The Audi-
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Northedge, Alastair. “The Racecourses at Samarra.”
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O’Kane, Bernard. “From Tents to Pavilions: Royal Mobil-
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vol. 4, 69-86. Washington, DC, 1976.

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Further Reading

Ars Orientalis 23 (1992), ed. Giilru Necipoglu. Special issue
on pre-modern Islamic palaces.

Davis, Fanny. The Palace of Topkapi in Istanbul. New
York: 1970.

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. “The Citadel of Cairo: Stage for
Mamluk Ceremonial.” Annales Islamologiques 24 (1988):
25-79.

Brand, Michael, and Glenn S. Lowry. Akbar’s India. Art
from the Mughal City of Victory. Exhibition catalog.
New York: The Asia Society, 1985.

Fernandez-Puertas, Antonio. The Alhambra, I II. London:
Saqi, 1997.

Necipo Necipoglu, Giilru. Architecture, Ceremonial and
Power. The Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Centuries. Cambridge, Mass, 1991.

al-Qaddumi, Ghada. The Book of Gifts and Rarities (Kitab
al-Hadaya wa’l-Tuhaf), transl. Ghada al-Qaddumi.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University, 1996.

Peirce, Leslie P. The Imperial Harem. Women and Sover-
eignty in the Ottoman Empire. London and New York:
OUP, 1993.

Rabbat, Nasser O. The Citadel of Cairo. A New Interpreta-
tion of Mamluk Roval Architecture. Leiden and New
York: Brill, 1995.

Wilber, D.N. Persian Gardens and Garden Pavilions. Tokyo,
1962.

ARCHIVES AND CHANCERIES

Muslim tradition has it that the Prophet Muhammad
used scribes for record-keeping and that the caliph
‘Umar set up the divisions of diwan al-jaysh (bureau
of revenues) and diwan al-insha’ (chancery) in the cen-
tral bureaucracy of the state. The ensuing Umayyad
period saw the rise of professional writers (katib,
pi. kuttab) serving as confidants of the caliphs and

ARCHIVES AND CHANCERIES

playing a major role in shaping the institution
of chancery. Under the ‘Abbasids, the growing in-
fluence of the vizier resulted in the consolidation of
the chancery under his direct supervision. The chan-
cery also became one of the few institutions in the
Muslim empire that provided career opportunities for
non-Arab and non-Muslim civic professionals. It is
from Egypt, however, that original archival materials
emerged, shedding light on the organization, proto-
cols, and activities of the chanceries. At the Fatimid
court, the centrality of the chancery within the state
bureaucracy was firmly established. The Ayyubids
inherited many of the traditions. Of the preeminent
chancery writers, some had honed their skills at the
Persianate Sasanid court, whereas others had flourish-
ing careers in the Fatimid chancery before serving the
Ayyubid sultans. The Mamluk time witnessed the final
phase of the evolution of the chancery, which was by
now a complex of central bureaus and provincial bran-
ches. It was also during the Mamluk time that relatively
comprehensive documentation of the chanceries was
produced, in both archival and literary sources.

Very few Arabic Islamic archives of the pre-
Ottoman era have survived (see Appendix). The
ample evidence afforded by literary sources, on the
other hand, attests to the sophisticated efficiency of
the chanceries throughout Islamic history. Chief
among these literary sources are chancery manuals,
such as al-Qurashi’s (c. twelfth century CE) Kitab
ma'Alim al-Kitaba, al-Nuwayri’s Nihavat al-Arab,
and Ibn Nazir al-Jaysh’s Tathqif al-Ta‘rif. Particularly
significant is al-Qalqashandi’s Subh al-a ‘Sha, an ency-
clopedic work that offers detailed descriptions of
the history of the chancery, the training of the katib,
procedures and protocols, and the formulas and
guidelines, along with samples of chancery writings.

Chronicles and royal biographies also form a sig-
nificant source of chancery writings. By the Mamluk
time, nearly all of the chronicles and royal biogra-
phies contained some chancery documents; however,
many of these were edited later. Of these, some Mam-
luk treaties with the Ottomans may be collated with
the originals that are preserved in the Ottoman
archives.

According to al-Qalqashandi, two tasks were to
be performed at the chancery: (1) diplomatics (al-
mukatabat): communiques, treaties, and decrees;
and (2) personnel management (al-wilayat): certifi-
cates of hiring, firing, and promotion. Preparing
legal briefings for the civil criminal court (al-mazalim)
also fell into the responsibilities of the chancery.
Guidelines and rules were developed to standardize
the technical aspects of paperwork preparation and
processing, and they ranged from the terminology of
ranks, titles, and honorifics to the size of the paper

used, the writing style, and the formulas of treaties,
royal decrees (al-mukatabat al-sultaniyya), and per-
sonal correspondence (al-mukatabat al-ikhwaniyya).
Administrative documents under the rubric of al-
wilayat are further categorized into subtypes: ap-
pointment, dismissal, pledge of allegiance, leases and
contracts regarding the iqta’ land revenues, advisory
memos regarding religious and public affairs
(al-wasaya), and so forth.

The qualifications of a chancery writer were
commonly defined as al-balagha wa-husn al-kitaba
(“rhetoric eloquence and excellent writing skills”).
Some chancery writers were among the finest in
classical Arabic literature, such as ‘Abd al-Hamid al-
Katib, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, and Ibn Zaydun. According-
ly, the adab al-katib (“the art and craft of chancery
writers”) developed into an academic discipline
that encompassed such pursuits as languages (Arabic
and Persian); calligraphy and penmanship; rhetoric;
phraseology and stylistics; poetry and proverbs;
history; geography; architecture; and knowledge of
commerce, weights, and measures.

Appendix: Medieval Arabic Archives

The Mount Sinai documents. This is the only extant
archive of chancery documents from medieval Egypt,
and it is made up mostly of decrees issued by sultans
as edicts of protection and privilege to the Greek
Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine’s.

The waqf deeds in Cairo. This collection includes
some nine hundred deeds of waqf (religious endow-
ments drawn up on behalf of the sultan and other
officials); these are the only Egyptian “state” docu-
ments from before the Ottoman conquest.

Arabic documents from European archives. Certain
European archives (Venice, Genoa, the crown
archives of Aragon, Palermo) house a number of
Arabic documents, mainly treaties and diplomatic
correspondence of the Mamluk sultanates.

Arabic documents from Jerusalem. These are
Mamluk chancery writings preserved in the Franciscan
Custodia Terrae Sanctae in Jerusalem.

In addition, some non-archival collections — the
Cairo Geniza, “the Vienna papers,” and the Haram
al-Sharif documents in Jerusalem — contain random
chancery documents (see Further Reading).

Li Guo

Primary Sources

Ibn Nazir al-Jaysh, ‘Abd al-Rahman. Kitab Tathqif al-
Ta'rif bi-l-Mustalah al-Sharif ed. Rodulf Vesely. Cairo:
Institut Frangais d'Archeologie Orientale, 1987.

ARISTOTLE AND ARISTOTELIANISM

al-Nuwayri, Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab. Nihayat al-Arab
fi Funun al-Adab, 33 vols., in progress. Cairo: al-Mu’-
assasa al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Ta’lif wa-l-Tarjama
wa-l-Tiba‘a wa-l-Nashr, 1964 to present.
al-Qalqashandi, Ahmad ibn ‘Ali. Subh al-a'Sha fi Sina'at
al-Insha’, 14 vols. Cairo: al-Mu’assasa al-Misriyya al-
‘Amma lil-Ta’lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tiba‘a wa-l-Nashr,
1964.

al-Qurashi, Ibn Shith. Kitab Ma'alim al-Kitaba wa-Magha-
nim al-Isabci. Beirut: al-Matba‘a al-Adabiya, 1913.

Further Reading

Alarcon y Santon, M.A., and de Linares, R.G. Los Doc-
umentos Arabes Diplomaticos del Archivio de la Corona
de Aragon. Madrid: Impr. de E. Maestre, 1940.

Amari, Michele. I Diplomi Arabi del R. Archivio Fiorentino.
Firenze: F. Le Monnier, 1863.

Amin, M. Catalogue des Documents d'Archives du Caire, de
239/853 a 922/1516. Cairo: Institut Franqais d’Archeo-
logie Orientale, 1981.

Atiya, A.S. The Arabic Manuscripts of Mount Sinai: A
Hand-list of the Arabic Manuscripts and Scrolls Micro-
filmed at the Library of the Monastery of St. Catherine,
Mount Sinai. Baltimore: Johns Flopkins Press, 1955.

Diem, Werner. Arabische Amtliche Briefe des 10. bis 16.
Jahrhunderts aus der Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek
in Wien, 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996.

Ernst, Flans. Die Mamlukischen Sultansurkunden des
Sinai-Klosters: Herausgegeben, Ubersetzt und Erlautert.
Wiesbaden: Otto Flarrassowitz, 1960.

Khan, Geoffrey. Arabic Legal and Administrative Docu-
ments in the Cambridge Genizah Collections. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Hein, Horst-Adolf. Beitrage zur Ayyubidischen Diplomatik.
Freiburg im Breisgau: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1971.

Holt, P.M. Early Mamluk Diplomacy (1260-1290):
Treatises of Baybars and Qalawun with Christian Rulers.
Leiden: Brill, 1995.

Jamil, Nadia, and Jeremy Johns. “An Original Arabic Doc-
ument from Crusader Antioch (1213 AD).” In Texts,
Documents and Artefacts: Islamic Studies in Honour
ofD.S. Richards, ed. Chase Robinson. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Little, Donald P. A Catalogue of the Islamic Documents
from al-Haram as-Sarif in Jerusalem. Beirut: In Kom-
mission bei Franz Steiner Verlag. Wiesbaden, 1984.

Richards, D.S. “A Fatimid Petition and ‘Small Decree’
from Sinai.” Israel Oriental Studies 3 (1973): 140-58.

. “The Mamluk Chancery Manual, Tathqif al-ta‘rif:

Its Author’s Identity and Manuscripts.” Cahiers d’Ono-
mastique Arabe 1985-1987 (Paris, 1989): 97-101.

. “A Mamluk Emir’s ‘Square’ Decree.” Bulletin of

the School of Oriental and African Studies 54 (1991 ): 63-7.

Risciani, Noberto, and Eutimio Castellani, eds. Documenti
e Firmani dei Sultano che Occuparono il Trono dEgitto,
dal 1363-1496. Jerusalem: Press of the Franciscan
Fathers, 1936.

Al-Samarrai, Q. “A Unique Mamluk Document of al-
Malik al-Mu‘izz Aybak al-Turkumani al-Salihi.” Orien-
talia Lovaniensia Periodica 21 (1990): 195-211.

Stern, S.M. Fatimid Decrees: Original Documents from the
Fatimid Chancery. London: Faber and Faber, 1964.

, ed. Documents from Islamic Chanceries. Oxford:

Bruno Cassirer, 1965.

. “An Original Document from the Fatimid Chan-
cery Concerning Italian Merchants.” Studi Orientalistic
in Onore di Giorgio Levi Della Vida, vol. II (Rome, 1956),
529-38.

. “Three Petitions of the Fatimid Period.” Oriens 15

(1962): 172-209.

. “Petitions from the Ayyubid Period." Bulletin of

the School of Oriental and African Studies 27 (1964):
1-32.

. “Petitions from the Mamluk Period (Notes on the

Mamluk Documents from Sinai).” Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies 29 (1966): 233-76.

. “A Petition to the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir

Concerning a Conflict Within the Jewish Community.”
Revue des Etudes Juives 127 (1969): 203-22.

Wansbrough, John. “A Mamluk Letter of 877/1473.” Bul-
letin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24
(1961): 200-13.

. “A Moroccan Amir’s Commercial Treaty with

Venice of the Year 913/1508.” Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies 25 (1962): 449-71.

. “A Mamluk Ambassador to Venice in 913/1507.”

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 26
(1963): 503-30.

. “Venice and Florence in the Mamluk Commercial

Privileges.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies 28 (1965): 483—523.

. "The Self-conduct in Muslim Chancery Practice.”

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 34
(1971): 20-35.

ARISTOTLE AND ARISTOTELIANISM

The rise of philosophy and theology in Arabic Islamic
civilization was accompanied by the reception of the
Aristotelian canon of the rational sciences. Develop-
ing in close contact with Near Eastern Hellenism — at
home in Syria and Mesopotamia — the urban culture
of Islam not only received the practical arts and
sciences of the Greeks from a continuous tradition
of teaching and learned transmission but also adopted
Greek concepts and methods of reasoning into the
disciplines of theology and the law.

Early reports from Umayyad Damascus
(seventh-eighth centuries CE) bear witness to the first
exchanges of the arts, crafts, and practical knowledge
and also a few translations in the fields of popular
wisdom and political ethics (e.g., the correspondence
of Aristotle with Alexander the Great). After the
shift of power to Iraq and the Iranian East under
the ‘Abbasid caliphate (from 750), the reception of
the practical sciences and the progressive Arabization
of the Near East under Islamic rule led to a massive
translation movement from Persian, Greek, and
Syriac-Aramaic sources into Arabic, first in Baghdad
and the Eastern provinces and soon in all of the urban
centers of the Near East. Initially, Iranian traditions
in astrology, medicine, and popular ethics were

ARISTOTLE AND ARISTOTELIANISM

predominant. From the turn of the ninth century
began the triumphant advance of the Greek authori-
ties and their basic manuals, particularly the mathe-
matics of Euclid, the astronomy and astrology of
Ptolemy, and the medicine of Hippocrates and
Galen and their schools. From the beginning, Aristo-
tle accompanied the professional disciplines as a
teacher of the encyclopedia of the sciences, the prin-
ciples of rational deduction, and the scientific concep-
tion of the world. Foremost in the center of interest —
and first translated — were Aristotle’s writings about
physics and natural science: Physics, about the prin-
ciples of natural processes; On the Heavens, about the
celestial cosmos; On Generation and Corruption, about
composition and change of the elements; Meteorolo-
gy, about sublunar phenomena, and the Books on
Animals, about the natural history of the animate
creatures.

In the milieu of rationalist theologians supported
by the early ‘Abbasid court and its administration,
interreligious debate fostered a growing interest in
hermeneutics and logic. Methods of syllogistic reason-
ing entered legal and dogmatic deduction. What is
more, monotheistic theology sought solutions of
its aporias — the antinomy between the absolute One
and the multiple phenomena of created being, the
chasm between the transcendent, ineffable First
Cause and the possibility of knowledge via the
sensible world — in the Aristotelian books about the
principles of being and movement and of the soul.
Aristotle’s authentic Metaphysics — his exposition of a
science of being qua being, and his philosophical the-
ology (i.e., the doctrine of the First Unmoved
Mover) — was read in Arabic from the first half of
the ninth century. The book On the Immortality of
the Soul was first read in a paraphrase that stressed
the immortality of the rational soul, which was
regarded as a substantial, intelligible form. On the
other hand, the authentic writings of Aristotle,
which were transmitted by the Neoplatonic schools
of Athens and Alexandria and their Christian conti-
nuators, were accompanied by and harmonized with
Neoplatonic texts, which were interpreted excerpts
from Plotinus and Proclus published under Aristotle’s
name: the so-called Theology of Aristotle and the
Proclean sources of the Book of the Pure Good,
which was translated into medieval Latin under the
title Liber de Causis. These connected the doctrine of
the First Mover with the model of emanation: crea-
tion as an eternal pouring forth from the One, passed
on by the Intelligences of the celestial spheres. The
interpretation of the Arabic Aristotle identified First
Cause, first being, and first intelligence and made
this the efficient cause of creation: a creation from
nothing.

In this understanding — and applied to the ques-
tions discussed in earlier Islamic theology — Arabic
Aristotelianism served the philosopher-scientists of
the early ‘Abbasid society to legitimate rational sci-
ence as a superior way to establish the true creed of
monotheism. On this basis, the versatile al-Kindl
(d. after 868) demonstrated the harmony between
Islamic monotheism and philosophical principles.
From al-Kindi to the branches of his school in
Transoxania, from the natural sciences in Jabir ibn
Hayyan’s alchemy to the Gnostic cosmology of the
Book of the Sincere Brethren (— ► Tkhwan al-Safa — >
IsmaTliyya), the sciences of proportions, arithmology,
and musical harmony led the rational soul on its
way to a vision of the absolute: to the World of
Intellect. The cosmic blueprint of this world, as
depicted by the progression (creation) and regression
(knowledge) of intellect through a cosmic hierarchy of
ensouled spheres, was found in the teachings
of late Neoplatonism, which harmonized with the
Aristotelian and Ptolemaic models of celestial me-
chanics. Still in the same tradition, the Platonic ethics
of knowledge was supplemented with Aristotelian
catalogs of virtues and vices in tenth-century ethical
handbooks by the Christian Yahya ibn ‘Adi (d. AH
363/974 CE) and by the Iranian Muslim — > Miska-
wayh (d. 421/1030).

In a further phase of reception, Aristotle came to
be the authority of an autonomous philosophy that
was seen as a universal demonstrative science. The
rise of Aristotelian metaphysics and epistemology
among the scientific and administrative elite of
Islam introduced a more strictly Aristotelian para-
digm. Carried by the competitors of al-Kindl’s circle
inside and outside the ‘Abbasid court and its adminis-
tration — above all by the activity of Qusta ibn Luqa,
Thabit ibn Qurra, and those around Ishaq, the son of
Hunayn, as translators and original authors en-
compassing all of the scientific encyclopedia — science
was raised from empeiria to apodeixis. Until the
middle of the tenth century, the Organon of logic
was translated in its entirety, including the Analytica
Posteriora (Book of Demonstration) , which was
regarded as the crown of logic and the basis of
epistemology. Finally, all commentaries on the Corpus
Aristotelicum — from Alexander of Aphrodisias [c. 200
CE]) to the lecture courses of the late Alexandrian
school (fifth-sixth centuries) — that could be traced
in Syriac versions from the Greek were made acc-
essible by the Christian translators of Baghdad,
who taught logic as the leading art of all rational
activity (most notably Abu Bishr Matta and Yahya
ibn ‘Adi).

On this basis, al-Farabi (d. 345/950) founded
the philosophy of Islam by integrating prophecy,

ARISTOTLE AND ARIST OTELIANISM

revelation, and religious language into the Aristote-
lian theory of the cosmos and of intellect. Aristotle’s
Active Intellect — the active momentum in the acqui-
sition of knowledge by the rational soul — is seen as
a cosmic entity in a Neoplatonic model, and it
serves as a mediator conveying the universal forms
in the process of abstraction from the sensible parti-
culars and translating the universals — in the superior
mind of the Prophet — into the representations of pos-
itive religion. Here the concepts of Aristotelian poetic
and rhetoric are employed to build a theory of reli-
gious language: the symbols of revealed religion
imitate the absolute. From the perspective of meta-
physics as the ruling science of being qua being, the
theoretical and practical sciences and the Organon of
logic (interpretation and deduction) are integrated
into a unified system of the rational sciences, together
with their corollaries in the particular disciplines
of the religious-linguistic community, theology,
jurisprudence, and grammar.

Aristotle is, from this point forward, regarded by
his Arabic followers (the falasifa) as the guarantor of
the way toward demonstrable truth, for both the
rational sciences and the religious disciplines: the
First Teacher, so called by Ibn Slna (Avicenna, d.
428/1037). Ibn Slna set out to rewrite the Peripatetic
canon of readings according to the order and under the
titles of the Aristotelian works: Logica, Physica, and
Metaphysica, supplemented by the mathematical
quadrivium and by the Canon of theoretical and prac-
tical medicine. His Summa of philosophy was based on
a new metaphysics that was to supersede Aristotle’s.
It is Aristotelian in that the universals are bound up
with real substances, but they can be abstracted by
intellectual analysis, relying on self-evident principles
and on demonstrative reasoning; it is Platonic in
that the divine mind is given the role of the Active
Intellect, conferring the divine illumination necessary
for all true and necessary knowledge. Departing from
the concepts of substance and accident, essence and
existence, matter and form, potentiality and actuality,
Ibn Slna specified the concept and proof of the divine
cause under the terms of Kalam theology. He estab-
lished the First Cause as the necessary existent that
alone has being essentially and that is necessary by
itself and not composite of essence and existence. All
contingent, temporal being needs a first cause, which
is necessary and eternal and confers being upon the
creation; together with its eternal cause, the whole of
the world coexists eternally. The hierarchy of creation
is modeled in a Neoplatonic cosmology: descending
from the First Cause over the celestial spheres to
the sublunar world of form in matter. The emanation
of the forms from the Giver of Forms, the Agent

Intellect, into the genera and species of the material
substances, corresponds with the Plotinian model of
the return of the soul to its origin: to the vision of
the intelligible cosmos.

For the religious community, however, this Aristo-
telian/Neoplatonic cosmology — which implied the
eternity of the world — remained a stumbling block,
even for those theologians who adopted Aristotelian
logic as a basis of rational discourse. The refutation
written by the jurist and theologian — > al-Ghazall
(d. 505/1111), who was well versed in philosophy,
contested the philosophers’ claim that human reason
was consistent with God’s wisdom, but he neverthe-
less placed Aristotelian logic and hermeneutic into
the service of the religious disciplines. Through al-
Ghazali’s adoption of Aristotelian concepts and
systematized by the schools of Sunni Kalam that
developed in his wake (— •> Fakhr-al-Dln al-RazI), Avi-
cenna’s new interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics
shaped the scholarship of later Islamic theology.

Meanwhile, the Aristotelians of the Muslim West
(Andalusia and North Africa) took up the challenge
of al-Ghazall: Ibn Bajja (d. 533/1139) in the spirit of
al-Farabl; Ibn Tufayl (d. 581/1185) in an attempt to
mediate between Avicenna and al-Ghazall; and, final-
ly, Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 595/1198) in his large-
scale defense of the authentic Aristotle, based on
extensive commentaries of his works and summaries
of his doctrine. Against Avicenna, Averroes purged
Aristotle from the elements of Neoplatonism and re-
established metaphysics on the basis of Aristotle’s
physics of real substances, providing the demonstra-
tion of being that must precede the demonstration of
the cause. The Latin and Hebrew translations of his
commentaries became the main sources of Jewish and
Christian Aristotelianism during the Middle Ages,
lasting until the early Renaissance.

Syntheses of rationalist and religious discourse in
the religious community created complex systems of
legal demonstration, of speculative theology, and of
mystical philosophy. The philosophy of illumination
(ishraq) — as established by Shihab-al-Dln al-Suhra-
wardi (d. 587/1198) — employed the formal epistemol-
ogy of the Peripatetics (i.e., Avicenna) as a metaphor
for the process of illumination, going forth from the
First Cause, which is first light and highest reality
(Avicenna’s Necessary Being). Although the “divine
Plato” is invoked as an authority, the concepts result
from a chain of re-interpretations of Aristotle. For
the vision of the cosmic hierarchy, mediating through
monads of light between the First and the inner eye
of contemplation, the spiritual metaphysics of the
Arabic Plotinus provided a proven paradigm that
was read by Avicenna as well as his successors until

ARISTOTLE AND ARISTOTELIANISM

the theosophy of Safavid Iran (Sadr-al-Dm al-Shirazi,

d. 1050/1640).

Gerhard Endress

Further Reading

Daiber, H. Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy. Leiden:
1999.

Endress, G. “Die Wissenschaftliche Literatur.” Grundriss
der Arabischen Philologie 2 (Wiesbaden 1987): 400-506;
3 (1991): 3-152.

. Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition

in Islam. New York, 1968.

Endress, G., et al, eds. Averroes and the Aristotelian Tradi-
tion. Leiden, 1999.

Gutas, D. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Leiden,
1986.

Peters, F.E. Aristoteles Arabus: The Oriental Translations
and Commentaries on the Aristotelian Corpus. Leiden,
1968.

ARWA

Daughter of Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qasim al-
Sulayhi and a celebrated Queen of Yemen of the
Sulayhid dynasty, Arwa was de facto co-ruler with
her husband, Sultan Ahmad al-Mukarram, from 467
AH/1074 CE and sole ruler from 477/1084 until her
death in 532/1138, which marked the end of the Sulay-
hid dynasty. She exercised both political and religious
leadership in Yemen on behalf of the Fatimid Isma'ili
Caliphs of Egypt for almost sixty years. She became
the founder of the Tayyibi Da‘wa, independent of
Egypt, in 526/1132 after the death of the eleventh
Fatimid Caliph al-Amir in 524/1130. She is alternately
known as Arwa and Sayyida in many sources and by
the popular designation hurra (an independent lady)
or, as Leila al-Imad would describe her, a “liberated
woman.”

Arwa was born in 440/1048 and was brought up by
her mother-in-law, Asma’ bint Shihab, herself a
cultured lady known to people as hurra. She was
married to al-Mukarram ibn ‘Ali al-Sulayhi in 458/
1066. Many sources, Isma‘ili and otherwise, praise
Arwa’s knowledge of the Qur’anic exegesis, Prophetic
hadith, history, and poetry, and her personality and
prowess are widely admired. No doubt, they would
dare not refer to her by her first name Arwa.

When her husband died, Arwa’s minor son ‘Ali
‘Abd al-Mustansir was named as ruler; however,
Arwa exercised complete authority. She was served
by several prominent leaders and army commanders.
The Qadi ‘Imran ibn al-Fadl, who had been ‘Ali
al-Sulayhi’s envoy to the Fatimid Caliph and the
Commander of the Sulayhid army but had later fallen
out of grace, nevertheless fought for her against the

Najahids and was killed in battle in 479/1086. Two
Amirs, Abu Himyar Saba’ ibn Ahmad al-Sulayhi and
Abu ’1-Rabi‘ ‘Amir ibn Sulayman al-Zawahi (both
bitter rivals who fought several battles against each
other), served Arwa nevertheless and carried out her
bidding. Saba’ contrived to get the Fatimid Caliph’s
permission to marry her. She obeyed; the marriage was
contracted but never consummated. Saba’ remained
loyal to her in any case. Both Amirs died around 492/
1098. Arwa’s two sons, ‘Ali and al-Muzaffar, also died
near this time. In her sorrow, the Queen turned to yet
another, ‘Amir al-Mufaddal ibn Abi ’1-Barakat ibn
al-Walid al-Himyari, to whom she entrusted her trea-
sury at Mount Ta‘kar near Dhu Jibla. He was not
able to withstand the inroads made in her realm by
the Zuray‘ids of Aden, who owed tribute to her but
were now falsely claiming to be da is.

The affairs of the Da‘wa occupied Arwa. Imam al-
Mustansir had appointed her as the Hujja of Yemen,
which was the highest rank in the region; in a letter to
her in 481/1088, he asked her to supervise the Da‘wa
in India. Lamak b. Malik al-Hammadi was the Da‘i
Balagh under her. On his death, also around 492/
1098, his son Yahya took charge of the Da‘wa. On
Yahya’s death in 520/1126, the scholar Dhu’ayb ibn
Musa al-Wadi‘i was entrusted with the affairs of the
Da‘wa.

In the meantime, Al-Afdal, son of Badr al-Jamali
and the dictator in Egypt under the Fatimid Caliph
al-Must ali (487-495/1094-1101), had sent, in 513/
1119, Ibn Najib al-Dawla as an administrator and
Da‘i of Yemen, sensing the power vacuum that pre-
vailed after ‘Amir al-Mufaddal’s death in 504/1110.
His conflict with Queen Arwa’s Da‘wa and the local
Amirs prompted the Queen to contrive to get him
drowned in the Red Sea. However, she patched up
the problem by giving a member of her own Sulayhid
family, ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd Allah, the title of Fakhr al-
Khilafa to please the Fatimid Caliph, who now was
al-Amir (495-524/1101-1130). By now Arwa had
tired of the Fatimid connection. The opportunity for
independence came when, on al-Amir’s death in
Egypt in 524/1130, his minor son al-Tayyib’s right to
succeed was usurped by his uncle al-Hafiz li-din
Allah.

The Queen and her Da‘wa under Dhu’ayb declared
for Tayyib and severed their relationship with the last
Fatimid Caliphs in 526/1132. Dhu’ayb al-Wadi‘i was
declared the first Da‘i Mutlaq of the new Tayyibi
Da‘wa of Yemen and India, and he was assisted by
a valiant Sultan of Jurayb, al-Khattab ibn al-Hasan
ibn Abi ’1-Haffaz al-Hamdani, a warrior and a poet.
When the enemies pointed out that a woman could
not have religious leadership, al-Khattab defended

ASCETICS AND ASCETICISM

Arwa’s position with the argument that her womanly
form is only an outward cover. He stated that one had
to look to her inner essence, and he compared her to
Maryam, the mother of Jesus; Khadija, the wife of the
Prophet Muhammad; and Fatima, the wife of ‘Ali.

The power options of the old Queen had now run
out. The last Fatimids were supporting the Zuray‘ids
of Aden and the Hamdanids of San‘a’. There were
other rivals, such as the Najahids and Mahdids of
Zabid, the Sulaymani Sharifs, and the Banu Akk.
Arwa realized that the end of her dynasty had come.
She died in 532/1138, leaving a long list of her treas-
ures in a will and bequeathing them to the absent
Imam Tayyib (i.e., the Da‘wa that now continued to
exist in Yemen, not as a state but as a community,
and which proliferated in India).

Arwa’s last supporter, ‘Amir al-Khattab, died the
next year, in 533/1139, and Yemen was soon inundated
by the Ayyubid invasion and conquest in 569/1173.

Abbas Hamdani

Further Reading

Daftary, Farhad. “Sayyida Hurra: The Isma‘ili Sulayhid
Queen of Yemen.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic
World: Power, Patronage and Piety, 117-29, ed. Gavin
R.G. Hambly. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Al-Hamdani, Husayn F. “The Life and Times of Queen
Saiyidah Arwa, the Sulaihid of Yemen.” Journal of the
Royal Central Asian Society 18 (1931): 505-17.

Al-Imad, Leila. “Women and Religion in the Fatimid Ca-
liphate: The Case of al-Sayyidah al-Hurra, Queen of
Yemen.” In Intellectual Studies on Islam in Honor of
Martin B. Dickson , 137-44, ed. Michel M. Mazzaoui
and Vera B. Moreen. Salt Lake City: University of
Utah Press, 1990.

Kahhala, ‘Umar R. A'lam al-nisa’, 3rd ed., 253 — 4. Beirut:
Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1977.

Mernissi, Fatima. The Forgotten Queens of Islam, 139-58,
transl. M.J. Lakeland. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993.

Traboulsi, Samer. “The Queen was Actually a Man — Arwa
Bint Ahmad and the Politics of Religion.” Arabica 50
(2003): 96-108.

ASCETICS AND ASCETICISM

The terms ascetics and asceticism refer first to deliber-
ate austerity as part of a life of devotion. This discus-
sion will chiefly address the ascetics (zuhhad, nussak)
of the eighth century CE, who are widely regarded as
the forerunners of the Sufis of the later ninth century
and after. Some did wear wool (suf), which was
scratchy, smelly when wet, and liable to become rag-
ged. However, the term Sufi did not appear until the
later eighth century, and few of the ascetics whom
later Sufi writers regarded as their forebears were
expressly called “Sufis” during their lifetimes.

As for austerity, many early exemplars of piety
were notable for their poverty. When some Basrans
went to visit al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 728) on his sickbed,
they found that “there was nothing in the house: no
bed, no carpet, no pillow, and no mat except a bed of
palm fronds that he was on.” His fellow Basran Malik
ibn Dinar (d. late 740s) thought the only necessary
furniture for one’s house was “a prayer mat, a copy of
the Qur’an, and a stand for ritual ablutions.” The
Kufan Dawud al-Ta’i (d. ca. early 780s) would move
from room to room of his house as it gradually fell
into ruin.

More than particular austerities, early Muslim
ascetics had in common their devotion of extraordi-
nary amounts of time to Qur’anic recitation and
prayer. Qari’ (“reciter”) became another term for
ascetic. The Basran Thabit al-Bunani (d. ca. 744—745)
recited the whole Qur’an daily and fasted throughout
the year (i.e., he abstained from food and drink dur-
ing daylight hours). The Kufan al-Hasan ibn Salih ibn
Hayy (d. 814-815), his brother ‘Ali (d. ca. 768-769),
and their mother used to recite the Qur’an nightly in
shifts; the two brothers continued to do this in shifts
after their mother died, and finally al-Hasan per-
formed this task alone after his brother died. ‘Amr
ibn Dinar, a Meccan jurisprudent (d. 743-744),
divided his nights into a third each for sleeping, study-
ing hadith, and performing the ritual prayer. Night-
time devotions had the advantage of taking place
outside of most people’s observation, and hence they
were less likely to be performed merely to impress
others. Makhul of Damascus (d. 730s) asserted,
“There are two eyes that will not be touched by
Hellfire: an eye that has wept for fear of God and
an eye that has stayed awake out of sight of the
Muslims.”

Morally, the early ascetics cultivated sadness and
fear — sadness especially over past sins and fear of
judgment to come. They interpreted the Qur’an as
enjoining such sadness and fear. The chief point of
austerity was to keep one’s attention on the important
things, mainly God and future judgment. When

ASCETICS AND ASCETICISM

someone suggested to al-Hasan al-Basri that he wash
his shirt, he replied, “I cannot but see that the
matter is more pressing than that.” Malik ibn Dinar
gave away a pot because it made him fear its being
stolen. Practically, it was probably difficult to make
a good living if one stayed up every night to recite
and pray.

Disparagement of outward austerity seems to have
arisen during about the last third of the eighth centu-
ry. Ascetics such as al-Hasan al-Basri had called for
inward dispositions to match the outward ones, but
Sufyan ibn ‘Uyayna, a Kufan, who was active mainly
in Mecca (d. 814), went further, calling for inward
detachment alone: “Renunciation means shortness of
hope, not eating poorly.” Al-Shafi‘i (d. 820) and Ibn
Hanbal (d. 855) likewise considered poverty no neces-
sary part of an ideally righteous lifestyle. At the same
time, there arose more extreme forms of asceticism.
Shaqiq al-Balkhi (d. 809-810) rejected all deliberate
pursuit of gain, teaching that the pious should live on
alms alone. Tawakkul (dependence [on God]) came to
be practiced with such recklessness that ascetics would
set off on journeys across the desert without carrying
food or water, expecting to be sustained accidentally;
that is, by divine provision alone. As it crystallized
around al-Junayd (d. ca. 911), Sufism repudiated the
most extreme forms of austerity in favor of inward
dependence on God. Moderate asceticism remained
an important part of ideal religious deportment
among Sufis and non-Sufis alike until modern times.

Sociologists have used the term asceticism to refer
to the piety that stresses obedience to the transcen-
dent deity. They contrast it with mysticism, which is
defined as the piety that stresses communion with the
immanent deity. Islamic law is a major expression of
Islamic asceticism in this sense (i.e., Sufism or Islamic
mysticism). A predominantly mystical piety seems to
emerge in the literary record during the mid-ninth
century, in the generation before al-Junayd.

Christopher Melchert

See also Al-Hasan al-Basri; Hadith; Sufis

Further Reading

Andrae, Tor. In the Garden of Myrtles, transl. Birgitta
Sharpe. New York: State University of New York
Press, 1987.

Livne-Kafri, Ofer. “Early Muslim Ascetics and the World
of Christian Monasticism.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic
and Islam 20 (1996): 105-29.

Massignon, Louis. Essay on the Origins of the Technical
Language of Islamic Mysticism, transl. Benjamin Clark.
Notre Dame, Ind: University Press, 1997.

Melchert, Christopher. “The Transition from Asceticism to
Mysticism at the Middle of the Ninth Century C.E.”
Studia Islamica 83 (1996): 51-70.

Reinert, Benedikt. Die Lehre vom Tawakkul in der Klas-
sischen Sufik. Studien zur Sprache, Geschichte u. Kultur
des Islamischen Orients, n.s. 3. Berlin: W. de Gruyter,
1968.

Al-Sulami. Early Sufi Women, transl. Rkia E. Cornell.
Louisville, Ky: Fons Vitae, 1999.

ASKIYA MUHAMMAD TOUARE

After the death of Sunni Ali in 1492, his son Abu
Bakr succeeded him as the ruler of the Songhay Em-
pire, for which Sunni Ali’s father had laid the founda-
tions. However, Abu Bakr was soon overthrown by
one of Sunni Ali’s generals, a person of mixed
Soninke/Songhay origin. This ruler took the title of
Askiya, and he ruled from 1493 until 1529. Under his
rule, the Songhay Empire gained territory and
increased its hegemony throughout its territory as
well as its vassal states; the empire’s influence
stretched from Hausa-land (present-day northern
Nigeria) to present-day Senegal. Several of Askiya
Muhammad’s conquests were, however, temporary,
and debate surrounds which areas were dominated
and to what extent. Askiya Mohammad is said to
have gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca, launched a series
of military campaigns to expand the empire, and
spread the word of Islam throughout the region; he
was deposed by his son Askiya Musa, who exiled him.

Currently Askiya Muhammad and his empire are
considered to be the historical predecessors of the
Republic of Niger, and they are extensively celebrated
in oral tradition. These oral accounts, which suggest
his downfall resulted from his policy of following
both Islam and pagan tradition, appear to be modeled
on modern themes of interest, and they do not pro-
vide information about the historical figure of Askiya
Muhammad.

Jan Jansen

See also Sunni Ali; Songhay Empire
Further Reading

Hale, Thomas A. Scribe, Griot, & Novelist — Narrative
Interpreters of the Songhay Empire. Gainesville, Fla:
University of Florida Press/Center for African Studies,
1990.

ASSASSINS: ISMAILI

Assassin is a name that was applied originally by the
Crusader circles in the Near East and other medieval
Europeans to the Nizari Ismailis of Syria. From the
opening decade of the twelfth century, the Crusaders
had numerous encounters with the Syrian Nizaris,

ASTROLABES

who reached the peak of their power under the lead-
ership of Rashid al-Din Sinan (d. 1 193 CE), their most
famous dai and the original “Old Man of the Moun-
tain” of the Crusaders. It was, indeed, in Sinan’s time
(1163-1193) that the Crusaders and their European
observers became particularly impressed by the highly
exaggerated reports and rumors about the daring
behavior of the Nizari fidais, who were devotees who
selectively targeted and removed their community’s
prominent enemies in specific localities. As a result,
the Nizari Ismailis became famous in Europe as the
Assassins, the followers of the mysterious “Old Man
of the Mountain.”

The term assassin, which appeared in European
languages in a variety of forms (e.g., assassini, assis-
sini, and heyssisini), was evidently based on var-
iants of the Arabic word hashishi (pi. hashishiyya,
hashishin). The latter was applied by other Muslims
to Nizaris in the pejorative senses of “low-class
rabble” or “people of lax morality,” without any
derivative explanation reflecting any special connec-
tion between the Nizaris and hashish, a product of
hemp. This term of abuse was picked up locally in
Syria by the Crusaders and European travelers and
adopted as the designation of the Nizari Ismailis.
Subsequently, after the etymology of the term had
been forgotten, it came to be used in Europe as a
noun meaning “murderer.” Thus, a misnomer rooted
in abuse eventually resulted in a new word, assassin,
in European languages.

Medieval Europeans — and especially the Crusa-
ders — who remained ignorant of Islam as a religion
and of its internal divisions were also responsible for
fabricating and disseminating (in the Latin Orient as
well as in Europe) a number of interconnected legends
about the secret practices of the Nizaris, the so-called
“assassin legends.” In particular, the legends sought
to provide a rational explanation for the seemingly
irrational self-sacrificing behavior of the Nizari fidais;
as such, they revolved around the recruitment and
training of the youthful devotees. The legends devel-
oped in stages from the time of Sinan and throughout
the thirteenth century. Soon, the seemingly blind obe-
dience of the fidais to their leader was attributed, by
their occidental observers, to the influence of an
intoxicating drug like hashish. There is no evidence
that suggests that hashish or any other drug was used
in any systematic fashion to motivate the fidais; con-
temporary non-Ismaili Muslim sources that are gen-
erally hostile toward the Ismailis remain silent on this
subject. In all probability, it was the abusive name
hashishi that gave rise to the imaginative tales
disseminated by the Crusaders.

The assassin legends culminated in a synthesized
version that was popularized by Marco Polo, who

combined the hashish legend with a number of other
legends and also added his own contribution in the
form of a secret “garden of paradise,” where the fidais
supposedly received part of their training. By the
fourteenth century, the assassin legends had acquired
wide currency in Europe and the Latin Orient, and
they were accepted as reliable descriptions of the se-
cret practices of the Nizari Ismailis, who were gen-
erally portrayed in European sources as a sinister
order of drugged assassins. Subsequently, Westerners
retained the name assassins as a general reference to
the Nizari Ismailis, although the term had now be-
come a new common noun in European languages
meaning “murderer.” It was A.I. Silvestre de Sacy
(1758-1838) who succeeded in solving the mystery of
the name and its etymology, although he and the other
orientalists continued to endorse various aspects of
the assassin legends. Modern scholarship in Ismaili
studies, which is based on authentic Ismaili sources,
has now begun to deconstruct the Assassin legends
that surround the Nizari Ismailis and their fidais —
legends rooted in hostility and imaginative ignorance.

Farhad Daftary

Further Reading

Daftary, F. The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismailis,
88-127. London: I.B. Tauris, 1994.

Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Order of Assassins, 82-84,
110-115, 133-137. The Hague: Mouton, 1955.

Lewis, B. The Assassins, 1-12, 124M0. London: Weidenfeld
and Nicolson, 1967.

Polo, Marco. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 3rd revised ed.
by H. Cordier, ed. and transl. H. Yule, vol. 1, 139-146.
London: J. Murray, 1929.

Silvestre de Sacy, A.l. “Memoir sur la Dyanastie des Assas-
sins, et sur 1‘Etymologie de leur Nom.” Memoires de
Vlnstitut Royal de France 4 (1818): 1-84. (English trans-
lation in F. Daftary, The Assassin Legends, 136-188.)

ASTROLABES

The astrolabe is a two-dimensional representation of
the three-dimensional celestial sphere, a model of the
universe that one can hold in one’s hand. The repre-
sentation is achieved by a mathematical procedure
known as stereographic projection. There is a “celes-
tial” part called the rete, which is a cutout frame with
star pointers for various bright stars and a ring for the
ecliptic (the path of the sun against the background of
the stars). Next, there is a “terrestrial” part that con-
sists of a set of plates for different latitudes, with
markings for the local horizon and altitude circles
up to the zenith and azimuth circles around the hori-
zon. The rete is placed on top of the appropriate
plate, and the ensemble fits in a hollowed-out
frame called the mater. On the back of the mater is a

ASTROLABES

Astrolabe. From Cordoba. Moorish, 1154. Engraved
with the Latin Julian calendar in Italy during the fourteenth
century c. Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY.
Jagellon Library Museum, Cracow, Poland.

viewer called the alidade that is used for measuring
the altitude of any celestial body, and there are also
scales for Ending the position of the sun using the
date, for measuring shadows, and often for obtaining
additional information. If one rotates the rete over
one of the plates, one can simulate the apparent daily
rotation of the sun or the starry heavens above the
horizon of the observer. The passage of time is
measured by the rotation of the rete (360 degrees
corresponds to 24 hours). In addition, one can inves-
tigate the position of the ecliptic relative to the local
horizon and meridian; these are configurations of
prime importance in astrology.

The astrolabe is a Greek invention that was
inherited by the Muslims during the eighth century
and much developed by them thereafter. It was the
favorite instrument of the Muslim astronomers, and
hundreds survive, although only about 150 of them
are from before 1500. Below are some of the most
historically important examples.

• An astrolabe that was preserved until recently in
the Archaeological Museum in Baghdad can be

dated to the late eighth century. It has a Hellenis-
tic design for the rete and plates for each of
the climates of antiquity. The star positions are
wrong (they are based on Greek coordinates
updated with the incorrect Greek value of preces-
sion), proving that the instrument predates the
Baghdad observations of the early ninth century.
One of a dozen astrolabes surviving from ‘Ab-
basid Baghdad and Buwayhid Isfahan was
made by the astronomer al-Khujandi in 984.
Already the astrolabe is a scientific work of
art; it is richly decorated with a quatrefoil
and zoomorphic star pointers, and it has high-
ly accurate markings. (The so-called Astrolabe
of Pope Sylvester II, which has featured in
several exhibitions, is nothing more than an
unsigned, undated astrolabe from 'Abba si d
Baghdad with some dubious nineteenth-century
Italian additions on the back.)

Of some dozen and a half astrolabes from al-
Andalus, all from the eleventh century, one
made in Cordova in 1054 bears later additional
markings in Hebrew on the plates for Cordova
and Toledo, and another bears later medieval
Catalan additions. The study of the second and
further layers of inscriptions is particularly
rewarding for investigating the later fate of
individual instruments.

Some two dozen astrolabes survive from Ayyu-
bid and Mamluk Egypt and Syria, and their
variety reflects the colorful tradition of astrono-
my there. Of these, the remarkable universal
astrolabe of Ibn al-Sarraj (made in Aleppo in
1328) is the most sophisticated astrolabe ever
made. It can be used for any latitude in five
different ways. An astrolabe with numbers in
Coptic alphanumerical notation has been
dated to 1282 and comes from Cairo.

An astrolabe signed by the Yemeni Prince al-
Ashraf in 1291 was deemed suspicious until
(1) it was established that there was a vibrant
tradition of astronomy in Yemen from the tenth
to the nineteenth century (which was confirmed
by the finding of many Yemeni manuscripts
about astronomy) and (2) that there is a manu-
script in Cairo of a treatise on the construction
of the astrolabe authored by and penned by
the prince himself. Appended to this are some
notes of approval (ijazas) in the handwriting of
the prince’s teachers describing six astrolabes
that he made under their supervision and
authorizing him to continue making the instru-
ments.

Alas, none of the instruments made for the
fourteenth-century Delhi Sultan Fi'ruz Shah

ASTROLABES

Tughluq [q.v.], which are described in a histori-
cal work, survive. Some were made in silver and
others in gold and silver; others were very large.
The earliest surviving astrolabe from Muslim
India, which is half a meter in diameter, can be
associated with Maqsud Hirawi in Lahore
(c. 1550). He is known from a contemporaneous
chronicle to have made astrolabes and globes
for Humayun “in such a manner that the
observers of his work were wonderstruck.”

• On an astrolabe signed by Jalal al-Kirmani and
dated 1426, the name on the dedication to the
throne has been eradicated, although the person
it was made for was obviously a prince of some
importance. Special plates serve Samarqand and
Herat; Jalal al-Asturlabi is named as the instru-
ment maker at the observatory of Ulugh Beg in
Samarqand, and that ruler commuted between
the two cities. A solitary unsigned rete obviously
by the same maker is fitted to a magnificent
thirteenth-century Syrian astrolabe (damaged
booty from the Mongol attack on Damascus,
perhaps) and is dated a few years earlier. Of
the dedication to a sultan on the new rete, only
the letter’s title remains intact; the name of
Shahrukh has been broken off.

• An astrolabe now in Cairo is dedicated to the
Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II, who was particu-
larly interested in astronomy. The maker is
named as Mukhlis al-Shirwani, so it is not
surprising that the instrument is in the Iranian
tradition.

• Perhaps the most colorful example is a quatre-
foil astrolabe that has inscriptions in Hebrew,
Latin, and Arabic. It was made around 1300,
probably in Toledo, and the bare instrument
was made by a Jewish craftsman, who left
scratches in Hebrew alphanumerical script for
the latitudes on each of the plates. The design of
the rete is European, with strong mudejar influ-
ence. The inscriptions on the rete and the plates
are in a scholastic Latin, with very distorted
Arabic names for the stars and some regional
peculiarities that could eventually localize the
engraver. However, the back was never com-
pleted by the scholar, and the piece fell into
the hands of a Muslim Arab, who put his
name, Mas‘ud, on the shackle of the throne.
He also had plans to emigrate to more hospita-
ble climes: he replaced one of the plates with one
of his own that served Algiers and Mecca. He
seems to have been at least partly successful,
because there is an Ibn Vlas' ud who was born
in Tlemcen at the right time who later wrote on
instruments. In any case, the creator’s father’s

astrolabe ended up in Northern France by the
sixteenth century, according to a fourth layer of
markings.

Arabic treatises about the construction and use of
the astrolabe abound. The earliest surviving one was
written by al-Khwarizmi (now published), but those
by al-Farghani and al-Biruni (still unpublished) are
the most important.

The second most popular astronomical instrument
of the Muslims was the quadrant, of which several
varieties were available. Below three types of quad-
rants are considered: ( 1 ) horary quadrants; (2) trigo-
nometric quadrants; and (3) astrolabic quadrants.

The horary quadrant is essentially a device for
keeping time using the sun. It bears a set of markings
that are graphical representations of the altitude of
the sun at the hours throughout the year. The user
holds the quadrant vertically with one axis toward the
sun, and a movable bead on a thread with plummet,
set to the appropriate solar longitude, falls on the
appropriate markings to determine the hour of the
day. The horary markings are either for a specific
latitude or for all latitudes, with markings of the latter
variety being necessarily approximate. Both types of
quadrants were invented in Baghdad during the ninth
century. Quadrants for a fixed latitude are known to
exist for Rayy and Cairo (both from the thirteenth
century), and they are also found on the backs of two
astrolabes from Baghdad (tenth century). However,
tables displaying the altitude of the sun as a function
of the time of day for, say, each sign of the ecliptic
(which one needs to construct the markings on such a
quadrant) are known to be from ninth-century Bagh-
dad. Quadrants for all latitudes are much more com-
mon, not least because they were often included on
the backs of astrolabes. They provide a quick means
of finding the time in seasonal hours for any latitude,
whereas, with the front of the astrolabe, one can —
with more effort — find the time in equatorial hours or
seasonal hours for any latitude represented by the
plates.

Another Islamic invention was the trigonometric
quadrant, with which one can solve trigonometric for-
mulae without any calculation. The simplest kind was
developed for timekeeping in ninth-century Baghdad,
and the most sophisticated kind, with markings re-
sembling modern graph paper, was known already in
the tenth century. Quadrants with such markings
were often included on the backs of astrolabes or on
the backs of astrolabic quadrants. This last type,
which was developed in Cairo around 1200, essential-
ly consists of half of the markings on a standard
astrolabe plate (necessarily serving a single latitude),
with an ecliptic scale and a thread with a movable

ASTROLABES

bead. With such a handy device, one can perform
most of the standard operations that are possible
with an astrolabe. It replaced the astrolabe as the
most popular instrument in the Ottoman world.

David A. King

Further Reading

Brieux, Alain, and Francis R. Maddison. Repertoire des Fac-
teurs d' Astrolabes et de Lews CEuvres. Paris: C.N.R.S., in
press.

Charette, Francois, and Petra Schmidl. “Al-Khwarizmi and
Practical Astronomy in Ninth-Century Baghdad. The
Earliest Corpus of Texts in Arabic on the Astrolabe
and Other Portable Instruments.” SCIAMVS 5 (2004):
101-98.

Gunther, Robert T. The Astrolabes of the World , 2 vols.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932. Reprint in 1 vol.:
London: The Holland Press, 1976.

King, David A. “Astronomical Instruments between East
and West.” In Kommunikation Zwischen Orient und
Okzident — Alltag und Sachkultur, ed. Harry Kiihnel,
143-98. Vienna: Osterreichische Akademie der Wis-
senschaften, 1994.

King, David A. In Synchrony with the Heavens..., vol. 2:
Instruments of Mass Calculation. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Mayer, Leo A. Islamic Astrolabists and Their Works.
Geneva: A. Kundig, 1956.

ASTROLOGY

Astrology as it was practiced in the Muslim world is
divided into two types: judicial astrology (ahkam al-
nujum) and popular astrology. The former type seeks
to use the Ptolemaic understanding of the cosmos and
to find patterns in it that can be helpful for prognos-
ticating the future of a given individual or group.
Although judicial astrology as such is a pseudosci-
ence, the tables used by Muslim astrologers — who
were often undifferentiated from astronomers (both
being referred to as munajjim ) until approximately the
twelfth to fifteenth centuries — were remarkable achie-
vements of mathematics and gematria. Popular astrol-
ogy combined the lore of judicial astrology with Sufi
teachings and continues to this day to be part of
mystic literature.

The Muslim attitude toward astrology is somewhat
ambiguous. One statement concerning the subject
reads: “The [pre-Islamic] Arabs specialized in (sever-
al) faculties: in soothsaying, in prognostication
(qiyafa), augury by the flight of birds (‘ayafa),
astronomy-astrology, and gematrical calculations;
Islam destroyed soothsaying and confirmed the rest
of them.” (al-Zubayr ibn al-Bakkar. Akhbar al-
Muwaffaqiyyat, 300 [no. 213].) Most of the paradig-
matic astrologers, such as Abu Ma‘shar (d. AH 273/
886 CE), held prominent positions in society and were

frequently advisors to rulers and elites. Many of the
most famous astrologers were non-Muslims, such as
the Jewish figure Masha’allah (c. third/ninth centu-
ries). In addition to this proximity to power, many
famous scientists and astronomers, such as Abu Ray-
han al-Biruni (d. 440/1048-1049), either practiced
astrology on the side or at least wrote books on the
subject. However, starting in the tenth century, Mus-
lim religious scholars began to cast doubt on the
religious acceptability of astrology. Their task was a
difficult one, because astrologers seemed to have
access to genuine knowledge. Al-Sharif al-Murtada
(the famous Shi‘i theologian of Baghdad, d. 436/
1044-1045), stated the following:

...how can we say that the astrologers are guessing
[about their predictions] when their dictions are almost
invariably right? They predict solar eclipses — their time
and extent — and it happens exactly as they say it will.
What is the difference between their prediction of the
happening with this effect up that body [the sun] and
their prediction of the happening with its effect upon our
bodies?

( Rasa'il , vol. 2, pp. 301-2.)

This dilemma and the fact that astrologers com-
manded a good deal of social prestige during the
Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods made it more diffi-
cult for religious leaders to deal with the subject of
astrology.

The most successful method of polemicizing with
the astrologers was ridicule. Because most of Muslim
history was written by religious leaders, there are
abundant examples of their attempts to discredit the
astrologers. Occasionally astrologers made verifiably
incorrect predictions, the most famous of which was a
deluge of fire and water that was supposed to occur
on August 17, 1186. The Ghaznavid historian al-'Utbi
writes the following:

In the year 582 [1 1 86-1 1 87] the sign Libra had assem-
bled within itself the seven planets; and it had been for a
long time reported in men's mouths and in their books,
that the astrologers had averred their judgment that at
this time there would be a deluge of wind three kos
[about two miles] long, and as some said ten kos wide,
which would extend over twenty kos of ground, which
would carry off high mountains, so that neither men
nor beasts would remain, and at this time would be
the season of the judgment, which according to the
glorious Qur'an, to histories and by investigation is
to come.

(al-'Utbi, Ta'rikh-i Yamini, transl. James Reynolds,
p. 489)

This prediction was recorded all over the Muslim
world from Ghazna in the east to Spain, and it
reached Europe as well. The discontinuation of their

ASTRONOMY

prediction was cause for the appearance of a large
number of treatises attacking astrology, including
that of the Jewish philosopher and community leader
Maimonides.

However, astrology continued to be important for
the Sufi mystical systems, especially those that were
based on the thought of Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-‘Arabi
(d. 638/1240). This construction of astrological spiri-
tuality promoted the idea that there was a close cor-
relation between the seen cosmos and the unseen
spiritual cosmos. On the basis of this idea, one could
ascend spiritually to the upper realms and experience
them while still bodily upon the earth. These ideas
continue to be influential in Sufi circles, although
astrologers as a whole suffered from diminishing pres-
tige after the Mamluk period. However, it was rare
to find a court without an astrologer before modern
times.

David Cook

Further Reading

Burckhardt, Titus. Mystical Astrology According to Ibn
‘ Arabi , transl. Bulent Rauf. Oxford: Beshara Publica-
tions, 1989 (reprint).

Kennedy, E.S., and Pingree, David, transl. The Astrological
History of Masha’allah. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1971.

Langermann, Y. Tzvi. “Maimonides" Repudiation of As-
trology.” In Maimonidean Studies, vol. 2, 123-58. New
York: Michael Sharf Publication Trust, 1991.

Michot, Yahya. “Ibn Taymiyya on Astrology: Annotated
Translation of Three Fatwas.” Journal of Islamic Studies
11:2 (2000): 147-208.

Saliba, George. “The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval
Islamic Society.” Bulletin d’Etudes Orientates 44 (1992):
45-67.

Al-Sharif al-Murtada. Rasa’il, 3 vol., ed. Ahmad al-
Husayni. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Nur li-l-Matbu‘at.

Al-‘Utbi. Ta’rikh-i Yamini , ed. Ihsan Dhanun al-Thamiri.
Beirut: Dar al-Tali‘a, 2004. (Translation by James Rey-
nolds. London: Oriental Translation Fund, 1888.)

ASTRONOMY

Islamic astronomy grew out of conditions in the
Umayyad and ‘Abbasid Caliphates. The Umayyads
had initially preserved the preexisting administrative
apparatus of the lands they conquered. However,
when the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (d. 705
CE) decided to translate the administrative apparatus
of the Empire into Arabic, information about
surveying and calendar calculation also had to be
translated into Arabic for the benefit of ministers
and scribes who could not read Persian or Greek.
The ‘Abbasids, after coming to power in 750, invoked
the pre-Islamic Sasanian cultural heritage to stabilize

their rule. Original research in astronomy was part of
an ongoing dialectic with translation, not merely its
subsequent effect.

Although the Hellenistic influence would eventually
predominate in Islamic astronomy, the earliest trans-
lations, under the Umayyads and ‘Abbasids, involved
ephemerides (zij, pi. azyaj) of Indian and Persian prov-
enance. An ephemeris contained tables of planetary
positions and the necessary theoretical explanations
of how to use the tables. A zij was designed for appli-
cations such as calendar calculations and astrological
forecasting, and the caliph al-Mansur consulted astrol-
ogers to great public effect when he commenced the
construction of the new ‘Abbasid capital at Baghdad.
Al-Khwarizmi’s (d. 833) original Zij al-Sindhind was
the first complete text of Islamic astronomy to survive,
although only in a Latin version of the original Arabic.
Although most of the parameters in the zij were of
Indian origin, the text was influenced by Ptolemy’s
(fl. 125-150) Handy Tables. First, al-Khwarizmi’s Zij
al-Sindhind , the source of which was the Sanskrit work
of Brahmagupta, demonstrated that, although Islamic
astronomers knew of Ptolemy’s work, they would
never accept it uncritically. Second, little time elapsed
between Islamic astronomers’ awareness of Ptolemy’s
parameters and the ninth-century translations of
Ptolemy’s opus magnum, Almagest.

Astronomers translated Almagest into Arabic
during the beginning of the ninth century, and it
would prove to be the most influential Greek text
for Islamic astronomers. Two different Arabic trans-
lations survive, and reports exist of two others. As
these translations were occurring, astronomers reas-
sessed important parameters, and they found, nota-
bly, that the aphelion (the point of the sun’s greatest
distance from the earth) moved. In addition, Islamic
astronomers criticized Ptolemy’s views about how
orbs could move. Specifically, during the ninth centu-
ry, Muhammad ibn Musa argued that one orb could
not move another with which it is concentric. By the
eleventh century, Islamic astronomers detected the
most famous physical inconsistency of Almagest:
the equant problem. In the models for Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, Ptolemy’s mathe-
matical analysis showed that the planet’s mean mo-
tion, which he attributed to a single orb, was not
uniform about the center of that sphere. Nor was
that motion uniform about the center of the universe:
instead it was uniform about another point, called the
equant. The discovery of the equant posed a problem
from a physical standpoint, because spheres had to
move about axes passing through their centers.
Ibn al-Haytham’s (d. c. 1040) al-Shukuk ‘ala Batla-
miyus (Doubts Concerning Ptolemy) enumerated the
problems associated with the equant.

ASTRONOMY

In addition, by the eleventh century, religious scho-
lars and philosophers questioned the metaphysical
assumptions of astrology, in part because of their
threat to God’s absolute unity and in part because
astrological predictions could be wrong. As a result, a
new field of astronomical study was generated, known
as ‘ilm al-hay’a (“science of the configuration”),
whereas astrology came to be known most frequently
as ‘ilm ahkam al-nujum (“science of the judgments of
the stars”). The genre of ‘ilm al-hay’a became the
locus for most of Islamic astronomy’s subsequent
achievements. Beginning during the mid-thirteenth
century, Islamic astronomers proposed new models
that preserved Ptolemy’s models’ correspondence
with observations and that yet did not suffer from
the physical inconsistencies of the equant. In other
words, these astronomers all retained the equant, be-
cause it was the point about which the planet’s mean
motion was uniform; however, they no longer posited
that the axis of any orb’s uniform motion would
pass through the equant. The early figures in this
line of research who wrote ‘ilm al-hay’a texts — such
as Mu’ayyad al-Din al-‘Urdi (d. 1259), Nasir al-Din
al-Tusi (d. 1274), and Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi

(d. 1311) — were associated with the Maragha obser-
vatory in Azerbayjan. Later figures, such as Sadr al-
Shari‘a (d. 1347) and Ibn al-Shatir (d. 1375), are said
to belong to the Maragha school of thought. Recent
research has shown that the construction of non-
Ptolemaic models continued at least into the sixteenth
century, when Shams al-Din al-Khafri (d. 1525) pro-
posed multiple mathematically equivalent models for
the complicated motions of the planet Mercury.

Astronomers in Andalusia, too, produced works of
significance. Before the twelfth century, widely circu-
lated contributions of theirs were the Toledan Tables
and models for variations in the precession and retro-
cession of the equinoxes, known as trepidation. Dur-
ing the twelfth century, philosophers such as Ibn
Bajja (d. 1138) and Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) advocated a
reading of Aristotle’s Physics that led one astrono-
mer, al-Bitruji (fl. ca. 1217), to propose astronomical
models based solely on homocentric orbs. That
constraint meant that al-Bitruji’s models could not
approach the predictive accuracy of the Maragha
astronomers’ models or of those of Ptolemy. A four-
teenth-century attempt to improve on al-Bitruji de-
parted from his strict insistence on homocentric
spheres. ‘Ilm al-hay’a texts were also distinctly Islamic
inasmuch as they contained sections about locating
the qibla (the direction of prayer). Back in the ninth
century, the need to determine the qibla spurred new
developments in spherical trigonometry. During the
eleventh century, al-Biruni’s (d. 1048) Exhaustive
Treatise on Shadows explained the calculation of

prayer times according to the shadow cast by a gno-
mon. The relationship between astronomy and reli-
gious scholarship became closer during the thirteenth
century, when information about astronomy began to
appear in texts of kalam (speculative investigations
about God) and in Qur’an commentaries. Besides
the famous example of Ibn al-Shatir being employed
as a timekeeper in the Great Mosque of Damascus,
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, Sadr al-Shari‘a, and Shams al-
Din al-Khafri were all religious scholars of note. The
research of David King, in particular, has shown that
not only did astronomers develop highly sophisticat-
ed applications of astronomy to religious problems
but that there was also a parallel popular literature
that answered the same questions in a less exacting —
but no less complex — manner.

Robert Morrison

See also Mathematical Geography; Astrology; Intellec-
tual History; Translation, Pre-Islamic Learning into
Arabic

Further Reading

Kennedy, E.S. Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences, eds.
David A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy. Beirut: Amer-
ican University in Beirut, 1983.

King, David A. Astronomy in the Service of Islam. Aider-
shot, UK: Variorum, 1993.

Ragep, F. Jamil, ed. and transl. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Mem-
oir on Astronomy (al-Tadhkira fi ‘ilm ai hay ’a). New
York and Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1993.

Saliba, George. A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary
Theories During the Golden Age of Islam. New York and
London: New York University Press, 1994.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, Band
VI. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978.

‘ATTAR, FARID AL-DIN

A celebrated Persian poet and Sufi hagiographer,
‘Attar lived during the second half of the twelfth
century CE and the first two or three decades of the
thirteenth century in or near Nishapur. According to
the most commonly received scholarly opinion, he
died during the Mongol sack of Nishapur in April
1221, but 1230 also remains a possibility. Reliable
biographical information about him is scarce, and
many supposed autobiographical indications derive
from works that have turned out to be spurious. It
is nevertheless clear that he was known as an expert
pharmacist. He appears to have had close ties with the
well-known Sufi of Khwarazm, Majd al-Din Baghdadi
(d. 1209 or later) or with one of his disciples, Ahmad
Khwari, in Nishapur. However, ‘Attar generally had
very little to say about the Sufis of his own time, and
he never mentioned anyone as his own Sufi master,

‘ATTAR, FARID AL-DIN

whereas he obviously admired the great Sufi saints
(awliya’) of the past. Unlike his famous counterpart
among the Sufi poets, Mawlana Rumi (d. 1273), he
does not seem to have played any active role in
organized Sufism. The oft-repeated story of ‘Attar
meeting young Rumi in Nishapur belongs to the
realm of succession myths (F.D. Lewis, 2000). The
literary historian Muhammad ‘Awfi, who visited
Nishapur around 1200, describes ‘Attar as a pious,
withdrawn Sufi and a fine mystical poet. ‘Awfi cites
examples from ‘Attar’s lyrical poetry but does not
comment on his mathnawis (narrative poems). An-
other early account comes from the Shi‘i scholar and
philosopher Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274), who
visited ‘Attar personally when he was a student in
Nishapur. Tusi was impressed with the old poet’s
“eloquence” and his way of interpreting the “dis-
course of the [Sufi] masters, the knowers [of God]
and the spiritual guides,” as he later put it to his stu-
dent Ibn al-Fuwati (d. 1323). The latter, in his report,
adds a reference to ‘Attar’s complete collection of
lyrical poetry (his “great Diwcm ”) and to one of his
mathnawis, the “Mantiq al-Tayr.”

A number of works attributed to ‘Attar were in
fact written by a later poet using the same pen name
or have otherwise turned out to be falsely attributed
to the famous ‘Attar. This applies not only to those
works portraying him as a fervent Shi‘i but also to the
so-called Khusraw-Nama (also known as Gul-u-Hur-
muz), a romance that was regarded as authentic until
recently, and the spuriousness of which has been con-
vincingly demonstrated by contemporary Iranian
scholarship (M.R. Shaffi-Kadkani, 1996 and 1999).
‘Attar’s authentic works include, in addition to the
Diwan and a selection of quatrains titled Mukhtar-
Nama, four great mathnawis that are mentioned in
the introduction to the latter work in the following
order: “llahi-Nama” (properly called “Khusraw-
Nama”), “Asrar-Nama,” “Mantiq al-Tayr” (or
“Maqamat al-Tuyur”), and “Musibat-Nama.” It
is not clear whether this sequence also reflects
their relative chronological order; references to the
poet’s advanced age in the first two would rather
speak against such an assumption. ‘Attar’s prose
work about the saints, Tadhkirat a l- Awliya’, is no-
where mentioned by the poet himself, but there
is no good reason to question the authenticity of its
first part (i.e., the part ending with the entry about
al-Hallaj).

The most famous among the mathnawis is the
“Mantiq al-Tayr.” This is the tale of the mystical
journey of the birds through seven valleys in search
of their mythical king, Simurgh, a cosmic bird of
ancient Iranian lore, who turns out to be their real
Self. The theme of the journey of the birds had been

used long before ‘Attar as a symbol for the soul’s
attempt to approach God in philosophical (Ibn
Sina) and Sufi (Ghazali) literature; however, ‘Attar’s
adaptation is by far the most poetic and mystical. The
main theme of the “Musibat-Nama” is also a mystical
journey, but this time the wayfarer is thought itself
(fikrat), guided by a master who is not of this world,
although he must be found in this world. This journey
leads the wayfarer through forty encounters with fan-
tastic angelic, human, and purely physical beings to
the recognition that he has to submerge himself in the
Ocean of the Soul: only then can the “journey
in God” begin. In the “llahi-Nama”, a king/caliph
teaches his six sons how to transform their worldly
desires into related spiritual aims. The “Asrar-Nama”
is, despite its mathnawi form, not really a tale but
rather a meditation on the themes of death and
resurrection.

Hermann Landolt

See also Rumi; Saints; Nishapur; Mlystical Poetry;
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi; Ghazeli; Al-Hallaj

Primary Sources

‘Attar, Farid al-Din. Asrar-Nama, ed. S. Gawharin. Teh-
ran: Chap-i Sharq, 1338 (AHS/1959). (French transla-
tion by C. Tortel. Le Livre des Secrets. Paris: Les Deux
Oceans, 1985.)

. Diwan-i Ghazaliyat-u Qasayid, ed. T. Tafazzuli.

Tehran: Chap-i Bahman, 1341 (AHS/1962). (Second edi-
tion by M. Darwish, ed. Tehran: Jawidan, 1359. [AHS/
1980]).

. llahi-Nama, ed. H. Ritter. Leipzig and Istanbul:

F.A. Brockhaus and Ma'arif, 1940. (Translation by J.
A. Boyle. The llahi-Nama or Book of God of Farid al-Din
‘Attar. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976.)

. Mantiq al-Tayr, 3rd ed., ed. M.J. Mashkur. Tehran

and Tabriz: 1347 (AHS/1968). (English verse translation
(incomplete) by C.S. Nott. The Conference of the Birds.
London: Penguin Books, 1984. Complete prose transla-
tion by P. Avery. The Speech of the Birds: Concerning
Migration to the Real. Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts
Society, 1998.)

. Mukhtar-Nama , 2nd ed., ed. M.R. Shaffi-Kadkani.

Tehran: Intisharat-i Sukhan, 1375 (AHS/1996).

. Musihcit-Nama, 3rd ed., ed. Niirani-Wisal. Tehran:

Zawwar, 1364 (AHS/1985). (French translation by I. de
Gastines. Le Livre de TEpreuve. Paris: Fayard, 1981.)

. Tadhkirat al-Awliya’, part I, ed. R.A. Nicholson.

London and Leiden: Luzac & Co. and E.J. Brill, 1905;
part II, London and Leiden: Luzac & Co. and E.J. Brill,
1907. (Partial translation by A.J. Arberry. Muslim Saints
and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya’
(“Memorial of the Saints”). London: Routledge &
K. Paul, 1966.

Further Reading

Handbook of Oriental Studies I, The Near and Middle East,
69, 1st ed. Leiden: Brill, 1955.

‘ATTAR, FARID AL-DIN

Lewis, F.D. Rumi — Past and Present, East and West: The
Life, Teaching and Poetry of Jaldlal-Din Rumi. Oxford:
Oneworld, 2000.

Lewisohn, L., and C. Shackle, eds. Farid al-Din 'Attar and
the Persian Sufi Tradition. London: I.B. Tauris and In-
stitute of Ismaili Studies, forthcoming.

Reinert, B. “ ‘Attar, Shaikh Farid-al-Din.” In Encyclopedia
Iranica I, 20-5.

Ritter, H. The Ocean of the Soul: Men, the World and God in
the Stories of Farid al-Din ‘Attar, transl. J. O’Kane.
Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Shafi‘i-Kadkani, M.R. Zabiir-i Parsi: Nigahi hi Zindagi wa
Ghazalha-yi ‘Attar. Tehran: Agah, 1378 (AHS/1999).

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS

Extended first-person narrative was a recognized and
frequently practiced form of writing in premodern
Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The earliest known
example in Arabic is the autobiography of the physi-
cian Burzoe, translated from Sanskrit into Pahlavi in
Sasanian times and later from Pahlavi into Arabic by
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d. ca. 759 CE). The author describes
his search for a satisfactory belief system, his rejection
of formal religion, and his adoption of asceticism.
More directly influential, however, were translations
from Greek. The self-bibliographies of the Roman
physician Galen inspired the Nestorian translator
Flunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873 or 877) to write a similar
catalog of his own works and possibly to also write —
or have written for him — a defense against the accu-
sations of iconoclasm brought against him by his co-
religionists. Similarly, the life of Socrates served as a
model for al-Razi (also known as Rhazes, d. 925 or
935), who wrote a defense of his own pursuit of the
philosophical life. The tradition of philosophical au-
tobiography was later followed by Ibn Sina (also
known as Avicenna, d. 1036) and Ibn al-Haytham
(also known as Alhazen, d. ca. 1039). The related
genre of autobiographies by physicians is exemplified
by the work of Ibn Ridwan (d. 1061), who includes
details about his humble birth, his struggle for recog-
nition, and his unhappy family life, along with a
description of a typical workday.

Another productive strand of first-person narrative
was that of the mystics. The first such texts to have
survived are those of al-Muhasibi (d. c. 857) and al-
Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. between 905 and 910). The
former is a brief account of the author’s conversion
experience, whereas the latter begins with the author’s
birth and ends with the revelation of the sublime
Name of God — not to the author but to his wife.
The most famous example in this genre, the autobiog-
raphy of al-Ghazali (d. 1111), combines the philo-
sophical and mystical modes of self-presentation.
The author describes the crisis of faith brought on

by his study of philosophy, his subsequent search for
truth among representatives of different Muslim tra-
ditions, and his final decision to join the Sufi mystics.
Later Sufi biographies include those of Ruzbihan
al-Baqli (d. 1209), who describes the mystical visions
that he received beginning at the age of fifteen; Rukn
al-Dawla al-Simnani (d. 1336), who served as a com-
panion to a Buddhist prince before undergoing a
conversion experience on the battlefield; and ‘Abd
al-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani (d. 1565), whose extensive au-
tobiography offers a detailed account of his personal
and professional life. There are also autobiographical
accounts of conversion to Islam, including that of the
Jew Samaw’al al-Maghribi (d. 1 174) and the Christian
Anselmo Turmeda (d. 1432?).

To be included among works of an autobiographi-
cal character are memoirs, which combine descrip-
tions of the author’s own experience with accounts
of contemporary events. Examples include the works
of Ja‘far al-Hajib (d. ca. 954), a partisan of the first
Fatimid caliph; al-Mu’ayyad al-Shirazi (d. 1077), a
Fatimid missionary and holy warrior; Ibn Buluqqin
(d. ca. 1090), the last Zirid ruler of Granada; Abu
Bakr al-Baydhaq (d. after 1164), a companion of Ibn
Tumart, the founder of the Almohad dynasty; Umara
al-Yamani (d. 1175), a poet executed by Saladin for
his Fatimid sympathies; Usama ibn Munqidh (d.
1188), who provides a description of the European
crusaders; and ‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (d. 1201),
whose account of Saladin’s reign emphasizes his own
role in the events he describes. Works of this type are
sometimes difficult to separate from the autobiogra-
phies of historians, such as those by Abu Shama
(d. 1268), a historian of Damascus, and Ibn Khaldun
(d. 1406), whose autobiography — originally an ap-
pendix to his work on history — records his meeting
with Tamerlane.

Aside from autobiographies that appear as more
or less independent works, there are many examples
that take the form of entries in biographical diction-
aries. In some cases, biographers interviewed their
subjects and produced entries of an autobiographical
character. In other cases, subjects prepared accounts
of themselves to be used by their biographers. An
example of both cases is the entry about Ibn al-
‘Adim (d. 1262) by Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229),
which combines extracts from the subject’s autobiog-
raphy with oral testimony taken during the course of
an interview with the author. Biographers and histor-
ians commonly included an entry about themselves
in their works. Many of these entries are concise
accounts of the author’s education, but some — such
as that of the Shi‘i jurist Yusuf al-Bahrani (d. 1772) —
contain information of a more personal character.
Occasionally a religious scholar would abandon the

AYA SOPHIA

convention of self-restraint and write an extended
account of his career. The best-known example is
the autobiography of the Hadith scholar, linguist,
exegete, jurist, and historian al-Suyuti (d. 1505),
which is organized thematically rather than chrono-
logically.

The convention of writing autobiographies was
carried from Arabic into Persian and Turkish. Persian
examples include the autobiography of Shah Tahmasp
(d. 1576) and the poet Mir Muhammad Taqi
(d. 1810). The most famous example in the Turkic
languages is the lively autobiography of Babur
(d. 1530), the founder of the Mughal dynasty. There
are also many examples of first-person narratives in
Ottoman Turkish, including the autobiography of the
historian Mustafa Ali (d. 1600).

Premodern Muslim scholars came to recognize
self-narrative as a distinct genre. In the preface to
his autobiography, al-Suyuti lists eight predecessors
who had written similar accounts of themselves. For
al-Suyuti and many of his predecessors, the pretext
for writing such an account was “to speak of the
bounty of God” (an allusion to Qur’an 93:11).
Authors freely list their honors and achievements,
because doing otherwise would be a sign of ingrati-
tude. They were also willing to admit their failures
and shortcomings, because doing so only emphasizes
God’s mercy in having guided them to the right path.
However, their works differ from those written in the
confessional mode that is common in the Christian
tradition, where the author exposes his transgressions
in the hope of gaining absolution for himself and
providing a lesson for others. Muslim autobiogra-
phers are often forthcoming about themselves, albeit
in different ways. Personal characteristics commonly
appear in anecdotes about childhood, in stories of
dreams, in reflections about the onset of old age,
and, above all, in poetry.

Until the late twentieth century, Western scholar-
ship tended to assume that there were relatively few
premodern first-person narratives in Arabic, Persian,
and Turkish. Until recently, Western scholarship
has argued that these texts — with certain exceptions,
such as the self-narratives of al-Ghazali or Babur —
were not genuine autobiographies, because they were
insufficiently personal in character. The assumption
of relative paucity is now being revised: a recent
study of the genre has found more than eighty pre-
twentieth century examples in Arabic alone. Similar-
ly, growing familiarity with non-Western traditions
has led scholars away from the search for “genuine
autobiography” and toward a reexamination of the
strategies of self-presentation in different times and
cultures.

Michael Cooperson

See also Babur; Ibn al-Muqaffa; Hunayn ibn Ishaq;
al-Razi, or Rhazes; Ibn Sina; Mystics; Samaw’al
al-Maghribi; Anselmo Turmeda; Usama ibn Munqidh;
Ibn Khaldun; Yusuf al-Bahrani; al-Suyuti

Further Reading

Reynolds, Dwight F., ed. Interpreting the Self: Autobiogra-
phy in the Arabic Literary Tradition. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2001. Available at: http://www.
ucpress.edu/books/pages/8736.html.

AYA SOPHIA

The first Aya Sophia was built in 326 CE and was an
aisled basilica linked to its palace by corridors and
stairs. It was destroyed and rebuilt twice, and it finally
acquired its present form during the Justinian period.
The first church was begun during the reign of
Constantine (324-337), and it was completed by
Constantinus (337-361). It was set on fire during the
banishment of St. John Chrysostom. However, the
rededication of the second church took place in 415,
under Theodosius II (408M50). The earlier church on
the site was destroyed by fire during the Nika riot
of 532; unfortunately, no description of either of the
pre-Justinian churches has survived. Justinian or-
dered a new church to be built, and five years later
it was solemnly inaugurated. Justinian’s church,
which was designed by the architects Anthemus and
Isidore, was dedicated in 537.

The general plan of the building is a near square
that is divided into a large central nave and two side
aisles. The central nave is covered by a colossal dome
that is supported on the east and west by half domes.
However, the ground plan of the building is not of
prime importance; the essential features of this archi-
tecture are the great central dome and the piers,
arches, and subsidiary vaults that hold it up. The
central nave is flanked by side aisles and preceded
by a narthex and atrium on the west side, providing
a gradual transition from the street to the interior of
the church. The side aisles and narthex were sur-
mounted by a U-shaped gallery. The longitudinal
axis of the nave terminated in an apse, which formed
the visual focus of the interior. The sanctuary, con-
taining the altar, lay just before the apse and extended
into the nave. The great dome, which is the dominant
theme of the building’s design, rises above the nave.
To place a dome above a rectilinear plan of a basilica
required some transition. A square central bay is de-
fined by four great piers, and, above, the pendentives
(spherical triangles) appear at the corners to bridge
the transition from square to circle. It is actually the

AYA SOPHIA

four great arches that are most significant in the
structural system, and, along with the pendentives,
they adjust the weight of the dome to the four piers.
The present dome rises about fifty-five meters above
the floor.

When seen from the outside, the great church
seems to rise up harmoniously from level to level to
the very top of the central dome; however, its soaring
lines are by no means free from a somewhat excessive
ponderousness. Inside, on the other hand, everything
conspires to produce the impression of an immense
space that is ideally organized. From the main door to
the nave, looking along the axis of the church toward
the apse, the beholder can appreciate the noble sweep
and majestic proportions of the vast interior, with its
supporting columns and walls covered with polychro-
matic marble.

Much damage has been inflicted on the building
by several earthquakes. The dome collapsed in 557,
and it was partially repaired in 989. In 1346, another
earthquake damaged the dome, and this time it was
restored by Astras and the Italian Giovanni Peralta.
The present dome thus represents these three periods
of reconstruction.

The church of St. Sophia was converted into a
mosque soon after the conquest of Constantinople.
What makes the monument an Islamic building (a
mosque) are the additions to the interior and exterior
from all periods of the Ottoman Empire. A marble
mihrab has been erected, and several mahfils were
built during different periods. Of the four minarets,
that at the southeast corner represents an original
construction of Mehmed II. The northeast minaret
was then erected by Bayezid II, and the one at the
southwest corner was begun during the reign of Selim
II, but it was unfinished at his death in 1574; it was
completed by Murad III on his accession to the
throne. The latter minaret at the northwest corner
had the architect Sinan as its designer. Other struc-
tures of significance outside of the main building are
the sultans’ tombs to the south of the building.

Significant restorations and repairs were carried
out during the Ottoman period. In 1573, the entire
building underwent a thorough renovation, because
various buttresses were in need of repair. In 1847,
another extensive restoration was undertaken with
the supervision of the Fossati brothers. Between
these major phases there were various minor repairs
and consolidations, both within and outside of the
mosque. In November 1934, the Turkish Ministry
of Education, acting on the proposal of Atattirk,
converted the monument into a museum.

Suat Alp

Further Reading

Emerson, W., and R.L. Van Nice. “Hagia Sophia and the
First Minaret Erected After The Conquest of Constan-
tinople.” American Journal of Archaeology LIV: 28M0.

Grabar, Andre. The Golden Age of Justinian. New York:
Odyssey Press, 1967.

Kirimtayif, Suleyman. Converted Byzantine Churches in
Istanbul. Their Transformation into Mosques and Mas-
jids. Istanbul: Ege Yaymlan, 2001.

Krautheimer, R. Early Christian and Byzantine Architec-
ture. Baltimore, Md, and Victoria, BC, Canada: Penguin
Books, 1960.

Mainstone, R.J. Hagia Sophia. Architecture, Structure and
Liturgy of Justinian’s Great Church. London: Thames
and Hudson, 1988.

Mango, C. Byzantine Architecture. New York: Harry N.
Abrams Inc., 1976.

Mathews Thomas, F. The Early Churches of Constantino-
ple: Architecture and Liturgy. State College, Penn: The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971.

Miiller-Wiener, W. Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls :
Byzantion — Konstantinopolis — Istanbul bis zum Beginn
des 17. Jahrhunderts. Tubingen: Archaologisches Insti-
tut, 1977.

Rice, D.T. Constantinople from Byzantium to Istanbul. New
York: Stein and Day Publishers, 1965.

‘AYN JALUT

‘Ayn Jalut (“The Spring of Goliath”), located in the
Jezreel Valley in northern Palestine at the foothills of
the Gilboa range, is the site of an indecisive encounter
between Saladin and the Franks (September 1183 CE)
and, more importantly, of a crucial battle between the
Mamluks and Mongols on September 3, 1260.

The Mongols under Hiilegii, the grandson of Gen-
ghis Khan, had taken Baghdad at the beginning of
1258 and put Caliph al-Musta‘sim to death, thereby
effectively ending the 'Abbas id dynasty. From there,
Hiilegii, who was also known by the title ilkhan ,
moved to Azerbaijan. After desultory negotiations
with the Ayyubid sultan of Syria, al-Nasir Yusuf,
the Ilkhan advanced with a large army into Syria at
the end of 1259 and put Aleppo under siege at the
beginning of the following year. It was taken within a
week (although its citadel held out for another month
before it capitulated). Hiilegii himself first remained
in the northern part of the country, but he sent south
a forward division numbering some ten thousand
horsemen under his trusted general Kitbuqa. The
latter gained control of Damascus without opposition
and set about subjugating the surrounding area.
Mongol raiders advanced as far as Gaza and Hebron,
entering Jerusalem and the area north of Karak in
trans-Jordan. Hiilegii, meanwhile, had withdrawn
from Syria, and he returned to Azerbaijan with the
remainder of his army, perhaps as a result of news

‘AYN JALUT

about the death of his brother, the Great Khan Mon-
gke, and the resulting political disorders, or perhaps
as a result of logistical reasons (i.e., a lack of pasture-
land and water for his cavalry-based army in Syria
during the dry summer months).

The Mamluk Sultan Qutuz, who had acceded to
the throne only at the end of 1259, decided during the
summer of 1260 not only to reject Hiilegii’s demands
for unconditional surrender but to set out for Syria to
take advantage of the presence of a now relatively
small Mongol force. In this he was supported by
Baybars, his hitherto bitter opponent. The Sultan
succeeded in cajoling the recalcitrant Mamluk officers
(as a result of fear of the Mongols) out of Cairo, and
on July 15, 1260, the Mamluk army set out for Syria.
After crossing the Sinai Peninsula, the Mamluk ad-
vanced guard, under Baybars, encountered a small
Mongol force at Gaza, which withdrew and alerted
Kitbuqa to the unexpected appearance of the Mam-
luks. Qutuz and his army advanced northward,
bypassing Crusader-held cities, until they reached
Acre. The Franks wisely decided to maintain neutral-
ity in the upcoming battle, but they did give supplies
to the nearby Mamluks. From Acre, the Mamluk
advance guard (again under Baybars) entered the
Jezreel Valley. Meanwhile, Qutuz gathered his officers
and gave them an inspiring pep talk, emphasizing the
need to defend Islam, their families, and their position
in Egypt.

The Mongols, however, had not been idle. When
they received word of the Mamluk advance, Kit-
buqa — still in Damascus — moved south to meet the
enemy. He took up a position at ‘Ayn Jalut, some
fifteen kilometers northwest of Baysan (Beth Shean),
which was well watered and provided with pasturage.
Kitbuqa also sent out scouts, who encountered the
Mamluk advance force. Skirmishing commenced, and
it seems to have been fairly wide ranging. In the end,
Baybars came upon the Kitbuqa’s force near ‘Ayn
Jalut. He withdrew a bit and was soon joined by
Qutuz with the main Mamluk army. Final prepara-
tions were thereupon made for the battle by both
sides.

The battle commenced on the morning of Friday,
September 3, 1260 (AH 25 Ramadan 658). The Mam-
luks, who appear to have had a certain numerical
advantage, advanced first, but they were preempted
by a Mongol attack. Both armies were composed
mainly — if not exclusively — of mounted archers, and
the battle settled into a series of attacks and counter-
attacks of waves of these troops. The leadership and
pluck of Qutuz, who was found at the head of his
troops, is mentioned in the Mamluk sources. He did
not lose his head when the left wing of the Mamluk
army began to waver, but rather organized his troops

and led a counterattack that supposedly won the day.
No less important was the death in battle of Kitbuqa,
whose bravery is lauded in the pro-Mongol sources.
He was shot down during the fighting, and this prob-
ably led to a disintegration of the Mongol army. Also
important was the sudden withdrawal of a group of
Muslim Syrian troopers who had been pressed into
the Mongol army, thereby leaving a gap in the Mon-
gol line. The relative numerical superiority of the
Mamluks (whose exact numbers are not clear) also
had its effect as the battle wore on. The Mongols
fled the battle, and the Mamluk squadrons under
Baybars — as well as local farmers and nomads —
killed many in the confusion. The remaining Mongols
and their supporters withdrew from Syria across the
Euphrates River.

The Mamluk sources note the importance of the
similarity between the two forces: only soldiers of
similar provenance, fighting with comparable meth-
ods (masses of mounted archers), had a chance of
beating the Mongols. The effects of the battle were
significant: Syria became an integral part of the cen-
tralized Mamluk Sultanate based in Cairo; the fledg-
ing Mamluk state (founded in 1250) was given an
important basis for its legitimization; and the myth
of the invincible Mongols was weakened, if not shat-
tered. The Mamluks were aware that they had
defeated only a small part of the Mongol army, and
they soon began preparations for meeting a more
serious threat. In any event, Qutuz was not to enjoy
his victory for long: he was soon assassinated by
Baybars, who assumed the throne and inaugurated
one of the longest and most successful reigns in the
history of the Mamluk Sultanate.

Reuven Amitai

See also Baybars I; Genghis Khan; Ilkhanids; Mam-
luks; Mongol Warfare; Mongols; Slavery, Military

Further Reading

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mam-
luk-Ilkhanid War, 126-1281, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1995.

Jackson, Peter. “The Crisis in the Holy Land in 1260.”
English Historical Review 95 (1980): 481-513.

Lewis, Bernard. ‘“Ayn Djalut.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
2nd ed. 1:786.

Morgan, David O. “The Mongols in Syria, 1260-1300.” In
Crusade and Settlement, ed. Peter Edbury. Cardiff: Uni-
versity College Cardiff Press, 1985.

Smith, John Masson, Jr. “ ‘Ayn Jalut: Mamluk Success or
Mongol Failure?” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44
(1984): 307M5.

Thorau, Peter. “The Battle of ‘Ayn Jalut: A Re-examina-
tion.” In Crusade and Settlement, ed. Peter Edbury.
Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1985.

AYYUBIDS

The Ayyubid confederation was established by al-
Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf b. Ayyub (Sal-
adin), a Kurdish military commander in the service
of Nur al-Din b. Zangi. Saladin took control of Egypt
in 1171 CE, and, from this Egyptian base, brought
much of Bilad al-Sham (Syria) and the Jazira (upper
Mesopotamia) under his rule. After his death in 1 193,
control of the many cities and provinces of Saladin’s
empire was divided between his sons, his brother, his
nephews, and their respective descendants. Although
these princes owed allegiance to whomever was recog-
nized as the Ayyubid Sultan, within their own terri-
tories they were autonomous. Ayyubid history after
Saladin is thus characterized by complex and shifting
webs of alliances and rivalries between these various
Ayyubid princes, and these webs were complicated by
the presence of the Crusader states, whose forces were
occasionally drawn into intra-Ayyubid conflicts. (As
R.S. Humphreys recently put it, the Ayyubids were
“reluctant warriors” against the Franks. (Nevertheless,
the political history of the post-Saladin era was usually
dominated by the Ayyubid who ruled Egypt. For most
of the first half of the thirteenth century, this role
was filled by Saladin’s brother al-Malik al-‘Adil Sayf
al-Din Abu Bakr Muhammad and his descendants.

Al-‘Adil (d. 1218), who was known to the Crusa-
ders as Sephadin, was supreme within the Ayyubid
dominions from 1200 to 1218. He was in Egypt when
the armies of the Fifth Crusade arrived in the Nile
delta in May 1218. After al-‘Adil died in August 1218,
his son al-Malik al-Kamil Muhammad (d. 1238) as-
sumed the sultanate, although not all of the other
Ayyubids acquiesced. Al-Kamil’s dealings with the
Crusaders over the course of his reign were tightly
interwoven with his relations with his relatives.
Al-Kamil’s lifting of the Crusader occupation of
Damietta (1219-1221), for example, was accomplished
with the assistance of his brothers al-Malik al-Ashraf
Musa in the Jazira and al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa in
Syria. However, in 1227, when the armies of Emperor
Frederick II threatened Egypt, al-Kamil was engaged
in a power struggle with al-Mu‘azzam, and he there-
fore offered Jerusalem to Frederick to avoid an inva-
sion of Egypt. The emperor refused. Al-Kamil’s
position was subsequently strengthened by Al-Mu‘az-
zam’s death in late 1227, but al-Kamil continued
negotiations with Frederick after he arrived in Acre
in 1228. These negotiations led to the establishment of
a limited truce, signed in February 1129, that restored
an unfortified Jerusalem to the Franks for ten years,
five months, and forty days. Both the emperor and
the sultan were severely criticized by their respective
co-religionists for this agreement.

Al-Kamil died in 1238, and two years later his son
al-Malik al-Salih Ayyub assumed control of Egypt.
Al-Salih was schooled in the ways of Ayyubid rivalry.
To strengthen his position, he purchased and trained
a corps of military slaves (mamluks). Called the Bahri
Mamluks because their barracks were on an island in
the Nile (bahr al-nil), this 800- to 1,000-man force was
the core of al-Salih’s military forces. The Bahri Mam-
luks played a significant role in fighting and eventual-
ly defeating the forces of King Louis IX of France
when the Fifth Crusade invaded the Egyptian Delta
(1249-1250). Al-Salih died in November 1249 in
the midst of that invasion, and control of Egypt
soon passed to his son, al-Malik al-Mu‘azzam Turan-
shah. Turanshah quickly alienated his father’s mam-
luks, who, fearing loss of position or even life,
revolted against Turanshah and murdered him in
April 12507

The events of the ten years after the murder of
Turanshah are complex, but they resulted in a com-
plete Mamluk takeover of Egypt by 1260. The Ayyu-
bids in Syria and the Jazira subsequently fell to either
the Mamluks or the Mongols, although the Ayyubid
principality in Hamah was maintained until 1341 by
the Mamluk Sultanate.

Warren C. Schultz

See also Fatimids; Mamluks; Mongols; Saladin or
Salah al-Din; Sultan

Primary Sources

Abu’l-Fida’. The Memoirs of a Syrian Prince , transl. P.M.

Holt. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1983.
Al-Maqrizi. A History of the Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt ,
transl. R.J.C. Broadhurst. Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1980.

Further Reading

Balog, Paul. The Coinage of the Ayyubids. London: Royal
Numismatic Society, 1980.

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.
Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.

Humphreys, R. Stephen. From Saladin to the Mongols: The
Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193-1260. Albany: State Uni-
versity of New York Press, 1977.

. “Ayyubids, Mamluks and the Latin East in the

Thirteenth Century.” Mamluk Studies Review II (1998):
1-17.

AZHAR, AL-

Located in Cairo, Al-Azhar is one of the earliest Jami’
(mosque/university) complexes in the Muslim world.
It was founded by the Fatimid Ismaili dynasty; the

AZHAR, AL-

dynasty’s Caliph, Imam Muizz li-Din Allah, estab-
lished Cairo as his capital in 969-970 CE. The com-
plex is so named in memory of the title al-zahra (“the
luminous”), which is associated with Fatima, the
daughter of the Prophet and the wife of the first
Shia Imam, Ah, from whom the Fatimids claimed
direct descent.

Although it served initially as a congregational
mosque for Friday prayers, it soon developed into a
seat of learning. It has continued to exercise this role
throughout Muslim history, attaining recognition
first as the foremost center for Shi’i Ismaili learning
and then, after the twelfth century, as a major Sunni
educational institution.

During the Fatimid period, it developed into a
center for higher learning and was richly endowed to
support students, teachers, and one of the largest
libraries of the time in the Muslim world. The
curriculum was diverse; among the sessions offered
were dedicated classes for women on topics including
law and Qur’anic studies, and there were special ses-
sions devoted to advanced hermeneutics and religious
interpretations in Ismaili intellectual contexts.

After a period of neglect under the Ayyubids, who
supplanted the Fatimids and ruled Egypt from 1171
to 1252, Al-Azhar was revived by the Sunni Mamluks
(1252-1517) and became a center of Qur’anic teaching
and Shah’i jurisprudence. The subjects traditionally
associated with the Sunni madrasas of the time came
to predominate, although Al-Azhar remained open to
influences, including Sufism. During the Ottoman pe-
riod (1517-1805), Al-Azhar continued to be a major
center, attracting Sunni ulama and students from
across the Muslim world. Theology and law remained
the main foci of study and research.

With the end of Ottoman rule and the onset of
European occupation and influence, Al-Azhar’s role
began to change. Under French occupation, it became
a seat of resistance and was bombarded by the French
army. With the rise to power of Muhammad Ah
in 1811 and his policies of centralized state control.

Al-Azhar was forced to accept changes to its tradi-
tional autonomy, and it responded by bringing about
internal changes in its organization, requirements,
and regulations. It also developed a network of pre-
paratory schools all over Egypt from which it could
recruit students as well as extend its influence on
religious education in the state.

During the early part of the twentieth century, Al-
Azhar became the locus for reformist views of Islam,
mainly under the influence of Muhammad Abduh
(1849-1905), who taught there. Although some of
his views did not gain acceptance, a change in the
intellectual climate had begun to take hold. During
the 1930s, Al-Azhar was granted university status and
reorganized into academic units. It started to publish
a journal, added new disciplines to its curriculum, and
established women’s colleges. Its influence in the
wider Sunni Muslim world expanded, and many fu-
ture international religious leaders and teachers
received their training there. During the 1990s, there
were approximately six thousand international stu-
dents enrolled at Al-Azhar, and they represented
seventy-five countries. From time to time, the institu-
tion has taken controversial positions on issues that
affect Muslims and Muslim societies, as well as on
international affairs. With the rise of other religious
institutions and centers of Muslim learning in the
Middle East and the Sunni world, Al-Azhar lost
many of its best faculty members to these institutions.
Having recently entered the world of the Internet, Al-
Azhar continues its influential role as a place of
learning and leader of opinion on Muslim issues and
affairs in a more globalized environment.

Azim Nanji

Further Reading

Dodge, B. Al-Azhar. A Millennium of Muslim Learning.

Washington: Middle East Institute, 1961.

Halm, Heinz. “The Fatimids.” In Institutions of Learning.

London: The Institute of Ismaili Studies and I.B. Tauris,

1998.

BABAR [BABUR]

Bom in 1483 CE in the Farghana region of Central
Asia, Babar, the founder of the renowned Mughal
dynasty in India, claimed an illustrious pedigree by
virtue of descent from two important rulers — Timur
(Timurlane) (through his father, Umar Shaikh Mirza)
and Chingiz Khan (through his mother, Qutluq Nigar
Khanum). His father was one of several princes, all
descendants of Timur, who engaged in constant rival-
ry and battles for control over territory in fifteenth-
century Central Asia. In 1494, as a result of a fall
from a collapsing wall, Babar’s father died, leaving
the eleven-year-old boy to succeed him to rule the
kingdom of Farghana. Like his father, Babar, too,
spent much of his early political career engaged in
endless wars and intrigues contending with his
Timurid cousins for suzerainty over territory in
Transoxiana and Khurasan, particularly the cities of
Samarqand, Bukhara, and Herat. In these internecine
Timurid struggles, his fortunes were mixed. He found
it difficult to assert his authority over any city in the
region for a sustained length of time. For example, by
age 30, he had won and lost Samarqand three times.
Particularly intense were his conflicts with Shaibani
Khan, an Uzbeg prince, whose armies managed to
drive Babar and his followers out of Transoxiana to
territories farther to the south. There, Babar was
eventually successful in establishing control over
Kabul, Ghazni, and Badakshan.

It was in Kabul, conquered in 1504, that Babar
established a home base, away from the turmoil of
Transoxiana. The relatively stable life there allowed

him to establish a cultured court on the Timurid
model and pursue his hobbies, particularly gardening.
However, because Kabul was rather poor in terms of
its economic resources, the wealth of India tempted
Babar to look eastward. He organized several raiding
expeditions into the region, bringing back with him
much booty. Success encouraged him to penetrate
even deeper into Indian territory, eventually threaten-
ing the Lodis, an Afghan dynasty that ruled from
Agra. In 1526, in the course of his fifth expedition
into India, he defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi at the
battle of Panipat; in the following year, he defeated a
coalition of Rajput forces led by Rana Sanga. Al-
though these victories marked the beginning of his
control over substantial territory in India, the task
of consolidating and strengthening what eventually
came to be called the Mughal empire was not to be
completed until the reign of his grandson, Akbar
(ruled 1556-1605).

In India, although military expeditions continued
to make considerable demands on his time and
energy, Babar found more opportunity to take up
leisurely pursuits. He commissioned several beautiful
Timurid-style gardens in North India, personally
supervising their development. These gardens were
intended to remind him of Kabul, providing a respite
from the heat of the summer months. Babar also had
literary talents, being a particularly gifted poet in
Turkish. Once, during an illness, he occupied himself
by reorganizing the words of a couplet in 504 ways.
He is particularly renowned for his remarkable auto-
biography, The Baburnama. Written in Chagatay

BABAR [BABUR]

Turkish, these memoirs not only record his early
struggles for power in Central Asia but also contain
detailed descriptions of his newly acquired Indian
territory and various aspects of the social, cultural,
and economic life of its inhabitants. The memoirs
reveal his passion for nature through his keen obser-
vations of India’s fauna and flora, which he describes
with the precision of a naturalist, obviously delighting
in attention to minor details. Aside from his horticul-
tural and literary pursuits, Babar was also interested
in mysticism and spirituality, as evidenced by his
translation into Turkish verse of Risala-i walidiyya,
a treatise by the venerated Naqshbandi sufi teacher,
Ubaidullah Ahrar, whom Babar admired greatly. Vic-
tory in Hindustan did not, however, mean that Babar,
and later his descendants, gave up hope of one day
conquering their ancestral homeland of Farghana,
and the city of Samarqand. Babar disapproved of
much of what he saw and experienced in India and,
notwithstanding the power and wealth he enjoyed
there, he always longed for Kabul. The climate of
India, the hardships he had experienced in his youth,
and the heavy use of alcohol and drugs all took their
toll on Babar’s health, for he was frequently sick as he
grew older. He died December 26, 1530, after a short
illness, and was temporarily buried in Agra. His long-
ing for Kabul was fulfilled posthumously when, sever-
al years after his death, his body was returned to that
city for burial in his favorite garden.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls. London: Consta-
ble, 1998.

Thackston, Wheeler. Trans and Ed. The Baburnama. The
Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. Washington and
New York: The Smithsonian Institution and Oxford
University Press, 1996.

BACKGAMMON

The game of backgammon is first mentioned in
Bhartrhari’s Vairagyasataka ( p. 39), composed around
the late sixth or early seventh century CE. The use of
dice for the game is another indication of its Indie
origin, since dice and gambling were a favorite pas-
time in ancient India. The rules of the game, however,
first appeared in the Middle Persian text Wlzarisn T
Catrang ud Nihisn T New-ArdaxsTr (Explanation of
Chess and Invention of Backgammon), composed in
the sixth century during the rule of the Sasanian king
Khousro I (530-571). The text assigns its invention to
the Persian sage Wuzurgmihr (Arabic/Persian) Buzar-
jumihr/Buzorgmihr, who was the minister of King

Khousro I, as a challenge for the Indian sages.
According to the Middle Persian text, the name that
Wuzurgmihr gives the game of backgammon is New-
ArdaxsTr, (“Noble is ArdaxsTr”), in memory of
Ardaxslr 1 (224—240), the founder of the Sasanian
dynasty. New-ardaxsTr (Middle Persian) > nard or
nardaslr (Persian and Arabic), also found in nrdsyr
(Babylonian Talmud), has had popular etymolo-
gies among Arab lexicographers, composed of nard
and sir.

According to the al-Fihrist of Ibn Nadim, Wuzurg-
mihr is also said to have written a commentary on
astronomy, the Anthologiae of Vettius Valens, which
is lost, but fragments of the Arabic translation of the
Middle Persian version exist. The reason for mention-
ing the preoccupation of Wuzurgmihr with astrono-
my and astrology is the cosmological explanation of
the game of backgammon in the Middle Persian text.
Wuzurgmihr’ s explanation of the game is analogous
to the processes of the cosmos and human life. He
makes fate the primary reason for what happens to
mankind, and the roll of the dice in the game per-
forms the function of fate.

Wuzurgmihr explains that the pieces of the game
represent humans and their function in the universe,
which is governed by the seven planets and the twelve
zodiac signs. The shape of the game board is likened
to spandarmad zamlg (the goddess of the earth). The
pieces represent the thirty nights and days. The die
represents the axtaran and spihr (constellations and
firmament), which by their turn and position (num-
ber) decide one’s movement and predict human life.
The “one” on the die, according to the text, represents
Ohrmazd’s omnipotence and his oneness. The “two”
on the die represents menog and getig, the spiritual
and the material world. The three represents the three
stages of heaven in Zoroastrianism, humat and huxt
and huwarst, preceding paradise. The four represents
another cosmological expression, cahar sog I getig,
“the four corners of the world.” The five repre-
sents the five luminaries according to the text, which
are the divisions of the heavens. According to the
A vesta, the heavens had four stations, which were
the stars, the moon, the sun, and the eternal light.
Here we have in a disorderly fashion the divisions of
the heavens into the following stations: the sun, the
moon, the stars, fire, and, finally, the heavenly bright-
ness (Pananio 1995, 205-226). Finally, the six repre-
sents the sas gahdnhdr, or the six seasonal feasts,
according to the Zoroastrian religion. The hitting of
pieces is likened to killing, and when the pieces come
back to the game it signifies the act of resurrection
according to Zoroastrian cosmology.

A silver-gilded hemispherical bowl housed at the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery depicts several important

BACKGAMMON

scenes from the Sasanian period. They include a scene
of marriage, a wrestling scene, and several other
scenes, including a scene of two people playing back-
gammon. One can conclude that this bowl represents
the things that mattered in the courtly life (Harper
1978, 75). One can suggest that the bowl represents
the activities in which a noble should engage or have
knowledge of. These include wrestling, being in-
formed in religious precepts and ritual, marrying
and having offspring, playing instruments, and being
able to play board games, that is, backgammon
(Daryaee 2002, 292). The other pictorial evidence for
the game of backgammon comes from Central Asia,
from the city of Panjikent. Among the wall paintings
from Panjikent, which are now housed in the Hermit-
age museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, there is a scene
of what can be called court activity. The painting
shows two people playing a board game, which in
all probability is a backgammon game, along with
several other personages beside them (Bussagli 1963,
46^47). A nimbus appears to encircle the head of one
of the players, who has his right hand raised as a
gesture of victory. The man seated on the left has his
left hand raised, showing the bent forefinger. A figure
behind the victorious person also appears to be point-
ing to the loser with the bent forefinger. A fourteenth-
century manuscript of the Sahname contains two
scenes, one at the court of King Khousro I and the
second at the court of the Indian ruler Dewisarm. In
one of the scenes, Wuzurgmihr is seated on the floor
with three other Persians, all with white turbans. In
front of the Persian sage is a backgammon board. The
Indian king is seated on his throne and is surrounded
by Indian sages who are painted darker and have
darker turbans. Wuzurgmihr has his right hand point-
ing to the backgammon board, which probably means
that he is either challenging the Indian sages or
explaining the rules of the game after the Indian
sages have been dumbfounded (Wilkinson 1968, xii).
It is particularly interesting to note that one of the
two older Indian sages, who have white beards, has
his hand by his mouth, symbolizing his amazement or
perplexity.

The Arabs were familiar with backgammon as
early as the time of the Prophet Muhammad and
know that the game was popular (Rosenthal 1975,
88). Tha‘alibl relates a popular story that when the
Arab Muslims conquered the Sasanian capital of Cte-
siphon, they found a set of backgammon pieces be-
longing to Khousro II (CE 590-628), pieces of which
were made of coral and turquoise. There were those
opposed to the game, especially the companions of
the prophet, such as Abu Hurayra (d. 676), who
refused to meet Muslims who had played backgam-
mon. He is also thought to have said, “One who plays

nard with stakes is like one who eats pork; one who
plays without stakes is like one who puts his hand in
pig’s blood; and one who watches the game is like one
who looks at pork meat” (Al- Bukhari 1375, 326-328).
By the eighth century C.E., the four schools of Islamic
jurisprudence considered the game of backgammon
haram (illicit). We, however, have many textual refer-
ences to the game being played at the court in many
regions of the Islamic Near East, which means that
the game may have been played by the masses as well,
and, in fact, its popularity confirms this suggestion.

During the early ‘Abbasid period (750-900), the
game of backgammon was popular both at the court
of Harun al-Rashid and that of his son, al-Ma’mun. It
is said that Ma’mun liked to play backgammon, be-
cause if he lost, he could place the blame on the dice,
meaning fate (Falkner 1892, 115). The same may be
said of the game of chess, which was seen by many
Muslims as a form of gambling. Medieval authors
justified the game by stating that as long as it was
played for mental exercise it would be beneficial. The
Qabus-name dedicates a chapter to the games of chess
and backgammon, where the proper etiquette of play-
ing and when and to whom one should lose or win is
discussed. It is strictly stated that one should not
make bets on the games, and only then does playing
the game become a proper activity (Yusefi 1375, 77).
During the Seljuk period, it is reported that Alp
Arsalan was also fond of backgammon (Gazvini 1331,
68-69).

In Persian poetry there are many references to
the game by An wan, Asadi, FerdowsI, KhaghanI,
Manucehrl, Mas‘tid Sa‘d, Mokhtari, Mowlavl, Sa'di,
and Sana‘1 (MoTn 1972:421^422). Several of the
poets place the game in its original cosmological
function, which means they have stayed faithful to
Wuzurgmihr’s description of the game. Manucehrl
gives the following couplet in regard to human fate
and the cosmos: “The firmament is like the victorious
looking backgammon (game), Its pieces from coral,
and the quality of pearl.”

Touraj Daryaee

Further Reading

Al-Bukharl. al-Adab al-mufrad, ed. M.F. ‘Abd al-Bakl,
Cairo, 1375.

Bussagli, M. Painting of Central Asia. The World Publish-
ing Company, Ohio, 1963.

Henry Corbin. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, from
Mazdean Iran to Shiite Iran. Bollingen Series XCI: 2,
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Daryaee, T. “Mind, Body and the Cosmos: The Game of
Chess and Backgammon in Ancient Persia.” Iranian
Studies 35, 4 (2002): 281-312.

Falkner, E. Games of Ancient and Oriental and How to Play
Them: Being the Games of the Ancient Egyptians, the

BACKGAMMON

Hiera Gramme of the Greeks, the Ludus Latrunculorum of
the Romans and the Oriental Games of Chess, Draughts,
Backgammon and Magic Squares. New York: Dover
Publications, 1892.

Ghazvini, M. (ed.). Cahar maghale. Tehran: Armaghan
Publishers, 1331.

Harper, P.O. The Royal Hunter, Art of the Sasanian Empire.
New York: The Asia Society, 1978.

Loghat Name Dehkhoda, ed. M. MoTn and Dj. ShahidI,
Letter N, Fas. 10, Tehran, 1972.

Pananio, A. “Uranographia Iranica I: The Three Heavens
in the Zoroastrian Tradition and the Mesopotamian
Background,” Au carrefourdes religions, Melanges
offerts d Philippe Gignoux, ed. R. Gyselen, Groupe
pour l’Etude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient,
Bures-sur-Yvette (1995): 205-226.

Rosenthal, F. Gambling in Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975.

Qabus name (ed. Q.-H. Yusefl). Tehran: Scientific and Cul-
tural Publishers, 1375.

Wilkinson, C.K. Chess: East and West, Past and Present, A
Selection from the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Collection. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968.

BADR AL-JAMALI

Badr al-Jamali was wazir and virtual dictator of Fati-
mid Egypt for more than twenty years, from 1074 to
1094 CE. Once in that position, he ruled with an iron
list, controlling all aspects of government save only
the caliphal throne itself. Ethnically an Armenian,
Badr was originally purchased in his youth for a
relatively small sum, becoming thereafter a mamluk
(slave) of the Syrian amir Jamal al-Dawla, hence his
name al-Jamali, which indicates that he once
belonged to this Jamal. When he arrived in Egypt,
he was nearly sixty years old; he was over age eighty
at his death in 1094. The date of his birth must
accordingly be around the year 1015.

Prior to his arrival in Egypt, Badr had risen in
military service over a long career to twice become
governor of Damascus on behalf of the Fatimids.
Over much of the same period Egypt suffered a series
of internal disorders and revolts, leading to the near-
total breakdown of the central government. The ca-
liph al-Mustansir steadily lost ground against the
encroaching chaos; by 1074, many parts of the coun-
try were run independently by tribal forces and rene-
gade troops. Finally, al-Mustansir asked Badr to
come to his rescue. Then the governor of Acre, Badr
insisted that he bring with him his own army. In the
winter of 1074, he crossed to Egypt by sea with that
same army and began to rid the country of all oppo-
sition, both to the caliph and to himself. In rapid
succession, he conducted a purge in the capital and
a campaign in the Delta against Bedouin and various
other rebels there, then marched through Upper
Egypt for a similar purpose, and finally returned to
the Delta to face an invading force of Seljuks intent

on occupation and the overthrow of the Fatimids. In
each of these separate conflicts he was victorious. In
the process he restored the power of the caliph, res-
urrected the caliphate, and gave it new life in place of
almost certain imminent death. Thanks almost solely
to these decisive actions by Badr, it was to last yet
another century.

As ruler, Badr brought calm and prosperity and,
though noted at the time for harsh repression of
all dissent, he is best known for numerous build-
ings, including the memorial shrine (mashhad ) — the
Juyushi — now visible on the plateau above the modern
city of Cairo. He was also responsible for expanding
the size of the medieval city enclosure and fortifying its
walls, putting in place in the process a number of
monumental gates — four of them survive — three
of which, the Bab al-Futuh, Bab al-Nasr, and Bab
al-Zuwayla, are easily recognized today.

At his death, just months before that of the caliph
al-Mustansir, his favored son, al-Afdal Shahinshah,
successfully claimed his legacy and control of the
private militia that had sustained him. The son was
therefore in a position to ensure that the new caliph
would be approved by him, a transition he appears to
have engineered to his liking, although it set in motion
a major schism among the Isma'ilis, both in Egypt
and elsewhere. Even so, the Fatimids survived and al-
Afdal himself ruled Egypt as its military wazir (Amir
al-Juyush) for almost three decades.

Paul E. Walker

Further Reading

Becker, C.H. “Badr al-Djamali.” Encyclopaedia of Islam ,

new edition.

BADSHAHI MOSQUE, LAHORE

The late-twelfth-century Qutb mosque in Delhi was
based on a well-established pillared model widely
used in Islam to the west. The fourteenth-century
Tughluq sultans were patrons of a variety of mosque
types, including mosques built around a single court-
yard with a single- or multi-aisled qiblah prayer
chamber covered by three domes. It was this latter
type, seen in mosques in Delhi, Jaunpur, and Gujarat,
that formed the basis for the classic Mughal mosque
from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

The most striking early example is the 1571-1574
mosque in Fatehpur Sikri, the emperor Akbar’s cita-
del. Built of red sandstone with marble accenting
structural elements, the mosque consists of single-
aisled trabeate arcades on the north, south, and east
sides that frame a great open courtyard. A four-aisled
prayer hall crowned with three domes marks the

BADSHAHI MOSQUE, LAHORE

Badshani Mosque (Imperial Mosque). Exterior. Built by Aurangzeb. Moghul dynasty. 1673-74. Red sandstone and marble.
Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY. Lahore, Pakistan.

qiblah on the west. The central dome is the largest
and is preceded by a massive arched niche (pishtaq)
that projects into the courtyard. The mosque’s aes-
thetics are characterized by clarity, order, and the
grandeur of its controlled interior space.

In the great imperial cities of Lahore, Agra, and
Delhi, the Mughals oversaw the construction of mos-
ques of this type adjacent to the central citadel. These
giant houses of worship accommodated huge num-
bers of the faithful and emphasized the power of
Islam and the Mughal state. Where the Delhi sultans
had experimented with a wide array of types, the
Mughal rulers eschewed eclecticism and focused on
a single, classic form.

The largest of the great imperial mosques, the Bad-
shahi mosque in Lahore, is also the last. It was con-
structed under the aegis of the emperor Awrangzeb
(1658-1707). Much of his reign was spent in military
campaigns to suppress revolts and conquer southern
India, and his attention to architecture was much
more limited than that of his father, Shah Jahan
(1627-1658), who had spent vast sums of money
building forts, palaces, tombs, and mosques. The
son was neither a great patron of palace construction

nor a ruler inclined toward the royal rituals to which
Shah Jahan had paid so much attention.

The strategically important city of Lahore in the
northwest was an ancient center of commerce and
culture and was strategically vital because it protected
the Mughal empire from potential invaders to the
west. Akbar had established it as one of the Mughal
capitals, and the massive citadel he built there, like the
forts in Agra and Delhi, was substantially embellished
by Shah Jahan. Lahore had a marked regional tradi-
tion of architecture, and the surfaces of the 1634
Mosque of Wazir Khan are decorated in colorful
glazed tiles reflecting strong Iranian influence.

The supreme achievement of Awrangzeb’s archi-
tectural patronage is Lahore’s Badshahi Mosque
(Imperial Mosque). It commemorated military cam-
paigns to the south, particularly against the Hindu
insurgent Shivaji in Maharashtra. However, Awrang-
zeb’s efforts weakened the state and exhausted the
treasury. When he died in 1707, he left to his successor
a truncated and bankrupt empire. Built between 1673
and 1674 under the direction of Lidai Khan Koka,
Awrangzeb’s master of ordinance, the Badshahi
Mosque combined the functions of mosque and

BADSHAHI MOSQUE, LAHORE

idgah (a building for the celebration of the religious
festival of the Id). On its east side is an imposing
entrance stairway that leads through a great vaulted
entrance made of red sandstone. The single-aisled
arcades enclose an enormous central space open to
the sky, and this courtyard can accommodate sixty
thousand worshippers. At each corner of the mosque
is a three-story, octagonal, red sandstone rninar
topped with an open, marble-covered canopy.
Framed by four smaller minars and projecting from
the west side into the courtyard, the prayer chamber is
dominated by a central arched niche flanked on each
side by five arches, each one-third the size of the
central niche. Three bulbous marble domes on high
drums divide the roofline, and the largest dome is
directly behind the central arch.

On the exterior, floral and geometric decoration is
inlaid in white marble; the interior is ornamented in
polychromed stucco. Formerly appearing only in im-
perial palaces, stucco baluster columns appear like
tall slender vases holding ornate, delicate floral dec-
orations. Still one of the largest mosques in the Islam-
ic world, the Badshahi Mosque projects great size
with balanced proportions and clarity.

Anthony Welch

See also Agra Red Fort; Akbar; Architecture, Religious;
Babar; Beauty and Aesthetics; Dara Shikoh; Delhi;
God; Hadith; Hindus; Imam; India; Islam; Lahore;
Mosques; Mughals; Persians; Prayer; Qur’an; Qur’an:
Reciters and Recitation; Taj Mahal

Further Reading

Asher, Catherine B. Architecture of Mughal India: The New
Cambridge History of India 1:4. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992.

Chughtai, M.A. Badshahi Mosque. Lahore: Lahore, 1972.
Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls. New York: Harp-
er & Row, 1971.

Koch, Ebba M. Mughal Architecture. Munich: Prestel-
Verlag, 1992.

BAGHDAD

The origin of the name Baghdad, clearly pre-Islamic,
is undetermined. Few physical traces remain of the
original Arab-Islamic site founded (c. 762 CE) by the
‘Abbasid caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur (r. 754-775).
The written accounts by geographers and historians —
these include al-Ya‘qubi, al-Tabari, al-Muqaddasi,
and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi — are thus essential to
any reconstruction of the city’s early history. Desig-
nated officially Madinat al-Salam (“the City of
Peace”), al-Mansur’s project was built in the round,
hence its nickname al-Mudawwara (“the Round

City”). Completed (c. 777) at great expense, it sur-
rounded the caliph’s massive domed residence and a
congregational mosque. The Khurasani regiments —
the forces that had brought the ‘Abbasids to power —
were quartered in al-Harbiyya to the northwest.

Designed initially as an administrative center — it
became, in this sense, the prototype for later Near
Eastern dynasts — it was soon transformed, through
population growth, private construction initiatives,
and other factors, into a dynamic and sprawling
urban hub. By the mid-tenth century, the markets
and residential neighborhoods of Baghdad were
vast, both in number and in variety of population.
Security demands played no less a part. Al-Mansur
and his immediate successors, faced with threats in
outlying districts, particularly from Shi’i and Khariji
opponents, along with restive elements within Bagh-
dad itself, completed large-scale projects, including
the palace complexes of al-Khuld and al-Rusafa in
the 770s. The Round City ceased to function as the
official caliphal residence by the early ninth century.
Its large mosque retained its congregational function
into the premodern period.

The city’s subsequent political history was often
troubled. A civil war (809-819) between the designated
heirs of Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809) — his sons
Muhammad al-Amin and 'Abd Allah al-Ma’mun —
led to years of war in and around Baghdad, a collapse
of central authority in most provinces, and the demise
of the Khurasani army as the imperial mainstay. Al-
Ma’mun, as governor of Khurasan, waged a successful
campaign against al-Amin (r. 809-813). Only partly
through his own reign (813-833) did al-Ma’mun take
up residence in Baghdad (819). His brother and suc-
cessor, Abu Ishaq al-Mu‘tasim (r. 833-842), largely in
an effort to accommodate a complex Turkish, Iranian,
and Central Asian military, created a new center at
Samarra, located north on the Tigris River. Samarra
replaced Baghdad as the imperial hub for some sixty
years (836-892). Developments in Samarra over ensu-
ing decades, particularly the political interference of
the Turkish high command, exacted a grim toll upon
the caliphate. In Baghdad, the Tahirid family wielded
considerable influence, highlighted during a brief but
costly siege by Samarran forces in 865-866. The return
of the ‘Abbasids to Baghdad in the 890s did little to
restore their early authority.

Entry into Baghdad by Ahmad ibn Buya, who
reigned as Mu’izz al-Dawla (945-967), initiated
roughly a century-long period of Buyid suzerainty
over the city and the Iraqi hinterlands. The Buyids,
a north Iranian clan, established a base of power in
Fars, from which they controlled Iraq into the mid-
eleventh century. The city’s fortunes in the tenth cen-
tury were mixed. The flow of tax revenue slowed

BAGHDAD

Mosque, Baghdad, Baghdad was the seat of the ’Abbasid caliphate and the center of the Islamic world of its time.
Credit: Werner Forman/ Art Resource, NY. Kadiomin mosque, Baghdad, Iraq.

markedly due to the degradation of the Iraqi agrarian
infrastructure; the autonomy of most provinces, no-
tably Egypt and Khurasan; and the shift of much
political and economic energy to Fars. Ordinary
crime increased, as did religious and military factional
violence. In addition, by the end of the century, the
new Fatimid capital of Cairo began to overshadow
Baghdad on the political and economic fronts. The
Buyids, however, devoted themselves to urban reno-
vation and large-scale construction (palaces, congre-
gational mosques, and markets). Baghdad retained
its highly “decentered” character in this period: It
remained a city of disparate quarters and neighbor-
hoods with little municipal integration or centralized
authority. Patterns of sectarian and social tension
from the ninth century on are understood largely in
these terms (see below).

The city’s internal sociopolitical and physical divi-
sions sharpened with the arrival of the Seljuks in the
mid-eleventh century. A Turkish clan of the Oghuz
(or Ghuzz) people, the Seljuks had overrun the Ghaz-
navids and thus established authority over Khurasan
and Iran before seizing Baghdad from the Buyids.
The Seljuk leader Toghril Beg (d. 1063) formed

diplomatic ties with the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Qa’im
(r. 1031-1075) in 1050. He led forces into Baghdad,
initially in 1055, then again in 1058, at which point
the caliph granted permission for his use of the title
“Sultan.” The Seljuks spent relatively little time in
Baghdad, preferring to govern from afar through
local officials. Relations with the Abbasid caliphate
remained uneasy throughout. However, their deep
impact on the history of Baghdad had much to do
with their promotion of Sunni Islam, a position the
Seljuks largely defined in terms of anti-Shi‘ism. In
this sense they found a willing ally in the ‘Abbasids,
already engaged against their various Shi‘i detractors.
For both the Seljuks and the ‘Abbasids, it was espe-
cially important to resist the authority and military
ambitions of the Fatimid/Isma‘ili caliphate in Egypt.

Baghdad's significance in Islamic history as a
nexus of intellectual and religious activity is difficult
to exaggerate. Scholarship (literary, religious, and
scientific) was tied, though by no means exclusively,
to shifting political currents. Due in part to ‘Abbasid
patronage, particularly that of a dynamic administra-
tive elite (the kuttab), ninth-century Baghdadi literary
culture flourished. ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz (d. 869), a

BAGHDAD

towering figure, contributed key works of adab
(belles-lettres) and Mu‘tazili theology. Ninth-century
religious scholarship, including Quranic exegesis, ha-
dith , law, and theology, was no less dynamic, as
shown by the work of Abu Ja‘far al-Tabari (d. 923)
(see al-Tabari). The work of Arab/Muslim scien-
tists benefited considerably from the translation
movement of works from Persian, Greek, Syriac,
and Sanskrit into Arabic, which began under
al-Mansur and then flourished under al-Ma’mun.

Subsequent developments in the city’s religiopoli-
tical history proved critical to the formation of the
two foremost branches of Islam. The maturation of
“Twelver” (Imami) (see Shi‘ism) scholarship and de-
votional life is dated to the Buyid period. Due in part
to the foundational work of such scholars as al-
Kulayni (d. 941) and al-Shaykh al-Mufid (d. 1022),
and in part the patronage of the Buyid court, Twelver
doctrines on the occultation of the Imam and related
ideas emerged. So too did Twelver ritual, notably that
associated with Ghadir Khumm and mourning rites
for al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali. It is also to the Buyid period
that one must date the crystallization of Sunnism, this
in good measure a response to the assertion of Shi‘-
ism. A hardening of Sunni-Shi‘i loyalties, often played
out violently over subsequent centuries, divided the
city physically as well. The Seljuk period, as previous-
ly noted, was critical to Sunni history. Of particular
note were the careers of Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092),
chief vizier and Seljuk regent, and Abu Hamid al-
Ghazali (d. 1111), theologian, jurist, and Sufi (see
Sufis and Sufism); both men associated with the Niza-
miyya madrasa in Baghdad. This was among the first
such institutions founded in Iraq and a significant
facet in the spread of Sunni thought and practice.

Baghdad’s history as a commercial hub was no less
significant. As a critical link in a complex trade net-
work connecting the Indian Ocean, eastern Europe,
the Asian steppe, and the Mediterranean, the city
housed a large multiethnic and religious merchant
community. Evidence for the tenth century indicates
important strides in the development of banking and
related areas within the city. In good part, the activity
of Baghdadi merchants was driven by the needs of the
court and elite society. The caliphs and, in time,
Buwayhid and Seljuk interlocutors, after all, required
all appropriate displays of luxury. Written sources
indicate the availability of fabrics (silks, brocades,
linens); jewelry of gold, silver, and gems; carpets;
intricate metalwork; weaponry; fine musical instru-
ments; and an array of exotic foodstuffs. Baghdad
was also home to a busy commerce in slave trade.

The wealth of the Iraqi merchant class was tied as
well to trade in manufactured goods, such as textiles
and paper. Papermaking had spread into the Islamic

world, from China through Central Asia, in the
eighth century and rapidly became an important in-
dustry. The Suq al-Warraqin (“the Stationer’s Mar-
ket”) is said to have included, at its height, more than
one hundred shops. Trade in more ordinary goods
flourished as well. To feed a large population, Bagh-
dad drew on the agricultural production of the
Sawad, the highly fertile lands located between the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as regions farther
afield that produced rice and sugar, among other
widely consumed products. New types of fruits and
vegetables, produced in the Near East from at least
the early Islamic period on, also came available in the
markets of Baghdad. It follows, of course, that the
relationship between the large urban centers and
the countryside was crucial to the 'Abbasid economy.
The 'Abbasids. like the Umayyads before them, were
fortunate in having inherited from the Sasanians a
long-established and well-functioning irrigation sys-
tem. High levels of agricultural production were
maintained in the early ‘Abbasid period. As ‘Abbasid
authority waned (by the late ninth century), how-
ever, maintenance of the agricultural infrastructure
suffered as well.

Matthew S. Gordon

Further Reading

Duri, A. A. “Baghdad.” The Encyclopedia of Islam, Second
Edition.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.

Harlow, U.K.: Pearson Education Ltd., 2004.

Kraemer, Joel L. Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992.

Lassner, Jacob. The Topography of Baghdad in the Early
Middle Ages. Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1970.

al-Muqaddasi. The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the
Regions. Edited and translated by Basil Collins.
Reading, U.K.: Garnet Publishing, 2001.

Wheatley, Paul. The Places Where Men Pray Together:
Cities in Islamic Lands, Seventh through the Tenth Cen-
turies. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.

BAHRAIN

The term Bahrain was used during medieval times to
describe the coastal area extending from Kuwait
down to Abu Dhabi on the southern shore of the
Gulf. Its population centers included Hajar (in Islam-
ic times, Hasa), Qatif, and Awal (Bahrain Island).
Before Islam, Bahrain was inhabited by Arab tribes,
mainly the ‘Abd al-Qays and groups from the Banu
Tamim and Bakr ibn Wa’il. These tribes shared com-
mon interests with the Sasanians, although tensions

BAKRI, AL-, GEOGRAPHER

were common. Small Persian and Indian communities
also lived along the coast.

Due to its geographical position and its links with
Persia and Iraq, Bahrain was prosperous. Nestorian
Christianity was strong in the area, while Bahraini
poets such as al-Mutalammis and al-Muthaqqab
used to attend the court of the Mundhir dynasty
in Iraq.

After the emergence of Islam in the seventh century
CE, Bahraini tribes played an important role in the
Arab conquests and also in political events in Iraq
during the Umayyad era (660-749). The spread of
war damaged commerce, and many Bahraini tribes
migrated to the newly founded Iraqi cities of Basra
and Kufa. As a result, Bahrain declined in importance
and was ruled by the governor of Basra, creating
an important vacuum that led the area to become
one of the centers of opposition to the Umayyad
caliphate, in which the Kharijis played a prominent
part.

During the ‘Abbasid period (749-1258), the rise of
Basra as a commercial center, along with Siraf, Qays,
and Hormuz, led to the further decline of Bahrain.
Groups opposed to the ‘Abbasids, such as the Zanj
(c. 868-883) and the Qarmathians (c. 900-1076),
gained strength. These movements eventually subsid-
ed, while Shi‘ism spread in Hasa and Awal.

New migrants from Central Arabia arrived, and an
independent state was founded by Abd Allah bin Ali.
The dynasty that followed, the ‘Uyunids, lasted from
c. 1076 to 1228. Supported by the Seljuk rulers of
Iraq, this dynasty relied on the power of the Banu
‘Amir tribes who had migrated from Najd.

The Banu ‘Amir were initially allies of the Qar-
mathians and then of the ‘Uyunids, but they eventu-
ally overthrew the latter and established a dynasty of
their own. Founded by ‘Usfur ibn Rashid and known
as the ‘Usfurids, the dynasty dominated Bahrain from
c. 1228 to 1383, but finally came to an end with
the rise of the Kingdom of Hormuz in fourteenth
century.

Another branch of the Banu ‘Amir, led by Zamil
ibn Jabir, then managed to gain control of Bahrain,
founding the dynasty of the Jubur (c. 1446-1519).
This dynasty adopted the Maliki school of Islamic
jurisprudence, but little is known of the cultural and
social life of its people. Although their influence
spread throughout the Gulf, the Jubur were swiftly
overwhelmed by the technologically superior Portu-
guese, who arrived in the Gulf at the beginning of the
sixteenth century.

Throughout the medieval period, the coastal econ-
omy of the extensive area known as Bahrain was
based on commerce, pearling, and date cultivation.

Hasan M. al-Naboodah

See also Arabia; Trade, African; Trade, Indian Ocean;

Tribes and Tribal Customs

Further Reading

Al-Khalifa, Shaikh Abdullah, K., and Michael Rice, Edi-
tors. Bahrain through the Ages : The History. London and
New York: Kegan Paul International, 1993.

Hasan, N. The Role of the Arab Tribes in the East during the
Period of the Umayyad (40-132/660-749) . Baghdad:
Baghdad University, 1976.

Miles, S. B. The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf.
London: Frank Cass, 1966.

Morony, Michael. “The Arabisation of the Gulf.” In The
Arab Gulf and the Arab World. Edited by B.R. Pridham.
London, New York, and Sydney: Croom Helm, 1988.

Naboodah, H. Eastern Arabia in the Sixth and Seventh
Centuries A. D.. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Exeter,
UK, 1989.

. “The Commercial Activity of Bahrain and Oman in

the Early Middle Ages.” Proceedings of the Seminar for
Arabian Studies 22 (1992): 81-96.

Potts, D.T. The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. 2 vols. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1990 (reprinted 1992).

BAKRI, AL-, GEOGRAPHER

Abu ‘Ubayd ‘Abd Allah, b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Bakri
(d. 487/1094), was the greatest geographer of Muslim
Spain. Little is known about his life. He was a native
of Cordova, where he died. His father was the only
one, or else the second, ruler of the small principality
of Huelva and Saltes, founded in 402/1012, at the time
of the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in Cordova. In
443/1051, when his father, ‘Izz al-Dawla, was obliged
to give up his power, Abu ‘Ubayd, who was at that
time approximately thirty years old, accompanied
him to Cordova. He was the the pupil of the historian
Abu Marwan Ibn Hayyan (d. 469/1076) and of other
masters, and moved in various court circles, especially
Almeria. He quickly became a distinguished writer.
Several books are attributed to him, in the religious
sphere, in philology, on the correct names of the
Arabic tribes, and one in botany, none of which has
come to us.

In geography, the work on which Abu ‘Ubayd’s
renown is mainly based is his Book of the Itineraries
and Kingdoms ( al-Masalik wa l-mamalik ) . He appears
never to have traveled in the east, or even in North
Africa. He composed this book in 461/1068 assisted
by literary and oral information. For North Africa
and some parts of Northern Black Africa (such as
Sudan), his main source is Book of the Itineraries
and Kingdoms of Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Warraq
(d. 363/973 in Cordova), which has not come to us.
Not all of the book has been published or translated.
The following sections are edited and/or translated se-
parately: Northern Africa, fragments on the Russians

BAKRI. AL-, GEOGRAPHER

and Slavs, parts related to Muslim Spain, the Arabian
Peninsula, Egypt, and Europe.

Following the usual practice of the geographers of
his time and before him, Abu ‘Ubayd gave to this
work the form of a roadbook, including distances
between towns and staging posts. Most of his descrip-
tions of towns are remarkably precise. His toponymic
material for Muslim Spain, the Maghrib, Northern
Africa, and so on is no less worthy of interest. Many
of his historical notices and remarks are also invalu-
able. He was also interested in social and religious
matters, for instance, about the Berber Moroccan
tribe of the Banu Lamas, who were Shi‘i; or his state-
ment on Yunus of the Barghawati Berber tribe of
Morocco, who made a journey in the first half of the
third/ninth century to the East of the Islamic empire,
together with other North Africans and Andalusis, of
whom three claimed to be prophets upon their return,
including Yunus himself. Abu ‘Ubayd also gives so-
cial and economic information, such as on the pres-
ence of Andalusi traders in al-Mahdiyya (Tunisia),
providing detailed and varied itineraries for their
maritime crossings of the channel between North
Africa and al-Andalus.

Abu ‘Ubayd’s Dictionary on the toponyms, mostly
referring to the Arabic Peninsula, which occur in pre-
Islamic poetry and in the literature of the Islamic
traditional reports, the spelling of which has given
rise to discussions among the philologists and tradi-
tionists, has been edited. It includes a long and inter-
esting introduction on the geographical setting of
ancient Arabia and the habitats of the most important
tribes.

Claude Gilliot

Further Reading

Gilliot, Claude. “Al-Warrak, Muhammad b. Yusuf,” El,
XI, 151.

Levi-Provenqal, E. “Abu ‘Ubayd al-Bakri,” El, I, 155-157:
Miquel, Andre. La geographic humaine du monde musul-
man jusqu ’au milieu du ll e siecle. 4 vols. Paris: La Haye:
Mouton, 1967 (1973 2 ), 1975, 1980, 1988.

BALKANS

Although interactions between the Balkan Slavs and
Greeks with Arab Muslims can be traced back to the
medieval Arab-Byzantine relations, Islam spread
through the Balkans with the Ottoman invasion that
commenced in the mid-fourteenth century. No medi-
eval Balkan state was strong enough to halt the ad-
vancing Ottoman army, especially given that the
Ottomans had acted several times as mercenary allies
in the internecine wars, which had led to political
divisions, deteriorating living conditions, and general
economic instability. After capturing Adrianople
(Edirne) in 1365, the Ottomans pushed farther into
the Balkans in several waves: Serbia fell by 1389 (the
Battle of Kosovo); Bulgaria and Wallachia by 1402;
Bosnia by 1463; Greece, including a number of Aege-
an islands, and Albania by 1481. The apex of Otto-
man expansion was reached by the mid-sixteenth
century with the acquisition of Transylvania, large
parts of Hungary, and Slavonia.

Organized into the millet system of religious
grouping, the Balkan people remained predominantly
Orthodox Christian. However, the presence of Islam
intensified through two main processes: (1) the con-
trolled movement of Muslim populations from other
parts of the Empire, and (2) conversions to Islam that
took place among local populations in uneven waves
and over several centuries. In such diverse religious
space, some pockets of the Balkans continued being

BALKANS

predominantly Christian, whereas others became
mainly Muslim. The largest Muslim communities
were found in Bosnia, Albania, Bulgaria, and West-
ern Thrace. Furthermore, after the Spanish Recon-
quista, many Sephardic Jews settled in the Balkans on
the invitation of the Ottoman sultan.

Because Islam was spread by the Ottomans, Mus-
lims of the Balkans became predominantly Sunni, of
Hanafi legal orientation, though Shi'i teachings were
introduced by, and confined to, the Bektashi and the
associated Kizilbashi Sufi orders. The denominational
and legal uniformity among Balkan Muslims did not
lead to their integration or unification otherwise. On
the contrary, because of the lack of assimilationist
policies by the Ottoman government, most Muslims
retained their cultural and linguistic distinctiveness
and separate ethnic identities.

Excluding the elite population, the majority of the
Balkan people were peasants and shepherds whose
religious beliefs revealed many syncretic practices
adapted from pagan, Christian, and now Islamic
beliefs. Whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, they
placed the main emphasis on local praxis rather than
official teachings. This was reflected in their customs
and rituals, funerary architecture, festivals, and folk
literature.

The situation was somewhat different in the cities
that were erected or invigorated through Ottoman
state policies and pious endowments (waqfs), generat-
ing lively economic, intellectual, architectural, and
social activities. Here, Ottoman Islamic values flour-
ished in a way that reflected a clearer connection with
the larger imperial system, though local sensibilities
remained palpable and important. The urban elite,
made up of literary figures, historiographers, theolo-
gians, philosophers, jurists, merchants, and others,
reveals a polyglot culture in which the Ottoman lan-
guages (Turkish, Arabic, and Persian) were used
along with local languages in intellectual production
and exchange. Among the most prominent scholars
worthy of mention are Ali Dede Bosnevi (d. 1598),
who wrote comprehensive commentaries on Sa'di,
Rumi, and Hafiz; Hasan Kali of Prusac (d. 1616), a
judge whose treatise on the qualities of good gover-
nance became widely known and cited throughout the
Empire; the prolific scholar Mustafa b. Yusuf of
Mostar, known as Sheyh Yuyo (d. 1707), who wrote
multidisciplinary commentaries on medieval Islamic
thought; and Yahya Bey of Taslidja (d. 1575), a pro-
lific poet of lyrical and mystical odes and couplets
that drew inspiration from popular legends as well
as great Sufi masters.

The Balkans also provided a receptive ground
for the dissemination of Sufi ideas and practices, as

evidenced by the diversity and number of Sufi orders.
Among the most important orders were the Khal-
wati, Naqshbandi, and Bektashi, while less prevalent
ones included the Qadiri, Rifa'i, Mawlawi, Bayrami,
Malami, and Badawi orders. Overall, Sufi orders invi-
gorated Balkan Islam in both belief and practice. In
fact, many conversions to Islam happened through
Sufi activities. Their presence in cities and villages
across the Balkans, as testified to by the number of
tekkes (convents) and tiirbes (mausoleums), shows
their ubiquitous presence in different spheres of life.
While some were more attractive to intellectual and
literary circles (such as the Khalwati), others were
highly syncretic and enjoyed popular appeal. Most
syncretic was the Bektashi order. Long associated
with the Ottoman military establishment, Bektashis
spread throughout the Balkans, as evidenced by the
remains of their tekkes and turbes in Greece, Mace-
donia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Albania. Shi’i in orienta-
tion and organized around a sheikh referred to as
baba, the Bektashis intertwined Islamic teachings
with local customs and folklore, making the order
popular, especially in rural areas, and involving equal
participation by both men and women.

Amila Buturovic

Further Reading

Birnbaum, Henrik and Speros Vryonis. Aspects of the Bal-
kans: Continuity and Change. Hague: Mouton, 1972.

Brown, L. Carl. Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on
the Balkans and the Middle East. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1996.

Fine, John V. A. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical
Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman
Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1987.

Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans. Joint Committee
on Eastern Europe Publication Series. No. 12. 2 vols.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Kiel, Machiel. Art and Society of Bulgaria in the Turkish
Period: A Sketch of the Economic, Juridical, and Artistic
Preconditions of Bulgarian Post-Byzantine Art and Its
Place in the Development of the Art of the Christian
Balkans, 1360/70-1700: A New Interpretation. Assen,
The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1985.

Norris, H.T. Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society
between Europe and the Arab World. London: Hurst &
Co., 1993.

Poulton, Hugh and Suha Taji-Farouki (eds.). Muslim Iden-
tity and the Balkan State. New York: New York Univer-
sity Press, 1997.

Rexhebi, Baba. The Mysticism of Islam and Bektashism.
Naples: Dragotti, 1984.

Skendi, Stavro. “Crypto-Christians in the Balkan Area
under the Ottomans.” Slavic Review 26:2 (1967): 227-
246.

Stavrianos, Leften Stavros. The Balkans since 1453. New
York: Rinehart, 1958.

BARAKA

Baraka, which means “blessing,” is a divinely inspired
quality or force of presence that is often associated
with prophets, saints, and other holy persons, and
more generally with pious and learned individuals,
as well as with sacred places and objects. The Jews
and Christians of the Islamic world held similar
beliefs concerning baraka. Muslims regard God as
the ultimate source of baraka and the Qur’an as
embodying it. The Prophet Muhammad, his family,
and the Shi‘i imams possessed baraka in life and
posthumously, as did certain rulers such as Saladin
and Nur al-Din. Baraka was also associated with
individuals who possessed exemplary learning, includ-
ing theologians such as al-Ghazali and Sufis such as
Ibn ‘Arabi and ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani. Rulers sought
the baraka of saints, especially before waging war and
at times of illness. Baraka could be transmitted simply
by touching a person and their clothing or by embrac-
ing them. Baraka was also manifest in articles of
clothing and other personal effects of pious persons,
such as the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad and
Dhu ’1-Fiqar, the famed sword of the Prophet’s
cousin and fourth caliph ‘Ali b. Abi Talib. Certain
mosques, tombs, and shrines, wells, and natural for-
mations, such as springs and trees, were particularly
renowned for their baraka to the extent that they
became pilgrimage places. The earliest codices of the
Qur’an attributed to the third Rightly Guided Caliph
‘Uthman b. ‘Affan and to his successor, ‘Ali b. Abi
Talib, were objects of pious visitation. Visitors sought
to obtain baraka by touching and kissing them.

Josef W. Meri

Further Reading

Hardy, Peter. Historians of Medieval India. London: Luzac
and Co., 1960.

BARTER

See Trade, African; Trade, Indian Ocean; Trade,
Mediterranean

BASRA

The medieval city of Basra was located just west of
the Shatt al-Arab, the confluence of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. Basra was first
settled between AH 14/635 CE and 17/638 by Arab
tribesmen who participated in the Muslim conquest of
the Sasanian Empire. Most likely it was little more
than a military camp during the first years of its
existence. Basra’s strategic location allowed it to
dominate both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and
important overland trade routes. Consequently, it
grew into a thriving military city. By the time of the
Battle of the Camel in 36/657, Basra is estimated to
have had some fifty thousand residents.

Topographically, the city was divided into five
tribal zones, each under the leadership of the tribal
ashraf (notables). Tribal relations in the garrison
towns were complex, but Basra was generally domi-
nated by the Tamim tribe. The city originally served
as a garrison town from which to control newly con-
quered territory in Iraq and to launch further expedi-
tions into Fars. Thanks to extensive irrigation works,
Basra eventually became an agricultural center as
well. It was particularly famous for the quality of
its date orchards. Its strategic location also made it
a trading center of some importance. During the
Umayyad period, Basra did not join the neighbor-
ing garrison town of Kufa in supporting various
‘Alid movements. It was not, however, immune to

rebellion, becoming the center for Ibn al-Ash‘ath’s
rebellion in 81/701 and Ibn al-Muhallab’s revolt in
101/719. The ‘Abbasid revolution of 132/750, which
came in the wake of a plague in Basra, brought a slow
decline in the city’s status, as the newly established
capital city of Baghdad overshadowed the older gar-
rison towns. Basra was not initially a focus for oppo-
sition to the ‘Abbasids, but as the town shrank in size
(from a peak of at least two hundred thousand resi-
dents) and influence, it became susceptible to revolts,
the most notable of which was the Zanj rebellion of
257/871. The fact that this was a rebellion of agricul-
tural slaves and not of disgruntled soldiers (who
fomented earlier rebellions) underlines Basra’s transi-
tion from a garrison town to an agricultural center.
As the ‘Abbasids lost their grip on power, Basra suf-
fered a variety of invasions and pillages, particularly
during the sixth/twelfth century.

In addition to its strategic importance, Basra was
also a significant center for scholarly activity, a status
that the rise of Baghdad did not diminish. During the
Umayyad period, a variety of important theological
thinkers called Basra home, including al-Hasan al-
Basri (d. 110/728) and the early Mu‘tazilite leaders
Wasil ibn ‘Ata’ (d. 131/748) and ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd
(d. 144/761). Basra was the focus of the theological
debate over human free will and the birthplace of the
Mu‘tazilite movement. In addition, Basra was the
earliest center for the study of Arabic grammar. Un-
like Kufa, Basra did not, however, become an impor-
tant venue in the debates that shaped early Islamic
jurisprudence.

Steven C. Judd

Primary Sources

al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir. Ta’rikh al-rusul wa-l-
muluk. ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901.

Yaqut ibn ‘Abdallah al-Hamawi. Mu jam al-buldan. ed. F.
Wiistenfeld as Jacut’s Geographisches Worterbuch.
Leipzig, 1866-1873.

Further Reading

Pelat, Charles. Le Milieu Basrien et la Formation de Gahiz.

Paris: Libraire d’amerique et d’orient, 1953.
van Ess, Josef. Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3.
Jahrhundert Hidschra. Band II. Berlin: Walter de Gruy-
ter, 1992.

BATHS AND BATHING

Baths in the Islamic world have almost always fo-
cused on the institution of the bathhouse, known as
the hamam. Having its roots in the Roman and
Byzantium bathhouse tradition, the hamam was

BATHS AND BATHING

The Royal Baths in the harem. The Star-shaped roof lights were once covered in red glass. Tiles line the walls. Credit: Werner
Forman/ Art Resource, NY. Alhambra, Granada, Spain.

built and functioned in a similar manner over its
thirteen-and-a-half centuries of existence. The hamam
as a building was often distinguished by several large
brick domes that were interspersed with a great num-
ber of bulbous pieces of glass that would let light
shine into the building without letting the furnace
heat escape. The bathhouse typically had three main
chambers. The customers, segregated by gender, and
often by religious community, would first enter an
unheeded resting area where they would take off
their clothes, dresses, towels, and/or loincloths. They
would then enter a warmer antechamber where they
would be exposed to a moderate amount of the fur-
nace’s moist heat. They would then enter the main
sweating room, a large chamber where the steam of
the hamam’ s furnaces would bring about an intense
sweat. Once the customer had properly sweated, he or
she would have their body rubbed and lathered,
which would clean the pores and remove any dirt.
After this, a customer would rinse himself or herself
with warm water and/or take a bath in the water
basins of the room. After the customer had done
this, he or she would return to the initial rest area to
relax and prepare for leaving the bathhouse.

Hamams were typically staffed by at least eight
to ten attendants. These included one who would
maintain the resting area and the linens and two to
three people who would help the clients with washing,
scrubbing, or even massages in the main sweating
chamber. Two to three others would work to heat
the large cauldrons of water in the furnace area.
They would either bring in fuel (in the form of coal
or dried dung) from a nearby depot area or be build-
ing the lire with the fuel.

Hamams played a role in a great number of social
functions in the urban neighborhoods where they
were established. Indeed, they were considered to be
vital for the establishment of each new Muslim city
quarter, as they helped maintain God’s will for all to
be cleanly. The sweating and cleansing processes in
various degrees of heat and humidity also were vital
to maintaining the body’s humoral balance, a key
Galenic concept that predominated in medieval med-
icine throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Muslim travelers from the ninth century onward have
remarked on the great number of hamams in the cities
ofthe Muslim world, including Cordoba, Tunis, Cairo,
Baghdad, and Istanbul. The loss of a hamam, like

100

BAYBARS I, MAMLUK SULTAN

that of a mosque, was considered tantamount to the
destruction of the city itself. Local authorities would
often go to great lengths to reestablish the hamam
and enhance normal social life.

People also used the hamam as a place where one
could relax and interact with one’s neighbors. It is no
coincidence that baths were taken in groups, since this
would allow numbers of people to enjoy the baths as
they escaped from the trials and tribulations of every-
day life. People would typically gossip with each other
as they sipped a hot drink in the rest chamber. As
noted earlier, hamams would be segregated by gender
and religious community to maintain social mores.
For example, hamams would allow Muslims and
non-Muslims on specific days of the week, and
might allow women in during the day and men during
the night. There was a particular concern about pro-
tecting female patrons from moral and physical dan-
ger, leading the hamams to establish separate staffs
for male and female clients. The penalties for theft
and nude activity were extremely high if the victim
was a recognized female client.

However, if a woman entered a bath at the wrong
time, she lost all legal rights for her own protection.
She was often regarded as a mere prostitute who could
be abused by men with impunity. Beyond potentially
being raped or sexually harassed was the loss of social
station among her neighbors.

Despite these social restrictions, hamams on occa-
sions would be used for illicit relations. We know, for
instance, from sixteenth-century Ottoman court
records, that some hamams were shut down after the
local authorities found out that men and women were
using the same facilities with the collusion of the
hamam’s staff. In later centuries, the abuse of
questionable substances such as heroin, tobacco, and
coffee were also duly noted.

Birsen Bulmu§

See also Personal Hygiene
Further Reading

Bums, Robert Ignatius. “Baths and Caravanserais in Cru-
sader Valencia.” Speculum 46, no. 3 (July 1971): 443M58.
Powers, James F. “Frontier Municipal Baths and Social
Interaction in Thirteenth-Century Spain.” The American
Historical Review 84, no. 3 (June 1979): 649-667.
Reeves, Mary Barbara. The Roman Bath-House in Humeima
in Its Architectural and Social Context. Master of Arts.
University of Victoria, 1996.

Semerdjian, Vivian Elyse. “Off the Straight Path: Gender,
Public Morality and Legal Administration in Ottoman
Haleppo, Syria.” Unpublished dissertation. Georgetown
University, October 2002.

Sourdel-Thomine, J. and Louis, A. “Hamam.” IE Online
Edition, 2001.

BAYBARS I, MAMLUK SULTAN

Baybars I, fifth ruler (r. 1260-1277) of the Mamluk
Sultanate of Egypt and Syria, was in many ways the
most important leader in its history.

Baybars was born around 1220 CE among the
Qipchaq Turks, who lived in the steppe region north
of the Black Sea. Fleeing from the Mongol invasions
in the area in 1241-1242, Baybars and his family
moved to Anatolia. There, Baybars was captured
and ended up in the slave market of Damascus. Even-
tually he ended up in the service of the great Ayyubid
sultan, al-Salih Ayyub (1238-1249), founder of the
famous Bahriyya regiment, of which Baybars was a
member. Baybars first came to prominence in the
fighting in Mansura (1250) in the eastern Nile Delta
during the Fifth Crusade; his bravery and leadership
helped turn the tables against the Franks. Baybars
was one of the conspirators who killed the new sultan,
Turanshah, son of al-Salih, an event that led to the
establishment of the Mamluk rule in Egypt. The Bah-
riyya, led by Aqtai and seconded by Baybars, was one
of the main factions in the fledging Mamluk state, but
it was soon bested in the internal power struggles by
Sultan Aybak. Aqtai was killed in 1254, and Baybars
fled with seven hundred Bahris to Syria, where they
remained as mercenaries serving various Ayyubid
princes until the approach of the Mongols at the
beginning of 1260. Baybars realized that there was
no chance of resistance to the Mongols in Ayyubid
Syria, so he was reconciled with the new Mamluk
sultan, Qutuz (a Mamluk of Aybak and therefore an
enemy). The Bahriyya under Baybars returned to
Egypt in March 1260. Baybars became a trusted sub-
ordinate in the campaign against the Mongols in the
summer of 1260. He led the advance guard that came
across the first Mongols at Gaza, and then again in
the skirmishing in the Jezreel Valley before the battle
of 'Avn Jalut, where his courage is also noted by
various sources; he also led the subsequent mop-
ping-up operations. Relations with Qutuz soon
soured, however, particularly when Baybars was not
awarded the governorship of Aleppo as he had hoped.
On their way back to Cairo, both men were on their
guard. Baybars, however, struck first. With a group of
conspirators, he fell upon the sultan while hunting
and killed him. This was the second time that Baybars
was deeply involved in a regicide. He was recognized
as ruler in late October 1260.

The reign of Baybars was in many ways the forma-
tive years of the Mamluk Sultanate. Emerging from a
decade of political disorder on the one hand, and
having just gained control over most of Syria up to
the Euphrates River on the other hand, the Sultanate
was put on a firm footing militarily, politically, and

101

BAYBARS I, MAMLUK SULTAN

economically. Baybars was surely aware that it was
only a matter of time until the Mongols attempted
another large-scale invasion of Syria. Any doubts that
he might have harbored on this matter were removed
by the many Mongol raids, as well as truculent letters
that he received from the llkhans, as the Mongol
rulers of Iran and the surrounding countries were
known. He set about enlarging and strengthening his
army. An efficient foreign espionage service was
established, as was a communication network con-
necting the capital, Cairo, with the main cities of
Syria and the far-flung frontier along the Euphrates,
through the use of horse relays, pigeon post, and
bonfires. Fortifications were set in order along the
frontier and inside the country, although those cap-
tured from the Franks along the coast were destroyed.
Diplomatic relations were established and maintained
with various non-Muslim rulers, including the Byzan-
tine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. The most
significant diplomatic demarche was the relations
established with Berke Khan, the Muslim Mongol
ruler of the Golden Horde in the southern Russian
steppe. Baybars encouraged him to continue fighting
his cousin the Ilkhan, which meant that the Mongols
of Iran were often fighting on a second front and
could not devote themselves to the war against the
Mamluks. Although there were no major Mongol
campaigns into Syria during Baybars’s reign, the
frontier was a scene of frequent warfare, with raiders
going both ways. In this border war, the Mamluks
were usually more successful, perhaps due to the
greater importance they attached to this front com-
pared with their Ukhanid enemies. In 1277, Baybars
launched his one major campaign into Mongol-con-
trolled territory, Anatolia. This resulted in a Mamluk
victory at Abulustayn (which later became Elbistan),
but Baybars — after sweeping through the country —
withdrew because of supply difficulties and the pros-
pect of a major Mongol counterattack. Throughout
his reign, Baybars also launched several large-scale
raids on the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia in Cilicia,
a loyal ally of the Mongols.

In the years after gaining power, Baybars consoli-
dated Mamluk rule in Syria. A number of minor
rulers, including Ayyubid princes, were either elimi-
nated or brought under control. His legitimacy was
strengthened by the welcome of a scion of the ‘Abbas-
id family. After ascertaining his genealogy, Baybars
had him declared caliph with the title al-Mustansir. In
a well-directed spectacle, the new caliph promptly
handed over all functions to Baybars, who was offi-
cially declared sultan. Baybars also significantly re-
duced the Frankish presence in Syria and Palestine.
There is no indication that Baybars had planned an

aggressive anti-Frankish policy from the beginning
of his reign, and he may well have thought to con-
tinue the modus vivendi that characterized Muslim-
Crusader relations during the Ayyubid period.
Perhaps his growing awareness of the llkhans’
attempts to achieve an alliance with the Pope and
rulers of Latin Europe in order to launch a joint
campaign against the Mamluks led the sultan to
adopt a more truculent strategy vis-a-vis the Franks
in Syria. In a series of campaigns, Baybars captured a
large number of Crusader cities and forts (some nota-
ble examples include Caesarea and Arsuf in 1265;
Safad in 1266; Jaffa, Beaufort, and Antioch in 1268;
and Crac des Chevaliers in 1271). Baybars left his
successors a much-reduced Crusader entity that was
finally eliminated in 1291 by the sultan al-Ashraf
Khalil ibn Qalawun.

Baybars was responsible for the greater institu-
tionalization of the army, the iqta‘ (land allocation)
system, and provincial and central administration, as
well as a reform of the judiciary system, which led to
the placing of all four Sunni schools of law on an
equal footing (albeit with a slight preference for the
Shaffi school). He was also a great builder of fortifi-
cations and religious buildings. Although not the first
ruler of the Sultanate, he was in many ways its real
founder. He was succeeded by his son al-Sa‘id Berke
Khan, who was, however, removed after two years.
After a short interlude in which another son, Sulam-
ish, served as a puppet ruler, Baybars’s colleague
and associate Qalawun (r. 1279-1290) ascended to
the throne.

Reuven Amitai

See also ‘Ayn Jalut; Land-Tenure; Mamluks; Mongols

Further Reading

Amitai, Reuven. “The Mamluk Officer Class during the
Reign of Sultan Baybars.” In War and Society in the
Eastern Mediterranean, 7th-15th Centuries. Edited by
Yaakov Lev. Leiden: Brill, 1997, 267-300.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. “Mamluk Perceptions of the Mon-
gol-Frankish Rapprochement.” Mediterranean Histori-
cal Review 7 (1992): 50-65.

. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War,

1260-1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995.

Holt, Peter M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from
the Eleventh Century to 1517. London and New York:
Longman, 1986.

, Early Mamluk Diplomacy, 1260-1290: Treaties of

Baybars and Qalawun with Christian Rulers. Leiden:
Brill, 1995.

Irwin, Robert. The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The
Early Mamluk Sultanate, 1250-1382. London: Routle-
dge, 1986.

102

BERBER, OR TAMAZIGHT

Khowaiter, Abdul-Aziz. Baibars the First: His Endeavours
and Achievements. London, 1978.

Northrup, Linda. “The Bahri Mamluk Sultanate, 1250
1390.” In The Cambridge History of Egypt. 2 vols.
Vol. 1. Edited by Carl Petry. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998, 242-289.

Thorau, Peter. The Lion of Egypt: Sultan Baybars I and the
Near East in the Thirteenth Century. Trans. P.M. Holt.
London and New York: Longman, 1992.

Wiet, Gaston. “Baybars I.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second
Edition. 1:1124-1126.

BEAUTY AND AESTHETICS

Muslim medieval culture, like contemporary Europe-
an culture, did not articulate a philosophical concept
of art. It dealt, however, with various concepts of
beauty and aesthetics.

Islam can be considered to take an aesthetic ap-
proach to faith: The unique beauty of the Qur’anic
text, whether read or recited, and hence its inimitabil-
ity, are believed to be the evidence for its divine
nature. Tradition tells about people being converted
through the fascination with the beauty of the recited
Qur’an.

The Qur’an neither refers explicitly to issues of
artistic relevance nor prescribes the shape of the
mosque or the use of liturgical objects, Islam being
rather a religion without complex liturgy, which
allows the worshipper direct communication with
God. However, it uses a dozen terms that refer to
moral rather than aesthetic beauty. Muslim theolo-
gians and, in particular, the Sufis, have often dealt
with the beauty of God; however, this approach is
spiritual, with no artistic or aesthetic associations. Al-
Ghazali, in his book Ihya ’ ‘ulum al-din (Revivification
of the Religious Sciences), discusses the subject of
divine beauty, as well as the issues of ethics and
behavior, such as the permissibility of music. Al-
Ghazali’s book includes some interesting statements
with relevance to material culture and art.

Muslim theologians were not involved in shaping
the architecture of the mosque; rather, this was
shaped by the patrons (that is, the rulers), whose
duty it was to establish and oversee religious institu-
tions. Alongside its religious meaning, it acquired a
political significance. The decorative arts, including
objects related to religious monuments, were shaped
by the secular patronage of the court and a sophisti-
cated urban society. Although calligraphy has the
status of a sacral art, because of its association with
the Qur’an, designers from the chancellery created it
as a discipline. It was the only visual art in medieval
Islam to have a written canon based on precisely

established rules of proportions and to be considered
a truly scholarly discipline. No other discipline in the
visual arts is known to have had such a scholarly
status. Whereas medieval Islamic culture did not con-
ceptualize the visual arts and include them in the
discourse on beauty, Arabic literary criticism has ela-
borated highly sophisticated aesthetic concepts for
the belles-lettres. Although the origins of Arabic liter-
ary criticism are rooted in the religious tradition of
Qur’anic exegesis, it expanded to play a significant
role in poetry. Because poetry had a rather controver-
sial status from the orthodox viewpoint, it remained,
like the visual arts, in the secular domain. The main-
stream of Arab literary criticism, following the
Aristotelian principle, which distinguishes between
content and form, considered good poetry as uncon-
genial with moral or religious intentions. The view
that the form was the decisive factor in the artistic
assessment reveals an aesthetic rather than moral ap-
proach. Implicitly, a corresponding principle ruled
the visual arts, which used the same artistic and deco-
rative vocabulary for the secular and religious
domains.

Arabic classical literature deals with human beauty
and love, the prevailing view being that beauty is a
matter of subjective appreciation.

Doris Behrens-Abouseif

Further Reading

Behrens-Abouseif, D. Beauty in Arabic Culture. Princeton,
1999.

Giese, A., A and Ch Biirgel (eds). Gott ist schon und Er liebt
die Schonheit. Festschrift fur Annemarie Schimmel. Bern,
1994.

Kirmani, N. Gott ist Schon. Mtinchen, 1999.

Puerta Vilchez, Jose Miguel. Historia del Pensamiento Este-
tico Arabe. Al-Andalus y !a Estetica Arabe Clasica.
Madrid, 1997.

‘Usfur, Jamal J. Qira’at al-turath al-naqdi. Kuwait, 1992.

‘Usfur, J. al-Sura al-fanniyya fi l-turath al-naqdi wa-l-bala-
ghi. Cairo, 1992.

Von Griinebaum, G. Kritik und Dichtkunst. Studien zur
arabischen Literaturgeschichte. Wiesbaden, 1955.

Ward Gwyne, R. "Beauty.” In Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an.
Vol. 1. (Brill) Leiden and Boston: Koln, 2001.

BERBER, OR TAMAZIGHT

Tamazight (Berber) is a language of the Afro-Asiatic
family and comprises a number of related dialects
spoken by the indigenous populations of North
Africa. The geographical expanse covered by these
dialects once included virtually all of Africa north of

103

BERBER, OR TAMAZIGHT

the great Sahara Desert. Variations of it are still used
from the Canary Islands off the Moroccan Atlantic
coast in the West to the oasis of Siwa, in the western
desert of Egypt to the east, and from the Mediterra-
nean shores of Africa in the north to the Saharan
villages of Niger and Mali in the south. Although
the different spoken varieties of Tamazight are related
closely enough to be viewed as dialects of the same
language, the degree of intelligibility among speakers
of different varieties is subject to a great deal of
variation depending on distance, the amount of inter-
action among different communities, and the level of
awareness interlocutors have, whether or not they
belong to the same language family.

The name tamazight is used in the Middle Atlas
region of Morocco and is the same term used to refer
to a singular feminine member of the community
(amazigh for the singular masculine and imazighen
for the plural). Northern speakers in the Rif Moun-
tains use the terms tarifit ( arifi, irifiyn ) or trifsht; in
the High Atlas and Lower Atlas and southern Mo-
rocco the name used is tashelhit ( ashelhi, ishelhiyen ) .
In Algeria the names frequently used are taqbaylit n
the mountainous areas of Kabylia, tashawit in the
Aures Mountains, and tamzahit in the south.
Among the populations of Siwa in Egypt the appella-
tion used is tasiwit. In the vast expanses of the great
Sahara Desert some of the names used are tamasheq,
tamajeq, and tamahar.

There are no reliable sources as to the numbers of
Tamazight speakers in North Africa today, as official
population counts generally do not address the lan-
guage issue. The available information usually pre-
sents the number of Tamazight speakers in Tunisia as
being around 1 percent of the population, 20 percent
in Algeria, and as high as 40 percent in Morocco, but
the accuracy of these numbers will only be verified
when reliable scientific surveys are carried out.

According to the al-moheet dictionary, the Arabic
name barbari used to refer to speakers of this lan-
guage is derived from the verb barbara, meaning to
speak loudly in an agitated manner and unintelligibly.
The same verb is used to refer to sounds made by
agitated or overexcited animals. The French historian
and ethnographer Gabriel Camps traces the histories
of the different names used throughout history to
name the ‘Berbers.’ With regard to the amazigh ap-
pellation, he notes the existence of a name based on a
three-letter root, composed of [M, Z, G] or [M, Z, K],
that has been used by North Africa, as well as by early
historians, notably Greek and Roman. Possible an-
cient renditions of the word amazigh include Roman
mazices, Greek maxyces or mazyes, and meshwesh,
which appears in ancient Egyptian inscriptions. Camps
cites the existence of differences in pronunciation and

spelling of modern names, for example imusagh or
imajighen of the great Sahara Desert and the imazigh-
ens of the Aures and Middle and High Atlas, as being
comparable (p. 66). Many researchers in the field,
including Muslim scholars, concede that the Arabic
name ‘barbar’ and its ‘berber’ descendant in Western
languages have never been used by the populations in
question to refer to themselves.

Based largely on information provided by writers
including Al-Qayrawani, Al-Bekri, Ibn Hayyan, Al-
Qurtubi, Al-Warraq, Ibn Khaldun, and many other
Muslim historians who wrote between the ninth and
fifteenth centuries, it is understood that varieties of
Tamazight were spoken all over North Africa and
that Arabic was limited to the larger urban centers.
Tamazight-speaking populations gave rise to some of
the most powerful empires that North Africa has ever
known: the Al-Moravids (eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies), followed by the Al-Mohades (twelfth and
thirteenth centuries). The Barghwata tribes who con-
trolled the Atlantic plains of Morocco for almost four
centuries (ending in the twelfth century) became no-
torious in Muslim and Arab sources because they
composed what was said to be a heretical Qur’an in
their own language and attempted to replace main-
stream Islam.

The status of Tamazight in the postcolonial states
of North Africa has never been fully recognized. In-
deed, writing or publishing in Tamazight was discour-
aged and often repressed. Thanks to recent political
and cultural changes in the area, Tamazight is making
a spectacular comeback into the world of media and
even the school systems. Indeed, both Algeria and
Morocco have started introducing Tamazight into
their elementary-school curricula.

Rachid Aadnani

Further Reading

Abun-nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib in the Islam-
ic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1987.

Azaykou, Ali Sidqi. Histoire du Maroc On les interpretations
possibles. Rabat: Centre Tariq In Zyad, 2002.

Brett, Michael, and Elizabeth Fentress. The Berbers. Mal-
den, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

Camps, Gabriel. Les Berberes: Memoires et identite. Paris:
Editions Errance, 1987.

Chaker, Salem. Textes en Linguistique Berbere: Introduction
au domaine berbere. Paris: CNRS, 1984.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History.
Trans. Franz Rosenthal. London: Routledge, Kegan
and Paul, 1967.

Laroui, Abdallah. The History of the Maghrib: An Interpre-
tative Essay. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Princeton: Prince-
ton University Press, 1970.

Norris, H.T. The Berbers in Arabic Literature. Essex: Long-
man, 1982.

104

BERBERS

“Berbers” is the generic name given to various people
native to North Africa, also called “Berberia” for the
pre-Islamic and early medieval period, or “Maghrib,”
an Arabic term meaning “the land of the sunset.”
The Berbers, who settled in African lands in the first
millennium BCE, primarily belonged to the same lin-
guistic community based on the nonwritten language
called Tamazight. Although they shared common cul-
tural features, Berbers distinguished one another
through different modes of living — sedentary, semi-
nomadic, and nomadic (for those from the Sahara
Desert, which were called “Targis” or “Touaregs”).
The Berbers had embraced Christianity and Judaism
before they became Muslim, following the Arab con-
quest in the seventh-century CE. Divided into
families, groups of descendants, and tribes, they set-
tled in territories stretching from the Atlantic Ocean
to Cyrenaica and some locations of Western Egypt.
These territories cover three main areas: Occidental,
Central, and Oriental Berberia, also called “Ifri-
qiyya.” The Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-
1406) was the first to study the history, culture, and
sociology of Berbers in his seven-volume treatise Al-
Kitab al-Ibar (The Book of Historical Examples ) . His
distinction between Arabs and Berbers, their lifestyle,
economies, and power relationships, illustrates the
sociopolitical situation of medieval Maghrib. In par-
ticular, the rivalries between the two ethnic groups
have marked the history of Muslim North Africa and
Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) as well, because Spain
was invaded by an Islamic Berber- Arab army in 711
and constituted a part of the Muslim Empire for
about eight centuries.

The advent of Islam in North Africa led to a
phenomenon of Arabization of the Berbers, although
they have never lost entirely their cultural identity.
However, the Arab occupation in the seventh and
eighth centuries, following the Byzantine domination,
was not accomplished without a fierce resistance. Ac-
cordingly, the Islamization of Berberia was relatively
slow and completed only in the twelfth century. Al-
ways rebellious, Berbers were in favor of heterodox
religious trends and sectarian movements, such as
Kharijism and Shi'ism, opposing the Sunni Caliphate
and local governing class before the generalized adop-
tion of the Malikism School in Maghrib in the dawn
of modern times. The complex relationships of Berber
clans with these various Islamic trends superimposed
on the sociological phenomena of family alliances or
dissensions and tribal confederations underlies the
troubled dynastic history of medieval Maghrib. Fol-
lowing the period of dependence on the Umayyads of
Damascus (660-749), the first dissident states from

the Caliphate in the East appeared in Maghrib, sup-
ported by local Berbers: the Shi‘i kingdom of the
Idrisids (789-974) in Occidental Berberia and the
Kharijid kingdom of the Rostamids (777-909) in Cen-
tral Berberia. The Zanata on the one hand and the
Masmouda, Kotama, and Sanhaja on the other hand
are to be associated with the division of Berberia, in
the tenth and eleventh centuries, into two zones of
political and religious influence of the rival Caliphates
in the West of the Sunni Umeyyads in Cordoba and
the Shi‘i Fatimids in Cairo. Besides, before it was
transferred to Egypt, the schismatic Fatimid State
initially took place in Ifriqiyya, thanks again to the
Berber support. The second half of the eleventh cen-
tury saw the rise of the first great Sunni Berber Em-
pire of the Almoravids (1056-1147), Al-Murabitun,
“people of the ribat” (Islamic fortress). Founded by
the nomadic tribe of the Lamtuna, the Almoravids
developed a bright civilization called “Hispano-
Berber” or “Hispano-Maghrebi” in Occidental and
Central Berberia and Al-Andalus. In Spain, they had
progressively reunified the Islamic land that, after the
fall of the Umeyyad Caliphate in 1031, was parti-
tioned into multiple kingdoms governed by either
Arab or Berber dynasties called “Reyes de Taifas”
(Party Kings). The Almoravids also had temporarily
stopped the “ Reconquista ” (eleventh century to 1492),
the ongoing Christian conquest of Al-Andalus. The
direct contact with the Andalusi urban culture greatly
contributed to the development of the Almoravid
civilization in North Africa. However, soon the
refined courtly life of the Almoravids came up against
the rigorous religious feelings of the society. In the
twelfth century a reformative movement founded by
the mahdi (“the well-guided”) Ibn Tumart, based on
an absolute respect of divine uniqueness, allowed a
new Berber dynasty to take over all Maghribi regions.
The Almoravids (1130-1269) or Al-Muwahhidun
(“the partisans of divine uniqueness”) established a
second Hispano-Berber Empire more powerful than
the previous one. An economical prosperity relying
on exchanges between Black Africa, Berberia, and
Mediterranean Europe, and an active cultural life
enlightened by great philosophers such as Ibn Rushd
and Ibn Tufayl, built the grandeur of the Almohad
Empire, the most glorious episode of Berber history.
The subsequent dynasty of the Marinids (1258-1465),
from the Zanata tribe, was the last Berber reign in
Maghrib in the Middle Ages.

Valerie Gonzalez

Primary Sources

Ibn Khaldun. Kitab al-Ibar wa diwan al-mubtada’ wa l-kha-
bar fi ayyami 1-Arab wa l-Agam wa l-Barbar. Bulaq

105

BERBERS

Editions, 1867-1868, translation of Vol. I by Rosenthal,
F. The Muqqadimah, An Introduction to History. New
York, 1958, 3 vol.

See also Almohads; Almoravids; Andalus; Berber (Ta-
mazight); Caliphate and Imamate; Conquest; Family;
Fatimids; Free Thinkers; Heresy and Heretics; Ibn
Khaldun; Ibn Rushd (Averroes); Ibn Tufayl; Ibn Tu-
mart; Idrisids; Kharijis; Malikism; Marinids; Nomad-
ism and Pastoralism; Party Kings; Reform; Schools of
Jurisprudence; Sedentarism; Shi‘ism; Trade, African;
Trade, Mediterranean; Umayyads

Further Reading

Abun-Nasr, J.M. A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic
Period. Cambridge, MA, 1987.

Brett, Michael. “The Spread of Islam in Egypt and North
Africa.” In Northern Africa: Islam and Modernization.
Ed. Brett. London, 1973.

The Further Islamic Lands, The Cambridge History of
Islam. Vol. II. Cambridge University Press, 1970, 21 1 —
237 and 406-440.

Chejne, A.G. Muslim Spain: Its History and Culture. Min-
neapolis, 1974.

Encyclopedie Berbere, sous la direction de Gabriel Camps.
Aix-en-Provence, 1985.

Johnson, D.L. The Nature of Nomadism: A Comparative
Study of Pastoral Migrations in Southwestern Asia and
North Africa. Chicago, 1969.

Marpais, Georges. La Berberie Musulmane et I’Orient an
Moyen Age. Paris, 1946.

BEVERAGES

After water, the most essential beverage is milk,
whether human or animal. Mothers’ milk is not mere-
ly nutritional but produces, in the case of suckling by
a foster mother, a bond considered in Islam nearly as
strong as a blood relationship and similarly causes a
series of marriage impediments. Animal milk may be
from cow, camel, sheep, or goat. The Qur’an (47:15)
promises to the god-fearing “rivers of water unstal-
ing, rivers of milk unchanging in flavour, and rivers of
wine-a delight to the drinkers, rivers, too, of honey
purified” (tr. Arberry). These four drinks were popu-
lar on earth, too, even the one forbidden to Muslims,
which is celebrated far more often and more fervently
in poetry than any other drink. Milk and milk pro-
ducts are typical in Bedouin life; urban society has
added a large number of other drinks. Many of these
were mildly alcoholic, being fermented infusions of
cereals or fruits; the word fuqqa ' stands for a range of
sparkling drinks, many of which could be considered
kinds of beer, ale, or shandy. Others were soft drinks,

being fruit juices made of lemon, apple, pomegranate,
tamarind, jujube, and so on, often flavored with
honey, sugar, sumac, musk, mint, and other ingredi-
ents, and cooled with snow or ice, if one could afford
it. The great variety in methods of preparation and in
the appellations used (which differ through time and
according to local traditions and languages) gave
much work to the religious scholars who attempted
to distinguish the forbidden from the permissible.
Recipes for drinks are found in culinary, as well as
medical, works: There is no clear boundary between,
on the one hand, drinks for nutrition and pleasure
and, on the other hand, tonics or medicinal beverages.
The Arabic word sharab is ambiguous: It means
“beverage” in general, but in many contexts it is
obviously used as a euphemism for wine or other
alcoholic drinks. It is also used for any kind of
syrup or cordial. That the word syrup, together with
its English and European cognates (including sherbet
and sorbet), derives from sharab illustrates the im-
portance and appeal of medieval Middle Eastern
beverages.

Coffee and tea, so popular in the modern Middle
East, are relatively recent innovations: The latter is
postmedieval and only the former can be called a
(late) medieval drink. The Arabic word qahwa (from
which “cafe” and “coffee” are derived) is found in
much older periods as a rather rare word for “wine.”
It was used for coffee when this drink spread in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries from Ethiopia via
Yemen and Arabia to the rest of the Middle East,
reaching Cairo in the early sixteenth century. Initially,
many puritan scholars regarded it as suspect or even
forbidden, not merely because of its name and its
being an innovation, but because it was thought to
be associated with sin (listening to music, drinking
wine, eating hashish) and mysticism and was seen to
affect the mind. In the end it was acknowledged that
its effects could not be compared to those of alcohol
or drugs.

Geert Jan van Gelder

See also Alcohol; Rosewater; Water; Wine

Further Reading

Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a
Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East. Seattle and
London: University of Washington Press, 1988.

Rodinson, Maxime, A. J. Arberry, and Charles Perry.
Medieval Arab Cookery. Totnes, Devon: Prospect
Books, 2001; see general index s.v. drinks, milk, syrup,
verjuice.

Sadan, J. “Mashrubat.” Encyclopaedia of Islam , New
edition. Vol. 6. Leiden: Brill, 1991, 720-723.

106

BIBLE

The question of whether or not the Bible was trans-
lated into Arabic before the rise of Islam was debated
in the early twentieth century by two German scho-
lars: Anton Baumstark and Georg Graf. Their debate
centered on biblical references in Arabic poetry tradi-
tionally held to be pre-Islamic and in later Arabic
works, references that according to Baumstark
proved the existence of such a translation. The debate
was never settled. Today, scholars such as Irfan
Shahid uphold the position of Baumstark, while
others, among them Sidney Griffith, support the po-
sition of Graf, by reminding us that although there is
still no convincing material evidence of a pre-Islamic
Arabic Bible, there is evidence that Arabic-speaking
Christians of the time used a Syriac Bible.

Nevertheless, the Qur’an is replete with references
to, and even quotations of, biblical material. Indeed,
the Qur’an might be considered under the category of
biblical literature, which is broadly understood. As
the scholars A. Geiger, M. Griinbaum, H. Speyer,
and A. Jeffery have shown, the Qur’anic worldview,
from the seven days of creation through the apocalyp-
tic Day of Judgment, is articulated through biblical
terminology, narratives, characters, and symbolism.
Although apologetic arguments maintaining the ab-
solute independence of the Qur’an have gained popu-
larity, readers familiar with biblical (including
Mishnaic/Talmudic and apocryphal texts) writings
will find the Qur’anic narratives of biblical figures —
from Adam to Jesus — familiar. Meanwhile, many
other narratives in the Qur’an, including the three
separate stories of sura 18 (companions of the cave,
Moses and the servant of God, and the two-horned
one), prove to be connected to biblical or parabi-
blical works (Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, Legend of
Joshua ben Levi, Syriac Romance of Alexander,
respectively).

However, the Qur’an itself refers neither to the
Bible nor to an Old or New Testament but rather to
the Torah ( tawrat ; 3:3, 3:48, 61:6, passim), the Gospel
( infil , cf. Gk. euayysLrov; 3:3, 3:48, 5:47, passim), and
the Psalter (zabur, cf. Syriac mazmura; 4:163, 17:55,
21:105), in addition to the sheets (suhuf) of Moses
and Abraham (20:133, 53:50, 87:18, passim). These
references have fueled the development of an Islamic
scriptural theology, by which Muslim scholars argue
that God brought down scriptures to various messen-
gers, scriptures akin to the Qur’an in both form and
substance, but in the language of the people for whom
they were intended (cf. 14:4). In a more abstract
fashion, Muslim scholars, influenced by Qur’anic
references to the “mother of the Book” (13:39, 43:4)
and a “preserved tablet” (85:22), depict the Qur’an as

only part of a greater scripture preserved from eterni-
ty in heaven, from which the Torah, the Gospel, and
the Psalter were also sent down. At one point (10:94),
in fact, the Qur’an counsels the reader to consult
those who read “the Book” before.

This scriptural theology raised a dilemma, howev-
er, as Muslim scholars were confronted with the fact
that the Bible agrees with the Qur’an neither in form
nor substance and could not therefore be understood
as part of the heavenly book sent down to earth. The
dilemma was generally settled, with help from a refer-
ence in the Qur’an to Jews “altering (yuharrifuna) the
meaning of speech” (2:75, 4:46, 5:13, 41), by accusing
Jews and Christians, the “People of the Book,” of
scriptural alteration ( tahnf) . In a tradition attributed
by later authors to Muhammad himself, the Prophet
argues that “the People of the Book altered that
which God wrote, altering the book with their
hands” (Bukhari SahTh [Beirut 1999] 2:182). Yet
while the early commentators generally agree that
the Jews and Christians altered scripture, few are
willing or able to speculate on how they did so.

In the late tenth century, however, 'Abd al-Jabbar
(d. 1025) developed a detailed explanation of part of
this matter in Confirmation of the Proofs of Prophecy,
arguing that a group of hypocritical disciples of
Christ agreed to adopt pagan practices in order to
win the support of the Romans against the Jews.
Those disciples who refused this pernicious maneuver
then fled with the true Gospel. The hypocrites, with
the help of Paul, decided to write their own gospels
on the model of Old Testament narratives. This
polemical vision of biblical origins — particularly the
depiction of Paul therein — would later shape the
development of modern Muslim apology.

Meanwhile, this rejection of the Bible’s validity did
not prevent Muslim scholars from drawing on the
biblical text to find proof (dala’il) of Islamic doctrine
and accusing the “People of the Book” of misunder-
standing their own scriptures. Employing this accusa-
tion, sometimes referred to as “semantic alteration”
(tahnf al-ma'na), scholars including ‘All al-Tabari
(d. 855), al-Qasim b. Ibrahim (d. 860), Ibn azm
(d. 1064), and Ahmad al-Qarafi (d. 1285) cite biblical
passages, such as John 14:16 (arguing that the para-
clete is not the Holy Spirit but Muhammad) and John
20:17 (concluding from his reference to “my God”
that Christ is not divine). This apologetical strategy
has likewise been embraced by modern Muslim
apologists. At the same time, Christian scholars,
both medieval (Paul of Antioch [d. 1180]) and modern
(G. Basetti-Sani), have used a similar strategy by de-
veloping a Christian reading of the Qur’an, which, they
argue, was missed by Muslims’ “semantic alteration.”

107

BIBLE

Finally, it should be noted that certain Muslim
scholars of the medieval period pursued alternative,
constructive readings of the Bible. On the one hand,
certain scientifically minded historians, most notably
Ya‘qubT (d. 897) but also Mas‘udl (d. 956), relied on
Jewish and Christian sources for their writings of bib-
lical figures. Thus Ya'qubT’s biography of Paul, quite
unlike the standard hostile Islamic depiction of him,
closely resembles the Acts of the Apostles narrative.
On the other hand, a number of philosophically mind-
ed Shi'ite Muslim scholars, mostly from the Ismaill
or Sevener movement (among whom are Abu Hatim
al-RazI [d. 934] and Ahmad al-Kirmam [d. 1020]),
cited and even defended the biblical text, as they
sought to describe a harmony of prophetic religions,
according to which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
are three rays from the one divine light of wisdom.

Gabriel Said Reynolds

Further Reading

Accad, Martin. “The Gospels in the Muslim Discourse of
the Ninth to the Fourteenth Centuries: An Exegetical
Inventorial Table.” In Islam and Christian-Muslim Rela-
tions 14, no. 1 (Jan 2003): 67-91; 14, no. 2 (Apr 2003):
205-220; 14, no. 3 (July 2003): 337-352; 14, no. 4 (Oct
2003): 459M79.

al-Tabari, ‘All. The Book of Religion and Empire. Trans. A.
Mingana. Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1922.

Basetti-Sani, Giulio. The Koran in the Light of Christ.
Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1977.

Cragg, Kenneth. A Certain Sympathy of Scriptures.
Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2004.

Goddard, Hugh. Muslim Perceptions of Christianity.
London: Grey Seal, 1996.

Griffith, Sidney. The Beginnings of Christian Theology in
Arabic. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002.

Jeffery, Arthur. The Qur’an as Scripture. New York: Books
for Libraries, 1980.

Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava. Intertwined Worlds: Medieval Islam
and Bible Criticism. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992.

Reynolds, Gabriel Said. A Muslim Theologian in the Sectar-
ian Milieu: Abd al-Jabbdr and the “Critique of Christian
Origins". Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004.

Shahid, Irfan. Byzantium and the Semitic Orient before the
Rise of Islam. London: Variorum, 1988.

Thomas, David. “The Bible in Early Muslim Anti-Christian
Polemic.” In Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 7,
no. 1 (March 1996): 29-38.

BIJAPUR

A province of the Persianate Bahmanid Kingdom of
the Deccan, Bijapur became the center of the domain
of one of the key successor states to the Bahmanids,
namely the ‘Adil Shahi dynasty (1489-1686). Located
in the Deccan on the edge of the Western Ghats, south

of the Bahmanid capital of Bidar, Bijapur was founded
as Vijayapura by the Calukyas in the eleventh century.
It was incorporated into the Bahmanid realm in 1347
and made one of the five provinces of that empire
by Khwaja Mahmud Gawan (d. 1481), the powerful
Persian vizier of Muhammad Shah II (d. 1482).

In 1481, Yusuf ‘Adil Khan, a Persian slave who
claimed to descend from the Ottoman sultan Murad
III, became the governor of Bijapur. Taking advan-
tage of his position and consolidating it, he declared
independence in 1489, establishing the ‘Adil Shahi
dynasty that was to rule Bijapur for another two
centuries. In 1502, he declared Twelver Shi‘ism to be
the religion of the realm and established close ties
with the Safavids, further encouraging the influx of
talented Persians into the Deccan, a policy initiated
by Mahmud Gawan. In imitation of the Safavids, he
promoted the wearing of the red twelve-pointed cap
of the Qizilbash at court. The height of Persian and
Shi‘i influence was during the reign of ‘Ali ‘Adil Shah
(r. 1558-1580), who had the Shi‘i khutba read in
mosques. A brief Sunni restoration, coupled with a
move away from Persian influence, took place under
his grandson Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah II (d. 1618). But the
Persianate culture of the kingdom was never in doubt
and its Shi‘ism was one of the casi belli cited by
Awrangzeb when he conquered it in 1686.

Bijapur was perhaps more culturally influential
than politically. Most of the monarchs were keen
Persian poets and encouraged courtiers to take up
poetry. The two most famous poets of Bijapur, Nur
al-Din Muhammad Zuhuri (d. 1618) and his father-
in-law Mulla Malik Qummi (d. 1618) were both
Persian immigrants. Persians also penned the the two
main histories of the dynasty, which provide important
accounts of the Deccan as a whole and are invaluable
sources for north India: Tadhkira-yi Ibrahimi, or the
Ta’rikh-i Firishta, by Muhammad Qasim Firishta,
written in 1611 for Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah II, and Tadh-
kirat al-muluk by Rafi‘ al-Din Ibrahim Shirazi for
the same patron in 1609. Bijapur was the center of
Perso-Deccan cultural synthesis. The new chancellery
language of Perso-Marathi was created in its admin-
istration, and the exquisite tombs of the kings were
exemplars of a Persianate-Deccan style. The tomb of
Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah, the Ibrahim Rawza, was built in
1 627 and is said to have influenced the construction of
the Taj Mahal, and the tomb of Muhammad ‘Adil
Shah (d. 1656) has the second-largest dome in the
world and is celebrated as the Golgumbaz because of
it. The Sufis of the city became significant power
brokers in their own right, defending Sunni ortho-
doxy and extending the influence of the orders into
the Deccan.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

108

Further Reading

Cousens, H. Bijapur and Its Architectural Remains. Bom-
bay: Govt. Central Press, 1916.

Eaton, R. M. Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700: Social Role of
Sufis in Medieval India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1978.

Ghauri, I. A. “Central Structure of the Kingdom of Bija-
pur.” Islamic Culture 44 (1970).

Nayeem, M. A. External Relations of the Bijapur Kingdom
(1489-1686 A.D.). Hyderabad: Bright Publishers, 1974.

Sherwani, H. K. Mahmud Gawan: The Great Bahmani
Wazir. Allahabad: Kitabistan, 1942.

Subramanyam, S. “Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Mi-
gration and Early Modern State Formation.” Journal of
Asian Studies 51 (1992): 430 — 463.

Verma, D. C. History of Bijapur. New Delhi: Kumar Bros,
1974.

www.bijapur.net

BILAL AL-HABASHl

Bilal al-Habasbil (d. AH 17-21/638-642 CE) a major
Companion (sahabi), was best known as Prophet
Muhammad’s special appointee for delivering the call
to prayer ( adhan) and was often regarded as a repre-
sentative of disenfranchised groups ( al-mustad‘afun )
who were drawn to Islam, and as the icon of racial
and social equality advocated by this religion. He is
sometimes referred to as Bilal ibn Rabah (son of
Rabah), after his father, or alternatively as Bilal ibn
Hamama, after his mother. The patronymic title
(kunya) of Abu ‘Abd-Allah has been recorded for
him, but he had no known children.

Bilal was bom to a black slave-girl named Hamama
in the Arab clan of Banu Jumah in Hijaz. His
full name indicates that he had roots in Abyssinia
(Ar. Habasha, roughly identifiable with present-day
Ethiopia). Sources describe him as dark-skinned,
thick-haired, tall, and thin. He was one of the earliest
converts ( al-sabiqun ) to Islam, and when the clansmen
of Banu Jumah found out the news about their slave,
they subjected him to heavy corporal punishment and
brutal torture. Bilal’s main tormentor was Umayya ibn
Khalaf ibn Wahb ibn Hudhafa al-Jumahl, chief of the
clan of Banu Jumah, who showed the utmost animosi-
ty toward Prophet Muhammad and his followers. Bilal
persevered steadfastly in the face of pressure until,
finally, Abu Bakr ibn Abl Quhafa (d. 13/634), an aff-
luent close Companion of the Prophet, bought his
freedom from the clan of Banu Jumah.

bilAl al-habAshT

Bilal exhibited exemplary loyalty to the Prophet
throughout his life after conversion. He was among
the pioneering group of Meccans who emigrated to
Medina in the year 622. In Medina, he briefly stayed
with a number of other poverty-stricken Muslims
known as “men of the vestibule” (ahl al-suffa),
who, having no other place of their own, shared part
of the entrance to the mosque of Medina as a dwelling.
Shortly after initial settlement in Medina, in the pro-
cess of establishing ties of brotherhood ( ukhuwwa )
between Meccan emigrants ( al-muhdjirun ) and their
hosts in Medina ( al-ansar) , the Prophet declared the
Meccan Bilal and the Medinan Abu Ruwayha al-
Khath’aml as brothers. Years later, under caliph
‘Umar ibn Khattab (r. 13-23/634-644), this tie of
brotherhood between Bilal and an Arab man of the
clan of K hath 'am provided the precedent for consid-
ering other black and African warriors as belonging
to that tribe as well.

In his first year in Medina, the Prophet Muhammad
initiated the practice of vocally calling his followers
to prayer (adhcin), and from the beginning he char-
ged Bilal with performing the task as muezzin
(mu’adhdhin) . The most momentous occasion when
he delivered the adhcin was when Muhammad and his
followers victoriously entered Mecca (8/629) and
cleansed the House of Ka‘ba and its environs of all
idols. Bilal also performed personal tasks for the
Prophet, such as acquiring incense for the wedding of
his daughter Fatima (1/623), and he was trusted as the
Prophet’s treasurer (khdzin). He always accompanied
the Prophet on military expeditions (ghazwas ) , and in
the Battle of Badr his former tormenter was killed by
Muslim troops.

After the Prophet’s death, Bilal was reluctant to
deliver the call to prayer, as he may have felt dissatis-
fied with succession arrangements. Reportedly, he
declined to pledge allegiance (bay ‘a) to Abu Bakr
(r. 11-13/632-634) as caliph, and he eventually emi-
grated and settled in Sham. On at least one moving
occasion, Bilal is known to have delivered the adhan
after the Prophet, and that was upon the request of
Muhammad’s beloved daughter Fatima (d. 11/632)
and her two sons, al-Hasan (d. 50/669) and al-Husayn
(d. 61/680).

As a close Companion of the Prophet, Bilal enjoyed
high esteem during his lifetime. He died in Sham, and his
tomb is most commonly believed to be in Damascus.

Hossein Kamaly

Further Reading

Craig, H.A.L. Bilal (a screenplay). London and New York:

Quartet Books, 1977.

Landau-Tasseron, Ella (translation and annotation).

Biographies of the Prophet’s Companions and Their

109

bilAl al-habAshT

Successors. Vol. 39 of the translation of selected passages
from Ta’rTkh al-rusul wa al-muluk originally by
Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923). Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1998.

Qasi, M. A. Bilal, the First Muadhdhin of the Prophet of
Islam. Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1976.

BIOGRAPHY AND BIOGRAPHICAL
WORKS

No direct Arabic equivalents exist for the English
"biography” and "biographical works.” Arabic
words associated with biography include tarjama
and sira; with biographical works, tabaqat or rijal.
This may in part be due to the fact that the literary
genre of Arabic biographical works is an original
contribution of medieval Islamic civilization, having
no real precursor. While information contained in
medieval Arabic biographical dictionaries resembles
contemporary Who’s Who works or a modern-day
curriculum vitae rather than the introspection of the
self found in (auto)biographies, they do contain more
social data than any other preindustrial society for a
large segment of the population. This entry includes
the origin of this literary genre within Islamic civiliza-
tion, the four categories of medieval Arabic biograph-
ical dictionaries that exist, the overall arrangement of
a biographical notice and, finally, the five rubrics of
information encountered in these works.

Origin of the Genre

The first biographical dictionaries date back to the
ninth century CE, some two hundred years after the
death of the Prophet Muhammad. They came into
being as Islam was embarking on the last phase of
self-definition as a fully crystallized and coherent sys-
tem of faith. The contemporaneity is no coincidence.
Indeed, the two features of biographical data collec-
tion and integral doctrinal crystallization went hand
in hand. The oldest extant biographical dictionary,
written by Ibn Sa‘d (d. 845) and titled al-Tabaqat al-
kubra, concretely illustrates this union. Ibn Sa‘d, to-
gether with six other prominent religious scholars,
had been ordered to appear before the 'Abba si d ca-
liph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833), a summons that marked
the beginning of this caliph’s inquisition ( mihna ) . The
aim of this inquisition was to impose caliphal will
in religious matters above that of the group to
which Ibn Sa‘d belonged, the religious scholars. Ulti-
mately, some fifteen years later, the caliphs had to
give in, and from that day onward, religious scholars
and not caliphs exacted religious authority in Islam. It

is this “religious authority” that motivated the first
compilers of the first biographical dictionaries.

The connection between religious authority on the
one hand and biographical data on the other hand goes
back to the inception of Islam. From the very begin-
ning, Islam had a very strong oral tradition in the
transmission of knowledge because the Qur’an, being
God’s literal word, had itself been orally transmitted
through the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad.
Soon the Prophet’s Companions (sahaba) and their
successors, in time (tabfun), started to pass on stories
about the words and/or deeds of the Prophet to help
understand the meaning of God’s Message to human-
kind (the hadith ). The chain of transmission continued
from one generation to the next; a continuous line of
oral transmission came into being, ultimately going
back to the Prophet, who was closest to the Sacred.
Contemporaries of Ibn Sa'd had introduced as criteri-
on of validity for the truth of the stories about the
Prophet that the chain of transmission ( isnad ) only
contain individuals who were morally sound and hence
beyond any reproach. The first biographical diction-
aries, including the aforementioned one by Ibn Sa’d,
contained necessary information to evaluate the moral
qualifications of individuals, alongside detailed infor-
mation about the Prophet’s life, his Companions, and
their Successors up to the author’s own time. Ibn
Sa‘d’s work was not only chronologically arranged
(that is, per generation) but also geographically
distributed across the most important settlements of
the early Islamic empire. This tradition of data collec-
tion about individuals continued and was elaborated
upon throughout the Middle Ages, again and again,
which led to the emergence of an entire genre in Arabic
literature, that of the biographical dictionaries. The
literary genre of biographical dictionaries is large in
scope and quantity, a subject to which we now turn.

Categories and Organizational Forms of
Biographical Dictionaries

Hundreds of separate titles of medieval Arabic bio-
graphical dictionaries exist. Both format and contents
vary among these works. Some works limit them-
selves to a single volume, whereas others can run
into more than eighty (printed) volumes. The quality
of information also vacillates among the various
works. Nonetheless, four different categories of bio-
graphical dictionaries can be identified and among
these, combinations of the following four categories
are encountered: (1) General biographical diction-
aries. A good example of this category is al-Dhahabi’s
(d. 1374) Siyar a ‘lam al-nubala’, the published edition

110

BIOGRAPHY AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS

of which totals twenty-five volumes (two are index
volumes), and there is a supplement of one volume
written by another author. Such a supplement or
appendix is called a dhayl and is a continuation of
an existing work written by another person to com-
plement what that author thought was missing from
the original. The dhayl constitutes a subcategory of
biographical dictionaries because it was often written
after the volume. (2) Chronological biographical dic-
tionaries, such as Ibn al-Jawzi’s (d. 1200) al-Muntazam
fi ta’rikh al-umam wa al-nuluk. These eighteen printed
volumes are an example of how combinations were
made, because this author first lists per year the most
important events, then gives obituaries of those who
died in that same year. These obituaries were written as
more or less curricula vitae of the generation involved,
one presented after the other. (3) Geographical bio-
graphical dictionaries. Some were limited to a particu-
lar city (such as al-Khatib al-Baghdadi’s [d. 1071]
Ta’rikh Baghdad, which includes 15 volumes proper
with five extra dhayl volumes) or a specific region (such
as Abu Hayyan al-Qurtubi’s [d. 1 076] al-Muqtabas min
abna’ ahl al-Andalus, with one volume). (4) Thematic
biographical dictionaries. These biographical diction-
aries could include any group ranging from Sufis
to philosophers, both groups considered in the Middle
Ages as slightly outcast, to mainstream branches of
one of the Islamic sciences, such as law, or a partic-
ular law school (for example, all Hanbalite law scho-
lars or earlier scholars whom the compiler wanted
included among them), and even to collections of indi-
viduals who were explicitly considered to be unreliable
and thus untrustworthy transmitters of hadith ( rijal).
The great scholar Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (d. 1449),
for instance, wrote a nine-volume work on unreliable
hadith narrators (his Lisan al-mizan ) and another, a
twelve volumes, on reliable transmitters of (Sunnite
canonical) hadith (Tahdhib al-tahdhib). As an aside,
the latter work provides us with another character-
istic of biographical dictionaries. The Tahdhib al-
tahdhib constitutes a reworking of an earlier and larger
dictionary on the same subject by al-Mizzi (d. 1341),
Tahdhib al-kamal fi asma’ al-rijal, itself drawing
from an earlier rijal work. Despite being a summary
of a summary, and to the delight often felt by rese-
archers working with biographical dictionaries, Ibn
Hajar either adds information culled from other
sources than his main one (some now lost) or expl-
ains obscure passages found in the earlier work or
works. In other words, one may not simply rely on
one single work to uncover details about a scholar’s
life, since even a revision of an earlier work can in-
clude new information. Practically any intellectual
field broadly relevant to Islamic civilization re-
ceived, at one time or another, the attention of a

compiler, even if the group was considered negative
or marginal.

The arrangements of biographical dictionaries dif-
fer. If the compiler of a biographical dictionary opted
for an alphabetical arrangement, it could also be his
or her choice to put all men whose name starts with
“Muhammad” at the very beginning of the dictionary
out of respect for the Prophet. Then, the order of the
Arabic alphabet dealt with men whose names were
known. Women were then listed, followed by men
who were only known by their agnomen (“Abu”),
then those whose identity was not fully known ( maj-
hulun ) — though the ordering of the last categories can
alternate.

Structure and Information

Biographical entries generally tend to have a uniform
character, with the focus of attention, as previously
mentioned, being more of a summing up of dry facts
or anecdotes in the fashion of today’s curriculum vitae
rather than offering psychological insights about the
person dealt with, let alone dealing with inner motive.
The first part of an entry starts with an enumeration
of the name of the person. Included, here, is the
genealogy (on average, five generations are listed).
Other elements included in the onomastic section are
adjectives of relation (nisba) referring either to one’s
tribal or geographical affiliation. If someone had a
nickname (shuhra) or honorific title (laqab), these
are included, too. After the onomastic part of the
entry, sometimes the names of teachers and pupils
the person at hand narrated from or studied under,
and to whom this information was in turn passed on
to, are provided (more so in collections about hadith
transmitters, and some collections, such al-Mizzi’s
Tahdhib al-kamal fi asma’ al-rijal, additionally includ-
ed — in abbreviated form indicating the line of trans-
mission of the person involved is found — the letter
“ mim ” standing for Muslim’s collection or the letter
kha ’ for al- Bukhari’s compilation, to mention the two
most important Sunnite hadith works). Anecdotes
about the person’s life are then given, the gist of
which can vary greatly. The year of death, if known,
usually closes the entry.

Unsurprisingly, information contained in bio-
graphical dictionaries enjoys much variety. Taken
as a whole, however, the literary genre of medieval
Arabic biographical dictionaries contains five main
rubrics of information. As already noted, onomastic
data are given, which by nature include the person’s
genealogy and tribal or geographical circumstances
(though care must be taken that the nisba encountered

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BIOGRAPHY AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS

in the listing of names sometimes refers to an ancestor
who had that nisba rather than the person at hand).
Secondly, demographic information includes ethnici-
ty, tribal affiliation, occupation, years of birth and
death, and occasionally the cause of death. Intellectu-
al direction and standing constitute a third rubric of
information, telling the reader which fields of learning
a person was involved in, who his (or very rarely her)
teachers and/or pupils were, if knowledge was com-
mitted to writing, or if the savant had a particular
ideological position that differed from the main aim
of the biographical dictionary being composed. Third,
it was often noted if the person narrated hadith, to-
gether with (moral) qualifications about that person
(incidentally, we do not know what, if any, nuance
existed between qualifications like “trustworthy”
[ rhiqaj or “pious” [salih]). Fourth, one comes across
various distinctive features like someone’s tendency to
pray or to fast beyond the call of duty, or dyeing one’s
beard, sometimes noting the color; if someone became
sick toward the end of his or her life (blindness and
senility being the leading two diseases noted for this
preindustrial society), or if the person belonged to a
special group (for example, participated in a famous
battle or was one of those who became exceptionally
old and so forth). At times one reads that the person
was awwalu man (“the first to have done ...”), in itself
another original literary genre of Islamic civilization
that led to separate compilations listing as many “first
to’s” as possible. Finally, biographical dictionaries
are rich in geographical information, ranging from
place of birth to that of death and all in between,
such as place of first residence, any places they
moved, and place of occupation or of study and/or
teaching. It should immediately be reiterated that this
is a total picture of what kind of information is found
in the biographical dictionaries and that not all the
people listed have by extension all of this information
about them individually; some dictionaries give infor-
mation for some of these characteristics while other
dictionaries give the researcher other data about the
same person.

In summary, Arabic biographies and biographical
dictionaries offer a relatively large range of data for a
preindustrial society, because no other preindustrial
society can claim such an abundance of information
about various segments of the population. Unfortu-
nately, medieval Arabic biographical dictionaries
have hardly been utilized by researchers outside
Islamic Studies proper, like historical demographers
who tend to be thrilled if they uncover data that date
back to the sixteenth century CE; finding medieval
social data about Islamic civilization still requires
much mining.

John A. Nawas

See also ‘Abbasid Caliph; Al-Bukhari; Al-Khatib al-
Baghdadi; Al-Ma’mun; Companions of the Prophet;
Hadith; Ibn Al-Jawzi; Ibn Sa‘d; Sira; Sufis

Further Reading

Bulliet, Richard. “A Quantitative Approach to Medieval
Muslim Biographical Dictionaries.” Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient. 13 (1970):
195-211.

Gibb, H.A.R. “Islamic Biographical Literature.” In His-
torians of the Middle East, eds. Bernard Lewis and
P.M. Holt. London: Oxford University Press, 1962,
54-58.

Gilliot, Cl. “ Tabakat In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Sec-
ond Edition. Volume X: 7-10.

Hafsi, Ibrahim. “Recherches sur le genre ‘Tabaqat’ dans la
literature arabe,” Arabica, xxiii (1976): 227-265; and
xxiv (1977): 1-41, 150-186.

Makdisi, George. “Tabaqat-Wiogxsephy. Law and Ortho-
doxy in Classical Islam.” Islamic Studies 32 (1993):
371-396.

Qadi, al-, Wadad. “Biographical Dictionaries: Inner Struc-
ture and Cultural Significance.” In The Book in the
Islamic World. The Written Word and Communication
in the Middle East, ed. George N. Atiyeh. Albany:
State University of New York, 1995, 93-122.

Young, M. J. L. “Arabic Biographical Writing.” In The
Cambridge History of Arabic Literature 3: Religion,
Learning and Science in the Abbasid Period, eds. M. J. L.
Young, J. D. Latham, and R. B. Serjeant. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990, 168-187.

BIRUNI

Al-Biruni, Abu Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad, was
one of the greatest scholars of Medieval Islam, not
merely of encyclopedic range, but perhaps the most
original among them. Unlike his famous contempor-
aries Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham, who influenced
Latin scholasticism, Biruni became known in Europe
only in the later nineteenth century, mainly by way of
the editions by Eduard Sachau. Biruni was born Sep-
tember 4, 973, in Kath, the capital of Khwarezm, on
the river Amu Darya (classical Oxus). Although his
native Khwarezmian was also an Iranian language, he
rejected the emerging neo-Persian literature of his
time (Firdawsi), preferring Arabic instead as the
only adequate medium of the sciences. Although
probably of humble origin, he was, for unknown
reasons, educated at the court of the Khwarezm-
Shahs, where he received a solid training in mathe-
matics, astronomy, and mathematical geography. In
his early years he constructed a model, with a diame-
ter of five meters, of the northern hemisphere of the
earth. In collaboration with a colleague in Baghdad
he determined the difference in longitude between this

112

BLACK DEATH

city and Kath by determining the difference in time
between the observations of a lunar eclipse in the two
places. He discussed the theory of the earth’s rotation
and found that from a purely mathematical stand-
point it was unobjectionable but not sustainable on
physical grounds. In a contentious correspondence
with Ibn Sina, he even doubted some basic tenets of
Aristotelian cosmology, the eternity and unicity of
this world. In this respect he was closer to Muslim
orthodoxy than his philosophical counterpart. In
later works he stressed that there are no contradic-
tions between science and the Koran. Although he
condemned the heretical opinions of al-Razi, he nev-
ertheless compiled a bibliography of his writings.
During a sojourn in Gurgan on the southern coast
of the Caspian Sea, he wrote his Chronology of An-
cient Nations, a description of the calendar systems of
various peoples and religious communities including
critical examinations of popular traditions, for exam-
ple, about Alexander the Great, as well as some his-
torical data on the Bible. When Khwarezm was
invaded by Mahmud of Ghazna, Biruni, together
with other scholars, was taken to Ghazna (known
today as Afghanistan). There, at Mahmud’s court,
he obtained acceptable working conditions. From a
mountain overlooking the Indus Plain, near the for-
tress of Nandana, he measured the earth’s circum-
ference by a method previously used by the caliph
Al-Ma’mun’s astronomers. Mahmud’s repeated
incursions into northwest India gave him the oppor-
tunity to study the customs, folklore, literature, and
sciences of the Hindus. He even learned some Sanskrit
and translated, probably with indigenous help, from
Arabic into this language and from Sanskrit into
Arabic. Observing similarities between pagan Greek
and Hindu mythologies, he censured the Hindus’ idol-
atry, as well as their scholars’ deferral to popular
superstitions. He compared their mathematical and
astronomical doctrines with those of the Greeks,
which he always found superior, and he observed
that India did not have such heroes as Socrates who
were willing to die for the sake of truth. His wish that
by their conversion to Islam the Hindus might be
saved from their totally alien mindset tallied with
Mahmud’s imperial ambitions. To Mahmud’s succes-
sor, Mas’ud, Biruni dedicated the “Mas‘udic Canon,”
a huge reference work of astronomy, and for
Mawdud, the next ruler of the dynasty, he wrote the
“Mineralogy,” a sometimes amusing description of
various metals and gemstones. With the help of a
vessel constructed for the purpose, meticulous re-
search was carried out on the specific weight of
some eighteen substances. He even resorted to experi-
ments, not, as customary with ancient and contempo-
raneous scholars, in order to prove a previously

formulated idea, but instead to check a commonly
accepted opinion, largely with negative results. He
was skeptical about alchemy and astrology, although
he dedicated a concise introduction to the latter, in
the form of questions and answers, to a fellow
Khwarezmian, a woman named Rayhana. Almost
until his death on December 11, 1048, Biruni worked
on his “Pharmacology”; it contained the names of
1116 items of materia medica in Greek, as well as in
Iranian, Indian, and Semitic languages, arranged al-
phabetically by their Arabic names.

Gotthard Strohmaier

See also ‘Abbasid Caliph; Al-Ma’mun, Al-Razi;
Alexander the Great; Aristotle and Aristotelianism;
Firdawzi; Ibn al-Haytham, or Alhazen; Ibn Sina, or
Avicenna; Idolatry; Mahmud of Ghazna; Materia
Medica

Further Reading

Alberuni's India. Trans. Eduard Sachau. London, 1888.
Kennedy, Edward S. “Al-Biruni.” In Dictionary of Scientif-
ic Biography. 18 vols. Edited by Charles C. Gillispie and
Frederic L. Holmes. New York.

Strohmaier, Gotthard. Al-Biruni. In den Garten der Wis-
senschaft. 3rd revised ed. Leipzig, 2002.

The Chronology of Ancient Nations. Trans. Eduard Sachau.
London, 1879.

BLACK DEATH

The Black Death was a pandemic that swept through
almost every part of the Old World, beginning in the
1330s with repeated waves of infection continuing
into the fifteenth century. The bacteria that spreads
the plague is Yersinia pestis, a small, rod-shaped ba-
cillus that lives in the gut of certain fleas, particularly
the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis. The spreading bacte-
ria block the infected flea’s esophagus, and the flea is
no longer able to feed itself; it simply regurgitates the
bacteria into its host as it attempts to feed. It is at this
point that the flea will typically move from its usual
host, the black rat ( Rattus rattus), and bite and infect
humans.

In the case of the bubonic form of the plague, the
lymph glands filter the bacilli out of the bloodstream.
The glands, typically those in the neck or groin area,
subsequently become engorged with bacilli. This
causes agonizing pain at the site of the lymph nodes
as they first appear as dark accretions and then swell
to form a “bubo” (hence “bubonic” plague) ranging
in size from an almond to an orange. The victim then

113

BLACK DEATH

develops flu-like symptoms, including a high fever.
The bacilli subsequently cause widespread damage
throughout the victim’s body, attacking the lungs,
heart, and kidneys. The bacilli also attack the ner-
vous system, sometimes leading to a wild hysteria
that gave rise to the phrase “the dance of death.” In
most cases the victim then hemorrhages massive
amounts of blood, which causes dark blotches to
appear before the victim slips into a coma and dies.
The total time from infection to death is typically
about two weeks.

Pneumonic plague, a more deadly and infectious
form of the disease, appears in cases where the bacte-
ria multiply in the lungs of the victim. This form of
the plague is highly contagious because it is transmit-
ted when an infected person coughs up droplets of the
bacilli. The pneumonic plague is 100 percent fatal. A
third form of the plague (septicemia) bypasses the
lymph glands altogether and concentrates bacilli in
the body at such a rate that the victim usually dies in
just a few hours.

The Black Death struck the Middle East with as
much ferocity as it did Europe. The disease originated
in Central Asia, where it had been endemic to an
isolated species of rodent for hundreds of years. Evi-
dence seems to indicate that this isolated strain of
Yersinia pestis mutated over the course of centuries
of isolation. Its isolation and mutation account for its
particularly rapid spread and exceptional lethality. It
spread both east and west along Mongol trade routes,
attacking China, India, Europe, and the Middle East.
From Central Asia it spread to Kaffa on the Black
Sea and then to Constantinople, where it spread
throughout the Mediterranean. It first arrived at the
port of Alexandria in the fall of 1347. From there it
spread throughout Egypt and wiped out nearly 50
percent of the population.

It was equally devastating in North Africa, Pales-
tine, and Greater Syria. Medieval medicine was un-
able to cope with or understand this virulent disease.
It was known as either “ ta'un ” or “ al-waba ’ al-iswid”
in Arabic. Many people believed that it was caused by
earthquakes that had released a deadly air (miasma)
into the environment. Some attempted to flee to
isolated places, although this did not occur as much
in the Middle East as in Europe.

The socioeconomic consequences were such that
it left Egypt’s irrigation system in ruins. It seems
to have had an equally devastating economic and
social impact on North Africa. Less is known
about its socioeconomic impact in Iran, Iraq,
Palestine, and Greater Syria, although reports from
contemporary observers attest to its equal lethality in
these areas.

Stuart J. Borsch

See also Death and Dying; Folk Medicine; Physicians
Further Reading

Conrad, Lawrence. The Plague in the Early Medieval Near
East. Ph.D. dissertation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
versity, 1981.

Dols, Michael W. The Black Death in the Middle East.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.

BOOKS

Books (sing, kitab; pi. kutub ) count among the chief
objects of artistic expression throughout the Islamic
lands, beginning with Islam’s most formative histori-
cal phases. The early prestige accorded to the book by
Islamic society is generally considered to derive from
the Qur’an (mushaf). Notwithstanding the status of
the divine revelation itself, copying the Qur’an
provided a strong impetus for formal and aesthetic
exploration. The materials of the Qur’an — writing
supports and inks — were produced with care; numer-
ous scripts were developed over time to write out the
text; illuminations were created to mark internal divi-
sions of the text, count verses, frame the text, and
introduce the book through elaborate frontispieces;
and the finished, stitched textblock of folios was
placed inside a protective binding. From the earliest
period, the codex emerged as the chief structural form
of the book, though this single form was subject to a
host of permutations and adaptations over time. It
was perhaps the Qur’an more than any other text that
lent cultural importance to the book as a physical
object and that motivated its artistic elaboration.

By the tenth and eleventh centuries, a corpus of
traditions had developed around the book that
stressed its eminence and importance. These sayings
record cultural notions that additionally explain the
high status of the book in Islam. The book was her-
alded as the means by which human thought could be
preserved over time — a permanent and reproducible
trace of thought — the most effective vehicle for reco-
rding achievements of various sorts, whether broadly
intellectual, literary, or political. One of the most
complete corpuses of aphorisms appears in a treatise
on the technique and art of calligraphy composed by
Abu‘l-Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. after 1009 CE). The
sayings cited by al-Tawhidi are mainly concerned
with the merits of calligraphy, a skill sought out and
acquired by people of high culture. Calligraphy not
only recorded the thoughts of mankind but could also
embody the person’s morality as ideas — the proper
content of the text — as well as in the physical form of
writing. Fine writing — and the labor that preceded
accomplishment in writing — offered a trace, like a
footprint, of the person for posterity. Calligraphy

114

BOOKS

was an impressed presence. Sayings in al-Tawhidi’s
treatise include one attributed to Ja‘far b. Yahya al-
Barmaki (d. 803), “Handwriting is the necklace of
wisdom. It serves to sort the pearls of wisdom, to
bring its dispersed pieces into good order, to put its
stray bits together, and to fix its setting.” Another
saying attributed to a certain ‘Abbas reads: “Hand-
writing is the tongue of the hand. Style is the tongue
of the intellect. The intellect is the tongue of good
actions and qualities. And good actions and qualities
are the perfection of man” (Rosenthal 1947, 1-20).
Given that books are primarily vehicles of texts, it is
not difficult to comprehend the logic of other sayings
cited by another writer, Ibn al-Nadim (fl. 987), in his
Fihrist, a virtual encyclopedia of the culture of books
in the tenth century. The sayings given by Ibn al-
Nadim include al-‘Attabi’s remark, “Books smile as
pens shed tears,” and Buzurgmihr’s saying, “Books
are the shells of wisdom, which are split open for the
pearls of character” (Ibn al-Nadim 1970). Such say-
ings continued to have currency over time and were
amplified by notions that the first thing created by
God was the pen and that He had written out creation
on the preserved tablet ( lawh al-mahfuz). The synergy
of these cultural notions and values secured the pre-
eminence of the written word and the book across a
wide spectrum of texts and resulted in the formation
of personal, institutional, and royal libraries of often-
massive scope. Although books were always adjuncts
to processes of learning based on oral transmission
and audition, the physical text permitted the trans-
port of knowledge through space and time and “inde-
pendently of their human transmitters,” as Bloom
notes (Bloom 2001, 123).

The principal materials used in the early produc-
tion of books were parchment, vellum, and papyrus.
These materials were quickly supplanted by paper, an
inherently cheaper medium that had a profound im-
pact on book culture. This new medium made books
more readily available and permitted the widespread
dissemination of knowledge on an unprecedented
scale (see Bloom). It also provided an inherently
more coherent surface for writing, illumination, and
painting while matching the pliancy of other sup-
ports. By the year 1000, paper had even supplanted
papyrus in Egypt. It had also been accepted as a
suitable medium for the production of the Qur’an,
though the use of materials such as parchment
continued in some regions of the Islamic world, espe-
cially in North Africa, perhaps as a way of marking
the separate status of the Qur’an. Various primary
sources record the different formats of paper sheets.

A rich technical literature similarly records recipes
for black and colored inks and pigments prepared
from vegetable and mineral sources, methods of

preparing and decorating papers through dyes, tints,
and gold flecking, and the manufacture of book bind-
ings. The earliest known text to devote itself wholly to
the techniques and materials of the art of the book is
Ibn Badis’s ‘Umdat al-kuttab (ca. 1025). The trans-
mission of technical lore became a subject for many
later writers, and there is a rich literature on this topic
(see ‘Abd al-Hayy Habibi and Porter). Over time,
many additional techniques were used to augment
the visual dimensions of the book. Papers could be
decorated with marbling or stenciling, text blocks
framed inside multiple rulings that formed a border
to divide the text field ( matn ) from margin ( hashiya ) ,
and calligraphy could be executed in black or colored
inks — sometimes spotted with flecks of crushed
mother-of-pearl — or assembled from cut paper (de-
coupage) of differing colors. Leather bindings were
equally inventive: Beginning with the relatively simple
use of tanned leather over pasteboard covers, bind-
ings came to be decorated with blind-tooled designs
(punched or stamped into the leather and often aug-
mented by the selective application of gold) organized
into lines, clusters of motifs, or geometric composi-
tions. More complex stamped ornament was devel-
oped through the use of engraved metal plates in
various shapes arranged on book covers as medal-
lions and corner pieces. The binding’s inner surfaces,
the doublures, could either be fashioned from sheets
of leather or cut leather (filigree) laid over colored
paper grounds. The binding’s interior and exterior
were also embellished in some contexts through pat-
terned textiles or lacquer. By the middle years of the
1400s, the artistry of the bookbinder had reached a
staggering level.

Despite the development of many different techni-
ques and decorative effects, however, the structure of
the binding remained constant. It was assembled from
upper and lower covers connected to the book’s spine,
with a board attached along the outer edge of the
lower cover — as wide as the depth of the textblock —
that in turn supported an envelope flap. When the
book was closed, the envelope flap was placed under-
neath the upper cover, thereby protecting the outer
edge of the textblock. Although elegant and alluring,
the binding offered a robust protection for the text
that it contained.

Because the Islamic book lacked pagination and an
index, other means were required to enhance the clar-
ity of the book’s organization and thus facilitate its
use. These challenges were solved by several means.
Illumination was developed to mark the beginnings
and endings of chapters or book sections, as full-
page designs, double pages, or rectangular panels
(‘unwan, sarlawh). Books may also have opened
with a table of contents (fihrist) or an illuminated

115

BOOKS

panel carrying the name of the text. An additional
form of illumination was composed as a roundel
(shamsa) that might contain the owner’s ex libris.
The calligraphy proper was also manipulated to en-
hance the clarity of the work. Prose was usually
arranged as running text, whereas poetry was divided
into columnar formats of either four or six; colophons
marking the end of chapters or books were generally
arranged as an inverted triangle of text and con-
formed to established textual protocols. Variations
in the color of ink or in the type and size of script
were also used to announce subdivisions of the text,
which are transitions from one subject to another on a
single page. In the case of illustrated manuscripts, an
encapsulation of the image’s content could appear in
the form of a brief explanatory text enclosed in a
small panel. These organizational challenges were
even more severe in the anthology, books assembled
from different texts that might treat various topics
and that might unite works of prose and poetry in a
single volume.

The many processes associated with the produc-
tion of the textblock could be undertaken in several
sequences, though the copying of the text was usually
completed first. After the folios had been cut to the
appropriate size, the page was marked with a grid as
a guide for the calligrapher. This was done either
through the use of a sharp instrument that scored
lines into the folio, or by pressing a cardboard with
threads arranged across it (mastar) into the folio.
Catchwords written in the lower-left margin of each
folio guaranteed the correct collation of the manu-
script at the time of its stitching to form a fixed text-
block. In the course of writing the text, the copyist left
spaces for illumination or for illustrations, which
would generally be completed after the text was cop-
ied. Other processes, such as ruling, were generally
accomplished last.

Throughout the period between the seventh and
sixteenth centuries, books were made under various
circumstances and in different contexts. Some were
made by copyists (warraq, nassakh), who were also
booksellers in the market, under direct commission or
speculatively. Some were made in the context of mos-
ques or madrasas and provided for by the endowment
of the waqf Other book production occurred under
caliphal or princely support, the best-known early
medieval example being al-Ma’mun’s Bayt al-hikma
in Baghdad. Degrees of specialization in the produc-
tion of books always varied in each context and
were not subject to a linear development over time.
For example, in a volume of the Qur’an signed
by Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 1022), the colophon notes that
Ibn al-Bawwab copied the text and executed the
illuminations. In an illustrated copy of al-Hariri’s

Maqamat, dated 1237, the copyist (al-Wasiti) was
also responsible for executing the many paintings. In
the later 1 500s, such dual expertise was also applied to
the production of books.

Book production under royal patronage, whenever
or wherever it occurred, was generally more
specialized. Two documents from the early 1400s, for
example, describe the highly specialized bookmaking
procedures in the Timurid workshops (kitabkhana) of
Herat and Shiraz. One document is a progress report
about projects in the Herat workshop presumably
addressed to the Timurid prince, Baysunghur
(d. 1433); the other is a letter inviting an illuminator
to become the chief of the Shiraz workshop and lists
the workers under his direction by their specialization.
These workshops were institutions, devoted in large
part to the creation of books, that assembled skilled
calligraphers, painters, draftsmen, illuminators, out-
liners, rulers and binders, and artists who were not
only in command of the requisite skills of their partic-
ular medium but who also knew how to prepare mate-
rials. Additional evidence also suggests that some
practitioners worked across different media. Some of
the more stunning developments in the art of the Is-
lamic book occurred under royal patronage because it
alone was capable of sustaining specialized produc-
tion — gathering the requisite human talent and pro-
curing the necessary materials — and coordinating
numerous practices into coherent, unified books. By
the late 1400s, artists associated with the production of
books were being recorded in histories; in the 1500s,
authors such as the Ottoman man of letters, Mustafa
Ali, composed texts devoted entirely to the history of
artistic practice. These texts, prefaces to album collec-
tions and treatises, are yet another testament to the
high status of books in Islam, but they express an
appreciation for skill and artistic accomplishment in
the terms of a history of art.

David J. Roxburgh

See also Abu’l-Hayyan al-Tawhidi; Adab; Alphabets;
Al-Ma’mun; Arabic; Archives and Chanceries; Cultural
Exchange; Humanism; Knowledge (‘Ilm); Libraries;
Madrasa; Manuscripts; Painting, Miniature; Paper
Manufacture; Persian; Qur’an, Manuscripts; Scribes;
Turkish and Turkic Languages; Waqf

Primary Sources

‘Abd al-Hayy Habibi. “Literary Sources for the History of
the Arts of the Book in Central Asia.’’ In Arts of the
Book in Central Asia, 14th-16th Centuries, ed. Basil
Gray, appendix 1. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Press, 1979.

Al-Mu‘izz b, Badis. Mediaeval Arabic Bookmaking and its
Relation to Early Chemistry and Pharmacology, [by]
Martin Levey. Philadelphia, 1962.

116

BOTANY

Ibn al-Nadim. The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century
Survey of Muslim Culture. Trans, and ed. Bayard
Dodge. 2 vols. New York and London: Columbia Uni-
versity Press, 1970.

Mustafa Ali. Mencikib-i hunervaran. Tehran: Surush, 1991.

Sadiqi Beg Afshar. “Qanun al-suwar.” In Martin Dickson
and Stuart Cary Welch, The Houghton Shahnamah.
2 vols., vol. 1, appendix 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1981.

Further Reading

Atiyeh, George N., ed. The Book in the Islamic World: The
Written Word and Communication in the Middle East.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Bloom, Jonathan M. Paper Before Print: The History and
Impact of Paper in the Islamic World. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 2001.

Bosch, Gulnar K. “The Staff of the Scribes and the Imple-
ments of the Discerning: An Excerpt.” Ars Orientals 4
(1961): 1-13.

Bosch, Gulnar, John Carswell, and Guy Petherbridge. Is-
lamic Bindings and Bookmaking. Chicago: Chicago Uni-
versity Press, 1981.

Cagman, Filiz, and Zeren Tanindi. The Topkapi Museum:
The Albums and Illustrated Manuscripts. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1986.

Deroche, Francois. Manuel de Codicologie des Manuscrits
en Ecriture Arabe. Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de
France, 2000.

Deroche, Frangois, ed. Les Manusrits du Moyen-Orient:
Essais de Codicologie et de Paleographie. Paris: Institut
frangais d’etudes anatoliennes, 1989.

Dutton, Yasin, ed. The Codicology of Islamic Manuscripts.
London: Al-Furqan, 1995.

Eche, Youssef. Les Bibliotheques Arabes Publiques et Semi-
Publiques en Mesopotamie, en Syrie et en Egypte an
Moven-Age. Damascus: Institut frangais de Damas,
1967.

Ettinghausen, Richard. Arab Painting. Geneva: Skira,
1962.

Gacek, Adam. The Arabic Manuscript Tradition: A Glos-
sary of Technical Terms and Bibliography. Leiden: Brill,
2001 .'

Gray, Basil. Persian Painting. Geneva: Skira, 1977.

Gray, Basil, ed. The Arts of the Book in Central Asia, 14th-
16th Centuries. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Press, 1979.

Haldane, D. Islamic Bookbindings in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. London: World of Islam Festival
Trust, 1983.

Pedersen, Johannes. The Arabic Book. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1984.

Porter, Yves. Peinture et Arts du Livre: Essai sur la Littera-
ture Technique Inclo-Persane. Paris and Tehran: Institut
frangais de recherche en Iran, 1992.

Raby, Julian, and Zeren Tanindi. Turkish Bookbinding in
the 15th Century: The Foundation of an Ottoman Court
Style. London: Azimuth Editions, 1993.

Rosenthal, Franz. “Abu Haiyan al-Tawhidi on Penman-
ship.” Ars Islamica 13-14 (1947): 1-20.

Roxburgh, David J. Prefacing the Image: The Writing of
Art History in Sixteenth-Century Iran. Leiden: Brill,
2001 .

Touati, Houari. L’Armoire d Sagesse: Bibliotheques et Col-
lections en Islam. Paris: Aubier, 2003.

Weitzmann, Kurt. Studies in Classical and Byzantine
Manuscript Illumination. Edited by Herbert L. Kessler.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

Welch, Anthony. Arts of the Islamic Book: The Collection of
the Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1982.

BOTANY

Arabic botanical knowledge was mainly practical
and descriptive. It was contained principally in
pharmacological literature and secondarily in agri-
cultural literature. Theoretical botany was a matter
of philosophical speculation.

Early Arabic plant knowledge relied on agricultur-
al literature of Greece and Byzantium, with the
Georgika by Demokritos (in fact, Bolos of Mendes,
ca. 200 BCE), Anatolios of Berytos (possibly Vindo-
nius Anatolius, d. ad 360), and Kassianos Bassos
(sixth century. CE), as well as on literature from the
Syriac world, with the so-called Nabatean agriculture
encyclopedia. Ninth-century CE translation activity
in Baghdad introduced Greek material: (1) theoretical
botany (genesis, reproduction, and growing of plants,
their parts and physiology, plant classification, the
nature and origin of their qualities and peculiarities)
with De plantis by Aristotle (384—322 BCE), not
known in the original but in the commented version
by Nikolaos of Damas (first century BCE/CE), and
De historia plantarum or De causis plantarum by
Theophrastus (372/70-288/86 BCE) (the text is lost;
hence the uncertainty of the translated work);
(2) pharmacobotany (plants used as medicines), with
De materia medica by Dioscorides (first century CE),
an encyclopedia on the natural products used for
therapeutic purposes.

As in the Greek world, Dioscorides’s treatise
dominated the field. It was repeatedly translated,
first into Syriac by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and then into
Arabic by the same working in collaboration with
Istifan ibn Basil. The Arabic text was further revised
during the tenth century CE in the East and the West
(Cordova), and the Syriac treatise was translated
twice into Arabic in the East during the twelfth cen-
tury CE. Each translation seems to have been widely
circulated, and Dioscorides’s treatise was abundantly
commented on — particularly by such North African
and Western scientists as ibn al-Gazzar, abu al-Qasim
al-Zahrawi, al Ghafiqi, and ibn al-Baytar — in order to
equate Dioscorides’s Mediterranean species with local
ones.

In Dioscorides’s model of botany, each plant is
dealt with in a monographic chapter, which proceeds
both synthetically (plant type) and analytically (plant

117

BOTANY

description, neither systematic nor complete, but
limited to the major characteristics from the top to
the roots). Classification is based on the therapeutic
properties of plants. The text is completed in several
manuscripts with color representations of the plants,
the authenticity and origin of which is still debated.
Such a model was reproduced in the Arabic world but
with two major modifications: (1) plants were no
longer classified according to their properties, but
according to the alphabetical sequence of their
names, a fact that provoked the loss of plant classifi-
cation; and (2) plant representations, which originally
resembled those in Greek manuscripts, increasingly
tended toward symmetrical and stylized pictures and
also introduced elements that suggested the natural
environment of the plants.

Greek pharmacobotany in the Arabic world agglu-
tinated data of different provenances (Mesopotamian,
Persian, Indian), and new works were produced, best
represented in the East by al-Biruni’s Kitab al-
Saydalah and ibn Sina’s Qanun, and in the West by
ibn al-Gazzar, abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, al Ghafiqi,
and ibn al-Baytar, the last two of whom are credited
with the most achieved works of descriptive botany
in the Arabic world. Special aspects were dealt with in
other works, as, for example, plant nomenclature
in lexica, phytogeography, and plant distribution in
geographical descriptions and travel books, plant
physiology in philosophical and metaphysical trea-
tises such as ibn Sina’s Kitab al-shifa, and plant pro-
duction in agricultural manuals, as ibn Bajja’s Kitab
al-nabat.

Alain Touwaide

Further Reading

Ben Mrad, Ibrahim. Ibn al-Baytar. Commentate de la
« Materia Medica» de Dioscoride. Carthage: Beit al-
Hikma, 1990.

Brandenburg, Dietrich. Islamic Miniature Painting in Medi-
cal Manuscripts. Basel: Roche, 1982.

Die Dioskurides-Erklarung des Ibn al-Baitar .Ein Beitrag zur
arabischen Pflanzensynonymik des Mittelalters. Gottin-
gen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991.

Die Ergdnzungen Ibn ul ul’s zur Materia Medica des Dios-
kurides. Arabischer Text nebst kommentierter detuscher
Ubersetzung. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
1993.

Dietrich, Albert. Dioscurides Triumphans. Ein anonymer
arabischer Kommentar ( Elide 12. Jahrh. n. Chr.) zur
Materia Medica , 2 vols. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1988.

Drossaart Lulofs H.J., and E.L.J. Poortman. Nicolaus
Dcimascenus de Plantis. Five translations. Amsterdam,
Oxford, and New York: North-Holland Publishing
Company, 1989.

Dubler, Cesar. La Materia Medica de Dioscorides. Barce-
lona and Tetuan: Tipografia Emporium, 1953-1959.

Le Dictionnaire Botanique d’Abii Hanifa ad-Dmawari, com-
piled according to the citations of later works. Cairo:
Institut Frangais d'Archeologie Orientale, 1973.

Levey, Martin. Early Arabic Pharmacology. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1973.

Lewin, Bernhard. Abu Hanifa ad-Dinawari, Kitab al-nabat.
Fifth part. Uppsala University, Wiesbaden: Harrasso-
wits, 1953.

Sadek, M. The Arabic Materia Medica of Dioscorides. Que-
bec: Les Editions du Sphinx, 1983.

Said, Hakim Mohammed, and Sami Khalaf Hamarneh. Al-
Biruni’s Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica. 2 vols.
Karachi: Hamdard National Foundation.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. 4.
Alchimie, Chemie, Botanik, Agrikultur bis ca. 430 H.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971.

Ullmann, Manfred. Die Natur- und Gegeimwissenschaften in
Islam. Leiden & Cologne: E.J. Brill, 1972.

BRETHREN OF PURITY

Ikhwan al-Safa’ (the Brethren of Purity) were the
affiliates of an esoteric coterie that was based in
Basra and Baghdad around the last quarter of the
tenth century CE. The learned adepts of this fraterni-
ty authored a compendium. Rasa’ll Ikhwan al-Safa’
(The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), which was
structured in the form of an encyclopedia. This
voluminous work grouped fifty-two tracts that treated
themes in mathematics, music, logic, astronomy, and
the physical cum natural sciences, as well as explor-
ing the nature of the soul and investigating associated
matters in ethics, revelation, and spirituality. This
series offered synoptic elucidations of the classical
traditions in philosophy and science of the ancients
and the moderns of the age. It was also accompanied
by a dense treatise titled al-Risala al-jami’a (The
Comprehensive Epistle) and further complemented
by an appendage known as Risalat jami’at al-jami’a
(The Condensed Comprehensive Epistle). The precise
identity of the authors of this monumental corpus,
and the exact chronology of its composition, remain
unsettled matters of scholarly debate in the field of
Islamic studies. Although the Ikhwan’s writings have
been described as being affiliated to Sufi, Sunni, or
Mu‘tazilite teachings, it is more generally accepted
that their line in literature belonged to a Shi‘ite legacy
that had strong connections with the Ismaili tradition.
While some scholars assert that the Rasa'il Ikhwan
al-Safa’ are attributable to early Fatimid sources,
others maintain that this textual legacy transcended
sectarian divisions in Islam and, in its spirit of open-
ness, should consequently lead us to treat its authors
as freethinkers who were not bound within the doc-
trinal confines of a specific creed. Moreover, besides
founding their views on the Qur’an and the teachings
of Islam, the Ikhwan did not hesitate to appeal in

118

BUDDHISM AND ISLAM

their Rasa’il to the other scriptures of Abrahamic
monotheism, such as the Torah of Judaism and the
Canonical Gospels of Christianity. The Ikhwan were
also implicitly influenced by Ancient Indian and Per-
sian classics, and they were enthusiastically inspired
by the Greek legacies of the likes of Pythagoras,
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Euclid, Ptolemy,
Porphyry, and lamblichus. Finding “truth in every
religion” and seeing knowledge as the pure “nourish-
ment for the soul,” the Ikhwan associated the pursuit
of happiness and the hope of salvation with the scru-
pulous unfolding of rational and intellectual quests.
They furthermore promoted a friendship of virtue
among their companions and gave a venerable expres-
sion to the liberal spirit in Islam. Their syncretism,
which is not reducible to a mere form of eclecticism
that may have been partly influenced by Mesopota-
mian Sabaean practices and beliefs, did ultimately
ground their eschatological aspiration to found a
spiritual sanctuary that would prudently assist their
co-religionists in overcoming the sectarian discords
that plagued their era. Oriented by a literal interpre-
tation of the classical microcosm and macrocosm
analogy, as it was primarily noted in their conception
of the human being as a microcosm and of the uni-
verse as a macroanthropon, the Ikhwan did avidly
attempt to restore the sense of harmony and equipoise
between the psychical order and its correlative cosmo-
logical shaping forces. Their analogical thinking was
furthermore inspired by a Pythagorean arithmetic
grasp of the structuring orderliness of the visible uni-
verse, and they moreover adopted a Neoplatonist
explication of creation by way of emanation in a
creditable attempt to reconcile philosophy with reli-
gion. Drafted in an eloquent classical Arabic style,
the Ikhwan’s epistles displayed a remarkable lexical
adaptability that elegantly covered the language of
mathematics, logic, and natural philosophy, as well
as encompassing the intricacies of theological deliber-
ation and occultist speculation, while also giving
expression to a poetic taste that was ingeniously em-
bodied in resourceful fables and edifying parables. In
terms of the scholarly significance of the Rasa % and
the cognitive merits of the Ikhwan’s views, it must be
stated that, despite being supplemented by oral teach-
ings in seminaries, their textual heritage was not rep-
resentative of the most decisive of achievements made
in the domains of mathematics, and the natural and
psychical sciences of their epoch. Nonetheless, the
Ikhwan’s intellectual acumen becomes most evident
in their original and sophisticated reflections on
matters related to spirituality and revelation, which
did compensate the ostensible scholarly limitations
that may have resulted from the diluted nature
of their investigations in classical philosophy and

science. However, in spite of these traceable short-
comings, their corpus remains exemplary of medieval
masterpieces that represented erudite popular adapta-
tions of protoscientiflc knowledge. Assimilated by
many scholars across a variety of Muslim schools
and doctrines, the Ikhwan’s textual heritage acted as
an important intellectual catalyst in the course of
development of the history of ideas in Islam, rightful-
ly deserving the station that it has been assigned amid
the Arabic classics that constituted the high literature
of the medieval Islamic civilization.

Nader El-Bizri

See also Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Eschatology;
Fatimids; Gnosis; Ismailis; Knowledge (7/«i); Mysti-
cism; Plato and Neoplatonism; Shi‘i Thought; Theology

Primary Sources

Ikwan al-Safa’. Rasa’il ikhwan al-Safa’ wa Khullan al-
Wafa’. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1957.

Further Reading

‘Awa, Adel. L’esprit Critique des “ Freres de la Purete”:
Encyclopedistes Arabes du IV* /X s siecle. Beirut: Imprim-
erie Catholique, 1948.

De Callatay, Godefroid. Ikwan al-Safa’. Les revolutions et
les Cycles (Epitres des Freres de la Purete, XXXVI).
Beirut: al-Buraq, 1996.

Farrukh, “Umar. ‘Ikhwan al-Safa’.” In A History of Mus-
lim Philosophy. 3 vols. Edited by M. M. Sharif. Wiesba-
den: O. Harrassowitz, 1963-1966.

Goodman, Lenn E. The Case of the Animals versus Man
before the King of the Jinn: A Tenth-Century Ecological
Fable of the Pure Brethren of Basra. Boston: Twayne
Publishers, 1978.

Hamdani, Abbas. “A Critique of Paul Casanova’s Dating
of the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’.” In Mediaeval Isma’ili
History and Thought. Edited by Farhad Daftary. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Marquet, Yves. La Philosophic des Ihwan al-Safa’. Algiers:
Societe Nationale d’Edition et de Diffusion, 1975.
Marquet, Yves. “Ikhwan al-Safa’.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, Volume III. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960.

Netton, Ian Richard. Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduc-
tion to the Thought of the Brethren of Purity. London:
Allen and Unwin, 1982.

Tibawi, Abdul-Latif. “Ikhwan as-Safa’ and their Rasa’il: A
Critical Review of a Century and a Half of Research.”
Islamic Quarterly 2 (1955): 28M6.

BUDDHISM AND ISLAM

The infamous destruction of the giant Buddha images
at Bamyan, Afghanistan, by the radical Islamic Tali-
ban regime serves as a potent symbol of the culmina-
tion of the centuries-long coexistence and contact
between Islam and Buddhism. The destruction of
the statues not only eclipses that history but also

119

BUDDHISM AND ISLAM

underscores a tone of intolerance toward Buddhism
on the part of some Muslim thinkers today. A new
book bearing the title Islam and Buddhism by Harun
Yahya, perhaps the only contemporary work specifi-
cally dedicated to the question of the Islamic-
Buddhist relationship, provides a characteristically
hostile depiction of Buddhism as an idolatrous reli-
gion and the quintessential example of “falsehood,”
as it is defined by the Qur’an and Islamic thought
more generally. Thus, Buddhism, with its “deifica-
tion” of human beings, a cult of idols, a massive
iconography, and its pessimism toward the material
world and consequent extreme asceticism, seems to be
worlds apart from Islam.

However, the mere fact that an important Bud-
dhist monument might exist in what is now known
as an Islamic country indicates that Buddhism, in its
varieties, existed in territories to which Islam also
extended its reach during its advent to East and
Southeast Asia. Many of the people who converted
to Islam in these territories were originally Buddhists,
and for long periods there was in these regions some
sort of coexistence between the two realms, one far
more varied and peaceful than certain events and
publications might lead us to believe.

The encounter between Islam and Buddhism can
be documented from as early as the late seventh cen-
tury (or first Islamic century). Buddhist converts, like
many other converts to Islam, enriched Islam with
troves of cultural expression of all sorts, and imported
into the religion their own distinctive practices and
theological interpretations. Perhaps the best concrete
example of such Buddhist converts is the Barmaki
lineage during the early days of the ‘Abbasid caliph-
ate. The father of the family was a Persian-Buddhist
priest from Balkh, whose descendants rose to power
and glory as grand viziers and are often associated
with the golden age of the ‘Abbasid caliphate. It was
probably during that period, when the ‘Abbasid
caliphs sponsored huge translation projects of East-
ern and Western texts, that the most fruitful connec-
tions between Islam and Buddhism occurred.
However, we must be very cautious before attributing
any specific practice or idea in Islam to Buddhism,
even when we find similarities between the two reli-
gions, since in most cases one cannot really pinpoint
any direct influence. It is more plausible to speak of
general Central Asian or Indian practices and ideas in
relation to Islam rather then specifically Buddhist
ideas or practices and to conceive of this syncretism
in generally cultural terms rather than specific one-to-
one correlative ones.

The most well-known attempt to draw a direct
connection between Buddhist practices and Islam
was undertaken by the great Hungarian-Jewish

Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher. In a study titled A
Buddhizmus Hatasa az Iszldmra ( On the Impact of
Buddhism on Islam), published in 1903, Goldziher
demonstrated similarities between Sufism and Bud-
dhism and claimed that the former sprung forth
when Islam came in contact with the latter in India
(he repeated a version of this claim in his Lectures on
Islam . )

While Goldziher was basically right in drawing the
attention of the debate toward the Indian connection
to Sufism, one is hard-pressed to say that it was
Buddhism per se rather than Indian practices such
as Bhakti (devotionalism, in this context) that had
some generalized impact on the early Sufi practi-
tioners. (Of all dimensions of Islam, Sufism today is
most readily compared to Buddhism, but then again,
Sufism is indeed most inclusive and eclectic and thus
most easily compared to strains within all religions).
On the ideational level we find the unique case of a
Chinese Sufi scholar, Wu Zixian, who translated the
Mirsad al-‘ibad, a major Sufi compendium, into Chi-
nese and stated freely in his preface to the book that
he had consulted Buddhist texts to come up with the
suitable Chinese vocabulary for Sufi terms. Wu is
unique not because he was an East Asian Muslim
inspired by Buddhism but rather because he was one
who openly admitted this influence.

Buddhists and Muslims today coexist in significant
numbers in virtually all Southeast and East Asian
countries (and also Korea and Japan). There have
been some serious scholarly and religious attempts
to renew and open the dialogue between the two
faiths. One such attempt worthy of mentioning is by
the major Japanese Buddhist thinker and educator
Daisaku Ikeda. For the most part, however, this
remains an undeveloped field, and what has been
written on the topic is largely polemical.

Zvi Aziz Ben-Dor

Further Reading

Azuma, Ryushin. Nihon no Bukkyo to Isuramu (Japanese
Buddhism and Islam). Tokyo: Shunjusha, 2002.

Ben-Dor Benite, Zvi. The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural
History of Muslims in Late Imperial China. Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, forthcoming.

Goldziher, Ignac. A Buddhizmus Hatasa az Iszldmra. Buda-
pest: Kiadja a Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia, 1903.

Harun, Yahya. Islam and Buddhism. New Delhi: Islamic
Book Service, 2003.

Ikeda, Daisaku. Global Civilization: A Buddhist-Islamic Di-
alogue (with Majid Tehranian). London and New York:
British Academic Press, 2003.

Murata, Sachiko. Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2001.

Zu‘bi, Muhammad ‘Ali. al-Budhiya wa-ta’thiruha fi l-fikr
wa-l-firaq al-Islamiya al-mutatarrifa. Beirut: Matba'at
al-Insaf, 1964.

120

BUKHARA

Bukhara is an oasis city in central Asia in the Zaraf-
shan River Valley (in present-day Uzbekistan).
According to traditions preserved in the partly leg-
endary Islamic conquest literature, the first Arab
forces reached Bukhara during the early Umayyad
period. Ubayd Allah b. Ziyad concluded an agree-
ment with the khatun (a Sogdanian title for the ruler’s
wife) who governed the great and rich oasis (in AH
54/674 CE). Yet the actual capture of the region
started a generation later during the governorship of
Qutayba Ibn Muslim (89/708), and it was not secured
until the days of Nasr Ibn Sayyar (738-748), when the
armies of the caliphate succeeded in repelling the
Western Turks (Turgish /Tiirgi§).

According to Islamic historiography, the victori-
ous Muslim commanders constructed a mosque and
recruited local clients to the armies of the caliphate,
though it is difficult to gauge the number of converts
and their percentage among the indigenous popula-
tion. Judging by their participation in heretical move-
ments, however, it can be assumed that in Bukhara
during the eighth and ninth centuries, a considerable
number of people were giving up local beliefs and
joining Islam. Already during the early ‘Abbasid pe-
riod, contacts between the core land of the caliphate
and the periphery became more firmly established. A
governor was sent from Baghdad to collect taxes and
command the army.

The rank of Bukhara in the administrative machin-
ery of the caliphate was upgraded during the years of
the Tahirids (207-278/822-891). The new importance
of the city resulted from developments in Khurasan.
The coming of Isma'il b. Ahmad to Bukhara (in 262/
875), whose position was confirmed by the caliph al-
M u‘ tad id (279-89/892-902), opened a new chapter in
the history of the oasis. Bukhara became the capital
city of the Samanids, a local Iranian dynasty that
became integrated into the ‘Abbasid system.

After the fall of the Samanids (395/1005) and the
emergence in present-day Afghanistan of new centers,
that of Ghazna, who for a short period the Ghazna-
wids (367-583/977-1187) played a role in the history
of Central Asia, Bukhara lost its political and admin-
istrative importance. Yet, due to cultural and eco-
nomic reasons it did not disappear from chronicles
that narrate the history of power struggles in medie-
val Central Asia. With the help of the Saljuqid sultan
Sanjar, a Qarakhanid (Ilig/Ilek Khans) prince named
Arslan Khan Muhammad occupied Bukhara (495/
1102). The city remained in the hands of the Qara-
khanids while it was governed by the Ilig Nasr b. ‘Ali
the. After a few decades the Kara Khitay captured the
town (536/1 141). The Kara Khitay people did not rule

Bukhara directly but rather installed a local family as
head of tax collection and bureaucracy ( sadr) .

Mongol invasions (616/1220) brought havoc to
Bukhara. Nevertheless, the city soon recovered. A
revolt led by a pseudoprophet (636/1238) began the
re-emergence of a local community. Yet after a few
years, Bukhara once again was destroyed, first by the
Il-Kahn Abaka of Iran (671/1278) and then by a
Chaghtayid rebel (716/1316). Later, Bukhara was
taken over by Timur Leng (Tamerlane, d. 1405). It
remained in the hands of the Timurid Turkish-Mon-
gol dynasty until the advance of Shibani Khan the
Uzbek (905/1500). It seems that during these years the
city had no political importance. The topographical
history of Bukhara in the seventh to ninth centuries is
shrouded in obscurity. On more solid ground is the
information from the ‘Abbasid period. Arab and Per-
sian geographers provide information on the struc-
ture and topography of Bukhara. They describe a
large city (shahristan) protected by double walls
with several gates (the sources name seven to eleven),
a citadel (quhunduz; ark), water canals (arik), and
suburbs (rabd). The Samanids built a royal palace
that accommodated the administration (divan).
Arslan Khan became noted as a great builder. He
rebuilt the walls and citadel of Bukhara and con-
structed a mosque. A dozen monuments have sur-
vived as evidence of the architectural achievements
of the years described in the previous paragraph.

Being populated by Arabs, Iranians, and Turks,
Bukhara served as a center to spread the new culture
that developed within the boundaries of the caliphate.
This deduction is supported by biographical diction-
aries that use new nomenclature to name renowned
Muslim scholars. In biographical entries these writers
use genealogy based on geography (nisba) to name
the personas. Money among them bore the nisba al-
Bukhari. The lists of the numerous scholars named
al-Bukhari are long. Abu al-Fadl Bafami and his son
Abu ‘Ali Muhammad (d. 363/973) are further exam-
ples. Both served as viziers of the Samanids. Translat-
ing into New Persian, the chronicles of al-Tabari,
Muhammad gained fame as one of the first Persian
authors.

Bukhara functioned as an axis of Islamic culture
and innovation and a hub of the Hanafi School of
Islamic law, which molded the Islam of recently con-
verted Turks. Patronized by the Samanids, the Per-
sian language, which served as the lingua franca
between the Muslim governors and the population
of Transoxiana, developed into a pivot of the new
Islamic civilization. From Bukhara it spread to the
central parts of Iran and advanced into Central Asia.
The city’s role as the heart of Islamic learning was not

121

BUKHARA

eclipsed even under the Mongols. Moreover, Baha al-
Din Naqshaband (791/1389) started his brotherhood
of dervishes (al-tariqa al-Naqshabandiyya) during the
years of the Chaghatayid dynasty.

Yehoshua Frenkel

Further Reading

Collins, B. A. Al-Muqaddasi — The Best Divisions for Knowl-
edge of the Regions. Reading, MA, 1994.

Frye, Richard Nelson (Trans). The History of Bukhara
[being a translation of Narshakhi]. Cambridge, MA:
Mediaeval Academy of America, 1954.

Frye, Richard Nelson. Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement .

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.

Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate.
London, 1905.

Vambery, Armin. History of Bokhara from the Earliest
Period Down to the Present, Composed for the First
Time after Oriental Known and Unknown Historical
Manuscripts. London: H.S. King, 1873.

BUKHARI

Al-Bukhari, Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Isma’il was
an expert in hadith. Muslims consider his work,
al-Jami’ al-Sahih, or more commonly, Sahih al-
Bukhari, to be the foremost collection of the accounts
of the words, deeds, and opinions of the Prophet
Muhammad.

The purview of the collection is indicated by the
title which al-Bukhari apparently gave his work,
translated as: The Comprehensive Collection of Sup-
ported Sound Hadith Summarized front the Actions,
Practices, and Battles of the Messenger of God. The
hadith are arranged topically. The emphasis is on
Islamic religious law, although there is much material
that can be more narrowly defined as theology and
religious history.

According to the traditional estimate, it consists of
roughly 7275 hadith. Many of the hadith are men-
tioned more than once, and it is said that without the
duplicates the total is 4000 separate hadith. Both
figures include hadith lacking a chain of transmission
( isnad), hadith repeated with more than one chain of
transmission, and those ascribed to religious autho-
rities other than Muhammad. Unfortunately, no-
where does al-Bukhari explain the criteria he applied
in selecting hadith for inclusion, although tales assert
that only a small fraction of what he knew he found
worthy. For the most part, later scholars held that al-
Bukhari’s mere mention of a transmitter in this work
was sufficient proof that the transmitter was reliable.
We may take the estimate of the esteemed scholar

al-Safadi (AH 696/1297-764/1363 CE) of the work as
representative: “[Al- Bukhara’s collection is the most
exalted book on hadith in Islam; and the best of them
after [the Qur’an].” Considering al-Bukhari’s later
fame, the sources give us very little information
about his life, and what we are told is largely hagiog-
raphy mixed in with tidbits of information that, in
most cases, could well have been derived from the
examination of his works. He was born in Bukhara
in 194/810 to non- Arab parents. He took up the study
of hadith at an early age and traveled throughout
Persia, Iraq, the Hejaz, Syria, and Egypt. In 256/
870, he died in Khartank, a village near Samarqand,
and was buried in the latter. The most serious blemish
on his reputation was the allegation leveled by some
of his contemporaries that he asserted that one’s reci-
tation of the Qur’an is “created,” and therefore not
pre-eternal. During his lifetime, issues surrounding
the nature of the Qur’an were bitterly disputed, and
later generations of scholars have generally held this
particular doctrine to be heretical. In the traditional
biographical accounts of the life of al-Bukhari, we
find him unequivocally denying that he ever sub-
scribed to such an odious view.

Al-Bukhari wrote other works on subjects
concerning hadith, but they are, considering his
fame, unimpressive. Of these, his al-Ta’rikh al-kahir
(ed. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Yahya al-Mu’allimi al-
Yamani, 4 vols. in 8 parts, Hyderabad, 1361-1365), a
more or less alphabetically arranged biographical dic-
tionary of hadith transmitters, is probably the most
notable. Despite its immense size, it was quickly
eclipsed as a practical reference by even larger and
more informative books covering the same ground.

Eerik Dickinson

Primary Sources

Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. Ta’rikh Baghdad. 14 vols. Cairo:
Maktabat al-Khanji, 1349/1931, 2: 4-34.

Al-Safadi, Khalil b. Aybak. al-Wafi bi-’l-wafayat. Edited by
Hellmut Ritter et al. Istanbul/Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner
Verlag, 1931 ff„ 2: 206-209.

Further Reading

Encyclopaedia of Islam. Second ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1953
ff„ 1:1296-1297.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1967 ff„ 1:115-134.

BURIAL CUSTOMS

See Funerary Practices, Muslim

122

BURIDS

The Burids, or Borids, were a Turkish dynasty that
ruled Damascus and much of its hinterland from
1 104 to 1154 CE. Its founder was Zahir al-Din Tught-
igin, the atabeg (a kind of “guardian and tutor”) of
Shams al-Mulk Duqaq, the son of the Seljuk sultan in
Syria, Tutush (r. 1078-1095), who was the son of Alp
Arslan and the brother of Malikshah (r. 1073-1092).
Tutush took Damascus from Atsiz ibn Uvaz, who
had conquered southern Syria and Palestine from
the Fatimids. On Tutush’s death, his sons divided
his territory, Duqaq taking Damascus while placing
his affairs in the hands of Tughtigin. When Duqaq
died in 1104, Tughtigin became the de facto ruler of
Damascus.

Tughtigin (r. 1104-1128) was the most remarkable
member of the dynasty that he had founded. He
maintained his independence with great dexterity
while contending with the Fatimids in Egypt and
Palestine, the newly arrived Franks of the First Cru-
sade, also in Palestine, the ‘Abbasid caliph and Seljuk
sultan in Baghdad, and other members of the Seljuk
family in Syria and Iraq. Sometimes allied with, or
against, one or another of these parties, he skillfully
played them against each other. In the course of this,
he established his authority in the region between
the Hawran south of Damascus and Hamah to the
north. He played an important role in the struggle
against the Franks, who threatened his grain supply
in the Biqa‘a Valley, and launched several expeditions
against them. He made valiant but unsuccessful
attempts to save Tripoli from them in 1109 and Tyre
in 1124. He lacked the forces to drive the Crusaders
from Palestine yet was distrustful of his disunited
Muslim neighbors. In 1115, when the Seljuk sultan
Muhammad sent an army to bring him under control
and then attack the Franks, Tughtigin sided with the
latter. Later, however, he traveled to Baghdad to seek
the sultan’s pardon.

On his death, Tughtigin was succeeded by his son
Taj al-Muluk Bori (r. 1128-1132). He captured
Hamah in 1129 and then blunted a Frankish cam-
paign against Damascus. He almost immediately
faced a major challenge with the rise of the Zankids
in Mosul. The founder of this dynasty, Zanki, took
Aleppo in 1 128 and Hamah in 1130 while demanding
the cooperation of Damascus against the Crusaders.
He reached Homs before returning to Mosul. Mean-
while, in Damascus, Bori was threatened by the grow-
ing power of the Batinis, or Ismailis, who had been
supported by his father. In 1129, Bori broke their
power and exterminated a large number of them. In
1132, however, they assassinated him.

Bori was succeeded by his son, Shams al-Muluk
Isma‘il (r. 1132-1135). He captured Banyas from the
Franks in 1132, took Hamah back from Zanki in
1133, and forced back a Frankish invasion of the
Hawran in 1 1 34. Despite these actions, he was con-
sidered so corrupt and tyrannical that his mother
ordered his assassination in 1135. His brother Shihab
al-Din Mahmud (r. 1135-1139) then took the throne.
Zanki attempted to take advantage of this turmoil by
marching on Damascus, but the people of the city
stoutly resisted him and he withdrew. Mahmud and
Zanki contracted a marriage alliance in 1138 that
appeared to resolve their differences. Shortly thereaf-
ter, however, Mahmud was murdered by two of his
slaves.

After Mahmud's murder, the city’s military leaders
first placed his brother Muhammad on the throne,
but he died shortly thereafter. They then replaced
him with Mahmud’s young son, Mujir al-Din Abaq
(r. 1140-1154), while placing actual control of
Damascus in the hands of his atabeg , Mu’in al-Din
Unur. Zanki again attacked the city, and again it
resisted. Unur formed an alliance with the Franks to
keep him at bay. Relations with the Franks were
stabilized for the next few years. Zanki’s preoccupa-
tion with Edessa in 1144 and his death in 1146
relieved the pressure from the north and allowed
Unur to expand his territory. However, Zanki’s son
and successor, Nur al-Din Mahmud, proved to be
equally determined to capture Damascus. In early
1147, Nur al-Din married Unur’s daughter and the
two leaders carried out joint operations against the
Franks. A few months later, when the Second Cru-
sade attempted to conquer Damascus, Nur al-Din
provided some relief. When Unur died in 1149,
Abaq was incapable of retaining control of the city.
Nur al-Din forced him to accept his guardianship and
finally drove him out in 1154.

On the whole, Damascus prospered under the Bur-
ids, enjoying a long period of relative security after
several centuries of anarchy. The city expanded and
new institutions, notably madrasas (colleges of law),
took root.

Gary Leiser

See also ‘Abbasids; Assassins; Jihad; Madrasa; Mus-
lini-Crusader Relations; Seljuks

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Qalanisi. The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades.
Trans. H.A.R. Gibb. London: Luzac, 1932.

123

BURIDS

Further Reading

Baldwin, Marshall, ed. A History of the Crusades. Vol. 1.

Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969-1989.
Mouton, J.-M. Damns et sa Principaute sous les Saljoukides
et les Bourides 468-549/1076-1154. Cairo: Institut Fran-
qais d’Archeologie Orientale, 1994.

BUYIDS

The Buyid (Buwayhid) dynasty lasted from AH 334/
945 CE until 449/1057. This family originated from
the hills of Dailam near the Caspian Sea. ‘Ali ibn
Buya, in close collaboration with his two brothers,
Ahmad and al-Hasan, led them to power at the head
of a predominantly infantry army recruited in Dai-
lam. Their first major success came when they took
Shiraz in 322/934. Shortly thereafter they began add-
ing Turkish cavalry to the army. The province of Fars
served as one of their three centers of power. Al-
Hasan took and ruled from Rayy. Ahmad marched
on Baghdad, taking it in 334/945.

The Buyid family ruled as a confederation, with
the eldest member having precedence. They did not
depose or eliminate the caliph but acted as his
“deputies.” In reality they acted as kings while main-
taining the legal fiction of subservience. All signs
indicate that they were Shi‘i, but pragmatically they
made no effort to replace the ‘Abbasid caliph with a
Shi‘i imam or to rule in his name. However, they did
remove uncooperative caliphs. Immediately following
the conquest of Baghdad, the caliph al-Mustakfi
granted the three brothers the titles by which they
are typically known: Ahmad became Mu‘izz al-
Dawla, al-Hasan became Rukn al-Dawla, and ‘Ali
became ‘Imad al-Dawla. The caliph was then prompt-
ly removed from the throne, with al-Muti‘ taking his
place. ‘Imad al-Dawla, as the dominant member of
the family, ruled from Shiraz until his death in 338/
949. When he died, he had no sons and his role in
Shiraz was assumed by ‘Adud al-Dawla, the son of
Rukn al-Dawla. Rukn al-Dawla then became head of
the confederation. Mu‘izz al-Dawla died in 356/967
having never attained headship.

‘Adud al-Dawla represents the pinnacle of Buyid
power and authority. As long as his father was alive,
he maintained obedience to the familial structure of
precedence. However, once his father died in 366/977,
he seized Baghdad from his cousin and from there
dominated the family. He was able to centralize rule
and enforce unity.

After ‘Adud al-Dawla’s death in 372/983, the unity
that he had created crumbled and the Buyids reverted
once more to their previous pattern of family rule

from their three main capitals of Baghdad, Shiraz,
and Rayy. The position of senior amir was almost
continually under dispute after ‘Adud al-Dawla’s
death, and each prince usually ruled his capital inde-
pendently. Only Baha’ al-Dawla (r. 398/1007 403/
1012) and Abu Kalijar (r. 435/1044-440/1048) can be
said to have held the position of senior amir.

In addition to familial squabbles, the composite
nature of the Buyid army meant that there were
constant quarrels between Dailamite and Turkish
troops. The later Buyids also faced considerable out-
side challenges. There were small challenges from
Arab and Kurdish tribes and attempts by other
dynasties, such as those of Oman and Isfahan, to
break free from Buyid control. In the East there
were major invasions by the Ghaznavids and Seljuks.
The beginning of the end was the Ghaznavid conquest
of Rayy in 1029. The demise of arguably the most
active of the later Buyids, Abu Kalijar ‘Imad al-Din,
in 440/1048 left no clear ruler for the whole of Buyid
territory and no established princes in the major cit-
ies. The Seljuks under Tughril Bek took this opportu-
nity to take control of Buyid territories, and the last
independent Buyid, Khusraw Firuz al-Malik al-
Rahim, was captured outside of Baghdad in 449/1057.

Although politically chaotic, the Buyid courts
provided havens for intellectuals, artists, and scien-
tists from a variety of ethnic and religious persua-
sions. One can point to such luminaries as the
philosopher Ibn Sina as examples of the breadth of
intellectual achievement of this period.

John P. Turner and Rachel T. Howes

See also ‘Abbasids; ‘Adud al-Dawla; Baghdad; Ghaz-
navids; Ibn Sina; Imam; Iran; Iraq; Isfahan; Kurds;
Mahmud of Ghazna; Oman; Seljuks; Shi‘ism; Turks

Further Reading

Bowen, H. “The Last Buyids.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society (1929).

Busse, H. Chalif, und Grosskonig Die Buyuden in Iraq
(945-1055). Beiruter Texte und Studien, bd 6. Beirut:
In Kommission bei F. Steiner, Wiesbaden, 1969.

Busse, Heribert. “Iran Under the Buyids.” Cambridge His-
tory of Iran, vol. 4. From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Donohue, J.J. The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 334H./945 to
403H./1012. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Kabir, M. The Buwayhid Dynasty of Baghdad. Calcutta:
Iran Society, 1964.

Mottahedeh, R.P. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Is-
lamic Society. New York: LB. Tauris, 2001.

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Athir. al-Kamil fi l-tci’rikh. Edited by ‘Abd al-Wah-
hab al-Najjar. Cairo: Idarat al-Tiba‘a al-Muniriyya,
1929.

124

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Ibn al-Jawzi. al-Muntazam fi ta’rikh al-muluk wa-l-umam.

Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1992.

Ibn Khallikan. Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary.
Edited by W.M. de Slane. Paris: Oriental translation
fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1843.

Ibn Miskawayh. The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate. Edi-
ted by H.F. Amedroz and D. S. Margoliouth. Oxford: B.
Blackwell, 1920.

Al-Shirazi, Al-Mu’ayyad fi 1-Din. Sircit al-Mu’ayyad fi l-Din
Da'i al-Du‘at. Edited by Muhammad Kamil Hussain.
Cairo: Dar al-Katib al-Misri, 1949.

Yaqut. Irshad al-arib ila ma'rifat al-adib. Edited by D.S.
Margoliouth. 7 vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1907.

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Byzantium was that part of the Roman Empire that
retained its independence after the first ultradynamic
phase of Islamic expansion (634—652 CE). Its princi-
pal components were (1) the islands of the Aegean,

(2) the fertile coastal plains that fringe Asia Minor,

(3) the mountain ranges that back onto those plains
and the rolling plateau that they encircle, (4) those
parts of the southern Balkans (Thrace, a coastal strip
running west to Thessalonike, eastern Greece), which
had not been colonized by Slavs in the late sixth and
early seventh centuries, (5) a cluster of substantial
territories in the central Mediterranean (central and
southern Italy, Sicily, Carthage and its large hinter-
land), and (6) far to the northeast, enclaves on the
Black Sea (the Crimea and Lazica). The capital, the
ancient Greek colony of Byzantium (renamed Con-
stantinople), had been developed into one of the three
great cities of the East Mediterranean by Constantine
the Great (324-337 CE) and his immediate successors.
It was endowed with impressive public buildings,
grand processional ways, and a spectacular domed
cathedral. This late-antique armature provided visible
proof to Byzantines, as well as to outsiders, that
theirs was indeed a latter-day Roman Empire. Much
changed in the Middle Ages, but the importance of
Byzantium’s Roman heritage should not be under-
estimated. The people were Romans, ruled by an
uninterrupted sequence of emperors from successive
dynasties. The Senate continued to exist in its Late
Antique guise of a court at the apex of an aristocracy
of service. The modification of inherited institutions
was a gradual, long, drawn-out process. Law, lan-
guage, and coinage remained Roman. Most impor-
tant of all was continuity in the spheres of secular
culture, religion, and ideology. Byzantium retained
imperial status, in its own eyes as well as those of
others. Its identity was defined ultimately by Greco-
Roman culture and Christian faith, deepened by the

harrowing experiences through which the people at
large and the governing elites lived.

Struggle for Survival (Seventh to Ninth
Centuries CE)

Initially, Byzantium’s history was shaped by the
threat from Islam. Constantinople itself came under
attack in 654, for several years in the 670s, and again
in 717-718. Territory was lost — Cilicia in the south-
east in the 690s, North Africa in 698, and Sicily
gradually from 827. Asia Minor suffered severe dam-
age from repeated invasions. It was only in interludes
of civil war within the Caliphate that the Byzantine
army could be reorganized properly for defense and
the administrative system adapted to ensure efficient,
effective support for the war effort. The cumulative
effect of a multitude of ad hoc responses and more
methodical reforms was to transform state and
society by the end of the eighth century.

First, the imperial center tightened its grip over the
localities. The tax system inherited from antiquity was
used to suck up an unprecedentedly high percentage
of surplus resources. Second, the empire was militar-
ized. Army commands and their subdivisions replaced
provinces and cities as the units of regional and local
government in Asia Minor. The burden of supporting
the troops was distributed over the countryside. The
peasantry enlisted in large numbers. The army
adopted guerrilla tactics, relying on urban fortifica-
tions (usually much reduced in size) and strategically
placed castles to secure the civilian population and
their moveable wealth. Third, a quiet social revolu-
tion occurred. The urban-based land-owning aristoc-
racy did not survive the era of extensive war damage
and urban decline. The peasant and the peasant vil-
lage gained unprecedented recognition as the basis of
society and the state.

The reforms were mainly the work of Constans II
(641-668), grandson and successor of Heraclius (610-
641) and the first two Isaurian emperors, Leo III
(717-741) and Constantine V (741-775). What
emerged was a state with a high military gearing and
a resilient social and ideological base, able to project
power far beyond its borders by a variety of means
(naval, military, diplomatic, and propaganda). After
defense in the East, the highest priority was reasser-
tion of authority in the Balkans. When Islam turned
in on itself, offensives were launched against the hy-
brid nomad-sedentary state established in the 670s by
Bulgars south of the Danube by Constantine IV in
681, by Constantine V, who sustained the pressure
from 759 to 775, and (disastrously) by Nicephorus I

125

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

in 811. Transalpine Europe and Italy tended to slip
beyond the horizon of vision, unless there was an
acute threat, and action was usually limited to the
diplomatic sphere (as when the Franks occupied
Venice in 812).

Foreign policy was reactive until the 860s, when
the initiative in the Near East passed to Byzantium.
The same was true in the domestic sphere. The cata-
lyst for the drive to decontaminate Christianity of
icon veneration, formally initiated by Leo III in 730,
was undoubtedly the explosive eruption of Thera in
the Aegean core of the empire. There could have been
no plainer sign of divine displeasure at the flouting of
the Second Commandment, at this accretion to the
faith, which was conspicuous for its absence in Islam.
Much political and intellectual effort was subsequent-
ly expended before the final restoration of icons in
843. Similarly, a renewed interest in classical Greek
literature, mathematics, science, and philosophy in
the reign of Theophilus (829-842) was triggered by
the ‘Abbasid-sponsored program of translation and
commentary.

Political Acme (Tenth to Eleventh Centuries
CE) and Subsequent Decline

With the accession of Basil I (867-886), founder of the
Macedonian dynasty, Byzantium entered its heyday.
A cautious, carefully targeted aggressive policy was
adopted against Islam, which resulted, by 976, in
annexation of a broad swath of land in the southeast
and western Armenia. By the time of Basil II’s death
in 1025, Bulgaria was conquered, the whole Balkans
reintegrated into the empire, and Byzantine prestige
raised to new heights in the West. In the East, Chris-
tian Armenian princes were yielding to blandishment
and ceding sovereignty to the emperor. By the middle
of the eleventh century, Byzantium achieved some-
thing close to hegemony in the East Mediterranean.
At home, emperors from Romanos I Lekapenos
(920-944) to Basil II (976-1025) asserted their author-
ity over the aristocracy (now solidifying its wealth and
status by investing in land) in a series of legal enact-
ments, charged with emotive appeals to Christian
moral standards. Their prime concern was to
conserve the old social order and its peasant base.
Modifications were introduced into provincial admin-
istration (notably allocation of executive authority to
judges). Minor adjustments were made in the central
apparatus. The army was concentrated behind the
frontiers, but the main structures put in place in the
age of crisis were retained.

It is open to debate whether or not the agrarian
legislation of the tenth century succeeded in stemming
the long-term growth of aristocratic power and the
concomitant subordination of peasants to lay, cleri-
cal, and monastic landowners. It is known, however,
that there was steady demographic growth to the eve
of the Black Death, increasing commercial activity,
and a reemergence of urban notables as a significant
political force. More is learned about the church and
monasticism in the last centuries, but their essential
characteristics were unchanged: (1) an otherworldli-
ness, long manifest in church decoration (which trans-
formed the interior into a microcosm of heaven) and
in the striving for seclusion of monks, nuns, and holy
men and women; (2) a faith made live by regular re-
enactment of the salvation story; and (3) an episco-
pate of greater intellectual than political weight. Art
and learning flourished more than hitherto. From the
middle of the eleventh century Byzantium declined
swiftly as a political power. The causes of a first
collapse were primarily external: the swift westward
advance of the Turks, which spilled over into Asia
Minor from 1058, depredations by Norman adven-
turers in southern Italy and the Balkans, and the
growing commercial ambitions and naval power of
the Italian city-states, including Byzantium’s long-
standing client, Venice. Among them, these three
forces drove Byzantium to the brink of destruction
by 1081. All the resources of Byzantine statecraft,
eventually harnessed to the cause of the Crusade,
were required for the reconstitution of an empire,
now centered on the Balkans, by Alexius Comnenus
(1081-1118).

The triggers for a second collapse, culminating in
the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade
(1204), were defeat at the hands of the Turks in 1176,
the massacre of Latins at Constantinople in 1182, and
successful rebellions by Serbs and Bulgarians in the
Balkans from the mid- 1 180s. The final phase of reviv-
al, initiated by the Lascarid rulers of a rump state in
northwest Asia Minor, peaked with the recapture
of Constantinople by Michael VIII Palaeologus in
1261. Thereafter, decline resumed, exacerbated by
civil war and social conflict. Repeated attempts to
secure western help were thwarted by popular oppo-
sition to the doctrinal concessions required by the
Papacy. The establishment of a secure Ottoman
bridgehead across the Dardanelles in 1354 marked
the beginning of the end. It was only deferred by the
crushing Mongol victory over the Ottomans at
Ankara in 1402. Constantinople, by then a small
island in an Ottoman sea, was finally captured, after
heroic resistance by an outnumbered garrison, on
May 29, 1453.

James Howard- Johnston

126

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Further Reading

Angold, Michael. The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204: A
Political History. London and New York: Longman,
1984.

Haldon, John F. Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The
Transformation of a Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.

Harris, Jonathan. Byzantium and the Crusades. London and
New York: Hambledon and London, 2003.

Hussey, Joan M. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine
Empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.

Laiou-Thomadakis, Angeliki E. Peasant Society in the Late
Byzantine Empire: A Social and Demographic Study.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Laiou, Angeliki E., ed. The Economic History of Byzantium
from the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century. 3 vols.
Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002.

Lemerle, Paul. The Agrarian History of Byzantium from
the Origins to the Twelfth Century: The Sources
and the Problems. Galway: Galway University Press,
1979.

Mango, Cyril. Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome.
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980.

Mathews, Thomas F. The Art of Byzantium: Between
Antiquity and the Renaissance. London: Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, 1998.

Nicol, Donald. The Last Centuries of Byzantium,
1261-1453. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern
Europe, 500-1453. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1971.

Whittow, Mark. The Making of Orthodox Byzantium,
600-1025. London: Macmillan, 1996.

Wilson, Nigel G. Scholars of Byzantium. London: Duck-
worth, 1983.

127

CAIRO

Cairo is the best documented and best preserved of
the medieval Islamic capitals and, for most of this
period, its largest city.

Originally, Cairo (Ar. Al-Qahira ) referred only to a
small part of the Egyptian capital, although it later
developed into a term for the whole medieval city. In
641 CE, soon after the conquest of Egypt, the Arabs
established a new garrison city known as al-Fustat
next to the old Roman city of Babylon at the southern
tip of the Nile Delta. The new settlement resembled
other early Islamic cities, such as Basra and Kufa,
with a congregational mosque and Dar al-Tmara at
its center. In 750, the ‘Abbasids built a new adminis-
trative center to the north called al-‘Askar (“the sol-
dier”) in reference to the troops stationed there.
More than one hundred years later, in 870, the semi-
independent Tulunids established another city on
higher ground to the northeast, which was called al-
Qata’i‘ (“the wards”). The last of the four cities that
comprised medieval Cairo was established one hun-
dred years later by the Fatimids to mark the comple-
tion of their conquest of North Africa. The city,
which was completed in 971, was originally named
al-Mansuriyya by the caliph al-Mu‘izz after his father
al-Mansur, though it was later changed to al-Qahira
(“the victorious”) both as a signal that the Fatimids
had achieved their objective and because the planet
Mars (al-Qahir) was in the ascendant when work
started on the construction of the city.

The first three early Islamic cities were located on
the west bank of the Nile and merged into each other

to form a single city. However, al-Qahira (Cairo) was
farther to the northeast and for some time remained
separate from the other cities, which were known by
the collective name of al-Fustat. Under the early
Fatimids, al-Qahira remained a palatial city closed
to the general public, housing the caliph, royal offi-
cials, and the administration. Both al-Qahira and
Fustat each had their own port on the Nile and func-
tioned as separate cities. In the twelfth century, this
situation changed when Fustat entered into a period
of decline caused by famines, earthquakes, and other
natural and manmade disasters. One of the most
significant factors was that the Nile was gradually
moving westward, leaving the port facilities of Fustat
high and dry. The decisive change came when the
Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali allowed the transfer of
some markets from Fustat and also permitted inhabi-
tants of Fustat to build houses within al-Qahira. In
order to accommodate the increasing population, the
walls of the Fatimid were expanded, first by Badr al-
Jamali between 1087 and 1091 and later (1176-1193)
by Salah al-Din. From this point on, al-Qahira
became the main focus of activity and the heart of
the later medieval metropolis.

The transfer of power to the Ayyubids consoli-
dated these changes, although it is notable that
Salah al-Din attempted to enclose both Fustat and
al-Qahira within one massive defensive wall, with
the citadel occupying the area in between. Under the
Mamluks, al-Qahira continued to develop outside the
old walls mainly in the area to the south of the old city
and to the west of the Ayyubid citadel. There was also

129

CAIRO

some expansion to the north of the city chiefly around
the Mosque of Baybars (1266-1269), which was built
on the site of the former royal polo ground. After the
Ottoman conquest in the sixteenth century the direc-
tion of expansion was toward the west, following the
westward deflection of the Nile. The nucleus of the
Ottoman expansion was the mosque of Sinan Pasha
built in 1571.

The early expansion of Cairo (including Fustat)
was characterized by the construction of congrega-
tional mosques, which became nuclei for settlement.
The principal monuments of Fatimid Cairo are the
mosques of al-Azhar and al-Hakim. Soon after its
construction in 970-972, the al-Azhar mosque became
a teaching institution propagating the Fatimid da'wa
(propaganda). The increasing educational importance
of al-Azhar may have been the impetus for the con-
struction of al-Hakim’s mosque in 990-991 (com-
pleted under al-Hakim by 1012). Under the Ayyubids
a new factor was introduced in the form of small
religious foundations such as madrasas and zawiyas,
which formed the focal points of smaller local com-
munities. This process continued under the Mamluks
and, with the exception of the Mosque of Baybars, all
of the Mamluk mosques appear to have formed part of
a religious complex, which may have included a tomb,
madrasas, or khanqah. Under the Ottomans the situa-
tion was reversed and mosques once again became the
principal type of religious architecture.

Andrew Petersen

Further Reading

Behrens-Abuseif, D. Supplement to Muqarnas. Leiden: E.J.

Brill.

Creswell, K.A.C. Muslim Architecture of Egypt 2 Vols. Ox-
ford, 1952-1960.

Rogers, M. “Al-Khaira.” in Encyclopaedia of Islam , 424M41 .

CALIPHATE AND IMAMATE

The caliphate is arguably the most central issue asso-
ciated with the Muslim polity and its administration.
In the political realm, khilafa (anglicized as “caliph-
ate”) refers to the “succession” of an individual as
leader of the polity after the Prophet Muhammad’s
death in AD 11/632 CE. The etymologically related
word khalifa (pi. khulafa anglicized as “caliph”)
occurs in the Qur’an in which its context is under-
stood mainly as referring to humans as God’s “vice-
gerent” or “representative” on Earth (2:30; 38:26).
Khalifa in Quranic usage does not evidence explicit
political meaning. Early Qur’an exegetes through the
second/eighth century, in fact, understood the term to

refer broadly to the basic function of humans as
custodians and cultivators of the earth. Later exegetes
increasingly came to understand this term in highly
political terms, reflecting the historical and theologi-
cal developments of the formative period.

The Rightly Guided Caliphate

Sunni sources almost unanimously inform us that
when Abu Bakr was selected as the leader of the
polity after the Prophet’s death in Medina, after
what appears to have been a contentious debate, the
title applied to him was Khalifat Rasul Allah, meaning
“the Successor of the Messenger of God.” Abu Bakr
is said to have recoiled from adopting another sug-
gested title. Khalifat Allah, meaning “God’s deputy”
or “vicegerent,” because he regarded himself as some-
one merely following in the footsteps of Muhammad,
not as someone entrusted with political and religious
authority by God himself, as this title would imply.
The latter title, however, was adopted by both the
Umayyad and ‘Abbasid caliphs to signal an enhanced
status for themselves.

Abu Bakr ruled for a mere two years (632-634),
but within this period he subdued those tribes in
Arabia that rose in revolt against the Medinan gov-
ernment and refused to pay zakat, the obligatory alms
tax. The wars that were waged against these fractious
tribes are known as the ridda wars, the so-called wars
of apostasy, which decisively aborted this uprising
and restored unity to the polity, at least for a while.
Before he died in 13/634, Abu Bakr took the precau-
tion of naming Umar as his successor, so as to prevent
the kind of confusion and heated debate that had
arisen during the process of his selection as the first
caliph. The choice of ‘Umar as the second caliph
seems to have won general ratification, except in the
case of the faction who consistently advocated ‘Ali’s
candidacy. This faction was consequently dubbed
Shi at ‘Ali (“the partisans of ‘Ali”), Shi ‘is for short.
Shi‘i conceptions of the caliphate-imamate are pre-
sented separately in the following paragraphs.

‘Umar’s ten-year rule was decisive and critical for
the still-nascent Muslim community. Among the titles
applied to ‘Umar were Khalifat Abi Bakr (“the Suc-
cessor of Abu Bakr”) and Khalifat khalifat Rasul
Allah (“the successor of the Successor of the Messen-
ger of God”). The clumsiness of the second title would
partially explain why ‘Umar preferred the title Amir
al-Mit ’minin (“Commander of the Faithful”). Accord-
ing to the sources, ‘Umar was an energetic, even abra-
sive ruler, gifted interpreter, stern enforcer of the law,
and shrewd political administrator. He instituted the

130

CALIPHATE AND IMAMATE

famous diwan, the register of pensions, which awarded
stipends to Muslims on the basis of their priority in
conversion and extent of service to Islam, and estab-
lished garrison towns in the newly conquered realms.
Under his reign, the Islamic realm expanded to include
Syria-Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia, a
project already underway under his predecessor.
‘Umar's shaping of certain Islamic practices at this
early stage is regarded as critical by later historians,
for which he is praised by Sunnis but denounced by
the Shi‘is.

‘Umar’s reign was followed by ‘Uthman ibn
‘Affan, elected by the six-man electoral council called
the shura, which was appointed by the former as he
lay on his deathbed, mortally wounded by a Persian
assailant. ‘Uthman’s reign, which was the longest
(644-656), was marred by continuous strife and fac-
tionalism. His perceived nepotism — many of his rela-
tives and fellow clan members from the Banu
Umayya had been appointed to high offices — caused
widespread disgruntlement, particularly in the garri-
sons of Kufa, Basra, and Egypt. In 656, as ‘Uthman
sat in the mosque at Medina reading the Qur’an, a
cabal of some of these garrison dwellers attacked and
killed him.

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-
law, next assumed the caliphate to lead a highly frac-
tious polity. ‘A’isha, the Prophet’s widow, instigated
what became known as the Battle of the Camel when
‘Ali refused to accede to her demands to avenge the
death of ‘Uthman and punish his assailants. ‘A’isha
and her cohorts were roundly defeated, but civil war
(fitna) soon broke out between ‘Ali and Mu‘awiya,
a kinsman of ‘Uthman’s who similarly wanted the
third caliph’s assassins punished. The two sides met
at the Battle of Siffin in 657, which came to a halt
when Mu‘awiya sued for arbitration, to which
‘Ali agreed. This angered a number of ‘Ali’s troops,
who seceded from his army and became known as
the Khawarij (“the seceders”). Negotiations with
Mu‘awiya dragged on indecisively until ‘Ali was mur-
dered by a Khariji assassin, bringing what became
known as “the Age of the Rightly Guided Caliphs”
to a close. Mu‘awiya, who was the governor of Syria,
declared himself caliph and initiated dynastic rule in
the Islamic world.

The Umayyads, the ‘Abbasids, and the
Later Caliphate

The Umayyads ruled between 661 and 750 with their
capital in Damascus, Syria. Although later ‘Abbasid
sources regularly vilify them as godless usurpers of

power, some Umayyad rulers took an interest in mat-
ters of religious law and ritual. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-
‘Aziz (r. 717-720) is distinguished from practically all
other Umayyad rulers by later historians for his ex-
ceptional piety and religious scholarship, a standing
indicated by the fact that he is frequently referred to
as the fifth Rightly Guided Caliph. In the late first/
seventh century, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan made
Arabic the official language of the empire, instituted
a sophisticated postal system, and commissioned the
building of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. In-
creasing unrest and dissension marked the latter
part of Umayyad rule. The Shi‘is and the Khawarij
had sporadically kept up their rebellion against the
government. Unfair taxation practices against the
maw ali, Muslim converts from non- Arab back-
grounds, and other instances of preferential treatment
for Arabs over non- Arabs were among the significant
factors that fomented widespread resentment and
hostility toward the Umayyads. This culminated in
the outbreak of the ‘Abbasid revolution of 749 and
the Umayyad assumption of the caliphate in 750. An
Umayyad scion escaped to Spain and established the
Andalusian Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba.

The ‘Abbasids

In 762, the second ‘Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur,
founded Baghdad, which soon became the capital of
the new dynasty, inaugurating a new era (Ar. dawla).
The ‘Abbasid period (750-1258) has been described as
the golden age of Islamic civilization, and with good
justification. The efflorescence of learning, culture,
the arts, architecture, and the natural sciences is asso-
ciated with this period, triggered to a great extent by
the great translation activity of the second/eighth and
third/ninth centuries, which made a considerable part
of the scholarship of antiquity available to Muslims.
Major schools of Sunni and Shi‘i law were established
during the first two centuries of ‘Abbasid rule, and the
authoritative Sunni hadith compilations were made.
Persian notions of political administration gained
much influence, reflected in a more hierarchical divi-
sion of society, in the creation of the chancelleries and
their largely Persian coterie of secretaries, and in the
conception of the ‘Abbasid caliph as “God’s shadow
on Earth.” The Mongol sacking of Baghdad in 1258
effectively put an end to the active ‘Abbasid caliphate,
with the murder of the caliph, al-Musta‘sim. The
Mamluks, who defeated the Mongols at ‘Ayn Jalut
in 1260 and also put an end to the Fatimid dynasty
(r. 969-1171), installed a series of nominal ‘Abbasid
caliphs in whose name the actual holder of power,
called the sultan, ruled. This state of affairs would

131

CALIPHATE AND IMAMATE

last until the advent of the Ottomans in 1517, who
eventually assumed the caliphate themselves.

The Caliphate in Classical Sunni
Political Thought

The classical conception of the Sunni caliphate is for-
mulated by the Shafi'i jurist al-Mawardi (d. 1058) in
his famous work al-Ahkam al-Sultcmiyya (“The Gov-
ernmental Ordinances’’) . According to him, the caliph
discharges ten functions, which include enforcement of
the Shari'a, defense and expansion of the boundaries
of Islam, proper administration of the government,
and disbursement of revenues. Al-Mawardi main-
tained that the title Khalifat Allah was illegal and im-
pious. He also upheld the general Ash'ari position that
the caliphate-imamate was obligatory by revelation
and not by reason, as the Mu'tazila had maintained.
There cannot be two Imams at one and the same time,
he affirmed, and a duly elected Imam could not be
displaced by a worthier candidate, as maintained by
the M u'taxila. Election was mandatory, however, even
if there was only a single qualified candidate.

The Imamate in Classical Shi‘i
Political Thought

Both Sunni and Shi‘i sources report that a small
group of people, later termed the Shi ‘at 'Ali, were
vocal in their opposition to the election of Abu Bakr
as the first caliph-imam. Although it is generally
assumed that they based their opposition on the belief
that a blood member of the Prophet’s family should
assume the caliphate, the early sources also suggest
that their position was based on their conviction that
‘Ali was more morally excellent (afdal) than Abu
Bakr and therefore more qualified for the office. Clas-
sic Shi‘i views, however, emphasize the legitimist po-
sition and restrict the office to the direct descendants
of ‘Ali and Fatima. In Imami Shi'ism, the largest Shi‘i
denomination, there are twelve such infallible Imams,
the twelfth Imam having gone into Occultation (Ar.
al-ghayba) in 874 and being expected to return at the
end of time. In the absence of the rightful Imam, the
duty of holding Friday congregational prayers and
the waging of jihad , for example, remain in abeyance.
The Imamiyya reject the first three caliphs and hold
a poor opinion of most of the Companions, since they
are assumed to have wrongfully usurped ‘Ali’s ex-
clusive right to the caliphate-imamate after the
Prophet’s death.

The next major Shi‘i faction, the Isma'iliyya, be-
lieve in seven Imams; hence, they are called the Seve-
ners. The Isma'iliyya developed further subfactions
over time, such as the Nizaris and the Mustaiis; the
former has living Imams. The Zaydis believe in five
Imams and are regarded as the closest in their politi-
cal thought to the Sunnis, since they, unlike the Ima-
miyya and the Isma'iliyya, accept the first three
caliphs as legitimate, even though they were less
excellent than ‘Ali.

Asma Afsaruddin

Further Reading

Afsaruddin, Asma. Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Is-
lamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership. Leiden, 2002.
Arnold, Thomas Walker. The Caliphate. New York, 1966.
Crone, Patricia, and Martin Hinds. God’s Caliph: Religious
Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, 1986.
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates:
The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh
Century. Longman, 1991.

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study
of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge, 1997.

Al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir. The Crisis of the Early
Caliphate. Trans. R. Stephen Humphreys. Albany, NY,
1990.

CALLIGRAPHY

The art of writing Arabic in an aesthetically pleasing
manner appears to have been cultivated from the ear-
liest years of Islam. As the Arabic script came to be
adopted for such other (and unrelated) languages as
Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, it remained a constant
feature of Islamic civilization. Beautiful writing is
considered to be the pre-eminent form of visual art
throughout the Islamic lands.

The earliest Arabic inscriptions were written in a
South Arabian script, but by the fourth century CE,
Arabic speakers had adopted a variant of the Arama-
ic alphabet used by the Nabateans. Within two cen-
turies the essential features of the modern Arabic
script had been developed, so that Arabic script has
remained remarkably consistent over the fourteen
centuries since the revelation of Islam. Like Hebrew
and Syriac, Arabic is a Semitic language. Like them,
but unlike Greek and Latin, it is always written from
right to left. The Arabic script, like that used for most
Semitic languages, is based on an abjad , or consonan-
tary, rather than a true alphabet, for it uses one
symbol per consonantal phoneme, or distinctive
sound. Nabatean Aramaic had only eighteen letter-
forms, but because Arabic had twenty-eight pho-
nemes, most of the Aramaic letters were pressed to
represent more than one Arabic consonant. By the
seventh century, diacritical marks had been added

132

CALLIGRAPHY

Making lead. Manuscript from Baghdad, Iraq. ‘Abbasid caliphate, 1222. Gouache on paper. Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudon/
Art Resource, NY. Louvre, Paris, France.

over or under some letters to distinguish them from
those with a similar shape, such as ba ta tha ’ or ha
jim, and kha '. Like other abjads, Arabic lacks symbols

for vowels: The morphemic structure of the lan-
guage usually allows the reader to supply them from
the context. Eventually, however, Arabic, like other

133

CALLIGRAPHY

Semitic abjads, came to use ‘helping’ consonants to
represent the long vowels, and ultimately other signs
were developed to represent short vowels, doubled
consonants, and pauses in fully vocalized texts.

Many of the world’s writing systems have devel-
oped two or more forms of writing, including a “mon-
umental” form in which the letters are written
separately for legibility and a “cursive” form in
which they are connected together for speed in writing.
Although Arabic eventually developed many different
styles of script, it has only one form of writing: in all
styles some of the letters may sometimes connect to
neighboring ones. Consequently, individual letters
may change shape depending on their position in a
word: The same letter can have one form when it
stands alone, another at the beginning of a word,
another in the middle of a word, and yet another at
the end of a word. All of these features made Arabic
relatively difficult to read and indicate that only read-
ers who already had a good idea of what a given text
would say were expected to be able to read it; there-
fore, writing was not normally intended to convey
new information to the uninitiated.

The preferred tool for writing Arabic has always
been a reed pen, and ink was prepared from carbon
black or gallnuts, depending on the intended support.
Parchment (and to a lesser degree papyrus) eventually
gave way to paper, which was introduced after the
conquest of Central Asia in the eighth century and
quickly became popular throughout the Muslim
world. Although connoisseurs always appreciated
the subtle beauty of the script alone, fine writing was
often embellished with decorative designs worked in
color and gold, particularly in the later periods.

The earliest surviving examples of Arabic calligra-
phy are written in an angular script commonly but
incorrectly known as “kufic” after the city of Kufa in
Iraq. Although manuscripts of the Qur’an were surely
produced by the latter part of the seventh century, no
examples have been dated convincingly before the
ninth. Most early manuscripts of the Qur’an are writ-
ten on horizontal-format (“landscape”) parchment
sheets with an odd number of lines per page. Letter-
forms are based on relatively simple but harmoni-
ously proportioned geometrical shapes that can
often be elongated. Some texts have diacritical marks
to distinguish one letter from another having a similar
shape, and colored dots or marks are sometimes used
to indicate vowels. The individual letters, as well as
groups of connected letters forming word fragments
or entire words, are always separated by spaces of equal
width. This uniform spacing makes it difficult for a
reader to tell where one word ends and another begins
and reveals how these texts must have been “read” by
people who already knew what they had to say.

New, more “cursive” scripts began to appear in
secular manuscripts copied on paper in the ninth
century. Commonly, but quite confusingly, known
by such names as “Qarmatian [or Karmathian]
Kufic,” “broken Kufic,” “eastern Kufic,” “Kufic-
naskhi,” “New Style,” “warraq [stationer’s] script,”
or “broken cursive,” these scripts were usually written
in carbon black ink on paper. They have an accentu-
ated angular character and a deliberate contrast be-
tween thick and thin strokes; in some examples the
script is quite vertical and elongated. Spaces between
words are always wider than the spaces between the
nonconnecting letters of a word, and diacritical marks
distinguish the different letters sharing the same
shape. Most scholars have seen these new scripts as
logical outgrowths of earlier “Kufic” scripts used for
copying the Qur’an. However, as these scripts first
appear in secular contexts, it seems much more likely
that they were developed by professional secretaries
and copyists who regularized the cursive handwriting
they had previously used for transcribing paper docu-
ments into a new and more legible script appropriate
for copying books.

In the tenth century, calligraphers, particularly in
Iran, began to use these new scripts to copy the
Qur’an, and at the same time they began to replace
parchment with paper as a support for copying the
holy text. Although these secretarial hands continued
to be used for several centuries in special situations,
their success paved the way for the development of
rounded styles of Arabic handwriting in the tenth
century. Normally known as naskh, this group of
related scripts remains common to the present day,
being the type of script most familiar and legible to
ordinary readers. In the Maghrib, or western Islamic
lands, however, the secretarial hands were trans-
formed into a distinctive script often known as magh-
ribi ; it is characterized by an evenness and flatness of
line and looped descenders.

As with the broken cursive script, the origins of
the rounded hands popular in the eastern and cen-
tral Islamic lands are obscure, but tradition reports
that the ‘Abbasid secretary (and later vizier) Ibn
Muqla (885-940) introduced a new method of writing
known as “proportioned script” ( al-khatt al-mansub ) .
Although no genuine examples of his writing are
known to survive, Ibn Muqla is known to have devel-
oped a system for calculating the size of letters based
on the rhombic dot formed when the nib of a reed pen
is applied to the surface of the paper. Ibn Muqla
calculated the height of an alif, the first letter of the
Arabic alphabet, in terms of these dots and then
calculated the size of all other letters in relation to
the alif. Ibn Muqla’s skill in writing passed on to the
next generation in the person of ‘Ali ibn Hilal, known

134

CAMELS

as Ibn al-Bawwab (d. 1030), who began his career as a
house painter but soon turned to calligraphy, where
he added elegance to the system developed by his
predecessor.

Calligraphers in thirteenth-century Iraq and Iran
eventually codified the various hands used during the
lifetime of Ibn Muqla into six round hands, compris-
ing three pairs of large and small scripts ( thuluth-
naskh, muhaqqaq-rayhan, and tawqi‘-riqa‘), which
were known collectively as the “Six Pens.” The most
famous master was the calligrapher Y aqut al-Musta‘-
simi (1242-1298), who served the last ‘Abbasid caliph
al-Musta‘sim (r. 1242-1258) as secretary. These six
scripts, disseminated through his many pupils and
disciples, have remained the core of the calligrapher’s
art until the present day, although Iranian calligra-
phers beginning in the fourteenth century developed
an even more fluid script known as nastaliq, or “hang-
ing naskh,” which became the principal hand for
copying secular manuscripts in Persian.

Jonathan M. Bloom

Further Reading

Blair, Sheila S. Islamic Calligraphy . Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2006.

Bloom, Jonathan M. Paper Before Print: The History and
Impact of Paper in the Islamic Lands. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2001.

CAMELS

Belonging to the Camelidae family of even-toed mam-
mals, camels are generally classified into two species:
Camelus bactrianus, the Bactrian or two-humped
camel; and Camelus dromedarius, the Dromedary or
one-humped (also known as the Arabian camel).
The Dromedary occupies the warmer regions of
the Middle East and Northern and West Africa. The
habitat of the Bactrian camel is in the colder regions
of East-Central Asia and China. The hybrid camel, a
crossbreed between these two species, has been known
to exist in Anatolia, Turkey, northern Iran, and
Afghanistan.

The humps of the camel are repositories of fat,
which the animal uses as a source of food at times
of scarcity, thus allowing it to survive for long periods
without sustenance. Contrary to common belief,
camels do not store water but, rather, efficiently con-
serve water by distributing it throughout their bodies
within forty-eight hours of consuming it. Camels are
also able to take in heat, allowing their blood
temperature to rise without causing them to perspire
and dehydrate.

Besides its two humps, the main physical feature of
the Bactrian camel is its shaggy coat, which enables
the animal to withstand the cold temperature of
southern Russia, east-central Asia, and western
China. The Dromedary single-humped camel, howev-
er is short-haired, allowing it to conserve body mois-
ture in a variety of ways, and hence to easily adapt to
regions with high temperatures.

Most likely, original camel domestication occurred
in southern Arabia, with its remote valleys and dry
climate, between 3000 and 2500 BCE. In the first stage
of domestication, Dromedary camels served as a
source of meat, milk, and hair; later they were used
as mounts and a means of transport — though not for
hauling. The first domestication process appears to
not only have been connected with trade, but also
with sacrificial religious purposes in regard to the
animal’s association with both benevolent and de-
monic spirits that were believed to inhabit the desert.

The supernatural quality of the camel in the pre-
Islamic era has continued into the present day, as the
animal continues to be used as a sacrificial beast
during major religious processions, such as the Feast
of Sacrifice ( ‘id-i qurban ) on the tenth of Zu ’l-Hajja,
across the Islamic world. The sacrifice ritual of the
camel is an occasion for Muslims to celebrate the day
when Abraham was ordered by God to offer his son,
Isma’il, for slaughter instead of an animal, recalling
the dramatic trial that the prophet experienced as a
sign of faith in God.

In the course of their spread throughout Asia, sin-
gle-humped camels began to gradually supplant the
Bactrian species, with the former becoming widely
used in Persia, southern Afghanistan, and the Indus
valley. Although bred throughout northern Iran to
East-Central Asia in the first centuries of the Islamic
period, Bactrian camels were primarily kept to pro-
duce hybrids. The hybrid camels then began to emerge
as an ideal breed because of their body size, strength,
and longevity. The hybrid camel, a stronger pack ani-
mal than either of the other two species, played a
central role in the transportation of goods in the cara-
van trade that developed after the opening of the Silk
Road, which linked Central Asia and Mesopotamia
under Parthian rule (247-228 BCE).

The evolution of the camel in its two species and
hybrid types is inextricably tied to the history of
transportation. As Richard W. Bulliet has described it,
since pack camels were cheap and efficient transpor-
ters over long distances, they progressively replaced
wagons and wheeled transports. Accordingly, the
proliferation of the caravan trade across Asia led to
the spread in the breeding of camels and, in turn,
reinforced the decline of wheeled vehicles and the
disappearance of wagon roads.

135

CAMELS

The advent of Islam in the seventh century led to
the greatest distribution of the camel, as the expan-
sion of the new faith allowed the Arabs to reinforce
the status of the animal as a source of labor and a
means of caravan transportation across Asia, in par-
ticular, eastward in northeastern Iran and westward
along the Mediterranean shores of North Africa. The
camel’s impact on transportation reached its height in
the medieval Islamic world, during which time no
evidence of the use of wheeled vehicles from Morocco
to Afghanistan can be found. However, with the rise of
the European-dominated maritime trade after 1600
CE, the camel caravan began its initial stages of de-
cline, a process that eventually led to the disappear-
ance of the camel as a central means of transportation.

Babak Rahimi

See also Animal Husbandry; Festivals and Celebra-
tions; Nomadism and Pastoralism; Processions, Reli-
gious; Road Networks; Silk Road; Trade, African;
Trade, Mediterranean

Further Reading

Bulliet, Richard W. “Camel.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 4,
ed. Ihsan Yarshatir. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 1991.

. The Camel and the Wheel. New York: Columbia

University Press, 1990.

. “Why They Lost the Wheel” ARAMCO World, 24

(1973): 22-25.

. “Le Chameau et la Roue au Moyen-Orient.”

Annates: Economies, Societes, Civilizations 24 (1969):
1092-1103.

Calmard, Jean. “Shi‘i Rituals and Power II. The Consoli-
dation of Safavid Shi‘ism: Folklore and Popular Reli-
gion.” In Safavid Persia, ed. Charles Melville.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Gauthier-Pilters, Hilde, and Dagg, Anne Innis. The Camel:
Its Evolution, Ecology, Behavior, and Relationship to
Man. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1981.

Goitein, Shelomo Dov. A Mediterranean Society. Vol. I.
Economic Foundations. Berkeley: California University
Press, 1967.

Omidsalar, M. “Sotor-qorbani.” Encyclopaedia Iranica.
Vol. 4, ed. Ihsan Yarshatir. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda,
1991.

Pellat, Charles. “Ibil.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed.

Vol. 3, ed. H. A. R. Gibb. Leiden: Brill, 1971.

Rahimi, Babak. “The Rebound Theater State: The Politics
of the Safavid Camel Sacrifice Rituals, 1598-1695 C.E.”
Iranian Studies, 37 (2004): 451-478.

Rodinson, M. ‘“Adjala.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed.

Vol. 1, ed. H. A. R. Gibb. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.
Roux, J.-P. “Le Chameau en Asie Centrale.” Central Asiat-
ic Journal 5 (1959-1960): 35-76.

Siddiqi, Muhammad Iqbal. Animal Sacrifice in Islam.
Lahour: Kazi, 1978.

Tapper, Richard. "One Hump or Two? Hybrid Camels and
Pastoral Cultures.” Production Pastorale et Societe 16
(1985): 67.

CARPETS

The manufacture of heavy textiles of felted or woven
wool to serve as floor coverings, cushion facings,
room dividers, and other furnishings is a very old
and important technique throughout the region
stretching from the Atlantic coasts of Spain and
Morocco across North Africa to West and Central
Asia. The relative warmth and aridity of the climate
throughout most of the region encouraged people to
live and work on or close to the ground, without the
wooden furniture used in colder and damper regions,
and the tribal or nomadic way of life followed by
many inhabitants of the region was further encour-
agement of the production and use of heavy woolen
textiles for furnishing. Indeed, the region is sometimes
referred to as the “Rug Belt.” The introduction of
Islam encouraged the use of carpets, for Muslims are
required to prostrate themselves in worship five times
a day, an act customarily accomplished privately on a
small carpet or mat or collectively in a mosque on
large carpets often bearing geometric designs that
allow worshippers to arrange themselves in lines
facing Mecca.

Apart from felted rugs, in which the fibers are
simply matted together through pressure and mois-
ture, carpets are either flat-woven (a technique usually
known as kilim or gelim) or given a pile surface by
knotting short lengths of yarn around one or more
warp threads. Sheep’s wool is the most common fiber,
but extremely fine carpets are knotted from such
fibers as goat hair and silk on wool, silk, or cotton
warps. From the earliest times, different colors of fiber
were used to create beautiful and intricate patterns
that have made these carpets universally admired.

As most carpets were literally worn into the ground,
it is difficult to reconstruct the history of the medium.
The oldest known knotted example, discovered in a
frozen burial mound at Pazyryk in southern Siberia,
is conventionally dated to the fifth century BCE. The
carpet, which measures 1.8 x 2.0 m (6 x 7 ft), is
knotted of wool; it has a central field of stylized
flowers surrounded by several borders with animal
friezes, a type of design that would continue to be
popular over the millennia. The high technical quality
of this carpet, which has more than 1 .2 million knots,
indicates that it must have been the product of a long
tradition of carpet weaving, although the actual place
of production is unknown. Apart from scattered
references to carpets in medieval Arabic texts and a
few fragmentary finds, the oldest significant group of
knotted carpets to survive comes from thirteenth-
and fourteenth-century Anatolia and Iran. Nearly
twenty large carpets with geometric designs were
discovered in the early twentieth century on the floor

136

CARPETS

Carpet showing the fight between the dragon and a phoenix. Ca. 1400. Turkey. Wook, 172 x 90 cm. Inv. I. 4. Photo: Georg
Niedermeiser. Credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY. Museum fuer Islamische Kunnst, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, Germany.

in the mosques of Konya and Beysehir; a much
smaller number of small carpets bearing designs of
stylized animals, mostly discovered in Europe, have
been attributed to Iran. The generous size of the
Anatolian carpets suggests they were made commer-
cially but not exported; the European provenance
of the animal carpets, as well as their appearance
in European paintings, indicates they were precious
goods exported to Europe by merchants such as
Marco Polo.

Increased numbers of carpets survive from the pe-
riod after 1450, not only because more were produced
but also because many of them were exported to
Europe, where they were either preserved intact in
churches and royal treasuries or portrayed in contem-
porary representations by such painters as Bellini,
Crivelli, and Holbein, who have given several types of
Anatolian carpets their conventional modern names.
Court carpet workshops were established under the
patronage of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal

137

CARPETS

dynasties to supply the needs of the courts and to
produce carpets for export. At the same time, partic-
ularly in factory production, the traditional process of
designing carpets by combining units retrieved from
the weavers’ memories began to be replaced by a new
process in which a designer, often the employee of the
court or of a merchant, prepared designs on paper for
the artisans to execute in wool. By the mid-nineteenth
century, a huge demand for “Oriental” carpets had
developed in Europe, popularized by international
exhibitions and the arts and crafts movement. While
Anatolian production remained largely village based,
in Iran, local entrepreneurs were increasingly sup-
planted by Europeans, who organized production in
factories and cottages, supplying not only the designs
but also the European yarns to produce carpets in
standard sizes for the export market.

Jonathan M. Bloom

Further Reading

Edson, Evelyn, and E. Savage-Smith. Medieval Views of the
Cosmos. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2004.

Harley, J.B., and David Woodward, eds. “Cartography in
Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies.” In His-
tory of Cartography. Vol. 2, Book. 1. Chicago: Universi-
ty of Chicago Press, 1992.

King, David A. World-Maps for Finding the Direction and
Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic
Science. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999.

Pinto, Karen. "Ways of Seeing. 3 Scenarios of the World in
the Medieval Islamic Cartographic Imagination.” Doc-
toral Dissertation. New York: Columbia University,
2002 .

Sezgin, Fuat: Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Vol.
XII: Mathematische Geographic und Kartographie im
Islam und ihr Fortleben im Abendland. Kartenband
Frankfurt: Institut fiir Geschichte der Arabisch-

Islamischen Wissenschaften, 2000.

CENTRAL ASIA, HISTORY (750-1500 CE)

Modern Central Asia comprises the territories that
are occupied by Asiatic Russia and the republics of
the former Soviet Union: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uighuri-
stan (Xingjian in China), countries that are predomi-
nantly populated by Iranian and Turkic Muslims.
In premodern times, Arab and Persian authors used
various terms to refer to this continent.

Some ‘Abbasid period sources combine it with
the province of Khurasan (East, or Land of the
Rising Sun) and refer to “the eastern region” ( iqlim
al-mashriq). However, the great majority of Muslim
authors distinguish between Cisoxiana and Transoxi-
ana. They regarded the Oxus River ( Jayhun in Arabic;
Amuy a or Amu Darya in modern Persian) as the
border between the Iranian plateau and the vast
land that they called (in Arabic) ma-wara-al-nahr
(the land beyond the Oxus river), namely Sogdiana
( Sughd in Arabic) in the Hellenistic sources. They
divided it into five major zones: Khwarazm (modern
Khiva) around the Oxus delta and the shores of the
Aral Sea; the upper Oxus region; Sughd along the
Zarafshan valley, where the major cities Bukhara
and Samarqand are located; Fraghana; and Shash
(Tashqent).

The relationships between Eurasia (including Cen-
tral Asia) and the Fertile Crescent were established

140

CENTRAL ASIA, HISTORY (750-1500 CE)

immediately after the emergence of the Islamic caliph-
ate. An important source of goods and manpower,
Central Asia attracted the attention of Muslim
authors. The bonds that connected the urban hubs
in the Central Islamic lands with Eurasia are clearly
reflected in the ‘Abbasid-age literature. Several wri-
ters report the chronicles of Muslim conquests and
chapters on the history of ma wara al-nahar down to
the sixteenth century. ‘Abbasid administrative and
geographical volumes contain information on loca-
tions, population, commerce, and goods. Various
accounts, including mythological narratives, linked
the landscape and people of Central Asia with those
of the Central Islamic lands. Some commentators
related the mysterious Gog and Magog with the
Turks and other Steppe peoples.

Following the flight of the last Sasanid king (in
651), the Arab forces reached Turkmenistan. A settle-
ment was probably reached early on with Mahoye,
the ruler of Marv (Merv), who bore the title marzaban
( marzuban; the warden of the march). However, the
actual conquest of the lands beyond the Oxus River
started during the governorship of al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf
(d. 95/714). This energetic vice-royal dispatched
Qutayba b. Muslim to capture the Zarafshan basin
(87-90/706-709). Yet the Umayyads’ grip was not
firm. Turkic forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the
Islamic armies (106/724). Under the command of
Nasr b. Sayyar (d. 131/748), the tide was reversed.
Heading the Muslim fighters, he was able to infiltrate
the ethnic mosaic of Central Asia and succeeded in
embedding Islam deeply in ma-wara-al-nahr’ s soil.
The Arabs were the backbone of a bureaucratic em-
pire and adherents of a new universal religion, while
the success of their competitors, the Steppes peoples,
was limited to a short-lived nomadic empire.

Several religious uprisings led by radical rebels
(ghulat) are recorded in the Arabic and Persian
sources during the late Umayyad and early ‘Abbasid
periods. Although these revolts were directed against
the caliphate and as such voiced social discontent
with the government and taxation, nevertheless, the
rebels did not attack the very idea of an Islamic world
order but rather adopted heterodox views. Syncretism
enabled the forging of alliances between Zoroastrians,
Mazdakites, and Shi‘is.

Iranians had played an important role in the army
and administration of the new ‘Abbasid order. With
time, some of the local Iranian forces accumulated
strength. The first significant force was the Tahirid
dynasty. They boasted a double-noble lineage, claim-
ing to be the descendants of Rustam b. Dustan ( al -
shadid, “the Strong Man”), the ancient Iranian hero,
as well as of the Arab tribe Khuza'a. Tahir changed
the residence of Khurasan’s governors from Merv to

Nishapur (in 821), and this seems to have been a
turning point in the administrative history of the
oasis of Bukhara. Following this alteration, the city
acquired a new importance and became a governmen-
tal center at the edge of the caliphate, which affected
developments all over Transoxiana.

This facilitated the rise to prominence of a local
force in Transoxania that came under the rule of the
Samanids (203-395/819-1005). Although the Sama-
nids claimed to be the offspring (farzand) of Bahram
Jubin (Chubin, Chobin), the great mythological Ira-
nian hero, the Samanid family probably had a more
humble background. In 204/819, four sons of Asad b.
Saman were appointed governors of various districts
in Central Asia: Nuh (d. 227/842) governor of Samar-
qand, Ahmad (d. 846) of Fraghana, Yahya of Shash
(Tashqent), and Ilyas (d. in 856) of Herat. The coun-
try under their rule was known as the Turk Barrier
(sadd al-ghuzz), a name that referred to their role in
fighting against the polytheistic nomads of Eurasia.

The Saman family reached the zenith of its power
during the governorship of Isma‘il b. Ahmad, who
had conquered Bukhara (in 262/875). The caliphs al-
Mu‘tadid (279-289/892-902) and al-Muktafi (289-295/
902-908) further rewarded him with the governorship
of Khurasan. This development opened a new chapter
in the history of Transoxiana and the neighboring
Eurasian steppes. The Samanids conducted an offen-
sive policy toward the steppes people, as a result
of which Islam spread among the population of
Central Asia.

At the zenith of their power the Samanids had
command of a large professional army. They recruited
Turkic slaves outside the Abode of Islam, and these
recent converts made up the fighting battalions of the
Samanids. This was in line with steps taken by the
caliphs from the days of al-Mamun (d. 833), if not
earlier. The historical contribution of the Saman
house was the establishment of an Islamic and Iranian
presence in Transoxiana and Inner Asia. Their
achievements did not save the Samanids from break-
down. The deep demographic and cultural changes
that swept across the Eurasian steppes cast a shadow
over the history of ma-wara-al-nahr. This Iranian-
speaking land underwent a process of Turkification.

With the collapse of the Samanids a cultural chap-
ter in the history of Central Asia came to an end. The
Qarakhanid state (the Ilek or Ilig-khan Khanate)
was active in Central Asia from the ninth to the
thirteenth centuries. The nucleus of the state was
the Qara-luq Turk tribal confederation. Following
clashes with the Samanids of Bukhara, Sabuq (or
Satuq) Bugha (Bogra) Khan converted to Islam
and even assumed the Arab-Islamic name ‘Abd al-
Karirn (d. 344/955).

141

CENTRAL ASIA, HISTORY (750-1500 CE)

Led by Shihab al-Dawla Harun b. Sulayman
b. Bughra Khan Ilek, the Qarakhanids attacked (in
382/992) Nuh b. Mansur, the Samanid ruler of the Syr
Darya valley (366-387/976-997). If the fragmented
information is accurate, it was during these years
(probably in 382/992) that the Qarakhanids gained
control over Fraghana and Bukhara. Like other
steppes empires, the Qarakhanid armies consist of
two kinds of soldiers: a small troop of retinues and a
large body of nomadic Turk tribesmen (turkmen).
The Qarakhanids accepted the authority of Baghdad
inasmuch as the ‘Abbasid caliph was the only source
of legitimacy. The historical importance of this Turk
dynasty stems from their role in leading the way for
the conversion of Turkic people in the Eurasian
steppes. In addition to this, they were patrons of
Islamic institutions.

Corresponding to the disintegration of the Samanid
regime and the emergence of the free Qarakhanid
power in Central Asia, another Turkic dynasty played
an important role in shaping the history of this vast
territory. An ex-slave of the Samanids, the Turkish
commander Alp-Takin (tegin), who was their com-
mander in chief, left Khurasan and established himself
in Ghazna near Kabul (in present-day Afghanistan, in
350/961). He was succeeded by Nasir al-Dawla Sebuk-
Takin, another slave-soldier of Turkic origin, whose
son, Yamin al-Dawla Mahmud (388-421/999-1031),
was the founder of the Ghaznawid dynasty and bore
the title Sayf al-Dawla (Sword of the State; r 388(421/
998-1030). For a short period the Ghaznawids played
a role in the history of Central Asia.

The lofty position of the Ghaznawids suffered a
deadly blow from a new power that arose in Central
Asia during the last quarter of the tenth century.
Various Turk (Turkmaniyyah) tribes, among them
the Ghuzz (Oghuz) nomads, crossed into the districts
of Transoxiana and Khwarazm. At this stage in their
history the Ghuzz were led by the house of Saljuq
(Seljuk), at least according to late Saljuq sources. The
Saljuqs, almost from the very beginning of their pres-
ence in the land south of the Oxus River, clashed with
the Ghaznawids (about 416/1025). When Yamin al-
Dawla Mahmud died (in 421/1031), the Turks con-
stituted a threat that his heirs found difficult to ig-
nore. The crucial clash took place in Dandanqan
(near Merv in 431/1040), where the Ghaznawid forces
were routed.

The Saljuqs reduced the Qarakhanid rulers of
Transoxiana and Sinkiang to vassalage. Sanjar, the
great Saljuq, took Merv as his capital city, and it
flourished as a center of art and commerce. However,
the Qarakhitay, a force that emerged in northern
China, advanced westward and near Samarqand
were able to defeat the great Saljuqs in 1141. The

success of these steppe nomads did not last long,
however. ‘Ala al-Dim Muhammad (1200-1220), the
Khwarazm- Shah, advanced from Urgench, his capital
city (Chorasmia, in the delta oasis of Khiva, where
the Amu Darya and the Shavat canal flow into the
Aral Sea in contemporary Uzbekistan), eastward
and defeated the Qarakhanids. He then turned his
attention southward to the Iranian plateau.

After conquering northern China (Beijing, 1215),
Genghis (Temujin) Khan turned his attention west-
ward to the territories controlled by the Khwarazms.
The Mongols did not stop at the Aral Sea
(1219-1225) but swept on to Anatolia, Iran, Baghdad,
and Syria (1234-1258). Following the death of
Genghis Khan (in 1227), Central Asia became the
territory of his son Chaghatay. With the conversion
to Islam of the Mongol Chaghatay people ( ulus ) , a
new Mongol-Islamic culture developed in the land
between the Oxus and Sinkiang.

After their disintegration, a new force emerged in
Central Asia. Timur Lenk (Tamerlane, 1335-1405)
succeeded in establishing a new nomad empire. He
became the de facto ruler of ma-wara-al-nahr, leaving
the Chaghatay dynasty as the nominal rulers and the
source of his legitimacy. Tamerlane proceeded to con-
quer all of western Central Asia, Iran, and Asia
Minor. In his capital of Samarqand, Timur gathered
numerous artisans and scholars from the lands he had
conquered and imbued his empire with a very rich
culture.

After the death of Timur, the Timurid state quickly
broke in two. His youngest son and successor, Shah
Rukh (1407-1447), crossed the Oxus southward to
the Iranian area and established his headquarters in
Herat. Babur, the last representative of the Timurid
dynasty, was driven out by the Uzbek Shibanid
dynasty (in 1501) to seek his fortune in India.

Yehoshua Frenkel

Further Reading

Bartold, Vasilii Vladimirovich. (W. Barthold). Turkestan
Down to the Mongol Invasion. London: Luzac, 1968/
1977.

Dankoff, Robert, trans. Compendium of the Turkic Dialects
(Diwan lugat At-Turk by Mahmud ibn al-Husain al-
Kashgari). Harvard University Print Office, 1982-1984.
Darke, R., trans. Nizam al-Mulk: The Book of Government.
London, 1960.

Hamada, M. “Le Mausolee et le cults de Satuq Bughara
Khan.” Journal of the History of Sufism 3 (2001): 63-87.
Hamilton A. R. Gibb. The Arab Conquests in Central Asia.

London, 1923. (Reprint New York, 1970.)

Khadr, M., and Cahen, Cl. “Deux actes de waqf d’un
Qarahanide d’Asie centrale,” JA 255 (1967): 305-334.
Bosworth, C. E. “A propos de Particle de Mohamed
Khadr — Deux actes de waqf d’un Qarahanide d’Asie

142

CERAMICS

centrale.” JA 256 (1968): 449-453. [Reprinted in his The
Medieval History of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
London: Variorum Reprints, 1977, art. 21.]

Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate.
London, 1905.

Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Minorsky, V., trans. Hudud al-Alam: The Regions of the
World — A Persian Geography 372AH/982 AD. London:
Luzac, 1970.

Richards, D.S., trans. The Annals of the Saljuq Turks:
Selections from al-Kamil ft 1-Ta! rikh of'Izz al-Din Ibn al-
Athir [ 1160-1233] . London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.
Thackston Jr., W. M., trans. Baburname. Vol 1. Harvard
University, 1993.

CERAMICS

Around the year 1135 CE, a merchant from Aden
wrote the following letter to his counterpart in
Egypt: “Please buy me six painted platters, made in
Misr [Old Cairo]. They should be of middle size,
neither very large nor very small; and twenty regular
bowls and forty small ones. All should be painted,
and their figures and colors should be different.” The
history of ceramic production in the medieval Muslim
world, from the period of the Umayyads in the sev-
enth century to the Ottomans and Safavids in the
seventeenth century, attests to the superior creativity
and experimentation of Islamic potters, demonstrated
through their innovations in shape and design, clay
recipes, glazes, and techniques of decoration. Glazed
ceramics represent a very small percentage of the
total ceramic assemblage produced in the medieval
Muslim world. The majority of domestic earthen-
wares comprised unglazed storage and transport
jars — for items such as grain, oil, and water — and
unglazed bowls, platters, and receptacles, which
were made for the kitchen, pharmacy, or market
shop. However, as the letter from the Adenese mer-
chant indicates, glazed and painted ceramics were
highly sought commodities in urban, as well as court-
ly, contexts. This entry highlights several types of
glazed ceramics produced in the medieval Islamic
period, although it is in no way comprehensive, and
readers are referred to the bibliography for more
detailed studies on the subject.

Medieval sources refer to pottery or ceramics as
khazaf, fakhkhar, and ghadar, although we often find
the generic term sini used particularly for fine glazed
ceramics. The term sini is derived from the Arabic
word for China — al-Sin — since both potters and con-
sumers of the medieval Muslim world considered
Chinese ceramics the pottery par excellence. Chinese
wares were imported into the Islamic world by the
early ninth century and have been discovered in

archaeological sites across Muslim Spain to India.
Their influence on Islamic ceramics was immediately
felt within the ninth-century ‘Abbasid pottery-making
industry and their impact persisted as late as the
nineteenth century. Potters of the Islamic lands, want-
ing to imitate the whiteness of the elegantly shaped
Chinese wares, experimented with specially made tin
and alkaline glazes that fired to an opaque creamy-
white finish. Around the twelfth century, medieval
potters also developed alternative clay recipes by add-
ing large quantities of crushed quartz to produce a
hard, white ceramic body, which when thinly potted
resembled the translucency of Chinese porcelain. This
new ceramic body, known as “fritware” or “stone-
paste,” was used for all fine ceramics of the Islamic
world from the twelfth century onward until the Eu-
ropean discovery of the secret of high-firing Chinese
porcelain clays in the eighteenth century.

With the invention of white ceramic bodies and
opaque glazes, Islamic potters were free to experiment
with various techniques of ceramic decoration. An
exciting decorative scheme introduced by the potters
of Samarra and Basra in the ninth century was the
use of cobalt blue pigments, which they painted as
stark epigraphic and vegetal designs onto opaque-
white wares, creating the very first “blue-and-white
wares.” The Iraqi potters appear to have held a mo-
nopoly on cobalt at this time until its appearance on
fritware ceramics of the twelfth century, and it was
later exported outside the Islamic lands to China in
the fourteenth century. Soon after, cobalt-painted
Chinese blue-and-white porcelain arrived in the Mid-
dle East and caused a fashion craze in the Islamic
markets. By the middle of the fifteenth century, pot-
ters from Egypt to Central Asia were producing their
own varieties of blue-and-white ceramics based on
both Chinese and Islamic models.

Slip-painted pottery, another major type of Islamic
glazed ware, did not require special opaque glazes or a
fritware body and was produced throughout the Mus-
lim world from the tenth century onward. Slip is
essentially semifluid clay, and white slip was often
used by the Islamic potter to coat the entire surface
of an earthenware vessel in order to create a blank
canvas for further decoration. Floral, geometric, ani-
mal, and figural designs were often incised through
the slip coating before the bowl was covered in a
transparent clear or colored glaze and fired. For
added drama, copper-green and iron-brown splashes
of colored glazes were also incorporated on slip-
covered bowls, with or without incised decorat-
ion. Another variety of slip-painted pottery, using
primarily black, white, and red slips, achieved great
heights of sophistication in the tenth and eleventh
centuries in the Samanid territories of Eastern Iran

143

CERAMICS

and Central Asia. These types of dishes were normally
covered in a white slip, and benedictory phrases or
proverbs such as, “May everything eaten from this
[bowl] be wholesome,” or “Generosity is a quality of
the people of paradise,” were painted in sharp, angu-
lar scripts along the rims with a black slip. Another
type of slip-painted pottery centered at Samanid
Nishapur offered a livelier aesthetic by using a riot
of colors including green, acid yellow, black, and red
to depict stylized figural subjects, such as seated fig-
ures, dancers, horses, and other animals, which were
surrounded by various floral and epigraphic motifs.

One of the truly great inventions of potters of the
medieval Islamic world is lustre-painted ceramics.
The technique of lustre decoration on glass was al-
ready practiced in Egypt and Syria as early as the fifth
century; however, Iraqi potters appear to have been
the first to experiment with lustre decoration on
opaque-glazed ceramics in the ninth century. Lustre
pigments made of silver and copper oxides were
painted in a variety of figural and vegetal designs
onto the surface of a glazed vessel, which was then
retired under special conditions. The results of a suc-
cessful refiring created a ceramic ware with painted
decorations that gleamed like gold or silver. The high-
ly sought ‘Abbasid lustre wares were exported across
the Muslim world and as far away as India and Thai-
land. This complex technique of pottery decoration
was probably transferred to Egypt in the tenth centu-
ry through the migration of Iraqi potters to Fatimid-
governed domains. As lustre pigments were better
controlled on a paintbrush, this enabled Egyptian
potters to expand their iconographic repertoire of
images using more precise line-drawn figures. During
the twelfth century the technique seems to have
spread to Spain, Syria, and Iran, leading to greater
variations in styles of painting and the transfer of the
technique to Europe.

During the Seljuk period between the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries in Iran, a new type of glazed
pottery was developed, later coined as mina’i, or
enameled ware, typified by its wide-ranging color
scheme and intricate narrative compositions. The
paintings on mina’i ceramics attest to the existence
of a vibrant tradition of Persian illustrated manu-
scripts from this period, now lost. Indeed, both
mina’i and Persian lustre portray visual and poetic
themes derived from Persian literature, such as the
Shahnama epic or the romance of Varqa va Gulshah,
depicting warriors, heroes, lovers, and fantastical
beasts. The mina ’i technique of applying colored pig-
ments over an already glazed fritware vessel allowed
the potter to expand his color palette to include blue,
green, red, purple, brown, black, pink, and gold,
which were then fixed by a second low-temperature

firing. As with Persian lustre, Kashan appears to have
been the main center of production for mina’i, with
vessel shapes ranging from bowls, pilgrims’ flasks,
ewers, cups, and in rare instances, tiles.

The Turkish city of Iznik in western Anatolia
became the preeminent center of a court-sponsored
pottery-making industry during the Ottoman period
between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.
“Iznik” has come to refer to the distinctive pure-
white frit-bodied ceramic vessels and tiles that were
covered in a brilliant white slip and then decorated,
over the course of time, with various combinations of
colored slips beginning with cobalt blue and turquoise,
followed by the introduction of a subtle palette of sage
green, manganese purple, black, and finally the use of
a more vibrant color scheme in blue, green, black, and
“sealing-wax red.” Art historians have discerned sev-
eral chronological and stylistic groups of Iznik wares
based on color and design patterns, and the ceramics
are best understood in the context of a larger pro-
duction program of Ottoman courtly arts including
architectural decoration, textiles, and manuscript
illumination.

Fahmida Suleman

See also ‘Abbasids; Andalus; Architecture, Religious;
Architecture, Secular: Palaces; Artisans; Baghdad;
Baraka; Basra; Cairo; Cairo Geniza; Central Asia;
China; Damascus; Dome of the Rock; Egypt; Epic Poet-
ry; Epics, Persian; Fatimids; Firdawsi; Food and Diet;
Fustat; Gifts and Gift Giving; Glassware; Heroes and
Heroism; Iran; Iraq; Isfahan; Istanbul; Khurasan; Love
Poetry; Mamluks; Manuscripts; Markets; Merchants,
Christian; Merchants, Jewish; Merchants, Muslim;
Minerals; Mining; Mosaics; Mosques; Mythology and
Mythical Beings; Nishapur; Ottoman Empire; Paint-
ing, Miniature; Poetry, Persian; Proverbs; Precious
Metals; Safavids; Samanids; Samarqand; Samarra;
Seljuks; Shahnama ; Silk Road; Sinan; Stories and Sto-
rytelling; Siileymaniye Mosque (Istanbul); Syria,
Greater; Textiles; Timurids; Trade: Indian Ocean;
Trade: Mediterranean; Transoxania; Transport; Travel

Further Reading

Allan, James W. Islamic Ceramics. Oxford: Ashmolean
Museum, 1991.

Atasoy, Nurhan, and Julian Raby. Iznik: The Pottery of
Ottoman Turkey. London: Alexandria Press, 1989.

Atil, Esin. Ceramics from the World of Islam ( Freer Gallery
of Art Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition). Washington:
Smithsonian Institution, 1973.

Fehervari, Geza. Ceramics of the Islamic World in the Tareq
Rajab Museum. London and New York: I.B. Tauris,
2000 .

Ghouchani, Abdallah. Inscriptions on Nishabur Pottery.
Tehran: Reza Abbasi Museum, 1986.

144

CHARITY, ISLAMIC

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Com-
munities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Docu-
ments of the Cairo Geniza. Vol. 4: Daily Life. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press, 1983.

Golombek, Lisa, Robert Mason, and Gauvin Bailey.
Tamerlane’s Tableware: A New Approach to the Chinoi-
serie Ceramics of Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Iran.
Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1996.

Grube, Ernst. Cobalt and Lustre: The First Centuries of
Islamic Pottery. Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic
Art. Vol. IX. London: Nour Foundation, 1994.

Melikian-Chirvani, Assadullah Souren. “Le Roman de
Varqe et Golsah,” Arts Asiaticpies, 22 (1970): 1-262.

Porter, Venetia. Islamic Tiles. London: British Museum,
1995.

Watson, Oliver. Ceramics from Islamic Lands. London:
Thames & Hudson, 2004.

CHARITY, ISLAMIC

Charity, the obligation to help those less fortunate
than oneself, was a fundamental concept for medieval
Muslim ethics. Muslim authors did not have a word
that can be translated as “charity,” and the use of the
Arabic word khayri to mean charitable is a modern
invention. Nonetheless, medieval Muslims were fa-
miliar with a number of practices that might be char-
acterized as charitable. The most prominent of these
were zakat (the alms tax), sadaqa (alms, most often
voluntary), and waqf (the pious endowment that
sometimes served a charitable purpose).

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and as such
can be regarded as an article of faith. Muslim jurists
characterized it as one of the huquq Allah (duties owed
to God), and failure to pay it could result in one’s
being regarded as an apostate. The obligation to pay
zakat is mentioned throughout the Qur’an and collec-
tions of Hadith, but the most important proof text is
Surat al-Tawba, verse sixty, “Alms (sadaqat) are only
for the poor, the indigent, those who collect them,
those who reconcile people’s hearts, for slaves, debt-
ors, for the path of God, and for the traveler, an
obligation imposed by God. God is all-knowing and
most wise.” This verse established the proper recipi-
ents of zakat. In addition to the expected recipients,
such as indigent people, indentured slaves, debtors,
and travelers, the verse also provides for alms to be
distributed to holy warriors (those on the path of
God) and to persons who reconciled non-Muslims
and Muslims. In addition, the verse makes it clear
that the original intention was for the state to collect
alms and distribute them.

In subsequent Muslim practice, however, zakat
was usually left to the conscience of the individual.
People identified worthy recipients, such as beggars,
and paid them alms. Since zakat was due every Islam-
ic year, many people paid their alms tax in the month

of Muharram, the first of the Islamic calendar. Zakat
was due on a number of commodities, including herd
animals, grains and fruit, gold and silver, commerce,
and precious metals. The rate varied by item but was
most commonly paid as a 2.5 percent tax on gold,
silver, and commerce. At the end of Ramadan, fasting
Muslims would pay an additional zakat al-fitr (alms
for the feast) to celebrate the upcoming feast. This
obligation consisted of a sum sufficient to feed one
individual for one day.

In addition to these obligatory alms, Muslims also
paid voluntary alms when and where they wished.
These voluntary alms were usually called sadaqa, al-
though this term was sometimes also applied to zakat.
There was a considerable debate in Muslim ethical
writings over whether it was appropriate to publicize
one’s good deeds. Most authors agreed that it was
better to give alms in private, since to do so in public
would suggest that one was more interested in achiev-
ing social status than in pleasing God. Others, how-
ever, pointed out that public almsgiving would
encourage others to follow one’s example. Beggars
congregated outside mosques, especially after Friday
prayers, in markets, and at funerals. The fourteenth-
century author Ibn al-Hajj noted that it was common
to give alms at a funeral, in the hope that this final
good deed would ease the deceased’s passage into
paradise. Funeral processions in medieval Cairo, for
example, often included a kaffara (expiatory gift)
that would be turned over to the poor people who
followed the procession.

Begging posed a number of problems for medieval
Muslims and their rulers. A considerable literature
grew up describing the proper etiquette of the beggar
and his benefactor when giving alms. Al-Ghazali
(d. 1 1 1 1 CE) argued that begging was forbidden un-
less necessary for one’s survival and worried that the
beggar was in danger of replacing his divine benefac-
tor with a human one. Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 1370)
was outraged by some of the more theatrical techni-
ques used by beggars to solicit alms and worried that
the sight of Muslims begging would humiliate the
Muslim community in the eyes of Christians and
Jews. Some of the rulers of Mamluk Egypt found
the presence of lepers and beggars in public places
and tried to remove them from the capital. In 1264 or
1265, Sultan al-Zahir Baybars tried to remove Cairo’s
beggars to al-Fayyum, and similar attempts were
made by other sultans in 1330, 1392, and 1438. Such
efforts do not seem to have been effective, because
begging continued in public places and the profession-
al beggar was a standard character in medieval Arabic
literature.

The third major charitable practice in medieval
Islamic society was waqf. Endowments of this type

145

CHARITY, ISLAMIC

served many different purposes, including benefiting
family, religious institutions, hospitals, and even fam-
ily tombs. In the medieval period, especially from the
early fifteenth century on, it was impossible to distin-
guish family waqfs from charitable waqfs, as was done
in modern times. Many waqfs provided income to
a wide range of beneficiaries. Still, it is possible for
the modern researcher to isolate those functions that
were charitable, in the sense of aiding the poor or
infirm.

Some of the wealthiest endowments of the Islamic
Middle Ages were hospitals. Although these institu-
tions were not always founded with waqfs, many
Muslim rulers followed the example of Nur al-Din
ibn al-Zanki (d. 1174), who founded a hospital in
Damascus. A similar institution established by Sultan
al-Mansur Qalawun in 1284 in Cairo provided food,
shelter, and medicine to patients. Since the wealthy
preferred to be treated at home, the inmates of the
hospital were largely poor people or travelers. There
were separate sections for men and women, as well as
a ward for the insane. Another popular type of waqf
was the maktab, or Qur’an school for orphans. These
schools provided orphaned boys with small stipends
and some food, as well as teaching them the Qur’an,
some basic literacy, and arithmetic. Some waqf
supported ribats, which were homes for widowed or
divorced women. These institutions were usually
founded by wealthy women and were frequently pre-
sided over by female administrators. Some endow-
ments provided food and water to pilgrims and
residents of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
There were also many smaller waqfs , many of them
associated with family tombs, that provided food and
water to the poor on a weekly basis, in exchange for
the poor saying prayers for their deceased benefac-
tors. These tomb waqfs became quite popular in Cairo
in the second half of the fifteenth century. The prac-
tice of building kitchens to feed the employees of large
endowments gave rise in the Ottoman Empire to the
foundation of separate soup kitchens (sing, ‘imaret),
such as the one established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan
in Jerusalem in the 1550s. Finally, some endowments
provided for the washing and burial of the dead. This
service was of particular importance in the late Mid-
dle Ages, when outbreaks of plague repeatedly struck
the Middle East.

Adam Sabra

See also Black Death; Burial Customs; Death and
Dying; Egypt; Epidemics; Ethics; Funerary Practices,
Muslim; Gifts and Gift Giving; Hospitality; Hospitals;
Mamluks; Mecca; Medina; Mental Illness; Mosques,
Nur al-Din ibn al-Zanki; Ottoman Empire; Pilgrimage;
Poverty; Public Works; Syria; Waqf

Further Reading

Amin, Muhammad Muhammad. Al-Awqaf wa-l-hayat al-
ijtima ‘iyya fi Misr 648-923 H./1250-1517 M. Cairo: Dar
al-Nahda al- ‘Arabiyya, 1980.

Bonner, Michael, Mine Ener, and Amy Singer, eds. Poverty
and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2003.

Hoexter, Miriam. “ Waqf Studies in the Twentieth Century:
The State of the Art.” JESHO 41 (1998): 133-156.

McChesney, Robert D. Charity and Philanthropy in Islam:
Institutionalizing the Call to Do Good. Indianapolis: Indi-
ana University Center on Philanthropy, 1995.

Sabra, Adam. Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam,
Mamluk Egypt, 1250-1517. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.

Singer, Amy. Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Impe-
rial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 2002.

Stillman, Norman. “Charity and Social Service in Medieval
Islam.” Societas 5 (1975): 105-115.

Tolmacheva, M. “Female Piety and Patronage in the Medi-
eval ‘Hajj’.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic World ,
ed. Gavin R. G. Hambly. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1998, 161-179.

CHARITY, JEWISH

In the absence of taxation — a significant resource for
poor relief in European Jewish communities — we find
a “mixed economy” of charity in Fustat. Private
charity was one major source. By nature usually
hidden from the historian’s gaze, it is well documen-
ted in the Geniza through letters of appeal from the
poor or on their behalf (see Poverty, Jewish). Family
charity, the most private of private charities, existed,
too, although it is usually documented only when
people complain that it is not forthcoming. People
often gave charity in their wills. However, confrater-
nities, a favored vehicle for delivering poor relief in
European Jewish communities as of the thirteenth
century in Spain (copying Catholic confraternities
in this endeavor), do not appear in the Geniza evi-
dence (nor in the Islamic surroundings). The purposes
served by European Jewish charitable confraterni-
ties, such as teaching poor children and orphans,
clothing the needy, burying the indigent, and dower-
ing orphan girls, were, as far as the evidence permits
us to conclude, provided by bequests, private gifts,
revenues of pious foundations, and communal poor
relief.

Public charity — the charity provided through the
community — is richly documented in the Geniza,
though it was not as well differentiated from private
philanthropy, as was the case with Christian poor
relief in early modern Europe. Most of the structures
of communal charity had been established long before
the advent of Islam. One of them, the heqdesh, or

146

CHARITY, JEWISH

pious endowment, is abundantly present in medieval
Fustat. Often established or supported by deathbed
declarations but also, in the manner of its Islamic
counterpart, the waqf, by healthy benefactors, the
Jewish pious endowment consisted mainly in houses
donated to the community. Like the original heqdesh,
which supported the needs of the sacrificial temple
(beit ha-miqdash) in Jerusalem, revenues from the
rent of heqdesh properties in the Geniza mainly sup-
ported communal institutions, such as the upkeep of
the synagogue, salaries of communal officials, and
teachers’ fees. Only a small percentage went for direct
charity to the poor. Like the Islamic waqf, however,
the institution was conceived of as a form of charity
and so was referred to by the moniker “for the poor.”

Shelter for the poor, especially foreigners lacking
means of livelihood or suffering from illness, was
provided, as in late antiquity, both in the synagogue
and in the Jewish funduq, or inn (see Hospitality). The
Fustat community maintained at least two funduqs as
heqdesh properties lodging foreign travelers. Public
funds were also sometimes used to subsidize rents of
needy persons residing in regular apartments. Pledge
drives throughout Egypt to ransom captives were
coordinated out of Fustat. In the Talmud, ransom
of captives was designated a “great mitzva,” and in
the medieval Mediterranean lands it became an even
more urgent necessity.

Medical charity expressed itself when physicians
provided care for the ill without charge, in bequests
for the sick poor in wills, or in collections to pay the
medical and other expenses of a visiting sick scholar.
The community had no hospital, differing again from
European Jewish communities, where in the late Mid-
dle Ages the word heqdesh became synonymous with
hospital, and from the Ottoman communities, which
also ran their own hospitals.

The most visible form of public charity consisted in
direct donations of money or in kind to provide either
bread, wheat, clothing, or cash for the poor. Bread was
distributed twice a week (Tuesday and Friday) in
rations of four one-pound (450 grams) loaves per
adult per week. Since this did not provide adequate
nutrition, it was supplemented on an irregular basis by
wheat and cash. The money went to buy other food
necessities or to help the poor pay their annual poll tax
to the government. Clothing was also disseminated.

Hundreds of Geniza alms lists and donor registers
illustrate the administration of public charity. People
donated money, or sometimes wheat in kind. Reven-
ues were collected by officials called jabi (like Hebrew
gabbai) or by the administrators of the social services,
the parnasim. Detailed accounts itemize income and
expenditures — direct charity and salary subsidies for
communal officials together. Though controversial,

the latter was considered a legitimate use of monies
collected for the poor. The collections themselves
were done, usually in the synagogue, through pledges,
called pesiqa, a term also used for ad hoc pledges for
specific uses, including private charity solicited by
individuals and money for ransom of captives. Parna-
sim collected the pledges, sometimes making the
rounds of businesses in the marketplace. The pesiqa
illustrates a characteristic of the “mixed economy” of
charity in medieval Fustat and doubtless other locales
in the medieval Islamic world, as well as the blurred
boundaries between public and private charity.

Sometimes a whole week’s distribution of bread
would be paid for by one person (for example, a dona-
tion of three dinars in 1 107 by the Nagid and head of
Egyptian Jewry to purchase 600 loaves of bread).
Bakers brought their loaves to the pickup point in the
synagogue compound. Scribes kept careful records of
each person and the number of loaves per head of
household. These numbers were revised with changes
in need, and names were crossed out when the indi-
gents no longer were present. A large number of lists
contain items of clothing, because the poor usually
possessed not much more than the proverbial “shirts
on their backs.” Many letters seeking private charity
request an item of clothing to replace what was lacking.

In the Talmud, alms for the poor were provided
through the weekly quppa (the “basket” containing
bread or money for the local poor) and the daily
tamhui (mostly, food for wayfarers). These terms do
not appear in medieval Fustat. Rather, the alms sys-
tem there was unified and called mezonot, an old
rabbinic term for maintenance for wives, children,
orphans, widows, and others, here enlisted in a chari-
table context for food for the poor. The unified sys-
tem may have been in force much earlier. It was still
the custom in the Egyptian capital at the beginning of
the sixteenth century, when the new chief Rabbi, an
exile from Spain, found it unusual and commented
to that effect when glossing Maimonides’ astonishing
statement in his Code of Jewish Law that some
communities no longer employ the tamhui.

Mark R. Cohen

Further Reading

Ashtor, Eliyahu. “Some Features of the Jewish Commu-
nities in Medieval Egypt” (Hebrew). Zion 30 (1965):
61-78, 128-157.

Ben-Naeh, Yaron. “Poverty, Paupers and Poor Relief in
Ottoman Jewish Society” (Hebrew). Sefunot 23 (2003):
195-238.

Cohen, Mark R. Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Commu-
nity of Medieval Egypt. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 2005.

Gil, Moshe. Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations
from the Cairo Geniza. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1976.

147

CHARITY, JEWISH

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Com-
munities of the Arab World As Portrayed in the Docu-
ments of the Cairo Geniza. 5 vols plus index volume by
Paula Sanders. Berkeley, CA, and Los Angeles: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1967-1993, esp. Vol. 2.

Idem. The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthol-
ogy of Documents from the Cairo Geniza. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2005.

Sabra, Adam. Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam: Mam-
luk Egypt 1250-1517. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2000.

Shefer, Miri. “Charity and Hospitality: Hospitals in the
Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern Period.” In Pov-
erty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts, eds. Mi-
chael Bonner, Mina Ener, and Amy Singer. Albany:
SUNY Press, 2003, 121-143.

Vaza, Ora. “The Jewish Pious Foundations According to the
Cairo Geniza Documents: Appendix to Prof. M. Gil’s
Study” (Hebrew). M.A. thesis, Tel Aviv University, 1991.

CHESS

The words for the game of chess in Middle Persian
(catrang) and in Persian and Arabic (satrangl
satranj) are derived from (Sanskrit) caturanga, mean-
ing army consisting of four divisions (Falkner
1892, 125). This is because the Indian army consisted
of four groups: hasty-asva-nauka-padata, which trans-
lates as “elephant, horse, ship, foot soldiers.” Thus the
game was meant to be a simulation for battle. The game
entered the Near East, specifically to Persia in the sixth
century CE during the rule of the Sasanian king, Khos-
row I (Arabic Kisra) (530-571). The game was meant
to be part of princely or courtly education in acquiring
(Middle Persian) frahang or (Persian) farhang, which
means culture. The playing of the game as part of
princely education continued in the Medieval Islamic
period, as is attested in such works as the Qabus-nameh
oflbn Wasmgir (Yusefi 1375, 77), and Chahar maqcila
by Samarqandi (Qazvini 1331, 68-69).

The games of chess and backgammon, along with a
variety of literary works, were introduced to Persia
from India, including the Pancatantra, which, accord-
ing to tradition, was translated into Middle Persian
by a physician named Burzoe. The Middle Persian
version is lost, but a Syriac translation of it was
made in 570 under the name KalTlag wa Damnag.
These stories were taken from another Indian text
called the Hitopadesa ( Book of Good Counsel). This
book was part of the Indian genre known as mtisdstra
(“mirror for princes”), which also existed in Persia,
and in Middle Persian was known as ewen-ndmag
(Persian) dym-ndme ( Book of Manners ) , which is
mentioned in the earliest text on the games of chess
and backgammon. These books were also commonly
known as “Mirror for Princes” or Siyar al-muluk
or Nasihat ’al-muliik in the Medieval Islamic period
(Daryaee 2002, 285-286).

The earliest text on the games of chess and back-
gammon is found in Persia in Middle Persian, and it
is known as Wizarisn T Catrang ud Nihisn TNew-Ardax-
sTr (The Explanation of Chess and the Invention of
Backgammon). According to Wizarisn i Catrang
ud Nihisn T New-Ardaxslr, there are four major per-
sonages involved in making the game; Dewisarm/Saci-
darm, the Indian king and his minister, Taxtrltos, sent
the game to Persia. On the Persian side, Khusrow I and
his minister, Wuzurgmihr/fArabic and Persian) Buzar-
jumihr/Bozorgmihr were to decipher the game. The
wise Persian minister Wuzurgmihr gives an explana-
tion of the game, making an analogy to war or battle
between two armies: “He made the king like the two
overlords, the rook (on) the left and right flank, the
minister like the commander of the warriors, the ele-
phant is like the commander of the bodyguards, and
the horse is like the commander of the cavalry, the
foot-soldier like the same pawn, that is at front of the
battle(field)” (Daryaee 2002, 304).

The earliest surviving chess pieces are also from
Persia. These include an elephant carved from black
stone (2 7/8 inches). The piece is from the late sixth or
seventh century, which corresponds to the time when
the Middle Persian text was composed (Dennis and
Wilkinson 1968, xxxvii). A fourteenth-century manu-
script of the Sdhndme contains two scenes, one at the
court of Khusrow I and the second at the court of
Dewisarm. In the scene Wuzurgmihr is seated on the
floor with three other Persians, all with white turbans.
In front of the Persian sage is a board game where by
taking into account the story, we can see that the
board game is a backgammon board. The Indian
king is seated on his throne and is surrounded by
the Indian sages who are painted darker and have
darker turbans. Wuzurgmihr has his right hand point-
ing on the backgammon board, which probably
means that he is either challenging the Indian sages
or explaining the rules of the game after the Indian
sages have been dumbfounded. It is particularly inter-
esting to note that one of the two older Indian sages
with a white beard has his hand by his mouth, sym-
bolizing his amazement or perplexity (Dennis and
Wilkinson 1968, xii). What can be concluded from
these representations and our text is that board
games such as chess were likened to battle and the
struggle in life. These board games were sports that
were meant to train the mind in order to be a well-
rounded person, namely someone who has acquired
frahang! farhang (culture ) .

During the early ‘Abbasid period, the game of
chess was seen as a form of gambling by some Muslim
scholars. This argument was put forth based on two
reasons: first, there was betting placed on the game,
and so it was considered to be a form of gambling.

148

CHESS

Tournament scene. Chess pawn. Spain, twelfth century ivory carving, 6.4 x 6.8 cm. Inv: OA 3297. Photo: J.G. Berizzi.
Credit: Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY. Louvre, Paris, France.

which made it haram (illicit). Second, enthusiasts
would spend so much of their time playing chess
that they forgot to pray and participate in the reli-
gious life (Rosenthal 1975, 37-40). Some authors jus-
tified the game by stating that as long as it was played
for mental exercise it would be beneficial. The Qcibus-
name dedicates a chapter to the games of chess and
backgammon, detailing the proper etiquette of playing
and when one should win and to whom one should
lose. It is strictly stated that one should not make bets
on the games, and only then does playing the game
become a proper activity (Yusefi 1375, 77). The game
of chess entered Europe, specifically Andalusia, with
the Muslim conquest of the region. When the Christian
Spaniards were able to beat back the Muslims, the
game had already become popular (in Spanish, aje-
drez), except that one piece of the game was changed,
that of the Queen for the Wazlr.

Touraj Daryaee

Further Reading

Daryaee, T. “Mind, Body and the Cosmos: The Game of
Chess and Backgammon in Ancient Persia.” Iranian
Studies 35, 4 (2002): 281-312.

Falkner, E. Games of Ancient and Oriented and How to
Play them Being the Games of the Ancient Egyptians,
the Hiera Gramme of the Greeks, the Liidus Latruncu-
lorum of the Romans and the Oriental Games of Chess,
Draughts, Backgammon and Magic Squares. New York:
Dover Publications, 1892.

Rosenthal, F. Gambling in Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975.

‘Umar b. ‘All Nizami Samarqandi. Chahcir mciqdla. Edited
by M. Qzvini. Tehran, 1331.

‘Unsur al-ma ‘all Kai-Kawus b. Iskadar b. Qabus b.
Wasmglr b. Ziyar. Qabus name. Edited by Q.-H. Yusefi.
Tehran: Scientific and Cultural Publishers, 1375.

Wilkinson, C. K. Chess: East and West, Past and Present, A
Selection from the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Collection. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968.

149

CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD

In Islam, children are viewed as precious gifts
from God. Islam teaches that children are born sinless
and are certain to gain paradise if they pass away
before reaching puberty. Children need to be loved,
taken care of, and protected with compassion and
tenderness by their parents and their surrounding
communities to ensure their healthy physical and
psychological growth (Yildirim 2005).

In medieval medical writings on infancy, feeding of
children and, breast-feeding in particular constitute a
central theme. Additional topics include how to treat
infants immediately after birth, how to prepare their
cradles, how to wash and swaddle them, how to calm
weeping children, teething, how to treat children
when they start walking and talking, and recommen-
dations regarding entertainment and the company of
other children.

Because childhood is considered to be a time of
weakness and vulnerability, ignorance and absence of
intellectual grasp, and a lack of willpower, Islam not
only gives parents the responsibility for the spiritual
and physical well-being of children and a correct
religious upbringing but also makes them account-
able. Viewing children as vulnerable and dependent,
Islamic law supplies various rules for the protection of
not only themselves but also their property. A special
legal status was given to children; they did not owe
full obedience to criminal law and therefore could not
be punished as Muslims who are sane and of age.
More attention is given to the child’s benefit than to
the interest of his or her parents. Fathers retained
guardianship over the child, which involved guardian-
ship over property and over the person, including
overall responsibility for physical care, socialization,
and education. Mothers were entrusted with the care
and control of their children for the first few years of
their lives (al-Ghazali 1967).

Following the example of the Prophet Muham-
mad, the Islamic scholar Said Nursi states that chil-
dren need kindness and compassion. Medieval
Islamic sources abound in accounts of loving, tender
relationships between parents and children, including
close physical contact (al-Ghazali 1967). Because
children are weak and powerless, their spirits can
flourish best in knowing and experiencing a compas-
sionate and powerful Creator. Only in an environ-
ment where mercy exists can children feel secure.
The best way to give them this sentiment completely
is to teach them that God is The Most Merciful and
The Most Compassionate and that He is the one
who is protecting them from all evil and bad things.
They will be able to deal with facing fears in later

years through trust in God and surrender to God’s
guidance (Nursi 1997).

In medieval times, spiritual and moral education in
childhood and adolescence was crucial for raising
physically and psychologically healthy people, be-
cause a balanced moral character was seen to be
essential in maintaining psychological and physical
health (Giladi 1992). Education in childhood was
especially important owing to the view that in its
pristine state, the child’s soul is pure and impression-
able. The main purpose of education was to ensure
the future of the believer in the next world. As stated
by Said Nursi, if a child was not exposed to belief
in God, spirituality, and correct morals at an early
age, it would be much more difficult to settle belief
and spirituality in their hearts in later years, estab-
lish good habits, or change bad ones. Good habits
were generosity, honesty, diligence, and restraint of
one’s desires. The more a child was exposed to a
community observing religion the easier it would
be to understand religion and spirituality later in
life (Nursi 2002). Writings also addressed the prin-
ciples and methods of correcting bad conduct, con-
duct that might result in the immortal loss of the
believer.

In medieval times, childhood was divided into two
stages from a religious point of view: (1) before pu-
berty, when a child begins to distinguish between
good and evil, and (2) after puberty. Adolescence
was generally considered to be around the age of
fifteen. Entrusting a boy or a girl with respective
adult functions was the accepted way to determine
mental maturity (Bosworth et al. 1995). Age and ma-
turity were taken into account when considering a
child’s education. Education at a young age, when
the pupil’s mind is open and free from adult cares,
was emphasized.

Yetkin Yildirim

See also Education; Family; Toys
Further Reading

Bosworth, E., E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, and G.
Lecomte, eds. The Encyclopedia of Islam. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1995.

Al-Ghazali, A. Iha' ‘ulum al-din. Cairo, 1967.

Giladi, A. Children of Islam, Concept of Childhood in Medi-
eval Muslim Society. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1992.

Nursi, S. Letters. Istanbul: Sozler Publication, 1997.
Yildirim, Y. “Islamic Perspectives on Spirituality in Child-
hood and Adolescence.” In Religious Perspectives on
Spirituality in Childhood and Adolescence. Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.

150

CHINA

The history of Islam in China is, naturally, inter-
twined with the historical development of a Muslim
presence there. It is also connected, albeit to a much
lesser extent, to the history of relations between China
and the Muslim world. A Muslim presence has been
recorded in China as early as the seventh century,
when Muslim envoys visited Chang’an, then the capi-
tal of the Tang dynasty. As early as the eighth century
there is evidence of a more permanent Muslim pres-
ence, as merchants settled in China’s larger cities
and established communities there. Both Chinese
and Muslim records speak of these communities,
which maintained regular contacts with the Muslim
world. Al-Sirafi, the tenth-century author of Akhbar
al-Sin wa’l-Hind , mentions a community of more than
one hundred thousand Muslims in Khanfu (Canton).
While it is clear that this number is quite exaggerated,
it indicates that the community must have been fairly
significant in size. Over the years, Muslim quarters
were established elsewhere in the major Chinese cities
and in the northwestern and southwestern regions of
China, which were closer to the Muslim territories of
Central Asia. The highlight of these settlements was
“Zaitoon” (Quanzhou), a city on China’s southeast-
ern coast where large numbers of Muslim merchants
resided during the times of such travelers as Marco
Polo and Ibn Battuta (both of whom wrote extensively
about the city).

The main bulk of Muslims, however, came to
China along with the occupying Mongols, for whom
Muslims served as soldiers, administrators, tax collec-
tors, and scientists. The brief integration of China with
the rest of the world during the days of the Mongol
empire intensified the trade with Muslim regions even
further. When the Mongols left China and the Chinese
Ming dynasty was founded in 1368, these Muslims
remained in China and settled in different parts of
the empire, creating an array of forms of Muslim
presence in the country — from Muslim villages in the
rural northwest to Muslim quarters within the large
Chinese urbanities of the east. The early years of the
Ming period (roughly from the fourteenth through
sixteenth century) saw also the transformation of
these people from “Muslims in China” to “Chinese
Muslims,” a new and diverse social entity that used
Chinese as its language and had some form of Islam
as its religion.

This wide range of forms of Muslim life in China
gave rise to an equally diverse range of forms of
Chinese Islam in the following centuries. The North-
west saw the appearance of menhuan (saintly lineage),
devout Sufi orders organized around the cult of Sufi
saints and the practice of Sufi rituals such as the vocal

and the silent dhikr (remembrance). The urban com-
munities of eastern China gave rise to a textual canon
known as the Han Kitab (Chinese book), a sophisti-
cated amalgamation of Islamic thought and neo-
Confucian philosophy. In both of these forms we can
see a distinctive form of Islam, which can be termed
“Chinese Islam.” The emergence of these distinctive
forms of Chinese Islam is traced back to roughly the
end of the sixteenth century, although they reached
their peak during the eighteenth century.

Of the numerous Sufi orders of northwestern China
the most influential was the Naqshbandiyya, whose
masters moved their activities from Central Asia into
China during the seventeenth century. Shortly thereaf-
ter, local Chinese forms of these grew up around
northwestern Chinese leaders such Ma Laichi
(1673-1753), founder of the first indigenous Chinese
order, and Ma Mingxin (1719-1781), who formed a
rival order with different practices. Ma Mingxin’s ca-
reer led him and his followers to serious clashes with
the Chinese authorities that in turn resulted in a series
of violent outbreaks in the Northwest that lasted, off
and on, for more than a century and devastated the
Muslim communities of the region.

The Han Kitab scholars of eastern China emerged
from an education system that was in structure very
much like the Confucian education system and which
espoused similar values, such as textual learning
and scholarly perfection. The first Han Kitab texts
appeared in the early seventeenth century and were
mainly translations into Chinese of Sufi texts such as
the Mirsad al- ‘Ibad. Shortly thereafter, original works
appeared. This tradition reached its peak with the
career of Liu Zhi (ca. 1755-1730), whose work created
a coherent philosophical system that combined key
neo-Confucian and Sufi concepts. The cornerstone of
Liu’s thought was the identification he made between
Ibn-'Arabi’s concept of Insan Kamil (Ar., perfect
man), with the Confucian concept of Shengren (Ch.,
sage). The Prophet Muhammad, according to this
formulation, was the ultimate Confucian sage.

Both of these distinct forms of Chinese Islam dis-
appeared, or were radically transformed, during the
twentieth century. However, their legacies — of the
Sufi orders in particular — still persist in China.

Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

Further Reading

Benite (Ben-Dor), Zvi. The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural
History of Muslims in Late Imperial China. Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, forthcoming.
Broomhall, Marshall. Islam in China: A Neglected Problem.
London: Morgan and Scott, 1910.

151

CHINA

Chu, Wen-djang. The Moslem Rebellion in Northwest
China: A Study of Government Minority Policy. The
Hague: Mouton, 1966.

Fletcher, Joseph. Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia.
London: Variorum, 1995.

Gladney, Dru. Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the
People’s Republic. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1991.

Israeli, Raphael. Islam in China: A Critical Bibliography.
London: Greenwood Press, 1994.

. Muslims in China: A Study in Cultured Confronta-
tion. London: Curzon, 1978.

. Canberra: Canberra College of Advanced Educa-
tion, 1981.

Leslie, Donald. Islam in Traditional China: A Short History.
Canberra: Canberra College of Advanced Education,
1986.

Lipman, Jonathan. Familiar Strangers : A History of Mus-
lims in Northwest China. Seattle: Washington University
Press, 1998.

CHISHTI, MU‘IN AL-DIN
(C. 1141/2-1236)

One of the eponymous founders of the Chishti Sufi
order in India, Khwaja Mu‘in al-Din Hasan Sijzi was
born in Sistan around 1141 or 1142. Following politi-
cal upheavals in Sistan and his father’s death, Mu‘in
al-Din Chishti set out on his travels, linking up
in Nishapur with the wandering circle of Khwaja
‘Uthman, a Sufi master from Chisht near Herat. We
know little about his travels before he moved to India;
certainly, hagiographies that describe his meetings
with other founders of famous Sufi orders, such as
‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166), Najib al-Din Suhra-
wardi (d. 1168), and Najm al-Din Kubra (d. 1221),
have little basis in history. Our earliest sources for the
life of Mu'in al-Din are Amir Khwurd’s Siyar al-
awliya’, a collection of Chishti hagiographies, and
Surur al-sudur, conversations (malfuzat) of Hamid
al-Din Nagawri penned posthumously some two hun-
dred years later. Contemporary accounts such as
Minhaj’s and Fakhr-i Mudabbir’s do not mention
him, nor do the earliest Chishti works, namely the
Fawa’id al-fu’ad, the conversations of Nizam al-Din
Awliya’ penned by Amir Hasan Sijzi (d. 1336), and the
Khayr al-majalis, the conversations of Nasir al-Din
Chiragh-i Dihlavi (d. 1356) compiled by Hamid
Qalandar. It is thus unclear when exactly he moved
to Delhi and then Ajmer. The hagiographies often
stress that he settled in Ajmer when it was still non-
Muslim territory (and the center of the Rajput Chau-
han realm, as well as a religious place of significance),
and through his spiritual power and example brought
the natives into the fold of Islam; the date given is
usually before 1192. In other accounts, he moved to
Ajmer after the Muslim conquest of Rajasthan in the

1 190s and settled after the death of the Ghurid sultan
Mu‘izz al-Din in 1206. He is said to have married
locally and been revered as a holy man, gathering
around him disciples such that when he died in
1236, his tomb became a place of pilgrimage.

Although Mu'in al-Din Chishti left no writings,
some of his key doctrines are recorded by Amir
Khwurd. First, he stressed that seekers should be
like lovers and when they gain insight and experience,
they realize that love, lover, and beloved are all one.
This monism may account for the later successful
spread of the influence of Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas among
the Chishtis. Second, serving humanity and, in partic-
ular, the poor was actually true service to God and
defined the very essence of religion. Chishti centers
became known for their open-door policy and their
doctrine of universal peace. Third, generosity, love,
and hospitality were the key virtues to be inculcated.
Religious parochialism and exclusivism were to be
avoided. Chishti shrines embodied this ethos in their
daily functions and provided shelter and sustenance
for the poor and destitute, encouraging non-Muslims
and Muslims to benefit from the spiritual power of
the Sufis.

We know much about the development of the cult
of Khwaja Mu‘in al-Din, who became known as the
stranger who is generous (gharib navaz), through the
patronage of the later Delhi sultans and the Mughals,
especially Akbar. The spread of the Chishti order
throughout India is credited to his disciples and the
Sufis in the two generations after him, in particular
Farid al-Din Ganj Shakar (d. 1265), whose shrine is at
Ajodhan, Nizam al-Din Awliya’ of Delhi (d. 1325),
Qutb al-Din Bakhtiyar of Mehrauli (d. 1235), and
Hamid al-Din of Nagawr (d. 1274). The cult of the
shrines of the famous Chishti Sufis, encouraged by the
Mughals through endowments and bequests, estab-
lished the Chishti order as the most widespread,
wealthy, and influential Indian Sufi order.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Delhi; Farid al-Din Ganj Shakar; Herat;
Nishapur; Sufism

Further Reading

Currie, P.M. The Shrine and Cult of Mu'in al-Din Chishti of
Ajmer. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Ernst, C., and B. Lawrence. Sufi Martyrs of Love. London:
Palgrave, 2002.

Farooqi, N.R. “The early Chishti Sufis of India I and II.”
Islamic Culture 11 A (2003): 1-29, 77.2 (2003): 1-33.
Haeri, M.. The Chishtis. Karachi: Oxford University Press,
2001 .

Nizami, K.A. Religion and Politics in India during the Thir-
teenth Century. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2002 [1961],

152

CHIVALRY

Celebrated in numerous medieval romances, such as
that of the legendary pre-Islamic Arab knight ‘Antar
(Sirat ‘Antar), the figure of the gallant horseman
(faris) had a distinguished history in pre-Islamic
Arab and early Islamic Arab tradition. Rooted in
the hard realities of Bedouin tribal life, the motif of
the valiant cavalier celebrated for his matchless cour-
age and prowess on the battlefield is captured most
directly in the pre-Islamic Arab concept of manliness
(muruwwa), an ideal that embraced the virtues of
courage, forbearance, generosity, fidelity to kin, and
magnanimity toward enemies. This motif was easily
accommodated in Islamic military culture, and
descriptions of the chivalric exploits of gallant war-
riors for the faith abound in accounts of the early
Arab conquests. In the ‘Abbasid era, epics recounting
the heroism of figures such as Hatim al-Ta’i, ‘Antar,
Hamza, or the Persian hero Rustam captured the
imagination of the masses, being retold, recorded,
and eventually versified in a literary testament to a
collective celebration of chivalric virtues.

In the increasingly cosmopolitan atmosphere of the
major urban centers of medieval Islamdom, the ideal
of manliness soon came to include the religiously
inspired virtues of love of truth and justice, reverence
for women, protection of the poor and indigent, piety,
altruism, and indefatigable devotion to the faith.
Beginning in the eighth century CE, this expanded
chivalric ideal began to be referred to by the term
futuwwa (valorous young manliness; Persian, javan-
mardi ), and it is no accident that the figure of the
Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law ‘Ali (d. 661 CE)
came to represent the paragonal “valiant young man”
(fata), something well evinced in the oft-quoted
saying: “There is no fata save ‘Ali, and no sword
save Dhu ’1-Faqar.” At the same time, however, the
term futuwwa began to be used in contexts oftentimes
quite unconnected with mastery of the martial arts.
It was within Sufism, in particular, where futuwwa
took on explicitly religious connotations, Sufi scho-
lars such as al-Sulami (d. 1021) devoting entire trea-
tises to the subject. For them, the futuwwa was above
all a moral and ethical ideal, a tradition of chivalric
behavior stripped of its martial connotations and then
refashioned in light of the Sufi spiritual universe.
Here, the ideals of the gallant warrior were applied
not to the military battlefield but rather to the spiri-
tual struggle against the malicious armies of those
lower drives and passions that estrange the soul
from God.

At the same time, however, the military connota-
tions of the pre-Islamic ideal of manliness and chival-
ric virtue never lost its vitality or importance, and

there is ample evidence to suggest its continued
persistence in medieval Islamic martial culture. Al-
though never fully transformed into the aristocratic
type of social and military organization characteristic
of chivalric knighthood in medieval Europe, the
presence of chivalric brotherhoods in the form of
various self-styled futuwwa organizations was a pro-
minent feature of urban landscapes across the central
and eastern regions of the medieval Islamic world.
Generally speaking, members of such groups were
unmarried young men bound together by oaths of
fidelity, special costume, and a shared allegiance to
chivalric virtues. Although the details vary consider-
ably, such futuwwa or /w/mv»va-inspired groups often
appeared on the public stage during times of disorder
and civil strife, playing roles as varied as neighbor-
hood militias and police auxiliaries to trouble-making
urban gangs bent on rabble-rousing, banditry, and
extortion in the marketplace. Perhaps in response to
the anarchic potential of such groups, in the early
thirteenth century, the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Nasir
(r. 1180-1225) set out to promulgate a courtly form
of the futuwwa, sponsoring the dissemination of man-
uals outlining its principles and practices and sending
out specially designated agents to initiate various sul-
tans, princes, and governors into its fold.

As organizations devoted to the ideals of manliness
and chivalry, membership in a medieval futuwwa
group often brought with it an expectation to partici-
pate in various sports, normally games stressing mar-
tial skills such as pigeon breeding, archery, birding,
riding, and wrestling. In Iran and Anatolia between
the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, the futuwwa
tradition made its way into urban craft guilds, becom-
ing so prevalent that in the Ottoman and Safavid
domains most guilds were distinguished by their
own chivalric rules, initiatory rites, hierarchies, and
ceremonials. Scholars have long noted the similarity
between certain aspects of Islamic chivalry and the
chivalric organizations of medieval Europe, normally
understood in the context of mutual influence in Is-
lamic Spain, as well as a result of Muslim-European
encounters and interchange in the eastern Mediterra-
nean during the period of the Crusades.

Erik S. Ohlander
See also Gangs; Guilds, Professional; Heroes and
Heroism; Hippology; Pigeons; Police; Sports; Sufism
and Sufis; Thieves and Brigands; Urban Gangs

Primary Sources

Al-Sulami. The Book of Sufi Chivalry (Futuwwah) : Lessons
to a Son of the Moment. Translated by Sheikh Tosun
Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti. New York: Inner Tradi-
tions, 1983.

153

CHIVALRY

Kashifi. The Royal Book of Spiritual Chivalry. Translated
by Jay R. Crook. Chicago: Great Books of the Islamic
World, 2000.

Further Reading

Arnakis, G.G. “Futuwwa Traditions in the Ottoman
Empire: Akhis, Bektashis, Dervishes and Craftsman.”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12.4 (1953): 232-247.

Cahen, Claude, and Franz Taeschner. “Futuwwa.” In The
Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2 ed, ed. H.A.R. Gibb et al.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954-2003.

Renard, John. Islam and the Heroic Image: Themes in
Literature and the Visual Arts. Columbia, SC: University
of South Carolina Press, 1993.

Riaz, Muhammad. “A Study of the ‘Javanmardi’ Move-
ment in the World of Islam.” Journal of the Pakistan
Historical Society 29.1 (1981): 3-17.

Salinger, Gerard. “Was the Futuwwa an Oriental Form of
Chivalry?” Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society 94.5 ( 1950): 481-493.

CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY

Until at least 1000 CE, Christians of various denomi-
nations were the majority of the population in the
Islamic world.

While Christian Arabs such as the Banu Taghlib
fared poorly under Islam (Tritton 1930:89-92), the
post-Qur’anic caliphate developed a profitable rela-
tionship with its non-Muslim subjects: the Arab
conquests of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria
had brought three ancient Christian centers under
Islamic rule (Griffith 2001) and were followed by the
incorporation of Persian (Le Coz 1995) and Iberian
Christians. One of the Qur’anic “People of the Book”
(see Q 3:65 f.; 5:18-19), Christians were among the
communities to whom the Islamic state pledged its
protection (dhimma) in exchange for their payment
of a poll tax (jizya; cf. the sole Qur’anic attestation of
this term at Q 9:29). Although the status of these
"protected persons” has come under attack (Ye’ or
2002), Christians did participate in, and contribute
to, classical Islamic civilization (Friedman 2003).

The Qur’an itself distinguishes those who ack-
nowledge the Prophet Muhammad from their mono-
theistic counterparts (for example, Q 2:142-147;
5:51) — although Christian (and Jewish) women and
food are lawful for Muslims (cf. Q 5:5). Similarly,
while inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock and the
earliest Islamic coinage explicitly refute the Trinity,
claims of a clear separation of Muslims and non-
Muslims — as indicated in the terms of Christian
acceptance of Muslim rule contained in the Covenant
of ‘Umar (Tritton 1930) — are at variance with the
pre-Crusade historical record: early ‘Abbasid caliphs

held interreligious debates (Griffith 1999); classical
Qur’an commentators extrapolated from the Chris-
tians in their own milieus when commenting on those
Qur’anic passages alluding to Christians (McAuliffe
1991); and the Qur’anic charge of scriptural corrup-
tion leveled against the Children of Israel — Jews and
Christians (for example, Q 5:12-14) — prompted
Muslim scholars such as Ibn Hazm (d. 1064 CE) to
engage in biblical exegesis. Finally, some of the most
detailed sources about Christians in the classical
Islamic world come from Muslim authors such as
‘Abd al-Jabbar (d. 1025; cf. Reynolds, 2004).

In the East, all the denominations came to express
themselves in Arabic while retaining their ancient
liturgical languages and patristic heritage. The emer-
gence of the new genre of inter-Christian theological
debates in Arabic is contemporaneous with the de-
velopment of Islamic “dialectical theology” (‘ilm
al-kalam ; cf. Griffith 2002), with parallels between,
respectively, Christian Trinitarian and Christological
debates, and Muslim “divine attribute” (al-asma
al-husna) and “createdness of the Qur’an” discus-
sions. Christians who spoke Syriac were particular
vehicles for cultural exchange: Employed by the ca-
liph in the translation of Greek texts into Arabic,
scholars such as Yahya b. ‘Adi (d. 974) were active
participants in the philosophical movement at Bagh-
dad (Gutas 1998; Yahya b. ‘Adi 2002). In addition to
their scholarly contributions, Christians were employ-
ed as doctors and scribes. On the Iberian Peninsula,
the Mozarabs profited from and added to the works
of their eastern counterparts (Burman 1994).

Already culturally and linguistically (and, for most,
theologically) distanced from their Latin and Greek
counterparts before the Arab conquests, a common
experience and language under Islamic rule united
the Christians in the eastern Islamic lands (Melkites,
Maronites, Jacobites — both Syrians and Copts — and
Nestorians); evidence of this unity — despite theologi-
cal differences — is that the Nestorian Catholicos
became the chief representative of Christian interests
at the caliph’s court in Baghdad.

The end of the demographic dominance of
Christians in the Islamic world coincided with the
Crusades and the Mongol invasion. With the acces-
sion of the Ottomans, the chief Christian was no
longer the Nestorian Catholicos of Baghdad; rather,
the head of the Christian millet (organized religious
minority, from Ar. millet [religion]) became the (Greek
Orthodox) Patriarch of Constantinople (Armenians,
however, formed their own millet).

Despite Christian martyrdoms at the hands of
Muslims (Gaudeul 1984; although some — such as
those at Cordoba in 850 — may have been self induced),
apocalyptic denunciation of Islamic rule (Martinez

154

CIRCASSIANS

2003) and policies such as the Ottoman devshirme
(levy of Christian youths), the Islamic state’s promise
of “protection” of both the persons and practices of
its Christian subjects, assured Christians the ability to
practice their religion (within limits: Tritton 1930; cf.
Q 5:82). Particularly in the period after the Crusades,
when Islamic thought increasingly made a distinction
between Muslim and non-Muslim (which also includ-
ed “bad” Muslims; cf. Michel 1984), conversions to
Islam, from conviction, coercion, or socioeconomic
aspirations (as well as the interventions of foreign
“Christian” powers; Frazee 1982), undermined the
position of Christians within the Islamic world.

Clare E. Wilde

See also ‘Abbasids; Abyssinia; Alexandria; Aramaeans;
Ascetics and Asceticism; Churches; Coptic; Copts;
Interfaith Relations; Al-Jahiz; Jerusalem; Al-Ma’mun;
Merchants, Christian; Mirrors for Princes; Muslim-
Byzantine Relations; Muslim-Crusader Relations;
Ottoman Empire; Qur’an and Christianity; Romance,
Iberian; Scholars; Scribes; Syria, Greater; Syriac;
Theology; Trade, Mediterranean; Umayyads; Women,
Christian

Further Reading

Bulliet, Richard W. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval
Period: An Essay in Quantitative History. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Burman, Thomas E. Religious Polemic and the Intellectual
History of the Mozarabs, c. 1050-1200. Leiden: Brill,
1994. '

Ducellier, Alain. Chretiens d’Orient et Islam ait Moyen Age:
Vlle-XVe siecle. Paris: Armand Colin/Masson, 1996.
Ebied, Rifaat, and Herman Teule. Studies on the Christian
Arabic Heritage in Honour of Father Prof. Dr. Samir
Khalil Samir S.I. at the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birth-
day [Eastern Christian Studies, 5], Leuven: Peeters, 2004.
Frazee, Ch. Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the
Ottoman Empire 1453-1923. London: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1982.

Friedman, Yohanan. Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: In-
terfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge,
MA: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Gaudeul, Jean-Marie. Encounters & Clashes: Islam and
Christianity in History. 2 vols. Rome: Pontificio Istituto
di Studi Arabi e Islamici, 1984.

Griffith, Sidney H. “The Monk in the Emir’s majlis: Reflec-
tions on a Popular Genre of Christian Literary Apolo-
getics in Arabic in the Early Islamic Period.” In
The Majlis: Interreligious Encounters in Medieval Islam
[Studies in Arabic Language and Literature, 4], ed.
Hava Lazarus Yafeh et al, 13-65. Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1999.

. “Melkites, Jacobites and the Christological Con-
troversies in Arabic in Third/Ninth-Century Syria.” In
Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years,
ed. David Thomas, 9-55. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

. The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic:

Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period

[Collected Studies Series, 746]. Aldershot, Hamp: Vario-
rum/Ashgate, 2002.

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The
Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and
Early Abbasid Society ( 2 nd -4 th /8 lh -10' h centuries).
London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Khoury, Paul. Materiaux pour Servir a VEtude cle la Con-
troverse Theologique Islamo-Chretienne de Langue Arabe
du VUIe an XII Siecle [Religionswissenschaftliche Stu-
dien, 11:1-4]. 4 vols. Wurzburg and Altenberge: Echter
& Oros Verlag, 1989-1999.

Le Coz, R. LEglise d’Orient: Chretiens dlrak, d’lran et de
Turqie. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1995.

Martinez, F.J. “La literatura apocaliptica y las primeras
reacciones cristianas a la conquista islamica en Oriente.”
In Europa y el Islam, edited by Gonzalo Anes and
Alvarez de Castrillon, 143-222. Madrid: Real Academia
de la Historia, 2003.

McAuliffe, J. Qur’anic Christians: An Analysis of Classical
and Modern Exegesis. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge
University Press, 1991.

Michel, Thomas F. A Muslim Theologian’s Response to
Christianity: Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Jawab al-<Za T . Delmar,
NY: Caravan Books, 1984.

Reynolds, Gabriel Said. A Muslim Theologian in the Sectar-
ian Milieu: ‘Abel al-Jabbar (415/1025) and the ‘Critique
of Christian Origins. ’ Leiden: Brill, 2004.

Tritton, A.S. The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects:
A Critical Study of the Covenant of ‘Umar. London:
Oxford University Press, 1930.

Yahya ibn ‘Adi. The Reformation of Morals [Eastern
Christian Texts, 1], ed. Samir Khalil Samir, trans. Sidney
H. Griffith. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University
Press, 2002.

Ye’or, Bat. Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations
Collide. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 2002.

CIRCASSIANS

Circassians is the general name for the group of
peoples in the northwestern Caucasus region who
speak a language of the Abazgo-Circassian branch
of the Caucasian languages. In Arabic, they are usu-
ally referred to as Jarkash (pi. Jarakish); in Turkish,
Cerkes; and in their own language, Adygei. The Cir-
cassians were renowned for their military skills and
played an important role in the history of the Mam-
luk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria, and to a certain
degree later in the Ottoman Empire and the Safawid
Empire. The territories inhabited by the Circassians
are today part of the Russian Federation, and people
of Circassian descent also live in Turkey, Jordan, and
Israel.

Circassians and their lands were known to the
early Arab geographers but were generally off the
main path of early Muslim history. Their territory
was ruled by the Khazars in the seventh to eleventh
centuries, and the Mongol Golden Horde in the thir-
teenth through fifteenth centuries. Throughout this

155

CIRCASSIANS

period, the Circassians followed their indigenous
pagan traditions, although Christianity made some
inroads among them. The Circassians began adopting
Islam starting around the sixteenth century. The
fact that they were pagans, along with their prowess,
made them ideal candidates for military slavery (see
Slavery, Military), not the least since at times it was
difficult to procure Mamluks from the traditional
Qipchaq Turkish areas farther north. Circassians
first achieved prominence in the Mamluk Sultanate
under Sultan Qalawun (1279-1290), who enrolled
them in his Burjiyya regiment, named after the towers
(abraj) of the Cairo citadel in which they resided.
The members of this formation were only part of the
large number of Mamluks whom this sultan pur-
chased, and besides their military skills and avai-
lability, another reason for their purchase appears to
have been a desire to counterbalance the influence of
the Turkish Mamluks. The Circassians at that time,
as well as later, showed a great degree of ethnic soli-
darity (jinsiyya), and rallied behind their compatriot
Baybars al-Jashnakir (the taster), one of the strong-
men of the Sultanate after Qalawun’s death who was
briefly sultan (r. 1309-1310), known to modern his-
torians as Baybars II. While not disappearing, the
power of the Circassians was subsequently weakened
in the following generations but was to reemerge after
the rise to power of Sultan Barquq (r. 1382-1406),
a Circassian who made a special effort to import
Mamluks from among his countrymen, at the expense
of Turks and other groups. In fact, the second half of
the Mamluk Sultanate is known by contemporary
sources as the “Circassian State/Dynasty” (dawlat
al-jarakisa), reflecting the predominant role of this
group. Modern historians and students often mis-
takenly call this time the Burji period and its rulers
Burji sultans, probably unintentionally (but still false-
ly) seeing a connection between the Circassian
Burjiyya regiment of the late thirteenth century and
the Circassian rulers, officers, and common Mamluks
of a century later.

The Circassian period was generally one of eco-
nomic decline and political disorder. Certainly there
was a growing lack of discipline among the Mamluks.
Contemporary writers, sometimes followed by mod-
ern historians, have attributed this to the character of
the Circassians. It probably has more to do with a
declining economy (a legacy of the middle fourteenth
century), which in turn generated problems with pay-
ing the army, as well as the necessity of importing
older Mamluks, meaning less education for the com-
mon soldier and future officer; he was therefore less
formed than his predecessor and more prone to riot-
ing and other forms of lack of discipline. There was
a notable tendency for the Circassians to bring over

family members once they were well established,
breaking a long-held tradition of the Mamluk system,
where the young military slave lost contact with his
family, thus becoming dependent on his new patron
and fellow Mamluks. Interestingly enough, during
the Circassian period there was a certain flowering
of Mamluk Turkish literature in the Sultanate, indi-
cating that perhaps Turkish remained the lingua
franca of the Mamluk class in spite of demographic
changes. Circassians remained among the Mamluks
of Egypt in the Ottoman period and were settled in
Palestine and Jordan in the nineteenth century by the
Ottoman authorities as part of the effort to increase
control in the area, as well as to provide a solution to
the thousands of Circassians who fled their homeland
after the Russian conquest.

Reuven Amitai

Further Reading

Hoffman, Lawrence A. Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and
Gender in Rabbinic Judaism. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1996.

Kister, M.J. Concepts and Ideas at the Dawn of Islam.
Aldershot, Great Britain and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate/
Varioram, 1997.

Kueny, Kathryn. “Abraham’s Test: Islamic Male Circum-
cision as Anti/Ante-Covenantal Practice.” In Bible and
Qur’an: Essays in Scriptural Intertextuality, ed. John C.
Reeves, 161-182. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2003.

Waugh, Earl. “Circumcision.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia
of the Modern Islamic World, edited by John L. Esposito.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Wensinck, A.J. " Khitan .” In The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2d
ed, ed. H.A.R. Gibb et al. 9 vols. New York: Macmillan,
1987.

CLIMATE, THEORIES OF

There are two interconnected understandings of
climate that developed in medieval Islamic society.
The first derives from the rich Arabic geographical

157

CLIMATE, THEORIES OF

literature that variously divided the world into dif-
ferent “climates” as a framework for topographical
description and cartography. These geographical
climates were referred to by the Arabic term iqlim
(pi. aqalim), which derived originally from the Greek
klima (inclination), the basis of the Ptolemaic carto-
graphic system. The use of aqalim in Arabic geogra-
phy is considerably varied and does not simply follow
the patterns of the Greek tradition as it was translated
through Syriac authors. Several individual geo-
graphical treatises, such as that of al-Khuwarizmi,
as well as more encyclopedic works, such as Yaqut,
tended to reproduce the original seven climates of
Ptolemy. These consisted of horizontal bands that
began at the equator and progressively moved north-
ward to cover the whole of the northern hemisphere.
The width of each band was determined by the length
of the day at the summer solstice and therefore
did not represent any topographical or anthropologi-
cal reality. Nevertheless, as discussed in the work of
the Ikwan al-Safa’ and others, residence in a particu-
lar iqlim was considered to affect the health of its
inhabitants, their capabilities, both mental and physi-
cal, and even their body types and skin color. For
most medieval authors there was a distinctly marked
preference for the middle latitudes, which represented
regions of climatic balance, in both temperature and
seasonality. One of the chief advantages of this
theory was that Baghdad, the official capital of the
Caliphate for much of the ‘Abbasid dynasty, was
located squarely in the fourth/middle climate, thus
advantageously placed to represent the essence of
ta'adil (equilibrium/moderation in all things).

This latitudinal division of the world was largely
rejected, or at least significantly reworked, by many
medieval geographers who preferred to categorize the
world in more civilizational or administrative terms.
In maintaining the number seven as definitional to a
theory of aqalim, certain authors were influenced by
the Persian notion of kishvar regions, each of which
comprised a large empire/civilization. Al-Biruni
provided a diagram of the world based on the kishvar,
such that his climates are represented by circles, not
latitudinal bands, with Baghdad’s iqlim in the center
and the other six arranged around it. Within the
tradition of descriptive geography that was cham-
pioned by authors of the so-called Balki school of
the tenth century, a more administrative logic would
define these regions and also increase their number.
In probably the most sophisticated geographical trea-
tise of the medieval period, al-Muqaddasi’s Ahsan
al-Taqasim fi Ma'rifat al- Aqalim (The Best Division
for Knowledge of the Regions), the author describes
fourteen regions (six Arab, eight non-Arab) that
were described not only using the administrative

boundaries but also numerous other cultural and en-
vironmental factors, such as ethnicity and cultivation.

In virtually all of the works that used the notion of
iqlim as part of a theory of geographical classification,
the intent was to provide a framework for presenting
information on the cities, settlements, populations,
and topographical features located in these regions.
This geographical literature tended not to prioritize
the description of climate in a more meteorological
sense, although this was addressed peripherally in
many works, particularly compendia of knowledge
such as the epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa’. Rather,
this second understanding of climate, distinguished in
Arabic by the term manakh (climate, atmosphere),
which encompasses notions such as weather and
seasonality, was often dealt with in other sources.
Medieval Arabic texts, particularly those that dealt
with the question of the ‘aja’ib (miracles, natural
wonders), such as al-Qazwini, have provided exten-
sive information about issues such as the division of
the seasons, the influence of weather on the body and
culture, and general understandings of ecology and
health. Two realms of knowledge have contributed to
theories surrounding these questions: (1) Islamic cos-
mological/theological understandings of the four ele-
ments, the three kingdoms, the nature of the physical
world, and the role of humanity as steward of God’s
creation; and (2) “folk” understandings based on
practical experience and knowledge of the environ-
ment, which are often correlated with economic
lifeways (such as agriculture, pastoralism, craft pro-
duction) or landscapes (such as desert, irrigated
agricultural plain, cities). Despite the distinctions
between the geographical and meteorological senses
of climate, there have been moments of convergence
between the understanding of manakh and iqlam,
particularly in connection with the understanding
of what constituted the ideal climate for the de-
velopment of civilizational and spiritual achieve-
ments. Ibn Khaldun noted in his seminal work of
social history, al-Muqaddimah, that the middle three
aqalim were the most suitable for civilization, par-
ticularly the proliferation of great monuments and
advanced urban centers, because of the moderation
of their meteorological climate. Moreover, these
more temperate regions were envisioned as the place
of prophets and righteous people, a testament to
the link made in medieval Islamic society not only
between climate and civilization, but also between
climate and morality.

Ian B. Straughn

See also Agriculture; Cartography; Geography; Human
Geography; Ibn Khaldun; Meteorology; Nomadism and
Pastoralism, al-Qazwini; Yaqut

158

CLOTHING AND COSTUME

Further Reading

Ahmad, Sayyid Maqbul. A History of Arab-Islamic
Geography. Amman: Ahl al-Bayt University Press,
1995.

al-Muqaddasi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. The Best Division
for Knowledge of the Regions. Translated by Basil A.
Collins. Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 1994.

Al-Qazwlnl. ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat wa ghara’ib al-Mawjudat.
Cairo, 1957.

Harley, J.B., and D. Woodward, eds. The History of Car-
tography: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and
South Asian Societies. Vol. 2.1. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1987.

Hopkins, J. F. P. “Geographical and Navigational Litera-
ture.” In Religion, Learning and Science in the Abbasicl
Period, edited by M.J.L. Young, J. D. Latham, and
R. B. Serjeant, 301-327. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muquaddimah. 2 vols. Translated by
Franz Rosenthal. Princeton: Princeton University

Press, 1967.

Ikhwan al-Safa’. Rdsa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ wa-khullan
al-wafa. Egypt: al-Maktaba al-Tijarlya al-Kubra,

1928.'

Miquel, Andre. “IklTm.” In The Encyclopedia of Islam. 2d
ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

. La Geographic Humaine du Monde Musulman jus-

qu’ua Milieu de lie Siecle. 4 vols. Paris: Mouton & Co,
1967-1988.

Musa, ‘All Hassan. Al-Mandkh fi al-Turath al- ‘ Arab I
(Climate in Arab Heritage). Damascus: Dar al-Fiqh,
2001 .

Yaqut ibn ‘Abd Allah al-HamawI. Mu 'jam al-Buldan.
Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1955-1957.

CLOTHING AND COSTUME

Although there were regional and temporal variat-
ions in clothing styles throughout the medieval
Muslim world, there was a distinct civilization-wide
mode of dress that Yedida Kalfon Stillman has
dubbed “the Islamic vestimentary system.” This ves-
timentary system, which remained remarkably
constant throughout the Middle Ages, developed
from the gradual fusion of three different fashion
systems that existed in the lands, rather cultural
zones, that became the caliphate: the Arabian Penin-
sula, the Hellenistic Mediterranean, and Iranian
and Turkish Central Asia. The pre-Islamic Arabian
mode of dress was characterized by loose, flowing,
untailored garments; the Hellenistic Mediterranean
by tunics and wraps; and the Central Asian by fitted
or tailored garments such as coats, jackets, and trou-
sers. The process of fusion had already begun in the
Arab kingdoms of Hira and Ghassan in northern
Arabia that bordered the Byzantine and Sasanian
empires and were zones of cultural osmosis just
prior to the advent of Islam.

Early Islamic Clothing: Style and
Religious Ideology

The general mode of dress of the Muslim community
at the time of the Prophet was generally that of pre-
Islamic Arabia with some modifications in accor-
dance with new moral sensibilities. The new Islamic
notions of corporal modesty were not unlike those of
Near Eastern Judaism and Christianity. The Qur’an
declares that God revealed libas (clothing) to human-
ity “to conceal your shame” (Sura VII, 26). The medi-
eval Arabic lexicographers even defined libas as “that
which conceals or covers the sexual organs.” (It is
noteworthy that in many modern Arabic dialects the
word is used to denote underwear, not merely as a
euphemism, but in recognition of clothing’s essential
nature.) Like Jews and Christians, the early Muslims
were prudish about pagan society’s easygoing attitude
toward nudity, and the hadith literature stresses the
importance of underwear. The basic Arab undergar-
ment going back to Antiquity was the izar. This loin-
cloth is already mentioned by Herodotus and still
constitutes the lower half of the ritual ihram attire
worn by male pilgrims to Mecca. During the formative
period when Muhammad led the community in
Medina (622-632), a new undergarment of Persian
origin, sirwal (drawers), also came into use. Because
not everyone in the early umma could afford a separate
undergarment, there are numerous traditions warning
against exposing one’s private parts when sitting,
squatting, or trussing up one’s garment while working.

The principal article of clothing at the time of the
Prophet was one of a variety of body shirts, such as the
qamis, or tunics, such as the thawb. The latter was so
basic that the word also simply means “cloth” or, in
the plural, “items of clothing.” Depending on weather,
occasion, or wealth and status, a person might wear
over the body-covering a mantle ( rida ’), a wrap ( burd,
milhafa, shamla, or izar), a coat ( qaba’), or a sleeveless
robe (‘aba ’a). Many of the same garment names
are used for male and female attire, although there
probably were often some gender differences of style.

Following norms going back to the ancient Near
East, covering the head was considered a mark of
modesty for both men and women. Exposing one’s
hair was a sign of arrogance, and the Qur’an threatens
the sinner with being dragged down to hell by his
“lying, sinful forelock” (Sura 104, 15-16). Early
Muslims covered the head with a variety of caps,
such as the qalansuwa (considered so distinctively
Arab that it was specifically forbidden to non-Muslim
subjects by the Pact of ‘Umar after the conquests), a
headcloth, such as the mandil, or a turban (‘imama).
The early turban was probably a simple strip of fabric

159

CLOTHING AND COSTUME

wound about the head and not the composite head-
gear of later medieval and early modern times, which
consists of one or more caps and a winding cloth.
It certainly did not have the significance that it came
to have in the later Middle Ages as “the crown of
the Arabs,” “the badge of Islam,” and “the divider
between unbelief and belief.” Because of the turban’s
later significance, pious legends about the Prophet’s
turban abounded, and one of his epithets came to be
sahib al-imama (the wearer of the turban). Early
hadiths, however, mention him appearing publicly
with his mantle pulled over his head and held in
place with a headband (‘isaba).

With the exception of Muhammad’s wives, whose
special status set them apart, strict veiling for women
does not seem to have been the norm in the early
Muslim community. Around 626-627, the Prophet
received a revelation that in public his and the Believ-
ers’ wives should draw their jilbab, an enveloping
outer wrap, “close about them. . . .so they be recog-
nized and not molested” (Sura XXXIII, 59). Another
Medinese verse (Sura XXIV, 31) enjoins Muslim
women to be modest and cover their bosoms with a
khimar, another female veil-cum-wrap, but makes no
mention of covering the face. It would appear that
strict veiling practices, together with the seclusion of
women, only evolved among the bourgeoisie over
the first two centuries of Islam in emulation of the
Prophet’s personal sunna (practice).

Since many of the most stirring prophetic utter-
ances seemed to imply that Judgment Day was nigh,
the early Islamic community tended toward sartorial
austerity. According to the Qur’an (Sura XXII:23),
the Believers will be clothed with raiment of silk and
bracelets of gold and pearls in Paradise, but according
to the hadith, Muhammad forbade men to indulge in
such luxuries in this world. He did, however, make
exceptions for men with pruritic skin conditions or
body lice, as well as for women. During the century
following the Islamic conquests, this early austerity in
male attire rapidly gave way to greater luxury for the
upper classes, and only the poor and the ascetic pie-
tists continued wearing simple garments. Because of
their plain wool (suf) robes, the ascetics came to be
known as Sufis.

Evolution of the Islamic Vestimentary
System under the Caliphates

The Islamic vestimentary system evolved in the great
caliphate established by the Arab conquests. As noted
at the beginning of this entry, the expanded empire
included three different cultural zones, each with its

own distinctive fashion system. At first, the Arabs,
who were a minority in their own empire, tried to
maintain identifiable differences of attire between
themselves and their subjects. This led to the ghivar
(differentiation) regulations, which required the
dhimmis, or tolerated non-Muslim population, to be
visibly dissimilar in dress from Muslims. These sump-
tuary laws evolved over a long period but were
ascribed by later tradition to the so-called Pact of
‘Umar, which was attributed to Caliph ‘Umar ibn
al-Khattab (r. 634-644). The earliest of these rules
probably only date from the time of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd
al-‘Aziz (r. 717-720). The requirement to have dis-
tinctly distinguishing clothing also applied to the
Arab militia that stood guard over the empire. Arab
warriors in the eastern provinces, for example, were
forbidden from wearing the Persian khaftan (cuirass)
and ran (leggings). However, by the end of the
Umayyad period, the Arabs living in Khurasan had
become increasingly assimilated into the local culture,
and this certainly included their style of dress.

The fusion of vestimentary styles and a movement
away from the earlier austerity were already taking
place in the highest echelons of Islamic society shortly
after the conquests. Both historical sources and artis-
tic representations attest to the fact that some of the
Umayyad rulers wore Persian-style coats, pantaloons,
and the regal, high, miterlike hat known as the qalan-
suwa tawila. They also adopted, from both the
Byzantine and the Sasanian courts, the custom of
wearing special royal garments of such luxury fabrics
as silk, satin, and brocade. Umayyad official attire
was white, while the protocol of their successors, the
‘Abbasids, required black. The Umayyads further
emulated the Byzantine and Persian rulers by estab-
lishing state factories to produce royal fabrics with
embroidered bands (tiraz ) containing written inscrip-
tions. Along with a mention of the caliph’s name in
the Friday sermon, having his name inscribed on tiraz
and on coins came to be regarded as the ruler’s
prerogative. Garments of these regal fabrics were
not only worn by the caliphs and their retinues but
also were given as gifts. The bestowal of the khil ‘ a , or
robe of honor, became a standard practice in Islamic
courts throughout the Middle Ages and continued
until early modern times. Not only did the wearing
of luxurious clothing spread down from the elite to
the bourgeoisie, but also private ateliers began imitat-
ing royal tiraz. We know both from actual relics
preserved in museums and from the documents of
the Cairo Geniza that ordinary people who could
afford it copied the practice of bestowing robes of
honor on family and friends. Valuable articles of
clothing were considered part of personal wealth
and were handed down as family heirlooms.

160

CLOTHING AND COSTUME

Kaftan. Turkish, late sixteenth-early seventeenth century CE (CT22668). Credit: Victoria & Albert Museum, London/ Art
Resource. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Great Britain.

During the ninth and tenth centuries, fashion
consciousness reached new heights in Baghdad.
Sartorial style and elegance formed part of the polite
cultural ideal of adab. In his manual for members of
refined society, Kitab al-Muwashsha ’ aw al-Zarf wa-l-
Zurafa’ (The Book of Ornamentation on Elegance and
Elegant People), the aesthete al-Washsha’ (d. 936)
devotes several chapters to proper attire and the
etiquette of dress for members of both sexes. Many

Persian garments were integrated into the Islamic
vestimentary system during that time. The ‘Abbasids
increasingly adopted elements from Sasanian court
protocols, such as red leather boots. As a demon-
stration of their Arabian roots, Islamic legitimacy,
and charisma, the ‘Abbasid caliphs would on certain
ceremonial occasions don the simple woolen burda
(cloak) that had supposedly belonged to the Prophet
Muhammad.

161

CLOTHING AND COSTUME

The Fatimid dynasty (909-1171) exceeded both the
Umayyads and the ‘Abbasids in their use of clothing
as part of their pomp and ceremony. A government
agency oversaw the production, storage, and distri-
bution of seasonal ceremonial attire for all officials
from the caliph down to minor civil servants. A
complete outfit might consist of a dozen articles of
clothing. Fatimid ceremonial costumes were mostly
white and embroidered with gold and silver thread
in accordance with the dynasty’s official image as
bearers of divine light (nur ilahi).

Turkish Military Dynasties and Later
Medieval Fashion Trends

Yedida Stillman has noted three significant trends
occurring in the Islamic vestimentary system during
the late eleventh through thirteenth centuries under
the Turkish military dynasties of the Seljuks, the
Ayyubids, and the Mamluks, and under the Mongol
Ilkhanids. These trends were (1) the introduction of
new garments and fashions from Central Asia and the
Far East; (2) increasing social stratification reflected
by clothing; and (3) ever-stricter interpretation and
enforcement of the dress code for dhimmis.

The first category included a variety of Asian
coats, jackets, and vests (qaba’ turki, qaba' tatari,
bughlutaq, sallariyya, malluta); caps and hats (shar-
bush, kalawta, saraquj, zamt); and military belts
(hiyasa, band) and boots (khifaf) emblazoned with
heraldic devices. Originally reserved only for the rul-
ing military elite, some variants of these items were in
time adopted by the bourgeoisie.

The increased social stratification under the feu-
dalistic military regimes was reflected in the dress of
the different classes of society. Not only did the “men
of the sword” (arbab al-suyuf) have their own dis-
tinctive fashions, but so did the bureaucrat “men of
the pen” (arbab al-aqlam), the religious scholars
(‘ulama’), the urban notables (al-ayan), the Sufis,
the young mens’ associations (al-fityan), and the
masses (al-'amma). During this period, for example,
the Persian shawl known as the taylasan was the
badge of qadis and jurists, and the miterlike qalan-
suwa tawila, a symbol of royalty under the Umayyads
and a fashionable hat under the ‘Abbasids, became
the mark of a dervish.

The strictness of application of ghiyar for the
clothing of dhimmis was due both to the increased
social stratification of the times and to a hardening
of attitudes toward non-Muslims. The Mamluks
imposed a color code on dhimmi women’s outdoor
clothing. Jewish women were to be identified by a

yellow izar, Christian women by a blue one, and
Samaritans by red. In Sharifan Morocco, Jewish
men (the only dhimmis) had to wear black, and in
Zaydi Yemen, Jewish males and females dark indigo.
In Safavid Iran, dhimmi men wore an identifying
patch, while their womenfolk were forbidden to veil
their faces like Muslim women.

Overall, the Islamic vestimentary system remained
remarkably constant both in its basic form and in
ideology throughout most of the Middle Ages.
There was continual evolution, introduction of new
garments, and regional stylistic variation, but the fu-
sion in different proportions over time and space of
the three basic components — Arabian, Hellenistic,
and Irano-Turkic — was the essential hallmark of the
fashion system. This system would only begin to ex-
perience radical changes during the nineteenth cen-
tury as a concomitant of modernization and the
impact of the West.

Norman A. Stillman

Further Reading

Album, Stephan. Marsden’s Numismata Orientalia Illus-
trata. New York: Attic Books, 1977.

. A Checklist of Islamic Coins. 2d ed. Santa Rosa:

private publishing house, 1998.

Bates, Michael. Islamic Coins. ANS Handbook 2. New
York: American Numismatic Society, 1982.

Broome, Michael. A Handbook of Islamic Coins. London:
Seaby, 1985.

Codrington, O. A Manual of Musulman Numismatics. Lon-
don: Royal Asiatic Society, 1904.

Deyell, John. Living Without Silver: The Monetary History
of Early Mediaeval North India. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press India, 1999.

163

COINS AND CURRENCY

Ilisch, Lutz, ed. Sylloge Numorum Arabicorum Tubingen.
6 vols. Tubingen: Wasmuth, 1993.

Lane-Poole, Stanley. Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the
British Museum. 10 vol. London: British Museum,
1875-1890.

Lavoix, Henri. Catalogue des Monnaies Musulmanes de la
Bibliotheque Nationale. 3 vol. Paris: Bibliotheque Natio-
nal, 1887-1896.

Mitchener, Michael. Oriental Coins and Their Values: The
World of Islam. London: Hawkins, 1977.

Plant, Richard. Arabic Coins and How to Read Them. Lon-
don: Seaby, 1973.

Roberts, James. “Early Islamic Coins.” http://users.rcn.
com/j-roberts/home.htm, 2005.

Treadwell, Luke, ed. Sylloge of Islamic Coins in the Ashmo-
lean. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University, 1999.

Zambaur, Eduard von. Die Munzprdgungen des Islams,
Zeitlich und Ortlich Geordnet. I. Der Westen unci Osten
bis zum Indus mit Synoptischen Tabellen. Wiesbaden:
Franz Steiner Verlag, 1968.

COMMANDING GOOD AND
FORBIDDING EVIL

The principle of commanding the good and
forbidding the evil (al-amr bi al-ma'ruf wa al-nahy
‘an al-munkar), which is applied to any action
promoting what is good and prohibiting what is rep-
rehensible, formulates a religious and moral duty
based on the Qur’an. The terms ma'ruf and munkar
in the expression occur in the Qur’an sometimes
in tandem, as in al-amr bi al-ma'ruf wa al-nahy ‘an
al-munkar (Q 3:110, 114; 7:157; 9:71, 112; 22:41), and
at times separately (Q 4:114; 5:79; 16:90; 29:45).

In its basic sense, ma'ruf refers to good manners
and behaviors that are well known, recognized, and
embraced and that are not considered to be strange
when seen among people, while munkar is the misdeed
that is not approved and accepted. Discussions that
took place in the Muslim community in political,
dogmatic (confessional), and juristical domains and
the distinction of reason and tradition (aql and naql)
resulting therefrom, gave way to the reformation of
the meanings of ma'ruf and munkar in accordance
with this distinction. Thus, these two terms, in addi-
tion to their religious and moral significance, gained
political and juristical content. While most Mu’tazi-
lite theologians called ma'ruf what reason deems as
good and munkar what reason deems evil in accor-
dance with their position on the issue of good and bad
(husn and qubh), the Salafis and the Ash‘arites
defined ma'ruf as the deeds and utterances that the
law says are good, and munkar as what the law says is
improper. No matter how they are determined, all
political, theological, and jurisprudential schools are
in complete agreement that performing this duty is

obligatory. However, there is a disagreement on
whether this duty must be performed individually or
collectively. There is a difference of opinion on such
issues as to the way in which this principle should
be implemented and the means of this implemen-
tation. The principle of commanding the good and
forbidding the evil appears to have been enforced
in two ways: (1) formally undertaken by the state, or
(2) left to the individual responsibility of the Muslims.
The former was institutionalized with the name of
hisbah in such a way as to include the preservation
of morality and the public order in society. Hisbah
was intended to deal with the violation of individual,
communal, and state rights and with the munkar
about which there was no disagreement.

Commenting on the verse “ let there be a community
of you, calling to all that is good, commanding what is
right and forbidding what is wrong ” (Q 3:104), scholars
such as Abu YaTa, al-Juwaynl, al-Ghazall, Fakhr
al-Din al-RazI, Ibn Taymiyya, and Zamakhshari
maintained that this duty was to be performed by
those who are knowledgeable about ma'ruf and
munkar and the methods of commanding and pro-
hibiting such things and those who possess good
qualities.

By citing the prophetic hadith that reads “ whoever
of you sees wrong being committed, let him rectify it
with his hand, if he is unable, then with his tongue, and
if he is unable, then with this heart, which is the bare
minimum of faith,” Muslim scholars also held that
everyone should carry out this duty with their hands,
tongues, and hearts in accordance with their ability.
Among the scholars, there are those who, restricting
this duty to tongue and heart, disapproved of the use
of force, and there are also those who contended that
the use of force and coercion should be resorted to
when tongue and heart are ineffective.

The Kharijis asserted that this duty must be carried
out, regardless of the circumstances, with anyone who
goes astray, be it the state, the community, or the
individual, and that the use of force and arms is
required to do it. The Kharijis, who had as their
motto the principle of commanding the good and
forbidding the evil, accused anyone who did not
agree with them of deviating from God’s true path,
and hence claimed that these deviants from God’s
path could only be fought through waging holy war
against them. Grounding the legitimacy and the ne-
cessity of revolting against the state in this principle,
the Kharijis had the lion’s share in this principle’s
gaining a political content. The Ibadis, a Khariji
faction, though disapproving of the use of weapon
against people, believed that the tyrannical ruler has
to be hampered and ousted by any means necessary,
with or without arms. Although the Zaydiyyah and

164

COMMENTARY

the Imamiyyah of the Shi‘i were in favor, like the
Kharijis, of the use of force and arms against tyranni-
cal political authority, the Imanns in particular sus-
pended this practice until the Imam in occultation
appears.

Muslim scholars such as al-Hasan al-Basrl and
Abu Hanlfah viewed “the commanding the good
and prohibiting the evil” as more of a moral principle
and thus did not approve of the use of force against
the state and the community on the ground that it
would effect mistrust among people, harm the in-
tegrity of the community, and cause further social
disintegration and unrest.

As against the Khawarij, there was a group who
considered al-amr wa al-nahy to be subject to the
aforementioned conditions, and moreover did not
go beyond the confines of the heart and the tongue
for its sake. Ahmad b. Hanbal is counted among
them. According to this group, a bloody uprising for
the sake of struggling against unlawful activities is
not permissible. The Salafiyyah, which also includes
the people of hadith, did not deem it appropriate to
resort to the use of force against political authority,
even in the event that people are murdered and family
members are harmed, in order to preserve social
peace, to keep social order unharmed, and to prevent
the community from breaking up due to disorder
and corruption. Regarding this principle as one of
the five fundamentals that complement the faith,
the Mu‘tazilah held that to make the good prevail
in social life and to avoid the evil, gentle language
or method should first be used; if it is not effective,
then a harsh expression may be employed; and if
this does not prevail, then hand or force (sword) are
to be used until the goal has been achieved. The
Mu‘tazilah accepted the conditions for al-amr wa
al-nahy, but, not limiting to the heart and the
tongue, maintained that if the unlawful practices
become common, or if the state is oppressive and
unjust, it is obligatory for Muslims to rise in armed
revolt. The Mu‘tazilah perceived this principle as
the legitimate source of revolt during the Umayyad
period and determined the method and conditions
of revolting against the government in accordance
with this principle. However, when they rose to
power during the reign of the ‘Abbasid caliph
Ma’mun, the Mu‘tazilah made use of the same prin-
ciple as a means to coerce others into accepting their
views. For them, in order to rise against the authority,
certain conditions such as “just imam,” “loyal
and sincere followers,” and “hope of success” must
obtain.

In modern times, it is possible to consider within
the extension of this principle the activities of the
opposition parties in politics and the activities of

civil organizations for protecting the rights of the
individual in Muslim societies.

Mahmut Ay

Further Reading

Abu Ya‘la al-Farra’. Al-Mu'tamad ft Usui al-Din. Beirut,
1974, 194-199.

Al-Ash‘arl. Maqaldt al-Islamiyym. Wiesbaden, 1963, ii,
451M52.

Bayjuri. Tuhfat al-Mund. Beirut, 1983, 202-203.

Cagirici, Mustafa. “Emir bi’l Ma‘ruf Nehiy ani’l Munker.”
El (TDV) xi. (1995): 138-141.

Cook, Michael. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong
in Islamic Thought. Cambridge, MA, 2000.

Fakhr al-DIn al-RazI. Asas al-Taqdls. Cairo, 1328 H, 88-89.

Al-Ghazall. Ihya ‘Uliim al-Din. Cairo, 1967, ii, 179, 155, 455.

Ibn Manzur. Lisdn cd-'Arab. Beirut, 1956, ix, 238-240.

Ibn Taymiyyah. al-Hisbah fi al-Islam. Cairo, 1318 H,
54-55 ff.

Jalal al-Din al-‘UmarI. al-Amr bi al-Ma'riif wa al-Nahy ‘an
al-Munkar. Kuwait, 1400 H.

Al-Juwaynl. Kitdb al-Irshad. Cairo, 1950, 368-370.

Madelung, W. "Amr bi Ma'ruf.” EIR, i, 92-95.

Mahmut Ay. Mu'tazilah and Politics. Istanbul, 2002,
193-203.

Al-MasTidl. Muriij al-Dhahab. Beirut, 1965, iii, 154.

Al-Mawardl. Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah. Cairo, 1973, 240.

Al-Mukhtasar ft Usui al-DTn. In Rasd’il al-Ad! wa
al-Tawhtd, ed. Muhammad Ammarah, 248-249. Cairo,
1971, i.

Al-QadI ‘Abd al-Jabbar. Sharh al-Usul al-Khcimsah. (Cairo,
1988), 741-756.

Raghib al-Isfahanl. al-Mufradat ft Gharib al-Qur’an. Cairo,
1980, entries of “arf” and “nkr.”

Tahanawl. Kashshdf Istildhat al-Funun. Istanbul, 1984, ii,
994, 997, 1003.

Wensinck, A.J. The Muslim Creed. Cambridge, MA, 1932,
106-107.

Al-Zamakhsharl. al-Kashshaf an Haqd’iq Ghawamid al-
TanzTl wa ‘Uyun al-AqdwTl ft Wuiuh al-Ta’wTl. Beirut,
1947, i, 396 ff.

COMMENTARY

Commentary is a type of scholarship that attempts to
elucidate, complement, correct, or even sophisticate
an existing body of literature. Sometimes the under-
lying assumption is that the body of literature in
question requires a commentary because it was pro-
duced at such a time in the past that its meanings and /
or historical circumstances are concealed to the cur-
rent reader or the knowledge in it requires updating.
However, in some cases, commentaries are authored
precisely to infuse into that body of literature ideas
and beliefs that are not there in the first place, and
subsequently make it harmonious with those cham-
pioned by the commentators. Commentaries are
extremely important for the proper understanding of

165

COMMENTARY

the dissemination of knowledge in the medieval Islam-
ic world. Invariably, it was in commentaries that
authors embedded their own views and sometimes
corrections on earlier knowledge and dogma and
opened new venues for the succeeding generations. In
medieval Islamic scholarship, hundreds of commen-
taries were produced on a variety of religious and
secular subjects, ranging from the Qur’an (being the
most prestigious subject to compile a commentary on),
Hadith, Sufism, and theology, to grammar, poetry,
adab, and science.

Qur’an

A commentary on the Qur’an usually engages one
or more of the following issues: meaning(s) of par-
ticular words and expressions, grammar and proper
reading, circumstances of revelation, abrogating and
abrogated verses, and political or theological impli-
cations of particular verses. The earliest Qur’an com-
mentators from the first century of Islam (seventh
century CE) seem not to have had a comprehensive
approach to interpreting Islam’s scripture. Rather,
their commentary glosses are fragmentary and tend
to represent one particular point of view. Later, in
the second/eighth century, more comprehensive com-
mentaries with a variety of opinions started to appear,
such as the Tafsir of ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani
(d. 211/826). Commentaries on the grammar of the
Qur’an also started to appear around that time, such
as Ma'ani al-Qur’an by al-Farra’ (d. 207/822). The
most notable commentary from the medieval period
is that of al-Tabari (d. 310/923), entitled Jami al-bay an
‘an ta’wil ay al-Qur’an, which preserves a large number
of commentary glosses by scholars from the first two
centuries of Islam whose commentaries, if they ever
existed as individual compilations, are otherwise lost
to us. Other influential commentaries include Haqa’iq
al-tafsir by al-Sulami (d. 412/1021), which extracts
the “hidden” mystical meanings of the verses of the
Qur’an; al-Kashf wa-l-bayan ‘an tafsir al-Qur’an by
al-Tha ‘labi (d. 425/1037), which incorporates Sunni,
Shi‘i, and Sufi interpretations but leaves out, inten-
tionally it seems, the Mu’tazila views; al-Tibyan fi
tafsir al-Qur’an by Abu Ja‘far al-Tusi (d. 460/1068),
which preserves the traditions of several Twelver Shi‘i
imams; al- Kashshafby al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144),
which preserves moderate views of Mu‘tazila com-
mentators; and Tafsir al-Jalalayn, started by Jalal
al-Din al-Mahalli (d. 864/1459) and completed by
his student Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505),
which is the most popular commentary in the Arab
world because of its conciseness.

Hadith

The Qur’an was not the only religious text that
received the attention of medieval Muslim commen-
tators. The Hadith, perceived by most Muslims as
second in importance to the Qur’an, received its
share of commentaries. Such works were authored
precisely to verify the authenticity of the hadith s they
contain and their transmission, as well as the circum-
stances that allegedly led the Prophet Muhammad to
utter them. For instance, several commentaries were
authored on the famous Saluh of al-Bukhari (d. 256/
870); the most notable of them is Fath al-bari bi-slwrh
sahih al-Bukhari by Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (d. 852/
1448). Similarly, commentaries were written on the
Muwatta’ of Malik ibn Anas (d. 179/796), like the
one by al-Zurqani (d. 1122/1710), and on the Sahih
of Muslim (d. 261/875), like the one by al-Nawawi
(d. 676/1277). Commentaries on Hadith were also
authored by grammarians who were eager to ex-
plain away certain grammatical inaccuracies in the
words attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, like
the one by Ibn Malik (d. 672/1274) on the Sahih of
al-Bukhari.

Sufism and Theology

Sufi commentaries were written sometimes to “un-
veil” the mystical treasures hidden in a given text,
like those on the Qur’an, but were also authored to
clarify and simplify a complicated, difficult-to-com-
prehend, mystical language for the novice mystics.
For instance, Shams al-Din Shahrazuri (fl. seventh/
thirteenth century) wrote a commentary on the Sufi
gnostic work Hikmat al-ishraq of Shihab al-Din
al-Suhrawardi (d. 587/1191). Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din of
al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) was the subject of a major
commentary by al-Zabidi (d. 1205/1791), entitled
Ithaf al-sada al-muttaqin bi-sharh ihya’ ‘ulum al-din.
Several commentaries were authored on al-Futuhat al-
makkiyya by Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 638/1240), including Sharh
mushkil al-futuhat al-makiyya by ‘Abd al-Karim al-Jili
(d. ca. 832/1428). Similarly, the mystical poem Qasi-
dat al-Burda of al-Busiri (d. 694/1294) was the subject
of several commentaries. Theological commentaries
were also written on topics ranging from the one
hundred names of God, such as Lawami' al-bayyinat
sharh asma’ Allah ta'ala wa-l-sifat by Fakhr al-Din
al-Razi (d. 606/1210), to other theological compila-
tions, such as the several commentaries written on
the Kitab al-fiqh al-akbar attributed to Abu Hanifa
(d. 150/767).

166

COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET

Grammar, Poetry, and Adab

Besides the several commentaries on the grammar of
the Qur’an, one can mention the Alfiyya of Ibn Malik
(d. 672/1274), a thousand-line poem (a summary of his
2757-line poem) on Arabic grammar, which received
more than forty commentaries, the most notable of
which is that of Ibn ‘Aqil (d. 769/1367), which in turn
received minor commentaries, like the one by al-
Suyuti (d. 91 1/1505). The grammar book of Sibawayh
(known as Kitab Sibawayh ) also received several com-
mentaries. Poetry, especially pre-Islamic poetry,
received tremendous attention on the part of medieval
commentators. For instance, several commentaries
were produced on the seven or ten most-celebrated
epics (al-mu'allaqat) . Other examples include com-
mentaries on the poetry of al-Mutanabbi (d. 354/
955), like Shark diwan al-Mutanabbi by al-Wahidi
(d. 468/1075), and on the celebrated Diwan al-Hamasa,
a collection of poems attributed to Abu Tammam
(d. 231/845). The belletristic masterpiece Maqamat of
al-Hariri (d. 516/1122) received several commentaries
as well.

Science and Philosophy

Science and philosophy received their share of com-
mentaries, and it is in such commentaries that one is
likely to encounter the original contribution of Mus-
lim, Christian, and Jewish scholars from the medieval
Islamic World, who corrected or elucidated the
knowledge presented in earlier Greek and Arabic
books. Because of their significance, some of these
commentaries were translated into Latin in the late
Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Several com-
mentaries were written on Ptolemy’s Almagest on
astronomy, and on Euclid’s Elements on geometry.
With respect to medicine, Ibn al-Nafis (d. 687/1288)
probably stands out as one of the most prolific
medieval commentators. He authored an extensive
commentary on the medical encyclopedia al-Qamm fi
l-tibb of Ibn Sina (d. 428/1037) and another commen-
tary on the Aphorisms, the Prognostics, and De natura
hominis of Hippocrates. Logic was also an attractive
subject — Ibn Rushd (d. 595/1198) wrote on the Logic
of Aristotle ( Shark al-burhan li-Aristu ) ; but it was
Porphyry’s Isagogep that received the most attention,
like the commentary on it by the Nestorian monk
Abu ’1-Faraj ibn al-Tayyib (d. 435/1043). In philoso-
phy, Ibn Sina’s two masterpieces, Kitab al-Shifa’ and
Kitab al-isharat wa-l-tanbihat, are the most original
philosophical compilations ever produced in medi-
eval Islam and feature extensive commentaries on

the philosophies of Aristotle, Plotinus, and al-Farabi
(d. 339/950).

Suleiman Mourad

See also Scriptural Exegesis
Further Reading

Rippin, Andrew, ed. The Qur’an: Formative Interpretation.

Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1999.

Saleh, Walid. The Formation of the Classical Tafsir Tradi-
tion: The Qur’an Commentary of al-Tha ‘lain (d. 427/
1035 ) . Leiden: Brill, 2004.

COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET

The term Companions refers to anyone living in the
original community of the Prophet, though the pre-
cise definition varies greatly. In Arabic sources, it is
rendered sahaba. Companions are generally held in
high esteem due to their close relationship to the
Prophet. They are a source of prophetic traditions,
as well as heroes and role models for later generations
of Muslims.

Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, was the first to
convert to the new faith in approximately 612 CE
and may be considered the earliest Companion. She
was followed by the prophet’s nephew, ‘Ali b. Abi
Talib, the Prophet’s adopted son Zayd, and Abu
Bakr, who would later become the first caliph. The
early conversion of influential and respected Quraysh,
such as the Prophet’s uncle, Hamza b. Abi Talib, and
‘Umar b. al-Khattab, helped establish respect for the
new faith.

Many Companions faced persecution for their
beliefs. At Mecca, most clans in Quraysh allowed
the harassment and, in extreme cases, the torture
and execution of kinsmen who converted to Islam.
These circumstances led a large number to emigrate
to Ethiopia in approximately 615. When the Banu
Hashim withdrew its protection of the prophet after
the death of Abu Talib, the Prophet and most remain-
ing Companions emigrated to Yathrib, to the north of
Mecca, in 622.

The sanctuary at Yathrib, later called Medina,
allowed the Muslim community to grow. Because
belief in Islam rather than loyalty to a tribe or clan
formed the basic bond in the new state, the closeness
of companionship, often coinciding with priority in
conversion, had important implications in deciding
social and political rank. Many Medinese converts
became close advisors of the Prophet despite their
tribal origin. When the Prophet showed favors to
later converts from among the Meccan nobility later
in his life, many early converts, including those from
Mecca, complained bitterly.

167

COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET

The decision, upon the death of the Prophet, to
keep the Muslim community united politically en-
sured for several decades the primacy of Companions
in Muslim government. The caliphate was established
in the Quraysh. The first four caliphs, however, were
all close Companions. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, was
one of the earliest converts and had no important clan
affiliation to aid his rise to power.

The caliph ‘Umar b. al-Khattab formalized the
privileged status of Companions. He created a
diwan, which fixed the stipends of Muslims according
to the approximate date of their conversion and ser-
vice to Islam. Those who joined the community be-
fore the battle of Badr in 624 received higher stipends
than those who converted before the Pledge of Huda-
biyya or the Conquest of Mecca.

Much of the prestige and authority of Compa-
nions, nevertheless, remained charismatic. As the
Muslim conquests brought large numbers of countries
and peoples into the Muslim fold, either as converts
or dhimmis. Companions provided an important link
to the original Muslim community at Mecca and
Medina. They held themselves as the guardians of
the true Islamic tradition. People turned to them for
arbitration much as they once turned to the Prophet.
They did not hesitate to criticize even a caliph where
they deemed him in error.

These different views of companionship led to
open conflict during the reign of the caliph ‘Uthman
b. ‘Affan and the First Fitna (656-661 C.E.). Al-
though ‘Uthman was himself a Companion, many
Companions turned the community against him for
his innovations and his favoritism of his clan in dis-
pensing favors and appointments. The Companion
and son of the first caliph, Muhammad b. Abi Bakr,
led a faction that stormed his house and killed him. In
the First Fitna, which followed, Companions led and
fought on all major sides. At the Battle of Camel, the
celebrated Companions Talha b. ‘Ubayd Allah and
al-Zubayr b. ‘Awwam and the Prophet’s favorite wife,
‘A’isha bt. Abi Bakr fought against the Prophet’s
nephew, ‘Ali b. Abi Talib. In the end, Mu’awiya b.
Abi Sufyan, the son of one of the Prophet’s Meccan
persecutors, became caliph.

Subsequent years saw the sharp decline in the polit-
ical influence of Companions, but not in their general
esteem. When Mu’awiya died in 680, his son succeeded
him as caliph. Although most Companions would
have resisted the innovation of hereditary succession,
very few survived. Those who remained had been very
young at the time of the Prophet’s death and were
known mainly for their activities since that time as
representatives of one faction or another. Hussayn b.
‘Ali, for example, had become the recognized leader of
the Banu Hashim, representing the Prophet’s extended

family and descendants. He revolted, but his following
could not match the resources of the caliphal state. He
was quickly massacred.

Nostalgia for an earlier era, nevertheless, kept alive
veneration for the memory of Companions. A num-
ber of piety-minded individuals and groups emulated
their simple austere piety. This piety inspired new
forms of popular activism. Individuals such as al-
Hasan al-Basri, Ibn Sirin, and Ibrahim al-Nakha‘i
became renowned for their modest lifestyles, religious
knowledge, and frank judgments. Kharijis, promoting
a more radical agenda, disavowed the corrupt centers
of caliphal power. They formed small bands in the
countryside and waged ceaseless battle against the
government.

The development of Islamic law in the eighth,
ninth, and tenth centuries greatly elevated the moral
status of Companions among Sunni Muslims. As
scholars sought to validate traditions of the Prophet
upon which much of Sunni law rested, they resolved
the character of every Companion to have been un-
impeachable. If any report could be reliably traced
back to one, then it was presumed to be true. This
doctrine became known as the “Rectification of the
Companions” (ta ‘dil al-sahaba). It eliminated the
need to discuss and judge numerous controversies
that had divided different groups of Companions
and which may have called into question fundamental
principles of belief. It led, nevertheless, to disputes
over who actually qualified as a Companion, with
some insisting a candidate must have attained a ma-
ture age or have visited the Prophet before his or her
death.

The doctrine had a profound impact on Sunni
historiography. Later Sunni historians treat early con-
troversies with great unease. Their descriptions are
generally terse. Where they must, they choose reports
that are theologically sound and refrain from assign-
ing blame to any known Companion. While they
admit something happened, they often claim the rea-
sons for such a thing happening are not known. They
criticize earlier historians as indiscriminant in their
choice of reports, which ascribe a wide range of
motives and calculations to many Companions.

At the same time, while early writers subsumed
both Companions and subsequent transmitters of
prophetic traditions in their biographical dictionaries,
later writers sometimes devoted dictionaries to the
lives of Companions exclusively. The later works at-
tempt to decide definitively who was a Companion
and to assert their excellent character beyond any
doubt. They often add anecdotal information absent
from earlier sources without giving documentation.
Ibn al-Athir’s discussion of Talha b. ‘Ubayd Allah
and al-Zubayr b. ‘Awwam illustrates this tendency.

168

CONCUBINAGE

He mentions the great service each provided for
Islam, the favors the Prophet bestowed upon them
that recognized this service, and the excellent reputa-
tions they enjoyed among their peers. However, when
he reaches the Battle of Camel, where both opposed
the Prophet’s nephew and the caliph ‘Ali b. Abi Talib,
he gives only a lengthy account about how each, upon
meeting ‘Ali on the battlefield, withdrew rather than
fight their fellow Companion. Both were later killed
against ‘Ali’s wishes. Despite the detail, Ibn al-Athir
never gives the sources of his information.

Shi‘is, in contrast, maintained a more critical per-
spective. Their faith emphasized their loyalty to the
Prophet’s descendants through ‘Ali b. Abi Talib and
his daughter Fatima. They held most, but not all,
Companions to be virtuous. As a group, they failed
to support ‘All’s claims to the caliphate. Many were
responsible for acts of violence against ‘Ali’s suppor-
ters. The caliph ‘Uthman, for example, exiled the
prominent Abu Dharr, thereby bringing about his
early death. Talha, al-Zubayr, and Mu‘awiya are also
objects of reprobation. Shi‘i historical writers, as a
result, extol the virtues of ‘Ali and his followers but
transmit more freely than Sunni sources reports that
give more human characterizations, if not impugn the
integrity, of many other Companions.

Stuart D. Sears

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghaba fi ma‘rafat al-aeaiaba. Ibn Sa'd,
Tabaqat al-Kubra. Ibn al-Iajar al-‘Asqalani, and al-
Iaeaba fi tamyiz al-aeaiaba. Ibn Hisham. The Life of
Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Icdaq's Sirat rasul
Allah , ed. and trans. A. Guillaume. Oxford, [1955] 2001.

Further Reading

Coulson, N. A History of Islamic Law. Delhi, [1964] 1997.
Hallaq, W. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cam-
bridge, UK, 2005.

Hodgson, M.G.S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and
History in a World Civilization. Vol I. Chicago, 1974.
Kennedy, H. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.

London and New York, 1986.

Shoufani, E. Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia.
Beirut and Toronto, 1972.

CONCUBINAGE

In the Muslim world, a concubine was a female slave
who had a sexual relationship with her Muslim mas-
ter. According to Islamic law, concubines, like slaves
in general, had to be of non-Muslim origin, on the
basis that they were legitimate booty from holy war.

There were benefits and drawbacks for both the
master and the concubine. For the master, control
over the concubine was much greater than that of a
wife. He could initiate and terminate the relationship
at will and could have as many concubines as he could
afford, unlike the limit of four wives. He also did not
have to pledge a dowry to his partner, which wives
would often use as a bargaining chip for their own
well-being. This relationship of a concubine was also
widely respected in Islamic law and most often carried
no social stigma. The downside for the master includ-
ed three points: (1) the initial cost of a slave was often
greater than a dowry, (2) he had to respect the off-
spring of a concubine as his own child, and (3) he
owed basic obligations to humane treatment for the
concubine as a slave. The concubine often had little
power, except when she bore her master a child. At
this time she held the status of umm-i veled, namely, a
mother who could advocate the well-being of his
child. The concubine faced many more disadvantages,
as she had no power to resist the advances of his
master and was subject to his mercy for her financial
well-being, including inheritance rights, except for
any children. If the concubinage was terminated, she
had to wait forty-five days before she could enter a
relationship with a second party.

Concubinage was common in the Muslim world,
beginning with the initial Arab conquests when a
massive influx of non-Muslim captives were taken.
A booming trade of female slaves continued through-
out the medieval period. Umayyads, ‘Abbasids,
Fatimids, Mamluks, the Crimean Tatars, Seljukids,
and Ottomans alike often took the slaves from the
Caucasus, the Crimea, western Ukraine, and the
Balkans.

Concubinage was practiced at all levels of society.
On a popular level, concubines were most often taken
on the frontiers, where slaves were taken by armies,
raiding forces, or slave traders. Concubines often had
a strategic value for Muslim soldiers in a border
garrison, as they could help establish a new social
group that would help consolidate Muslim power in
the region. This can be seen particularly in the Otto-
man-area regions such as Tunis, western Anatolia,
and the Balkans, where non-Muslim concubines
bore a new Muslim generation that identified itself
with the interest of the emerging regime. Concubines
were commonly sold in market towns and large met-
ropolitan areas. Many urban Muslim subjects saw
concubines as an attractive relationship when the sin-
gle female population was low.

The most famous concubines were those which
rulers and high Muslim administrators took as their
own. While a number of ‘ Abbasid and Mamluk rulers
had concubine mothers, the Ottoman dynasty was by

169

CONCUBINAGE

far the most concubine dominated. Sultans started to
have concubines as consorts at least since the mid-
fourteenth century, when Sultan Murad I fathered his
son, the future Bayezid I, with a concubine. Sultans
still occasionally took wives, however, since it could
help cement regional alliances with outside dynasties.
After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the
Ottoman Sultans began to only have children from
concubines, since having a wife entailed granting sig-
nificant privileges to someone besides the sultan. Con-
cubines also fit very well within an emerging palace
system in Istanbul, which regulated all members as
slaves of circumstance. Concubines who inhabited the
harem, or female section of the palace, and had rela-
tions with the sultan had the right to bear only one
male child. Having such a child was a greatly sought
honor. Yet their male children competed with all
their half-brothers to become the next sovereign. In
the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a son who
succeeded to the throne regularly murdered all of his
half-brothers in the name of a unified sultanic author-
ity. If the son was somehow able to become a succes-
sor, the concubine, as the mother of the sultan, could
exert enormous privilege, including control over all
female members of the court. Even if she did not
succeed in this ultimate aim, a concubine held an
extremely influential social position that compared
with many of the greatest Ottoman military and ad-
ministrative officials. Many also were eventually
married to many of these officials, as they too were
originally slaves of the palace.

Y ork Allan Norman

Further Reading

Brockopp, Jonathan E. Slavery in Islamic Law: An Exami-
nation of Early Maliki Jurisprudence. Unpublished dis-
sertation. Yale University, 1995.

Brunschvig, R. “Abd.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. Online
edition, 2001.

Pierce, Leslie P. The Imperial Harem Women and Sovereign-
ty in the Ottoman Empire. New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1993.

Rapoport, Yossef. Marriage and Divorce in the Muslim
Near East, 1250-1517. Unpublished dissertation. Prince-
ton University, June 2002.

Semerdjian, Vivian Elyse. “Off the Straight Path”: Gender,
Public Morality and Legal Administration in Ottoman
Haleppo, Syria. Unpublished dissertation. Georgetown
University, October 2002.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MEDINA

The Constitution of Medina is the modern name for
an ancient Muslim document embedded in the text of
the biography of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn
Ishaq (d. AH 151/768 CE) in the recension of Ibn

Hisham (d. 218/833). The document consists of a set
of articles that bind the subscribing tribal groupings
in the oasis of Medina to a single polity through a
strong mutual alliance that is both offensive and de-
fensive. Each clan remains a separate constituent unit
of the new polity, with accountability to the whole
group and responsibility for the actions of its mem-
bers. No member clan is to shelter or protect anyone
betraying or acting against the Medinan polity, par-
ticularly the Qurashi enemies of the Muslims that had
recently arrived from Mecca. Nevertheless, the right
of protecting other outsiders is accorded to all indi-
vidual tribal members according to existing custom,
except that a woman may only be granted that status
with the approval of her own clan.

As a collectivity, the members of the Medinan
polity are all identified as believers (mu’minun) and
one community (umma), whether Muslims or Jews,
reflecting perhaps the situation shown in Qur’an 2:62,
3:64, and 5:69, among other verses. That is, in opposi-
tion to the pagans, all of the members of the Medinan
polity believe in God and the Last Day, providing
an ideological basis for the polity. Also, the constitu-
tion declares the inner part (jawf) of Medina an
inviolable sanctuary (haram) like Mecca. This decla-
ration further emphasizes the establishment of a zone
of safety and peace among the parties to the agree-
ment. The constitution authorizes little internal
political structure or enforcement mechanism. Such
central authority as exists appears limited to the
Prophet Muhammad, who is the final arbiter of dis-
putes that may arise, including those concerning
the interpretation of the document, and the Prophet
alone having the decisive authority to authorize of-
fensive military expeditions in case of war. He lacks,
however, the power to conscript troops, as the per-
missibility of holding back from fighting is clearly
stated. Thus, overall the document pictures a fed-
eration of tribes more akin to a republic than an
autocracy.

Although scholars disagree about whether this
document was written all at once or added to from
an original base, most likely all of it dates from short-
ly after the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad in
Medina in 1/622, and certainly it was completed by
his death in 1 1/632. This certainty about the earliness
of its date arises because in it the Prophet is not given
a clearly sovereign or commanding position as he
later attained; the Quraysh, who later became hon-
ored nobles, are shown only to be the enemy; and the
Jews are included in the polity as allies and members,
all suggesting the situation at the beginning of the
Muslim era. Despite changes as the Prophet’s author-
ity grew, the document probably remained in force,
for the Medinan polity remained rather rudimentary

170

CONSULTATION, OR SHURA

right up to his death. Thus, as shown by the late
verses in Qur’an 9:38-50, 81-96, and 118-122, the
Prophet had to use exhortation and lacked the
power to actually conscript troops right to the end,
exactly as in the constitution.

For modern Muslims, the Constitution of Medina
has been hailed as a predecessor to modern constitu-
tionalism and rule of law equivalent to the Magna
Carta and is often cited as a key precedent for consti-
tutionalism, rule of law, collective leadership, and
democratizing reform.

Khalid Yahya Blankinship

Further Reading

ffumphreys, R. Stephen. Islamic History : A Framework for
Inquiry. Revised ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, '1991, 92-98.

Ibn Hisham, ‘Abd al-Malik. The Life of Muhammad: A
Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasitl Allah. Translated
by Alfred Guillaume. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1955,231-233.

CONSULTATION, OR SHURA

The word shura occurs in the Qur’an and means
“consultation.” Two verses specifically refer to this
concept. The first (Q 3:158-159) states, “So pass over
[their faults], and ask for [God’s] forgiveness and
consult them in matters; then, when you have made
a decision, put your trust in God.” The second verse
(Q 42:38) runs, “And [they are] those who answer the
call of their Lord and perform prayer, and who con-
duct their affairs by mutual consultation, and who
spend of what We have bestowed upon them.”

Consultation (also referred to as mashwara and
mashura ) has been regarded as obligatory ( wajib ) or
simply recommended (mandub), depending on the
circumstances. The predominant sentiment in the lit-
erature is that shura as mutual consultation in various
spheres (political-administrative, communal, military,
familial) is the preferred and desirable method of
resolving matters. In the political realm, it is often
considered a duty incumbent on the ruler to confer
with knowledgeable advisors. For example, the
Qur’an commentator Muhammad b. Ahmad al-
Qurtubi (d. AH 671/1272 CE) states, “It is the obliga-
tion of the rulers to consult the scholars on matters
unknown to them and in religious matters not clear to
them. [They should] consult the leaders of the army in
matters having to do with war, and leaders of the
people in administrative issues, as well as teachers,
ministers, and governors in matters that have
to do with the welfare of the country and its
development.”

Shura was known in the pre-Islamic period as well.
Arab tribes before Islam had a loosely formed council
of elders called shura (also known as majlis or mala’),
which adjudicated intratribal and intertribal matters
through consultation. Like a number of other Jahili
virtues and customs, the Qur’an endorsed shura as an
acceptable and normative practice within Islam. This
is evidenced in Muhammad’s own adherence to this
principle in variegated circumstances and the prece-
dent established by the first two caliphs in particular,
as documented in hadith, biographical, and historical
literature.

For example, during the preparations for the battle
of Badr, the Prophet is said to have consulted with
Habbab al-Mundhir, recognized for his military ex-
pertise, and with Salman al-Farisi before the Battle of
Khandaq in 627; on the latter’s recommendation the
Prophet had a ditch dug around Medina, which suc-
cessfully prevented a potentially disastrous siege by
the pagan Meccans. Before concluding the Treaty of
Hudaybiyya in 630, Muhammad conferred with his
Companions on the provisions of the treaty and the
propriety of acceding to them. Numerous other in-
stances of prophetic consultative activities are to be
found in these literatures, creating, in fact, a powerful
precedent for succeeding generations. The Compan-
ion Abu Hurayra is thus said to have remarked,
“I did not see anyone more [predisposed] to consulta-
tion ( mushawara or mashwara ) with his Companions
than the Prophet.”

After Muhammad’s death in 632, Abu Bakr pub-
licly declared his commitment to the principle of
shura. The historian al-Tabari (d. 310/923) refers to
the Saqifa episode when Abu Bakr got up to address
the Ansar, who at first had opposed his nomination as
the caliph. Abu Bakr reassured them by saying that he
would not fail to consult them with regard to political
matters, nor would he adjudicate matters without
them.

The most famous shura in the sense of a consulta-
tive body is the six-man electoral council set up by
‘Umar b. al-Khattab in 644, as he lay on his deathbed,
to elect a candidate who would succeed him. The
deliberations of this council brought ‘Uthman, the
third caliph, to power.

As dynastic rule became the norm after the death
of ‘Ali in 661, the last “Rightly Guided Caliph,”
invocation of shura as a mandated social and political
practice became a way to register disapproval of a
political culture that had progressively grown more
authoritarian by the ‘Abbasid period (750-1258).
Therefore, some political and religious dissident
groups, like the Khawarij, made shura their clarion
call against dynastic government starting in the
Umayyad period. Certain genres of ethical and

171

CONSULTATION, OR SHURA

humanistic literature (adab) continued to extol
the merits of consultation in various spheres, includ-
ing bureaucratic, military, and, of course, political
administration.

To this day, shura as a religiopolitical principle
resonates strongly with a significant cross-section of
Muslims, as it had with a considerable number of
medieval Muslims, representing just, consultative
government as opposed to arbitrary despotism
(istibdad). In the contemporary period, reformist
Muslims tend to conflate shura with the modern con-
cept of democracy.

Asma Afsaruddin

Further Reading

Atiya, Aziz Suryal. A History of Eastern Christianity.
London: Methuen, 1968.

(Ed). The Coptic Encyclopedia. 8 vols. New York:

Macmillan, 1991.

Butcher, Edith Louisa. The Story of the Church of Egypt:
Being an Outline of the History of the Egyptians under
Their Successive Masters from the Roman Conquest until
Now. 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1897.
Meinardus, Otto Friedrich August. Christian Egypt: Faith
and Life. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press,
1970.

. Christian Egypt: Ancient and Modern. Cairo: Amer-
ican University in Cairo Press, 1977.

Partrick, Theodore Hall. Traditional Egyptian Christianity:
A History of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Greensboro,
NC: Fisher Park Press, 1996.

Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa‘, Bishop of el-Ashmunein [and con-
tinuators]. Tarikh Batarikat al-Kanisah al-Misriyah
(History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church).
Translated from the Arabic by Antoine Khater and
O.H.E. KHS-Burmester. Cairo: Publications de la
Societe d’Archeologie Copte, 1943-1970.

“The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt.”
Online at www.coptic.net (accessed November 19,
2003).

CORDOBA

Cordoba, named Qurtuba in Arabic and Cordoba in
Spanish, was the political capital of al-Andalus dur-
ing the Umayyad emirate and caliphate periods (AH
seventh century first quarter of the eleventh century
CE). Today it is the capital of the province of the
same name. Cordoba is located in the southwest of
the Spanish state, overlooking the medial course of
the Guadalquivir River ( Wadi al-kabir in Arabic) on
both banks.

The rural area of the south of the city was called
qanbaniya, approximately the same rural area known
these days as “the Cordoba countryside.” The plain
known as Fahs al-Ballut (field of oaks) was located to
the north of the province, where the little town of
Pedroche is found (known by the Arabs as Bitrawj
or Bitrush.). Until the thirteenth century, the Cordo-
ban region was known for the wheat produced in its
countryside and for the gardens and meadows that
flanked the river. Nevertheless, the main areas of farm-
ing production of al- Andalus were found far from the
capital, in the Seville highlands and the Toledo sur-
roundings. Mining exploitation did not completely
disappear with Cordoba’s decadence, and there is evi-
dence that still in the thirteenth century, Ovejo (locat-
ed forty kilometers from the capital) was an important
center of extraction of cinnabar, from which mercury
is obtained.

The city was occupied by the Muslim armies in AH
Shawwal of 92/July-August 711 CE. Leading these
armies was the manumitted slave Mughith al-Rumi,
deputy of Tariq ibn Ziyad. Governor al-Hurr ibn
‘Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi (r. 97 100/716 719)
transferred the capital of al-Andalus from Seville to
Cordoba. His successor, al-Samh ibn Malik al-Jaw-
lani (r. 100-102/719-721), repaired the old Roman
bridge and some demolished parts of the protective
enceinte. Al-Samh also founded the first Islamic cem-
etery of the city, the Maqbarat al-rabad (cemetery of
the suburb), in the north bank of the river. In 133/750,

175

CORDOBA

governor Yusuf ‘Abd al-Rahman (r. 129-138/

747-756) bought the church of Saint Vincent to
make it the first cathedral mosque (al-jami) of Cor-
doba. In 138/756, the governor was overthrown by
the Umayyad prince ‘Abd al-Rahman, who had man-
aged to escape from the massacre of his family in
Syria. ‘Abd al-Rahman made Cordoba the admin-
istrative, political, military, religious, and cultural
capital of his new emirate.

In this way, Cordoba came to monopolize most of
the artistic activities. Its monumental center was com-
posed of the fortress or alcazar (erected on the
remains of the old Visigoth palace), the main mosque,
and the bridge. The fortress and the mosque were
located on the north bank of the Guadalquivir
River, separated from the river by a terrace.

Work began on the mosque in 785, under the rule
of ‘Abd al-Rahman I, and it was enlarged on several
occasions, as a parallel process to the city’s growth
and development, during the governments of ‘Abd al-
Rahman’s successors, Hisham I (r. 172-180/788-796),
‘Abd al-Rahman II (r. 206-238/822-852), and
Muhammad I (r. 238-273/852-886). During the rule
of ‘Abd al-Rahman III (300 350/9 1 2 96 1 ) — the first
to adopt the title of caliph — the city enjoyed its apo-
gee. It was this same caliph who ordered the palatine
city of Madinat al-Zahra’ three to be built, approxi-
mately three miles northeast of Cordoba, at the foot of
the mountains. The remains of this city were declared
a national monument in 1923. Since then, some of its
old rooms have been restored, among which the so-
called Rich Room is especially significant. In regard
to the old fortress of Cordoba, it has to be said
that it was assigned to administrative uses when the
court was transferred to Madinat al-Zahra’. Later on,
when the palatine city was destroyed, the fortress was
used again as the residence of the different governors
of the city.

The most important enlargement of the main
mosque of Cordoba was carried out by al-Hakam II
(r. 350-366/961-976), son and successor of ‘Abd al-
Rahman III. The last big enlargement was commis-
sioned by al-Mansur ibn Abi ‘Amir, the mighty visir
of Hisham II (r. 366-399/976-1009). Al-Mansur built
his own palatine city, Madinat al-Zahira, east of Cor-
doba. This city underwent the same fate of Madinat
al-Zahra’ and was destroyed during the widespread
revolts that took place at the beginning of the fifth/
eleventh century.

After the fall of the caliphate, Cordoba was ruled
by the Jahwarids, between 1031 and 1070. It then
became a part of the territories governed by the
Seville monarch Banu ‘Abbad. In 1091, Cordoba
was taken by the Almoravids, who built the defensive
wall of the eastern part of the city. In 1236, the city

passed into Christian hands for good, after its con-
quest by Ferdinand III of Castile.

After the disappearance of the caliphate and the
subsequent loss of Cordoba’s political and economic
hegemony, the city still kept its intellectual prestige,
especially in the area of religious sciences. However,
Cordoba was no longer the main representative of
Andalusis’ cultural life. Rather, it had to share this
role with the capitals of the different petty kingdoms
into which al-Andalus was fragmented from the elev-
enth century onward. The city recovered its capital
status under the Almoravid rule, but the construction
of monuments could never equal the emirate and
caliphate periods. Almohads, for their part, clearly
showed a preference for the city of Seville.

After the Christian conquests, the process of con-
version of churches into mosques, which had taken
place during the Islamic invasion of the Iberian Pen-
insula, was reversed. Cordoba was taken by the Chris-
tians in 1236, and its main mosque was converted into
a cathedral. The modifications undergone by the
mosque did partially alter its original shape. Howev-
er, contrary to what happened to other mosques
that underwent a similar transformation process, the
Cordoba temple still keeps a markedly Arabic and
Islamic character. This is probably related to the
artistic and architectonic singularity of the building,
the preferred object of all the descriptions of Islamic
Cordoba.

Cordoba was the home of “ulama” such as of Ibn
Hazm (d. 456/1064), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (d. 595/
1198), and Maimonides (d. 601/1204).

Maribel Fierro

See also Andalus; Ibn Hazm; Ibn Rushd (Averroes);
Maimonides

Further Reading

Arberry, A.J. “Muslim Cordoba.’’ In Cities of Destiny,
edited by A. Toynbee, 166-177. London, 1967.

El 2 , s.v. Al-Andalus. [Levi-Provencal, E.; Torres Baibas, L.;
and Colins, G. S.].

El 2 , s.v. Kurtuba. [Seybold, C.F.; [Ocana Jimenez, M.]

Grabar, O. “Great Mosque of Cordoba.’’ In The Genius of
Arab Civilization. Source of Renaissance. Cambridge,
MA, 1978, 106.

Hillenbrand, R. “The Ornament of the World. Medieval
Cordoba As a Cultural Centre.” In The Legacy of Mus-
lim Spain, ed. S.Kh. Jayyusi, 112-135. Leiden, New
York, and Cologne: Brill, 1992.

Levi-Provenqal, E. Espaha musulmana 711-1031 (tran.
Garcia Gomez, E.), Historia de Espaha, dirigida por R.
Menendez Pidal. Madrid, 1965, vols. V-VI.

Urvoy, D. Pensers d'al-Andalus. La vie Intellectuelle a Cor-
Doue et Seville au Temps des Empires Berberes (fin Xie
Siecle-Debut Xllle Siecle). Toulouse: Presses Universi-
taires du Mirail, 1990, 52-77 .

176

COSMETICS

In Islamic times both sexes used cosmetics extensively,
continuing a long tradition in the pre-Islamic Near
East going back in time to the ancient civilizations
of Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and Iran. Cosmetics
were used for different purposes and can be studied
under different aspects: in connection with cleaning
and hygiene; as perfumes; for skin protection, espe-
cially from the sun; for hair coloring; for medicine; and
also for magical purposes. Generally, cosmetics were
linked to traditional views about beauty and appear-
ance, carrying especially for women a sexual aspect.
The important role cosmetics played in social life was
highlighted at wedding ceremonies. Many cosmetics
combine different uses and applications. Henna and
kuhl (as ophthalmic medicine) possess medical proper-
ties as well. Even the expensive ointment ghaliya,
mainly made of musk and ambergris, had a double
use as perfume and medication. Generally, women
used cosmetics widely, but mainly in the private
sphere, and only slave girls, singers, and the like used
it more extensively in public. For men and children the
usage of decorative cosmetics was restricted to basics
such as kuhl and henna mentioned in the traditions
(hadith), as recommended by the Prophet Muham-
mad. Cosmetic substances came mainly from plants
such as henna, indigo (nil, wasma), saffron, and san-
dalwood. Others were derived from minerals such as
ochre, or metals such as kuhl; a few have an animal
origin, like musk.

Historical sources give a lot of information: in
the works of the medieval Arab and Persian his-
torians and scientists, such as Biruni, Ibn Sina,
Nasir ad-Din Tusi, al-Kindi, and others, and also
in medical works and in sociocultural writings like
those of Ibn al-Washsha’. Some works include
hundreds of recipes for cosmetic substances, includ-
ing their surrogates and falsifications. These existed
parallel to innumerable local and individual recipes,
transmitted by family tradition and health care
professionals.

The traditional ideal of beauty stated that women’s
skin should be white, soft, smooth, and hairless. Oint-
ments and pastes were used for lightening the skin.
For the face, white powders and powdered rouge were
used. Often, yellow pastes made of sandalwood, saf-
fron, and similar substances were used to protect the
face from sunlight and to soften the skin. A beauty
spot made with perfumed cremes was not unusual.
For body hair removal, a large variety of different
mixtures were used, based mostly on either sugar or
honey. A special technique to remove body hair con-
sists of a twisted thread pulled back and forth by the
fingers of both hands.

Coloring the hair was practiced by both sexes. For
thick, long, and dark black hair both sexes used mix-
tures of indigo, oak apple, walnut, and similar materi-
als. Henna could be added for extra shine. Henna was
also used to cover gray and white hair, producing
shades of orange-red. After cleaning and coloring the
hair, perfumed oils and ointments could be added, as
mentioned in the traditions of A’isha, the Prophet’s
favored wife. For the men it was important to have a
black beard like the Prophet, and it could be perfumed,
as practiced by the Prophet with the precious ghaliya.

The primary cosmetic used by men, women, and
children for eyes was kohl (ithmidh, surma), a black
mixture in use since pre-Islamic times. The best vari-
eties came from Iran. Its main substance was pow-
dered antimony sulphide. Some mixtures contained
lead among other metal or mineral substances, and
occasionally, organic materials such as nut shells and
even soot were used. Other recorded eye cosmetics,
equally called kuhl, were made from a variety of sub-
stances, which produced dark blue, dark red, purple,
or even yellow hues.

Henna, partly enriched with indigo (or a substitute
such as oak apple ink), was the main body paint used
for hands and feet. Medieval Persian and Indian min-
iature paintings depict ladies and occasionally men
with hands and feet dyed in different shades of
orange-red. Also, they picture ladies adorned with in-
tricate body paintings in black, blue, or dark brown, or
while applying makeup. The important role henna
plays in wedding customs all over the Islamic world is
especially visible in the “henna night” bearing witness
to the magical properties ascribed to cosmetics.

Combs; metal mirrors; mortars; small, narrow-
necked vessels for liquid cosmetics and makeup jars
for powders and ointments; applicators; makeup
palettes; and other small tools and vessels come from
all parts of the Islamic world. A variety of materials
were used in their production, reflecting local re-
sources, customs and habits, and the user’s financial
status.

Gisela Helmecke

See also Baths; Marriage; Medicine; Painting; Per-
fume; Women

Further Reading

Colin, G.S. “Hinna.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 3.

Leiden and London, 1971.

“Cosmetics.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 6. Costa Mesa,

1993.

Dietrich, A. "Sandal.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam.

Vol. 9. Leiden, 1997.

Wiedemann, Ernst, and James. W. Allan. “Kuhl.” In The

Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 5. Leiden, 1986.

177

COURT DRESS, ‘ABBASID

By the early tenth century CE, Islamic society was
perceived as consisting of four classes: (1) the ruling
family, (2) the chief ministers (viziers), (3) the wealthy
upper classes and educated middle classes, and (4)
“The remainder ... a filthy refuse, a torrent of
scum” (al-Fadl ibn Yahya, courtier quoted in Levy
1957, 67). It was understood that the individual’s so-
cial rank and occupation should be visible in dress;
to adopt fabric, styles, and colors associated with a
higher class displayed dissatisfaction with the God-
given order and thus challenged spiritual and temporal
authority, whereas wearing clothing associated with a
lower social grade displayed proper humility, so pious
Muslim rulers were always recorded as being austere in
their attire. At the same time, political statesmen such
as Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092) argued for the importance
of rich, colorful, ostentatious court dress and ceremo-
nial to demonstrate secure political power, econom-
ic prosperity, and social well-being. This apparent
contradiction was never resolved.

Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-775) is traditionally cred-
ited with the introduction of black robes as the
‘Abbasid dynastic color to be worn by all court
bureaucrats and theologians at audiences and at
public investiture of sultans and governors; failure
to do so was seen as a public rejection of the regime,
the ruler, and his policies. Black banners had her-
alded the ‘Abbasid uprisings against Umayyad au-
thority, and it was understood that the color
signified the need for revenge and mourning for the
tragic deaths of the Prophet’s grandsons (see Hasan
and Husayn ibn Ali Talib). (In contrast, the dynastic
color of Egypt’s Fatimid caliphate [c. 969-1171] was
white, reflecting luminous splendor and divine light.)
At each caliphal investiture, the legitimacy of
‘Abbasid rule was reinforced by donning several relics
of the Prophet Muhammad’s, including his burda
(mantle), implying the transference of authority, and
blessing.

The ‘Abbasid court had two main groupings, the
military and the bureaucrats, known by their different

Scene from a picnic of the court of Abbas I. Safavid mural, 1640s. Credit: SEF/Art Resource, NY. Chihil Sutun (Pavilion of
Forty Columns), Isfahan, Iran.

178

COURT DRESS, FAT1MID

modes of dress, as their Arabic names imply: ashab
al-aqbiyya (men of the qaba the military garment)
and ashab al-darari' (men of the durra'a : voluminous
robe). However, the precise structure of such gar-
ments is unclear. A third group, the ‘ulama ( see
Theologians) increasingly adopted a distinctive dress
indicating their growing separation from the other
court power groups, while in time the ‘Abbasid
caliphs took to wearing military dress for most cere-
monial duties, mirroring their growing dependence on
army support. Gifts of clothing and other presents
(khifa) became an established court ritual, accom-
panied by due ceremony. It could consist of one
garment, but generally four or more items were pre-
sented, in one of three price ranges according to the
recipient’s status. These could be decorated with a
tiraz (embroidered band, identifying the donor (and
thus the honor bestowed), the date, the place of
manufacture, and so on (see Tiraz).

While medieval Arabic literature contains a great
variety of clothing terms, the exact structure and
characteristics of these garments were not detailed,
and few items have survived. It appears the wraps
and simple garments with minimal seaming (such
as the so-called Coptic tunics) of the Umayyad peri-
od were replaced by more multiseamed items, per-
haps to minimize costly fabric wastage or marking
changes in loom technology. Late-ninth-century
Baghdadi fashionable citizens were known for their
keen knowledge and appreciation of fabrics, obtained
from across the Islamic empire (see Textiles, ‘Abbas-
id). Graduated coloring and textural compatibil-
ity were important considerations. Strident color
shades were best avoided, while thick and thin tex-
tiles, and linen and cotton were not to be worn
together.

Small fragments of ‘Abbasid textiles are found in
most major museum collections, but few were ac-
quired from controlled archaeological excavations.
Tiraz pieces have generally had extraneous material
removed, so they provide few clues as to their original
placing and the clothing items they once decorated.
However, a number of Islamic manuscript paintings
produced in or around the thirteenth century (such as
Kitab al-Diryaq, 1199, probably Northern Iraq, ms.
Arabe 2964; and Maqamat al-Hariri , 1237, probably
Iraq, ms. Arabe 5847, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)
are known, and these, along with hgural depictions on
contemporary ceramics and metalwork, help the dress
historian. However, for the early ‘Abbasid period,
aside from murals located in the remote eastern
regions of the empire, the pictorial evidence is virtual-
ly limited to wall paintings from the Samarran palaces
(see Architecture, ‘Abbasid).

Patricia L. Baker

Further Reading

Ahsan, M.M. Social Life under the Ahbasids, 170-289 AH/
786-902 A.D London: Longman, 1979.

Ettinghausen, Richard. Arab Painting. Cleveland: Skira,
1962.

Golombek, L., and V. Gervers. "Tiraz Fabrics in the Royal
Ontario Museum." In Studies in Textile History in Mem-
ory of Harold B. Burham, edited by L. Golombek and
V. Gervers, 82-126. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum,
1977.

Levy, Reuben. “Notes on Costume from Arabic Sources.”
Journal of Royal Asiatic Society (London). (1935):
319-338. '

. An Introduction to the Sociology of Islam. Vol.l.

London: Williams & Moorgate, 1957.

Salem, Elie A., trans. Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi Rustam
dar al-Khilafah ’. Beirut: American University of Beirut,
1977 (use with caution).

Serjeant, R.B. Islamic Textiles: Materials for a History up
to the Mongol Conquests. Beirut: Librairie du Liban,
1972.

Tyan, Emile. Histoire cle l ’Organisation Judicaire en Pays
d'Islam. Vols. 1 and 2. Paris: Librairie du Receuil Sirey,
1938.

COURT DRESS, FATIMID

The Fatimids, who ruled Egypt from 969 to 1171 CE,
followed the conventions of other Islamic dynasties in
their adoption of an official dynastic color. The Fati-
mid color was white. Most court costumes were a
white luxury fabric (fine linens, silks, or brocades)
with inscribed or ornamental bands (tiraz), and em-
broidered with gold or silver threads. Every member
of the court received a ceremonial costume, often for
the public celebration of a festival in the Islamic
calendar. These costumes often were complete outfits
(including underclothes) and consisted of anywhere
from five to fifteen separate pieces. The base material,
the number of pieces in the costume, and the amount
of gold or silver in the costume were tied to rank. Our
sources provide almost no information about tailor-
ing of these garments, which is typical of the period,
where there were a limited number of styles and most
garments were woven in a single piece.

In the sources dating to the early eleventh century,
most court garments are described as being woven or
embroidered with gold (muthaqqal, mudhahhab), but
silk is mentioned rarely. Inventories describing cloth-
ing distributed for festivals from the early twelfth
century onward, however, mention numerous gar-
ments of both silk and gold, often woven into or
embroidered onto a linen base. Silk was so readily
available in the twelfth century that its presence in an
inventory is not necessarily a sign of high rank, but
the presence of gold (a more expensive commodity)
always indicates high rank. The gold thread used in

179

COURT DRESS, FATIMID

the production of textiles for the court was produced
under the supervision of the director of the caliph’s
mint. The predominance of linen as a base material
for court costumes is a function of the central impor-
tance of flax to the Egyptian agricultural economy of
the Middle Ages.

Clothing in the Fatimid period was a form of
capital, and the luxury materials used in the produc-
tion of court costumes carried significant economic,
as well as symbolic, value. The Fatimids kept large
treasuries of fabrics and costumes that were
distributed at designated times for use by court per-
sonnel. The detailed inventories of the contents of
these wardrobe treasuries show that they formed a
significant part of the Fatimid dynasty’s wealth. In
the 1060s, the caliph al-Mustansir was forced to sell
the contents of his wardrobe treasuries to raise money
to placate his rebellious army. When the economy
recovered, his successor replenished the wardrobes
and multiplied the number of costumes distributed
on ritual occasions. The textiles and garments were
produced in government factories. Many of them had
inscribed or ornamental borders ( tiraz ) . The caliph
did not wear a crown, but rather an elaborately
wrapped turban. His eunuch bodyguards also wore
specially wrapped turbans, with a “tail” left hanging
down to the side or back. His highest-ranking
eunuchs were distinguished by wrapping the tail
under their chin (called muhannak). Princesses of the
royal family received gold robes, while their eunuch
guardians received garments of silk. The most luxuri-
ous costumes came in wrappers of fine linens or in
chests.

In addition to the costumes given to courtiers at
festival times, dignitaries received robes of honor
(khil'a, pi. khila‘) as a mark of special favor, to
mark important events, and when invested with of-
fice. The term literally means “cast-off,” and original-
ly a khil'a was a piece of clothing actually worn by the
ruler and then given to another. By the tenth century,
these honorific robes were only rarely actual cast-offs,
and the caliphal textile mills produced robes specifi-
cally for this purpose. At the Fatimid court, honorific
robes were typically given whenever an official was
appointed to an office at court, and the phrase “he
was invested with a robe of honor” clearly meant that
he was appointed to office. These robes carried both
prestige and material value, since they were made of
luxury fabrics at a time when clothing was a form of
capital and could represent considerable wealth.

The noncourtier middle and upper classes imitated
court fashions by wearing luxury fabrics, giving robes
of honor as gifts, and wearing inscribed bands (or
bands that created the appearance of being inscribed)
on their robes. Important officials of the Jewish

community, for example, conferred embroidered silk
robes of honor upon scholars, and men of higher
status conferred robes of honor as gifts upon men of
lesser status. Such costumes were extremely expen-
sive, often costing as much as twenty dinars, a sum
of money sufficient to support a lower middle class
family for nearly a year.

Paula Sanders

See also Fatimids; Gifts and Gift Giving

Further Reading

Baker, Patricia Lesley. “A History of Islamic Court Dress
in the Middle East.” Ph.D. dissertation, School of Ori-
ental Studies. University of London, 1986.

Sanders, Paula. “Robes of Honor in Fatimid Egypt.” In
Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of Investiture, ed.
Stewart Gordon. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Serjeant, R.B. Islamic Textiles: Material for a History up to
the Mongol Conquest. Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1972.

Stillman, Yedida Kalfon. Arab Dress, A Short History.
Leiden: Brill, 2000.

. “Libas.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed. Lei-
den: Brill.

, and Paula Sanders. “Tiraz.” In Encyclopaedia of

Islam. New ed. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

COURT DRESS, MAMLUK

As in ‘Abbasid times, the two major court groupings
were distinguished by dress: the military, calf-length
cjaba’ garment with close-fitting sleeves, which was
designed for riding and fighting and worn with
breeches tucked into high boots; and the ample, full-
length robes of bureaucrats (arbab al- ‘ama ’im, turban
wearers), worn with loose trousers. It appears the
basic, simple robe and wraps of the early Islamic
period had been set aside for more tailored garments,
using the fabric loom width to form the front and
back with, if required, extra material in the form of
triangular inserts or gussets added to the selvage sides
of the main panels. Indeed, by the late fourteenth
century CE, tailoring was perceived as a mark of
civilized urban society (Ibn Khaldun 1967).

The Mamluk sultanate retained the Ayyubid dy-
nastic color (yellow) for battle dress, but for court
parades and ceremonials, certain military sections
jealously guarded their exclusive right to various
dress items and colors; thus, in 1498, the royal Mam-
luks reacted aggressively to the sultan’s honorific pre-
sentation (khil'a) of their short-sleeved sallari tunic
and special turban form to the black commander of
the musketeers, instead of that section’s usual red
wool cloth ( qaba’). The khassikiya (royal bodyguard)
was renowned for its meticulous dress, which

180

CREDIT

incorporated a section of tiraz zarkash (see Textiles),
presumed to be a highly decorative band woven with
gold or silver metallic thread, perhaps with an honor-
ific inscription, placed at the (dropped) shoulder-
sleeve join. The terminology suggests there were at
least five or six types of qaba and possibly the method
of fastening still denoted the ethnic origins of the
wearer as in Mongol times (see Mongol Dress); cer-
tainly the so-called qaba’ t atari (diagonal fastening
from left shoulder to waist) and the qaba’ turki (from
right shoulder diagonally to left) implied this. There
was also a great variety in headgear, with some forms
worn by the Bahri Mamluks falling out of favor by
the mid-thirteenth century CE, the so-called Burji
period. Certain court members were permitted blazons
(rank), which were displayed on their belongings,
their buildings, and their servants’ clothing; these
could be simple shapes, say of a lozenge form (the
royal napkin holder’s serviette), or a stylized compos-
ite design indicating the various court responsibilities
associated with the owner (see Heraldry).

Our knowledge of bureaucratic dress mainly
derives from historical descriptions of the khil’a
awarded by the sultan for loyal service, at least twice
a year at the major Muslim festivals, but also given to
mark new appointments, honorable dismissals, and so
on. As with the military, bureaucrats were presented
with robes according to status. Viziers and chief secre-
taries could expect white kamkha (patterned woven
silk) robes decorated with embroidery and lined with
squirrel and beaver, whereas lower ranks were given
cheaper fabrics in other colors, and fur-trimmed only.
Similar voluminous robes with long, wide sleeves were
presented to members of the ‘ulama, but generally
speaking, because of theological antipathy to men
wearing silk, theirs were made of wool. The ‘Abbasid
caliph in exile (see ‘Abbasid caliphate) wore black at
all court ceremonies and invested each new Mamluk
sultan with black robes, thus symbolizing the legiti-
mate transference of authority with his blessing (see
Bnrda, Khirqa of Muhammad).

Apart from market regulations (hisba) concerning
tailors, dyers, cobblers, and so on, sumptuary legisla-
tion was regularly issued by the sultan, often at the
request of the ‘ulama. Male and female descendants
of the Prophet Muhammad were required from 773
AH/1371-1372 C.E. to wear in public a piece of green
fabric about their clothing, so that due respect could
be paid. However, the chief targets for such legislation
were women’s attire and that of non-Muslims (see
Dress, dhimmi ). Insisting street patrols policed mat-
ters, the ‘ulama bitterly criticized the outrageous
sums spent on women’s garments, the excessive
amounts of fabric used particularly for sleeves, be-
jewelled hems, and shoes, and railed against ladies

wearing headcoverings based on men’s styles, and the
fashion of wearing sirwal (trousers) low on the hips.

Few complete dress items have survived — the
occasional shoe (Keir Collection, London; Royal
Ontario Museum, Toronto), caps (minus turban
cloths) (V&A Museum, London; Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford), and embroidered tailored linen
shirts (Royal Ontario Museum; Textile Museum,
Washington, DC; V&A Museum). Nevertheless,
garment fragments in the major collections often
possess informative cutting and tailoring details as
to buttons, loops, and seams. Mamluk manuscript
illustrations provide useful information about certain
styles, although artistic license may have impinged
on depictions of garment colors and patternings;
similarly, the inclusion of Mamluk men and women
in European paintings (such as the work of Giovanni
Bellini, d. 1516) should be viewed as “Orientaliz-
ing” additions rather than accurate records of
contemporary fashion.

Patricia L. Baker

Further Reading

Ayalon, David. Gunpowder & Firearms in the Mamluk King-
dom: A Challenge to a Mediaeval Society. London:
Frank Cass, 1973.

Haldane, Duncan. Mamluk Painting. Warminster, UK:
Aris & Phillips, 1978.

Ibn Khaldun. An Introduction to History: The Muqaddimah.
Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Cambridge, MA: Prin-
ceton University Press, 1967.

Ibn al-Ukuwwa. The Ma'alim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba.
Translated by Reuben Levy. E.J.W. Gibb Memorial
Series. London: Cambridge University Press, 1938.
Mayer, Leo Ary. “Costumes of Mamluk Women.” Islamic
Culture 17 (1943): 298-303.

. Mamluk Costume: A Survey. Geneva: Albert Kun-

dig, 1952.

. “Some Remarks on the Dress of the Abbasid

Caliphs in Egypt.” Islamic Culture 17 (1943): 36-38.

CREDIT

Many scholars have cited the lack of credit as a
reason why Islamic societies were unable to effectively
compete with the Western European commercial
interests that emerged during the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries. This argument is based on the premise
that only Western Europeans tolerated the develop-
ment of financial interest and profit as commercial
practice.

It is clear, however, that Islamic notions of profit
and interest also developed to a substantial degree
during the medieval era.

Both Muslim and non-Muslim merchants who en-
gaged in long-distance trade constantly risked social

181

CREDIT

alienation. Most outsiders viewed the overseas and
caravan trade in luxury items such as spices and silk
as sinful because the money spent on non-necessities
could have been used for the greater social good. Only
those who gained a profit — namely the state, which
took custom imposts; the merchants; financiers and
adventurers who ran the trade; and the patrons and
retailers who purchased the items — saw the venture in
positive terms. On a number of occasions and places,
others sought to prevent “injustices,” most often in-
voking the religious principle that merchants and tra-
ders who took financial interest and profit exploited
the productive forces in society.

Merchants in the Islamic world sought a number of
legal means to protect themselves against such allega-
tions. The first of these constructions were joint-
venture contracts for long-distance trade, either in
credit ( firket ul-viicuh ) or involving both labor and
capital (commenda; mudaraba). In both cases the
merchant and financiers involved would combine
their assets before the venture, and later would split
the profits. Such arrangements circumvented mea-
sures against interest. These merchants also developed
a new means of transferring funds (havale), which
involved one permanently based merchant issuing a
deed to another, who would redeem the promise once
the traveling merchant brought it to the permanently
based merchant. This practice was absolutely critical
because coinage was often in very short supply, was
bulky, and was very liable to be stolen.

As in most European economies, merchants in the
Muslim world faced considerable resistance from
local manufacturers and traders. These local urban
economies were organized into guilds that continually
tried to monopolize economic activity. Guilds wielded
considerable power in enforcing “just regulation”
among the urban populace. Many historians argue
that merchants made little headway in developing
commercial capital among these local economies.

However, a number of intriguing recent studies
have pointed to commercial development, particular-
ly in the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Com-
mercial activity again established itself through
Islamic legal institutions, in particular the pious foun-
dation ( waqf), a welfare institution that often formed
the basis of each city quarter (mahalle), a structure
arguably as central to urban life as the guilds them-
selves. Although early waqfs were donations of land
and immovable property for the good of the Islamic
community, donations of cash waqfs began to boom
in the mid-sixteenth century. Cash from these waqfs
was lent to merchants and other parties at interest
(rib). This innovation was justified by Ebu’s-suud,
the leading Ottoman religious authority, who argued
that taking of interest was justified if it served the

public welfare of the Muslim community. While this
author has only seen detailed evidence of this in Sar-
ajevo, there are also signs of the practice in other
major urban centers of the empire, such as Istanbul,
Edirne, and Bursa. Some scholars have commented
that the interest this money was lent at was very
high, sometimes reaching 25 percent or even 50
percent. Nevertheless, the prevalence of a rate of
8 percent to 10 percent in Sarajevo at least might
beg a reconsideration of the issue as a whole.

Finally, merchants were increasingly used as a
means for the state to develop their treasuries, partic-
ularly when they were to embark on military cam-
paigns, as seen most clearly in the conflicts between
Muslim and non-Muslim Mediterranean powers in
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It was
during this time that the Ottoman sultan, like his
French and northern European counterparts, came
to rely heavily on long-distance merchant families
who had just suffered persecution as Jews from the
Iberian Peninsula. These merchant families became
an attractive asset to the state because they could
garner considerable amounts of cash. They addition-
ally could more effectively collect revenues, even
though they too made a hefty profit from the transac-
tion. One should not ignore, however, that Muslim
merchants made up a majority of the tax farmers,
particularly in provincial settings. In time they
would work alongside emerging urban elites, such as
the money changers and jewelers, and would help
break down the barrier between the commercial and
local urban economies.

York Allan Norman

Further Reading

(fizakea, Murat. A Comparative Evolution of Business Part-
nership, The Islamic World and Europe, with Specific
Reference to the Ottoman Archives. Leiden and New
York: E.J. Brill, 1996.

Imber, Colin. Ehu’s-su’ud: The Islamic Legal Tradition.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977.

Inalcik, Halil, “Capital Formation in the Ottoman Em-
pire.” The Journal of Economic History. The Tasks of
Economic History. 29, no. 1 (March 1969): 97-140.

Norman, York A. “Urban Development in Sarajevo.” In
Islamization in Bosnia , 1463-1604. Forthcoming Ph.D.
dissertation. Georgetown University.

Schacht, J. “Rib.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. Online Ed.,
2001 .

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

To appreciate the general concept of crime in Muslim
societies requires appreciating very different proper-
ties of the legal framework. Due to the composite

182

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

nature of the Sharia, the assessment of a crime is
contingent on multiple types of reasoning — those of
religious law rooted in Tribes and Tribal Customs
developed and transformed into a legal scholar’s
law, and finally, legal doctrine often reconciled to
new social and cultural conditions. Our discussion
will be confined to the most elementary categories of
crimes and punishments according to Muslim jurists,
to the social meaning of retaliation and collective
liability, and to the question of judicial arbitrariness.

Taking the perspective of a legal scholar’s law,
criminal acts are basically grouped into six categories:
(1) interfering with the order of descent, such as by
adultery; (2) affecting another’s honor by slanderous
accusation; (3) detriment to one’s own power of rea-
son, such as by intoxication; (4) illegal seizure of
wealth as through theft or highway robbery; (5)
attacks against life or physical integrity; and (6) per-
turbation of public order. The first categories, in par-
ticular fornication, wrongful accusation, drinking
wine, theft, and highway robbery, comprise the
hadd, or limit penalties. They are rights or claims of
God (huquq Allah) explicitly stated in the Qur’an (Q
24:2 f.; 24:3 f.; 5:33; 5:38; 5:90 f.). The pursuit and the
punishment of these crimes are incumbent on the
Muslim community — that is, the legal authorities.
Such crimes require corporal punishment ranging
eighty lashes for slanderous accusation and capital
punishment, either by stoning for fornication or, for
highway robbery, by crucifixion or decapitation.
Apostasy does not fall into the judicial categories of
crime. From a religious point of view, the punishment
of the apostate belongs to the hereafter; however,
in this world he is condemned to death inasmuch as
he places himself out of the bounds of the social
community.

The fifth category comprising homicide and bodily
injury — and occasionally other damages as well — is
known as jinayat (offenses). Since they belong to the
rights of humans (huquq adami), prosecution of such
crimes only takes place at the request of the offended
party. The penalties vary based on either an intention-
al or an erroneous commitment of the crime (Schacht
1964, 181). In the case of voluntary murder, there
follows a threefold penalty: the punishment in the
hereafter, the loss of inheritance rights, and retalia-
tion for the damage of the victim’s group. The latter
can change its claim on the culprit’s life into recom-
pensation (diya), which might also be paid, in the
case of involuntary homicide, by the “blood-money
group” (‘aqila).

The term ‘aqila signifies the agnatic descent in its
largest sense and refers to tribal notions of collective
liability. However, the importance of the diya — a fact
of which medieval Muslim jurists were particularly

aware — resides in the function of replacing or restrict-
ing the circular exchange of violence resulting from
blood feuds of the tribal factions (Brunschvig
1960, 338; see, for example, Hart 1996, on the mechan-
isms of tribal feuds). It has often been aptly stated
that the introduction of the diya in early Islam marks
a major shift in the transition from private revenge
to penal law. Furthermore, legal doctrine trans-
cended gradually the tribal notion of collective lia-
bility toward a concept of responsibility based on the
obligations of property and geographical closeness
(Johansen 1999, 370). In a comparable way the scho-
lars elaborated definitions of theft to the effect that
they translated divergent variants of economic and
social patterns into the legal doctrines of their respec-
tive Schools of Jurisprudence. Since progress of law
offers a rather tautological explanation for these
developments, only detailed studies of relevant social
and historical backgrounds could shed more light on
the primary agents of legal change (Johansen 1998).

In cases of uncertainty about an offense punishable
by a hadd penalty, as well as in instances of transgres-
sion of the public order, the decision is left to the
discretion of the judge. He is authorized to pronounce
a wide range of punishments, such as public an-
nouncement of the crime, imprisonment, exile, corpo-
ral punishment, or monetary fines. However, all these
punishments shall not be more severe than the hadd
penalty. The judge’s discretionary power (ta’zir) has
given rise to the famous Weberian formulation of
Kadijustiz, which points to a state of legal uncertainty
and arbitrary justice. A number of studies criticize
this statement on the ground that it lacks the neces-
sary reflection about judicial considerations of social
relations or legal doctrine. The ongoing discussion
focuses on the importance of the legal sphere (Powers
2002, 23-52; Dakhlia 1993).

Tilman Hannemann

See also Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil;
Ethics; Peace and Peacemaking; Police; Prisons;
Thieves and Brigands; Usury and Interest; Wine

Further Reading

Brunschvig, Robert. Art. “Akila.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam. New ed. Vol I, 337-340. Leiden and London: Brill,
1960.

Dakhlia, Jocelyn. “Sous le vocable de Salomon: L’Exercice
de la ‘Justice Retenue’ au Maghreb.” Annales Islamolo-
giques 21 (1993): 169-180.

Eigentum. “Familie und Obrigkeit im hanafitischen Stra-
frecht: Das Verhaltnis der privaten Rechte zu den
Forderungen der Allgemeinheit in hanafitischen
Rechtskommentaren.” In Contingency in a Sacred Law:
Legal and Ethical Norms in the Muslim. Fiqh. Leiden
[et al.]: Brill, 1999, 349M20.

183

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Hart, David M. “Murder in the Market: Penal Aspects of
Berber Customary Law in the Precolonial Moroccan
Rif. Islamic Law and Society 3 (1996): 343-371.

Johansen, Baber. “La Mise en Scene du vol par les Juristes
Musulmans.” In Vols et Sanctions en Mediterranee, ed.
Maria Pia di Bella, 41-74. Amsterdam: Ed. des Archives
Contemporaines, 1998.

Krcsmarik, Johann. “Beitrage zur Beleuchtung des islami-
tischen Strafrechts mit Riicksicht auf die Theorie und
Praxis in der Tiirkei.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgen-
landischen Gesellschaft 58 (1904): 69-113; 316-360;
539-579.

Powers, David S. Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib,
1300-1500. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University
Press, 2002.

Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford:
The Clarendon Press, 1964.

CRUSADES

Crusades is the name commonly given to a period
of conflict between Roman Catholic Christians and
non-Christians that lasted, at its height, from the
eleventh to thirteenth centuries CE. It is important
to note that this term is a modern label applied to this
period retrospectively by historians. The numbering
of the major expeditions of the Crusades (First Cru-
sade, Second Crusade, etc.) is also a modern invention
used merely for convenience’s sake; in reality, the
passing of warriors from Europe to the Levant was
a much more continuous process.

Although the major targets of the Crusades were
the Muslims of the Levant, Crusades were also con-
ducted against a variety of groups in other locations,
including non-Christians, heretics, and political oppo-
nents of the papacy in various parts of Europe. How-
ever, as far as the Muslim world is concerned, it was
the Levant that felt the greatest impact from the
Crusades.

The First Crusade (1096-1102) was launched by
Pope Urban II (d. 1099) in 1095. At the Council of
Clermont in France he exhorted his Catholic brethren
to march to the aid of the Christians of the East, who
were suffering under Muslim rule, in return for which
he promised his listeners remission of their sins. The
call was answered by both of Urban’s intended tar-
gets: the knightly classes, and members of the lower
classes who were stirred up with religious fervor.
Starting in 1096, a number of armies marched to the
Levant, the most successful ones fighting their way
across Asia Minor and down the Levantine littoral,
establishing Catholic Christian states at Antioch,
Edessa, and Jerusalem. A fourth Catholic state,
based at Tripoli, came into being when Crusaders
took the city in 1 109. A number of major expeditions
to the Levant were launched over the course of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, one of which, the

Third Crusade (1189-1192), took Cyprus from its
Byzantine ruler in 1191, establishing yet another
Catholic state there.

After the initial shock of the loss of Jerusalem, the
third holy city of Islam, had passed, the Muslim
response to the arrival of the First Crusade was large-
ly one of apathy and compromise. While a number of
Muslims, particularly preachers and poets, called on
their political authorities to respond to the Crusader
invasion, and some undoubtedly did, many rulers
were preoccupied with struggles with other Muslim
rivals and found that it was actually more convenient
to ally themselves with the Franks, as the European
Crusaders were called by the Muslims; indeed, one
finds several cases of Muslim and Frankish leaders
joining together to fight against other Muslims,
Franks, or even both! Thus the Crusaders became
integrated into the political framework of the region.
However, over time, and particularly during the
reigns of the sultans Zanki (r. 1127-1146), Nur
al-Din (r. 1146-1174), Salah al-Din (Saladin,

r. 1169-1193), Baybars (r. 1260-1277), and Qalawun
(r. 1279-1290), there was a gradual hardening of
Muslim hostility to the Franks that led to an increase
of the jihad (holy war) against them, resulting in the
gradual reconquest of territory by the Muslims. The
last Frankish stronghold on the coast, Acre, fell to
Qalawun’s son, al-Ashraf Khalil (r. 1290-93), in 1291,
while Cyprus lasted until 1570, when it was conquered
by the Ottomans. By this time, despite further
attempts that had been made to launch Crusades to
the East, the era of Catholic states in the Levant had
come to an end.

However, it would be a mistake to see the Crusade-
ing period as merely one of conflict. During the period
there was a vibrant trade of goods between the Levant
and Europe that experienced only temporary hiatuses
during periods of increased hostility between Muslims
and Crusaders. Some features of the Franks, especial-
ly military prowess, seem to have been admired by the
Muslims, and a number of genuine friendships, trans-
cending the religious barriers, seem to have formed.
That said, in the sources, Muslim perceptions of the
Franks still tend to be tinged with an air of superi-
ority. While Franks clearly adopted Muslim habits
and practices that were more suited to life in the
Middle East, the Muslims seem to have felt that the
Europeans had little to teach them in return.

Niall Christie

See also Abu Shama; Architecture, Secular: Military;
Ayyubids; Baybars I; European Literature about
Medieval Islam; Fatimids; Franks; Ibn al-‘Adim; Ibn
al-Athir; Ibn al-Furat; Ibn Shaddad; Ibn Taghribirdi;
Ibn Wasil; Interfaith Relations; Jerusalem; Jihad;

184

CURSING

Mamluks; Manzikert; Muslim-Crusader Relations;

Nur al-Din ibn Zanki; Pacts and Treaties; Saladin

(Salah al-Din); Seljuks; Sibt ibn al-Jawzi; Trade, Med-
iterranean; Warfare and Techniques; Weapons and

Weaponry; Zankids

Further Reading

Arab Historians of the Crusades , trans. Francesco Gabrieli
and E.J. Costello. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1984.

Dajani-Shakeel, Hadiah, and R.A. Messier, eds. The Jihad
and Its Times. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies,
1991.

Gervers, Michael, and Janies M. Powell, eds. Tolerance
and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the
Crusades. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
2001 .

Goss, Vladimir P., and Christine V. Bornstein. The Meeting
of Two Worlds. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Pub-
lications, 1986.

Haddad, Yvonne Y., and Wadi 1 Z. Haddad (Eds). Christian-
Muslim Encounters. Gainesville and Tallahassee, FL:
University Press of Florida, 1995.

Hallam, Elizabeth, ed. Chronicles of the Crusades. Godaim-
ing, Surrey: Bramley Books, 1996.

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

Holt, Peter M. The Age of the Crusades. London and New
York: Longman, 1986.

Kedar, Benjamin Z. Crusade and Mission: European
Approaches Towards Muslims. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1984.

Laiou, Angeliki E., and Roy P. Mottahedeh, eds. The Cru-
sades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim
World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research
Library and Collection, 2001.

Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes , trans.
J. Rothschild. London: A1 Saqi Books, 1984.

Madden, Thomas F., ed. The Crusades: The Illustrated
History. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press,
2004. '

Mayer, Hans Eberhard. The Crusades , trans. John Gilling-
ham. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Murray, Alan V., ed. The Crusades: An Encyclopedia. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2005.

Richard, Jean. The Crusades, c. 1071-c. 1291 , trans. Jean
Birrell. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge Universi-
ty Press, 1999.

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: A Short History.
London: Athlone, 1987.

(Ed). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades.

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,
1995.

Shatzmiller, Maya, ed. Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth
Century Syria. The Medieval Mediterranean Vol. 1. Lei-
den and New York: E.J. Brill, 1993.

Sivan, Emmanuel. I’Islam et la Croisade. Paris: Librairie
d’Amerique et d’Orient Adrien Maisonneuve, 1968.

Usamah ibn Munqidh. An Arab-Syrian Gentleman & War-
rior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah
ibn-Munqidh. Translated by Philip K. Hitti. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2000.

CURSING

Although using the name of God in promissory oaths
is perfectly acceptable Muslim practice, invoking
God’s power against fellow Muslims in the form of
a curse (sabb, la'n) is regularly condemned in the
hadith literature. The Prophet is remembered never
to have cursed a Muslim (although he is said to have
cursed his enemies), and to have included among the
rights of a wife that she not be cursed by her husband.
In one report, the Prophet is shown to have equated
cursing a believer with murdering him, a statement
that reflects a widespread belief in the power of curses
to do real harm. Oaths were, in fact, sometimes
strengthened with self-curses (“May God blacken
my face if 1 fail to do such-and-such”), although
swearing in this manner was widely disapproved of
by the legal scholars. Even so, exposing oneself to
curses was the central feature of the judicial procedure
known as li'an, an ordeal used to resolve accusations
of adultery in cases where neither confession nor
witnesses were on hand. The Prophet is said to have
invited a delegation of Christians from Najran to
resolve their dispute with him by recourse to recipro-
cal cursing (mubahala) , an invitation that was not in
the end taken up.

Early Muslims commonly expressed their affilia-
tion with a particular faction by dissociating from
and cursing its enemies. ‘Ali was cursed by the
Umayyads soon after the First Civil War ended, and
those who supported 'Alid claims likewise cursed
‘Uthman and Mu‘awiya. Eventually, Imami (and
some Zaydi) Shi‘is would incorporate cursing of the
first three Caliphs into their supererogatory prayers.
(The qunut, understood in classical Sunni and Shi‘i
law as a prayer of supplication, in fact, began as an
imprecation against enemies used by Muslims of vari-
ous sects.) More generally, Muhammad’s Com-
panions were cursed by Imamis and some Zaydis;
in certain contexts, this “vilification of the Com-
panions” (sabb al-s.ah.aba) could take place during
public festivities commemorating the Prophet’s
designation of ‘Ali at Ghadlr Khumm.

Keith Lewinstein

Further Reading

Chelhod, Joseph. Le Droit clans la Societe Bedouine:
Recherches Ethnologiques sur le ‘orf on Droit Coutumier
des Bedouins. Paris: Riviere et C, 1971.

Coulson, Noel James. “Muslim Custom and Case-Law.”
Welt des Islams 6 (1959-1961): 13-24.

Dutton, Yasin. The Origins of Islamic Law: The Our’an, the
Muwatta’ and Madinan ‘Amal. Richmond: Curzon, 1999.
Gellner, Ernest. Saints of the Atlas. Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press AVeidenfeld & Nicholson,
1969.

Hallaq, Wael B. Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islam-
ic Law. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press,
2001 .

Hunwick, John. “Notes on a Late Fifteenth-Century Doc-
ument Concerning‘al-Takrur’.” In African Perspectives:
Papers in the History, Politics and Economics of Africa,
edited by Christopher Allen and R.W. Johnson, 7-33.
Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History.
2 vols. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1967.

Johansen, Baber. “Coutumes Locales et Coutumes Univer-
selles aux Sources des Regies Juridiques en Droit Musul-
man Hanefite.” In Contingency in a Sacred Law: Legal
and Ethical Norms in the Muslim Fiqh. Leiden [et al.]:
Brill, 1999, 163-171.

Libson, Gideon. “On the Development of Custom As a
Source of Law in Islamic Law: Alruju'u ila al-‘urfi
ahadu al-qawa‘icli al-khamsi allati yatabanna ‘alayha
al-fiqhu.” Islamic Law and Society 4 (1997): Nr. 2,
131-155.

Milliot, Louis. “Les Institutions Kabyles.” Revue des Etudes
Islamiques 6(1932): 127-174.

Patorni, F. “Deliberation de l’annee 1749 dans la Grande
Kabylie.” Revue Africaine 39 (1895): 315-320.

Powers, David S. Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib,
1300-1500. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University
Press, 2002, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization.
Rosen, Lawrence. “Law and Custom in the Popular Legal
Culture of North Africa.” Islamic Law and Society
2 (1995): Nr. 2, 194-208.

Toledano, Ehud R. Judicial Practice and Family Law in
Morocco: The Chapter on Marriage from as-Sijilmasi’s
Al- ‘Antal Al-Mutlaq. Boulder, CO: Social Science
Monographs, 1981.

CYPRUS

Cyprus ( Kibns in modern Turkish, Kubrus in old
Ottoman or Arabic text, and Kypros in Greek) is the
largest island in the Eastern Mediterranean. The first
encounter of Cyprus with Islam began in 632 CE

when the Arab invaders under Abu Bakr, according
to the Arab and Greek chronicles, showed themselves
in Cyprus capturing the Byzantine city of Salamis
(Constantia) and converting the large basilica of St.
Epiphanios into a mosque. During another expedi-
tion by Mu‘awiya, governor of Syria in 649, Umm
Haram bint Milhan, wife of Ubada ibn as-Shamit, a
close relation of the Prophet, died by a fall from her
mule in Larnaca. Hala Sultan Tekke, a kiilliye includ-
ing her mausoleum erected at the spot of her tomb,
marked by a megalithic monument, is the most ven-
erated Islamic monument in the island.

The Arab expeditions continued during the Latin
Crusading Kingdom between the eleventh and six-
teenth centuries. In one of these, the Memelouk Sul-
tan Emir Tanriverdi al-Mahmoudi from Cairo landed
at Limassol with his army in 1426 and proceeded as
far as Nicosia, where he enjoyed the luxury of the
Lusignan king’s palace and demanded a quarter to
be allocated to them in the capital city, as well as
making an agreement of an annual tribute.

Islamic societies took part sometimes as allied
forces beside the Lusignans against the Byzantines
or the Genoese. However, there is not much known
about the extent of the spreading of the Islamic
culture in Cyprus dating back to pre-Ottoman rule,
although medieval chronicles referred to mosque
building and the presence of the Turcopoles on
the island. There are several Ottoman buildings (St.
Omer Tekke, Kirklar Tekke, and Omerge Mosque)
dedicated to the early Islamic martyrs.

The Ottoman conquest during the reign of Selim II
in 1570/71, with the consent of the Sheyh ill Islam,
introduced the permanent Islamic culture on the
island. An organized settlement policy by forced
migrations from Anatolia, mainly Konya, Karaman,
Larende, Nigde, Ichel, Menteshe, Denizli, and
Ziilkadiriye, created a Turkish Islamic population
beside the Orthodox Greek natives. Institutions of
the Ottoman administration and the Islamic religion
were established, the most significant being the
Evkaf (waqf) institution, which still functions as
the administrator of the religious and philanthropic
affairs as the greatest property holder in the island.
Trade activities from the Islamic countries also
increased during this period.

Cyprus became a chief principality governed by a
Beylerbeyi in Nicosia and Sancak Beys in the kazas,
including some provinces in Anatolia such as Ichel,
Sis, Alaiye (Alanya), and Tarsus until the early de-
cades of the seventeenth century. British rule termi-
nated the Ottoman administration in 1878, although
the Turkish Islamic culture continued.

The language of the Turkish Cypriots is in the
southeastern dialect deriving from Oghuz Turks.

188

CYPRUS

Biiyiik Han in Nicosia, c. 1571. © N. Yildiz.

Islamic architectural heritage is of Ottoman charac-
ter. Biiyiik Han, Biiyiik Hamam, Omeriye complex,
Arap Ahmet and Agha Cafer Mosques, Hala Sultan
and Mevlevi Tekkes, aqueducts, fountains, and the
castles in Paphos, Larnaca, and Limassol are the most
notable ones from the sixteenth century. Also, Latin
monuments, mainly Selimiye (Ayia Sophia) Mosque
in Nicosia, Lala Mustafa Pasha (Ayia Sophia or
St. Nicholas) Mosque in Famagusta, the city walls,
and citadels and domestic buildings, restored and
renovated according to Turkish culture during the
last quarter of the sixteenth century, is a sign of the
respect of the Ottoman administrators toward
the cultural heritage. Several others were constructed
during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, includ-
ing Bekir Pasha Aqueduct and Sultan Mahmut
Library. Museums located in Mevlevi Tekke, Dervish
Pasha Konak, and Canpolat Bastion display art and
ethnographical collections of Islamic origin. Islamic
manuscripts and Ottoman documents in the posses-
sion of the Turkish Cypriot Archive and Documenta-
ry Centre and the Waqf Administration in North

Cyprus and the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive in
Istanbul show the legacy of the Islamic culture in
Cyprus.

Netice Yildiz

Further Reading

Boustronios, George. The Chronicles of George Boustronios
1456-1489, ed. and trans. R. M. Dawkins. Melbourne:
University of Melbourne, Cyprus Expedition Publica-
tion, No. 2, 1964.

Cobham, Claude Deleval, ed. and trans. Excerpta Cypria,
Materials for a History of Cyprus. Cambridge, MA,
1908.

Cuhadiroglu, Fikret, and Oguz, Filiz. “Kibns‘ta Turk Eser-
leri [Turkish Historical Monuments in Cyprus].” Vaki-
flar, Rolove ve Restorasyon Dergisi, Vakiflar Genel
Miidurlugii Yayinlari No. 2 (1975): 1-76.

De Groot, A. H. "Kubros.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
ed. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, Lewis, B., and Pellat, Ch.
Vol V. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986.

Esin, Emel. Aspects of Turkish Civilization in Cyprus.
Ankara: Turk Kiiltiirunu Ara§tima Enstitusii, 1965.

189

CYPRUS

Gazioglu, Ahmet Cemal. The Turks in Cyprus. London:
Rental Rustem and Brother, 1990.

Hill, George. A History of Cyprus. 4 vols. Cambridge, MA:
University Press, 1948-1952.

Inalcik, Halil (Ed). The First International Congress of
Cypriot Studies (14-19 April 1969), Ankara. Institute
for the Study of Turkish Culture, 1971.

Le Januen, C.D. Histoire Generate Des Roiaumes de Chypre
de Jerusalem. 3 vols. A Leide, 1785.

Jennings, Ronald C. Christians and Muslims in Ottoman
Cyprus and the Mediterranean World. 1571-1640. New
York, 1993.

Latrie, L. de Mas. Histoire de L ’lie de Chypre Sous le Regne
des Princes de la Maison de Lusignan. Paris, 1862 (Fama-
gouste, Chypre: Les Edition TOiseau), 1970.

Makhairas, Leontis. Recital Concerning the Sweet Land of
Cyprus, Entitled ‘Chronicle, ed. and trans., R. M. Daw-
kins. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932 (Famagouste,
Chypre: Les Edition l’Oiseau), 2 vols.

Ostrogorsky, George. History of the Byzantine State. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1969.

Roper, Geoffrey, ed. World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts.
2 vols. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Founda-
tion, 1992.

Runciman, Steven. History of the Crusades. 3 vols. Cam-
bridge, MA. 1951-1954.

Setton, Kenneth M., and M. W. Baldwin, eds. A History of
the Crusades. VI vols. Madison, Milwaukee, and Lon-
don: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969-1989.

§e$en, Ramazan, Altan, Mustafa Ha§im, and izgi, Cevat.
Kibns Islam Yazmalan Katalogu. Istanbul: Islam Tarih
ve Kulturiinii Ara§tirma Vakft, 1415/1995.

Ulugam, Abdiilsellam. “The Architectural Characteristics
of Turkish Monuments in Cyprus." Cyprus International
Symposium on Her Past and Present, Gazimagusa, 28
October Ekim-2 November 1991. Ankara: Eastern Med-
iterranean University of TRNC and Van Yuzuncii Yil
University of Turkish Republic, No: 9, 1994, 149-181.

Ytldtz, Netice. “The Koran of Lala Mustafa Pa§a.” New
Cyprus (July 1991): 22-25.

. “Ottoman Period in Cyprus, A Glance at Turkish

Architecture.” New Cyprus (February-March 1992):
22-27.

. “Aqueducts in Cyprus." Journal for Cypriot Studies

2/2 (1996): 89-112.

. “Ottoman Houses in Cyprus.” Proceedings on the

International Symposium on The Ottoman Houses,
Papers from the Amasya Symposium, 24-27 September
1996 , The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara
and the University of Warwick, BIAA Monographs 26,
1998, 79-88, pi. 10.1-8

. “Ottoman Culture and Art in Cyprus.” Learning

and Education in the Ottoman. World Proceedings, istan-
bul 12-15 April 1999, Research Centre for Islamic
History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), istanbul, 2001,
259-276.

. “Kibris’ta Osmanli Kiiltur Mirasma Genel Bir

Baki§.” In Tiirkler, edited by H. C. Guzel, K. Cigck,
and S. Koca, vol. 19, 966-993. Ankara: Yeni Turkiye
Yaymlan, 2002.

. “Vakfs in Ottoman Cyprus." CIEPO-15 th Sympo-
sium, (International pre-Ottoman and Ottoman Studies,
The London School of Economics and Political Science,
7-12 July 2002 (in print by TAURIS Publications).

190

DAMASCUS

Damascus (Dimashq) is the current capital of the
Arab Republic of Syria. In popular usage, it is widely
referred to as al-Sham, a term that is also used to refer
to greater Syria (i.e., Bilad al-Sham).

Damascus owes its existence to the river Barada,
which springs from the eastern slopes of the Anti-
Lebanon mountain range, and, after crossing Damas-
cus, empties into the eastern and southern desert,
forming around the city a fertile agricultural land
known as al-Ghuta. The abundance of water and agri-
culture, along with the city’s strategic location on the
internal highway that connects the south (Egypt and
Arabia) and the north (Mesopotamia and Asia
Minor), allowed Damascus to play a significant role
in Near Eastern trade and communication, and, at
times, in politics, too, from antiquity to modern times.

The city plan took its shape inside the surrounding
wall and its seven gates during the Roman period.
The main east-west street (decumanus) is still partly
in existence, and approximately in its middle was the
Temple of Jupiter (which was converted during the
Byzantine period into the Church of St. John the
Baptist) and the market place (agora), the ruins of
which still exist just outside the southern gate of the
Umayyad Mosque. The town’s houses were arranged
in quarters on both sides of the main street, with small
alleys and paths leading to them.

Damascus fell to the Muslim army in AH 1 5/636 CE
and ever since has been under Islamic rule. It rose to
significance under the Umayyads (r. 41-132/661-750),
who chose it as their main capital and reorganized it

as an imperial city. During that period, the first
mosque built on a grand scale in Islam (the Umayyad
Mosque) was constructed by orders from Caliph al-
Walid b. ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 86-96/705-715), who also
ordered the construction of the Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem. The site of the Umayyad Mosque and its
courtyard was originally occupied by the Church of
St. John, which included a small chapel built to house
a casket that was believed to contain St. John’s head.
After the Islamic conquest, an earlier mosque was
built in the southern corner of the Church’s court-
yard, although some Muslim historians suggest that
the Church itself was divided into two sections: one
for the Muslims and another for the Christians. Al-
Walid ordered the confiscation of the property, and
all preexisting buildings, including the Church and the
earlier mosque, were razed to the ground to allow for
the new mosque. The casket containing St. John’s
head was incorporated into the main mosque, where
it still exists today. In 61/680, the head of al-Husayn
b. ‘Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and
the third Shi‘i Imam, was buried in the eastern side of
the mosque complex; however, it was moved shortly
after 359/970 and buried in Cairo, in a mosque built
for that purpose by the Fatimids of Egypt (the al-
Husayn Mosque). These two figures of tremendous
religious and spiritual authority made the Umayyad
Mosque a center especially for local pilgrimage and
subsequently augmented the religious symbolism
(fada’il) of Damascus.

In addition to the two key figures mentioned above,
local legends identify Damascus and its surrounding

191

DAMASCUS

area as the birthplace of Abraham and the burial
place of Moses and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Simi-
larly, Jesus is believed to have escaped to Damascus
with Mary and Joseph at the time of the Massacre of
the Innocents — hence its association with the Quran-
ic reference “wa-awaynahuma ila rabwatin dhati qar-
arin wa-ma‘ini” (23:50); it is also believed that He will
descend into the city to usher in the End Times. The
town’s main medieval cemetery, Maqbarat al-Bab al-
Saghir (this is outside of the southern Small Gate,
which is also known as Bab al-Hadid), contains the
graves of a large host of significant Muslim public
figures and religious scholars, including companions
of the Prophet Muhammad. All of this bestowed on
Damascus — and, by extension, on Syria — additional
holiness.

The city grew outside its walls, but it gradually lost
most of its prestige and centrality, especially as com-
pared with towns in Syria like Aleppo (Halab) and
Hims after the ousting of the Umayyads. It reclaimed
its political, intellectual, economic, and religious su-
premacy back when Sultan Nur al-Din (d. 569/1174)
captured it in 549/1154 and made it his capital city,
although its political prominence was lost again with
his death. Nur al-Din ordered a major facelift for the
city, including major renovations of some of its exist-
ing monuments and the addition of new ones, such as a
hospice (al-Bimaristan al-Nuri), several schools for
religious sciences (e.g., Dar al-Hadith al-Nuriyya),
and several mosques. Since the time of Nur al-Din,
Damascus has become one of the most prestigious
centers for Sunni Islam, and its scholars (both natives
and residents) played a significant role in the promo-
tion and diffusion of Sunni Islam in Syria and the
Middle East. During the Ottoman period, Damascus
rose back to political supremacy, especially with the al-
Azm family during the eighteenth century. Many
members of the family were governors of the wilayet
(province) of Damascus, which extended east to the
Bekaa valley in modern-day Lebanon and south to
Jordan and northern Palestine. The al-Azm family
left their mark on the city, with their splendid palaces
and public undertakings, including construction and
renovation of the city’s markets and caravanserais.

Damascus gave its name to several types of mer-
chandise that were initially produced there and traded
widely during the Middle Ages. The two most notable
items are damask, which is a firm, lustrous fabric that
blends linen and silk, and the damask rose (ward juri),
which is a very fragrant red rose. A special syrup is
made from the damask rose and used in desserts and a
few other recipes; if diluted in water, the syrup
becomes a refreshing drink that is usually served at
weddings and on special occasions.

Suleiman A. Mourad

See also Syria; Umayyad Mosque
Further Reading

Elisseeff, Nikita. La Description de Damns d'Ibn ‘Asakir, 3
vols. Damascus: Institut Frangais de Damas, 1959.
Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

Lindsay, James E. Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World.
Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 2005.

DANCING

At least from the early ‘Abbasid period, Muslim
authors were troubled by the active role of female
participants in various popular festivals, the mingling
of genders, and the sensuality that accompanied some
of these rites. They particularly addressed the issue of
music and dancing during these ceremonies; hence,
the prevalent attitude of Muslim writers toward danc-
ing is concentrated in works that criticize Sufi customs
or condemn manifestations of popular Islam.

That these questions alarmed some writers is
reflected in an anecdote narrated by Ibn 'Abd al-
Hakam: Yazid ibn Abi Habib wrote to ‘Umar and
asked him about playing music and using tambour-
ines and guitars at weddings. In response, the righ-
teous caliph prohibited the playing of guitars but let
the public beat tambourines. According to ‘Umar,
this denotes the difference between a wedding and
fornication (sifah).

The jurists turned their attention mainly to those
circles of Sufis that — through tambourine (daff) and
flute (shabbaba) playing, hand clapping, and dancing
( raq.v) — attracted audiences to their public perfor-
mances. Chanting, playing musical instruments, and
dancing were magnets for the populace. Interestingly,
the jurisprudents did not dwell on the music and
dancing that were performed in the royal palaces.

An examination of hisba manuals and bid‘a criti-
cism confirms that dancing and music were not ap-
proved of. Condemnation of them is particularly
conspicuous in works that criticize the quasi-Sufis
(fuqara’). It is not surprising to find that those who
wrote against popular culture and expressed disap-
proval of music and dancing also participated in cam-
paigns against the manners and customs of the
fuqara’. It seems that the principal objection of these
fuqaha to music and dancing sessions (sama) was the
sexuality associated with them, which would also ex-
plain their objection to singing (ghina).

A well-known example of such writers is Ibn Hajj
al-‘Abdari. This famous jurisprudent took a particu-
larly fierce stand against the mingling of men and

192

n the Akbar-nama. Moghu
ia and Albert Museum, Lo

dature, c. 1590. (CT3-
, Great Britain.

DANCING

women in any social or religious situation, and this
was also the attitude of Ibn Taymiyya toward dancing
and music playing as expressed in several of his
works. In his discussions of the sama‘, Ibn Taymiyya
provides his readers with extensive descriptions of the
fuqara’s’ rituals and performances as well as with
information about popular Islam.

Ibn Taymiyya differentiates between two types of
spiritual concerts (dhikrs): one is legal (sama‘ shar‘i),
but the other one oversteps the bounds of Islamic law
(kharij shuru/ al-masha’ikh). Ibn Taymiyya argues
that, during the forbidden dhikrs, music is used to
bring the participants to a state of ecstasy. He com-
pares this practice to the consumption of alcohol or
the use of drugs, both of which are strictly prohibited.
He considers the deeds of the quasi-Sufis’ to be a
taboo, and he deduces that the shari’a forbids sama‘
that leads to ecstasy.

Ibn Qayyirn al-Jawziyya opens his examination of
music and dancing with a pseudo-fatwa (dated 740/
1339). The question reads as follows: “What is the
stand of our learned masters ( al-sada al- ‘ulama ’) re-
garding sama’, which consists of playing musical
instruments such as tambourine and flute, hand clap-
ping, singing, and amusement. Men and women min-
gle and recite Qur’anic verses. Claiming that this
ritual brings the participants in these ceremonies clos-
er to Allah, the partakers argue that if a person dance
his sins will be forgiven.”

The question posed by Ibn Qayyirn al-Jawziyya
triggered answers by other fuqaha, thereby raising a
wide range of issues. Some scholars imposed a total
ban on music. They depicted behavior by the Sufi
brethren that led some to brand such a group as “a
band of disgrace.” Moreover, they were incensed by
scenes of women and young men dancing and chant-
ing in the presence of mixed audiences. In one case,
the heads of the Kilaniyya brotherhood applied to the
Hanbali qadi of Cairo (in 852/1448) to ban singing
and the playing of musical instruments. They further
appealed to the sultan to prohibit the playing of
drums and flutes in al-Rifa‘i’s lodge.

It goes without saying that the fulminations
against music and dancing achieved only limited
results. Rigorous ‘ulama never succeeded in eliminat-
ing music from Arab, Turkish, or Persian societies, as
can be deduced from chronicles and biographies;
proof is to be found in the performances by Sufis
that used music as an instrument to attain unity
with God, in works by authors favoring music, and
in accounts of the activities of professional musicians.
The tariqa Mavlawiyya (Mevleviler) are perhaps the
best-known examples that support this proposition.

The failure of the puritans might explain the posi-
tion arrived at by other jurists, who distinguished

between licit and illicit poetry. These fuqaha’
regarded loud supplication (awrad) and the reciting
of Qur’anic verses as noble, and they permitted the
chanting of hymns. An example of this line of argu-
mentation can be seen in the writing of ‘Alwan
al-//ama\vi.

Yehoshua Frenkel

Further Reading

Al-‘Abdari, Ibn Hajj. al-Madkhal. Cairo.

Al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiya, Taqi. Al-Risala fi al-Sama'
wal-Raqs. In Musique et Danse Selon Ibn Taymiyya, ed.
J.R. Michot. Paris, 1991.

Memon, Muhammad U. Ibn Taimaya’s Struggle Against
Popular Religion: With an Annotated Translation of his
Kitab Iqtida Assirat al-Mustaquin Mukhalafat Ashab al-
Jahim. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1976.

Al-Din Muhammad Ibn Qayyirn al-Jawziyya al-Dimashqi,
Shams. Kashf al-Ghita’ ‘an Hukam Sama ‘al-Ghina’, ed.
R.A. Khalaf. Cairo, 1991.

Al-Din al-Suyuti, Jalal. al-Amar bil-Itiba ‘wal-Nahi ‘an al-
Ibtida ', ed. M.H. Salman, 99-113. Cairo, 1990.

Izzi Dien, Mawil. The Theory and the Practice of Market
Law in Medieval Islam: A Study of Kitab Nisab al-Ihtisab
of Umar b. Muhammad al-Sunami. Warminster, UK:
Gibb Memorial Trust, 1997.

Al-‘ Abbas Ahamd Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Abu. Kaf al-ra ‘a ‘
‘an Muharramat al-Lahw wal-Sama ‘. Cairo, 1951.

Al-Shadhili al-Tunisi, Muhammad. Farh al-Asma‘ bi-Rukhs
al-Sima', ed. M. Sh. al-Rahhamuni. Tripoli/Tunis, 1985.

‘Ali b. ‘Atiyya b. al-Hasan al-Hiti al-Husayni al-Shafi‘i
‘Alwan al-Hamawi. al-Sham a'Rasuha wa-Fada’il
Suknaha (A‘ras al-Sham), ed. N. Alwani. Damascus,
1997.

Pouzet, L. “Prises de Position Autour de Sama‘ en Orient
Musulman au Vlle/XIII Siecle.” Studia Islamica 57
(1983): 119-34.

Gribetz, A. “The Sama' Controversy: Sufi vs. Legalist.”
Studia Islamica 74 (1991): 43-62.

Markoff, I. "Music, Saints and Ritual: Sama‘ and the Ale-
vies of Turkey.” In Manifestations of Sainthood in Islam,
eds. G.M. Smith and C.W. Ernest, 95-110. Istanbul:
ISIS Press, 1993.

Hammarlund, A., Tord Olsson, and E. Ozdalga, eds. Su-
fism, Music and Society in Turkey and the Middle East.
Richmond, VA: Curzon, 2001.

DARA SHIKOH (1615-1659)

The eldest son and the heir apparent of the Mughal
Emperor Shahjahan (d. 1657) and his favorite wife
Mumtaz Mahal and himself an Emperor manque,
Dara never showed much interest in political affairs.
He took part in one military campaign to Kandahar
in 1659, which resulted in failure, and he only accept-
ed the governorship of Allahabad in 1645 so that he
could be near the Chishti mystic and philosopher
Muhibb Allah Uahabadi (d. 1648); he never took
up his post in Allahabad and merely corresponded

194

DATES AND CALENDARS

with the philosopher. Along with his favorite sister,
Jahanara, he spent more time with literati and Sufis,
affiliating himself with the Qadiri order. Their politi-
cal disinterest led to his younger brother Awrangzeb
to launch a successful bid to become emperor and
outflanking Dara Shikoh. European travelers such
as Bernier and Manucci regarded him as an aloof
and arrogant man who had no real convictions and
was hence interested in syncretism.

Dara was already associated with the Qadiri order
at the time of Miyan Mir (d. 1635), but, along with his
sister, he only formally joined in 1640, paying alle-
giance to Mulla Shah Badakhshi (d. 1661), Miyan
Mir’s successor. This in itself was a significant act:
the heir apparent pledging allegiance to a Sufi master
was an almost unique step during the Mughal period.
Dara wrote two hagiographies of famous Sufis of the
past and of the Qadiri order: Safinat al-Awliya’ in
1640 and Sakinat al-Awliya’ in 1642. However, his
major literary contribution came later. In 1646, he
completed his best work, Risala-yi Haqq-numa , which
was a defense of monism that was steeped in the
learning of the school of Ibn ‘Arabi. His growing
interest in following in the footsteps of his great-
grandfather Akbar led to his encounters with Indian
thought. In 1653, he met the kabirpanthi ascetic
Baba La‘l Das and asked him questions about truth,
religion, and community, a conversation that was
recorded for posterity in an intriguing mix of Per-
sian, Sanskrit, and Hindavi by Dara’s secretary,
Candrabhan Brahman.

Dara’s most obvious expression of syncretism
came in 1655 with the completion of Majma ‘ al-Bah-
rayn (The Mingling of the Two Oceans). Drawing on
Qur’an 18:60, he argued that the essences of Indian
religions (he meant the Vedanta and Natha paths)
and Sufism were the same. A rather mediocre work,
its significance lies not in the quality of its composi-
tion but rather the identity of its author. It does seem
that Dara had a good grasp of Sanskrit and of the
technical terminology of the Vedic schools, because
he himself translated this work as Samudrasangama.
He extended this by commissioning a translation of
the Upanishads. which was completed in 1657 with
the title Sirr-i Akbar ( The Great Secret ) . He claimed
that the Upanishads were the “hidden scripture”
alluded to in Qur’an 56:78.

A patron of the arts, Dara commissioned paintings
and albums that included depictions of himself that
still survive. Awrangzeb, who was seen as a heretical
aesthete, took advantage of Shahjahan’s illness in 1658
and had Dara declared a heretic. During the ensuing
trial, Dara was condemned, and he was executed on
August 12, 1659. His political failure meant that he
could not call on powerful defenders for his cause.

Since then, historians and Indians have debated what
might have been. Awrangzeb has been cast as Dara’s
opposite, associating with Naqshbandis and treating
non-Muslims harshly; this was in contrast with Dara’s
syncretic idea of “universal peace.” Dara’s real prob-
lem was that, by focusing on lofty ideals and transcen-
dental unity, he had little understanding of political
realities.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Akbar; Mughals; Sufism
Primary Sources

Shikoh, Dara. Majma ‘ al-Bahrayn (The Mingling of the
Two Oceans), ed. and trans. M. Mahfuz ul-Haq. Cal-
cutta: Biblioteca Indica, 1929.

. “Mukalama Baba La‘l (Entretiens de Lahore).”

ed. and trans. C. Huart and L. Massignon, Journal
Asiatique 209 (1926): 285-334. (English translation
in Waseem, M., ed. and trans. On Becoming an
Indian Muslim: French Essays on Aspects of Syncreti-
cism, 106-30. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2003.)

Hasrat, B.J. Dara Shikuh: Life and Works. New Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal, 1979.

Filliozat, J. “Dara Shikoh’s Samudrasangama’ .” In On Be-
coming an Indian Muslim: French Essays on Aspects of
Syncreticism , Waseem, M., ed. and trans., 131-44. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Gobel-Gross, E. Sirr-i Akbar. Die Upanishad-Ubersetzung
Dara Shikohs. PhD dissertation. Marburg: 1961.

Renard, P. “Historical Bibliography of Upanisads in Trans-
lation.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 23 (1995): 223-46.
Shayegan, D. Les Relations de ‘Hindouisme et du Soufisme.
Paris: Editions de la Difference, 1979.

DATES AND CALENDARS

The Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijra calen-
dar, is based on a lunar cycle that has twelve months
of approximately twenty-nine to thirty days each.
The term Hijra refers to the emigration of the early
Muslim community in Mecca to the northern oasis of
Yathrib (later known as Medina), a seminal event in
Islamic history. ‘Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 634-644 CE),
the second Rightly Guided Caliph, designated the
year that the Emigration (Hijra) took place (622 CE)
as Year One of the Islamic calendar in 638. It has
become a standard convention of the modern scholar-
ship of Islamic history to provide both dates, with the
Hijra year first, followed by the Gregorian calendar-
based Common Era (CE) date: for example, 450/
1058. Conversion from the Hijra calendar to other
calendars is not an exact science, and detailed data
(i.e., the day of the week, the month, and the year) are
required before one can obtain an accurate conver-
sion. This is due in large part to the methods that have
been traditionally used to determine the changeover
from one month to the next.

195

DATES AND CALENDARS

According to traditions that predate the rise of
Islam, each new month begins with the sighting of
the new crescent moon right after sunset and lasts
until the sighting of the next new crescent moon;
this system of dating based on the movement of celes-
tial bodies or the moon with the sun is also known
as a synodic system. Although this is fraught with
potential human error, medieval scholars eventu-
ally settled on a more consistent system of giving
the odd-numbered months thirty days each and the
even-numbered months twenty-nine days each.

The twelve months of the Islamic calendar, in
order, are as follows: (1) Muharram; (2) Safar;
(3) Rabi‘ al-Awwal; (4) Rabi‘ al-Akhir (or al-Thani);
(5) Jumada 'l-Ula; (6) Jumada ’1-Akhira; (7) Rajab;
(8) Sha‘ban; (9) Ramadan; (10) Shawwal; (11) Dhu ’1-
Qa‘da; and (12) Dhu ’1-Hijja. For administrative and
agricultural reasons, medieval Muslims also used
derivations of existing solar and/or fixed-month
calendars from the region; these include aspects of
the Ancient Egyptian seasonal calendar, the Roman
Julian calendar, and the Persian calendar. Although
the Islamic calendar and dating system was the over-
arching system used by medieval Muslims (especially
with regard to religious holidays [eids]), Muslims from
such places as al-Andalusia, Central Asia, and India
would retain their traditional calendars and practices
at the local level. Some key days in the Muslim calen-
dar are Eid al-Adha (The Feast of the Sacrifice),
which commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacri-
fice his son, Isma‘il (10 Dhu ’1-Hijja); Eid al-Fitr
(Breaking of the Fast), which is celebrated at the
end of Ramadan; and Laylat al-Qadr (The Night of
Power), which occurs during one of the last ten nights
of Ramadan; on this night, the prayers of sincere
Muslims are said to be answered. In addition to
these days, such local traditions as the Persian
Nawruz (Festival of the New Year) are observed,
regardless of their non-Islamic origin. It should also
be noted that, within Islamic society itself, there are
some minor deviations in terms of ritual practice
concerning dates and calendars between the Sunni
and Shi‘i communities. The most famous difference
involves the commemoration of Ashura (10 Muhar-
ram); within the Sunni community this has some
significance, but, within the Shi‘i community, it is
the commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn
b. Ali, the grandson of the Prophet, in 680 at the
hands of Umayyad forces.

The Islamic calendar of twelve lunar months cre-
ates a year with 354 days; the result of this is that,
over decades, the Islamic months actually travel
throughout the solar-based seasonal year. The practi-
cal effect of this can be seen with the example of
Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, during

which Muslims refrain from drinking and eating be-
tween sunrise and sunset. At one point, Ramadan will
fall during the winter season, when the days are
shorter; a decade or so later, Ramadan will fall during
the summer, when the time between sunrise and sun-
set is much longer. Medieval scholars of both the
religious and natural sciences wrote numerous works
about the proper methods for ascertaining the change
in months as well as about their astronomical obser-
vations. Modern scholars have used these works, in
addition to more modern calculation methods, to
create reliable conversion tables; students and scho-
lars also have Internet-based conversion tables at
their disposal that allow for day-to-day conversions.

Eric Hanne

See also Astrology; Astronomy; Festivals and Celebra-
tions; Nawruz; Pagans and Pagan Customs

Further Reading

Birashk, Ahmad. A Comparative Calendar of the Iranian,
Muslim Lunar, and Christian Eras for Three Thousand
Years: 1260 B.H-200 A.H./639 B.C.-2621 A.D. Costa
Mesa: Mazda in association with Bibliotheca Persica,
1993.

Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. The Islamic and Christian Calen-
dars, AD 622-2222 (AH 1-1650): A Complete Guide for
Converting Christian and Islamic Dates and Dates of
Festivals , revised edition. Reading, UK: Garnet, 1995.
Ilyas, Mohammad. A Modern Guide to Astronomical Calcu-
lations of Islamic Calendar, Times and Oibla. Kuala
Lumpur: Berita, 1984.

Minai, Hasan Ahmad. “The Hijri Calendar.” Islamic Order
2i (1980): 64-77.

DEATH AND DYING

Qur’anic Themes

“Every soul shall taste of death,” declares the Qur’an
in verse 3:185, in an expression suggesting why death
ought to be a universal concern. Yet human beings, in
the Qur’anic understanding, are not equally preoccu-
pied with their mortality. Their attitudes differ strik-
ingly, depending on whether or not they believe in the
afterlife.

According to the Qur’an, infidels enjoy life without
giving much thought to the hereafter. They cultivate
the vineyards of this world, pay no heed to the Hour
of Reckoning, and doubt that God has the power to
recreate life from bones and fragmented corpses. A
harsh surprise awaits them, for, after passing away
from this life, they will suffer a second death, an

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afterlife of torment in the fire of Hell. Believers, by
contrast, live in awe of God’s power to create and
destroy. They argue against the infidels that, if God
can revivify with vegetation a lifeless land, so too can
he quicken the dead, and that, on the Day of the
Resurrection, they shall be rewarded with eternal life
in the Garden.

This polemic dialog, recorded in verses 36:78,
56:47-8, and elsewhere, does not necessarily reflect
actual exchanges between incredulous infidels and be-
lieving Muslims. However, regardless of its historic
truth, the dialogue served to emphasize — if only in
believers’ minds — the reassuring notion that an
omnipotent God would allow life to continue after
death. The related belief that God controlled life and
death — and that in fact He decreed or predetermined
the very moment at which every individual’s life should
end — also offered consolation. Muslims, unlike early
Arabic poets, did not see death as a misfortune striking
loved ones unjustly and arbitrarily; rather, death for
them was a part of God’s wise — if inscrutable — plan.

Such consolation derived special meaning in an
environment in which, as a result of tribal warfare
and the military struggles of the first Muslims, the
way of death was often violent. In fact, the theme of
violent death is an essential one in the Qur’an. It
recurs most frequently in the so-called Medinan
verses, as O’Shaughnessy has pointed out. There are
references to the persecution and violent death of
several prophets, and one reads about killing by
drowning, stoning to death, burning to death, and
crucifixion. These ways of dying, although gruesome,
need not be feared by those fighting in God’s path, for
martyrs only seem to undergo death: in reality, they
continue to live with God.

Upon death, as during sleep, God sends angels to
take the souls of women and men. He returns the souls
of the sleepers to their bodies so that they will contin-
ue to live until their predetermined end, and He keeps
with Him the souls of the dead. Deceased wrongdoers
plead with God, asking Him to allow them to return
to Earth, where they hope to accomplish the good
works they had neglected to do during life. However,
a barrier that shall be breached only on the Day of the
Resurrection, according to verses 23:99-100, prevents
the dead from crossing over into the realm of the
living. In death, they must live with the consequences
of their actions in the physical world.

The Ideal Way of Dying

Throughout early Islamic times, the Quranic ideal of
suffering a violent death in the name of Islam

remained appealing. In biographical works and in
the hadith, the bravery of warriors for the faith, who
expressed a yearning to die of battle wounds, was
celebrated. Thus, Khubayb ibn ‘Adiyy (d. 625 CE),
who, according to Muslim tradition, inaugurated the
custom of offering a special prayer before suffering
death in captivity, boasted in a poem that mutilation
was in no way a concern to him, convinced as he was
that God would bless the limbs of his amputated
body. The reward of Paradise was on the minds of
holy warriors, according to Muslim tradition, and
this belief inspired them to fight bravely even while
anticipating the disfiguration of their bodies beyond
recognition.

The hadith granted the status of martyr not only to
those who died on the battlefield but also to several
other categories of Muslims. For instance, those who
died of plague, of a stomach ailment, by drowning, or
in the destruction of a building were considered mar-
tyrs. The logic underlying this formulation seems
clear: to undergo a painful, gruesome death counted
as a way of meriting in the afterlife the rewards of
martyrdom. It was essential, however, for the dying
person, in agony, to not succumb to desperation; to
reach Paradise alongside the martyrs of the battle-
field, one needed to retain until the end a sense of
composure and patience supported by trust in God’s
judgment.

Dying of old age in one’s bed was less admirable
than dying in battle, but Muslims who anticipated a
peaceful death could undertake certain preparations
to reach the end of life properly. First, they would
need to discharge any unpaid debts. Failure to fulfill
this financial obligation would result in suffering in
the afterlife, according to the hadith. Second, dying
persons were obliged to provide loved ones with
instructions about what shrouds they wished to wear
to the grave. This was an important specification to
make, because burial attire was typically very expen-
sive and often purchased after death. Muslims typi-
cally expressed in their last will not only a desire for
modest clothes (as noted by Ibn Sa‘d in his biogra-
phies of famous women and men), but they also often
specified that their funeral procession should not be
accompanied by candles, which seemed a superfluous
expenditure, nor by professional wailers, whose
laments seemed to protest God’s decree to terminate
an individual’s life.

These deathbed instructions may not appear par-
ticularly Islamic, but Muslims did develop certain
idealized, Islamic forms of reaching the end of life.
Reiterating the name of Allah and reciting Surat Ya-
Sin or another section of the Qur’an dealing with the
resurrection of the dead were considered exemplary
ways to die. However, the most striking of the Islamic

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DEATH AND DYING

forms of dying involved one’s physical orientation. It
was associated in the first instance with Muhammad’s
daughter, Fatima (d. 632). Anticipating death, she
asked for her bed to be placed in the middle of the
house, and she then lay down on it facing the qibla,
the Muslim direction of prayer. This way of dying
became an ideal that, according to biographers,
pious Muslims such as Caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd
al-‘Aziz (d. 720) followed in the moments before
death.

Natural and Unnatural Death

Death as a result of illness, old age, or holy war did
not require theological explanation. It seemed clear in
such cases that the event had been decreed if not
predetermined by God. What was harder to explain
was death by an unnatural or accidental cause, as in
the cases of murder and suicide. A death of this sort
seemed, in the eyes of some Mu‘tazilites, to cut short
the natural span of one’s life, of which God knew in
his prescience. Murderers and suicide victims, they
argued, followed their own wills in terminating life
prematurely and acting against God’s foreknowledge
of the time at which death would have occurred had
the divine plan not been interfered with. It was wrong
to commit murder or suicide, they reasoned, and
therefore unreasonable to believe that God in his
justice and goodness predetermined such a way of
dying in advance. Orthodox theologians disagreed.
In their predestinarian view, the moment of death
was always anticipated by God, whether the death
seemed just or unjust; divine justice was postponed
until after death. Persons who killed others or them-
selves would be tortured in the afterlife in a retributive
scheme, punished in Hell with the same instruments
they had used to terminate life.

Natural death was the subject not of theological
but of medical explanation. In the view of Ibn Sina
(d. 1037) and other exponents of Greco-Muslim med-
icine, this way of dying appeared to be the endpoint of
the process of senescence. With aging, the human
body gradually loses the ability to balance its primary
qualities and constituent humors. Because, in old age,
the innate heat (one of the primary qualities that
burns most vigorously in youthful bodies) begins to
fail, the body enters a state of disequilibrium. It
steadily loses moisture, and it becomes drier and
colder; eventually this process results in death. In
juxtaposition with this explanation, which follows
the Aristotelian view of the etiology of disease, Mus-
lim authors also presented the Galenic- Hippocratic
scheme of humoral pathology. According to this

scheme, disease was caused by a disturbance of the
mixture of essential bodily fluids: blood, phlegm,
black bile, and yellow bile — the four humors. A pro-
nounced disorder of humoral composition could also
end in death.

To prevent natural death from occurring is not the
aim of medicine, Ibn Sina clarified in The Canon of
Medicine. Natural death occurs by divine decree,
whenever a person reaches his or her appointed end,
which depends on one’s own individual constitution.
The purpose of the art of medicine was simply to
maintain, through a regimen that took both dietary
and environmental factors into account, a person’s
body in a state of equilibrium. In his treatise about
the ailments of the body in Egypt, Ibn Ridwan (d.
1068) lists exposure to overly dry air, an abrupt
change in diet, and drinking water contaminated
with dead matter as factors leading to epidemic dis-
ease and widespread mortality.

This discussion about the natural and unnatural
causes of death was of course theoretical: it reveals
attitudes toward death, but it does not provide a
concrete idea about how Muslims usually died, how
long their life spans were, and so on. Such knowledge
could come only from archaeological excavations of
Muslim cemeteries, accompanied by paleopathologi-
cal analysis. Unfortunately, the archaeology of death
in Islam is still in its infancy, and such analysis is
lacking. However, there is one short study of a ceme-
tery in Alexandria, whose burials dating from the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are worthy of re-
port. Of 489 subjects, 172 were adult males, 193 were
adult females, 115 were children, and 9 were of unde-
termined age or sex. The mean age of the adult males
was forty-five years; of the females, it was thirty-five
years. Spondylitis, an inflammation of the vertebrae,
affected many of the older men and women, who lived
beyond the age of sixty and seventy. Neoplastic
tumors and skull traumas were not uncommon.
These findings provide us with some indication of
the high incidence of mortality in children (nearly a
quarter of the total deaths) as well as some measure of
the average life span of women and men in a late-
medieval city.

Status of the Corpse

Collections of hadith and of law and jurisprudence
include numerous regulations regarding the care of
the dead. Normally they devote an entire volume to
the subject under the title Kitab al-Jana ’iz ( The Book
on Funerals ) ; however, occasionally, discussion of the
topic is subsumed under the volumes devoted to

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DEATH AND DYING

prayer and purity. In this corpus, the acts of the
Prophet Muhammad and of the first generation of
Muslims figure prominently. One learns from this
literature about the proper way for Muslims to
mourn, wash corpses, process toward the cemetery,
and bury and pray for the dead. These rituals are
discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia (see also:
Burial Customs) and by Halevi in his social history
of death. Here it will suffice to mention something
about the status of the corpse in relation to notions of
purity.

The ability of the deceased to produce impurity in
corpse handlers was a key subject of discussion in
Islamic law. Jurisprudents debated in particular
whether or not corpse washing and pall bearing sub-
jected one to a state of major ritual impurity; posi-
tions on these subjects varied. At one extreme, certain
Sunni jurisprudents subscribed to a ruling by
‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abbas (d. 687), according to which
deceased Muslims were considered pure and therefore
in no way sources of impurity. At the other extreme
stood Shi‘is jurisprudents, who regarded deceased
human beings as generators of major ritual impurity.
What did this divergence of opinions entail? For
Shi‘is, it seemed necessary to perform a major ritual
ablution after disposing of a corpse; for Sunnis, this
seemed to be optional.

Pondering Death

The most famous medieval authors of books about
death — Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 894), al-Ghazali
(d. 1111), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350), and
al-Suyuti (d. 1505) — had moral lessons to impart.
They described the process of dying and the afterlife
to warn believers to lead a virtuous life, and they
encouraged readers to imagine in detail their own
deaths — down to the worms feasting on a putrefied
corpse — to emphasize the basic notion that death
was not an endpoint but rather a point of transition
toward an afterlife that could be blessed or horrible.

These authors represented the process of dying as
being most painful for the wicked. The spirit of an evil
person was violently extracted from the body by
terrifying angels. Then, after a brief tour of the here-
after, it was deposited in the grave to dwell in the
corpse until the final judgment. During this period
of the afterlife between death and the resurrection,
sinners suffered tortures. The spirits of Muslims who
died a natural death, who had prayed diligently, who
had performed good deeds, and who had thought
about the hereafter also inhabited the grave between
death and the resurrection. However, these spirits —

unlike those of sinners — experienced a blessed
existence in the grave as a foretaste of Paradise.

Life in the grave was in some ways remarkably
similar to life before death. The inhabitants of the
grave lacked the ability to move their bodies, but
they possessed an intellect. They were able to hear
(according to an oral tradition that to some degree
contradicted a Quranic pronouncement), and they
could communicate with the living, mostly by the
mediation of dreams. In these dreams, they would
sometimes ask the living to perform deeds on their
behalf — deeds from which the dead would draw
tangible benefit, as Kinberg has shown. The gift of
prayer would fill the grave of the deceased with light,
and this light would ward off the dark tortures of
the grave.

The stories by Ibn Abi al-Dunya and others re-
garding death and dying suggest a stark contrast
between the fate of the blessed and the doomed; in
this respect, they echo the sharp Qur’anic division
between infidels bound for Hellfire and believers
bound for Paradise. However, this similarity in
moral outlook should not obscure two significant
changes. The original post-Qur’anic stories dwell on
the condition of the dead in the grave between death
and the resurrection, a period of the afterlife neglected
by the Qur’an, which concentrates instead on the fate
of souls on the Day of the Resurrection and thereaf-
ter. More importantly, the post-Qur’anic stories
admit a certain ambiguity in the status of believers
after death. The tortures of the grave concern not
only infidels but also Muslims who failed to pray
earnestly or to pay their debts before dying. These
Muslims could still hope to reach Paradise, but only
after suffering retribution in the grave.

Leor Halevi

See also Afterlife; Black Death; Burial Customs; Dis-
ease; Epidemics; Inheritance; Suffering

Further Reading

Abdesselem, Mohammed. Le Theme de la Mort dans la
Poesie Arabe des Origines a la Fin du Ille/IXe Siecle.
Tunis, 1977.

Abrahamov, Binyamin. “The Appointed Time of Death
(Ajal) According to ‘Abd al-Jabbar: Annotated Trans-
lation of al-Mugni, vol. XI, pp. 3-26.” Israel Oriental
Studies 13 (1993): 9-38.

Bauer, Thomas. “Todesdiskurse in Islam.” Asiatische Stu-
dien 53.1 (1999): 5-16.

Eklund, Ragnar. Life between Death and Resurrection
According to Islam. Uppsala, 1941.

Ghazali, al-. The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
(Kitab Dhikr al-Mawt Wa-ma ba'Dahu): Book XL of
The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-
Din), trans. T.J. Winter. Cambridge, UK, 1995.

199

DEATH AND DYING

Halevi, Leor. “Muhammad’s Grave: Death, Ritual and
Society in the Early Islamic World.” PhD dissertation.
Harvard University, 2002.

Kinberg, Leah. “Interaction between This World and the
Afterworld in Early Islamic Tradition.” Oriens 29-30
(1986): 284-308.

Dols, Michael, transl. Medieval Islamic Medicine: Ibn Rid-
wan’s Treatise "On the Prevention of Bodily Ills in
Egypt. ” Berkeley, 1984.

Prominska, Elzbieta. “Paleopathology According to Age at
the Moslem Necropoles at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria
(Egypt).” Africana Bulletin 14 (1971): 171-3.

Ragib, Yusuf. “Faux Morts et Enterres Vifs dans l’Espace
Musulman.” Stadia Islcimica 57 (1983): 5-30.

Rosenthal, Franz. “On Suicide in Islam.” Journal of the
American Oriental Society 66.3 (1946): 239-59.

Simpson, St. John. “Death and Burial in the Late Islamic
Near East: Some Insights from Archaeology and Eth-
nography.” In The Archaeology of Death in the Ancient
Near East , eds. Stuart Campbell and Anthony Green,
240-51. Oxford, 1995.

Smith, Jane, and Yvonne Haddad. The Islamic Understand-
ing of Death & Resurrection. Albany, 1981.

Smoor, Pieter. “Elegies and Other Poems on Death by
Ibn al-Rumi.” Journal of Arabic Literature 21 A (1996):
49-85.

Welch, Alford. “Death and Dying in the Qur’an.” In Reli-
gious Encounters with Death , eds. F. Reynolds and
E. Waugh, 183-99. University Park, 1977.

DECADENCE: NOTION OF

In the context of the analysis of cultures and the
writing of their histories, the notion of decadence
(and, by extension, the phrase “age of decadence”)
is used to describe a process of “falling away” (the
literal meaning of the word) and of “decline.” By
implication, therefore, other phases or periods in
accounts of developments within that cultural tradi-
tion are portrayed as being on a “higher” level from
one or more points of view, that being a necessary
prerequisite for the process of decline. The criteria
that are involved in making such assessments involve
assigning value to certain cultural trends while deva-
luing others. The entire matrix fits within what may
be called the “rise and fall” model of cultural history,
a term and title adopted by a variety of composers of
narratives, Edward Gibbon and Edgar Allan Poe
being two of the better-known examples.

An age of decadence is thus normally seen as a
kind of “middle” period, one akin to eras otherwise
known as “dark ages” or even “middle ages.” The
implication is that, although such periods may pos-
sess their own particular traits and trends, they are
generally less worthy of the ascription of cultural
value than those periods that precede and follow
them. The precedent period is often regarded as a
“classical” era (sometimes also called a “golden

age” within the logic of such terminology), that being
the time period during which a particular cultural
system chooses to find the major bases for its sense of
heritage and the system of moral values that are
implicit in the construction of such a heritage. Such
a classical period is normally seen as being brought to
a close by one or more of a series of cataclysmic
events, mostly involving invasions by outside forces.
At the other end of such a central era, a process of
modernity commences with yet another contributor
to this model of history, in the form of a renaissance,
whereby a movement of ascent out of a “lower”
(dark, decadent) level of cultural production (howev-
er determined) leads inexorably toward the contem-
porary period, from which the concept of modernity
and the process of modernization can be assessed.

The application of these ideas to the organization
and sequencing of Islamic history has been a complex
process. What seems clear is that, although there were
indeed several significant invasions of the Islamic
world that had profound effects on the cultural histo-
ry of the regions involved (e.g., the sacking of Bagh-
dad in 1258 CE, the fall of Constantinople in 1453,
the fall of Granada in 1492, and the fall of Cairo to
the Ottomans in 1516), the way in which these trans-
formations of the balance of power have been applied
to the sphere of cultural production has created a set
of historical divides that tend to de-emphasize those
continuities that provide a more plausible logic for the
analysis of creativity and changing trends in esthetics
and critical thinking.

The very term decadence (inhitat) and its use to
describe — or even to create — an historical sub-period
in Arab-Islamic history seems to have been, in fact, an
import to the region, one based on studies undertaken
by both Western specialists on the Middle East region
and Islam and also by the large number of Middle
Eastern intellectuals who, beginning in the nineteenth
century, traveled to Europe to receive their higher
education. For example, the great Egyptian scholar
Taha Husayn (d. 1973) wrote a dissertation about the
historical theories of Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) and en-
countered the writings of the French scholar, Gustave
Lanson (d. 1934) about the nationalist project of
writing literary history. He returned to Egypt after
his studies in France to advise his fellow countrymen
to return to the great era of the eleventh century and
earlier in their quest for inspiration rather than look-
ing into the creativity of the seven or so centuries of
the more immediate past and its precedents.

Quite apart from the peculiar kind of logic repre-
sented by this attitude, it was to have an enduring
effect on the sense of modernity that has been the
topic of considerable debate throughout the twentieth
century: any assessment of the balance between the

200

DEGREES, OR IJAZA

indigenous and the imported, the Islamic and Middle
Eastern on the one hand and the Western on the
other, was heavily tilted in favor of the latter of the
two. More recent times have seen attempts at a total
reassessment of this balance, involving not only a re-
examination of cultural movements during the nine-
teenth century but also research into the cultural
production of the so-called period of decadence itself
to come to some conclusions about not merely the
nature of the postclassical and premodern within
Arab-Islamic cultural history but also the esthetic
bases for the evaluation of the creative production
of the time. These bases, to put it mildly, emerge as
radically at odds with those of Western critical norms
and expectations; these issues, one might suggest, are
the origins of the entire problem.

Within the context of the Arab-Islamic heritage,
one consequence of this set of scholarly attitudes has
been a tendency to downplay and often to ignore
some seven centuries of scholarship and creativity.
This period is, almost by definition, indeterminate,
but it can be seen from a cultural (i.e., nondynastic)
perspective as stretching — mostly by default — from
roughly 1150 until 1830. This is the period during
which a short list of renowned writers would include
the following: Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235), Ibn al-‘Arabi
(d. 1240), Ibn Khaldun, Al-Qalqashandi (d. 1418), Al-
Maqrizi (d. 1441 ), Jalal al-din al-Suyuti (d. 1505),
Al-Maqqari (d. 1631), and ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi
(d. 1731). However, apart from the relatively limited
amount of attention that has been paid to these and a
few other notable figures, there is a great deal else that
is habitually glossed over as being part of an age of
decadence and thus lacking in interest or importance.
In more recent times, the earlier half of this lengthy
time period — often dubbed the “Mamluk” period (a
term, needless to say, that can only be used to refer to
the more Eastern segments of the total region) — has
been the subject of more concentrated attention. A
somewhat more detailed and accurate picture is now
beginning to emerge of at least the earlier centuries of
the period — a picture that reveals the continuingly
elaborate structures of court life, with its hierarchies
of bureaucrats and chancellery officials, many of
whom were contributors to the preservation and ad-
vancement of knowledge. If their predilection for
compilation and their tendency to digress and to in-
dulge in elaborate wordplay have failed to interest or
excite Western scholars who choose to base their
evaluations on entirely different criteria than those
favored by the indigenous culture, that should be
seen as implying a confrontation of approaches but
not an ascription (or condemnation) of “decadence.”

By contrast, the period from the sixteenth to the
eighteenth century remains almost a closed book in

many disciplines of Arab-Islamic scholarship. The
reasoning that suggests that the diminution of inspi-
ration and output in Arabic scholarship and creativity
can be attributed to the use of Ottoman Turkish in
administrative matters appears on the surface to have
only the most limited validity. This period is, above
all, the one during which the label of decadence
appears to have been the most harmful in that, apart
from the efforts of a very few scholars, almost no
attention has been paid to the cultural milieu of the
times. As noted earlier, any assessment of the nature
and process of the nineteenth-century movement
known as al-nahdah (renaissance) is radically com-
promised by this lack of information and scholarly
interest.

The notion of decadence as a culturally evaluative
term is one that is in need of a complete re-examina-
tion within the context of Arabic and Islamic scholar-
ship. The (mis-)use of the term as a way to leapfrog
from a classical period directly to a purportedly mod-
ern one continues to distort current understanding of
those continuities whereby today’s Arab and Islamic
worlds link themselves to their heritage.

Roger Allen

Further Reading

Allen, Roger. “Fikrat al-‘Usur al-Wusta wa-Ishkaliyyat
Kitabat Tarikh al-Adab” (“The Concept of Middle
Ages and the Problematics of Writing Literary Histo-
ry”). In Fi Mihrab al-ma'Rifah (Festschrift for Ihsan
Abbas), 167-73. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1997.

. “Introduction to The Post-Classical Period.” In

Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

Faysal, Shukri. ‘“Asr al-Inhitat.” In Al-Adab al-‘Arabi fi
Athar al-Darisin, eds. Al-‘Ali et al. Beirut: Dar al-‘Ilm li-
al-Malayin, 1971.

Musa Pasha, ‘Umar. Tarikh al-Adab al-‘Arabi: al-'Asr al-
Mamluki. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr al-mu‘Asir, 1989.

. Tarikh al-Adab cil-'Arabi: al-'Asr al-‘Utlvnani. Bei-
rut: Dar al-Fikr al-mu‘Asir, 1989.

. Sallam, Muhammad Zaghlul.

DEGREES, OR IJAZA

Meaning “permission, license, or authorization,” the
term ijazah refers to several distinct types of academ-
ic certificates in common use in medieval Islamic
scholarship. The best known of these are the license
of transmission (ijazat al-riwayah) and the license of
audition (ijazat al-sama‘, sania'), which originally (or
ideally) served as written records of the direct audi-
tion of a text on the part of the recipient from the
transmitting authority, whether the text was a single
hadith report, a work by the transmitting teacher

201

DEGREES, OR IJAZA

himself, or a work by a third party. The ijazah played
an important role in the transmission of texts in all
fields, and it was meant to guarantee the accuracy and
authenticity of the student’s manuscript copy. In an
age before printing, the ijazahs recorded in series at
the end of a manuscript often provided an accurate
codical genealogy that reached back to the original
author. In the field of Prophetic hadith, the formal
transmission of a report from one authority to the
next in the chain of transmission (isnad), authorized
by an ijazah, was considered an important indication
of its authenticity.

Technical discussions of textual transmission in
works about hadith criticism (usul al-hadith or mus-
talah al-hadith) and in chapters about scriptural
reports (akhbar) in manuals of jurisprudence (usul
al-fiqh) assign the highest degree of reliability to di-
rect aural contact, in which the student hears the
dictation of the transmitting authority or reads the
text back to that authority, descending by degrees to
munawalah (the “handing over” of a text by the
authority to the student) and wijadah (the “finding”
of a text in the hand of the author). This scheme
reflects a formal stress on the value of oral/aural
transmission that early on became archaic, particular-
ly when most of the texts so authorized were standard
published works (e.g., the six canonical compilations
of Sunni hadith). In practice, the ijazah of transmis-
sion was often a formality that did not guarantee that
direct audition had taken place. In fact, the sources
often report that a scholar transmitted a text ijazatan
(by license) to indicate that he had not studied or
heard it directly from the transmitting authority,
which is in contradistinction with qira’atan (by
reading). Teachers granted ijazahs for a book after
the recipient had read out a few lines from its opening
pages. They granted ijazahs by correspondence to
“students” they had never met, or they granted ija-
zahs for all of their own works to students who could
not possibly have studied them all. Y oung children —
even babies — received ijazahs for attending dictations
they could not understand. Students often received a
general certificate (ijazah ‘ammah) that granted them
blanket permission to relate all of the works that a
given teacher had the authority to transmit. Referring
to this practice, Ibn Hazm remarks that the license
that is in common use by his contemporaries is inval-
id, and he insists that the transmitting authority must
list the texts for which he is giving authorization
completely and exactly.

The acquisition of ijazahs played an important
part in establishing scholarly status by documenting
links to earlier generations of scholars in the Muslim
community. The ijazah granted scholars permission
to teach the fundamental works of the Islamic

sciences and to cite them authoritatively. In some
ways, however, ijazah collection became a symbolic
activity. Al-Suyuti, for example, related hadith from
more than six hundred authorities, and Ibn Qadi
Shuhbah mentions another scholar who received ija-
zahs from thirteen hundred authorities; it is unlikely
that these contacts could have involved any sustained
study. Nevertheless, the piles of certificates that such
scholars assembled were often collected into volumes,
and they represented symbolic academic capital and
served the important social function of establishing a
scholar’s identity and credentials. Shi’is and other
minority figures could divert suspicion by collecting
ijazahs from prominent scholars whose orthodoxy
was unimpeachable. In addition, the exchange of
ijazahs became a part of professional academic cam-
araderie. Certificates were usually expressed in ela-
borate rhymed and rhythmical prose (saj‘), and they
provided opportunities for scholars to impress their
peers, flattering them with honorific epithets and
showing off their skills in artistic prose composition.

There were no set texts for ijazahs, which could
vary in length from a single paragraph to a sizable
volume, but they did follow a relatively standard
outline: (1) an opening prayer, praising God and
blessing the Prophet Muhammad; (2) an introduction
of the student, with genealogy and flattering epithets
that were intended to indicate his academic accom-
plishments and relative scholarly merits; (3) some
description of the circumstances under which contact
occurred and under which the ijazah is being granted;
(4) permission to transmit or teach, expressed by the
term ajaztuhu (“I hereby permit him”) and followed
by the list of works subject to this permission; (5) a
summary of the authority’s own chains of transmis-
sion, establishing his right to transmit said works; (6)
the authority’s own bibliography, listing the works he
has written for which he is granting permission to the
student (this was not always included); and (7) a
colophon giving the precise date on which the docu-
ment was granted and often recording the place as
well. Ijazahs were often issued in response to an
istid’a’ (written petition); the scholar so petitioned
would record the ijazah on the same sheet of paper.
Little is known about payment for ijazahs, but it is
likely that payments or gifts were expected in some
cases.

Al-Qalqashandi defines three categories of ijazah
in common usage in Mamluk Egypt and Syria, in-
cluding not only the license of transmission but also
the ‘ard (presentation of books) and the ijazat al-ifta’
wa’l-tadris (license for issuing legal opinions and
teaching law). Before embarking on advanced study,
students would memorize introductory textbooks
in various fields and then present them in an oral

202

DEGREES, OR IJAZA

examination (‘ard). The examiner would open the
book chosen and ask the student to recite from memo-
ry the passages on which he alighted. One generally
performed this ‘ard in one’s teens and repeated the
performance before a number of scholars. For exam-
ple, Muhammad b. Tulun (d. AH 953/1546 CE)
received ijazahs for presenting one set of books from
eightteachers at the age of fourteen. The certificate was
written on a small square piece of paper, and several
examiners might write certificates on the same sheet.

The license to teach law and issue legal opinions
(ijazat al-ifta’ wa ‘1-tadris; also ijazat al-tadris wa’l-
ifta’ or simply ijazat al-ifta’) is the type of ijazah that
resembles the medieval European university degree
most closely, for, rather than authorizing the recipient
to transmit or teach a particular text, it attests to his
or her mastery of an entire field (in this case, the law)
and permits entry into professional categories: law
professor (mudarris) and jurisconsult (mufti). The
main difference between the two is that the granting
authority is an individual professor, in the Islamic
case, rather than a corporate institution in the case
of the university. Despite this point, Makdisi has
likened the ijazat al-ifta’ wa’l-tadris to the medieval
Latin licentia docendi and suggests that it served as a
model for that degree. The license to teach law and
issue legal opinions was clearly an actual document of
official or legal standing. Al-Qalqashandi reports that
such licenses were written in the riqa‘ script on Syrian
or Egyptian paper, in folio, with evenly spaced lines a
finger’s width apart; this is the same format that was
used for other important legal documents, such as
patents of probity (isjalat al-‘adalah), which estab-
lished the candidate’s qualification to serve as a
notary or official witness. Al-Qalqashandi himself
received a license to teach Shafi'i law and grant legal
opinions in 778/1376-1377, at the age of twenty-one,
from the leading jurist Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804/1401).
He copies the original document, with minor omis-
sions, in Subh al-a‘sha. Like the patent of probity, the
license was often drawn up before a judge and signed
by witnesses in addition to the granting authority.
This license shows many similarities to the medieval
Rabbinic semekha, although the relationship between
the two has not been investigated to date.

The license to issue legal opinions is said to go back
to the eighth century. Malik b. Anas (d. 179/795) was
supposedly authorized to give legal opinions by sev-
enty teachers. Al-Shafi‘i (d. 204/820) was reportedly
granted permission by his Meccan teacher Muslim b.
Khalid to issue legal opinions when he was either
fifteen or eighteen. The Maliki judge Isma'il b. Ishaq
(d. 282/896) was authorized to issue legal opinions by
Ahmad b. al-Mu‘adhdhal (d. ca. 240/854—855). In
these instances, it is not clear that a written certificate

was granted. At this point, it is clear that the practice
of granting such licenses had become prevalent in
Egypt and Syria by the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, because the sources quote or describe a
number of actual licenses, usually restricted to the
law of one of the four recognized Sunni legal madh-
habs from this period. Research to date does not
indicate when the practice first became widespread.
Occasionally, women also received the license:
‘A’ishah bint Yusuf al-Ba‘uniyah (d. 922/1516),
scion of the distinguished Ba‘uni line of Damascene
scholars, studied law in both Cairo and her native
Damascus; she obtained the license to teach law and
grant legal opinions, and she gained wide recognition
as a jurist (al-Ghazzi, 1945-1948, pp. 287-92) In
Sunni circles, granting of the ijazat al-ifta’ wa’l-tadris
seems to have lapsed after it was replaced at al-Azhar
by the European-inspired shahadat al-alimiyah (de-
gree of scholarly status) in 1871. Called ijazat al-ijti-
had, it survives to this day as part of traditional
Twelver Shi’i legal education at the centers of learning
in Najaf and Qum.

Devin J. Stewart

Further Reading

al-Amin, Muhsin. A'yan al-ShVah, 10 vols. Beirut: Dar al-
Ta'aruf li’l-Matbu‘at, 1984.

Dodge, Bayard. Muslim Education in Medieval Times.
Washington DC: The Middle East Institute, 1962.

Fayyad, ‘Abd Allah. al-Ijazat al-Thnyah 'ind al-Muslimin.
Baghdad: Matba'at al-Irshad, 1967.

al-Ghazzi, Najm. al-Matba‘ah al-Amirikaniyah, 1945-58.

Goldziher, Ignaz. Muhammedanische Studien, 2 vols. Hilde-
sheim: George Olms, 1961.

. “Idjaza.” In Ell.

al-Hazm, Ibn. al-Ihkam fi Usui al-Ahkam, 2 vols. Cairo: Dar
al-Hadith, 1984.

Tulun, Ibn. al-Fulk al-Mashhun fi Ahwal Muhammad
h. Tulun. Damascus: Matba’at al-Taraqqi, 1929-1930.

al-Idfuwi, Ja'far b. Tha‘lab. al-Tali‘ al-Sa‘id al-Jami li-
Asma’ al-Ruwat bi-a‘lci a/-Sa‘id. Cairo: Matba'at al-Jam-
maliyah, 1914.

Leder, Stefan, Yasin Muhammad al-Sawwas, and Ma’mun
al-Sagharji. Mu jam al-Sama ‘at al-Dimashqiyah al-
Muntakhabah min Sanat 550 ila 750 li./1155 ila 1349 m.
Damascus: Institut Franqais, 1996.

Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir. Bihar al-Anwar, vols. 107-10.
Tehran: al-Maktabah al-Islamiyah, 1971-1972.

Makdisi, George. The Rise of Colleges. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1981.

. The Rise of Humanism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni-
versity Press, 1990.

al-Munajjid, Salah al-Din. “Ijazat al-Sama' fi al-Makhtutat
al-Qadimah.” Majallat ma'Had al-Makhtutat al-Ara-
biyah (Cairo) 1 (1955): 232-51.

al-Qalqashandi, Ahmad b. ‘Ali. Subh al-a‘Sha fi Sina'at al-
Insha, 17 vols. Cairo: al-Mu’assasah al-‘Ammah, 1964.

al-Sakhawi, Shams al-Din Muhammad. al-Daw ' al-Lami'
li-Ahl al-Qarn al-TasV, 12 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Kitab
al-Islami.

203

DEGREES, OR IJAZA

Sezgin, Fuat. GAS. al-Sha‘rani, ‘Abd-al-Wahhab. al-
Tabaqcit al-Sughra. Cairo: Maktabat al-Qahirah, 1970.

Stewart, Devin J. “Taqiyyah as Performance: The Travels
of Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili in the Ottoman Empire
(991-93/1583-85).” In Law and Society in Islam , eds.
D.J. Stewart et al, 1-70. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener
Publishers, 1996

. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite Responses

to the Sunni Legal System. Salt Lake City: Utah Univer-
sity Press, 1998.

. ‘‘Documents and Dissimulation: Notes on the

Performance of Taqiyya.” In Identitades Marginales
(Estudios Onomastico-Biograficos de al-Andalus XIII),
ed. Cristina de la Puente. Madrid: Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas, 2003.

. “The Doctorate of Islamic Law in Mamluk

Egypt and Syria.” In Law and Education in Medieval
Islam, eds. Joseph Lowry, Devin Stewart, and Shawkat
Toorawa. E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust (forthcoming).

Al-Suyuti, Jalal-al-Din ‘Abd-al-Rahman. al-Tahaddoth bi-
NVmat Allah, ed. Elizabeth Sartain. Cambridge, 1975.

Tihrani, Agha Buzurg. al-Dhari‘ah ila Tasanif al-Shi'ah, 26
vols. Beirut: Dar al-adwa’, 1983.

Tritton, A.S. Materials on Muslim Education in the Middle
Ages. London: Luzac, 1957.

Vajda, Georges. Les Certificats de Lecture et de Transmis-
sion dans les Manuscrits Arabes de !a Bibliotheque Natio-
nale de Paris. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche
Scientihque, 1957.

. “Idjaza.” In EI2.

DESSERTS AND CONFECTIONS

Traditionally, the Arab cardinal virtues of generosity
and hospitality are expressed by means of lavishly
giving meat; milk, bread, and salt also play their
parts in the rituals of hospitality. However, when
food is lovingly described for its own sake, it is the
sweet rather than the savory that takes pride of place.
The pre-Islamic Arabs relished their dates and honey,
both of which were beloved by the Prophet and
extolled in the Qur’an; they remained important
throughout Islamic times. Already, however, in pre-
Islamic times, the inhabitants of Mecca had a fore-
taste of the sweet luxuries that were to become com-
monplace after the early Islamic conquests: ‘Abd
Allah ibn Jud‘an, who had been at the Sasanid
court, introduced the Persian sweetmeat called falud-
haj (paludag in Pahlavi), a relatively simple affair
made from wheat flour and honey but considered a
great delicacy. It was in Persia that the conquering
Arabs were to encounter a sophisticated cuisine that
boasted numerous kinds of sweetmeats and confec-
tions. Its impact is visible in the Arabic culinary vo-
cabulary, in which many names of the most popular
confections are derived from Persian. In addition to
faludhaj (which remained, in more elaborate forms
[usually with almonds and sugar], among the most

beloved sweets), one finds judhab (Persian gudab),
sanbusak (Persian sanbusa; a kind of pastry or pie),
and khushk-nanaj (Persian khoshk-nana, a kind of
sweet biscuit), among others. An interesting hybrid
is the very popular lawzinaj, which is made of almond
paste wrapped in flaky pastry. The first half of its
name is the Arabic word for almonds (lawz); the
word entered many European languages, through
medieval translations of Arabic medical treatises, as
lozenge. The word marzipan (another sweet based on
almond paste) has also been said to derive from Per-
sian or Arabic; although this seems likely, none of
the conjectures that have been proposed are entirely
convincing.

The precise translation or identification of these
and other sweetmeats is made difficult by the instabil-
ity of the dishes: many different recipes are given
for the same term throughout the centuries, with a
variety of ingredients and methods of preparation,
and they may even waver between the sweet and the
savory as a result of the common habit of adding
sweeteners to meat dishes. Gudab, for instance, is
described in a Persian-English dictionary as follows:
“Syrup of dates boiled down; a dish of meat, rice,
vetches, and walnuts, on which a condiment of vine-
gar and syrup is poured; food dressed under roast
meat.” Alternatively, in a poem about a judhaba by
the ninth-century poet Ibn al-Rumi, it is called (in
Arberry’s translation) “sweeter than the sweet. . .It is
more sweet than sudden peace/That brings the quak-
ing heart release.” Another meat dish with sweet
ingredients (honey, sugar, or molasses of dates or
grapes) is sikbaj, a great favorite.

In addition to the Persian terms, however, there are
many Arabic ones, such as khabisa (for a wide variety
of puddings and jellies), fatira (a kind of pancake-like
bread), qatifa (a kind of crepe or pancake), kunafa (a
kind of shredded-wheat pastry), ‘asida (a kind of
pudding, already known from pre-Islamic times), and
halwa, in its many forms, a term that itself means
“sweet.” Colorful names include asabi' Zaynab
(Zaynab’s fingers), a sweet pastry filled with nuts,
and luqaymat al-qadi (the qadi’s tidbits), sweet
pastries shaped like dinars (according to a Mamluk
cookery book) made with pistachio nuts and flavored
with nutmeg, cubeb, clove, saffron, and musk,
according to taste.

Although honey remained important as a basic
sweetener, it had a serious rival in cane sugar (sukkar),
which became known in early Islamic times, the word
as well as the substance coming from Persia and ulti-
mately India. The less wealthy would use the cheaper
dibs (treacle or molasses). Although the place of sweets
and desserts during the course of a formal dinner was
by no means as invariably at the end as it is in modern

204

DHIMMA

practice, they tended to come toward the conclusion
of a meal during medieval times as well. This seems to
be reflected in the cookery books, in which the sec-
tions on sweet dishes are usually found toward the
end. Large quantities of sweets were traditionally
consumed at certain festivals, such as the end of
Ramadan and the birthday of the Prophet. A “war”
between meat dishes led by King Mutton and sweets
(aided by vegetables and dairy products) under King
Honey, with a wealth of culinary information, is the
subject of an amusing literary composition from
Mamluk times.

Geert Jan van Gelder

Further Reading

Bosworth, C.E. “The Concept of Dhimma in Early Islam.”
In Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Func-
tioning of a Plural Society. Volume 2: The Arabic-
Speaking Lands, eds. Benjamin Braude and Bernard
Lewis. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1982.
Fattal, Antoine. Le Statut Legal cles Non-musulmans en
Pays d’Islam, 2nd ed. Beirut: Dar El-Machreq, 1995.
Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1984.

Stillman, Norman A. The Jews of Arab Lands: A History
and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soci-
ety, 1979.

Tritton, A.S. The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects:
A Critical Study of the Covenant of ‘Umar. London:
Oxford University Press, 1930.

DIPLOMACY

Diplomacy has been a core feature of Islamic political
life since the days of the Prophet Muhammad. The
earliest recorded instances of envoys and ambassa-
dors appear when Muhammad dispatched message-
bearing representatives to various oasis settlements in
the Arabian Peninsula and to a number of political
states (e.g. Byzantines, Sasanians) in the Hijaz, North
Africa, the Holy Land, and the Iranian Plateau. Like-
wise, the Prophet was involved in negotiating and
establishing a number of treaties, most notably the
one of Hudaiba in 628, with non-Muslim commu-
nities. This early diplomatic activity was framed by a
strong ethical agenda and sense of religious convic-
tion; the Prophet’s message to rival communities and
empires was clear and unambiguous: submit and ac-
cept Islam or suffer the consequences. It is this polar-
ized view of the relationship between the ummah and
surrounding states that defined the future mechanics
of international diplomacy, whereby the known
civilized world was divided into the dar al-Islam
(house of Islam) and the dar al-harb (house of war;
everywhere that Shari‘ah was not practiced). It was
the obligation of every Muslim to expand through
effort (jihad) the boundaries of the house of Islam
at the expense of the house of war. However, during
the initial phases of Islamic conquest, well-populated

regions in Syria, Egypt, and Iran would capitulate
and negotiate settlements whereby an annual tribute
(kharaj or jiyya) was remitted in exchange for reli-
gious independence and military protection. The jur-
ists were eventually forced to address this dilemma as
the frontiers of the Islamic empire continued to ex-
pand: Which “house” did these autonomous non-
Muslim regions belong to? Some, like Abu Hanifa
and Ibn Hanbal, were committed to the traditional
polarity, but others, like al-Shafi‘i, accepted the exis-
tence of a third house: the dar al-‘ahd (house of the
covenant). It would appear that most medieval Islam-
ic states accepted this schema for reasons of practical-
ity and realpolitik. This was especially true for those
densely populated peripheral areas of the Islamic
world in which frontiers between dar al-Islam and
dar al-harb had emerged: the Iberian peninsula, the
Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Deccan.

In this context, the dispatching of ambassadors
(safirs) by states such as the Cordoba Umayyads,
the ‘Abbasids, the Fatimids, and the Seljuks to nego-
tiate ceasefires, peace treaties, and tributary arrange-
ments became a regular occurrence in Islamic political
activity. By the ninth century, there existed in 'Abba-
sid Baghdad a special government office entitled divan
al-rasa’il wa’l-sirr (office of letters and confidential
records). Moreover, as the 'Abbasid empire fragmen-
ted and semiautonomous states began appearing in
Central Asia and North Africa, envoys (qasids) were
sent regularly to Baghdad to secure appointments of
investiture (‘ahd, manshur) from the caliph. Nizam
al-Mulk’s eleventh-century Siyasat Naina (Book of
Government) contains a chapter that describes the
prerequisites for an ambassador: piety, diligence, loy-
alty, gravity, and — above all else — keen eyes. In addi-
tion to reporting the events of his mission, an
ambassador was also expected to provide detailed
information to his king about a rival empire’s army,
defenses, road networks, public works, and so on.
The sending of ambassadors for such purposes
became especially common in Spain and the Holy
Land during the respective crusading periods, and it
would appear that the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
were especially formative for medieval Islamic diplo-
matic sensibilities. This sense of growing importance
is attested to by the emergence of ‘ilm al-insha (the
science of epistolography) in different Islamic admin-
istrations and the production of a number of di-
dactic and formulaic texts addressing standards of
diplomatic correspondence for chancery officials.

Ambassadorial missions became increasingly
elaborate and politically ambitious during the post-
Mongol age; indeed, the Mongols themselves consid-
ered ambassadors to be sacrosanct representatives of
a ruler, and they were shocked and outraged at the

207

DIPLOMACY

Khvarazmian ruler ‘Ala al-Din Muhammad’s mis-
guided decision to murder a retinue of Mongol
ambassadors (ilchis) at Utrar in 1219. The Mongols
used their affinity for diplomacy effectively after their
invasions of the Islamic lands, receiving all manner of
emissaries at the great tent-court in Qara Qorum and
negotiating and concluding diplomatic arrangements
with the Christian Crusader states in the Levant.
Confessional divisions became less of a consideration
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as Otto-
man rivals (Aq Qoyunlu, Safavids) approached vari-
ous Christian powers (Venice, Hapsburgs, Spain)
with proposals of Muslim-Christian alliances; indeed,
the Ottomans arranged such an agreement with Fran-
cis 1 in the 1530s against Charles V. By the sixteenth
century, ostentatious ambassadorial trains — with
equally grandiose diplomatic communications and
lavish gift-giving ceremonies — were the diplomatic
norm in the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires.
In fact, it was diplomacy and gift giving that allowed
for the transmission of all manners of cultural arti-
facts across the central Islamic lands: scientific trea-
tises, literary texts, illustrated manuscripts, objets
d’art, and innovative craftsmanship and technology.

Colin Paul Mitchell

See also Archives and Chanceries; Cultural Exchange;
Espionage; Gifts and Gift Giving; Interfaith Relations;
Muslim-Byzantine Relations; Muslim-Crusader Rela-
tions; Muslim-Mongol Relations; Nizam al-Mulk;
Pacts and Treaties; Peace and Peacemaking; Political
Theory

Primary Sources

‘Abd al-Husain Nava’i. Asnad va Mukatabat-i Tarikhi-yi
Iran az Timur ta Shah Isma'il. Tehran, 1963.

Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Qalqashandi. Subh al-'Asha, 14 vols.
Cairo, 1914-1922.

Faridun Beg. Munsha’at al-Salatin, 2 vols. Istanbul, 1858.
‘Imad al-Din Mahmud Gavan Sadr-i Jahan. Riyaz al-
Insha’. Hyderabad, 1948.

Further Reading

Aubin, Jean. “Les Relations Diplomatiques entre les Aq-
qoyunlu et les Bahmanides.” In Iran and Islam, ed. C.E.
Bosworth. Edinburgh, 1971.

Bayerle, Gustav. Ottoman Diplomacy in Hungary: Letters
from the Pashas of Buda, 1590-1593. Bloomington, IN,
1972.

Farooqi, Naimur Rahman. Mughal-Ottoman Relations.
Delhi: 1989.

el-Hajji, A. A. Andalusian Diplomatic Relations with Western
Europe during the Umayyad Period. Beirut, 1970.
Hamidullah, Muhammad. The Muslim Conduct of State.
Lahore, 1973.

Holt, P.M. Early Mamluk Diplomacy, 1260-1290: Treaties
of Bavbars and Qalawun with Christian Rulers. Leiden,
1995.'

Hurewitz. Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East. A Docu-
mentary Record: 1535-1914, 2 vols. Princeton, NJ, 1956.

. “Ottoman Diplomacy and the European State

System.” Middle East Journal (1961): 141-52.

Istanbuli, Yasin. Diplomacy and Diplomatic Practice in the
Early Islamic Era. Oxford, 2001.

Iqbal, Afzal. The Prophet’s Diplomacy: The Art of Negotia-
tion as Conceived and Developed by the Prophet of Islam.
Cape Cod, 1975.

Islam, Riazul. A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian
Relations, 2 vols. Tehran, 1979.

. Indo-Persian Relations: A Study of Political and

Diplomatic Relations between the Mughal Empire and
Iran. Tehran, 1970.

Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam.
Baltimore, 1962.

Lambton, A.K.S. State and Government in Medieval Islam.
Oxford, 1981.

al-Hasan Shaybani, Muhammad b. The Islamic Law of
Nations (Shaybani’s Siyar), transl. M. Khadduri. Balti-
more, 1966.

al-Mulk, Nizam. The Book of Government: The Siyasat
Nama, 2nd ed., trans. H. Darke. London, 1978.

Tolan, John. Les Relations des Pays d’Islam avec le Monde
Latin. Breal, 2000.

DISABILITY

The study of disability in the medieval Islamic world
is still in its infancy. Preliminary evidence indicates
that infectious diseases and epidemics were the fore-
most causes of disabilities; other causes included wars,
old age, and heredity. Although primary sources attest
to the presence of a variety of disabilities, such as
lameness, hemiplegia, and deafness, the extent and
significance of such conditions — as well as attitudes
toward them — remain largely unexamined. Scholarly
studies of blindness, leprosy, and insanity in the
medieval Islamic world do exist, however.

Blindness was one of the most common disabilities
in the medieval Islamic world. Causes were many and
included accidents, aging, and contagious infections
like trachoma and smallpox. Glaucoma, cataracts,
and ophthalmia also appear to have been widespread.
In addition, consanguineous marriages may have
resulted in a relatively high incidence of hereditary
blindness. Blindness appears in a variety of works
composed in the medieval period. Physicians wrote
extensively about eye diseases, and they paid special
attention to developing surgical treatments for catar-
acts. Biographical sources abound in descriptions of
blind men (and, far more rarely, women). For exam-
ple, the Mamluk official Khalil ibn Aybak al-Safadi
(d. 1363) composed a biographical dictionary devoted
exclusively to 313 distinguished blind men who lived

208

DIVINATION

between the seventh and fourteenth centuries. These
include, among others, poets, scholars, physicians,
political figures, muezzins, and those skilled in Qur-
anic recitation. In addition, at the other end of the
socioeconomic spectrum, sources indicate that blind
beggars were a fairly common phenomenon. As for
societal attitudes toward the blind, preliminary evi-
dence implies that the blind were not necessarily
stigmatized or marginalized and that their condition
was not associated with moral, mental, or spiritual
deficiencies (Malti-Douglas 1989).

Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) appears to have oc-
curred with moderate frequency. Medical, legal, and
popular beliefs about the disease were complex and
often contradictory, and the attitudes toward the
leper were ambivalent. Some sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad recorded in the hadith literature, such as
“one should run away from the leper as one runs
away from the lion” (Al-Bukhari, VII, pp. 408-409),
were interpreted by some as an indication that leprosy
was a punishment from God and/or contagious (al-
though the Prophet himself denied the transmissibility
of diseases in other sayings). Medical writings stressed
belief in the contagious and hereditary nature of lep-
rosy, and Islamic law curtailed some of the leper’s
rights, especially in matters of marriage and divorce.
Although lepers were sometimes confined to hospitals
or leper houses, they more often had freedom of
movement, and, like the blind, many appear to have
survived by begging. One historian has concluded
that, unlike in contemporaneous Western European
societies, “there was no social opprobrium” for
leprosy (Dols 1983, 913).

The complex subjects of insanity and mental ill-
nesses in medieval Islamic societies have received
the most scholarly attention and are the subject of
one monograph (Dols, 1992). A multifaceted picture
emerges from a wide range of medical, legal, and
literary sources, and from chronicles and travel
accounts. There were several different types of condi-
tions that today would be grouped under the cate-
gories of “madness” or mental illnesses, such as the
following: the majnun (madman), who was often be-
lieved to be possessed by a jinn (spirit); the majdhub
(holy fool); the melancholic; and the feeble minded.
The legal rights and obligations of those considered
feeble minded or insane were considerably curtailed,
and a legal guardian was usually entrusted with their
welfare. Physicians emphasized the physiological
causes of mental illnesses, and they believed that
most disturbances could be healed by restoring the
correct balance of humors. Healing practices, howev-
er, were highly pluralistic: other treatments included
religious healing, amulets, incantations, magic, and

exorcisms. Although the family would usually be
responsible for its mentally ill members, hospitals
usually included a section that was reserved for the
insane.

Much more research is required before any mean-
ingful conclusions can be drawn about societal atti-
tudes toward physical and mental disabilities in the
various regions of the Islamic world between the sev-
enth and sixteenth centuries. Nevertheless, prelimi-
nary evidence suggests that the physically and
mentally disabled were not necessarily stigmatized or
marginalized.

Sara Scalenghe

See also Disease; Epidemics; Mental Illness

Further Reading

Al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn [sma'il. The Translation of the
Meanings of Sahih Al-Bukhari: Arabic-English, 9 vols.,
trans. Muhammad Muhsin Khan. New Delhi: Kitab
Bhavan, 1984.

Bazna, Maysaa S., and Tarek A. Hatab. “Disability in the
Qur’an: The Islamic Alternative to Defining, Viewing
and Relating to Disability.” 2004. Available at: http://
www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/apsocsci/events/dsaconf2004/fullpa-
pers/bazna_hatab.pdf.

Dols, Michael W. “The Leper in Islamic Society.” Specu-
lum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 54 (1983): 891-916.

. Majnun: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

Haj, Fareed. Disability in Antiquity. New York: Philosophi-
cal Library, 1970.

Malti-Douglas, Fadwa. “Mentalites and Marginality:
Blindness and Mamluk Civilization.” In The Islamic
World from Classical to Modern Times: Essays in
Honor of Bernard Lewis , ed. C.E. Bosworth et al., 211—
37. Princeton, NJ: 1989.

Miles, M. “Some Historical Texts on Disability in the Clas-
sical Muslim World.” Journal of Religion. Disability &
Health 6 (2002): 77-88.

. “Disability in the Middle East: A Bibliography

Comprising Materials with Technical, Cultural and
Historical Relevance to Child and Adult Disabilities,
Special Needs, Social and Educational Responses and
Rehabilitation.” 2002. Available at: http://cirrie. buffalo.
edu/bibliography/MEasttoc.html.

DIVINATION

Divination in Islamic cultures — known variously as
fal, tira, zajr, kihana, and jafr — consists of a wide
variety of practices in which predictions about the
course of future events are derived from the letters
of the alphabet (‘ilm al-huruf), numbers (hisab al-
jummal), God’s Beautiful Names (al-asma’ al-husna),

209

DIVINATION

the stars (‘ilm al-nujum), the reading of the patterns
of tea or coffee left at the bottom of a cup (qira’at
al-finjan), and the interpreting words and letters in the
Qur’an (fal-i Qur’an) or verses composed by poets
such as Hafiz (d. AH 792/1390 CE). Many divinatory
practices — whether they emerged from the analysis of
books (bibliomantic) or the interpretation of visions
(oneiromantic) — were related closely to the religious
concepts of revelation, prophecy, and the Apocalypse
(Fahd 1987; Fahd, “Fa’l”).

Falnamas (divination books) were composed for
rulers in need of guidance during military campaigns
or who were caught in difficult political circum-
stances. Among many such works were those exe-
cuted for the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (d. 886/
1481), who conquered Constantinople/Istanbul in
1453 CE (Ates 1953), and Cem Sultan, who vied for
the Ottoman throne and died in 900/1495 while in
exile in Naples (Ersoylu 1981; Ertaylan 1951, 38-
42). During the sixteenth century, a variety of other
apocalyptic-prognosticative (jafr or malahim) texts,
some illustrated with paintings of the Mahdi (Messi-
ah), Christ, Dajjal (the Anti-Christ), and so forth
(TSK B. 373 and IUK T. 6624), were commissioned
by Ottoman rulers and officials as well (Fleischer,
1990). At the same time, Sultan Murad III (d. 1004/
1595) commissioned a Turkish translation and illus-
tration of a fal-i anbiya’ or fal-i payghambaran (divi-
nation by the prophets). At least two manuscripts of
the work survive (Morgan 788, 242), both of which
draw substantially on the text and iconography of a
Jalayrid anthology of astrological and divinatory
texts in Arabic that was executed in Baghdad in 801/
1399 (Bodleian 133, 163v-169v; Carboni 1988).

Divinatory works (risala-ya fal or falnama) attrib-
uted to the last Shi‘i imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765)
(at times also attributed to the Prophet Muhammad’s
son-in-law ‘Ali) use the verses and letters from the
Qur’an for divinatory purposes or for seeking guid-
ance (istikhara) from God (Duvarci 1993:53-116).
Such works survive today either as autonomous
treatises known as Divination by the Qur’an (Fal-i
Qur’an) (e.g., BnF Sup Turc, 26; Sup Turc, 49;
Turc, 191-192); more often they were inserted at the
very end of Qur’an manuscripts and were given the
titles Fal-i Mushaf ( Divination by the Codex ) and Fal-i
Kalam Allah (Divination by God’s Words). Even the
famous Mamluk historian Ibn ‘Arabshah (d. 901/
1495) composed a treatise about divining by the
Qur’an (al-tafa’ul min al-kitab al-‘aziz), a copy of
which was executed in 1080/1670 (Princeton, Yahuda,
4639). Although many sixteenth-century Persian and
Ottoman Turkish Fal-i Qur’an treatises survive today
( inter alia Keir VI.42, VIE 48, VII.49, VII.52; Bodleian
Or., 793, fs. 334v-336r; Staabi Ms. Or. Oct. 86,

fs. 370v-371r), this divinatory genre has not yet been
subject to systematic research.

Scholarly attention has started to focus more care-
fully on the illustrated falnama genre, which typically
combines large-scale paintings and facing texts that
provide advice to the augury seeker (sahib-i fal) about
when to get married, engage in trade, or set out for
battle. The majority of these works were made in
Iran, Turkey, and India from approximately 1540 to
1630 and bear the imprint of the earlier Jalayrid illu-
strated fal-i anbiya’ mentioned above (Bodleian Or.
133). The earliest two falnamas were commissioned
around 1540 to 1560 by the second Safavid ruler,
Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524-1576). One is dispersed, and
its paintings are held in a number of libraries,
museums, and private collections (e.g., Lowry
1988:120-129; Robinson 1992, cat nos. 89-92; Welch
1985), whereas the other manuscript, although dam-
aged, remains complete (Dresden Eb 445; Ruhrdanz
1987). These manuscripts combine representations of
the prophets, Shi‘i legends, folk stories about heroes
and rulers, astrological symbols, and apocalyptic
events such as the Day of Judgment.

Both Safavid-illustrated falnama manuscripts ap-
pear to have served as prototypes for a large illu-
strated falnama made in Istanbul for Sultan Ahmet
I in 1019/1610 (TSK H. 1703) and another illustrated
Book of Divination made in Golconda around 1610
to 1630 C.E. (Leach 1998, 221-227). A number of
Mughal illustrated falnamas were made during
the seventeenth century (Falk and Digby, 1979, pp.
1 3-9), and at least one late-eighteenth-century Persian
manuscript survives as well (Robinson 1992, 297).

In general, divinatory procedures arose from folk-
lore, although they flourished under the aegis of rulers.
Finding Quranic roots to legitimize a number of such
practices (in particular dream interpretations [Lamor-
eaux, 2002, cf. Dreams and Dream Interpretations ]) or
theological opinion toward divination was ambivalent
at best and hostile at worst. Many practices thrived
in the form of “licit magic,” whereby prognosticative
customs were seen as seeking guidance from God
rather than seeing into the future.

Christiane Gruber

See also Amulets; Astrology; Magic; Talismans and
Talismanic Objects; Mythical Places; Mythology and
Mythical Beings

Institutional Abbreviations

BnF Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris

Bodleian Bodleian Library, Oxford University

Dresden Sachsische Landesbibliothek —

Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek,

Dresden

Keir Keir Collection, London

210

DIVORCE

IUK

Morgan

Princeton

Rotterdam

Sackler

Staabi

TSK

Istanbul Universitesi Kiituphanesi,
Istanbul

Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Princeton University Library, Rare
Books and Manuscripts Collection
Rotterdam Wereldmuseum,
Rotterdam

Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, DC
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin
Topkapi Sarayi Kiituphanesi,
Istanbul

Further Reading

Ates, Ahmet. “Fatih Adina Yazilan Falname Terciimesi.”
Tar ill Hazinesi 11 (1953): 539-48.

Carboni, Stefano. II Kitab al-Bulhan di Oxford, Eurasia-
tica — Quaderni del Dipartimento di Studi Eurasiatici,
Universita’ degli Studi di Venezia , 6. Torino: Editrice
Tirrenia Stampatori, 1988.

Duvarci, Ayse. Tiirkiye’de Falcilik Gelenegi He bu Konuda
Iki Eser: “Risale-i Falname li Ca’fer-i Sadik” ve
“Tefe’iilname. Ankara: Ersa Matbaasi, 1993.

Ersoylu, Halil. “Fal, Falname ve Fal-i Reyhan-i Cem Sul-
tan.” Islam Medeniyeti Mecmuasi 5/2 (1981): 69-81.

Ertaylan, Hikmet. Falname. Istanbul: Sucuo lu Matbaasi,
1951.

Fahd, Toufic. “Fa’l.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New
Edition, vol. 2, 758-60.

Fahd, Toufic. La Divination Arabe: Etudes Religieuses,
Sociologiques et Folkloriques sur le Milieu Natif de
Vlslam. Paris: Sinbad, 1987.

Falk, Toby, and Simon Digby. Paintings from Mughal
India. London: Colnaghi, 1979.

Fleischer, Cornell. “The Lawgiver as Messiah: The Making
of the Imperial Image in the Reign of Suleyman.” In
Suleyman the Magnificent and His Time, ed. Gilles Vein-
stein, 159-77. Paris: Documentation Frangaise, 1990.

Shirin, Ibn. The Interpretation of Dreams , transl. Aisha
Bewley. London: Dar A1 Tawqa Ltd., 1994.

Lamoreaux, John. The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream
Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2002.

Lowry, Glenn D., with Susan Nemazee. A Jeweler’s Eye:
Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988.

Leach, Linda. “Paintings from India.” In The Nasser D.
Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. 8, ed. Julian Raby.
London: Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth
Editions and Oxford University Press, 1998.

Robinson, Basil, ed. Islamic Painting and the Arts of the
Book. London: Faber and Faber, 1976.

Robinson, Basil, et al. Jean Pozzi: L’ Orient d’un Collection-
neur. Geneva: Musee d’Art et d'Histoire, 1992.

Riihrdanz, Karin. “Die Miniaturen des Dresdener ‘Fal-
nameh’.” Persica 12 (1987): 1-56.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Die Trdume des Kalifen: Trciume unci
litre Deutung in cler Islamischen Kulture. Munich: C.H.
Beck, 1998.

Welch, Antony. “The Falnameh (Book of Divination) of
Shah Tahmasp.” In Treasures of Islam, ed. Toby Falk,
94—9. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1985.

DIVORCE

The legal dissolution of marriage in Islam includes
four basic procedures: (1) the talaq (lit. “release”),
which is the divorce of the wife after the triple
pronouncing of a legally valid formula by the hus-
band; (2) the tamlik (assignment) of the full power of
dissolution to the wife in a contract; (3) the dissolu-
tion of the marriage by khul‘, which is the restitution
of the bride dowry by the wife or her relatives; and (4)
the divorce in mutual agreement and release of all
respective rights (mubara’a). There are several other
procedures, mainly different types of oaths and vows,
that are provided for by the law but that are shown
only limited social relevance.

The talaq is, according to a definition of the Tuni-
sian jurist Ibn ‘Arafa (d. 1400 CE), agreed on by
most of the schools of jurisprudence as “a legal state
that denies the husband the right to enjoy the benefits
of his wife, and, if repeated two times by a free man
and one time by a slave, renders his wife forbidden to
him until after another husband intervenes” (Ibn
‘Asim 1958, 318, n. 401). The latter clause pertains
to the important judicial distinction between talaq
raj‘i and talaq ba’in (revocable and definite divorce).
After the first and the second utterance of the divorce
formula, a marriage is still legally valid and the re-
establishment of marital relations a simple matter of
revocation. After a triple divorce, remarriage is only
possible with the intervening of tahlil: the former wife
has to conclude a marriage with another man who
subsequently divorces her. Legal proceedings — name-
ly the intervention of a judge or a court session — are
not a necessary prerequisite for the validity of talaq;
more important are the choice of the right moment by
the husband (a divorce should not take place during
the wife’s menses) and the observance of the waiting
period (‘idda) of three menstrual cycles of the wife.
Another significant consequence of talaq addresses
economical considerations: the wife preserves her
own possessions, particularly the dowry that the
bride received for the conclusion of the marriage.

The husband might assign the right for repudiation
to his wife by allowing her choice (takhyir). However,
the constitutive element of a tamlik contract is a pre-
defined formula; for example: “Your divorce is in
your hands” (talaquki bi-yadiki). The parties often
set up conditions that delimit the wife’s right to the
occurrence of special circumstances (e.g., a prolonged
absence of the husband, his marriage to another
woman).

The definition of kind' by the Egyptian Khalil b.
Ishaq (d. ca. 1365) emphasizes the judicial analogy
with definite divorce: “The kind' is [...] a talaq with
compensation” (Khalil b. Ishaq 1885, 96). Whereas a

211

DIVORCE

khul‘ divorce has to be initiated by the wife, its success
depends on consent by the husband. However, if he
is not willing to pronounce the talaq, his acceptance
of a k h u 1' divorce is more likely, because he could
expect a significant restitution of his prior financial
investment.

If both parties agree, divorce is possible with no
compensation whatsoever. The opinions differ re-
garding whether divorce with mutual renunciation
(mubara’a) constitutes a special form of kluil' or a
stand alone procedure of dissolution. Although there
are no quantitative studies of this subject, one should
not underestimate that, in a tribal context, most
divorces seem to involve mutual consent (Layish
1991, 46).

Despite an obvious focus on divorce in the debates
about Islamic family law, the state of research has
remained rather behind most arguments. The litera-
ture is essentially marked by a lack of symmetry
between the description of legal foundations and the
evaluation of legal and social practice. As a result of
this disproportion, most general statements about
divorce in the Muslim world assess the provisions
laid down in the Qur'an (notably verses 2:228-32
and 65:1-6) and in early Islamic jurisprudence
(Schacht 2000). A small selection of more extensive
firsthand sources is also available in English editions
(Malik ibn Anas 1989, 221-238; Spectorsky 1993; Ibn
Rushd 1996(2), 71-120). The evolution of divorce
in customary law had been studied in tribal areas,
from which one may infer more traditional situa-
tions (Layish 1991; Hanoteau and Letourneux
2003(2), 125-133; Schacht 2000, 155). Another ap-
proach to the social relevance of family law lies in
case studies. For example, they have exemplified that
women could acquire and use expert legal knowledge
for the pursuit of their personal interests (Powers
2003). The attested-to material is, however, not yet
sufficient to establish widely recognized patterns, and
there is no doubt that social roles in divorce need
further investigation.

Tilman Hannemann

See also Adultery; Family; Gender and Sexuality; Mar-
riage; Love; Tribes and Tribal Customs

Further Reading

Hanoteau, Adolphe, Aristide Letourneux, Alain Mahe, and
Hannemann Tilman, eds. La Kabylie et les Coutumes
Kabyles, 3 vols. Paris: Bouchene, 2003.

Asim, Ibn. Al-‘Agimiyya on Tub fat al-h’Ukkam ft Nukat
al-'Uqoud wa’l-ah’Lam: Le Present fait aux Juges Tou-
chant les Points Delicats des Contrats et des Jugements,
ed. Leon Bercher. Alger: Institut d’Etudes Orientales,
1958.

Rushd, Ibn. The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer: A Transla-
tion of Bidayat Al-Mujtahid, 2 vols., ed. Imran Ahsan
Khan Nyazee. Reading, UK: Garnet, 1996.

Ishaq, Khalil b. Mukhtasar ft l-Fiqh ‘ala Madhhab al-Imam
Malik ibn Anas li-Khalil ibn Ishaq ibn Ya'qub al-Maliki,
ed. Gustave Richebe. Paris: Imp. Nationale, 1885.

Layish, Aharon. Divorce in the Lybian Family: A Study
Based on the Sijills of the Shari ‘a Courts of Ajdabiyya
and Kufra. New York and others: New York University
Press and The Magnes Press, 1991.

ibn Anas, Malik. AI-Muwatta of Imam Malik ibn Anas: The
First Formulation of Islamic Law, ed. Aisha Abdurrah-
man Bewley. London and New York: Kegan Paul, 1989.

Powers, David S. “Women and Divorce in the Islamic
West: Three Cases.” Hawwa 1 (2003): 29-45.

Schacht, Joseph. “Art. Talak (In Classical Islamic Law).”
In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, vol. X,
151-5. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Spectorsky, Susan A., ed. Chapters on Marriage and Di-
vorce: Responses of Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Rahwayh. Aus-
tin: University of Texas Press, 1993.

Toledano, Ehud R. Judicial Practice and Family Law in
Morocco: The Chapter on Marriage from Sijilmasi’s A1-
Amal Al-Mutlaq. Boulder, CO: 1 98 i .

DOME OF THE ROCK

The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra) in Jerusa-
lem is the oldest standing monument of Islamic archi-
tecture. It was built on the site of the Jewish Temple by
orders from the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b.
Marwan (d. AH 65-86/685-705 CE), and its construc-
tion was completed in 72/691-692. The Dome of the
Rock, along with the Aqsa mosque (al-Masjid al-
Aqsa) constitute the Haram al-Sharif, which corre-
sponds to Herod’s enlarged Temple Mount area.

The Dome of the Rock is a unique monument as
compared to other Islamic monuments. It is not a
mosque, and it was not intended to function as such.
Whatever the reason for its construction might have
been, it was and remains the most impressive example
of Islamic religious architecture. The shape of the
building is octagonal, with a diameter of forty-eight
meters, and the structure consists of two ambulatories
that surround the Rock, which are believed to be
the site of the biblical story of the binding of Isaac
(Genesis 22). The building stands on two arcades: an
inner circular arcade that supports the dome and com-
prises twelve columns and four piers, and an outer
octagonal arcade that consists of sixteen columns and
eight piers. The dome is approximately twenty meters
in diameter, and it rises approximately thirty
meters above the building floor. In the panel on top
of the octagonal arcade, there is the 240-meter-long
foundation inscription that is coated in gold. At the
beginning of the inscription, one encounters the name
of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 196—218/812 —
833), but this is because, when he authorized the

212

DOME OF THE ROCK

Exterior View. Completed in 691 CE Umayyad caliphate. Credit: SEF/Art Resource, NY. Dome of the Rock, Jeruselem,
Israel.

renovation of the building, he ordered the name of
‘Abd al-Malik to be effaced and replaced by his own.
Part of the text of the inscription quotes Quranic
passages (the most obvious cases are the references
to Jesus [3:18-19, 4:171-172, and 19:33-36]), making
it the earliest dated reference to the Qur’anic text.

The architects and artisans who constructed the
building were local Christians, and they were well
versed in that particular style of architecture, which
is also found in similar monuments — especially mar-
tyriums — in Jerusalem and Syria. In its decoration,
which blends Byzantine and Persian styles, the

creators used marble, painted wood, mosaics, and
colored tiles. The outside of the dome was originally
covered with gold sheets, which were later removed by
the ‘Abbasids. The building has undergone several
major renovations; the most recent one, made be-
tween 1956 and 1964, restored the entire building,
including the current gilded dome.

There are many explanations for why ‘Abd al-
Malik built the Dome of the Rock. The first explana-
tion is that he was eager during the challenging first
years as caliph to create a pilgrimage shrine in his
domain to which Syrians would journey, for the

213

DOME OF THE ROCK

Ka‘ba in Mecca was under the control of his enemy,
Caliph Ibn al-Zubayr (d. 73/692). ‘Abd al-Malik,
according to this explanation, wanted to prevent any
possible influence that Ibn al-Zubayr might exercise
on the Syrians during the pilgrimage season. The
town of the Jewish temple, Jerusalem, was the most
appropriate choice for ‘Abd al-Malik, and it was
probably the only option. It has been also suggested
that the Dome of the Rock was meant as a proclama-
tion of the triumph of the new faith over the other two
monotheistic traditions, Judaism and Christianity.
With this second explanation, too, Jerusalem was
the obvious choice because of its centrality to Jewish
and Christian thought. A third explanation, which
lacks support in Islamic literature, is that ‘Abd al-
Malik was rebuilding the Temple. A few contempo-
rary Christian and Jewish accounts attest to this,
including a Jewish midrash that names ‘Abd al-
Malik as the one who rebuilds the Temple.

Sometime after the completion of the Dome of the
Rock, the site was identified as the place from which
the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven (mi‘raj).
This association, which represents the fourth and
most popular explanation for why it was built,
bestowed on the Dome of the Rock — and by exten-
sion, on Jerusalem — an additional, exclusively Islamic
layer of holiness. Muslim legend has it that the Rock
lifted itself when the Prophet stood on it to start his
ascension; hence the widespread popular Muslim be-
lief that the Rock is hanging up in the air. The inscrip-
tion from the time of ‘Abd al-Malik does not reflect
any connection between the building and Muham-
mad’s mi‘raj.

Throughout Islamic history, the Dome of the Rock
has attracted a cult of minor pilgrimage among the
local population of greater Syria, and, to a lesser
extant, Egypt, especially as a stop on the way to
perform the major pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.
This practice generated protest from theologians like
Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), who wrote against the
practice of the minor pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In
recent years, the Dome of the Rock has become wide-
ly used as the representative symbol for Jerusalem in
Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and even Israeli media.

Suleiman A. Mourad

See also ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan; A1 Ma’mun;
Jerusalem; Palestine

Further Reading

Elad, Amikam. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship:

Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusa-
lem. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Raby, Julian, and Jeremy Johns, eds. Bayt al-Maqdis: ‘Abd
al-Malik’ s Jerusalem (Oxford Studies in Islamic Art
IX. 1). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Johns, Jeremy, ed. Bayt al-Maqdis: Jerusalem and Early
Islam (Oxford Studies in Islamic Art IX.2). Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999.

Robinson, Chase. ‘Abd al-Malik (Makers of the Muslim
World series). Oxford: Oneworld, 2005.

DREAMS AND DREAM
INTERPRETATION

Terminology and Genres

Hulm, manam, and ru’ya are the three main terms that
the Arabic language uses for “dream” (for Persian
dream literature, see Ziai Encyclopaedia Iranica :
549-551). All three terms appear in the Qur’an (Kin-
berg 2001, 546-553) and in different genres of the
Islamic Medieval literature (for Sufism, see Corbin
in Grunebaum, 1996; for Shi‘i Thought, see Ziai
Encyclopaedia Iranica, 549-551, and Cemal Kafadar
and Katz 1996). Hulm and manam occur during
sleep, whereas ru’ya can take place either in sleep or
in wakefulness (for ru’ya as a vision, see Fahd and
Daiber 2002, 645-649). Manam and ru’ya usually
indicate reliable and “true” dreams, whereas hulm is
mostly associated with “false” dreams or nightmares
(adrath ahlam).

Medieval Islamic literature makes a clear distinc-
tion between dreams and dream interpretation. As
two separate genres, each is characterized by its own
goals and styles. Dream interpretation is known in
Arabic as ta bir (interpretation of dreams; oneirocriti-
cism), and it exists as an independent genre or as part
of the inclusive adab literature. Dreams consist of
dream narratives, known as manamat (pi. of manam,
which means dream). Dream narratives have never
developed into a separate genre and can be considered
part of the hadith literature.

Works that belong to the ta‘bir literature and that
specialize in the interpretation of dreams often func-
tion as reference books. They provide general informa-
tion about the scientific aspects of oneirocriticism, deal
with the necessary qualifications that dream inter-
preters should acquire, discuss the dreamer’s mental
and physical conditions that are critical to the right
understanding of dreams, and state strict rules for
interpretation. These works are often arranged the-
matically, or they may take the form of a lexicon and
deal with the items that appear in the dreams. Promi-
nent representatives of the Muslim oneirocriticism

214

DREAMS AND DREAM INTERPRETATION

works that have survived out of a much larger number
of works (for a list of dream-interpretation works, see
Fahd 1966:330-61) include the pseudo Ibn Sirin’s
Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tafsir al-Ahlam', ‘Ibarat al-
Ru’ya (manuscript) by Ibn Qutaybah (d. AE1 276/
889 CE); al-Bisharhah wa-al-Nidharah fi Ta'bir al-
Ru’ya wa-al-Muraqabah (manuscript) by Abu Sa‘d
al-Khargushi (d. AH 406/1015 CE); al-Isharat fi ‘Ibn
al-‘Ibarat by Ibn Shahin al-Zahiri (d. AH 873/1468
CE); and Ta‘tlr al-Anam fi Tafsir al-Ahlam by ‘Abd
al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (d. AH 1144/1731 CE). Although
the pre-Islamic heritage (especially pre-Islamic poet-
ry) and the Islamic spirit (especially Quranic verses)
inspire large portions of these books, their methodol-
ogy is based on the old Greek system of dream inter-
pretation. The latter was introduced into Islam during
the third/ninth century, mainly by Hunayn Ibn
Ishaq’s (d. 260/873) translation into Arabic of the
book of dreams of Artemidorus (see Mavroudi for
the relationships between five medieval Arabic dream
books, Artemidorus’ work, and the Oneirocriticon of
Achmet ).

Dream narrations (manamat) have nothing in
common with ta’bir manuals. The former are not
concerned with oneirocriticism, they rarely use sym-
bols, and they belong to works that impart verbal
communication and bear self-explanatory messages.
As a result of their explicit nature, these dreams natu-
rally release the dreamer from the need to consult a
dream interpreter. They are distributed in various
genres of the classical Islamic literature, either in
separate chapters within general works (each of the
canonical hadith collections has a chapter dedicated
to dreams) or as separate narrations scattered among
traditions that do not use the medium of dreams
(mainly biographical dictionaries). The only extant
exception is the book of dreams, Kitab al-Manam,
by Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 281/894); this is a collection
of more than three hundred dream narratives that are
mostly short and that follow a set of basic patterns
(Kinberg 1994). The introductory part of the book
addresses the relationship between the dead and the
living and illuminates the general purpose of the
work: to supply the inhabitants of the present world
with moral advice that has originated in the other
world and been delivered through dreams.

Function

From the earliest days of Islam, dreams have been
treated as the bearers of transcendental knowledge,
and they have consequently functioned as a reliable
source of guidance. A widely circulated prophetic

hadith regards dreams as the continuation of the
Prophet’s preaching, as part of prophecy, and as a
compensation for prophetic guidance that has come
to an end (Wensinck, 1/181, b.sh.r.). This notion is
confirmed in another well-known hadith that declares
that a vision of the Prophet in a dream is deemed
equal to his actual appearance (Wensinck, 7/53, n.w.
ml). In other words, it is not merely the actual meeting
or the physical hearing of the Prophet that instructs
people about how to behave; prophetic words heard
in dreams may have the same impact. Since the vision
of the Prophet in a dream is equal to actually meeting
with him, Muslims who lived after the Prophet’s
death (10/632) may nevertheless “consult” with the
Prophet in a dream. The ability to see the Prophet in
dreams conveys a comforting notion of guidance that
accompanies the righteous Muslims of all generations
in their sleep.

It would be a major misunderstanding of the na-
ture of the Islamic dream literature to assume that
authorization through dreams was possible only with
the Prophet’s appearance. A saying ascribed to one of
the leading dream interpreters, Muhammad Ibn Sirin
(d. 110/728; see http://www.ibnsereen.com), states the
following: “Whatever the deceased tells you in sleep
is truth, for he stays in the world of truth” (Ithaf al-
Sada al-Muttaqin 10/431). This saying is not focused
on the Prophet’s appearance but rather recognizes the
authority of any dead person who appears in dreams.
Here it is the medium of the dream — and not the
presence of the Prophet — that creates authenticity.
This idea underlies the hundreds — even thousands —
of dreams found in classical Islamic literature in
which a dead person appears in a living person’s
dream advising, instructing, preaching, or just telling
about his or her own experience in the afterlife. The
dreamer takes the advice or analyzes the implications
of the condition of the deceased and acts accordingly.
These dreams are based on the idea that the dead
know (ya’lamun) but cannot perform, whereas the
living can act (ya’malun) but do not know (Kinberg
2000, 425^444). The living are able to carry out
deeds, yet they are not aware of their future signifi-
cance; for this they need the special insight of the
dead.

Guiding dreams, in most cases, are good dreams
(manamat salihah) sent from God, whereas bad
dreams (hulm, pi. ahlam) originate from the Devil
(Wensinck, 1/504, h.l.m.; 2/205, r.’.y.). Having good
dreams is considered a divine grace that is bestowed
only on pious people; thus, when a righteous Muslim
has a dream, it definitely contains trustworthy advice
to be adopted and followed in daily life.

The large variety of dream-supporting statements
created confidence in dreams and encouraged people

215

DREAMS AND DREAM INTERPRETATION

to use this medium to promote their ideas. At the
same time, however, it may have encouraged the
misuse of dreams. It may be assumed that various
trends and tendencies in Islamic society were fur-
thered by groups using this medium and making up
dreams to legitimize their ideas and goals. This means
that, when examining dream material, one should
not inquire about its authenticity but rather about
the time and place in which it was told (Kinberg
1993, 279-300). Dreams of the manamat kind, there-
fore, should be evaluated as historical pieces of evi-
dence. Like hadith, they should be treated as products
of given circumstances that prevailed at a given time
and place, made to answer certain questions or to
approve of existing phenomena; like hadith, they
should be considered as a mirror of their environment.

Leah Kinberg

See also Adab; Death and Dying; Greek; Hadith; Hu-
nayn Ibn Ishaq; Ibn Qutayba; Muhammad, the Proph-
et; Qur’an; Translation; Shi’i Thought; Sufism and
Sufis

Primary Sources

Kinberg, L. The Book of Death and the Book of Graves by
Ibn Abi al-Dunya. Haifa: Al-Karmil Publication Series,
1983.

. Morality in the Guise of Dreams: Ibn Abi al-Dunya’ s

K. al-Manam. Leiden: Brill, 1994.

al-Zabidi, Murtada. Ithaf al-Sada al-Muttaqin. Beirut: Re-
print: Cairo: Bulaq, 1893.

Wensinck, A.J., and J.P. Mensing, eds. Concordance et
Indices de la Tradition Musulmane. Leiden: Brill, 1 936 —
1964.

Further Reading

Kafadar, Cemal. “Self and Others: The Diary of a Dervish
in Seventeenth Century Istanbul and First-Person Nar-
ratives in Ottoman Literature.” Studia Islamica 69
(1989): 121-50.

Fahd, T., and H. Daiber. “Ru’ya.” In Encyclopaedia of
Islam, 11 vols., vol. 8, 645-9. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Fahd. “Les Procedes Oniromantiques.” In La Divination
Arabe, 247-367. Leiden: Brill, 1966.

Green, N. "The Religious and Cultural Roles of Dreams
and Visions in Islam.” JRAS 3 (2003): 287-313.

Gruenbaum, G.E., and R. Caillois, eds. The Dream and
Human Societies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1966.

Katz, J. Dreams, Sufism and Sainthood: The Visionary Ca-
reer of Muhammad al-Zawawi. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

Kinberg, L. “Dreams and Sleep.” In Encyclopaedia of the
Qur’an, vol. 1, 546-53, ed. J.D. McAuliffe. Leiden: Brill,
2001 .

. “Literal Dreams and Prophetic Hadith in Classical

Islam — A Comparison of Two Ways of Legitimation.”
Der Islam Band 70 Heft 2 (1993): 279-300.

. “The Individual’s Experience as it Appears to the

Community: An Examination of Six Dream Narrations

Dealing With the Islamic Understanding of Death.” Al-
Oantara 21 (2000): 425M4.

Kister, M.J. “The Interpretation of Dreams, an Unknown
Manuscript of Ibn Qutaybah’s Ibarat al-Ru’ya.” IOS 4
(1974), 67-103.

Lamoreaux, J.C. The Early Muslim Tradition of Dream
Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2002.

Mavroudi, M. A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation —
The Oneirocriticon of Achmet and Its Arabic Sources.
Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Ziai, H. “Dreams and Dream Interpretation.” In Encyclo-
paedia Iranica, vol. 7, 549-51, ed. Ehsan Yarshater. New
York: Bibliotheca Persica Press.

DRUZE

Druze historical origins are often traced to eleventh-
century Fatimi Egypt, particularly to the year 1017
CE, when the propagation of Druzism began. The
term Druzism is nearly one hundred years old and
refers to the Druze religious doctrine, which advocates
a strict form of Unitarianism (tawhid). Like other
esoteric traditions, Druzism began covertly, and the
Druze manuscripts speak of a twenty-one-year period
of secret missionary activities between 996 and 1017.
Both the historical accounts and the Druze manu-
scripts agree that the propagation of Druzism
continued until the year 1043. Three leading figures —
al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Hamza ibn ‘Ali al-Zawzani,
and Baha’ al-Din al-Samuqi — were important during
the initial years of the movement (996-1043).

From what little is known about the connection
between al-Hakim and Druzes, it can be concluded
that, between 996 and 1021, al-Hakim did not ban the
Druze missionaries but rather permitted their activ-
ities, protected their followers, and approved their
epistles. In 1021, al-Hakim left on one of his routine
trips to the hills of al-Muqattam east of Cairo and
mysteriously never returned. Unlike al-Hakim, his
successor, al-Zahir, did not protect members of the
Druze movement and instead ordered their persecu-
tion, because they recognized him as caliph and not as
imam. This instigated a period of hardship that lasted
several years.

Hamza Ibn ‘Ali, the second leading figure, came to
Cairo from eastern Iran in December 1016. A few
months later, in May 1017, al-Hakim granted him
the title of imam and the freedom to preach his
reform doctrine openly. However, public resistance
to Hamza’s teachings increased as he spoke against
corruption, the practice of polygamy, the remarriage
of one’s divorcee, and other social customs. During
this external resistance, an internal rivalry arose be-
tween Hamza and one of his subordinates, al-Darazi.
Darazi deviated from the essence of the movement’s

216

DRUZE

message and falsified the writings and teachings of
Hamza to present al-Hakim as divine. He had hoped
that al-Hakim would favor him over Hamza, but
instead public opposition to Darazi’s teachings
increased. Darazi then redirected the public’s resis-
tance by declaring that he had acted on Hamza’s
instructions. Consequently, instead of attacking Dar-
azi, the crowd turned against Hamza and his associ-
ates, who were in the Ridan Mosque at the time.
Although Darazi was eventually killed and his teach-
ings repudiated, many early and later observers, iron-
ically, attribute the Druze doctrine to Darazi and do
not mention Hamza at all. To date, Druzes and the
Druze manuscripts consider Darazi the most heretical
apostate. More importantly, Hamza is considered to
be the actual founder of Druzism and the primary
author of the Druze manuscripts.

During the same year that al-Hakim disappeared,
1021, Hamza went into retreat and delegated the
affairs of the community to the third leading figure,
Baha’ al-Din al-Samuqi. Baha’ al-Din continued pub-
lic preaching with the approval of Hamza, who was in
an undisclosed location known only to Baha’ al-Din
and a few other missionaries. He wrote epistles to
both prospective members in new destinations and
to those followers who had seceded from the teach-
ings of the movement. He also sent missionaries to
strengthen the believers and to provide further spiri-
tual direction. Baha’ al-Din continued his activity
until the closing of Druzism in 1043; from that year
to the present, no one has been permitted to join the
Druze movement. During the same year, Hamza Ibn
‘Ali, Baha' al-Din, and the other leading figures left
Egypt. Druzes believe that these individuals will re-
turn on the Day of Judgment.

After this establishment period of the Druze move-
ment, the Druze princes of the Buhturi (1040s 1 507)

and then the Ma‘ni (1507-1697) families provided
leadership to the Druze masses and protected the
continuity of the religious reforms issued by Hamza
Ibn ‘Ali. Prince Fakhr al-Din al-Ma‘ni 11 (r. 1590
1635) is often mentioned by some Lebanese historians
as the early founder of Lebanon and as the source of
Lebanese nationalism. Druze history itself was not, of
course, devoid of both internal and external tribal
rivalries. For example, to guarantee their survival,
Druzes and their allies often fought against or coop-
erated with different Muslim regimes, including
Mamluks, Ayyubids, and Ottomans.

Today there are approximately one million Druzes
in the world, the majority of them living in four
Middle Eastern countries: Lebanon, Syria, Israel,
and Jordan. In addition to these larger concentrations
of Druzes, smaller diaspora communities can be
found in Australia, Canada, Europe, the Persian
Gulf nations, the Philippines, South America, West
Africa, and the United States.

Samy Swayd

See also al-Hakim; Isma‘ilis; Fatimids

Further Reading

Abu Izzeddin, Nejla M. The Druzes: A New Study of
their History, Faith, and Society. Leiden: Brill, 1984
and 1993.

Betts, Robert Benton. The Druze. New Haven, Conn: Yale
University Press, 1988.

Firro, Kais. A History of the Druzes. Leiden: Brill, 1992.

Hitti, Philip K. The Origins of the Druze People and
Religion. New York: Columbia University Press,
1928.

Makarem, Sami Nasib. The Druze Faith. Delmar, NY:
Caravan Books, 1974.

Swayd, Samy. The Druzes: An Annotated Bibliography.
Kirkland, Wash: Ises Publications, 1998.

217

EARTHQUAKES

Vast regions of the Islamic world frequently experi-
enced earthquakes during both medieval and modern
times. The main zones of high seismicity within the
Islamic heartlands have been areas such as the Red
Sea, the valley of the Jordan, and the Anatolian fault
zone, which are situated on the borders between the
Eurasian plates to the north and various plates to
the south (most importantly the Arabian, the African,
the Anatolian, and the West Iranian Plates). These
zones display significant differences in their tectonic
evolutions: whereas some are characterized by spread-
ing and the formation of new oceanic crust (Red Sea),
others are characterized by collision and subduction
(Eastern Mediterranean). However, these regions
have in common a long-standing history of active
tectonic developments, and these have continued
through the present. Alternatively, some regions
(e.g., the Arabian Peninsula situated on the Arabian
shield) belong, with the exception of Yemen and the
Hejaz (incorporating Mecca and Medina), to the
most seismically stable areas in the world. Although
the inland of North Africa (the modern states of
Egypt, Libya, and Sudan) is rather aseismic, it has
been subject to infrequent earthquakes of considerable
size.

In the self-view of the Muslim community, its his-
tory itself started with an earthquake: the birth of the
Prophet Muhammad was purportedly accompanied
by a violent seism felt throughout the known world.
The early awareness of living in a seismically active
region was also expressed by the fact that year 5 of the

Muslim calendar was named the Year of the Earth-
quake and that the Qur'an contains an Earthquake
Chapter (Sura 99, surat al-zalzala).

Reliable quantitative data about the occurrence of
earthquakes during medieval times or even their
effects are not available, and one has to rely to a
large degree on anecdotal evidence. Furthermore,
the sources present a highly biased picture, because
earthquakes far from urban centers hardly found en-
trance into the written record. Consequently, knowl-
edge of the geographical distribution of earthquakes
during the medieval period reflects at least as much
patterns of population density as the occurrence of
earthquakes themselves.

Among the most destructive earthquakes in the
medieval period were those in northern Persia, which
were centered on the town of Qumis in 856 CE and felt
throughout the Middle East, with a reported death toll
of two hundred thousand; in northern Syria, which
centered on the town of Aleppo in 1138; and again in
Syria, in 1202, with the epicenter on the Lebanese
coast. The effects of these and other earthquakes
were similar: high death tolls, the wide-ranging destruc-
tion of fortifications and buildings, and the ensuing
economic losses for most sections of the population.

The 1202 earthquake, for example, destroyed
several towns situated on the Syrian coast, such as
Acre, and it also destroyed large numbers of buildings
inland, in towns such as Nablus and Damascus. The
effects of the shock were felt in distant regions such as
Sicily and Iraq, and they caused destruction as far
away as Cyprus and Egypt. Sources quote a death

219

EARTHQUAKES

toll of more than one million for the years 1201 and
1202 in Syria and Egypt, the latter also having been
ravaged by famine and epidemics. Although such
figures were rough estimations with a strong tendency
toward exaggeration, they may be used at least as an
indicator to show the extent of destruction; the total
of thirty thousand casualties for the Nablus region
alone for the 1202 earthquake, as quoted by a local
source, reinforces this impression.

Such catastrophic events shaped the course of me-
dieval Islamic history in demographic, economic, and
military terms. The severe death toll and the material
destruction caused by a series of earthquakes that
ravaged Syria during the late eleventh century (1050,
1063, 1068, 1069, 1086, and 1091), for example, argu-
ably contributed to the successful Crusader conquests
during the following years. Earthquakes (as well
as other natural catastrophes) proved to be highly
destructive for much medieval building structure,
because the traditionally used materials for houses
in regions such as Persia — mud walls and adobe
bricks — were of very limited stability when it came
to withstanding seismic shocks.

For medieval Muslim authors, the occurrence of
earthquakes was a phenomenon to be dealt with on
many different levels. Chroniclers registered earth-
quakes and their effects generally quite laconically,
without going into too much depth. Nevertheless,
some members of the elite wrote about such cata-
strophes in more detail, such as the twelfth-century
military commander and litterateur Usama ibn
Munqidh, who composed a lengthy poetic work after
he lost most of his relatives in an earthquake that
destroyed the clan’s stronghold in middle Syria.

A number of scholars wrote treatises that were
specifically devoted to this subject, as did medieval
scholars about other catastrophes, such as famine and
plague. For example, the third-century philosopher
al-Kindi dealt with the Occurrence of Winds under
the Earth Which Cause Many Earthquakes and
Eclipses, and Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 1176) authored a Book
Of Earthquakes (both of these have been lost); the
Egyptian polymath al-Suyuti (d. 1505) included a
detailed list of earthquakes in his treatise about the
subject. These authors differed with regard to the
explanations that they advanced for earthquakes.
Some earlier scholars argued, under the influence of
antique pneumatic theories of earthquakes, that they
were caused by gases under the surface that could not
condensate or escape. According to writers such as al-
Kindi, al-Biruni (d. 1050), and Ibn Sina (d. 1037), the
increasing pressure led finally to the seismic vibrations
of the earth and its crust.

A second group of authors (especially after
the eleventh century) ascribed earthquakes to God’s

immediate will and advanced elaborate cosmological
descriptions to explain how He caused them. These
descriptions focused either on the Mountain Qaf that,
in their view, surrounded the earth and was linked to
it by subterranean ramifications, or on the idea that
the earth was placed on the horns of a bull that was
carried by a fish. According to this group of authors
(e.g., al-Suyuti), earthquakes were either the result of
deviating behavior (adultery, usury, and consumption
of alcohol) or signs of the approaching Last
Judgment, an idea that is based on the Qur’anic
Earthquake Chapter. In this worldview, God caused
the Mountain Qaf or the bull and the fish to move so
that the earth was seized by a wave of shocks as a
punishment. A third set of explanations was brought
forward by chroniclers who treated earthquakes only
briefly in their writings; this group of authors sug-
gested that the causes of earthquakes were astrophys-
ical circumstances, such as planetary constellations or
comets with long tails.

Konrad Hirschler

Further Reading

Ambraseys, Nicholas N., and C.P. Melville. A History of
Persian Earthquakes. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1982.

. "An Analysis of the Eastern Mediterranean Earth-
quake of 20 May 1202.” In Historical Seismograms and
Earthquakes of the World , eds. W.H.K. Lee, H. Meyers,
and K. Shimazaki, 181-200. San Diego: Academic Press,
1988.

Ambraseys, Nicholas N., C.P. Melville, and R.D. Adams.
The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea. A
Historical Review. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1994.

Melville, Charles P. "Zalzala.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition, 11 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1960-2002.

Taher, M. “Les Grandes Zones Sismiques du Monde
Musulman a Travers l’Histoire.” Annales Islamologiques
30 (1996): 79-104.

EDUCATION, ISLAMIC

Education in Islam is understood as nurturing, rais-
ing, and teaching knowledge and moral values to
improve oneself or somebody else spiritually, intellec-
tually, and morally by following the orders of Allah
and learning how to obey His will (Ittihad 1994). In

220

EDUCATION, ISLAMIC

School, Moghul. Holy man with three disciples commenting on a text in a rustic setting. Indian miniature, Mughal school,
early thirteenth century. Credit: Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY. Musee des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris,
France.

221

EDUCATION, ISLAMIC

the Qur'an, God is referred to as Rabbul-ul Alemeen,
which includes the meaning “the educator of all the
worlds,” thus showing the importance that Islam
gives to education. Education is one of the most
important factors of a healthy society; it is a means
for a creature to achieve the purpose for which God
created it, and, as such, belief and education cannot
be separated from each other (Ittihad 1994; Giilen
2003).

Education in Islam is based on Qur’anic concepts.
The Qur’an, according to Islamic teachings, is the
literal word of God and contains all of the informa-
tion that is required to lead a fulfilling life in this
world and in the hereafter. The Qur’an states the
following in verse 16:89: “And We have sent down
to thee the Book explaining all things, a Guide, a
Mercy and Glad Tidings to Muslims.” The first
revealed verse of the Qur’an is “Read,” which demon-
strates the importance that is placed on knowledge
and learning.

An understanding of hadith (the teachings of
Prophet Muhammad) is necessary to fully understand
the Qur’an. This point is expressed in verse 16:44:
“And We have sent down unto thee the Message
that thou mayest explain clearly to men what is
sent for them, and they may give thought” (Abdul-
Rahman Salih Abdullah 1982). Prophet Muhammad
said, “He who leaves his home in search of knowledge
walks in the path of God” (Himiuddin Khan 1967,
2-3). This search for knowledge was the goal of every
Muslim man and woman, whose foremost duty was
to learn the Qur’an, the rituals of prayer, and the
divine revelation (Ahmed 1968, 30).

In Islam, education covers all aspects of life, in-
cluding knowledge of the Qur’an and the laws of
Islam, as well as the customs, knowledge, and skills
that people need to function effectively in daily life.
The aim of education is to prepare a person for a
moral and religious life, thereby creating sincere,
practical people who can win spiritual blessings and
God's favor in the hereafter (Himiuddin Khan 1967,
171). Whatever action man performs should be linked
to God, indicating that God cannot be restricted to a
certain period of life or to certain aspects of a person’s
actions (Abdul-Rahman Salih Abdullah 1982).

During the Medieval Period, education in the
Islamic world achieved great success, with immense
respect given to scholars. The encouragement in Is-
lamic teachings for education created an environment
in which people could freely exchange ideas. During
the European Dark Ages, the Islamic world estab-
lished a golden age of education. During the ninth
century, the library of the monastery of St. Gall was
the largest in Europe, containing thirty-six volumes.
At the same time, most cities in the Islamic world

built public and private libraries, with some cities
like Cordoba and Baghdad possessing libraries with
more than 400 thousand books. The accumulated
knowledge in the Islamic world later became the
basis for achievements in the European Renaissance
(Horace Mann, WP; Himiuddin Khan 1967, 133).

The education of Muslim children began at home
around the age of four, when they began the study of
the Qur’an (Himiuddin Khan 1967, 172). There were
two levels of education: primary and advanced.
Primary education was conducted in schools called
Kuttab and Maktab (Ahmed 1968, 41). The purpose
of these schools was to teach the Qur’an, basic prin-
ciples of Islam, and reading, writing, and mathemat-
ics. Advanced studies were conducted in the Halka
systems before the establishment of the Madrasa
system (Ahmed 1968, 52). Subjects studied included
philology, grammar, syntax, rhetoric, literature,
reading and recitation (of the Qur’an), hadith, juris-
prudence, Islamic law, theology, logic, tasawwuf, taf-
sir, scholastics, medicine, genealogy, and astronomy
(Ahmed 1968 32-39; Himiuddin Khan 1967, 134).
There was also an emphasis on physical education,
because Islam gives importance to the training of the
body as well as of the mind (Himiuddin Khan 1967,
179). In Islam, as a rule, everyone could participate in
classes, regardless of one’s ethnicity, social group,
age, or gender (Ahmed 1968, 86).

Universities were also established in many cities,
such as Cordoba and Malaga in Spain, Istanbul and
Konya in Turkey, Cairo in Egypt, Baghdad in Iraq,
and Mansura and Delhi in India. These universities
included departments of astronomy, mathematics,
medicine, theology, law, jurisprudence, chemistry,
and philosophy, where the enrollment ran into the
thousands (Alavi 1988).

Yetkin Yildirim

See also Madrasa; Primary Schools; Libraries;
Childhood

Further Reading

Abdullah, A.S. Educational Theory: A Qur’anic Outlook.
Umm All-Qura University: Makkah Almukarramah,
Faculty of Education, Educational & Psychological
Research Center, 1982.

Ahmed, M. Muslim Education and the Scholars’ Social
Status up to the 5th Century Muslim Era. Zurich: Verlag
Der Islam, 1968.

Alavi, Z.S.M. Muslim Education Thought in the Middle Ages.

New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 1988.
Giilen, F. Religious Education of the Child. Somerset, NJ:
The Light Publication, 2003.

Himiuddin Khan, M. History of Muslim Education.

Karachi: Academy of Educational Research, 1967.
Ittihad Research Committee. Islam Prensipleri Ansiklope-
disi, ed. Ittihad Yayincilik. Istanbul: 1994.

222

EDUCATION, JEWISH

The Jewish emphasis on education can be traced di-
rectly to the Bible, which enjoins constant meditation
on the law or Torah (Joshua 1:8). Already during
the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (515
BCE-70 CE), Scripture was studied according to an
authoritative, interpretive tradition. During the first
six centuries CE, leading Jewish scholars (rabbis) in
Palestine and Babylonia codified these oral teachings,
producing canonical works of law (Mishnah, Talmud)
and exegesis (Midrash). Together with the Bible, this
rabbinic literature has furnished the Jewish core cur-
riculum for the past millennium and a half. It is
analogous in terms of sanctity, authority, and func-
tion to the Qur'an and hadith in Sunni Islam. In
Islamic lands, however, many Jews also studied gen-
eral subjects, such as Arabic language, mathematics,
astronomy, philosophy, and medicine. In this environ-
ment, moreover, Jewish subjects were often pursued
from a rationalistic perspective.

In his code, Mishneh Torah, Moses Maimonides
describes the religious obligation of a father to teach
his son Torah and the obligation of a community to
support a school. From the age of six or seven, chil-
dren learned the Hebrew alphabet and the Bible,
which they were taught to gloss in Aramaic and
Arabic. Like a Muslim maktab, the Jewish school
house stressed the memorization and proper recita-
tion of Scripture. Girls attended separate schools,
which taught these subjects as well; rabbinic literature
was introduced later and taught only to boys. Unlike
elementary-school teachers, who were remunerated,
Talmud instructors were not supposed to receive pay-
ment. For advanced Talmudic studies, young men
attended a yeshiva (academy). Dating back to antiq-
uity, this institution was dedicated to teaching and
promulgating the rabbinic tradition. Similar in pur-
pose to the madrasa, which only developed during the
tenth and eleventh centuries, the yeshiva combined
the functions of a college and a court. Supported by
communal donations, it funded both faculty and stu-
dents, who were trained as legal experts. The oldest
yeshivot were based in the Land of Israel and in
Babylonia. Each was headed by a gaon (president)
and was organized hierarchically. During the ‘Abbasid
period, the academies of Sura and Pumbedita moved
to Baghdad, where they attained preeminence as cen-
ters of Jewish legal scholarship, issuing responses to
queries from distant communities and sponsoring
month-long terms of study for visitors from abroad.
However, with the migration of Jews westward, inde-
pendent colleges were established in Egypt, North
Africa, and Andalusia during the late tenth century.
Those in Qayrawan and Lucena (near Cordoba)

became quite famous; during the eleventh century,
the former was headed by Hananel ben Hushiel and
Nissim ben Jacob Ibn Shahin.

Outside the yeshivot, secular subjects formed an
important part of the curriculum. The ability to read
a Bible also meant literacy in Arabic, whereas Jews
customarily read and wrote in Hebrew characters.
Fetters from the Cairo geniza attest to widespread
Jewish literacy in the Mediterranean and also to the
effort expended in securing a good education. Geniza
documents and letters reveal that some parents en-
gaged Arabic tutors for their children. Although the
language and literary quality of Judeo-Arabic docu-
ments vary considerably, many Middle Eastern and
North African Jews could write effectively and fluent-
ly. Some of the leading scholars, such as Sa‘adyah
Gaon, Samuel ben Hophni Gaon (d. 1113), and
the Karaite Ya'qub al-Qirqisani (d. after 938), read
widely from non-Jewish sources.

As early as the ninth century, North African and
Andalusian Jews cultivated a broad education, which
enabled the best scholars to attain influential posi-
tions at court. Hasday Ibn Shaprut (c. 915-970)
served two Umayyad Caliphs of Cordoba as a physi-
cian, translator, and diplomat. Samuel Ibn Naghrela
(993-1055/1056), vizier to two Kings of Granada,
achieved fame as a Hebrew poet and talmudic schol-
ar; according to the Muslim historian Ibn Hayyan
(987-1076), Ibn Naghrela wrote both Arabic and
Hebrew with equal facility. Both Hasday and Ibn
Naghrela mastered a dual curriculum of sacred and
secular subjects that was reminiscent of the one
prescribed by the Andalusian Muslim Ibn Hazm
(994-1064) in his Maratib al-'Ulum (Categories of
the Sciences ). The Tibb al-Nufus (Hygiene of the
Souls) by Joseph ben Judah Ibn ‘Aqnin (late thir-
teenth century) outlines a detailed course of study:
reading and writing Hebrew characters precedes the
study of the Bible, Mishnah, Hebrew grammar, and
Hebrew poetry; at fifteen, boys begin Talmud; sub-
sequently, they learn some speculative theology.
Philosophy and the sciences follow: logic, mathemat-
ics, arithmetic, geometry, optics, astronomy, music,
mechanics, natural sciences, medicine, and, finally,
metaphysics. Moses Maimonides dedicated his Guide
to the Perplexed to a favorite disciple who had been
trained in precisely this kind of curriculum. During
the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, Jewish
emigres from Andalusia, such as Judah Ibn Tibbon,
championed these education ideals in Christian
Spain and Provence, where they were instrumental
in maintaining the rationalistic, literate, and cultured
outlook of the Greco-Arabic tradition.

Daniel Frank

223

EDUCATION, JEWISH

See also Baghdad; Hebrew; Judeo-Arabic; Kalam; Kar-
aites; Scriptural Exegesis, Jewish; Translation, Arabic
to Hebrew; Education

Primary Sources

Ben Judah Ibn Aqnin, Joseph. “A Course of Study.” In
The Jew in the Medieval World , ed. Jacob Rader Marcus,
rev. Marc Saperstein, section 77/1, 428-32. Cincinnati:
Hebrew Union College Press, 1999.

Ibn Tibbon, Judah. “A Father’s Admonition.” In Hebrew
Ethical Wills, ed. and transl. Israel Abrahams, vol. 1,
51-92. Philadelphia: JPSA, 1926.

Maimonides, Moses. “Study of the Torah.” In Mishneh
Torah: The Book of Knowledge, transl. Moses Hyamson,
fols. 57a-65a. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1981.

Further Reading

Ashtor, Eliyahu. The Jews of Moslem Spain, 3 vols., vol. 3,
91-105. Philadelphia: JPSA, 1973-1984.

Brody, Robert. The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of
Medieval Jewish Culture. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1998.

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society, vol. 2, 171-211,
vol. 5, 415-26. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California, 1967-1988.

Sklare, David E. Samuel ben Hofni Gaon and His Cultural
World. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

EGYPT

From the Arab Conquest until the end of the Umay-
yad Period, the Arab army commanded by ‘Amr ibn
al-‘As entered Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE,
initially laying siege to the Byzantine fortress at Bab-
ylon at the meeting place between Lower and Upper
Egypt. The Arabs proceeded to conquer Upper Egypt
before marching on Alexandria. Faced with numer-
ous internal problems, the Byzantines eventually sur-
rendered the city by treaty. As was the case elsewhere
in the conquered lands, the Arabs did not take up
residence among the conquered people — the Egyptian
Christians (Copts) — but rather settled in a garrison
city (misr) known as al-Fustat. There they established
their administration and institutions, including a
mosque that was named for ‘Amr and a diwan to
record the financial and military affairs of the new
territory. The Arab tribesmen proved to be difficult to
govern, and this task, along with the collection of
taxes and the provision of revenues to the Caliph,
were the responsibility of the governor (wali).

‘Amr took control of the province on behalf of
Mu’awiya during the First Civil War (656-661) and
was thus on the side of the victor. During the Second
Civil War, Marwan ibn al-Hakam seized control
of the province to keep it loyal to the Umayyads.

Perhaps the best known governor of Egypt during
the Umayyad period is Qurra ibn Sharik (709-715);
this is because the survival of numerous documents
on papyrus provides more knowledge about his ad-
ministration than is available for any other governor
of early Islamic Egypt. The classical tax system of
land tax (kharaj) and poll tax (jizya) was not solidi-
fied until the middle of the eighth century, and the
Umayyads frequently experimented with their reve-
nue collection system. One attempt to raise taxes in
725 or 726 resulted in a major uprising by Coptic
peasants. As the Umayyad Caliphate weakened, the
Arab rulers of Egypt fought among themselves for
control of this wealthy province.

An ‘Abbasid Province

After the ‘Abbasid occupation in the summer of 750,
Egypt was governed by a series of men who originated
in the Khurasani units that had overthrown the
Umayyads. From 775 to 785, the governor was the
Caliph al-Mansur’s son, al-Mahdi (the Umayyad gov-
ernors had also frequently been members of the ruling
family). In 784, attempts to raise taxes led to a major
revolt by Arab tribesmen that had to be suppressed.
The period from 809 to 826 was characterized by
instability, and it must have become clear to the
‘Abbasids that the status quo was unworkable. Even-
tually, the rise of Turkish slave soldiers provided a
solution, albeit a disastrous one from the point of
view of the Caliphs. In 831, the Turkish general
Afshin put down a joint Arab-Coptic rebellion, and
the Arab families of Egypt lost power for good.

In 868, Ahmad ibn Tulun, the son of a Turkish
slave soldier, was appointed governor of Egypt. His
arrival began a process whereby governors of Egypt,
although never renouncing their allegiance to the
‘Abbasids, nonetheless ruled Egypt in an autonomous
manner. In fact, Ibn Tulun ruled on behalf of his
stepfather and then of his father-in-law; this aided in
the establishment of a mini dynasty. Furthermore,
because Ibn Tulun could dispose of the significant
resources of Egypt, he was in a position to solidify
his control over the province. He raised an army of
Turkish, Greek, and Black soldiers, which immediate-
ly caused disquiet in Baghdad. Because the ‘Abbasids
were unable to defend Syria and Cilicia from the
Byzantines, they were obliged to delegate this author-
ity to Ibn Tulun, demonstrating the degree to which
Baghdad had become dependent on Egypt. A rebel-
lion by his son al-‘Abbas forced Ibn Tulun to return
to Egypt. In 880, Ibn Tulun founded a new town,

224

EGYPT

al-Qata’i‘, not far from al-Fustat. Al-QataT later fell
into ruin, but Ibn Tulun’s mosque was renovated
during the thirteenth century by Mamluk Sultan
Lajin.

Ibn Tulun died in 884. His descendants lost power
in 905, and the Fatimids, who ruled Ifriqya from 909,
made several attempts to seize control of Egypt. In
935, Muhammad ibn Tughj, who later received the
title “Ikhshid,” became governor. He restored some
of Egypt’s autonomy; this policy was continued by the
eunuch Kafur, who seized power after the Ikhshid’s
death in 946. After Kafur’s death in 968, there was
little to stop the Fatimid conquest, which occurred the
following year.

The Fatimid Caliphate

The Fatimid conquest and the establishment of the
city of Cairo as its capital turned Egypt into a region-
al power, a status it would not surrender until the
Ottoman conquest of 1517. Egypt was at its height
as an economic power under the Fatimids, producing
more food than it could usually consume and boast-
ing a robust textile industry. Thanks to the survival of
the Geniza documents, it is known that Fustat’s Jew-
ish community had trade relations with co-religionists
throughout the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean
worlds as well as with rural Egypt. The Fatimid Ca-
liphate employed men of talent of a variety of ethni-
cities and religious persuasions. In addition to the
Fatimids themselves, Ismaili Shi’is who claimed de-
scent from the Prophet Muhammad through his
daughter Fatima, Arabs, Berbers, Turks, Armenians,
Copts, Jews, and others served in the Fatimid army
and administration.

Unlike his predecessors in Egypt, the Fatimid
Caliph al-Mu'izz was a determined opponent of the
‘Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. Egypt now became
the base for a campaign to unseat the ‘Abbasids and
establish Fatimid rule over the Muslim world. Al-
though this campaign was ultimately unsuccessful,
the Fatimid state was not merely concerned with
consolidating its rule but also with spreading its
Ismaili doctrine. To this end, Caliph al-Mu'izz estab-
lished al-Azhar as the center of the Ismaili mission
(da‘wa). Fatimid missionaries traveled throughout
the Muslim world, enjoying some success in Yemen,
Syria, and Iran. They were unable, however, to pre-
vent the fall of Baghdad to the Seljuks, an event
that greatly reduced Shi’i influence in the ‘Abbasid
capital.

In 1094, the Fatimids underwent a fundamental
schism, which resulted in the victory of the Caliph

al-Musta‘li and the death of his rival Nizar. Nizar’s
supporters fled to the Ismaili communities outside of
Fatimid territory and established the “new mission,”
which survived the dissolution of the Fatimid Caliph-
ate in 1171. As time went, on, however, the influence
of the Fatimid caliphs waned. Their army was torn by
ethnic divisions, and this led to a major conflict be-
tween black and Turkish soldiers in 1060, which was
only resolved by the arrival of an Armenian force.
Increasingly, it was the wazir who held real power in
the Fatimid state, exercising control over an impres-
sive centralized bureaucracy. Many wazirs were also
military men. By 1169, when Nur al-Din Mahmud
sent his Kurdish retainers — Asad al-Din Shirkuh
and his nephew Salah al-Din Yusuf (Saladin) —
to Egypt, the Fatimids had been reduced to paying
tribute to the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The Ayyubid Sultanate

After the death of his uncle, Shirkuh, Salah al-Din
initially served as the wazir to the Fatimid Caliph.
After the latter’s death in 1171, Salah al-Din ordered
the ‘Abbasid Caliph’s name to be mentioned in the
Friday sermon, thus abolishing the Fatimid Caliph-
ate. For some time, it looked as if relations might
break down between Salah al-Din and Nur al-Din,
but Nur al-Din’s death in 1174 presented a golden
opportunity for Salah al-Din to add Syria to his
holdings, as well as parts of Iraq, the Hijaz, and
Yemen. By 1183, he was in a position to turn against
the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and his famous victory at
Hittin in 1187 allowed him to recover Jerusalem for
Islam.

Salah al-Din and his successors, known as the
Ayyubids (after Salah al-Din’s father), built on the
Fatimid state, but they also made significant
changes. The Fatimid chancery and tax administra-
tion were quite sophisticated, and the Ayyubids and
Mamluks regarded the Fatimid precedent as the
basis for their own bureaucracies. At the same time,
the Ayyubids introduced some elements of Seljuk
bureaucratic practice, including military iqta‘, where-
by amirs were rewarded for their service by being
assigned the tax revenues of a certain area or areas.
This new system, which was preceded by a cadastral
survey of Egypt, gave increased administrative
responsibilities to the military, a trend that continued
through the Mamluk period. As a result of their
concern for gaining support from the religious scho-
lars and promoting Sunnism, the Ayyubids built a
series of law schools (madrasas) and Sufi convents
(khanqahs).

225

EGYPT

The Mamluk Sultanate

The Mamluk Sultanate, a government of Turkish
(and later Circassian) soldiers of slave origin, was
born of crisis. In the wake of the Ayyubid victory
over Louis IX at al-Mansura in 1250, a group of
Mamluks belonging to the deceased Sultan al-Malik
al-Salih Ayyub overthrew and murdered his succes-
sor, Turanshah; they apparently feared being margin-
alized or eliminated in favor of the new Sultan’s
entourage. A period of instability followed, only com-
ing to an end after the Mamluk defeat of the Mongols
at ‘Ayn al-Jalut in 1260. After the battle, the amir
Baybars assassinated Sultan Qutuz and took control
of the state.

Baybars (r. 1260-1277) can be seen as the founder
of the Mamluk Sultanate. He waged a series of cam-
paigns against the Crusaders and Mongols that left
Cairo the capital of a large empire that included Syria
and the Hijaz. To bolster his authority, he installed
‘Abbasid survivors of the Mongol sack of Baghdad
as “shadow caliphs” in Cairo; he also gave official
recognition to all four of the Sunni schools of law,
which gave the increasingly centralized Mamluk state
greater flexibility.

Although every Mamluk sultan attempted to
establish a dynasty, they had very limited success.
Baybars’s descendants were overthrown by another
powerful amir, Qalawun (r. 1279-1290). Qalawun’s
descendants ruled — although often in name only —
until 1382. His son al-Ashraf Khalil (r. 1290-1293)
captured Acre, the last Crusader possession in the
Levant, in 1291.

Another son, al-Nasir Muhammad (r. 1294-1295,
1299-1309, 1309-1340) presided over what was per-
haps the greatest period of prosperity in medieval
Egypt. The Mongol threat had receded, commerce
between Egypt and Syria and between the Mamluks
and the Europeans was booming, and the political
system was stable for three decades. Al-Nasir used
this opportunity to increase the authority of the sultan
by redistributing iqta‘s in his favor and by becoming
increasingly involved with commerce, which pro-
voked accusations of monopolization. He also seized
much of the property of the Coptic Church, and the
Copts were subjected to a period of persecution that
led to large numbers of conversions to Islam.

Unfortunately, if al-Nasir Muhammad’s intention
was to shore up the position of the sultan, he failed. In
1347, the Black Death arrived in Egypt and brought
about a demographic crisis of unprecedented propor-
tions. By the 1370s, famine became increasingly com-
mon, leading to the crisis of 1403 through 1405, when
famine and disease struck together. The result of these

events and of subsequent outbreaks of plague is that
Egypt’s population remained low until at least the
mid-sixteenth century, thus reducing the possibilities
for economic recovery. Agricultural production was
reduced, and the sultans attempted to compensate for
the loss in tax revenues by intervention in commerce
and the establishment of monopolies of certain com-
modities. European merchants who wished to buy
goods imported from the Indian Ocean were obliged
to purchase them from the sultan in Alexandria.

The collapse of the Qalawunid “dynasty” in 1382
led to the rise of a series of sultans who ruled as
strongmen. Increasingly these new rulers were Circas-
sians rather than Turks, and they had little success
passing on their powers to their sons. Although al-
Nasir Faraj (r. 1399-1405, 1405-1412) succeeded his
father al-Zahir Barquq, he failed to respond to the
crisis of 1403 through 1405 or to prevent Timur Lenk
from seizing Aleppo and Damascus in 1399. Al-
though these cities were recovered in 1402, Faraj
was remembered as a Mamluk Nero. The reign of
Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay (1422-1438) was more suc-
cessful. Barsbay established a monopoly on the trade
in spices, reducing the Karimi merchants who had
controlled this commerce to his agents. He used his
improved financial situation to launch successful raids
on Cyprus in 1425 and 1426, avenging the sack of
Alexandria by Peter I of Cyprus in 1365.

The longest-reigning sultan of the fifteenth century
was al-Ashraf Qaytbay (r. 1468-1496), who has been
described as a conservative who was concerned with
maintaining the traditions of the sultanate. By the
beginning of the sixteenth century, however, change
was clearly in order. The Ottoman sultans were a
growing threat, and the rise of the Shi’i Safavids in
Iran changed the political map of the region. In 1498,
Vasco de Gama reached the Indian Ocean, and Por-
tuguese attacks on ships and ports brought about a
sudden reduction in the revenues of the Mamluk
state. Sultan al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri (r. 1 501—
1516) made an alliance with the Ottomans and tried
to reorganize his army to face the new threat, but this
was in vain. When Ottoman Sultan Selim I turned
against the Mamluks, he must have sensed an oppor-
tunity. Syria fell to the Ottomans in the summer
of 1516, and Egypt fell in January through April of
1517.

With the end of the Mamluk Sultanate, an era
came to an end. For much of the Middle Ages,
Egypt had been the greatest power of the Middle
East; now it became a province in a great empire,
with a center of gravity that was elsewhere. In many
ways, Mamluk Egypt was the most successful medie-
val state (excluding the Ottomans, who represented
a break with many aspects of medieval Islamic

226

ELEGY

statecraft). The Mamluks reigned for more than 250
years. Despite the competitive character of the sultan-
ate, Mamluk rule was generally peaceful. Egypt was
the center of a flowering culture in areas such as
historical writing, Islamic legal scholarship, Sufism,
and even Arabic literature. A new international style
came into being in Mamluk architecture, and Mam-
luk textiles, glasswork, and metalwork were of a high
quality until the late-medieval depression. During the
fifteenth century, Egypt became more dependent on
European imports, but this dependence was not as
total as has sometimes been claimed. Mamluk rule
came to an end as the result of the rise of a new
power — the Ottomans — and not as the result of any
inevitable decline. Indeed, one legacy of the Mamluk
Sultanate was the incorporation of some aspects of its
administration into the Ottoman state.

Adam Sabra

See also Alexandria; Assassins (Ismaili); ‘Ayn Jalut;
Ayyubids; Al-Azhar; Badr al-Jamali; Baybars I; Black
Death; Cairo; Cairo Geniza; Caliphate and Imamate;
Copts; Coptic; Fatimids; Fustat; Al-Hakim; Ibn Tagh-
ribirdi; Ibn Tulun; Ismailis; Mamluks; Al-Maqrizi;
Mosque of Ibn Tulun (Cairo); Nur al-Din ibn Zanki;
Nile; Qadi Numan; Saladin (Salah al-Din); Shajar
al-Durr; Sultan; Tamerlane (Timur); Tulunids

Further Reading

Ashtor, Eliyahu. The Levant Trade in the Later Middle
Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Atiya, Aziz S. The Coptic Encyclopedia, 8 vols. New York:
MacMillan, 1991.

Berkey, Jonathan P. The Transmission of Knowledge in
Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Brett, Michael. The Rise of the Fatimids: The World of the
Mediterranean & the Middle East in the Tenth Century
CE. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

. “The Way of the Peasant.” Bulletin of the School of

Oriented and African Studies 47 (1984): 44-56.

Cresswell, K.A.C. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952-1959.

Dols, Michael. The Black Death in the Middle East. Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Fernandez, Leonor. The Evolution of a Sufi Institution in
Mamluk Egypt: The Khanqah. Berlin: K. Schwarz, 1988.
Garcin, Jean-Claude. Un Centre Musulman de la Haute-
Egypte Medievale: Qus. Cairo: Institut Frangais

d’Archeologie Orientale, 1976.

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Commu-
nities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents
of the Cairo Geniza, 6 vols. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1967-1994.

Irwin, Robert. The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The
Early Mamluk Sultanate 1250-1382. London: Croon
Helm, 1986.

Lev, Yaacov. State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1991.

Lyons, Malcolm Cameron, and D.E.P. Jackson. Saladin:
The Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1982.

Petry, Carl F., ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt: Volume
1, Islamic Egypt, 640-1517. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.

Petry, Carl F. The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle
Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.

. Protectors or Praetorians? The Last Mamluk Sul-
tans and Egypt’s Waning as a Great Power. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1994.

Rabie, Hassanein. The Financial System of Egypt AH 564-
741/AD 1169-1341. London: Oxford University Press,
1972.

Raymond, Andre. Cairo. Cambridge and London: Harvard
University Press, 2000.

ELEGY

The elegy (marthiyeh in Persian) exists in two forms in
Persian poetry: as a section of a longer narrative work
and as a discrete poem. Because narratives are always
in the mathnawi (couplet) form in Persian, elegies of
the former kind are invariably in couplets; notable
examples are to be found in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
and in various medieval romances. The elegies in the
Shahnameh are very often spoken by women (exam-
ples are Gordyeh’s elegy for her brother Bahram
Chubineh, Roshanak’s for her husband Sekandar,
and Rudabeh’s for her son Rostam), and this corre-
sponds with the relatively public role undertaken by
women during mourning ceremonies in many Middle
Eastern cultures, including Persian. Ferdowsi’s elegi-
ac passages use the ubi sunt topos extensively, and
typically many successive lines begin with the evoca-
tion “Where now is. . .?” as the dead subject’s virtues
and glories are listed. Ferdowsi also inserts into the
Shahnameh an elegy spoken in propria persona', this is
a lament on the death of his own son, in which he
reproaches his child for leaving him alone in the
world; this trope became standard.

As a discrete poem, the elegy usually took the form
of a qasideh (a praise poem in monorhyme). One of
the earliest and most famous examples of the genre is
that by Farrokhi (early eleventh century) for the
Ghaznavid King Mahmoud (d. 1030). The poem
evokes the monarch’s past pleasures and glories and
describes the desolate state of the land and its popu-
lace now that Mahmoud has departed; its diction and
imagery were widely imitated by later writers of ele-
gies for the politically powerful. Court poets were
expected to produce elegies after the death of a prom-
inent member of the ruling family, and they were
remunerated for doing so. However, not all elegies
were written for such practical motives. For example,
for Sa’di to write his fine elegy about the last ‘Abbasid
Caliph, who was murdered by the Mongols in 1258,

227

ELEGY

was a politically risky move that could well have
provoked retribution. Although the form was primar-
ily associated with the court and traditionally invoked
an atmosphere of formal, public mourning, elegies
were also written for dead friends, presumably with
little hope of remuneration; an example of a more
personal elegy of this kind is that by Atai Razi
(early twelfth century) about the death of his fellow
poet at the Ghaznavid court, Mas’ud Sa’d. After the
triumph of Shi’ism in Iran, with the accession to
power of the Safavid dynasty in 1501, elegies for the
significant martyrs of Shi’i Islam were widely written.
In these poems, the emphasis is generally on the inno-
cence and sufferings of the elegy's subject rather than
on past pleasures or glories. Some of these religious
elegies have achieved the status of widely-diffused
folk poetry, and a number of them have retained
great popularity among the more pious sections of
Iranian society.

Richard Davis

Further Reading

Pagliaro, A., and A. Bausani. Storia della Letteratura Persi-
ana. Milan, 1960.

Safa, Zabihollah. Tarikh-e Adabiyat dar Iran (The History
of Literature in Iran), 5 vols. Tehran, 1366/1987.

EMIGRATION, OR HIJRA

The emigration, or hijra (Latinized as hegira), of
Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah (d. 632 CE), the Arab
Prophet of Islam, from his place of birth (Mecca) to
the town that was to become his adopted home
(Yathrib; later renamed Madinat al-Nabi, the city of
the Prophet, al-Medina, in short) took place circa
September 622 CE. Muhammad had, despite political
and social opposition to his teachings, achieved a
considerable reputation as fair-minded, wise, and
trustworthy, even in Mecca. The people of Yathrib,
therefore, invited him to come and live with them and
act as a mediator when quarrels arose between the
major tribes of the region, the Aws and the Khazraj.

The emigration was seen as an important event
for Islam, because it marked the beginning of a new
life for Muhammad, who, from then on, was able
to live amidst his followers in security. A few years
after the death of the Prophet, when the then-leader
of the Muslims, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (d. 642),
who succeeded Abu Bakr (d. 634) as “The Command-
er of the Faithful,” was to establish an Islamic calen-
dar, it was this event that he chose to mark as its
beginning.

The actual emigration of Muhammad from Mecca
to Yathrib was arranged at ‘Aqaba several months

before it actually occurred. The Prophet’s teachings
were not welcome to the elite of Mecca, who were
mostly polytheists by religion and who did not recog-
nize the possibility of a life after death; their opposi-
tion led to aggression against the Muslims. Soon, a
group of Muslims was forced to leave Mecca for
Abyssinia, where, fortunately, a Christian king saw
fit to welcome them. Muhammad himself turned to
Hira, a town not far from Mecca, only to be rebuffed.
The invitation to Yathrib from its inhabitants was
therefore most welcome, but it had to be dealt with
secretly, because the hostility toward Muhammad in
Mecca was now considerable; his life there was possi-
ble only because tribal ties forced his relatives to
protect him. However, when both his uncle, Abu
Talib, and his wife, Khadija, died around 621, it was
clear that he was no longer safe. Indeed, Muhammad
barely escaped a plot by the Meccans to jointly mur-
der him. He left ‘Ali, his nephew, in his bed, to fool his
enemies, and then he quietly departed with the help of
his dear friend, Abu Bakr, who was able to provide
him with a camel. Some traditions paint his departure
as a miracle, describing Muhammad as becoming
invisible and then leaving right before the eyes of the
Meccan polytheists who had come to attack him.
When the Meccans discovered that it was ‘Ali who
lay in Muhammad’s bed, they immediately followed
Muhammad’s tracks. Again, however, by God’s
grace, Muhammad and Abu Bakr were saved: they
had taken shelter in a cave on Mount Thaur, over
the mouth of which a spider had built its web. The
Meccans — believing that such a web would have been
broken if Muhammad had entered — did not think to
look within (Qur’an verse 9:40).

Muhammad’s entry into Yathrib is described as a
joyful event. The people of Yathrib — mainly Arabs
as well as significant Jewish tribes — saw him as a
uniting force who would end the divisiveness and
the destruction that came with it. Tradition holds
that there were many agreements made between
the Meccan Muslims (who were known as the
Muhajirun, or emigrants) and the several new con-
verts to Islam among the residents, who, because of
their generosity, came to be known as the Ansar, or
helpers. Indeed, Ibn Ishaq mentions a “Constitution
of Medina” that was designed by Muhammad in
which both Arab and Jewish tribes of Yathrib partic-
ipate, essentially laying down the terms by which
Muhammad hoped to achieve a single monotheistic
community.

Muhammad’s resort to emigration as a means of
avoiding hostility to his beliefs is recommended by
Islam. According to the Qur’an, “The sins of the
emigrants, of those driven from home, are forgiven”
(3:195). “He who emigrates, finds a home on this

228

EPIC POETRY

earth, and when he dies, God will reward him”
(Q4: 101 ). According to tradition, those who remained
in Mecca and feared to migrate — although the earth
was large enough to afford them shelter — are cen-
sured. Thus, the term emigrant became a title of
honor among Muslims. In the recent past, it was used
in South Asia to encourage those who left modern
India for Pakistan.

Rizwi Faizer

Further Reading

Arberry. The Koran Interpreted. Macmillan, 1965.

Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest
Sources. George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1983.

Watt, W.M. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford
University Press, 1960.

EPIC POETRY

Very few long poems remain of the Jahiliyya and the
Umayyad poetry that narrate the deeds of a hero.
Selected verses of heroic poems were collected in
anthologies during the ‘Abbasid period by famous
poets such as Abu Tammam (d. 849), al-Buhturi
(d. 897), and others (until the thirteenth century).
These collections were entitled Hamasa (bravery, fer-
vor in war); their first and main chapters contain a
short poem about pre-Islamic battles of the Arabs
that praises their heroism. The subsequent chapters
are selections from other funun al-shi’r (genres of
poetry): elegy (ritha‘), eulogy (madil), chaste erotic
opening line (nasib), morality (adab), description
(wasf), and others. In Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa (tenth-
eleventh centuries), some verses that are quoted by
Abu Tammam are called al-mushajji’ (the favoring or
the encouraging verses); they are used during battles
and wars and sung with heroic melodies ( Rasa II
Ikhwan al-Nafa, Cairo, 1928:132-36).

In his translation of Aristotle’s Poetica from Syriac
into Arabic, Matta b. Yunis used the Greek term Epi
(in Arabic, Afi), whereas the editor ‘Abd al-Rahman
Badwi himself used, in his modern translation, the
term malhama (see Fann al-Shi’r, ed. 'A.-R. Badawi,
143). Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037), in his attempt
to survey Greek science and philosophy for the
benefit of the Muslim culture, also used the term Afi
(Ibid., 194-5). Although Ibn Sina was aware that
Homer, in his epics, used blank (unrhymed) verse,
he confirmed that “We [in Arabic culture] almost do
not call that which is unrhymed, poetry” (Ibn Sina,
Jawami’ ’ilm al-Musiqa, ed. Z. Yusuf, Cairo, 1956,
122-3). Hazim al-Qartajanni (1211-1285), in his Min-
haj al-Bulagha ‘ wa-Siraj al- Udaba ‘ ( The Program of

Rhetoric and the Lamp of Men of Letters) (Tunis
1966), explained why the Arabs did not translate
Greek literature: “The Greek poets would invent
things upon which they would set their poetic imagi-
nation and they made this an aspect of their speech.
They presumed things which did not happen at all
and used them as a model for what happens, and they
built upon them legends such as those old women
relate to their grandchildren at night, fables of things
which cannot possibly happen.” Al-Qartajanni con-
cluded his argument by saying, “Avicenna con-
demned this kind of poetry and said: ‘There is no
need for poetic imagination of the simple fables
which are but invented narratives.’” He also said,

. . this (type of poetry) does not suit all tempera-
ments.” Moreover, even during the thirteenth century,
Aiya‘ al-Din Ibn al-Athir (d. 1239), in his al-Mathal
al-Sa ‘ir, noticed that the Arabs — unlike the Persians —
like long poetic genres, as the Shahnama.

The use of end-stop monorhyme in Arabic poetry
limits the length of the heroic ode (qasida). Arab
poets used in their narrative poetry a simple form of
urjuza muzdawija (a couplet in rajaz meter); this form
helped them, during the ‘Abbasid period, to get rid of
the burden of monorhyme, which dictates the content
of the verse. In such couplets, many didactic fables,
narrative poems, and chronicles were versified. The
most famous work is Kalila wa-Dimna, which was
versified by Aban al-Lahiqi (d. ca. 815); the work
was imitated in al-Nadil wa-’l-Baghim ( The Singing
Birds and the Gazelles) by Ibn al-Habbariyya (d. ca.
1111). The history of some Islamic dynasties was also
versified, mainly in Andalus. However, the talented
poet Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235) was able to write his epic
about Sufism, Nairn al-Suluk ( Poem of the f Sufi ]
Way) , known as al-Ta‘iyya al-Kubra, in about 730
verses rhyming with the letter tcT. Such long poems
were called mutwwalat (long poems).

Arab scholars wrote in classical Arabic, the sac-
red language of the Qur’an, in religious and serious
literature. They expressed their contempt toward pop-
ular narrative literature and used colloquial or semi-
literary style in their popular oral literature, such as
shadow plays (khayal al-zill), popular entertainment,
and narrative genres of Siyar. This was evident as in
the romances Sirat ‘Antar (thirty-two parts). Sir at ‘Ali
al-Zibaq, Qissat Bni Hilal, Qissat al-Zir Salim, Sirat al-
Amira Dhat al-Himma (seventy parts), Sirat (or Qis-
sat), and Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan (nineteen parts). These
heroic, romantic, and chivalrous romances were recit-
ed in cafes, at assemblies, and during feasts and festi-
vals, and they were accompanied by rababa or rabab
esh-sha’er (poet’s one string viol) and chanted by the
storytellers (hakawati) of the romance of Aboo-Zeyd.
The chanting narrator of such poetry is called sha’ir

229

EPIC POETRY

(Lane 1954, 370-71, 397, 406.) This term must be an
old one, because Pedro de Alcala, in his dictionary
Vocabulista Arabigo en Leta Castellana, defined the
Arabic term slui’ir as “representador de comedias/
tragedias.” Arab scholars considered these rom-
ances, which are composed in rhymed prose (saj’) in a
semi-literary style that shifts into verse when tense
emotional situations are depicted, to be popular epics.

In their attempt to keep pace with European liter-
ature from the second half of the nineteenth century
onward, Arab critics adopted the Western classifica-
tion of poetry, based on Plato’s theory that poetry is
divided into the lyrical, the epic, and the dramatic (see
Sulayman al-Bustani 1904, 163-64, 171-72). To their
amazement, they found that the bulk of Arabic poetry
written throughout its long history was mainly lyrical
(ghina’i) and that it did not deal with the narrative
(qasasi), dramatic (masrahi), or epic (malhami) gen-
res. They argued that the reason for this phenomenon
in Arabic poetry is the rigid tradition of using mono-
rhyme whereas, among other nations, rhyme is not
essential, and it can be used to change simple patterns
of rhyme schemes.

Among the first Arab scholars who tried to give the
Arabs a model of Greek epic poetry and its history in
European literature was Sulayman al-Bustani ( 1856
1925). Unlike Ibn Sina and al-Qartajanni, who based
their arguments against Greek literature on taste, al-
Bustani argued that it was a religious factor (i.e., the
Iliad contains pagan elements, whereas Greek philos-
ophy, logic, and medicine were useful to the Arabs
[Bustani 1904, 65-7]). He added that the Arabs
wrote epics by combining poetry and rhymed prose
(Bustani 1904, 171-72). He took the formidable task
of versifying the Iliad into more than ten thousand
Arabic verses using various patterns of rhyme
schemes and conventional Arabic meters, such as
monorhyme and couplets; Arabic and European stan-
za forms of quatrain and quintet; and forms of Anda-
lusian muwashshah. His pioneering translation
encouraged other poets to write epics (malahim or
mutawwalat) in modern Arabic literature.

By introducing dramatic, narrative, and epic poet-
ry, the modernist poets considered the monorhyme in
Arabic poetry the main obstacle in their attempts to
enrich Arabic literature with the new genres. They
were astonished to note that lyric, dramatic, and
epic poetry are the main genres in Western poetry.
The problems that attracted the attention of Arab
poets and critics at the end of the nineteenth century
were the questions of why the Arabs translated Greek
writing about philosophy, logic, and medicine while
ignoring Greek literature and why the Arabs did not
write epic poetry. (Other Eastern peoples, such as
the Indians, Persians, ancient Egyptians, and Turks,

wrote epics, and the Indians, Persians, and Syrians
translated the Iliad into their own languages [see
al-Bustani 1904, 61-3, 165-7, 265]).

Encouraged by al-Bustani’s translation of and
introduction to the Iliad, Arab poets such as al-
Zahawi (1864-1946), A.Z. Abu Shadi (1892-1955),
Muhammad ‘Abd al-Muttalib (1871-1931), and
M.F. Abu Hadid (d. 1967) wrote articles about and
experimented with epic poetry. Other poets, such as
Ahmad Muharram, Bulus Salama, and Fawzi Ma’luf,
tried to compose historical and philosophical epics in
conventional Arabic meters. However, not all of them
were successful. To be able to compose or translate
epic poetry, Arab critics and poets defended the use of
blank verse (shi’r mursal). Most of their attempts
were doomed to failure, because they used connota-
tive diction with end-stop rhyme and were unaware of
the technique of enjambment used in European blank
verse. However, using vers irregulier (which they
called shi’r hurr [free verse]) with an irregular number
of feet and an irregular rhyme scheme with enjamb-
ment, they were successful in writing mutawwalat.
The Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (1926-1964) is
the leading Arab poet in this modern genre of Arabic
poetry; his works include Haffar al-Qubur (1952), al-
Muwmis al-’Amya’ (1954), and al-Asliha wa-’l-Atfal,
(1954), which was later included in his anthology
Unshudat al-Matar.

Shmuel Moreh

Further Reading

Bausani, A. “Elementi Epici Nelle Letterature Islamiche.”
In La Poesia Epica e la sua Formazione, 759-69. Rome,
1970.

Al-Bustani, Sulayman. Le Illiade d’Homere. Traduite en
Vers Arabes, Avec line Introduction Historique et Litter-
aire. Cairo, 1904.

Canova, G. “Epic Poetry.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Liter-
ature. London & New York: Routledge, 1998.

Gabrieli, G. “Elementi Epici Nell'Antica Poesia Araba.” In
La Poesia Epica e la sua Formazione, 759-69. Rome,
1970.

Lane. Manners and Customs. London, 1954.

Moreh, S. Modern Arabic Poetry 1800-1970. Leiden: Brill,
1976.

Pellat, Ch. “Hamasa.” In El, 2nd ed.

EPICS, ARABIC

If by the word epic is meant a lengthy poetic narration
with the aim of exalting a hero or the ancient endea-
vors of a nation (e.g., Homer’s Iliad), it must be
recognized that classical Arab literature has not
cultivated this genre. The medieval translators of
Aristotle’s Poetics found themselves seriously embar-
rassed at being unable to translate the very term epic.

230

EPICS, ARABIC

The tales of the tribal wars of the Jahiliyya (pre-
Islamic era), the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the
heroic deeds of the champions of Islam, and the epos
of the Muslim conquests — all the material that could
have become the subject matter of Arabic epics — have
in fact developed in a specific fashion. These stories,
on the one hand, have not undergone any mythic
elaboration, having been accepted as historical
fact — or presumed to be so — in the great works of his-
toriography, such as al-Tabari’s Annals; on the other
hand, they have taken on the dimension of popular
narrative through the work of the storytellers, who
have been subject to the censure of the elitist, turban-
wearing ‘ulema, the jealous custodians of orthodoxy.
Thus, the Arab epic tradition has developed in the
form of chivalrous romances, and, because of its semi-
classical language (middle Arabic) and its unpreten-
tious style, it has not found its place within the
restricted canons of Arabic literature.

Popular Arab epics have found their expression in
a longstanding oral tradition in which generations of
storytellers have operated and in a written tradition
that is comparable, in certain respects, with the
romances of the European Middle Ages. The epic
cycle is called sira (course of life, biography) or,
more generically, qissa (story), whereas single epi-
sodes can take the name diwan (collection of
poems). The most important sources from which
this oral-written corpus has spread are Syria and
Egypt. A number of ancient cycles — albeit in their
primitive form — are part of the repertoire of the
storytellers, such as the story of ‘Antara ibn Shaddad,
the pre-Islamic Black hero of the Banu 'Abs and of
his beloved ‘Abla, whose adventures are extended
right up to the era of the Crusades; the story of al-
Zir Salim, which re-evokes in the form of a legend the
war of al-Basus; or the heroic deeds of the Banu Hilal
warriors. Other narrative cycles are from the Mamluk
era (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially),
such as the story of the Yemeni prince Sayf ibn Dhi
Yazan; of princess Dhat al-Himma and her son ‘Abd
al-Wahhab, in the context of the tribal battles be-
tween the Banu Kilab and the Sulaym and Arab
expeditions against Byzantium; and of al-Malik al-
Zahir Baybars, the Mamluk king of Egypt and Syria
whose reign was the backdrop to a whole series of
picaresque adventures. These works present an
alternation of parts in rhyming prose, in which the
singer-narrator describes the scenes and introduces
the characters, and parts in poetry, which include
the dialogues of the heroes boasting about their
achievements and the description of the duel, perhaps
the primitive core around which the romances have
developed. Their pseudohistorical perspective, how-
ever, reveals itself to be fragile, particularly when it

re-evokes the intertribal wars of the Ayyam al-Arab
(the pre-Islamic “battle days of the Arabs” [al-Zir
Salim]), the campaigns for the expansion of Islam
(Antara, Dhat al-Himma) or Sayf’s struggle to thwart
the Abyssinian plans to control the course of the Nile
(whereas the historical Himyarite Sayf liberated the
Yemen from the yoke of the Abyssinians in the sixth
century). The atmosphere is that of the medieval fur-
usiyya, the chivalrous spirit of the Arab hero exalted
by the art of the storyteller into a series of astonishing
deeds.

The epic cycles became most widespread during
Mamluk rule, but it is important to state that each
story has its own particular origin and literary devel-
opment. Whereas for the Sir at Bani Hilal, it is the oral
tradition that prevails (even if a later parallel written
tradition did exist), for the other epic cycles the prob-
lem is a more complex one in that the manuscript
tradition would seem to have a more determining
importance. One particular concern for scholars is
determining whether a textual version is the result of
collective creation successively brought together by a
rawi (collector-transmitter, possibly the storyteller
himself) or whether it is the creation of one or more
humble writers interpreting the tastes of the greater
public, imitating the art of the storytellers. The circu-
lar nature of the relationship between oral and written
narrations should not be underestimated, although
the multiplicity of versions could be explained by the
necessity on the part of the storytellers to invent new
plots. This heterogeneous material proves interesting
as a documentation of the worldview of the medieval
Arab populace. In terms of strictly literary aspects,
historians of classical Arabic literature have shown
reservations because of the modest tone of these pop-
ular narratives, the use of middle Arabic, the contin-
uous repetitions, the disordered accumulation of
episodes, and the disarming prolixity (the current
printed edition of the story of ‘Antara covers 5,600
pages). It should nonetheless be emphasized that these
works were intended for public performances rather
than to be read.

The Sir at Bani Hilal, which was already cited by
Ibn Khaldun during the fourteenth century, constitu-
tes the continuation of the ancient Bedouin poetic
tradition and is probably the only one to possess the
characteristics of a true epic. Unfortunately, only
fragments of it remain. It narrates the exploits of
the Banu Hilal, a Bedouin tribe that abandoned the
Arabian Peninsula and eventually succeeded, after
various vicissitudes, in conquering North Africa
(tenth and eleventh centuries). There are four cycles:
(1) the Sira, the ancient story of the Hilali princes in
the Arabian Najd and in Yemen; (2) the Riyada,
the mission of exploration after the tribe had been

231

EPICS, ARABIC

decimated by a long famine; (3) the Taghriba, the
emigration toward the Maghreb; and (4) the intense
wars after the conquest of North Africa. The main
characters are the Black hero Abu Zayd, the fierce
Diyab, princess Jaziyya, and the king of Tunis, Zanati
Khalifa. Their adventures are narrated by a profes-
sional “singer of tales” who, in Egypt, where the oral
tradition has been particularly strong (as attested to
by nineteenth-century writer E.W. Lane’s report), is
called sha‘ir (poet) par excellence. He is a wandering
minstrel who has specialized in the exploits of the
Banu Hilal. He is often an outcast of gypsy origin
whose craft continues a family tradition, and he sings
his verses accompanying himself with a stringed
instrument (rababa) or a tambourine. The art of the
storyteller, called muhaddit in Egypt and hakawati
in Syria, is quite different: he reads the story of
‘Antara or of Baybars aloud in the cafes of Cairo or
Damascus, from manuscripts. Nonetheless, even in
this case, his performance is characterized by a
dramatization that aims to captivate the public.

Research on Arabic oral epic poetry (on both its
actual performance and its context), on the social
position of the storyteller, and on the rhetorical pecu-
liarities of the narrations contained in the handwrit-
ten texts (mostly from the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries) has increased considerably after a long pe-
riod of stagnation. The scholar of comparative litera-
tures will greatly take advantage of the painstaking
analysis of M.C, Lyons’s Arabian Epic, which offers
a synthesis of the content of each sira, a survey of
their narrative motifs, and a comparison with similar
motifs in other medieval epic traditions.

Giovanni Canova

See also Chivalry; Epic Poetry; Heroes and Heroism;
Musical Instruments; Poets; Popular Literature;
Stories and Storytelling; Storytellers

Further Reading

Canova, Giovanni. “Twenty Years of Studies on Arabic
Epics.” In Studies on Arabic Epics, ed. G. Canova.
Monographic issue of Oriente Moderno, Rome, N.S. 12
(2003), no. 2.

Connelly, Bridget. Arabic Folk Epic and Identity. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1986.

Galley, Micheline, and Abderrahman Ayoub. Histoire des
Beni Hilal et de ce cpd leur Advint dans leur Marche vers
YOuest. Paris: Armand Colin, 1983.

Heath, Peter. The Thirsty Sword: STrat ‘Antar and the Ara-
bic Popular Epic. Salt Lake City: University of Utah
Press, 1996.

La Guerre de la Chamelle: La Geste de Zir Salim , transl.

Marguerite Gavillet Matar. Arles: Actes Sud, 2001.
Lane, Edward W. An Account of the Manners and Customs
of the Modern Egyptians, The Definitive 1860 Edition.

Cairo and New York: The American University in
Cairo Press, 2003.

Lyons, Malcolm C. The Arabian Epic, 3 vols. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Madeyska, Danuta. Poetics of the SXrah: A Study of
the Arabic Chivalrous Romance. Warsawa: Academic
Publishing House, 2001.

Norris, Harry T. The Adventures of Antar. Warminster: Aris
& Phillips, 1980.

Ott, Claudia. Metamorphosen des Epos. STrat al-Mugahidm
( STrat al-AmTra Dhat al-Himma ) Zwischen Miindlichkeit
und Schriftlichkeit. Leiden: CNWS, 2003.

Reynolds, Dwight F. Heroic Poets, Poetic Heroes: An
Ethnography of Performance in an Arabic Oral Epic Tra-
dition. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,
1995.

Roman de BaTybars, transl. Georges Bohas and Jean-Patrick
Guillaume. Paris: Sindbad, 1985.

Slyomovics, Susan. The Merchant of Art: An Egyptian Oral
Hilali Poet in Performance. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and
London: University of California Press, 1987.

The Adventures of Sayf ben Dhi Yazan: An Arab Folkepic,
transl. Lena Jayyusi. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1996.

EPICS, PERSIAN

Medieval Persian literature has a long and rich epic
tradition, reaching back for its major sources to the
pre-Islamic era and continuing in a weakened form
into the Safavid (sixteenth through eighteenth centu-
ries) and even early Qajar (nineteenth century) peri-
ods. Persian epics may be divided into three kinds,
according to their subject matter: (1) those that deal
with pre-Islamic material; (2) those that take histori-
cal or contemporary rulers as their protagonists and
that become essentially panegyrics in narrative form;
and (3) religious epics that focus on significant Islamic
figures. The epics about pre-Islamic material are the
most significant of the three categories; epics in the
other two styles were written in imitation of them.

There are strong indications that an oral epic tra-
dition existed in pre-Islamic Iran and that the medie-
val epics dealing with pre-Islamic narratives are
ultimately based on the stories preserved and elabo-
rated on by this tradition. The Shahnameh ( Book of
Kings) of Ferdowsi (940-ca.l020) overshadows all
other works in this category; it was preceded by a
now-lost (apart from a few fragments) Shahnameh
by the tenth-century poet Marvazi and also by the
incomplete Goshtaspnameh of Daqiqi (d. 978). Fer-
dowsi incorporated approximately one thousand lines
of Daqiqi’s poem (those dealing with the advent of
the prophet Zoroaster) into his Shahnameh.

The Shahnameh begins with a Zoroastrian cosmog-
ony and ignores the Qur’anic account of the creation
of the world and man. The earliest myths treated

232

EPICS, PERSIAN

clearly go back to prehistory; they have parallels with
Indo-European myths in other traditions, and they
must in origin predate the arrival from central Asia
of the Iranians in Iran toward the end of the second
millennium BCE. Evil at the poem’s opening is the
work of malevolent supernatural beings called divs; it
has been plausibly suggested that these represent the
conquered indigenous peoples of the Iranian plateau.
Much of the poem is taken up with fairly constant
warfare between central Asian Turks and Persians
with the River Oxus as their border, although other
antagonists are also present, including China (whose
people are often treated as Turks by Ferdowsi), Rum
(Greece, Rome, Byzantium) and, as the poem draws
to a close, the Arabs. The poem is structured as a
royal chronicle, and the reigns of fifty monarchs (in-
cluding three queens) are recorded. Two separate
cycles of heroic tales — those dealing with the kings
of Iran and those dealing with the house of Nariman,
which rules in Sistan (southeastern Iran and western
Afghanistan, south of the River Helmand) — are inter-
woven; the most famous hero of the poem, Rostam,
belongs to the Sistani cycle. The common Indo-Euro-
pean epic theme of king-champion rivalry generates a
number of the legendary tales, and to this is added a
recurrent father-son rivalry, which lies at the heart of
the poem’s best-known narratives. The Shahnameh is
notable for its frequent foregrounding of ethical pre-
occupations, and the moral dilemmas of a good man
ruled by an evil or incompetent monarch are explored
in a number of its narratives. The work’s closing
section, which opens with the conquest of Alexander
the Great and ends with the mid-seventh-century
overthrow of the Sasanian dynasty by Arab invaders,
is largely a romanticized history of the Sasanian
monarchy.

The rhetoric of Ferdowsi’s poem was extensively
imitated by other poets, and the motaqareb meter
that he and Daqiqi used (Marvazi’s Shahnameh was
in the hazaj meter) became standard for epics.
The best-known examples of epics about pre-Islamic
material after Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh — and written
within a hundred years of his poem — are the Gar-
shaspnameh of Asadi (ca. 1010-1073) and the Fara-
marznameh , the Borzunameh, the Azarbarzinnameh,
the Banugoshaspnameh, and the Shahryarnameh , all
of unknown authorship; these poems are concerned,
respectively, with an ancestor, a son, a grandson,
another grandson, a daughter, and a great-grandson
of Rostam. Another epic, the Bahmannameh, treats of
the son of a prince (Esfandyar) killed by Rostam and
ends shortly after a report of Rostam’s death. That
all these epics relate somehow to Rostam suggests
that this hero and his family were at the center of

the Persian pre-Islamic tradition of heroic narratives,
although some epics (e.g., the Kushnameh, the Bizhan-
nameh ) about pre-Islamic legendary figures unrelated
to Rostam also exist. Throughout the medieval period
and beyond, in addition to being imitated, Ferdowsi’s
Shahnameh was subject to considerable expansion —
from approximately forty thousand lines in the ear-
liest manuscript to more than sixty thousand — and
was clearly never regarded as a canonical, fixed text.
These later interpolations to Ferdowsi’s poem often
add magical or bizarre events to the relatively sober
original chronicle; these types of changes are also
apparent in epics written after the Shahnameh, most
notably Asadi’s Garshaspnameh.

The tradition of writing epics about pre-Islamic
legendary material lasted until the end of the thir-
teenth century (the date of the Samnameh, which
was concerned with Rostam’s grandfather), but it
was meanwhile gradually replaced by two derivative
traditions: historical and religious epics. Nezami’s
Sekandarnameh (ca. 1200) treats the life and conquests
of Alexander, considerably expanding on Ferdowsi’s
account; the Zafarnameh by Hamdallah Mowstafi (d.
1349) continues Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, which ended
with the coming of Islam to Iran, up to the author’s
own time. Tabrizi’s Shahanshahnameh picks up where
the Zafarnameh leaves off; it was written in praise of
Jenghiz Khan and his family. Subsequent historical
epics tended to praise living rulers or their ancestors
and were in effect a form of panegyric.

The first significant religious epic involving a pro-
tagonist from Islamic history is the Shi’i-oriented
Khavarannameh (1427) of Ebn Hesam, which deals
with Ali, the central figure of Shi’ism, and his legend-
ary conquests in eastern Iran and central Asia. The
Shi’i triumph in Iran, with the establishment of the
Safavid dynasty in 1501, meant that epics on approved
Shi’i themes received court encouragement; typical of
them is Heirati’s Shahnameh (1546), which was dedi-
cated to Shah Tahmasp and concerned with the bat-
tles fought by the Prophet Mohammad. Heirati calls
his poem a “Shahnameh of righteousness”; his use
of the name of Ferdowsi’s poem makes explicit the
replacement of pre-Islamic concerns by the values of
Shi’i Islam.

Richard Davis

Further Reading

Hanaway, William L. “Epic Poetry.” In Persian Literature,
ed. E. Yarshater, 96-108. New York, 1988.

Safa, Zabihollah. Tarikh-e Adabiyat dar Iran ( The History
of Literature in Iran), 5 vols. Tehran, 1366/1987.

. Hemaseh Sarai dar Iran (Epic in Iran). Tehran,

1369/1990.

233

EPICS, TURKISH

The Turkic epic (destan, dessan, dasitan, jir, boy)
tradition in its pure epic form (epopee) has not sur-
vived in the Oguz Turkish-speaking area. A Turkish
epic similar to the Kirgiz Manas is yet to be discov-
ered, although scholarship by Mehmet Fuat Kopriilu
and Pertev Naili Boratav suggests the existence of
"pure” Turkish epics that did not survive in either
oral tradition or manuscript form. The closest coun-
terpart to this genre would be the Kitab-i Dede
Korkut, which includes a prologue and twelve legends
(boys), composed predominantly in prose. These
legends were passed down through two manuscripts
written toward the end of the fifteenth century. It is
not easy to come up with definitive conclusions about
the historical facts and settings of this text. All of the
epic protagonists of these legends demonstrate a mix-
ture of cultural and historical characteristics; elements
from shamanism, Islam, and other traditions manifest
themselves in a single character. What was important
for the epic composer was to turn these characters into
die-hard fighters of the Oguz. One cannot speak of
single authorship when it comes to a work like this;
however, there are strong suggestions that the epic-teller
of the book was Dede Korkut, who was the shaman
of the Oguz, a Muslim saint, and an epic composer
and teller with his musical instrument, the kopuz.

What has been predominant and abundant in the
Oguz tradition are those works that derived directly
from the pre-Islamic epic form, such as the Ddstdn-i
Tevarih-i Miiluk-i Al-i ‘Osmans (Ottoman chronicles),
folk hikayes (romantic epics told by a§iks (troubadours)
with the accompaniment of the musical instrument the
saz, which is most likely the replacement of the ancient
kopuz), menakibnames (hagiographic legends), and
gazavatnames and jihadnames (heroic/religious epics,
holy war epics). These works may be classified as tran-
sitional genres of the historical development from the
ancient epic to the modern novel.

Although the Turkish asik poetry has gone
through tremendous structural and thematic transfor-
mations over the centuries, it is still a living part of
Turkey’s cultural prosperity. Traditionally, there was
an indispensable ritual attached to becoming an a§ik:
a dream was always involved in the birth of a trouba-
dour. A holy man or sometimes a maiden would offer
one or three cups of wine to the hero in his dream.
Ilhan Ba§goz mentions that, despite the variety of
holy persons in this so-called dream motif, their role
was almost always the same: they would (1) act as cup
bearers, (2) introduce a beautiful maiden to the a§ik,
(3) bestow a pseudonym upon the hero to be used in
his poetry, and (4) offer their help whenever the hero
was in trouble. There were also physical ritualistic

effects of the holy wine or love potion upon the
hero. After drinking the wine, a flame would consume
the body of the hero. He would faint, blood would
come out of his mouth, and he would remain in this
condition for three to seven days. After that, an old
woman would appear to the hero, bringing him the
traditional stringed instrument, the saz; the hero
would then take the instrument and begin playing
it. He would immediately start singing, composing
poetry orally, and revealing his newly bestowed poetic
name. Ba§goz argues that the Turkish dream motif
complex containing the above-mentioned characteris-
tics occurs only in Turkish romantic epics collected
from oral tradition (see Silay 1998). Indeed, such
rituals in oral tradition are often seen as acting as a
bridge between the pre-Islamic Turkic nomadic cultures
and the sedentary Islamic Anatolia. As Ba§goz argues,
there is little or no doubt that the dream motif complex
has strong shamanistic elements (this is one of the reli-
gious practices of the Turkic peoples). After accepting
the precepts of Islam, which are based on sedentary
cultural values, Turkish society began mixing elements
from both cultures. In an unconscious and natural
manner, numerous pre-Islamic cultural rudiments
were carried over to the newly Islamized Anatolia.

After the 1960s, the Turkish romantic epic tradi-
tion went through a major transformation and grad-
ually became more urban and highly political. A
Marxist-Leninist discourse against the Republican re-
gime became the dominant quality of this once most-
celebrated form of literary entertainment in rural
Anatolia. Especially during the decade before the
1980 military coup, the Turkish romantic epic poetry
became the political weapon of both the Turkish left
and the conservative and often ultra-nationalist right.
Currently this tradition is going through another
fascinating social stage in the overpopulated urban
centers of Turkey. It now has a brand new house of
performance: the Turku bars. Usually located next to
or near the other bars of these cities, the Turku bars
have become an alternative form of entertainment for
the educated population, and the performers are no
longer the holy-man-inspired a§iks of Anatolia. Wine,
beer, and other alcoholic beverages are served in these
places, not in a traditional or religious ceremonial
sense but in an effort to compete financially with the
more established places of night-life entertainment in
the neon-lit cities of modern Turkey.

Kemal Silay

Further Reading

Eberhard, Wolfram. Minstrel Tales from Southeastern

Turkey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

234

EPIDEMICS

Silay, Kemal, ed. Turkish Folklore and Oral Literature:
Selected Essays of Ilium Batjgo:. Bloomington: Indiana
University Turkish Studies Series, 1998.

Sumer, Faruk, Ahmet Uysal, and Warren Walker, eds. and
transl. The Book of Dede Korkut: A Turkish Epic. Austin
and London: University of Texas Press, 1972.

EPIDEMICS

Medieval Arabic sources use the term waba’ (or its
variant waba) to designate pestilence, epidemic, and
pandemic; the same term is also applied to epizootic
disease. From a linguistic standpoint, Ibn Manzur
(d. 1311 or 1312), in his dictionary Lisan aI-‘Arab,
equates waba ’ with ta Tin, a term that appears in
medieval chronicles to specifically denote the plague.
This confusion is likely the result of the common
perception that the plague was the most visible epi-
demic endured by the populace. The common view
among medieval historians is that ta 'un is a waba ’ but
that the occurrence of waba ’ does not necessarily
mean that of ta ‘un. In other words, the plague is an
epidemic or a pandemic, but epidemics vary and are
not limited to the plague.

The Concept of Contagion

The issue of contagion (‘adwa) is problematic. On the
one hand, diseases such as the plague, leprosy, small-
pox, and measles are classified as contagious in early
medieval medical works, notably those of Abu Bakr
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (better known in
the West as Rhazes, d. ca. 925) and al-Majusi (tenth
and eleventh centuries). On the other hand, a hadith
(saying) of the Prophet Muhammad is often quoted in
support of the denial of the concept of contagion. It is
found with many variations in several hadith collec-
tions, including (but not limited to) the Muwatta’
of Malik ibn Anas (d. 795), the Sahih of Bukhari
(d. 870), and the Sunan of Ibn Majah (d. 887). This
hadith includes, in all its versions, the invariable state-
ment “la ‘adwa” (there is no contagion). Elere, the
denial of contagion is clear. However, of these sayings
of the Prophet Muhammad, one version advises to
keep the sick away from the healthy, another to run
away from the leper “the same way one runs away
from a lion,” and a third not to worry about mixing
healthy camels with scabby ones. The last version is
mentioned by Ibn Majah; in the narrative, a Bedouin
tries to draw Muhammad’s attention to the fact that a
scabby camel may infect a whole herd, to which the
Prophet responds: “That is all divine providence

(dhalikumu al-qadar). Who caused the first camel to
be scabby in the first place? (fa-man ajraba al-
awwala?).” Another version of this hadith substitutes
sheep for camels.

These examples demonstrate an awareness of the
existence of contagious and infectious diseases and an
empirical way of avoiding them by taking the precau-
tion of not mixing the sick with the healthy. However,
the clear statement “there is no contagion (la 'adwa),”
which is common to this cluster of hadith, has
resulted in a general theological attitude that adheres
to the text of the hadith and in turn denies the exis-
tence of contagion. This is in opposition to the medi-
cal texts, in which the concept of contagion (i'da' or
‘adwa) is well stated. Despite this, the historical
accounts of the recurrence of the plague and its high
morbidity contain an implied acceptance of the prin-
ciple of contagion in explaining the elevated number
of casualties. This has led to the introduction of a
divine element in the process of contagion as a way
to resolve the hadith with the empirical observation.
Such is the position of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d.
1449), who maintains in his Badhl al-Ma'un fi Fadl
al-Ta'un (Offering Kindness in [Explaining] the Vir-
tue of the Plague) that accepting the thesis that dis-
ease is contagious by its own nature is an expression
of unbelief. However, the same author recounts, with
regard to the plague of AH 833/1430 CE, a huge jump
in the morbidity rate in Cairo (from forty a day to
one thousand a day in less than a month) after a large
gathering held outside of the city for the purpose of
prayer to end the plague.

The Etiology of Pestilence

Drawing on the Greek medical tradition, medieval
Arabic texts adhere to the miasmic theory in their
etiology of pestilence; this is reflected both in medical
treatises and in historical works. Pestilence results
from the quality of the air and from the physical
disposition of one’s body; it is then the “corruption”
of the air that affects the lungs and leads to epi-
demics. In his analysis of the decline of dynasties,
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) states that “in the later years
of dynasties, famines and pestilences become numer-
ous.” On the surface, this statement may refer to the
appearance of these phenomena as bad omens that
foretell the fall of a given dynasty, but, for this au-
thor, bloodshed increases during the final years of a
dynasty because of unrest; he then draws a causal link
between the bloodshed and the plague. In his view,
the decomposed bodies corrupt the air and cause

235

EPIDEMICS

epidemics. He further explains that this is the reason
why pestilence is more prevalent in urban areas and
less so in rural or less-inhabited areas.

The Plague as Divine Punishment and as
Martyrdom

Of all epidemics, the plague has attracted the most
attention. Obviously, the concrete and devastating
consequences of the recurrence of the plague in the
medieval Middle East are the main reason. In general,
medieval works give a chronological history of these
pandemics together with theological reflections drawn
from earlier religious and legal works. This genre has
developed mostly after the outbreak of the Black
Death, the bubonic plague that swept across the Mid-
dle East in 1348 and most of the known world be-
tween 1347 and 1349. The devastating demographic
and economic effects of the Black Death may have
contributed to the rise of this genre of religious and
historical literature. Among the religious literature,
two assertions tend to be pervasive: (1) the plague is
a divine punishment, and (2) death from the plague is
martyrdom. The injustice of the rulers, the lack of
religiosity, and particularly the spread of adultery
are often blamed for the outbreak of the plague.
According to Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, a group of theo-
logians agreed that the plague that hit Egypt in 833/
1430 was a divine punishment for the oppressive mea-
sures taken by the sultan and his subordinates. Like-
wise, the closing of taverns and houses of ill repute are
among the measures often decided upon during a
plague epidemic, a prolonged drought, or hard times
in general; these measures tend to emphasize the ad-
herence to the text of Islamic law. However, how can
the plague equate martyrdom when it is actually con-
sidered a divine punishment? A hadith defines ta'iin
(understood to be the plague) as “the stabbing by
your enemies the Jinn, and in all cases it is martyrdom
(or, in some versions, martyrdom for the Muslim)”.
Another one states that the plague is an act of divine
mercy. Islamic tradition clearly states that martyrdom
is rewarded with heaven. Therefore, in the case of the
plague, God is punishing Muslims by spreading this
epidemic and causing martyrdom that will guarantee
the victim of the plague a heavenly abode in the
afterlife.

The real question, then, is as follows: Is the plague
a punishment or a reward? To begin with, this ques-
tion becomes irrelevant in the case of non-Muslims,
because the Islamic concept of martyrdom does not
apply to them. Thus, in the case of non-Muslims, the
plague is simply a divine punishment. However, for

Muslims, this punishment is also a martyrdom
that guarantees heaven for the victim of the plague.
Medieval Arabic works about the plague strive to
resolve this apparent contradiction and offer various
explanations.

Modern Scholarship

The historical investigation of epidemics in the medi-
eval Middle East and of their impact is relatively
recent and has focused primarily on the plague. To
date, the works of the late Michael W. Dols and of
Lawrence I. Conrad are viewed as the pioneering
efforts in the field. In the case of the medieval Middle
East, the historian is faced with the paucity of demo-
graphic and economic data and is compelled to rely
heavily on chronicles and other general works; this is
true even in the cases of the Black Death and later
plagues, both bubonic and pneumonic. There are
no specific and detailed data about the demographic
impact of these pandemics. In the words of David
Ayalon, “At the present state of our knowledge
attempts at estimates of population sizes in the
countries of medieval Islam should be postponed for
quite a long time.” By the same token, our knowledge
of the economic impact of the plague in the medieval
Middle East is still fragmentary. Egyptian chronicles
belonging to the post-Black Death era show an
awareness of the impact of the recurrence of epi-
demics (particularly of the plague), but the informa-
tion that one can cull from them is limited. In his
doctoral dissertation, Conrad explores the recurrence
of the plague in the Middle East from 541 to 749, a
period that corresponds with the first occurrence of
the Plague of Justinian until the end of the Umayyad
dynasty. With regard to the Black Death, the mono-
graph of Dols is the only work devoted to the ques-
tion. Finally, with respect to the demographic impact
of the Black Death, the estimate of a mortality
corresponding to one-fourth to one-third of the pop-
ulation is generally accepted in the case of Egypt, but
this is not the result of rigorous calculations. It is
predicated on the estimates reached in the case of
Europe and on the presumed higher degree of urbani-
zation of Egypt. This assumption is in turn built on
the narratives of medieval European travelers to the
area and particularly to Egypt.

Adel Allouche

See also Black Death; Ibn Bakr; Al-Majusi; Malik Ibn
Anas; Ibn Khadun

236

ESCHATOLOGY

Primary Sources

Al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Isma‘il. Sahih, 25 vols. Misr:
al-Matba‘ah al-Bahiyah al-Misriyah, 1933-1962.

Ibn Ridwan, ‘Ali. Medieval Islamic Medicine. Ibn Ridwan’s
Treatise "On the Prevention of Bodily Ills in Egypt,”
transl. Michael W. Dols. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1984.

Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Ahmad ibn ‘Ali. Badhl al-Maun fi
Fadl al-Ta'un, ed. Ahmad ‘Isam ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Katib.
Al-Riyad: Dar al-‘Asimah, 1991.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History,
2nd ed., transl. Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1967.

Ibn Majah, Muhammad ibn Yazid. Sunan, 2 vols., ed. M.F.
‘Abd al-Baqi. Bayrut, Dar al-Fikr.

Ibn Manziir, Muhammad ibn Mukarram. Lisdn al-'Arab,
15 vols. Bayrut: Dar Sadir, 1955.

Malik ibn Anas. al-Muwatta ”, 2 vols., ed. M.F. ‘Abd
al-Baqi. Bayrut: Dar Ihya” al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1985.

Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya. Rhazes on the
Small-Pox and Measles. Birmingham, AL: The Classics
of Medicine Library, 1987.

Al-Suyuti. Md Rawd.hu al-Wa'un fi Akhbar al-Ta'un; wa-
Yaiih Maktabat al-Imdm al-Suyuti fi al-Tibb al-Nabawi ,
ed. Muhammad ‘Ali al-Barr. Dimashq: Dar al-Qalam,
1997.

Further Reading

Allouche, Adel. Mamluk Economics: A Study and Transla-
tion of al-Maqrizts Ighdthah. Salt Lake City: University
of Utah Press, 1994.

Ayalon, David. “Regarding Population Estimates in the
Countries of Medieval Islam.” Journal of the Economic
and Social History of the Orient 28 ( 1985): 1-19.

. “The Plague and its Effects on the Mamluk Army.”

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1946): 67-73.

Conrad, Lawrence I. “Epidemic Disease in Formal and
Popular Thought in Early Islamic Society.” In Epidemics
and Disease: Essays on the Historical Perception of
Pestilence, eds. Terence Rander and Paul Slack, 77-99.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

“Arabic Plague Chronologies and Treatises: Social

and Historical Factors in the Formation of a Literary
Genre.” Studia Islamica 55 (1981): 51-93.

“Ta'un and Waba”: Conception of Plague and Pes-
tilence in Early Islam.” Journal of the Economic and
Social History of the Orient 25 (1982): 268-307.

"The Plague in the Early Medieval Near East.” PhD

Dissertation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1981.

Dols, Michael W. “The Leper in Medieval Islamic Society.”
Speculum 58 (1983): 891-916.

. “The Second Plague Pandemic and its Recurrences

in the Middle East: 1347-1894.” Journal of the Economic
and Social History of the Orient 22 ( 1979): 162-89.

The Black Death in the Middle East. Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1977.

“Ibn al-Wardi’s Risdlat al-Naba’ ‘an al-Waba’. A

Translation of a Major Source for the History of the
Black Death in the Middle East.” In Near Eastern Nu-
mismatics, Iconography, Epigraphy and History: Studies
in Honor of George C. Miles, ed. Dickran K. Kouymjian,
443-55. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1974.

“Plague in Early Islamic History.” Journal of the

American Oriental Society 94 (1974): 371-83.

Elgood, Cyril. A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern
Caliphate: The Development of Persian and Arabic
Medical Sciences from the Earliest Times until the Year
AD 1932. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951.

McNeill, William H. Plagues and Peoples. New York:
Doubleday, 1989.

Russell, Josiah C. “The Population of Medieval Egypt.”
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 5
(1966): 69-82.

Shoshan, Boaz. “Notes sur les Epidemies de Peste en
Egypte.” Annales de Demographie Historique (1981):
387-404.

Stathakopoulos, Dionysios Ch. Famine and Pestilence in the
Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire: A Systematic
Survey of Subsistence Crises and Epidemics. ( Birmingham
Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs, Volume 9). Aider-
shot, Hant: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2004.

Sublet, Jacqueline. “La Peste Prise aux Rets de la Jurispru-
dence: Le Traite d'Ibn \agar al-‘AsqalanI sur la Peste.”
Studia Islamica 33 (1971): 141-9.

Ullman, Manfred. Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: University
Press, 1978.

ESCHATOLOGY

In accordance with literary apocalypses present in
other monotheistic and dualistic faiths (Judaism,
Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism),
Muslim apocalyptic narratives are designed to explain
the (usually) difficult circumstances of the present and
to overcome them by forging a plausible chain of
events that entails the establishment of an ideal mes-
sianic society and extends to the very day of judg-
ment. Eschatological narratives appear in both Sunni
and Shi‘i Islam, but they have greater import in Shi‘-
ism. Like most Muslim religious ideas, eschatology is
primarily based on hadith (tradition), which is be-
lieved to present sayings and doings of the Prophet
Muhammad; a large number of pertinent texts are to
be found in the six Sunni canonical hadith collections
and in specialized compilations of apocalyptic mate-
rials, whereas the Qur’an’s eschatology did not have
nearly the same impact.

In Sunni Islam, specifically apocalyptic works
began to appear from the middle of the eighth century
onward and expanded, within a century, into volumi-
nous collections; thus the rich apocalyptic heritage of
Syria is known thanks to Nu‘aym ibn Hammad al-
Marwazi (d. 844). Ibn al-Munadi (d. ca. 947), who
probably had pro-‘Alid or Shi‘i sympathies, collected
a substantial number of Iraqi traditions during the fol-
lowing century, and, subsequently, important works
such as those of al-Dani (d. 1052) and al-Qurtubi
(d. 1272) were produced in Muslim Spain. The apo-
calyptic heritage was partially accepted into the six
canonical collections, whereas, usually, material that

237

ESCHATOLOGY

concerned the messianic figure of the Mahdi or that
was critical of, for example, the ‘Abbasids (749-1258),
was not. More expressly messianic Shi‘i materials are
found in books about the ghayba (occultation) of the
Twelfth Imam.

Sunni Muslim eschatological scenarios usually
begin with a historical base that is taken from one of
three optional time frames. The first and earliest
relates to the period of the late seventh and early
eighth centuries, is based in Syria-Palestine, and envi-
sions the beginning of the end of the world starting
from the wars between the Muslims and the Byzantine
Empire. The foremost goal of this scenario is the
conquest of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople
and, in a larger sense, the entire Mediterranean basin.
These traditions often begin with an alliance between
the Byzantine Christians and the Syrian Muslims
against the Iraqi Muslims. This alliance, however,
breaks down at the question of spoils and whether
the cross or Allah was responsible for the victory.
Both groups then return to their homes, and the
Byzantines invade the coastal areas of Syria. Eventu-
ally the Muslims prevail and conquer Constantinople.
However, the entire cycle of historical narratives
includes a great many defeats for the Muslims, some
of which involve a temporary Byzantine reconquest of
the region of Syria-Palestine. After these events have
played out, then the more integrally religious events,
such as the appearance of the messianic figure and the
antichrist (see below), are added to the story line.

The second historical time frame of Sunni apoca-
lyptic literature relates to the events of the middle of the
eighth century, when the ‘Abbasid revolution began in
the region of Khurasan (eastern Iran and western
Afghanistan). This scenario portrays the appearance
of the messianic figure, the Mahdi (see below), during a
time of oppressive rule, when he will rise up in revolt
and come from this distant land to the center of the
Muslim world in Iraq and liberate the Muslims, there-
by ushering in the messianic age. The third time frame
is more divorced from history and uses the so-called
“signs of the Hour” as a prelude. These signs, which
can also be attached to the other two base scenarios,
are those events that will warn Muslims and non-
Muslims of the gravity of the times. The signs include
political events such as those described above, moral
and social decay, religious corruption, natural disas-
ters (earthquakes, droughts, plagues), and cosmic phe-
nomena (comets, meteorites, eclipses of the sun and
the moon). Any number of these events, when known
to occur in close proximity to one another, can trigger
apocalyptic anticipation, panic, or speculation, and
it is most probable that the Muslim apocalyptic
books produced throughout this period were either in
response to or because of these signs.

After either the historical setting is given or the
“signs of the Hour” are listed, then both Sunni and
Shi‘i apocalyptic scenarios describe the rise of the
Sufyani, a figure who is a descendent of Mu‘awiya
ibn Abi Sufyan (r. 661-680). In general, he represents
the messianic aspirations of the Syrian Muslims, but
he is considered to be a negative figure by Sunnis
outside of Syria and a malevolently evil one by
Shi‘is. He is usually said to rise to power after appear-
ing in the region of the Balqa’ south of Damascus,
after which he will conquer most of the Muslim
world. Many of the accounts describing his reign
give detailed descriptions of his cruelty toward the
people of Iraq and especially toward the descendants
of the Prophet Muhammad. In both Sunni and Shi‘i
accounts of the Sufyani, he is eventually defeated by
the Mahdi, who is the universal messianic figure. The
Sufyani is a purely Muslim figure who later appears in
eastern Christian apocalypses.

The Mahdi in Sunni Islam is a warlike figure who
will conquer non-Muslim regions of the world and
eventually establish an ideal peaceable state that will
fill the world with justice and righteousness. As stated
previously, he will appear in either the Hijaz (Medina
or Mecca) or Khurasan. Irrespective of his origin, he
proceeds to gather an army, march toward the center
of the Muslim world (Syria and Iraq), defeat the
Sufyani, and establish his messianic kingdom in
Jerusalem. Although the conquest of the Byzantine
Empire in some scenarios is accomplished during the
historical prelude to the messianic future, in others
the Mahdi himself is the conqueror. He is usually said
to conquer the entire Mediterranean basin and the
difficult-to-conquer regions of Afghanistan and
Central Asia.

There are differing opinions as to whether the
Mahdi will forcibly convert non-Muslims to Islam.
Although, according to some texts, he uses force to
convert non-Muslims, according to others he governs
each non-Muslim community (e.g., Jews, Christians)
according to its own holy book and does not compel
its members to accept Islam. The dominant feature of
the Mahdi’ s rule is that it is characterized by absolute
justice, peace, and plenty, with the evil characteristics
of the world during the time of tribulation having
passed completely away. However, his rule only lasts
for a very short period of time, usually said to be up
to nine years.

In contradistinction to the Sunni Mahdi, the Shi‘i
Mahdi (also known as the Qa’im) is more of an
absolutely powerful and dominating figure. Shi’i sce-
narios usually portray the Mahdi appearing in Medina
or Mecca, where he gathers an army of 313 men (the
number who fought at the Battle of Badr in 624) to
him. These followers, together with the Mahdi, are

238

ESPIONAGE

more interested in vengeance than are their analogous
figures in Sunni scenarios, and most of their con-
quests are directed against the Sunnis. However,
eventually the Shi‘i Mahdi will establish a messianic
kingdom in which he will rule throughout the period
of his elongated lifetime (usually more than three
hundred years). In some accounts, he establishes a
dynasty of the Prophet Muhammad's family to rule
this kingdom. Other elements of the Shi‘i messianic
age are similar to those of the Sunnis.

In many scenarios, the Dajjal — the Muslim anti-
christ — appears before the time of the Mahdi, where-
as in others he follows the Mahdi. In certain scenarios
(especially Shi‘i ones), there are a series of messianic
figures or even dynasties of Mahdis (or other lesser
messianic figures) that are punctuated by the appear-
ance of the Dajjal. The latter is said to be Jewish, and
he has a defect in one of his eyes (usually the left one)
and the word kafir (infidel) written on his forehead.
He will appear in the area of Persia or Iraq, and many
accounts specify the city of Isfahan. After his appear-
ance, the Dajjal will travel through the entire world
with the objective of tempting every single person —
whether Muslim or non-Muslim — to deny Allah and
worship the Dajjal himself. Although there are a few
groups that will be capable of resisting his temptation,
most accounts emphasize that he will be successful in
seducing large numbers of people. However, he will
be unable to enter the holy cities of Mecca and Medi-
na, where true Muslims will take refuge from him.
Another place of refuge will be Jerusalem, where a
substantial number of Muslims will be besieged by the
Dajjal and his followers. Just when the city is about to
fall, Jesus will return from heaven (where he was
raised, according to Qur’an 3:55) to kill the Dajjal
and disperse his followers. It is very probable that
substantial parts of the Dajjal story were influenced
by eastern Christian apocalyptic beliefs.

In some traditions, as previously noted, this act
then opens the messianic age or allows it to continue.
Jesus then prays behind the Mahdi, ensuring that his
presence on earth does not come into conflict with the
doctrine of khatam al-nubuwwa (the finality of
Muhammad’s prophethood). Many accounts then de-
scribe Jesus’ actions with regard to the Christians:
breaking the crosses, killing swine, and facilitating
their conversion to Islam. After this period, Jesus
will live out his life as an ordinary Muslim and be
buried in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, together
with Muhammad, Abu Bakr, and ‘Umar.

Usually the appearance of the nomadic tribes of
Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-9, Revelation 20:7-10)
follows the death of Jesus. Gog and Magog will ap-
pear suddenly after the barrier Dhu ’1-Qarnayn built
to restrain them (Qur’an 21:96) is allowed to collapse.

These tribes will overcome the entire world and de-
stroy it. They will originate in either the north or to
the east of the region of Central Asia and make
straight for Jerusalem, which they will not be able to
take. God will cause them to die by means of a worm
that will invade their bodies. A large part of the
Gog and Magog stories owe their provenance to the
Alexander Romance, which was popular throughout
the Middle East. In general, Muslim apocalyptic liter-
ature and scenarios do not include a picture of the
actual end of the world nor do they bridge between
the cataclysmic events of the last days and the
resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment.

After these early apocalyptic scenarios, the genre
of the apocalypse continued to be significant for both
Sunni and Shi‘i Muslims. New works on the subject
were written in the wake of the Crusader and Mongol
invasions, most notably by Ibn Kathir (d. 1378); his
collection is often seen as the most authoritative one
by contemporary Sunnis. It is not always easy to find
unity in Muslim apocalyptic or eschatological materi-
al, because there are few literary apocalypses that
could serve to standardize the tradition as a whole,
and there are numerous internal contradictions.
However, Muslim scholars, especially those working
on hadith criticism and commentary (e.g., al-Nawawi
[d. 1277], Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani [d. ca. 1438]),
established a more-or-less accepted timetable.

David Cook

See also ‘Abbasids; Byzantine Empire; Hadith; Jesus;
Messianism; Muhammad, the Prophet; Muslim-
Byzantine Relations; Shi‘ism

Further Reading

Cook, David. "An Early Muslim Daniel Apocalypse.”
Arabica 49 (2002): 55-96.

. Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic. Princeton: Darwin

Press, 2002.

Al-Dani, Abu ‘Amr ‘Uthman ibn Sa‘id. al-Sunan al- Warida
fi al-Fitan wa-Ghawa’iliha wa-l-sa‘a wa-Ashratiha. Riyad:
Dar al-‘Asima, 1995.

Ibn al-Munadi, Ahmad ibn Ja‘far. al-Malahim. Qumm: Dar
al-Sira, 1997.

Al-Marwazi, Nu‘aym ibn Hammad. Kitab al-Fitan. Beirut:
Dar al-Fikr, 1993.

Madelung, Wilferd. "The Sufyani between History and
Legend.” Studia Islamica 63 (1986): 5-48.

ESPIONAGE

The earliest accounts of spies, known as ‘uyun (eyes),
refer to individuals in the pre-Islamic period who
collected intelligence that could be used by the tribes
in their continual skirmishes. During the early Islamic

239

ESPIONAGE

period, the eyes spied on enemies of the state both
within and outside of its borders. Under the Rashi-
dun, a system of night watchers (‘asas) was intro-
duced; this consisted of a network of guards who
were responsible for ensuring security after dark.
Later, the watchers were used to observe the where-
abouts, activities, and opinions of individuals, devel-
oping into a web of secret agents that was associated
with the office of “Postmaster,” which was responsi-
ble for supervising the mail and intelligence services
during the Umayyad Caliphate.

Mu‘awiyya ibn Abi Sufyan was the first to use
intelligence for political goals during his war against
Ah ibn Abi Talib. This practice contributed greatly to
his eventual victory. After assuming the Caliphate,
Mu'awiyya focused his attention on his two arch-
enemies, the Shi‘is and the Kharijites.

Spying was used by the Umayyads for a variety of
purposes, with each caliph having his own network of
spies to gather information about opponents and
supporters alike. Others also used spies; for example,
the well-known governor Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan was
the first to inflict punishments on the basis of suspi-
cion or intelligence reports. His son ‘Ubayd Allah and
al-Hajjaj ibn Yusif developed a network of agents to
deal with political unrest in Iraq and the eastern
provinces of the caliphate. Later, Abd al-Malik ibn
Marwan developed the postal system to provide him
with regular news, which helped him to outmaneuver
his rivals.

The later Umayyads, however, failed to detect the
clandestine activities of the ‘Abbasid movement, the
members of which managed to build an extensive
intelligence network that helped them to topple the
Umayyads. Suspicious by nature, al-Mansur, the sec-
ond ‘Abbasid caliph, developed the existing eyes into
a disciplined corps of spies who reported directly to
him. This is attested to by the appearance in Arabic of
the term Sahib al-Khabar to refer to the caliph’s secret
agents, whose main tasks were to gather information,
protect the caliph and his authority, and defame or
liquidate opponents.

During his long struggle (749-762 AD) with al-
Nafs al-Zakiyya, al-Mansur developed innovative
techniques, such as sending letters in his rival’s name
to opponents in Khurasan and Hijaz, using spies for a
single mission only, and recruiting merchants and
women to gather information. He also monitored
charity groups in Iraq and spread rumors in Hijaz
about planned revolts; this forced al-Nafs al-Zakiyya
to rebel prematurely.

The ‘Abbasids chose spies for specific missions,
selecting only those whose allegiance was unques-
tioned. Slaves were sometimes used for delicate mis-
sions: by al-Mansur, for example, when he had Abi

Muslim killed, and by Harun al-Rashid in his dealings
with the Baramkids. The ‘Abbasids also used women
to compromise high-ranking statesmen, eyes to moni-
tor merchants and strangers in markets, travelers to
investigate distant provinces, and beggars to monitor
the leaders of religious sects.

Opposition movements, such as the Shi‘is and the
Ibadis, developed elaborate strategies to deceive the
authorities and their spies, most notably by adopting
the religious principle of taqiyya (concealing their true
religious and political inclinations). They met secretly
and dispatched more than one messenger on every
mission to guarantee delivery of the message; they
also used codes in case messages were intercepted.
Their success can be seen in the establishment of
states in areas that were remote from the center
of caliphal power, such as those of the Idrisids in
Morocco, the Fatimids in Egypt, and the Ibadi
imams in Oman.

During the later ‘Abbasid era, almost everyone fell
under suspicion, and spying was frequently used for
political purposes, with allegations of treason or athe-
ism used as the pretext to liquidate opponents. As a
result, the secret service sharply deteriorated in quali-
ty, while plots and conspiracies flourished. The prac-
tice of espionage itself became dangerous as a result
of the emergence of rival authorities to the ‘Abbasid
state in Baghdad. If caught, spies faced torture or
death. Some became turncoats or double agents.

Many opposition movements emerged, the most
important of which was the hashashin (assassins),
who relied on a widespread network of spies to assas-
sinate statesmen and other powerful figures. After
the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1256 AD, the
institutions of the ‘Abbasid state collapsed. The
Mamluks, who eventually took power in parts of
the former ‘Abbasid state, had to rebuild the intelli-
gence services from scratch, and they eventually came
to rely on these services to consolidate their power.

Hasan M. al-Naboodah

Further Reading

Abd al-Ghani, A. Nuzum al-Istikhbarat ‘ind al-'Arab wa
al-Muslimm. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 1991.

Al-'Araji, M.H. Jihdz al-Mukhcibardt f al-Haddrah al-
Isldmiyya. Beirut: Dar al-Mada, 1998.

Leder, S. “The Literary Use of Khabar.” In The Byzantine
and Early Islamic Near East , ed. A. Cameron and Con-
rad, 277-315. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1992.

Al-Naboodah, H.M. “ Sahib al-Khabar: Secret Agents and
Spies During the First Century of Islam.” Journal of
Asian History, forthcoming.

240

ETHICS

Sadeue, S.F. "Development of al-Barid or Mail-post during
the Reign of Baybars I of Egypt.” Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Pakistan 14 (1969): 167-83.

Sourdel, D. “Barid.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam , New Edi-
tion. , vol. I, The First Century of Islam, 1045-6.

Wensinck, A.J. “Khabar.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, New
Edition, vol. IV, 895.

ETHICS

Ethics can be an elusive subject, because the term in
English refers to both (1) the variety of moral princi-
ples that help define cultures and individual behavior
and (2) systematic inquiry into the universal nature
and necessity of morality. In the medieval Islamic
tradition, the first of these connotations was discussed
primarily as adab (proper conduct and manners; also,
belles-lettres) and the second as akhlaq (sing, khulq;
the innate disposition from which human acts ema-
nate). Although differences between adab and akhlaq
were often obscured in practice — because both aimed
to cultivate virtue in human beings — this article fo-
cuses on akhlaq, or ethics as a discipline.

The akhlaq literature of medieval Islam can be char-
acterized as a synthesis of the scriptural sources of
Islam (Qur’an and hadith) with elements from different
cultures (particularly pre-Islamic Arabian, Greek,
Christian, and Iranian) that came under Muslim rule.
A form of eudaemonism, which is prominent in Greek
philosophy, provided the framework for this synthesis.

The scripture of Islam, however, is not eudaemo-
nistic. The Qur’an is concerned with moral action and
religious duty rather than moral theory or individual
happiness. It assumes that the goodness and badness
of acts are evident to anyone who simply reflects on
the circumstances of the act. The Qur’an considers
morality to be binding and thus, rather than justifying
moral behavior, exhorts it. Nonetheless, the Quranic
promise of divine reward and punishment presumes a
relationship between individuals’ behavior and their
well-being.

The appropriation of eudaemonistic philosophy in
Muslim ethics was not so much a rejection of the Qur-
anic worldview as it was an attempt to resolve apparent
moral ambiguities embedded in the monotheism of the
Qur’an. According to the Qur’an, God is the sole
omnipotent, omniscient Creator. As such, God pre-
destines everything in creation, including human ac-
tion (57:2-3 and 76:30). The Qur’an, however, also
obligates human beings to be righteous and warns
that they will be held accountable for their actions
on Judgment Day (18:28-29 and 20:84). The Mu'ta-
zilites, who are regarded as the first systematic theo-
logians of Islam, sought to resolve this problem by
arguing that it would be unjust for God to punish
humans for acts for which they were not responsible.

They developed a deontological ethics in which they
maintained human free will and argued that the good-
ness or badness of acts was innately known by
humans to be praiseworthy or blameworthy because
of their ontological status as such. This knowledge
and ability obligated humans to do good and held
them morally accountable to God. Although M u'ta-
zilism influenced Zaydi, Imami Shi'i. and early Hanafi
theology (kalam), it was deemed heretical by AslTaris,
Ma’turidis, and Traditionalists (ahl al-hadith) for lim-
iting God’s will and power on the basis of human
conceptions of what is just. Ash'aris, whose theoreti-
cal defense of Traditionalism eventually dominated
Sunni kalam, argued for divine volunteerism, defining
goodness and badness solely in terms of divine
commands and prohibitions.

Because inquiry into what is commanded and pro-
hibited by God fell under the purview of Muslim
jurists, Ash'arism helped remove ethical inquiry in
Islamic intellectual history from the realm of theolo-
gy, which was concerned with theories of goodness,
into the realm of fiqh (law and jurisprudence), which
was concerned with defining right action on the basis
of divine law (sharfa). This move is evidenced in dis-
cussions of the Quranic duty of commanding good
and forbidding evil (3:104). Although this injunction
was a major theological concern for Mu‘tazilites,
Ash'aris and Traditionalists did not discuss it much
outside of their jurisprudential works.

The literature about akhlaq, however, was not
concerned with morality solely as obedience to divine
law. The ethical works of such thinkers as al-Farabi
(d. 950 CE), Ibn Sina (d. 1037), and Miskawayh (d.
1030) — whose monumental Tahdhib al-Akhlaq (Re-
finement of Character) heavily influenced the field as
evidenced in the works of such Persian authors as
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274) and Jalal al-Din al-
Dawwani (d. 1501) — aimed to justify the sources
and the need for moral principles. Their ethical the-
ories sought to synthesize social customs, revelation,
and philosophy by arguing that, when properly un-
derstood and practiced, they all worked to fulfill the
purpose of human existence and effect real happiness.

Despite the differences in the works of individual
moral thinkers, several Neoplatonic (see Plato and
[Neo-]Platonism) themes shaped the contours of
their discourse. In their anthropology, humans were
a composite of base matter and a spiritual soul and as
such represented a microcosm of the material and
spiritual dimensions of existence; it was claimed that
this was the reason for the Qur’an’s declaration of
humans as viceregents of God on Earth (2:30).

In their psychology, they followed the threefold
Platonic division of the soul into a rational, irascible,
and concupiscent soul or faculty, which corresponded

241

ETHICS

with the Qur’anic quiescent (mutma’innah), blaming
(lawwamah), and commanding (ammarah) souls, re-
spectively (89:27, 75:2, 12:53). After Aristotle, the
telos of humanity was defined by its distinctive ability
to reason, and as such the ultimate superiority of the
rational soul was asserted. Practical philosophy or
ethics aimed to cultivate virtues in humanity that
would bring the demands of their bodies and different
souls into balance with one another under the rule of
the rational soul. To achieve this state was to realize
one’s divine purpose, eternal bliss, and union with the
divine.

With regard to social customs, it was argued that,
as inherently social beings, humans could not realize
their lofty end alone. Division of labor, contracts, and
cultural conventions all helped create the social cohe-
sion necessary for individuals to fulfill their potential
and attain happiness. Political rulers were needed to
create and maintain a social order aimed at maximiz-
ing the potential of individuals in accord with their
aptitude; this was also seen as the aim of religious
practice. Religion specified moral principles and
duties for the vast majority of humans who did not
have the acumen to reason for themselves the means
by which they could cultivate virtues and attain their
divinely ordained purpose.

Although philosophy, as an end in itself, was not
central to Islamic education (because of the mystical
implications of such concepts as ascending to the
divine through self-refinement), many philosophical
ethical theories were appropriated by mystics such
as al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and popularized through Sufi
teachings.

Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

See also Adab; Theology; Laws and Jurisprudence;
Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil; Al-Farabi;
Ibn Sina; Aristotle; Plato and (Neo-)Platonism; Nasir
al-Din al-Tusi; al-Ghazali

Further Reading

Cook, Michael. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong
in Islamic Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2000.

Fakhry, Majid. Ethical Theories in Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1991.

Hourani, George F. Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

. Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of ‘Abd ‘Abd al-

Jabbar. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Hovannisian, Richard G. Ethics in Islam. Malibu, Calif:
Undena, 1985.

Izutsu, Toshihiko. Ethico-Religious Concepts in the
Our ’cnu rev. ed. Montreal: McGill University Press,
1966.

Miskawayh, Ahmad b. Muhammad. The Refinement
of Character: A Translation from the Arabic of Ahmad

ibn-Muhammad Miskawayh 's Tahdhlb al-Akhlaq, transl.
Constantine K. Zurayk. Beirut: American University of
Beirut, 1966.

Reinhart, A. Kevin. Before Revelation: The Boundaries of
Muslim Moral Thought. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press, 1995.

EUNUCHS

Eunuchs were emasculated guardians of political, sa-
cred, and sexual boundaries in the medieval Islamic
world. The term khasi (eunuch) refers to a man who
went through the ablation of testicles, whereas a man
deprived of all sexual organs is called a majbub; use of
the latter term is less frequent in the narrative sources.
From the tenth century CE on, the term khadim (ser-
vant) becomes the term that is most commonly used
to refer to eunuchs.

Eunuchs were the (obviously) male servants in the
women’s quarters in the dwellings of the upper classes
and in the royal palaces. In the context of Islamic
sexual morality, other than one’s husband, only cer-
tain adult males are allowed to see a woman unveiled,
such as her father and brothers. These males are
referred to as mahrams, or the forbidden ones, be-
cause they are, by virtue of their kinship, forbidden
sexually. Eunuchs thus enter the world of the women
in the same category as mahrams, not because of a
kinship relationship but by virtue of their emascula-
tion. It must be added, however, that few eunuchs had
direct contact with their master’s wives or concubines;
there were female servants who acted as intermedi-
aries between the two parties. Depending on one’s
wealth, the number of servants and eunuchs could
well multiply.

The use of eunuchs at private homes is well attested
to in medieval narrative sources. These sources sug-
gest that the role of the eunuchs was not limited to
serving the women of the house. The medieval scholar
al-Subki describes the duties of the eunuch supervisor
employed in the interior part of a dwelling as follows:
“He is the one who is concerned with women. It is his
duty and his right to cast his eyes upon their affairs
and to advise the master of the house [concerning
them]. He must inform him [the master] of any suspi-
cion which he himself is unable to clear, and he must
prevent agents of debauchery such as old women and
others from gaining access to the women [of the
household].” A fourteenth-century author places the
eunuch in the vestibule of the dwelling and not in
the residential quarter, where one would expect to
find the women of the household. It seems that
the entire home, rather than simply the residential

242

EUROPEAN LITERATURE, PERCEPTION OF ISLAM

quarters where women live, was considered a sacred,
forbidden space, with the vestibule forming its bound-
ary. Even one’s closest friend would be expected to
ask for permission to enter the inner part of the
dwelling (Marmon 1995, 6-7); the vestibule in which
the eunuch is located would be the place where this
permission would be issued or denied.

When one moves up to the ultimate dwelling — that
of the sultan — it is found that the eunuchs were the
guardians of spaces that were political as well as
sacred. Eunuchs have been employed at the courts
of Muslim rulers since the Umayyad era. During the
‘Abbasid age, the institution of elite slavery (mamluk)
was developed, which creates new functions for
eunuchs throughout the remainder of medieval Islam-
ic history. The mamluks, who were enslaved at a
relatively young age, had to be educated and intro-
duced to the ways of imperial rule; this important
political function came to be played by the eunuchs.
There were eunuchs who served both the women and
the mamluks, thereby establishing connections be-
tween the royal women and the administrators and
generals of the future.

During the long reign of the Ottomans, there de-
veloped a differentiation within the body of the
eunuchs employed at the court that seems to have
followed the lines drawn by skin color. That the Ot-
toman court included eunuchs from the fourteenth
century on is well attested to by documents referring
to tawashis (a Turko- Arabic term denoting a servant)
during the early fourteenth century. During the
fifteenth century, reference is made to Ottoman
eunuchs who were appointed to commanding posi-
tions outside of the court, such as a vizierate. During
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there are sev-
eral Ottoman grand viziers and governors of Egypt
who had been eunuchs at the palace. Available evi-
dence suggests that these eunuchs and others who had
administrative functions at the court were “white,”
whereas the eunuchs who served the women of the
residential quarters were “black.” What complicates
this neat picture, which is suggestive of a division of
labor between the two contingents of eunuchs at the
Ottoman palace, is that the chief of all eunuchs was
an African one from the late sixteenth century on.

Baki Tezcan

Further Reading

Ayalon, David. Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study in

Power Relationships. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1999.
Marmon, S.E. Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic

Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Orhonlu, Cengiz. “Khasi — in Turkey.” In Encyclopaedia of

Islam, New Edition, vol. 4, 1092-3.

EUROPEAN LITERATURE,
PERCEPTION OF ISLAM

Faced with the expansion of Islam, the crises of power
over Jerusalem, the proximity of a thriving Islamic
civilization in parts of Spain and Italy, and the uneasy
transmission of knowledge (especially in the realm of
science), medieval Christians imagined and recorded
Muslim identity in diverse ways. Those who traveled
to Muslim lands also provided accounts of their
experiences. In the world of non-fiction, Christian
Europeans produced propaganda, travel accounts,
chronicles, and theological treatises in which they
addressed Islam, often from an adversarial stance
that aimed at disqualifying Islam’s claims to the sta-
tus of a revealed religion. Christian theologians in
particular generated much debate about Islam, chal-
lenging it in terms of doctrine in a variety of tones
ranging from pacifist invitations to conversion to
obvious belligerence.

Fiction, which is the subject to be addressed in this
entry, also portrayed Islam and the Muslim, often
referring to the religion and its practitioners in terms
that in contemporary English would translate as
“Mohammedan,” “Saracen,” “Moor,” or “pagan.”
When Islam and the Muslim were portrayed in medi-
eval European fiction, the representation was not
only informed by the contextual concerns outlined
above but also by each author’s own creativity and
engagement with literary tradition.

On the most visible level, throughout the European
Middle Ages, the Saracen or Mohammedan fulfilled
a basically propagandistic role in both fiction and
non-fiction, driven by the spirit of the Crusades.
This is particularly true of epic poetry; for example,
the French La Chanson de Roland (ca. 1100 CE), the
English romances of Troy and Alexander (14 CE),
and the Italian Orlando Furioso (1532 CE) contain
references to the Saracen as the enemy, highlighting
the courage and faith of the Christian warrior
through the deserved defeat or ill-gained success of
the Muslims. The long Arthurian tradition highlights
the Christian knight’s perfection against a vast range
of foils, among them the Muslim. Gerusalemme Lih-
erata (Jerusalem Liberated) by Torquato Tasso
(1544-1595 CE) portrays Muslims as sorcerers and
pagans, celebrating the liberation of Jerusalem during
the first Crusade circa 1099 CE. The crusading spirit
thus permeates much of the literature that features
knights and kings.

In his monumental poem the Inferno, the Italian
poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321 CE) does not devote
much space to Muslims; however, his depictions do
merit attention because of his tremendous impact on
Western literature. He places Mohammad and Ali in

243

EUROPEAN LITERATURE, PERCEPTION OF ISLAM

the ninth valley, alongside a number of Christian
heretics and sinners, which suggests that he sees the
Prophet and his nephew as apostates; indeed, scholars
have argued that this shows Dante’s and the general
medieval European public’s notion that Islam was not
a religion in and of itself but rather a horrific schism
in Christianity and therefore a heresy. Interestingly,
Dante places Saladin, Averroes (Ibn Rushd), and
Avicenna (Ibn Sina) in limbo, possibly because of
the general (although ambivalent) respect with which
these men were held by erudite medieval Europeans.
Scholarship is divided regarding whether Dante’s de-
piction of Muslims is a calculated propagandistic
move or if he is too unaware of the facts about the
religion to go beyond a generally vague condemna-
tion of it (the latter is more in line with the common
wariness of Islam in Medieval Europe). Saints’ lives
provided a vehicle for a suspicious portrayal of Islam
as well; the basic conviction that Islam is a heresy to
be mistrusted is reflected in The Canterbury Tales by
Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400 CE), specifically in the
“Man of Law’s Tale,” in which the King of Syria
converts to Christianity to be able to marry a Chris-
tian princess. This man’s mother, who is depicted as
unequivocally evil, thwarts his plans because she is
against the conversion. Giovanni Boccaccio’s Deca-
meron (1353 CE) also contains a few stories about
Saracens, often against the backdrop of the Crusades.
The French Alexandre du Pont’s Roman de Mahomet
(1258 CE) discusses the life of Mohammad as prophet
with apocalyptic and crusading zeal.

The case of Christian Spain is quite different from
the rest of Europe. Despite the anti-Muslim spirit of
Reconquest, portrayals of Muslims in Spanish litera-
ture suggest a more textured and subtle poetics of
representation than, say, French chansons de geste.
Thus, for example, in the epic of El Cid (c. 1100
CE), the Christian hero counts the Muslim Abengal-
bon among his closest friends; the playful Libro de
Buen Amor , written around 1330 CE by a Christian
archpriest and filled with references to Christian ritu-
al, displays profound sensitivity to its own Islamo-
Hispanic context and demonstrates coexistence with
Spanish Muslims to have permeated life to the extent
that the boundary between enemy and friend is no
longer as clear as a zealous theologian would have
it be. This complexity is to be expected given that
Muslims were not distant and unfamiliar to Iberian
Christians but rather were counted for centuries as
their own countrymen — albeit uneasily so — because
of the Islamic settlements in Spain.

Some caution must be exercised against the temp-
tation to consider all medieval European literature as
simply anti-Muslim, with no room left for tolerance.
The enduring works of a Dante or a Chaucer, as well

as the vibrant traditions of epic poetry and the prose
narratives of Boccaccio, are too poetically intricate to
allow for the prevalence of obvious moral judgment
over all other types of interpretation. Thus, even if the
depiction of Muslims displays the largely antagonistic
spirit of the times, one could still justify the search for
ambiguity and paradox in some of the representa-
tions, largely because of the sophisticated narrative
strategies employed by the prominent authors of the
European Middle Ages.

Leyla Rouhi

Further Reading

Asm Palacios, Miguel. Islam and the Divine Comedy , transl.
Harold Sunderland. London: J. Murray, 1926.

Classen, Albrecht, ed. Meeting the Foreign in the Middle
Ages. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Daniel, Norman. Heroes and Saracens: An Interpretation of
the Chansons de Geste. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1984.

Galmes de Fuentes, Alvaro. Romania Arabia: Estudios de
Literature Comparada Arabe y Romance. Madrid: Real
Academia de la Historia, 2000.

Hyatte, Reginald. The Prophet of Islam in Old French: The
Romance of Muhammad ( 1258 ) and The Book of
Muhammad’s Ladder (1264). Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Linehan, Peter, and Janet L. Nelson, eds. The Medieval
World. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Russell, Peter. Dante & Islam: Una Introduzione Generale:
Ouattro Conference . Arezzo, Italy: Pian de Sco, 1991.

Tolan, John V., ed. Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam:
A Book of Essays. New York: Garland, 1994.

. Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagina-
tion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Watt, W. Montgomery. Muslim-Christian Encounters:
Perceptions and Misperceptions. London: Routledge,
1991.

Wolf, Kenneth Baxter. Christian Martyrs in Muslim
Spain, Cambridge Iberian and Latin American Studies.
Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

EXCELLENCES LITERATURE

During roughly the last quarter of the AH first/
seventh CE century, reports are said to have been
circulated that extolled the merits (fada’il or mana-
qib) of, for example, reciting the Qur’an; of the Com-
panions of the Prophets; of holy cities such as
Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina; and of the perfor-
mance of particular religious duties such as the hajj
and jihad. These fada’il reports were initially a part of
the burgeoning hadith corpus, and the fada’il al-
Qur’an traditions appear to be the oldest strand in
this literature. Discrete treatises about the excellences
of the Qur’an, cities, regions, and people began to
make their appearance during the eighth century
CE. The composition of fada’il works about countries

244

EXCELLENCES LITERATURE

is understood to have preceded that of fada’il compo-
sitions about people. An early example of the latter
kind is Fada ’il al- Ansar ( The Merits of the Helpers [ of
Madina ] ) by Wahb ibn Wahb (d. 200/8 1 5).

The obvious anachronisms contained in the texts
of a number of these reports and their vaunting na-
ture make clear that a significant number of the man-
aqib/fada’il traditions came into existence well after
the death of the Prophet and, as a consequence, en-
code the doctrinal sympathies of their propagators
and the political climate of their times. It is possible,
therefore, to suggest with judicial circumspection ten-
tative links between the texts of various nranaqib
traditions and the sociopolitical milieu that may
have instigated their circulation. It should be pointed
out that medieval Muslim scholars were fully aware
of the tendentious nature of many of the nranaqib/
fada’il reports. The hadith scholar Ibn al-Jawzi
(d. 597/1200), for example, lists many nranaqib tradi-
tions in his Kitab al-Mawdu c at ( The Book of Spurious
Reports), which he dismisses as blatant fabrications.
Other kinds of adiths, which were traditions that
greatly exaggerated the merits of particular cities,
such as Jerusalem, of certain Qur’anic chapters, and

of the early caliphs, were regarded with suspicion and
often rejected. The qussas (sing, qass; preacher; liter-
ally, “storyteller”) played a significant role in the
dissemination of a significant number of these praise
traditions.

The manaqib/fada’il literature is a rich source of
sociohistorical information about the Muslim polity
that may be regarded as charting the checkered terrain
of the growing political and communal consciousness
of the early Muslims. As such, they remain a valuable
source for reconstructing the formative period of
Islam.

Asma Afsaruddin

Further Reading

Afsaruddin, Asma. Excellence and Precedence: Medieval
Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership. Leiden, 2002.

. “The Excellences of the Qur’an Textual Sacrality

and the Organization of Early Islamic Society.” Journal
of the American Oriental Society 122 (2002): 1-24.

Sellheim, R. Art. “Fadila.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, New
Edition , Leiden and London, 1965.

Pellat, Ch. Art. "Manakib.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, New
Edition , Leiden and London, 1991.

245

FARABI, AL- (ALFARABIUS OR
AVENNASAR)

Despite uncertainty about Alfarabi’s place of birth
and the early years of his life, there is general agree-
ment that he was born in approximately 870 CE,
beyond the Oxus River — either in Farab, Kazakh-
stan, or Faryb, Turkestan. In the course of his life,
AbuNasr Muchamad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Tarkh n
Ibn Awzalagh al-Farabi resided in Bukhara, Marv,
Flaran, Baghdad, Constantinople, Aleppo, Cairo, and
Damascus, where he died in 950. He studied Islamic
jurisprudence and music in Bukhara then moved to
Marv, where he began to study logic with a Nestorian
Christian monk, Yulianna Ibn Hayln. While in his
early 20s, Alfarabi went to Baghdad and continued to
study logic and philosophy with Hayln.

At the same time, he improved his grasp of Arabic
by studying with the prominent philologist Ibn al-
Sarraj, and followed the courses of the famous Nes-
torian Christian translator and student of Aristotle
Matta Ibn Yunus.

Around the year 905 or 910, Alfarabi left Baghdad
for Constantinople, where he remained for approxi-
mately eight years studying Greek sciences and philo-
sophy. On his return to Baghdad, he busied himself
with teaching and writing. In about 942, political up-
heavals forced him to seek refuge in Damascus. Political
turmoil in Damascus drove him to Egypt two or three
years later, where he stayed until returning to Damascus
in 948 or 949, a little over a year before his death.

Generally known as “the second teacher,” that is,
second after Aristotle, Alfarabi must be accounted

the most important philosopher within the Arabic-
Islamic tradition. His writings, charming yet decep-
tively subtle, use simple language and straightforward
sentences. Most often, he expounds what resembles a
narrative, a story about natural and conventional
things that is simply unobjectionable. As the exposi-
tion unfolds, the reader discovers that Alfarabi has
accounted for the natural order, political leadership,
prophecy, moral virtue, civic order, the order of the
sciences, and even the philosophic pursuits of Plato or
Aristotle — in short, all the major subjects of interest
to humans — in an unprecedented and seemingly un-
objectionable manner. Often, it sets forth the reasons
that human beings live in civic association, how it can
best be ordered to meet the highest human needs, the
way most actual regimes differ from this best order,
and why philosophy and religion deem this order
best.

These writings, extraordinary in their breadth and
deep learning, extend through all the sciences and
embrace every part of philosophy. Alfarabi’s interest
in mathematics is evidenced in commentaries on the
Elements of Euclid and Almagest of Ptolemy, as well
as in several writings on the history and theory of
music. Indeed, his Large Book on Music may well be
the most significant work in Arabic on that subject.
He also wrote numerous commentaries on Aristotle’s
logical writings, was knowledgeable about the
Stagirite’s physical writings, and is credited with an
extensive commentary in Nicomachean Ethics, which
has not survived. In addition to accounts of Plato’s and
Aristotle’s philosophy, he composed a commentary

247

FARABI, AL- (ALFARABIUS OR AVENNASAR)

on Plato’s Laws. Alfarabi’s distinction as the founder
of Arabic-Islamic political philosophy is due to his
being the first philosopher within Islam to explore
the challenge to traditional philosophy presented by
revealed religion, especially in its claims that the Cre-
ator provides for human well-being by means of an
inspired prophet legislator. Those who now contest
that distinction turn a blind eye to the way he sets
forth two accounts of the old political science in the
last chapter of a popular writing, Enumeration of the
Sciences. Both presuppose the validity of the tradi-
tional separation between practical and theoretical
science, but neither is adequate for the radically new
situation created by the appearance of revealed reli-
gion. The two accounts explain in detail the actions
and ways of life needed for sound political rule to
flourish but are silent about opinions — especially the
kind of theoretical opinions set forth in religion — and
thus are unable to point to the kind of rulership
needed now that religion holds sway. Nor can either
speak about the opinions or actions addressed by the
jurisprudence and theology of revealed religion. These
tasks require a political science that combines theo-
retical and practical science, along with prudence, and
shows how they are to be ordered in the soul of the
ruler.

In other writings — most notably in his Book of
Religion and Aphorisms of the Statesman — Alfarabi
outlines this broader political science. It speaks of
religious beliefs as opinions and of acts of worship
as actions, noting that both are prescribed for a com-
munity by a supreme ruler or prophet. The new polit-
ical science views religion as centered in a political
community whose supreme ruler is distinct in no way
from the founder of a religion. Indeed, the goals and
prescriptions of the supreme ruler are identical to
those of the prophet lawgiver. Everything said or
done by this supreme ruler finds constant justification
in philosophy, and religion thus appears to depend on
philosophy — theoretical and practical. Similarly, by
presenting the art of jurisprudence as a means to
identify particular details the supreme ruler did not
regulate before his death, Alfarabi makes it depend
on practical philosophy and thus be part of this
broader political science. In sum, his new political
science offers a comprehensive view of the universe
and indicates what kind of practical acumen permits
the one who possesses this understanding, either the
supreme ruler or a successor endowed with all of his
qualities, to rule wisely. Able to explain the various
ranks of all the beings, this political science also stres-
ses the importance of religion for uniting the citizens
and for helping them attain the virtues that prolong
decent political life. Then, in Political Regime and
Principles of the Opinions of the Inhabitants of the

Virtuous City, he illustrates how this new political
science might work. A general overview of this
whole undertaking is provided in Attainment of
Happiness — the first part of his famous trilogy Philos-
ophy of Plato and Aristotle — where he declares that
“the idea of the philosopher, supreme ruler, prince,
legislator, and imam is but a single idea.”

Charles E. Butter worth

Further Reading

Alfarabi’s Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, trans. Muhsin
Mahdi. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002.

Enumeration of the Sciences, trans. Charles E. Butterworth.
In Alfarabi, The Political Writings: “ Selected Aphor-
isms” and Other Texts, ed. and trans. Charles E. Butter-
worth, 71-84. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
2001 .

Butterworth, Charles E. “The Rhetorician and His Rela-
tionship to the Community: Three Accounts of Aris-
totle’s Rhetoric .” In Islamic Theology and Philosophy:
Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani, ed. Michael
E. Marmura, 111-136. Albany, NY: SUNY Press,
1984.

Mahdi, Muhsin S. Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic
Political Philosophy: Essays in Interpretation. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001.

. “Alfarabi.” In History of Political Philosophy, eds.

Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, 160-180. Chicago:
Rand McNally and Co., 1963.

FATIMA (AL-ZAHRA’) BINT
MUHAMMAD (CA. 12
BEFORE HIJRA-1 1/CA. 610-632)

Fatima was the youngest daughter of the Prophet
Muhammad and Khad’ja. She was born in Mecca,
probably soon after the beginning of the Prophet’s
mission in 609-610; according to some sources, a few
years earlier. Little is known of her childhood. In the
first or second year after the Hijra to Medina in 622,
after refusing the suit of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar,
Muhammad gave her in marriage to his cousin ‘Ali
ibn Abi Talib; ‘Ali was to become the fourth Rightly
Guided Sunni Caliph and, according to the Shi’i,
Muhammad’s divinely appointed successor. Most of
the historical reports on Fatima’s life are about the
details of her marriage. ‘Ali did not take another wife
in Fatima’s lifetime. They had four children, all of
whom had important roles in the political and reli-
gious life of the first Islamic century: Hasan, the first
Shi‘i imam; Husayn, the second Shi‘i imam and the
martyr of Karbala; and Zaynab and Umm Kulthum,
who both intrepidly confronted Umayyad authority.

When Muhammad died, Fatima maintained with
‘Ali his superior right as the Prophet’s successor. She

248

FATIMA (AL-ZAHRA’) BINT MUHAMMAD (CA. 12 BEFORE HIJRA-1 1/CA. 610-632)

disputed the caliphate of Abu Bakr and had several
fierce altercations with him and his supporter and
successor-to-be, ‘Umar. Alarmed by her forceful op-
position, ‘Umar threatened to burn her house down,
along with its inhabitants, if her husband did not
acknowledge Abu Bakr as caliph; under threat of
execution, ‘Ali eventually capitulated — according to
some reports, only after Fatima died. Fatima also
argued with Abu Bakr for her own right to inherit
the lands of Fadak; Abu Bakr had denied her Fadak,
declaring that he had heard Muhammad say prophets
have no heirs. On one occasion of dispute, Fatima is
reported to have delivered an eloquent oration (text in
Balaghat al-nisa’, 54-69) to the assembly of Compa-
nions gathered around Abu Bakr. She died at the
young age of 23, just two and a half months (six,
according to some sources) after Muhammad’s
death in AH 1 1/632 CE, and was buried in the Baqi‘
cemetery in Medina.

The sources attribute several verses of poetry to
her in grief-filled elegy of her father, which have been
collected in modern times in a slim Diwan. Some
hadith are also related on her authority, many of
which were collected by the historian al-Suyuti in a
book titled Musnad Fatima al-Zahra ’.

Muhammad's line continued solely through
Fatima and her children. In particular, the Hasanid
and Husaynid lines were religiously and politically
important. Shi‘i imams of all denominations trace
their lineage to the Prophet through Fatima, mostly
through her son Husayn, and several ruling dynasties
have claimed special status because of ancestry from
her. Among them is the Fatimid dynasty of Isma‘li
caliph-imams who ruled North Africa and Egypt
from the ninth through the twelfth centuries; their
genealogy was a key factor in legitimizing their
claim to the caliphate and the imamate.

Although Sunnis honor Fatima as the beloved
daughter of the Prophet and the ideal of gentle Mus-
lim womanhood, the Shi‘is venerate her further as one
of the “Five Pure Ones” ( Panj-tan Pak in Persian and
Urdu; al-Khamsat al-Athar in Arabic), namely,
Muhammad, ‘Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn. The
Shi‘is consider her one of the ahl al-bayt (people of the
Prophet’s house) from whom God “removed all im-
purity” (Q 33:33). They believe that Fatima, although
not an Imam, possessed the infallibility (‘isma) and
the power of intercession (shafa'a) of the Imams.
They attribute several miracles to her, such as the
miracle of her divinely luminous veil, which caused
an entire Jewish clan to convert to Islam.

Fatima is known by several titles, the best known
of which is “al-Zahra’ ” (the luminous one); the
Fatimids named their famed Al-Azhar University
after her. She is also known as “Batul” (the virgin),

referring to purity and piety rather than celibacy.
Enigmatically, she is also called “Umm abiha” (the
mother of her father), a title interpreted in various
historical or esoteric ways. Finally, both Shi‘is and
Sunnis believe — the latter following hadith considered
sound by authors of their canonical collections,
Bukhari and Muslim — that Muhammad designated
her “mistress of the women of Paradise” (sayyidat
nisa’ al-janna) and “mistress of all the women in the
world” ( sayyidat nisa ’ al- ‘alamin ) .

Tahera Qutbuddin

Further Reading

Al-Amin, Muhsin. A'lam al-ShVa. Vol. 1. Beirut: Dar al-
Ta'aruf, 1983, 306-326.

Beinhauer-Kohler, Barbel. Fatima hint Muhammad: Meta-
morphosen einer fruhislamischen Frauengestalt. Wiesba-
den: Harrosowitz Verlag, 2002.

Darwish, Linda. “Images of Muslim Women: ‘A’sha,
Fatima, and Zaynab Bint ‘Ali in Contemporary Gender
Discourse.” McGill Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
(Revue d’etudes clu moyen-orient cle McGill) 4 (1996):
93-132.

Al-Fadili, Husayn Muhammad ‘Ali. Ummu Abiha fi Sihah
al-Muslimin wa Masanidihim. Beirut: Dar al-Murshid,
2001 .

Ibn Sa‘d. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubrci. Vol. 8. Beirut: Dar Sadir,
1958, 19-30.

Kahhala, ‘Umar Rida. “Fatima bint Muhammad ibn ‘Abd
Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib.” A'lam al-Nisa’ fi ‘Alamay
al-‘Arab wa al-Islam. Damascus: al-Matba‘a al-Hashi-
miyya, 1940, 1199-1223.

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad. Cam-
bridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 3-63.

Massignon, Louis. “Der Gnostische Kult der Fatima im
Schiitischen Islam.” Eranos Jahrbuch 6 (1938): 161-173.

. “La Mubahala: Etude sur la Proposition d’Ordalie

Faite par le Prophete Muhammad aux Chretiens Balhar-
ith du Nejran en fan 10/631 a Medine.” Ecole pratique
des hautes etudes (1943): 5-36.

. “La Notion du Voeu et la Devotion Musalmane a

Fatima.” In Studi Orientalistici in Onori Di Giorgio Levi
Della Vida, 102-126. Rome: Instituto per l’Oriente,
1956.

249

FATIMA (AL-ZAHRA’) BINT MUHAMMAD (CA. 12 BEFORE HIJRA-1 1/CA. 610-632)

McAuliffe, Jane Dammen. “Chosen of All Women: Mary
and Fatima in Qur’anic Exegesis.” Islamochristiana 7
(1981): 19-28.

.“Fatimah bint Muhammad.” The Encyclopedia of

Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: Macmillan,
1987, 298-299.

Al-Nu‘man, al-Qadi. Shark al-Akhbar fi Fada’il al-a’Imma
al-Athar. Vol 2. Beirut: Dar al-Thaqalayn, 1994, 355—
360 (Fatima’s marriage to ‘All).

Ohrnberg, Kaj. The Offspring of Fatima: Dispersal and
Ramification , Vol. 54. Ed. Finnish Oriental Society. Stu-
dio Orientalia. Helsinki, 1983.

Shari‘ati, ‘Ali, Fatima is Fatima, trans. Laleh Bakhtiar.
Tehran: Shariati Foundation, 1981.

Vaglieri, Laura Veccia. “Fatima.” In Encyclopaedia of
Islam. Vol 2. ed. H.A.R. Gibb et al. Leiden: Brill,
1960-2003, 841-850.

FATIMIDS

The Fatimids were a major Isma'ili Shi‘i dynasty
that ruled over different parts of the Islamic world,
originally from Ifriqiyya and later Egypt, from AH
297/909 CE until 567/1171. Comprised of the fol-
lowing fourteen caliphs, the Fatimids were also
acknowledged as Isma‘ili imams:

1. al-Mahdi (297-322/909-934)

2. al-Qa’im (322-334/934-946)

3. al-Mansur (334-341/946-953)

4. al-Mu‘izz (341-365/953-975)

5. al-‘Aziz (365-386/975-996)

6. al-Hakim (386-411/996-1021)

7. al-Zahir (41 1^427/1021-1036)

8. al-Mustansir (427-487/1036-1094)

9. al-Mustaii (487-495/1094-1101)

10. al-Amir (495-524/1101-1130)

11. al-Hafiz

As regent (524-526/1130-1132)

As caliph (526-544/1132-1 149)

12. al-Zafir (544-549/1149-1154)

13. al-Fa’iz (549-555/1154-1160)

14. al-‘Adid (555-567/1160-1171)

The Fatimids traced their ancestry, through the
early Shi‘i imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 148/765), to
‘Ali ibn Abi Talib and his wife Fatima, the Prophet
Muhammad’s daughter and the eponym of the
dynasty.

Foundation and North African Phase

By the middle of the third/ninth century, the Isma’ilis
had organized a dynamic, revolutionary movement,
designated as al-da‘wa al-hadiya, the rightly guiding

mission, or simply as al-da‘wa. The aim of this move-
ment, led secretly from Salamiyya in Syria, was to
install the Isma‘ili imam to a new caliphate, in rivalry
with the ‘Abbasids. The Isma‘ili imams claimed to
possess sole legitimate religious authority as the di-
vinely appointed and infallible spiritual guides of
Muslims; hence they regarded the ‘Abbasids, like the
Umayyads before them, as usurpers who had de-
prived the rightful ‘Alid imams of their claims to
leadership. The message of the Isma’ili da'wa was
spread in different parts of the Muslim world, from
Transoxiana and Sind to North Africa, by a network
of da 7s, religiopolitical propagandists.

The early Isma'ili da'wa achieved particular success
in North Africa due to the efforts of Abu ‘Abdullah
al-Shi‘i, who was active as a da'i among the Kutama
Berbers of the Lesser Kabylia, in present-day eastern
Algeria, since 280/893. He converted the bulk of the
Kutama Berbers and transformed them into a dis-
ciplined army, which later served as the backbone
of the Fatimid forces. By 290/903, Abu ‘Abdullah
had commenced his conquest of Ifriqiyya, covering
today’s Tunisia and eastern Algeria. The Sunni Agh-
labids had ruled over this part of the Maghrib, and
Sicily, since 184/800 as vassals of the ‘Abbasids. By
Rajab 296/March 909, when Abu ‘Abdullah entered
Qayrawan, the Aghlabid capital, Aghlabid rule was
ended. Meanwhile, the Isma‘ili imam, ‘Abdullah al-
Mahdi, had embarked on a long and historic journey.
He left Salamiyya in 289/902, avoiding capture by the
‘Abbasids, and after brief stays in Palestine and
Egypt, he had been living in Sijilmasa, today’s Rissani
in southeastern Morocco, since 292/905. ‘Abdullah
continued to hide his identity while maintaining con-
tact with the da'i Abu ‘Abdullah. In Ramadan 296/
June 909, Abu ‘Abdullah set off at the head of his
army to Sijilmasa, to hand over the reins of power to
‘Abdullah al-Mahdi. ‘Abdullah al-Mahdi entered
Qayrawan on 20 Rabi‘ II 297/4 January 910, and
was immediately acclaimed as caliph. This repre-
sented a great achievement for the Isma‘ilis whose
da ‘wa had finally led to the establishment of a dawla,
or state, headed by the Isma‘ili imam.

In line with their universal claims, the Fatimid
caliph-imams did not abandon their da'wa activities
on assuming power. Aiming to extend their authority
and rule over the entire Muslim community ( umma )
and others, they retained their network of da 'is,
operating both within and outside Fatimid domin-
ions. However, the da'wa was reinvigorated only
after the Fatimids transferred the seat of their state
to Egypt. The first four Fatimid caliph-imams, ruling
from Ifriqiyya, encountered numerous difficulties while
consolidating their power. In addition to the continued
hostility of the ‘Abbasids, and the Umayyads of

250

FATIMIDS

Spain, who as rival claimants to the caliphate had
their own designs for North Africa, the early Fatimids
had numerous military encounters with the Byzan-
tines in Sicily and elsewhere. The Fatimids were also
obliged to devote much of their energy during their
North African period to subduing the rebellions of
the Khariji Berbers, especially those belonging to the
Zanata confederation, and the hostilities of the Sunni
inhabitants of Qayrawan and other cities of Ifriqiyya
led by their Maliki jurists. As a result, the Fatimids
could not control any region of the Maghrib, beyond
Ifriqiyya, for any extended period. The Fatimids were
city builders and founded Mahdiyya and Mansuriyya,
which served as their new capitals in Ifriqiya. As
successors to the Aghlabids, the Fatimids inherited
their fleet and the island of Sicily (Siqilliyya). Thus,
from early on, the Fatimid state was also a sea power
with Mahdiyya serving as a naval base.

Fatimid rule was firmly established in north Africa
only during the reign of al-Mu‘izz, who was able to
pursue successful policies of war and diplomacy,
resulting in territorial expansion. He contributed sig-
nificantly to the development of the state’s political,
administrative, and financial institutions, in addition
to concerning himself with the da‘wa activities. In-
deed, al-Mu‘izz succeeded in transforming the Fati-
mid caliphate from a regional power into a great
empire. He made detailed plans for the conquest of
Egypt, then ruled by the Ikhshidids on behalf of the
‘Abbasids, a hitherto perennial objective of the Fati-
mids as the first phase in their eastern strategy of
conquest. Jawhar, a commander of long services to
the dynasty, led the Fatimid expedition to Egypt in
358/969. Jawhar’s campsite outside of Fustat rapidly
developed into a city, Cairo (al-Qahira). Al-Mu‘izz
had supervised the plan of the new royal city, with
its palaces, gates, and the mosque of al-Azhar and
special buildings for government departments and the
Fatimid armies. Al-Mu‘izz arrived in his new capital
in 362/973, marking the end of the North African
phase of the Fatimid caliphate (292-362/909-973).

Egyptian Phase

The rule of al-Mu‘izz in Egypt lasted just more than
two years, during which he entrusted Ibn Killis with
the task of reorganizing the state’s finances. The con-
solidation and extension of Fatimid power in Syria, at
the expense of the ‘Abbasids and the Byzantines, was
the primary foreign policy objective of al-Mu‘izz’s son
and successor, al-‘Aziz, the first Fatimid caliph-
imam to begin his rule in Egypt in 365/975. In spite

of al-‘Aziz’s hard-won victory in Syria, however,
Damascus remained only nominally in Fatimid
hands for some time and the Fatimids failed to seize
Aleppo in northern Syria. In North Africa, the Zirids
who ruled on behalf of the Fatimids had already
begun to detach themselves from the Fatimid state.
Despite these setbacks, by the end of al-‘Aziz’s reign
in 386/996 the Fatimid empire attained its greatest
extent, at least nominally, with the Fatimid sovereign-
ty recognized from the Atlantic and the western Med-
iterranean to the Red Sea, the Hijaz, Syria, and
Palestine. At the same time, da ‘/s acting as secret
agents of the Fatimid state had continued to preach
the Isma’ili da'wa in many eastern regions, notably
Persia and Iraq. Al-‘Aziz was the first member of his
dynasty to use the Turks in the Fatimid armies, to the
strong dissatisfaction of the Berber officers, and with
catastrophic consequences. Al-‘Aziz adopted a toler-
ant policy toward non-Muslims, also utilizing the
services of capable men irrespective of their ethnicities
or religious persuasions. The assignment of numerous
high administrative and juridical positions to Sunni
Muslims, as well as Christians and Jews, in a Shi‘i
state, in fact, was a distinctive practice of the Fati-
mids. Ibn Killis (d. 380/991), a convert from Judaism,
became the first Fatimid vizier under al-‘Aziz in 367/
977. The credit for utilizing al-Azhar as a university
also belongs to Ibn Killis. The last of al-‘Aziz’s viziers
was a Coptic Christian, ‘Isa ibn Nasturus (385-386/
995-996).

Al-‘Aziz’s son and successor, al-Hakim, faced nu-
merous difficulties during his long and controversial
reign, including factional conflicts within the Fatimid
armies and confrontations with different religious
groups. One of his most important acts was, however,
the foundation of the Dar al-Tlm (the House of
Knowledge) in 395/1005. This became an institution
of learning with a fine library, where Shi‘is and Sunnis
studied a variety of sciences. The Isma‘ili da 7s also
received part of their training there. In al-Hakim’s
time, the Isma‘ili da'wa spread successfully in Iraq
and Persia through the efforts of Hamid al-Din al-
Kirmani and other learned da' is. It was also in his
reign that certain da 'is began to preach extremist
ideas, culminating in the proclamation of al-Hakim’s
divinity and the formation of the Druze movement,
which met with the opposition of the Fatimid state
and the da'wa organization in Cairo.

Fueled by factional fighting within the Fatimid
armies, the Fatimid caliphate embarked on its decline
during the long reign of al-Mustansir, who was even-
tually obliged to call on Badr al-Jamali for help. In
466/1074, Badr arrived in Cairo with his Armenian
troops and quickly succeeded in subduing the unruly

251

FATIMIDS

Turkish troops and restoring relative peace and stabil-
ity to the Fatimid state. Badr became the commander
of the armies ( amir al-juyush ) , also acquiring all the
highest positions of the Fatimid state. Badr (d. 487/
1094) ensured that his son, al-Afdal (d. 515/1121),
would succeed him in due course as the real master
of the Fatimid state. Flence, the viziers, rather than
caliphs, exercised effective power in the Fatimid state.
Territorially, too, the overall extent of the Fatimid
empire began to decline in al-Mustansir’s reign. The
Fatimids lost parts of Syria and, in North Africa
their dominions were practically reduced to Egypt.
On the other hand, the Isma'ili da'wa activities
outside of Fatimid dominions reached their peak in
al-Mustansir’s time, with much success in Yaman,
Persia, and Transoxiana. The da'wa was organized
hierarchically, with the Fatimid caliph-imam as its
supreme leader. A chief da'i (da'i al-du‘at) acted as
the executive head of the da ‘wa organization centered
in Cairo. The regions outside the Fatimid state were
divided into twelve islands (jaziras) for da'wa
purposes, each one placed under the charge of a
high-ranking officer, called hnjja (proof, guarantor),
who headed a hierarchy of subordinate da'i s and
assistants.

The organization of the Fatimid state remained
rather simple during its North African phase, when
the caliph-imams acted as the supreme heads of the
government administration and commanders of the
armies, and the highly centralized administration was
normally situated at the Fatimid palace. From the
early years in Egypt, the organizational structure of
administration and finance introduced by Jawhar and
Ibn Killis provided the basis of a complex system of
institutions. The Fatimid system of administration in
Egypt remained centralized, with the caliph and his
vizier at its head, while the provincial organs of gov-
ernment were under the strict control of central au-
thorities in Cairo. The central administration of the
Fatimids was carried on through various ministries
and departments, known as diwans. Foremost among
these units were the diwan al-insha, or chancery of
state, responsible for issuing and handling various
types of official documents; the diwan al-jaysh, the
department of the army; and the diwan al-amwal,
the ministry of finance. The officials of the Fatimid
state, both civil and military, were organized in terms
of strict hierarchies. The Fatimids also developed an
elaborate system of rituals and ceremonials. They
established a vast network of trade and commerce
after settling down in Egypt, providing the state
with a significant economic base. In Egypt, the Fati-
mids patronized intellectual activities, transforming
Cairo into a flourishing center of Islamic scholarship,
sciences, art, and culture.

On the death of al-Mustansir in 487/1094, the
Isma’ilis permanently subdivided into Nizari and
Musta’li factions, named after al-Mustansir’s sons
who claimed his heritage. Hence, the Nizari and
Musta’li Isma’ilis recognized different lines of imams.
The Musta'lis of Egypt and elsewhere acknowledged
al-Musta’li, al-Mustansir’s son and successor to the
Fatimid throne, as their imam. By 526/1132, in the
aftermath of al-Amir’s assassination and the irregular
succession of his cousin al-Hafiz, the Musta'li Isma‘i-
lis were split into the Tayyibi and Hafizi branches.
Only the Hafizi Mustaiis, situated mainly in Fatimid
Egypt, recognized al-Hafiz and the later Fatimids as
their imams.

The final phase of the Fatimid caliphate, 487-567/
1094-1171, was a turbulent one. Reduced to Egypt
proper, the Fatimid state was now almost continuous-
ly beset by political and economic crises worsened by
intense disorders within the Fatimid armies and the
arrival of the invading Crusaders. The later Fatimids
all died prematurely, and they remained puppets in
the hands of their powerful viziers, who controlled the
armies. The last Fatimid caliph-imam, al-‘Adid, was
only nine years old at the time of his succession and
his nominal reign represented the most confusing pe-
riod in Fatimid history. Power remained in the hands
of several short-lived viziers, who continuously in-
trigued against one another. The crusading Franks
also had almost succeeded in establishing a virtual
protectorate over Fatimid Egypt, while the Zangids
of Syria had resumed their own invasions. Ironically,
it was left to the last Fatimid vizier, Salah al-Din
(Saladin) to terminate Fatimid rule on 7 Muharram
567/10 September 1171, when he had the khntba read
in Cairo in the name of the reigning ‘Abbasid caliph,
symbolizing the return of Egypt to the fold of Sunni
Islam. A few days later, al-‘Adid, the fourteenth
and final Fatimid caliph-imam, died after a brief
illness while the Isma’ilis, who had always remained
a minority in Egypt, began to be severely persecuted.
The Fatimid state had thus come to a close after 262
years. Subsequently, Egypt was incorporated into
the Sunni Ayyubid state founded in 569/1174 by
Salah al-Din.

Farhad Daftary

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Haytham. Kitab al-Munazarat, ed. and trans.
W. Madelung and P. E. Walker (as The Advent of the
Fatimids.) London, 2000.

Al-Maqrizi, Taqi al-Din Ahmad. Itti'a z al-Hunafa, ’ ed.
J. al-Shayyal and M.H.M. Ahmad. 3 vols. Cairo, 1967-
1973.

Al-Nu’man ibn al-Muhammad, al-Qadi Abu Hanifa. Iftitah
al-Da'wa , ed. W. al-Qadi. Beirut, 1970.

252

FERDOWS1

Further Reading

Barrucand, Marianne, ed. L’Egypte Fatimide, son art et son
histoire. Paris, 1999.

Brett, Michael. The Rise of the Fatimids. Leiden, 2001.

Daftary, Farhad. The Isma’ilis: Their History and Doctrines.
Cambridge, MA, 1990.

Halm, Heinz. The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the
Fatimids. Translated by M. Bonner. Leiden, 1996.

. Die Kalifen von Kairo. Die Fatimiden in Agypten

973-1074. Munich, 2003.

Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics and the City in Fatimid
Cairo. Albany, NY, 1994.

Sayyid, Ayman Fu’ad. AI-Dawla al-Fatimiyya fi Misr. 2nd
ed. Cairo, 2000.

Walker, Paul E. Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatimid
History and Its Sources. London, 2002.

FERDOWSI

Ferdowsi, the major epic poet of Persian civilization,
was born in 940 CE near the town of Tus in Khor-
asan, where he apparently spent most of his life. The
date of his death is unknown, but it is traditionally
given as ca. 1020. His epic Shahnameh , a retelling of
the pre-Islamic myths, legends, and history of Iran, is
one of Persian literature’s most significant works.

Ferdowsi began Shahnameh when Khorasan was
still ruled by the Samanids, who fostered an interest
in Iran’s pre-Islamic past and were the first signifi-
cant patrons, after the Islamic conquest, of literature
in Persian. The Samanid domains were overrun by
the Ghaznavid Turks under Mahmud of Ghazni
during Ferdowsi’s lifetime — a number of anecdotes
recounted by medieval writers concerning Fer-
dowsi’s bad relations with Mahmud are probably
apocryphal.

The epic Shahnameh is in the masnavi (couplet) form
and uses the motaqareb meter (one of only two medie-
val Persian meters that do not derive from an Arabic
model; motaqareb may derive from a pre-Islamic
Persian meter). Manuscripts of the poem differ wide-
ly in length, with the longest containing up to sixty
thousand couplets; earlier and more reliable manu-
scripts tend to have approximately forty thousand
couplets. After relatively conventional introductory
matter, the poem divides into three unequal sections:
a short mythical section, a legendary section, and a
quasihistorical section. Ferdowsi cites both written
and oral sources; it is clear that he relied heavily on
written sources for the quasihistorical section, but the
earlier sections seem to owe much to oral tradition.

In contrast to other contemporary authors
concerned with Iran’s pre-Islamic past, Ferdowsi’s
cosmogony is wholly Persian, and he makes no at-
tempt to integrate Persian creation myths, or Persian
legendary material, with Qurianic accounts of the

world’s early history. Evil is present at the opening
of the poem in the form of supernatural beings (div ) ;
the first evil person in the poem is the demon king
Zahhak, identified as an Arab, and at the poem’s end
a commander who has foreseen Persia’s defeat in the
seventh-century Arab invasion prophesies the moral
and political disasters that will come to Iran at the
Arabs’ hands. The poem is thus framed by a fairly
overt hostility to Arab culture.

Shahnameh is structured as a king list, and the
reigns of fifty monarchs are described, some very
briefly, others at considerable length (for example,
the reign of the legendary king Kavus covers three
of the nine volumes of the standard edition). The
earliest stories of the mythical and legendary sections
go back to a prehistoric Indo-European past and have
some parallels in other Indo-European mythologies
(such as Hindu and Greek). The legendary section
incorporates into the narrative a separate cycle of
tales concerned with the rulers of Sistan (southeastern
Iran, Afghanistan south of the River Helmand), the
most famous of whom is Rostam, who was in all
probability a Parthian hero whose tales of exploits
had survived in oral form. The prophet Zoroaster
enters the narrative (in the one section of the poem
not written by Ferdowsi, but by his predecessor
Daqiqi) during the reign of the legendary king, Gosh-
tasp (possibly to be identified with the Achaemenid
Hystaspes), and the religious milieu of the poem is
generally Zoroastrian, although Ferdowsi shows little
detailed knowledge of Zoroastrian beliefs and makes
frequent anachronistic references to the religion. The
emphatically ethical orientation of many of the tales
of the legendary section (such as those of Kaveh, Iraj,
Seyavash, and Kay Khosrow) may be considered in
part as a legacy of pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism.

The quasihistorical section begins approximately
with Alexander the Great’s conquest of Iran. From
this point on, rulers mentioned in the poem corre-
spond with historical personages, but often in a
romanticized or garbled way (for example, Alexander
is given a Persian father; Ferdowsi confuses the reigns
of the Sasanian kings Shapur I and Shapur II). This
section is much less smoothly constructed than the
poem’s earlier portions, and the narrative contains
frequent self-contradictions (for example, the founder
of the Sasanian dynasty is given two differing genea-
logies). The Parthians, who in reality ruled Iran lon-
ger than any other dynasty, are very summarily dealt
with (their almost five hundred-year reign is com-
pressed into a couple of generations), and this is
certainly due to the Sasanian attempt to obliterate
the Parthians from the historical record. The legend-
ary grandeur of the poem’s opening half gives way to
tales of royal hedonism (such as during the reign of

253

FERDOWSI

Bahrain Gur) and detailed accounts of court intrigues,
rebellions, and palace revolutions.

Richard Davis

Further Reading

Banani, Amin. “Ferdowsi and the Art of Tragic Epic.”
In Persian Literature, ed. E. Yarshater. New York,
1988.

Davidson, Olga M. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of
Kings. Ithaca, 1994.

Davis, Dick. Epic and Sedition. Fayetteville, 1992.

Safa, Zabihollah. Hemaseh Sarai dar Iran (Epic in Iran).
Tehran, 1369/1990.

FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS

The ‘Id al-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast) and the
‘Id al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), although not men-
tioned in the Qur’an and hadith and usually referred
to by legal literature only marginally, have been con-
sidered the only two canonical festivals that the
Prophet prescribed. This meagerness of religious feasts
in Islam is difficult to explain, although it may be
connected with the constant struggle against pagan
phenomena and remnants of the past. Thus, festivals
were relegated to the background, at least by theo-
logians and jurists. Not surprisingly, however, the
ordinary folk satisfied their need for celebration
by adopting and reviving alien and pre-Islamic festi-
vals, such as Nawruz, Nile festivals, and the Night of
the Middle of Sha‘ban. In the following paragraphs,
only a few of the better-documented festivals and
celebrations will be discussed.

Calendaric Festivals

Also called the Minor Feast (al-‘Id al-Saghir) to dis-
tinguish it from the “major” Festival of Sacrifice, ‘Id
al-Fitr occurs immediately after the Ramadan fast, on
the first day of Shawwal. A special prayer led by an
imam is mandatory, and one is enjoined to give alms
known as zakat al-fitr. It was the custom of ‘Abbasid
viziers and the military commanders to march in pro-
cessions through Baghdad at dawn, dressed in gor-
geous attire, with hundreds of torchbearers, as well as
a large number of naphtha throwers. The caliph used
to attend the prayer at Baghdad’s main mosque. The
palaces were illuminated, and dining places were laid
out. Decorated boats of the caliph and dignitaries
were displayed on the Tigris and lit with lamps. The
festival usually lasted three days. In Fatimid Egypt the
main celebrations took place at the open praying

ground outside Cairo. The caliph went there in a
splendid procession to perform prayers and to deliver
a sermon. On his return to the palace, a meal was
served, which members of the ruling elite attended.
Around ATI 437/1045 CE, the traveler Nasir-i Khus-
raw was dazzled by dishes in the form of trees and
palaces made of sugar that were prepared for the
occasion. In Mamluk times, a special procession of
the vizier from the citadel to his residence concluded
the day. A detailed description dating from 1515 CE
tells, among other details, of a stage erected by the
mansion of the Mamluk sultan’s son, with trees and
bushes of leather, and fountains spraying water.

The celebration of the Muslim New Year at the
beginning of Muharram is best known from Fatimid
Egypt. It was largely an exclusive court ceremony,
which, besides the caliphal display of pomp, included
banquets and the presentation of annual reports by
officials. We first learn of a caliphal procession in 517/
1 123. Following ceremonies in the palace, the Fatimid
ruler went riding with his insignia (parasol, sword,
and inkstand), accompanied by the vizier and his
own insignia, emirs and their sons, and mixed units
of elite soldiers wearing their distinctive uniforms
and carrying parade arms. As soon as the proces-
sion became visible to the inhabitants, trumpets were
sounded and the caliphal parasol was opened. The
procession left Cairo from one of its main gates and
re-entered through another one. Merchants decorated
the route with their goods, and the gates of the quar-
ters next to the city wall were decorated with drapes
and curtains. Alms to the poor and pensions to the
high-ranking officials were distributed.

A supererogatory fast on the tenth of Muharram,
which had been replaced by Ramadan in order to
efface Jewish influence, ‘Ashura’ has been mainly
associated with the Shi‘i commemoration of the mar-
tyrdom of Husayn in Karbala’ in 60/680. However,
the Sunnis, possibly the Ayyubid dynasty, reintro-
duced it as a joyous festival to counteract the Shi‘is.
Popular practices seem to have developed especially
in Egypt and North Africa. Special dishes, rites of fire,
visiting of graves, application of henna by women,
and almsgiving and spending are customs mentioned
by medieval scholars, who largely condemned these
innovations.

The night of the fifteenth of Sha‘ban was one of the
Layali al-wuqud (Nights of Bonfires) celebrated in the
‘Abbasid and Fatimid states. It was believed that on
that night, deeds were examined and destinies deter-
mined. The tree of life, on which the name of every
human being is written, was believed to be shaken,
with the leaves of those divinely sentenced to die in
the course of the year thus to fall off. Inhabitants of
Baghdad used to flock to the banks of the Tigris

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FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS

River, illuminate boats, dance and sing, and put up
banquets. The barges of the caliphs and the elite were
decorated and illuminated. Dressed in their best
attire, the rulers were drawn in the barges along the
river, a splendid procession of boats, followed by
ordinary people. Many spent the whole night
rejoicing and playing around bonfires. Customs in-
cluded fumigating houses to ward off misfortune, and
driving wild animals into lire. A special report is of
the festival at the time of the Daylamite Mirdawij,
who celebrated it in 323/935 with unusual splendor.
He collected faggots, set up large candles, and sta-
tioned a number of naphtha throwers near the Persian
town of Isfahan. Near each elevated place in the town
a “castle” made of tree trunks was erected. Wax
figures were made to increase the effect of illumina-
tion. Lit birds were released into the dark night to
create a spectacle.

Islamicized Festivals

Of festivals adopted from pre-Islamic cultures, one
should mention Mihrjan, after the Persian Mihragan,
an originally Mazdean festival dedicated to the Vedic
divinity Mithra/Mihr and celebrated around the au-
tumn equinox. Together with Nawruz, it assumed
great importance with the rise of local dynasties in
medieval Iran in the latter part of the ninth century
to the time of the Mongol invasion. It was the cus-
tom to change dress, add extra coverings to beds,
and prepare for the cold season. There was an ex-
change of gifts, and people sent perfumed cards of
congratulations.

Shi‘i Festivals

Celebrated on the eighteenth of Dhu ’1-Hijja to mark
the designation of ‘Ali as the Prophet’s successor,
Ghadir Khum was initiated in Baghdad by the
Buyid Mu‘izz al-Dawla in 352/963. In Egypt it was
institutionalized under the Fatimids approximately 10
years later. Initially it was primarily a popular cele-
bration. However, under the Fatimid al-‘Amir (495
524/1 101-1130), it was orchestrated by the regime and
modeled on the Festival of Sacrifice that immediately
preceded it, hence deemphasizing the Shi’i aspects
and attempting a universal Muslim appeal. Under
al-Hafiz (525-544/1131-1149), due to political inner
struggles, Ghadir Khum once again became a thor-
oughly Shi‘i-Isma‘ili affair. In a detailed description
from ca. 549/1154, we find its high point in the

reading of the supposed text of ‘Ali’s investiture
( nass ) before a royal assembly.

Celebrations

Festive occasions in Baghdad were the installation of
a new caliph or a birth of a caliph’s son, royal circum-
cision, and marriage. In the circumcision festival of
Mu’tazz, son of al-Mutawakkil (232-247/847-861), a
thousand robes of honor were distributed to the
guests, and the same number of mounts to depart
on, each clad in gold and silver trappings. Also, a
thousand slaves were manumitted. It was the custom
of ‘Abbasid caliphs to invite orphans and boys of
poor families into the palace to be circumcised with
the royal prince. Gifts were bestowed on their parents
and alms were distributed. The wedding of al-
Ma’mun to Buran, daughter of his vizier, was cele-
brated in 210/825-826 in Wash for more than forty
days. Thousands of pearls of unique size were show-
ered from a golden tray upon the couple, sitting on a
golden mat. Balls of musk, each containing the name
of an estate, slave-girls, or other gifts, fell on the
guests, who thereafter received the promised gifts.

Mawlid

Perhaps the most significant development in the his-
tory of medieval Islamic festivals is the emergence of
the mawlid al-nabi, namely, the celebration of the
birthday of the Prophet Muhammad on the twelfth
Rabi‘ al-Awwal. It possibly was first celebrated in
Fatimid Egypt in the eleventh century. During the
celebration in Cairo in 517/1123, the earliest for
which a description is available, the Fatimid caliph
distributed alms, bread, and dishes and held a recep-
tion. From descriptions derived from the Fatimid
period, we learn of the participation of the Chief
Judge (qadi al-qudat) and other high officials, who
rode in a procession to the major square known as
Bayn al-Qasrayn. Sermons were given and the Qur’an
was recited. The oldest celebrations among the Sunnis
were under Nur al-Din ibn Zanki (5 1 1 569/1 1 1 8
1174). The mawlid was celebrated at night, fires were
lit, a banquet was held, and poems were recited. Ibn
Khallikan’s description of the mawlid in his home-
town of Irbil, southeast of Mosul, at the beginning of
the thirteenth century is probably an eyewitness ac-
count and emphasizes the large number of partici-
pants who came from Mosul, Baghdad, and other

255

FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS

large cities. Due to differences of opinion regarding the
Prophet’s date of birth, the festival was celebrated
alternately on the eighth and twelfth of Rabi‘ al-
Awwal. In another report of the Irbil festival, we
learn of the banquet, the robes distributed by the
ruler to scholars and Sufis, a concert (sama‘) given to
the Sufis, and alms donated. Twenty wooden deco-
rated pavilions were erected along the road leading
from the citadel to the Sufi lodge ( khanqah ), to
accommodate visitors, musical bands, and shadow-
players. Masses of sheep, camels, and cows were
slaughtered. On the Night of the Nativity, a candle-
light procession, each candle fastened to the back of a
mule and supported by an attendant, moved from the
citadel to the khanqah. Next morning, notables and
others assembled around a wooden tower, where the
ruler watched a military parade in the hippodrome
(maydan) and listened to the preachers clustered
around the pulpit, all the while summoning guests to
him to present them with robes of honor. Two elements
in the Irbil festival are noteworthy: the prominent role
of the Sufis and the candlelight procession.

In Mamluk Egypt, Sufi shaykhs performed noctur-
nal celebrations of the mawlid at their zawiyas in the
presence of large crowds. On occasion, and not with-
out criticism, wine was consumed and women were
present, making one wonder how much of the reli-
gious aspect remained. The mawlid was introduced
to the Maghrib via Ceuta sometime in the thirteenth
century, possibly as a countermeasure to Muslims’
participation in Christmas. It was not before 690/
1291, however, that the Marinid sultan made it offi-
cial in Morocco. By the beginning of the sixteenth
century, at the latest, the observance of certain maw-
lid rites seems to have become the concern of the
Moroccan commoners as well. Leo Africanus reports
that schoolchildren in Fez were expected to present
their teachers with colored and decorated candles,
some of which were exceptionally heavy, with assort-
ed fruit and flowers in wax. In the second half of the
fourteenth century, Abu Hammu Musa of the 'Abd
al-Wadid dynasty at Tlemsen bestowed special splen-
dor on the mawlid celebration. The central feature
was the nightly recital of poems in praise of the
Prophet, followed by pious exhortations. People of
all ranks were admitted to the ceremony at the
palace’s decorated courtyard. Celebration lasted till
daybreak and was concluded by a banquet. In Anda-
lus, the mawlid was introduced around the mid-
thirteenth century. As for Mecca, early detailed
descriptions derive from the mid-sixteenth century,
yet celebrations probably antedate them. We learn
of processions of the qadis to the Prophet’s birth-
place, the illumination of streets, musical perfor-
mances and large crowds.

Not proscribed by law, the mawlid was opposed by
certain Orthodox theologians, such as the Hanbali
Ibn Taymiyya and the Maliki Ibn al-Hajj al-‘Abdari
and their supporters. However, a legal opinion
(fatwa) written ca. 890/1485 by al-Suyuti, the Egyp-
tian scholar, considers the mawlid a “good innova-
tion” (bid‘a hasana) as long as it just consisted of a
gathering, Qur’an recitation, the recounting of the
Prophet’s biography, and the miracles associated
with his birth, and a banquet.

In Fatimid times there were five other mawlid cel-
ebrations of ‘Ali, Fatima, Hasan, Husayn, and the
reigning caliph. In later periods in Egypt, mawlids
emerged to honor various Sufi saints. Such was the
commemoration at Tanta of Ahmad al-Badawi, the
most popular Egyptian saint. In late Mamluk and
early Ottoman times it is reported to have attracted
more people than the Prophet’s mawlid or even the
Pilgrimage. Another famous mawlid was in honor
of Shaykh Isma’il (d. 790/1388) at Inbaba, west of
Cairo, which possibly absorbed elements of the an-
cient festival of Isis. Also, in historical accounts of
these sorts of mawlids, “scandalous” behavior is oc-
casionally condemned, as is the replacement of Qur’an
recitals by songs and music, and even the performance
of shadow plays.

In conclusion, one should note that despite objec-
tions to the participation of Muslims in non-Muslim
festivals, reality was different. In Egypt, for example,
there appears to have been significant participation by
Muslims in the Festival of Immersion and in Epiphany.

Boaz Shoshan

Further Reading

Ahsan, Muhammad Mnazir. Social Life under the Ahbasids.
London: Longman, 1979.

Ferhat, Halima. “Le Culte du Prophete au Maroc au XHIe
siecle: Organisation du Pelerinage et Celebration du
Mawlid.” In La religion civique a I’epoque medievale et
moderne , ed. Andre Vauchez, 89-97. Palais Farnese:
Ecole frangaise de Rome, 1995.

Fierro, Maribel. “The Celebration of ‘Ashura’ in Sunni
Islam.” In Proceedings of the 14th Congress of the
Union Europeenne cles Arabisants et Islamisants, Pt. 1,
ed. A. Fodor, 193-208. Budapest, 1995.

Grunebaum, G. E. von. Muhammadan Festivals. London:
Curzon Press, 1976.

Kaptein, N. J. G. Muhammad’s Birthday Festival. Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1993.

. “Materials for the History of the Prophet Muham-
mad’s Birthday Celebration in Mecca.” Islam 69 (1992):
193-203.

Langner, Barbara. Untersuchungen zur Historischen Volks-
kunde Agyptens nach Mamlukischen Quellen. Berlin:
Klaus Schwarz, 1983.

256

FEZ

Lazarus- Yaffeh, Hava. “Muslim Festivals.” In Some Reli-
gious Aspects of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1981, 38-47.

Lev, Yaacov. State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1991.

“Mihragan.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed. Leiden: E.J.
Brill.

Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid
Cairo. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994.

Shinar, P. “Traditional and Reformist Mawlid Celebrations
in the Maghrib.” In Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet ,
ed. Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, 371-413. Jerusalem: The
Hebrew University, 1977.

Shoshan, Boaz. Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. Cam-
bridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

FEZ

The city of Fez (Fas in Arabic) was founded by the
Idrisid dynasty at the end of the AH second/eighth
CE century, in the north of Morocco. It was com-
posed of two cities separated by the Wadi Fas. It had
considerable strategic significance in the fight between
the Umayyads of al-Andalus and the Fatimids of
Ifriqiyya. At the beginning of the eleventh century,
Fez was taken by the Berber tribe of the Zanata, and
at the end of the same century, it fell into the hands of
the Almoravids. Fez then became the Almoravids’
main military base in Morocco. It is also in this period

that the Qarawiyyin mosque began to acquire increas-
ing significance as a center of learning. Many of the
‘ulama’ representatives of Western Malikism were
trained in this center. During the Almohad period,
the old city of Fez grew to its present proportions. In
the thirteenth century, Fez became part of the Mar-
inids’ territories, who made it their capital and under
whose government it reached its highest economic
development. The Marinids built a new urban center,
Fas al-Jadid, to the west of the old city. Fas al-Jadid
came to be the administrative and military center,
whereas Fas al-Bali (old Fez), also known as al-
Madina, remained the center for commercial activ-
ities. In the aftermath of the Christians’ conquest of
Cordova and Seville, important Andalusi, families
learned men and landowners migrated to Fez and
other cities in Morocco. When the Sa'dids took Fez
in 955/1459, the city became the center of Sharifism,
radiating its influence out to the rest of Morocco. The
success of this movement is linked to the personality
of Idris II (d. 828), considered to be a direct descen-
dant of the Prophet Muhammad. He was the founder
of the city and “sultan” of its saints. What was prin-
cipally indicative of the beginning of the veneration
of Idris was the discovery of his tomb in 1438, in the
Shurafa’ mosque. By the middle of the sixteenth

Mosque of Qarawyin, Fez, Morocco. View from the main entrance into the courtyard with ablution basin. Last enlargement
under Almoravid sultans (1062-1147 CE). Credit: Erich Lessing/ Art Resource, NY.

257

FEZ

century the situation in Fez had deteriorated while

retaining certain prosperity. Many Flispanic Jews

found refuge in Fez after the expulsion of 1492.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Further Reading

Beck, H.L. L’lmage d’Idris II, ses Descendants de Fas et la
Politique Sharifienne des Sultans Marinides (656-869/
1258-1465). Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989.

Bennassar, B. “La Vida de los Renegados Espanoles y
Portugueses en Fez (hacia 1580-1615).” En Relaciones
entre la Peninsula Iberica con el Norte de Africa ( siglos
XIII-XVI), ed. M. Garcia Arenal and M. J. Viguera,
665-678. Actas del Coloquio, Madrid, 17-18 Diciembre
1987. Madrid, 1988.

Berque, J. “Ville et universite. Aperpu sur fhistoire de
l’ecole de Fes.” Revue Historique du Droit Frangais et
Etranger (1949): 64-116.

Blachere, R. “Fez chez les geographes Arabes du Moyen-
Age.” Hesperis 18 (1934): 41M8.

. “Fes, ou le destin d’une medina.” De I’Euphrate a

I'Atlas. Paris, 1978.

Burckhardt, T. “Fez.” En La Ciudad isldmica, ed. R. B.
Serjeant, 209-221. Barcelona, 1982.

. Fez, City of Islam, trans. W. Stoddardt. Cambridge,

MA: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992.

Calasso, G. “Genelogie e Miti di Fondazione: Note sulle
Origini di Fas secondo le Fonti Merinide.” In La Bisac-
cia clello Sheikh. Omaggio ad Alessandro Bausani Isla-
mistanel sessantesimo compleanno. Venecia, 1981, 17-27.

Cigar, N. “Societe et Vie politique a Fes dans les premiers
‘Alawites (ca. 1660/1830).” Hesperis-Tamuda 18 ( 1978
1979): 93-172.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam s. v. “Fas” [R. Le Tourneau] and
[H. Terrase],

The Encyclopaedia of Islam s.v. “al-Karawiyyin” [G. Dever-
dun],

Gaillard, H., Une Ville de Tlslam: Fez. Paris, 1905.

Garcia-Arenal, M. "The Revolution of Fas in 869/1465 and
the Death of Sultan ‘Abd al-Haqq al-Marini.” Bulletin of
the School of Oriental and African Studies 41 (1978): 43-66.

. “Les Bildiyyin de Fes, un Groupe de Neomusulmans

d'origine Juive.” Studia Islamica 66 (1987): 1 13-143.

. “Mahdi, murabit, sharif: L’avenement de la dynas-

tie Sa‘dienne.” Studia Islamica 71 (1990): 74—114.

. Saintete et Pouvoir Dynastique au Maroc: la resis-
tance de Fes aux Sa‘diens.” Annales ESC (1990-1994):
1019-1042.

Garcia-Arenal, M., y Wiegers, G. Entre el Islam y Occi-
dente. Vida de Samuel Pallache, judio de Fez. Madrid:
Siglo Veintinuno, 1999.

Gerbert, J.S. Jewish Society in Fez (1450-1700): Studies in
Communal and Economic Life. Leiden, 1980.

Ibn Suda, ‘A.S. “Buyutat Fas qadiman wa hadithan.” Al-
Bahth aWilmi 22 (1973): 23(1974) y 25(1976).

Kably, M. Societe, pouvoir et religion au Maroc a la fin du
Moyen Age. Paris, 1986.

Le Tourneau, R. Fes avant le Protectorat: Etude Economique
et Sociale d’une Ville de TOccident Musulman. Paris, 1949.

Mezzine, M. Fas wa Badiyatuha. Musahama fi ta’rikh al-
Maghrib al-Sa'di. Rabat, 1986.

. “Les relations Entre les Places Occupees et les

Localites de la Region de Fes aux XVeme et XVIeme
siecles a partir des Documents Locaux Inedits: les

Nawazil.” En Relaciones entre la Peninsula Iberica con
el Norte de Africa (siglos XIII-XVI), ed. M. Garcia-
Arenal and M. J. Viguera, 539-560. Actas del Coloquio,
Madrid, 17-18 diciembre 1987. Madrid, 1988.

Naciri, M. “La Medina de Fes: Trame Urbaine en Impasses
et Impasse de la Planification Urbaine,” in Present et
avenir des medinas (de Marrakech a Alep), ed. J. Bisson
and J.-F. Troin. Tours, 1982, 237-254.

Nwya, P. Un Mystique Predicateur a la Qarawiyyin de Fes:
Ibn ‘Abbad de Ronda ( 1332-1390) . Beirut, 1961.

Peretie, M. A. “Les medrasas de Fes.” Archives Marocaines
18 (1912): 257-372.

Powers, D. Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-
1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Revault, J. L. Golvin, and A. Amahan. Palais et demeures
de Fes. Epoques Merinide et Saadienne ( XIV-XVII sie-
cles). Paris, 1985.

Rodriguez Mediano, F. Familias de Fez (ss. XV-XVII).
Madrid: CSIC, 1995.

Shatzmiller, M. “Les Premiers Merinides et le Milieux
Religieux de Fes: l’lntroduction des Medersas.” Studia
Islamica 43 (1976): 109-118.

Al-Tazi, M. L’Universite Qarawiyyin. Mohammedia, 1980.

FLOODS

Any assessment of economic life in the Islamic world
in the Middle Ages, whether rural or urban, is incom-
plete without considering numerous natural disasters
occurring throughout the region and the period. With
the exception of work on plague epidemics and the
writings of professors N.N. Ambraseys and Charles
Melville about earthquakes in the Middle East, there
is a dearth of literature about disasters in Islamic/
Middle East history. This article is a modest attempt
to fill at least one gap in the historiography of the
Near East and Islamic Spain in the era prior to 1700.
The purpose of the present study is to indicate the
nature and impact of floods in Muslim lands between
600 and ca. 1600 CE, to address the consequences, both
direct and indirect, of these floods, and to assess their
role in the lives of the affected areas. The focus will be
on floods as disasters rather than, for example, the
benign effects of the annual Nile flood, with its atten-
dant benefits of water for irrigation and alluvial soil.

The first and obvious point is that floods occurred
primarily in the two great river valley systems of the
Near East. Hence, most floods were associated with
the areas of the Tigris and Euphrates and with the
Nile Valley. It should be understood, however, that
floods were not confined to these regions. Damaging
floods occurred in other places, such as Arabia and
Iran. An overwhelming number, however, were cen-
tered in Iraq and Syria. When unusually heavy rain
came, the result was often devastation for cities or
villages on or near rivers or streams.

Floods were an equal menace to people and prop-
erty. In 960, Egyptian pilgrims drowned in a flood. In

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FLOODS

the city of Samarra (Iraq), many people perished in
the terrible flood of 841. A flood in Jubba, Khuzistan
in 902 also killed many people. Examples could be
multiplied. Suffice it to say that, like famines, epi-
demics, and earthquakes, floods were lethal. Again,
that one is dealing with a life-threatening event must
be recalled when analyzing demographic trends or
patterns in the early Islamic period. The sources pro-
vide virtually no mortality statistics for floods, but it
is evident that losses could be severe and, as a result,
flood mortality must be factored into systematic
discussions of mortality patterns.

The economic historian must also consider the
destruction of property and animals occasioned by
especially severe floods. One reads of numerous exam-
ples of destroyed shops and houses, livestock killed,
and crops devastated. In 43/742, shops were ruined
and houses damaged along the Tigris in northern
Iraq. In 46/845, similarly, Mosul experienced a terri-
ble flood that ravaged market areas and residences.
Sources also record instances of destruction of goods
in the shops, for example, in Hamah, Syria, in 44/
1343. Frequently, cultivation was disrupted or wiped
out by floods. Destruction might result from the in-
undation of fields or demolition of irrigation works or
dams. In 1104, the Tigris flooded, with crops, houses,
and other property damaged. A flood hit Andalusia in
Islamic Spain in 848-849, devastating dams, barrages,
and mills. Frequently, animals perished, confronting
affected societies with a loss of power, food, and
transportation. Also, populations were deprived of
revenues from the sale of the animals.

Communications systems were disrupted at times
with the inundation of roads and destruction or dam-
aging of bridges. This impeded the movement of tra-
velers and negatively affected the movement of goods
to market. Coupled with the actual loss of crops, this
no doubt had an impact on supplies and prices in
contiguous market areas, as reflected, for example,
in the price rises associated with the Baghdad flood
of 1325.

Floods also disrupted normal educational and reli-
gious life. On any number of occasions, mosques and
madrasas were damaged or demolished. The Baghdad
flood of 1159 damaged mosques, whereas a flood of
1242-1243, in the same city, damaged the Nizamiyya
Madrasa, a main center of learning in the Islamic
East. Madrasas in Damascus were destroyed in the
flood of 1316. Obviously, the normal functioning of
religious and educational institutions was hampered
or nullified by these events.

Ultimately the worst damage was personal loss
suffered by citizens of various regions. Chronicles
are replete with statements of private dwellings being
destroyed or damaged. One reads of the destruction of

gardens or trees and other personal property that
could be used to supplement diet or, at the very
least, to make life more pleasant. Furthermore, survi-
vors of floods were prey to fears and stress associated
with the catastrophe. In the Tigris flood of 1207-
1208, one reads of the fright experienced by the peo-
ple affected. When the Nile flooded in 1371-1372
people went to the Mosque of ‘Amr and prayed that
God would cause the waters to recede. Floods caused
trauma and disease. Cemeteries were inundated and
damaged. Floods overwhelmed sewers and plumbing
in Baghdad, with serious disease outbreaks or epi-
demics ensuing. The Baghdad flood of 1495 caused
the spread of throat disease, fever, and even typhoid
fever. In this way, floods sparked another major dis-
aster touching the Muslim world: epidemic disease.
Here, again, one sees evidence that one catastrophe
could contribute to or reinforce others.

In the final analysis, floods served as another
source of disruption and loss for those living in the
medieval Islamic regions. Earthquakes, epidemics,
famines, and other disasters caused a great deal of
suffering and trauma between 600 and 1500. Floods,
although not as devastating as outbreaks of bub-
onic plague or particularly powerful earthquakes,
took their share of lives and destroyed property in a
serious fashion. Revenues for private individuals,
landlords, governments, and military establishments
fell prey to this catastrophe, as they did to others.
Suffering exceeded a simple loss of revenue. Floods,
like other disasters, affected lives in the most fun-
damental emotional and psychological ways. Chroni-
cles cannot help us quantify this, if such a thing was
possible, but they show us the existence of deeper
effects.

William F. Tucker

Primary Sources:

Arib ibn Sa‘d Katib al-Qurtubi. Silat ta’rikh al-Tabari.
Leiden, 1965.

Al-‘Ayni. Ta’rikh al-Badr. British Library Ms. Or. Add.
22: 368.

Al-Bayhaqi. Tarikh-i Masud, trans. as Istorija Masuda, by
A. K. Arends. Tashkent, 1962.

Al-Dhahabi. Kitab al-‘ibar fi khabar man ghabara. Bib-
liotheque Nationale Ms. Arabes, 5819.

Dionysus of Tell-Mahre. Chronique. Trans. J. B. Chabot.
Paris, 1895.

Ibn al-Athir, ‘Izz al-Din. Al-Kamil fi al-Ta’rikh. Vols VII-
VIII. Beirut, 1965-1966.

Ibn al-Dawadari. Kan: al-Durar wa Janii' al-Ghurar. Part 8.
Freiburg, 1971.

Ibn al-Fuwati. Hawadith al-Jami'a. Baghdad, 1932.

Ibn Idhari. Bayan Al-mughrib. Vol II. Beirut, 1967.

Ibn al-Jawzi. Al-Muntazam fi Ta’rikh al-Muluk wa al-
Umam. Vol. IX. Beirut, 1967.

259

FLOODS

Ibn Kathir. Al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya. Vol. XII. Cairo, no
date.

Ibn Qadi Shuhbah. Dhayl ‘ala Ta’rikh al-Islam. Bibliothe-
que Nationale Ms. Arabes 1598.

Michel le Syrien. Chronique. Trans. J. B. Chabot. Beirut,
1963.

Sibt ibn al-‘Ajami. “Les Tresors cl’ Or" de Sibt ibn al-Ajami.
Vol. II. Trans. Jean Sauvaget. Beirut, 1950.

Further Reading

Ambraseys, N.N. and C.P. Melville. A History of Persian
Earthquakes. Cambridge, MA, 1982.

Ambraseys, N.N., C.P. Melville, and R.D. Adams. The
Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea: A Historical
Review. Cambridge, MA, 1994.

Borsch, Stuart. “Nile Floods and the Irrigation System in
Fifteenth-Century Egypt.” Mamluk Studies Review. IV
(2000): 131-145.

Sousa, Ahmad. Favadanat Baghdad fi al-ta’rikh. Vols. I and
II. Baghdad, 1963-1965.

Tucker, William F. “Natural Disasters and the Peasantry in
Mamluk Egypt.” J.E.S.H.O. XXIV, ii (1981): 215-224.

. “Environmental Hazards, Natural Disasters, Eco-
nomic Loss, and Mortality in Mamluk Syria.” Mamluk
Studies Review III (1999): 109-128.

FOLK LITERATURE, ARABIC

Muslim Arabs revered the language that enshrined
their poetic heritage, and in which the Qur’an had
been revealed. This conservativeness gave their high
culture remarkable continuity, but it also almost
eclipsed their folk literature.

Regional uninflected vernaculars soon replaced
classical Arabic as the medium of everyday spoken
communication, yet most of the learned saw no merit
in any text that did not conform to classical grammar,
and they resisted its preservation. It may, however, be
assumed that the masses had some stake in the belief-
system of the elite, and with it in much that is found in
early standard texts. Some pre-Islamic notions, such as
that each poet had an identifiable demon inspiring
him, were used fancifully by established writers, but
close to folk perceptions were accounts of encounters
with such creatures metamorphosed into animals in
Abu Zayd al-Qurash's (late ninth/early tenth century)
Jamharat Ash'ar al-'Arab (The Gathering of Arabs’
Verses ’) and in Kitab al-Hayawan ( ‘The Book of Ani-
mals’) by 'Amr ibn Bahral-Jahiz(ca. 775-868/869 CE).
Fables were also embedded in such books by al-Jahiz.

As still happens, the Qur’an gave scope for
embroideries on its narratives and on the interven-
tions of jinns and sorcerers. Heroic exploits by early
defenders of the faith were no doubt inspiring, as were
later the deeds of holy men recorded in Sufi literature.
A less conjectural picture of what Arab folk literature
was may be sought in the genres shunned by the

learned. These were the “idle” tale (that is, the one
serving no purpose other than entertainment), the
epic, and the theatrical representation.

The richest treasury of Arab folk narratives is The
Thousand and One Nights, bringing together fables,
fairy tales, romances, and humorous anecdotes whose
folk origin is unquestioned. Some spontaneity was
lost when the material went through the hands of
scribes who found it necessary to bring the language
into conformity with classical grammar, but the
marks of oral delivery are there, not least in the artful
nesting of stories that served the performer well by
enticing his audience to attend yet another session.

Ironically, scholars once debated why there was no
Arab epic, although at the folk level, they could have
found a dozen extensive cycles of stories full of mar-
tial deeds, which some call epics but others call
romances (see Epics, Arabic).

The record of premodern dramatic literature con-
sists solely of three shadow plays by Shams al-Din Ibn
Daniyal (1248-1310). These are only partly in the
vernacular, so their status in the literary canon is
uncertain; but testimonies abound to the popularity
of shadow plays and of puppet shows and peep shows
both before and after Ibn Daniyal. Live performers
appeared in the passion play performed in Kerbela
every year, commemorating the martyrdom of the
Prophet’s grandson al-Husayn. Dressed-up charac-
ters also took part in religious processions. But actors
of reliably professional status are mentioned only in
the later centuries, performing in a kind of monologue
or dialogue, usually characterizing some trade or
occupation. None of these activities, however,
appears to have involved the unfolding of a play
with a many-sided self-consistent plot.

Echoes of other forms of folk literary activity may
be discerned in the work of Abu ‘1-Hasan Ibn Sudun
(1407-1464), a learned man who nevertheless made a
name for himself, mainly as an entertainer, using both
the classical and vernacular idioms in prose and in
verse.

It is in Islamic Spain, where Arabized Muslims and
Romance speakers interacted extensively, that folk
literature made its clearest mark in literary history.
Here narratives, which must have been popular else-
where, survived in Romance translation, if not in
their Arabic originals. One example is the Legend of
Alexander, which was widely disseminated from the
third century on, and in its Arabic version was tenu-
ously linked with the Qur’anic Dhu i-Qarnayn. Here
also, stanzaic verse in the vernacular, known as zajal,
had its first celebrated exponent by Abu Bakr Ibn
Quzman (ca. 1086-1160), who mentions several fore-
runners. Once this door had been opened, a number
of learned treatises on nonclassical verse forms

260

FOLK LITERATURE, PERSIAN

appeared in many Arab lands, beginning with .Saliyy
al-Din al-Hilli’s work (ca. 1278-1349), in which he
described the so-called Seven Arts, including meters
used in folk compositions. Al-Hilli‘s illustrations are
mostly compositions of his own, but some that he
quotes as belonging to different regions may be close
to genuine folk items. Thereafter it became common
for established poets to use these forms, but only for
occasional witticisms. Worthy of closer attention is
‘Abd Allah al-Ghubari (second half of fourteenth
century), whose compositions in the vernacular are
extensive and varied. Like Ibn Sudun, he may yield
clues to the tastes and practices of folk poets. Yet the
record of genuine premodern folk poems and songs
remains scanty.

Pierre Cachia

Further Reading

Adams, I. Persia by a Persian: Personal Experiences, Man-
ners, Customs, Habits, Religious and Social Life in Per-
sia. Chicago, 1900.

Chodzko, Aleksander. Specimens of the Popular Poetry of
Persia, As Found in the Adventures and Improvisations of
Kurroglou. London, 1842.

Enjavi-Shirazi, Abolqasem. Qessheha-ye Irani. 3 vols. Teh-
ran, 1973-1975.

. Mardom v a Shahnameh. Tehran, 1975.

Hedayat, Sadeq. Nayrangestan. Tehran, 1963.

Ra'isnia, Rahim. Koroghlu dar Afsaneh va Tarilch. Tabriz,
1987.

Ravandi, Morteza. Tarikh-e Ejtema‘i-ye Iran. 3 vols. Teh-
ran, 1977.

Rypka, Jan et al. History of Iranian Literature. Dordrecht,

" Holland, 1968.

Shahri, Ja'far. Tarikh-e Ejtema'i-ye Terhan-e Qadim. 6 vols.
Tehran, 1990.

FOLK LITERATURE, TURKISH

Turkish folk (or oral) literature includes, but is not
limited, to folk poetry (‘halk §iiri’, ‘d§ik §iiri’), tales
(‘masal’), jokes (‘fikra’), legends (‘efsane’),
hagiographic legends ( ‘menakibnames’ ) , riddles
(‘bilmece’), proverbs (‘atalarsdzii’), epics (‘destan’)
and romantic epics (‘hikaye’), and folk theater
(‘seyirlik oyunlar’). The most significant aspect of
all these genres is the fact that they are produced
predominately in the oral mode and have survived
and been (re)created through oral transmission for
centuries.

Riddles constitute a significant portion of Turkish
folk literature. Riddling has indispensable social and
cultural functions, especially in the rural communities
of Anatolia. In Turkish, generally the term bilmece is
used for riddle. However, in some local dialects, we
observe the usage of tapmaca for the same concept. In
addition, in many areas of Anatolia, the term matal
(or metel, metal, masal, mesel ) is commonly employed

(see Ba§gdz and Tietze 1973). Ba§goz and Tietze have
provided us with more than twelve thousand Turkish
riddles in a single volume.

Turkish menakibnames, are composed of hagio-
graphic folk legends surrounding the lives of famous
religious figures. In these legends, we find the repre-
sentation of the extraordinary powers and events
associated with Islamic saints and their miracles.
Such common motifs as “resuscitation,” “killing a
dragon,” “curing the sick,” “transformation,” “fore-
seeing the future,” “total control over natural forces,”
“feeding the entire population of a community with a
single fruit tree,” “praying on a rug on the water,”
“communicating with animals,” “incarnation,” and
the like constitute the basic thematic content of these
stories. Even though the corpus of surviving Turkish
menakibname literature seems to have been produced
in written form, different levels of orality can be
observed in almost all of them. The figures and geo-
graphical settings of these manuscripts can be local
and culture-specific, but their motifs and structure
show similarities to other traditions.

If we were to illustrate only one representative
form of folk theater from the Ottoman Empire to
the Republic of Turkey, it would be the Turkish
shadow theater called Karagoz. The name of this
performance comes from one of the two main char-
acters: Karagoz (the other being Hajivat). It is a
comedy form performed by a single puppeteer using
entirely handmade, two-dimensional colorful pup-
pets, reflecting their shadows through a transparent
screen. Continuously changing his voice from one
character to another, the puppeteer becomes the
voice and life of many social, cultural, and political
entities of the Ottoman state. He mimics, for instance,
the voice, appearance, and manners of an Arab, an
Albanian, an Armenian, a Greek, an Iranian, a
drunk, an opium addict, or sometimes even an animal
such as a dog or a cat, in order to make his audience
laugh. Usually what creates the comical element for
the audience is the stereotypical representation of the
many different peoples of the Ottoman Empire, and
this includes a Turkish character as well, called Baba
Himmet, undoubtedly one of the most idiotic charac-
ters of the play. Legend has it that the Karagoz theater
was born in the city of Bursa during the time of Orhan
Gazi (1326-1362 CE). Two men, Hajivat (a mason)
and Karagoz (a blacksmith), were workers in the
construction of a mosque in Bursa. They were so
funny that the other workers would listen to them
and laugh all day, thus delaying the construction
process of the mosque. Informed about this serious
problem, the Ottoman Sultan gave the order for their
execution. According to Ilhan Basgoz, this perfor-
mance art appeared in Istanbul right after the 1517

262

FOLK MEDICINE

Egypt campaign of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520), who
had watched a similar shadow theater performance in
Egypt, seeing an Arab puppeteer making fun of the
enemy of the victorious sultan. Pleased with this
mockery, the Ottoman sultan invited the puppeteer
to Istanbul to repeat the same performance to his sons
(Silay 1998). Karagoz performances remained one of
the major sources of entertainment for the people
until the introduction of Western-style theater and
modern Turkish cinema later in the nineteenth centu-
ry. Obviously, the birth of the modern performing
arts and media, such as radio and television, contrib-
uted greatly to the demise of this traditional per-
formance, although numerous fruitless attempts
were made to give it a new lease on life during the
Republican period.

The two most fundamental Turkish folk poetry
forms are: ( 1) mdni, and (2) tiirkii. Mdni is the shortest
poetic form and is comprosed of four seven-syllable
lines. Its rhyme scheme is the following: a a x a. Tiirkii
is an orally composed and generally speaking an
anonymous poetic form, even though a significant
number of tiirkii s were composed by known indivi-
duals. The themes of tiirkiis can vary from love to
natural disasters to everyday life events. There seems
to be no limit as to what can constitute the “appro-
priate” theme of a tiirkii. From this point of view
alone, tiirkiis make up the most important and perhaps
richest literary form of Turkish folk literature. Tiirkiis
are usually composed either in three-line stanzas, four-
line stanzas, or in couplets, and some of the most
widely used tiirkii rhyme schemes are the following:
a a x a/b b x b/c c x c/d d x d...; b b b a/c c c a/d d d a/e
e e a...; a a a/b b b/c c c/d d d...; and a a/b b/c c/d d....

Kemal Silay

Further Reading

Basgoz, ilhan, and Tietze, Andreas. Bilmece: A Corpus of
Turkish Riddles. Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1973.

Silay, Kemal, ed. Turkish Folklore and Oral Literature:
Selected Essays of Ilhan Ba$go:. Bloomington: Indiana
University Turkish Studies Series, 1998.

FOLK MEDICINE

Various types of medical practices, none of which had
absolute authority over the others, were recognized in
society. Doctors and apothecaries well versed in the
Greek-Islamic medical theories mixed their potions
and treated people in accordance with humoral prin-
ciples. Greek-Islamic medicine was at its best in ad-
vising healthy diets and moderate habits and stressing
the prevention of illnesses. However, the humoral

theory was not sufficient to detect the actual causes
of illnesses, and when it came to treating a disease,
therapies did not necessarily cure the patient. Thus at
times, alternative views prevailed and people chose
not to ask a doctor’s advice but trusted well-tested
household remedies, bought protective amulets, or
sought the help of the spiritual world by visiting
tombs of saints or other holy places.

One of the available medical systems was the so-
called medicine of the Prophet, which was derived
from alleged sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.
Some of these sayings reflect medical practices and
beliefs popular among pre-Islamic Arabs: “There is
health in three things: drinking of honey, incision
made by the cupper’s knife and cautery with fire; I
forbid my people to cauterize,” and, “Fever is of fire,
cool it with cold water.” These types of sayings were
included in the major hadith collections, and some
scholars subjected them to closer analysis with refer-
ence to the Greek-Islamic medical system.

Humoral physiology and pathology were widely
accepted by the authors of “prophetic medicine”;
they did not question that illness, caused by humoral
imbalance, was to be cured by correcting such imbal-
ance. Scholars in this field accepted dietary cures
administered by medical practitioners, and in many
cases they just repeated the physicians’ recommenda-
tions; in some instances, however, they were able to
point out shortcomings of medical theory and to
introduce their own healing methods.

Although the Prophet’s medicine in many ways
reflected popular views on disease and cures, it did
not approve of all aspects of folk medicine. The
authors accepted some traditional cures and etiologi-
cal concepts, but they considered folk medicine in
many ways inefficient. In the hierarchy of medical
systems, the authors ranked the Prophet’s medicine
at the top and folk medicine at the bottom, asserting
that the Prophet’s medicine related to Greek-Islamic
medicine as the latter did to the medicine of roadside
practitioners and old women.

The ordinary people did not necessarily agree with
this view but considered the various forms of therapy
as more or less equal alternatives. The choices people
made in deciding how to cure a particular illness
varied according to their understanding of the causes
of the illness and their experience in the effects of the
various treatments offered. The choice of therapy
depended also on social and financial status. Those
who could afford the fees called a doctor to treat their
ailments, whereas others resorted to the services of
apothecaries and herbalists and bought the ingredi-
ents for traditional household remedies. Medicaments
could be chosen on the basis of their temperamental
qualities, but they might also be herbs known by

263

FOLK MEDICINE

experience to be efficient against ordinary aches and
pains.

Popular views on the etiology of illnesses some-
times differed from the views of the physicians. They
held that the plague was caused by putrid air ( mias-
ma) and that in turn, miasma was caused by agents
such as stagnant water, drought, or rotting cadavers.
The theory did not explain why putrid air did not
always make people ill and when it did, why not
everybody was affected. Many people rejected the
medical opinion and instead considered spirits (jinn)
the cause of plague. The spirits pierced the victims
with poisonous arrows, which explained why they
could afflict a person with the disease and leave the
neighbor healthy. The way to avoid plague was not to
purify the air by incense, as the doctors recom-
mended, but to protect oneself from the spirits by
wearing amulets.

The authors of the Prophet’s medicine disapproved
of the widespread use of amulets as a protection
against illnesses, considering them a form of idolatry.
The scholars accepted that spirits caused illnesses,
but the evil influence had to be combated with care-
fully chosen means that were compatible with Islam.
It was far better to strengthen one’s own faith and
turn to God for protection against evil. Amulets as
such were not forbidden as long as they did not
contain magic symbols, but consisted of Qur’anic
verses or other pious words. The scholars also
stressed that the amulet did not in itself protect, but
it was God who protected and who cured or pre-
vented illness.

Epilepsy was another serious disease in which med-
ical and popular etiologies differed decisively.
According to Greek-Islamic theory, epilepsy was
caused by either phlegm or black bile and could be
treated by a dietary regimen aided by herbal drugs. In
many instances the treatment proved inefficient,
which lessened the credibility of the humoral explana-
tion. In popular opinion, epilepsy was caused by de-
monic possession and the only cure was to exorcise
the spirit. The Prophet’s medicine offered a compro-
mise, accepting the popular idea of spirits as a mere
alternative to the humoral etiology. If a patient did
not respond to the doctor’s therapy, his or her epilep-
sy was obviously not caused by an imbalance of
humors but by spirits that had to be exorcised.

None of the various medical systems could put an
end to suffering and cure all illness. If no cure was
found for a disease, the Prophet’s medicine gave peo-
ple the consolation that an illness, if endured patient-
ly, strengthened the patient’s faith and brought him
closer to God. This gave meaning to the suffering and
made it bearable.

Irmeli Perho

See also Baraka; Disease; Epidemics; Food and Diet;
Health and Hygiene; Saints and Sainthood

Further Reading

Dols, Michael W. The Black Death in the Middle East.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Dols, Michael W., and Adil S. Gamal. Medieval Islamic
Medicine, Ihn Ridwan’s Treatise ‘On the Prevention of
Bodily Ills in Egypt. ’ Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1984.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Medicine of the Prophet. Trans.
Penelope Johnstone. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society,
1998.

Perho, Irmeli. The Prophet’s Medicine: A Creation of the
Muslim Traditionalist Scholars. Studia Orientalia, vol. 74.
The Finnish Oriental Society: Helsinki, 1995.

. “Medicine and the Qur’an.” In Encyclopaedia

of the Qur’an, vol. Ill J-O. Ed. Jane D. McAuliffe, 349-
367. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Rahman, Fazlur. Health and Medicine in the Islamic
Tradition: Change and Identity. New York: Crossroad,
1987.

FOOD AND DIET

Medieval Islamic culinary culture mirrored the territo-
rial expansion of the Islamic empire. Before AH 132/
750 CE, the diet of the peoples of the Arabian Penin-
sula generally consisted of local, simply prepared
foods. Pastoral staples such as dates, milk and dairy
products, and some meats (particularly mutton, but
also camel, goat, rabbit) predominated, along with
grains and vegetables cultivated by the sedentary
populations in the southern part of the Peninsula.

After 132/750, the sociopolitical unification of a
vast geographical territory led to the dissemination
of crops across the Islamic lands whose consumption
had formerly been confined to limited areas. Rice and
sugar cane, originally cultivated in India, are two
examples of a variety of food crops that moved west-
ward across the empire as far as the western Mediter-
ranean.

With the expansion of the Islamic empire after the
mid-eighth century, a variety of regional cooking tra-
ditions were absorbed, notably that of the pre-Islamic
Sasanian empire of Persia. The combination of tradi-
tional Arab dishes with the refined Persian culinary
tradition and many other regional cooking practices
characterized the “high” cuisine of courts and urban
centers. This cuisine is reflected in surviving works of
medieval Islamic culinary literature: cookbooks, trea-
tises on dietetics, agriculture, handbooks of etiquette,
and other literary works that celebrated food as one
of life’s pleasures.

Food was prepared both in private households and
in public markets. Rulers and other wealthy elites

264

FOOD AND DIET

Sufavid mural, 1640s. Female courtier of Abbas I during a picnic. Chihil Sutun (Pavilion of Forty Columns), Isfahan, Iran.
Credit: SEF/Art Resource.

enjoyed specialized kitchens furnished with ovens,
fireplaces, a variety of cooking implements, and a
dedicated kitchen staff, whereas others made do
with simple areas for food preparation in the home,
supplemented by the services of public ovens and the
offerings of public food markets.

The main grains consumed were wheat, barley, and
rice, as well as chickpeas, lentils, and mungo beans.
Wheat was a major commodity, and bread was a
staple throughout the Islamic lands, though the
wealthy enjoyed loaves made from line wheat flour
while the poor made do with loaves made from coars-
er flours. Mutton and lamb were the most favored
types of meat, but goat, fowl, fish, and a variety of
game animals were also eaten. The great variety of
fruits, nuts, vegetables, and herbs available to consu-
mers is reflected in cookbooks and in agricultural
treatises, particularly those of the Islamic Iberian
Peninsula.

Food served as a luxury product for the wealthy,
and status was displayed at feasts. Culinary manuals
created by and for the wealthy reflect a concern that
food appeal to all the senses. Dishes were served with
a variety of condiments and were often decorated
with other foodstuffs arranged in decorative patterns

or chosen to lend color to the dish. Saffron was
especially favored for the golden color (and the impli-
cation of wealth) that it provided finished dishes. In
addition to their appearance, medieval Islamic cooks
and diners were also attuned to the fragrance of
dishes. Finished dishes and drinks were often per-
fumed with fragrant substances like rosewater, or
for the very wealthy, musk and camphor, which
were also believed to function medicinally.

Drinks were generally consumed after meals, and
were made from a variety of fruits. A tenth-century
‘Abbasid text mentions wine made from grapes, rai-
sins, honey, and dates, while an Andalusi agricultural
calendar of the same period refers to the juices of
green grapes, blackberries, and pomegranates. The
consumption of intoxicating beverages was generally
frowned upon for religious reasons. Despite injunc-
tions against it, however, members of all social classes
throughout the Islamic lands consumed wine. Tolera-
tion of the consumption of intoxicating substances
varied according to specific segments of the popula-
tion, as well as with time and place, and jurists
devoted a great deal of attention to the subject.

Food was popularly believed to affect the hu-
man body and temperament, and opinions on the

265

FOOD AND DIET

relationship between substances consumed and the
one who consumed them circulated in popular cul-
ture, as well as in scientific literature. For example,
eating the heart or liver of a sheep was popularly
believed to strengthen one’s heart and liver, whereas
consuming the sheep’s brain was believed to lead to
the mental weakness associated with the animal. Die-
tetics was considered a branch of medicine, and med-
ical treatises approached food from a scientific
standpoint, detailing the positive and negative effects
of specific foods on the physical, mental, and spiritual
health of the consumer.

Glaire D. Anderson

See also Agriculture; Animal Husbandry; Beverages;
Cash Crops; Desserts and Confections; Medicine, Diet
and Dietetics; Nomadism and Pastoralism; Sedentar-
ism; Spices; Wine

Further Reading

Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 1960 (s.v.

“Ghidha’,” “Tabkh,” “Tabbakh,” “Matbakh”).
Medieval Arab Cookery: Essays and Translations by Max-
ime Rodinson, A. J. Arberry, and Charles Perry. Devon:
Prospect Books, 2001.

FOREIGNERS

Unlike Greco-Roman civilization, Islam did not see
the use or the need to confer legal status to the for-
eigner. Even if we were to comb through all Muslim
law texts, we would not find a single judicial definition
of the foreigner. This person, however, does appear in
Muslim historico-literary sources. Foreigners even led
to the creation in the tenth century of a unique liter-
ary genre practiced by both religious and profane
scholars. In one exemplary tale, a few witty words,
or a graffiti, this genre restored the otherness exp-
erienced by all who embarked on the adventure of
faraway countries and who left vestiges worth saving
in books. The Book of Foreigners from Pseudo-Abu’l-
Faraj of Isfahan is a good representative of the
genre, presenting itself as a collection of graffiti with
nostalgia as a theme.

Close and remote at the same time, the figure of the
foreigner fascinated Muslims of the Middle Ages with
its fundamental ambiguity, probably because medie-
val Muslim societies used voluntary exile as one of
their great social initiation rites. They expected one
who returned home, after having been away for a
more or less long time, to be radically, but also posi-
tively, transformed by his search. Under such condi-
tions, the ideal was to return basking in the attributes
of glory, such as those earned through the conquest of
knowledge and of riches — unless one returned with

narrative results noteworthy enough to make a suc-
cessful book. It is understandable then that the for-
eigners most often depicted in the sources were young
peoples from all social backgrounds who found in the
experience of becoming someone else a way to extend,
under socially and culturally acceptable conditions,
one stage of their lives: that of youth. An entire gener-
ation had to cut their social ties to lead, for many years,
a life at times lofty but often economically fruitless
and socially risky.

Ghdrib is the word used by the medieval Arabic
language to signify the foreigner. One of the many
anecdotes found in the literary genre of the “books of
foreigners” can help reveal its meanings. The mystical
theologian Qushayri (d. AH 465/1073 CE) was invited
to a session of religious exhortation upon his arrival
in Baghdad, where he was greeted by a compact mass
of listeners who were for the most part foreigners like
him, a fact he did not know beforehand. No doubt
suffering from the pains of exile, he began his exhor-
tation session with a famous hadith in which the
founder of Islam said, “Travel is a part of suffering.”
An audience member interrupted him, wanting to
know why the prophet would say such a thing, to
which the master answered, “Because of the separa-
tion from loved ones!” This answer so strongly moved
the many foreign listeners that no one in the audience
could repress their pain. Tears flowed and emotions
rose. The exhortation session became a psychodrama.
The scholar, who could not go on, stopped it amid
cries and emotional confusion. This touching anec-
dote explains one of the conditions of the foreigner.
Another one, noted since the ninth century, was the
emphasis on the distance from one’s homeland. In
either case, moving away from relations and country
was made to be seen as an individual motion (even
when done collectively, it was assumed individually),
socially disassociating and psychologically and emo-
tionally destabilizing. Upon leaving his or her familiar
space, the foreigner entered another world. This
break with what was known caused in him or her a
psycho-affective instability that often led to compar-
ing him or her with a sick man. Thus a medieval
treatise on the art of traveling stated that, according
to Galen, the foreigner who became ill would be cured
upon seeing his or her homeland: his or her heart
would then be freed from pain “as the earth is relieved
from drought by an abounding rainfall.” That is why,
the same source also revealed, Hippocrates — the other
great name in Greek medicine — recommended that a
sick person be healed only by using plants indigenous
to his or her homeland. This explains why those who
were to be absent too long from their country, far from
their nearest and dearest ones, were advised to carry
some clay from their country, to purify the water they

266

FRANKS, OR IFRANJ

would drink and perhaps also heal the burns from the
nostalgia that would consume them.

Yet one did not need to leave one’s land or to
separate from one’s relations to become a stranger.
Individuals, in their own country and amidst their
compatriots, were “foreign,” in fact, and right to
any lineage that was not their own. In this case, ajnabi
was the term used; it might belong more specifically to
the judicial vocabulary. When used less technically, it
referred to any foreigner to a country, a community,
or a language. In this latter sense, it was synonymous
to ajnab, which seemed to have first been used to
indicate the “intractable,” the “disobedient,” and
the “recalcitrant” before referring to the “one who
does not belong to a community or a company.” The
figure of the foreigner took on a new consistence with
these two terms, compared with that of the gharib,
which medieval Arabic seems to have used exclusively
for Arabs and Muslims. The terms designated
indistinctively all foreigners, no matter their ethnic,
cultural, or religious origins.

What about foreigners from non-Muslim coun-
tries? Oddly, they did not have the status of foreigner,
at least not from a legal point of view. Otherwise, the
image of neutrality would have been projected on
them, neutrality that the Muslim law did not grant
them because it subdivided the oikoumene in two
distinct and irreconcilable categories: one Islamic,
the other non-Islamic. The first was called “territory
of peace”; the second, “enemy territory.” As a result
of this antagonistic opposition, foreigners coming
from infidel countries were “belligerents” even when
they were not professional soldiers nor felt any par-
ticular hostility toward Islam and Muslims. Since they
were considered enemies, however, they had to be
pacified when they traveled through Muslim land.
How? By obtaining a safe-conduct (aman) from the
legal authorities, who thus temporarily eliminated
their status of enemy, replacing it with the one — no
less temporary — of musta’min.

It is different from a sociological point of view.
Any person far from his country or community was
foreign. Thus, in his History of India, Biruni used the
plural aj&nib to refer to those whom the Indians saw
as foreigners. The obstacle was first of all religious:
Indians, who called all foreigners “impure,” were
forbidden to have any contact with them, such as
getting married, sitting beside them, or eating or
drinking with them. They went as far as to refuse
the company of those who wished to convert to the
faith. Biruni, who noted that “this is what hinders any
closeness, what builds a fence between them and us”
(p. 47), added “political reasons” to the “obstacles
between Hindus and (Muslim) foreigners” who came
to conquer their country and eradicate their religion.

This plural word, ajanib, linked to the singular
ajnabi that defined the condition of one who was
foreign to the lineage, would be ultimately used in
the nineteenth century to designate the non-Arabs,
before encompassing all foreigners. Thus the Egyp-
tian became the foreigner of the Syrian, who became
the one of the Algerian or the Moroccan. The word
ajnabi/ajanib would suffer another semantic surgery
dictated to the Arabs — under the rule of colonization
in particular and of westernization in general — when
they restructured their living together within a new
European political frame: that of the nation.

Houari Touati

Further Reading

Azari, A. "Al-Hamn ila’l-Awtan entre Gahiliyya et l'lslam.
Le bedouin et le Citadin Reconciles. ” Zeitschrif der
Deutsche n Morgenldndischn Gesellschaft 143 (1993):
287-327.

Crone, P., and S. El Moreh. The Book of Stangers: Medieval
Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia, attr. to Abu’l-
Faraj al-Isfahani, trad. Princeton, 2000.

Kilpatrick, H. “The Kitab adab al-Guraba of Abffl-Faraj
al-Isfahani.” In Actes du 8me Congres cle I’Union Eur-
opeenne cles Arabisants et Islamisants. Aix-en-Provence,
1978, 127-135.

Lewis, B. “The Other and the Enemy.” In Religionsge-
sprache im Mittelalter , ed. B. Lewis and F. Niewohner.
372, 1992 (Wiesbaden: Wolfenbutteler Mittelalter-Stu-
dien 4).

Rosenthal, F. “The Stranger in Medieval Islam.” Arabica
44 (1997): 34-75.

Sachau, E. Alberuni’s India , trad, anglaise en 2 vol., Lahore,
1888, 1962 (voir aussi trad, partielle en frangais: Monteil
[V.-M.], Biruni, Le Livre de Tlnde , Paris, 1996).

FRANKS, OR IFRANJ

Frank is a term used by the Muslim Middle East to
denote the inhabitants of Western Europe generally,
rather than specifically, the people of the Holy
Roman Empire: Christian descendants of barbarian
tribes. However, the term was not normally used of
Spanish Christians, who were referred to by Muslim
writers as Rum, a name also used for the Byzantines.

The looseness of the designation would seem to
reflect the low level of Muslim interest in western
Christendom, except on the part of Arab writers in
the Iberian Peninsula. Elsewhere in the Muslim
world, eastern Christendom commanded more imme-
diate attention, at least at the start of the Islamic era.
The victory of the Franks, under their leader Charles
Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in western France
in AH 114/732 CE, seems to have mattered much
less to the defeated Arabs than the latter’s failure to
take Constantinople from the Byzantines. The Balat

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FRANKS, OR IFRANJ

al-Shuhada’ (Thoroughfare of the Martyrs), as the
Arabs call the setback at Poitiers, is first mentioned
in the eleventh century, and then only in Spanish-
Arab chronicles.

There are remarkably few reported encounters be-
tween Muslims and western Europeans before the
Reconquista and the Crusades. The Frankish chroni-
cles mention an exchange of envoys that may have
taken place at the beginning of the ninth century
between Martel’s grandson Charlemagne, king of
the Franks and Holy Roman emperor, and the fifth
‘Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. More certainly,
one hundred years later, the seventeenth ‘Abbasid
caliph al-Muktafi received in Baghdad an embassy
from the daughter of the Frankish ruler of Lorraine.

For much of this period, any precise knowledge the
Arabs had of the peoples, languages, geography, and
history of Europe mostly concerned Muslim Andalu-
sia. Information about the rest of Europe is largely
fable, with the exception of some geographical data,
based largely on Greek sources. The first Arab writer
to touch on the history of Western Europe was al-
Mas‘udi in the middle of the tenth century. In his
historical and geographical survey, Muruj al-dhahab
(The Meadows of Gold), al-Mas‘udi gives a list of
Frankish kings from Clovis to Louis IV, based appar-
ently on a Frankish source.

Reinforcing the lack of Muslim interest in medie-
val Europe was the reluctance of Muslims to travel in
Christian lands. It was left to a Spanish Jew, Ibrahim
b. Ya‘qub, from Tortosa near Barcelona in Arab
Spain, to provide the Muslim world with the first
detailed eyewitness information about Western Eur-
ope. In the middle of the tenth century, Ibrahim
travelled, perhaps on official business for the ruler of
Andalusia, through France, Holland, northern Ger-
many, Bohemia, Poland, and northern Italy. The ac-
count of his travels, which he wrote in Arabic, survives
only in fragments that were incorporated into the work
of later writers. Ibrahim b. Ya’qub was the source
for many subsequent Islamic descriptions of Western
Europe.

Toward the end of the eleventh century, there
began a period of more direct encounters, beginning
with the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula and
culminating in the Crusades, as a result of which
western Europeans occupied parts of the Muslim
Near East. Muslim personal impressions of the intru-
ders were added to the written record, notably those
of the Syrian belle-lettrist Usama Ibn Munqidh, and
the Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr. However, the
Muslims evinced little interest in the polities of the
Crusader states, the differences between the various
nationalities, and the places in Europe from which
the Crusaders had come. By contrast, the thriving

mercantile relationship between East and West, estab-
lished as a result of the European settlement of the
Levant, would continue even after the Muslims had
regained the sovereignty of the region.

There is a section on Frankish history in the early
fourteenth-century Persian chronicle of Rashid al-Din
Tabib, the JamV al-tawarikh (The Universal History),
based on written and oral European sources. Other-
wise, the level of Muslim intellectual interest in the
West would remain the same until the sixteenth cen-
tury, when the Ottoman Turks embarked on their
pragmatic engagement with Europe.

David Morray

See also Andalus; Crusades; Cultural Exchange; Diplo-
macy; Interfaith Relations; Muslim-Byzantine Rela-
tions; Muslim Conceptions of Past Civilizations;
Muslim-Crusader Relations; Syria; Greater Syria

Primary Sources

Ibn ‘Abd al-Mun‘im al-Himyari. Kitah al-rawd al-Mi‘tarfi
khabar al-aqtar, ed. Ihsan ‘Abbas. Beirut: Librarie du
Liban, 1975.

Further Reading

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

Ibn Munqidh, Usama. Kitab al-i‘Tibar. Translated by P. K.
Hitti, as Memoirs of an Arab-Svrian Gentleman. Beirut,
1964.

Lewis, Bernard. The Muslim Discovery of Europe. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.

FREETHINKERS

The term freethinker was originally coined in early
modern Europe, where it denoted diverse, indepen-
dent thinkers who shared in a rejection of ecclesiastic
authority. According to some modern scholars of
Islam, the term has been used to describe various
rationalist currents of thought, such as the Mu’tazi-
lites (see Theology) or Aristotelian philosophy. In
this entry, it is used to denote those individuals in
medieval Islamic society who rejected the belief
in divine revelation through prophecy, in the validity
of revealed scriptures, and in the authority of the
prophets, or indeed in any religious authority.

Among those individuals, the most famous are the
ninth-century theologian Ibn al-Rawandi, the tenth-
century physician and neoplatonist philosopher Al-
Razi (Rhazes), and the eleventh-century ascetic poet
Abu ‘l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri. In particular, Ibn al-Rawandi
and al-Razi are credited with books that explicitly
reject both the notion of prophecy as such and the

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FUNERARY PRACTICES, JEWISH

authenticity of specific prophets. Although none of
these books is extant, extensive quotations in
subsequent refutations by Muslim authors allow us
to appreciate the radical contents and ferocious tone
of the freethinkers' works. They depict the prophets
as impostors, charlatans who exploit their knowledge
of natural phenomena in order to deceive, delude, and
manipulate simple people. In its less biting form, the
criticism was formulated as a skeptic argument for the
equivalence of all religions, but their criticism of
Islam was particularly passionate.

People who were suspected of harboring such
views ran the risk of persecution; thus they but rarely
expressed them in prose. After the tenth century,
dissenting intellectuals sought other venues to dissem-
inate their ideas. Poets, however, enjoyed a modicum
of license.

In their attempts to free themselves of their own
monotheistic tradition, the freethinkers sometimes re-
lied on a real or fictitious nonmonotheistic legacy.
Indeed, some pre-Islamic sources, such as the pagan
philosophers of late antiquity, argued a rejection of
revealed religion. However, such notions gained un-
precedented importance in the Islamic world. Because
Muhammad’s prophethood is a cornerstone of the
Muslim faith, the belief in prophecy in general has
also acquired a place of honor. The insistence of
nonconformist intellectuals on a rejection of prophecy
developed as a counterreaction to the importance of
this dogma in Islam. It can thus be seen as a typically
Islamic disbelief, which mirrors a specifically Islamic
creed.

Despite the freethinkers’ radical views, their criti-
cism of religion should not be construed as atheism.
They never denied God’s existence, and only rarely
did their opponents impute such a denial to them.
Even when they did, it was the scriptural image of
God that the freethinkers were said to deny; a per-
sonal God who interferes in the course of history
through revelation, and who takes people to task for
their acts. To some extent, the freethinkers’ percep-
tion of God can be described (again borrowing a term
from European intellectual history) as that of deists.
They believed in natural reason as sufficient to guide
humanity to truth; and some of them (like al-Razi)
also believed in benevolent divine providence.

Also typical of the freethinkers is the preoccupa-
tion with questions of theodicy: they rebel against the
existence of evil and suffering in the world, and they
reject the justification of these sufferings as divine
punishment.

The place accorded to freethinking in Islamic liter-
ature far exceeds the meager number of these indivi-
duals. The role of responding to the freethinkers’
challenge was taken up by Muslim intellectuals of

practically all persuasions — orthodox Sunni Muslims,
Mu‘talizilites (see Theology), and Ismailis. However,
the impact of the freethinkers was not limited to
polemical literature. For example, in the political
thought of Aristotelian philosophers, prophecy played
a vital role. This may be partly explained as a reaction
to the freethinkers, reflecting the philosophers’
attempts to dissociate themselves from unacceptable
ideas like those expressed by al-Razi and Ibn al-
Rawandi.

The impact of freethinking can be best appraised
through its reflections in non-Muslim authors. Jewish
writers of Arabic, like Maimonides, presented free-
thinking — a disbelief in prophecy thought typical of
arrogant intellectuals — as the worst kind of disbelief.
In European Christianity, its impact made itself felt
more slowly. The Book of Three Impostors most likely
owed its existence to this particular variety of Islamic
disbelief, transmitted to Christian Europe via Sicily or
Spain.

Sarah Stroumsa

See also Abu ‘1-Ala’ al-Ma‘arri; Aristole and Aristote-
lianism; Heresy and Heretics; Ibn al-Rawandi: Ismailis;
Al-Razi (Rhazes)

Further Reading

Kraemer, Joel. L. “Heresy versus the State in Medieval
Islam.” In Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica
Presented to Leon Nemoy on his Eightieth Birthday, ed.
S.R. Brunswick, 167-180. Ramat Gan, 1982.
Niewohner, Friedrich. “Are the Founders of Religions
Impostors?” In Maimonides and Philosophy — Papers
Presented at the Sixth Jerusalem Philosophical Encoun-
ter, May 1985. Ed. S. Pines and Y. Yovel. Dodrecht,
1986, 233-245.

Stroumsa, Sarah. Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-
Rawandi, Abu Baker al-Razi, and Their Impact on Islamic
Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

FUNERARY PRACTICES, JEWISH

Islamic tradition reports that Muhammad stood up
when the funeral bier of a Jewish woman passed by;
he remarked that “Death is a terrible thing” and
ordered his followers to stand when any cortege
passed by. However, another report tells us that his
practice had been to follow funerals and remain
standing until the body was interred. This practice
was changed, however, after a rabbi approached him
and said, “We do likewise O Muhammad!” at which
point he “took his seat, exclaiming, ‘Oppose them.’”
The Jewish funeral procession predates Islam, of
course; it is known from Flavius Josephus (Against
Apion 2, 205) and Talmudic sources, but it remained

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FUNERARY PRACTICES, JEWISH

an important practice among Jews living in Islamic
lands, even if some of the other funerary practices
known from those times had fallen into disuse.
Those who could afford it had cantors to provide
accompaniment; for example, the wealthy Jewess
known as Wuhsha the Broker allocated the princely
sum of fifty dinars to make sure professional singers
followed her bier. Musical accompaniment was rare.
Elaborate funeral processions, however, could be a
provocation to Muslims, as happened in Egypt in
1011-1012, when Muslims attacked a funeral proces-
sion and denounced the Jews to the authorities; some
two dozen were arrested on their way home from the
cemetery. This may well have been the reason the Ben
Ezra synagogue discontinued the practice of bringing
unused sacred documents to the cemetery and began
to discard them into the attic, forming the Cairo
Geniza. Presumably, this is also why some wills
specify that the Muslim wailers should be used.

The wills and financial receipts found in the Geniza
detail the allocations for burial preparations: the
washing and purification of the body, preparing the
grave, expenses for pallbearers, food for mourners,
and other expenses. Coffins were used, even though
the dead were not buried in them. Geniza sources
suggest they were not reused either, at least if the
deceased could afford a new one. Wealthy Jews —
men and women — often allocated large sums for
sumptuous final vestments, perhaps because some
Jews assumed that the resurrection of the dead
would include the restoration of their funeral vest-
ments, a view associated with Sa’adia Gaon (d. 942),
and, according to Maimonides, unfortunately much
discussed by Jews (introduction to the commentary
on Sanhedrin, chapter 10). In some locations, graves
were built with brick and elaborate preparations
were made; in Spain, Samuel Ha-Nagid of Granada
(d. 1056) reports that he descended into the grave to
prepare the final resting place for his brother’s body.
Elaborate eulogies were given at the funeral, cantors
sang the prayers movingly, and there was much
wailing. Women had special gowns they wore in
mourning.

An important part of the preparations for the fu-
neral included community judges making sure finan-
cial considerations were put in order, including
making sure the poll tax was paid off. There are
reports that authorities prevented burial if this was
not done. The deceased will often also have made
arrangements to give charitable contributions to the
poor and the synagogue, and to provide for education
of children, maintenance of widows, and marriage of
girls.

In Jewish tradition, seven days of mourning were
observed, starting with the day of burial. Traditional

observances included ripping the clothing, not wear-
ing shoes, sitting on low benches rather than regular
couches, not shaving or cutting the hair, and not
going outside the house, and accepting condolence
calls from extended family, friends, and the general
community. As was noted by a question put to Taqi
al-Din al-Subki in the fourteenth century, some of
these practices diverged from those of Islamic society,
particularly in the number of days in which a woman
mourned for her husband, and the limitation of
mourning to 3 days for everyone else.

Seth Ward

Further Reading

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society. Vol. 5. Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1988, 127-128.

Maghen, Ze’ev. “The Interaction Between Islamic Law and
Non-Muslims: Lakum Dinukum Wa-li Dini.” Islamic
Law and Society 10, no. 3 (2003): 267.

Ward, Seth. “Dhimmi Women and Mourning.” In Islamic
Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas, ed.
Masud, Messick and Powers, 87-97. Cambridge and
London: Harvard University Press, 1996.

FUNERARY PRACTICES, MUSLIM

Before burying the dead in the earth, Muslims typi-
cally performed a number of death rituals to express
their grief and to prepare the corpse for its sojourn in
the grave. Immediately after hearing the news of the
death, bereft women would lament and wail. Pious
men might then protest that wailing for the dead is
wrong. A Muslim, they would argue, should be able
to bear the loss of a loved one’s life with stoic forbear-
ance, submitting to God’s judgment. As soon as pos-
sible after the moment of death, before the onset of
rigor mortis, family members or professional corpse
washers would begin to clean the corpse with the aim
of burying it in a state of ritual purity. The corpse
would then be wrapped in shrouds, hoisted on a bier,
and hastily transported by pallbearers to the ceme-
tery. Women were, in some places, forced to stay
behind, at home, while men would leave for the cem-
etery, joining the funeral procession. At the cemetery,
by the empty grave, the men would line up in rows
and follow the imam in a prayer seeking God’s mercy
on behalf of the deceased. The corpse would then be
deposited in the grave, laid on the right side facing in
the Muslim direction of prayer. After the burial, the
neighbors would approach the family of the deceased
to offer food and consolation.

The Qur’an includes only a handful of statements
regarding burial and associated ritual practices. It
refers to the mythical origins of burial in a story

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FUNERARY PRACTICES, MUSLIM

about Cain, Abel, and the raven (Q 5:31), yet it does
not provide any specific instructions on how to bury
the dead. In one instance, the Qur’an alludes to prayer
for the dead and standing over the grave. However, its
interest lies not in describing these rituals so as to
provide Muslims with directions on how to carry
them out. It refers to these rituals simply in order to
prohibit Muslims from honoring with last rites those
who had denied God and his Messenger and remained
as sinners until the moment of death (Q 9:84).

In contrast to the Qur’an, collections of hadith, or
oral tradition, and books of law and jurisprudence
would pay close attention to funeral practices. Many
of these works include a book or chapter devoted
exclusively to the subject, the Kitab al-Jana’iz. Others
discuss certain funeral practices — in particular, the
washing of corpses and the prayer for the dead — in
the books or chapters concerning the rituals of purity
and prayer. These works cover a number of different
funerary practices, beginning with the recitation of
Qur’anic verses in the moments before imminent
death and ending with the pattering of sandals over
the fresh grave mound. Traditionists and jurispru-
dents considered in depth common and mundane
practices, such as ritual laments, the preparation of
corpses for burial, the procession toward the ceme-
tery, the funeral prayer, and the construction of the
tomb. Yet they also pondered rare and unusual cases;
for instance, how to dispose of a corpse at sea, where
interment was impossible.

The status of funerary practices in Islamic law
depends on the practice in question. Burial was con-
sidered a Muslim’s right, yet the duty to bury a Mus-
lim was not incumbent on each and every individual.
It was sufficient for part of the Muslim community to
take it upon itself to bury the dead. To follow a
funeral procession toward the cemetery was deemed
a good deed, for which Muslims might earn the re-
ward of forgiveness for their sins. Jurisprudents
tended to recommend certain practices, such as burial
in white shrouds, without making them obligatory.
Certain other practices, such as wailing for the dead
or inscribing tombstones, they decried as odious. Yet
the performance of acts of this kind, however repug-
nant, would lead neither to criminal prosecution nor
to the grave charge of apostasy. In fact, violators
would suffer not so much in this world as in the
next. Perhaps the greatest criminal violation of funer-
ary law consisted of exhuming the dead with the
intent of despoiling them of their shrouds — a robbery,
which according to some jurisprudents should be
punished by the amputation of the hand. Generally,
however, the law of funerals concerned ethical stan-
dards rather than criminal matters. It concentrated on
defining proper and improper behavior.

In Islamic funerary law there are frequent and
extensive references to the acts and sayings of
Muhammad and early converts to Islam, as these
were remembered by traditionists. There are, by con-
trast, few explicit references to the funerary practices
of Jews and Christians, even though Islamic funerary
law developed in part in relation to non-Muslim cus-
toms and laws. Nowhere does Islamic law decree that
Muslims should imitate the customs of non-Muslims,
as of Muhammad. The opposite is true. Thus, for
instance, jurisprudents decreed that the Jewish cus-
tom of rising in honor of a funeral procession passing
by was abrogated, for Muhammad had declared it
was essential for Muslims to diverge in their ritual
practices from the Jews. This advocacy of communal
distinction could not be adhered to uniformly, how-
ever, for in certain cases Muslim and non-Muslim
practices were, at a basic level, obviously the same.
So it was, for example, with the ritual of inhumation.
Jews and Christians buried their dead in the earth, as
did Muslims. Hence it was impossible, in this case,
for Muslims to represent the ritual as if it originated
with Muhammad and to view it as a departure
from Judeo-Christian ways. Instead, jurisprudents
referred to burial as part of the “custom of the sons
of Adam.”

Having considered the relation of Muslim to non-
Muslim funerary practices, the question arises wheth-
er there was a similar attempt at communal distinc-
tion within Islam. Internal boundaries were certainly
manifest in the orthodox boycotting of heretics’ fun-
erals or in the sectarian tendency toward violent la-
ment in the commemoration of the deaths of Shi‘i
martyrs. Yet did Sunni and Shi‘i jurisprudents try to
develop distinctive death rituals that would serve one
sect to differentiate it from the others? By and large,
they did not. One does find Sunnis and Shi‘is subtly
divided on certain topics, such as the permissibility of
lamenting for the dead, preparing funerary repasts,
and using tombstone inscriptions. However, with few
exceptions, differences of opinion about funerary
practice tended not to correspond in any straightfor-
ward way to sectarian divisions. An obvious example
is the debate about whether it is best in the funerary
procession to walk in front of or behind the bier.
Tradition holds that the first three caliphs, whose
right to rule was celebrated by Sunnis but not by
Shi‘is, walked in front of the bier, whereas the fourth
caliph, whom Shi’is supported, walked behind the
bier. Correspondingly, one would expect Sunni and
Shi‘i law to be neatly divided into two camps, with
each supporting a different position. However, one of
the Sunni schools of jurisprudence, which followed
the teachings of Abu Hanifa, subscribed to the same
position as did the Shifis.

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Our knowledge of funerary practices in medieval
Islamic civilization derives not only from the corpus
of Muslim tradition and law, but also from the ar-
chaeological record. So far, archaeologists have not
excavated early Islamic cemeteries, yet there are a
handful of reports on late-medieval necropoles.
These studies show that burial practices varied from
one location to another and diverged, sometimes in
surprising ways, from the ideals of Islamic law. An
example may be cited, by way of conclusion, from the
excavations at Malaga and Murcia in al-Andalus. It
seems that in these places Muslim scholars were some-
times buried in mosques, much as Christian monks in
churches, despite the fact that Islamic law prohibited
the practice.

Leor Halevi

Further Reading

Fierro, Maribel. “El espacio de los muertos: fetuas andalu-
sies sobre tumbas y cementeriosf’ In L’urbanisme dans
V Occident musulman an Moyen Age: Aspects juridiques ,
eds. Patrice Cressier, Maribel Fierro, and Jean-Pierre
Van Staevel, 153-189. Madrid: Casa De Velazquez,
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 2000.

Halevi, Leor. “The Paradox of Islamization: Tombstone
Inscriptions, Qur’anic Recitations, and the Problem of
Religious Change.” History of Religions 44, no. 2 (2004).

. “Wailing for the Dead: The Role of Women

in Early Islamic Funerals.” Past & Present 183 (2004):
3-39.

. Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of

Islamic Society. Forthcoming book.

Leisten, Thomas. "Between Orthodoxy and Exegesis: Some
Aspects of Attitudes in the Shari‘a toward Funerary
Architecture.” Muqarnas, 1 (1990): 12-22.

Sokoly, Jochen. “Between Life and Death: The Funerary
Context of Tiraz Textiles.” In Islamische Textilkunst des
Mittelalters, eds. K. Otavsky et al., 71-78. Riggisberg,
1997.

Tritton, A. S. “Muslim Funeral Customs.” Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 9 (1937-1939):
653-661.'

Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. “Death, Funeral Processions,
and the Articulation of Religious Authority in Early
Islam.” Studia Islamica 93 (2001): 27-58.

FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS

Traditionally, life in the Middle East is lived not with
furniture — chairs, tables, beds, wardrobes, and the
like — but with woven materials designed for life on

the ground, such as carpets, flat-woven textiles, and
cushions and bed mattresses, reflecting nomadic cus-
toms. By European standards, the interior space in
the Middle East remained empty till modern times.

Neither archaeological nor literary sources help to
pin down the development of domestic furniture in
the Islamic world of the Middle Ages. But it is as-
sumed that the house interior was empty of furniture
and essentially consisted of matting laid on the floor
and low tables at meals. Seating levels, which were
presumably suggested by the number of cushions and
the range and quality of fabrics, may have been major
indicators of social rank.

Nevertheless, furniture played a key role on cere-
monial occasions in the medieval Islamic lands. Cer-
tain types of portable wooden furniture, such as
minbars (pulpits), maqsuras (screened enclosures for
the ruler), Qur’an stands, and bookcases were incor-
porated into mosques and other religious settings.
Most of the earliest surviving examples of such fur-
nishings came from the western Islamic lands and
some of them are still extant.

Information about furniture provided by visual
sources (for example, fresco painting, miniature
painting, ceramics, metalwork) is rich enough to dem-
onstrate the significance of furnishings in court life in
the medieval Islamic world. A type of throne differs
from dynasty to dynasty: frescoes discovered from the
Umayyad (661-750 CE) sites, for example, those from
Qasr al-Hayr West and Qusayr ‘Amra, have often
been cited as evidence for the use of chairlike thrones
in the Umayyad court. It seems that a low throne
suitable for the cross-legged posture was introduced
during the early ‘Abbasid period (749-1258) and
became increasingly popular in the Saljuq (1040-
1194) political and cultural sphere. The ubiquity of
folding stools in the medieval Islamic world, which
were derived from classical models, can be attested to
by those depicted in the court scenes in pre-Mongol
miniature painting, such as a frontispiece of the Kitdb
al-aghdm (Book of Songs), probably executed in
Mosul in 1216-1220 (Istanbul, Millet Yazma Eser
Kutiiphanesi, Feyzullah Efendi 1566), and they
continued to be represented in later miniature paint-
ing of the Middle East. As often seen in the enthrone-
ment scenes in early fourteenth-century copies of
JamV al-Tawdrikh of Rashid al-Din ( Compendium of
Chronicles ) and the Shahnama ( Book of Kings ) by
Ferdowsi, the Mongol invasion facilitated the intro-
duction of a new type of royal furniture into the
Eastern Islamic lands — namely, a high-backed throne
with decorative side panels based on the Chinese
prototype. Although it remains unclear whether actu-
al examples of such furniture were imported westward
into the Middle East, this kind of elaborate throne,

272

FUSTAT

together with a low footstool become an important
component of royal iconography in Persian miniature
painting. Another important royal furnishing of the
period is a tent hanging woven in brocade under the
inspiration of Mongol customs. The depiction of fur-
nishings became more detailed in miniature painting
under the Timurids (1370-1505) and the Safavids
(1501-1722), and several kinds of throne, seat, and
low table function as pictorial devices and, moreover,
visualize the rich material culture of the pre-modern
Islamic world.

Yuka Kadoi

Further Reading

Kurz, Otto. “Folding Chairs and Koran Stands.” In Islamic
Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , ed.
R. Ettinghausen, 299-314. New York: Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1972.

Sadan, Joseph. Le Mobilier au Proche-Orient Medieval.
Leiden: Brill, 1976.

. “Furniture, Islamic.” In Dictionary of the Middle

Ages, vol. 5. Ed. J. R. Strayer. New York: Scribner,
1985,313-316.

Upton, Joseph M., and Phyllis Ackerman. “Furniture.” In
A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the
Present, vol. 3. Eds. A. U. Pope and P. Ackerman.
London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1939,
2628-2658.

FUSTAT

The city of Fustat (Misr al-Fustdt), capital of Islamic
Egypt, was founded in 642 CE by ‘Amr ibn al-‘As
when the Arabs conquered Byzantine Egypt during
the reign of the caliph ‘Umar. The city was located on
the eastern shore of the Nile, just below the Delta,
close to the ancient Roman fortress of Babylone ( Qasr
al Sham' for the Arabs). It controlled the passageway
south of the Delta. To the east of the city stands the
Muqattam, a tabular mountain of white limestone
stretching from the north to the south; some of its
lower protuberances have allowed an urban occupa-
tion, such as the Citadel ( al-QaVa, or QaVat al-Gabal),
the plateau of Istabl ‘Antar ('Amal Fawq). At its
foundation the city was divided into plots (khitta,
khitat), which the emir ‘Amr shared out to the tribes
and clans. The center of the city was allotted to the
People of the Banner ( ahl al-rdva ) : This is where the
first mosque on African ground was erected, known
still today as the mosque of ‘Amr.

The real extent and density of the city founded by
‘Amr ibn al-‘As are but imperfectly known, and there-
fore one cannot appreciate its true importance. At the
time of its foundation, the territory of Fustat extend-
ed between the vast lake known as Birkat al-Habash

in the south to the khittat al-Hamrd al-quswa where
the Yashkur were settled in the north, that is, from
the present area of Basatine to that of Sayyida Zay-
nab. This would represent a north-south extension of
slightly more than 4.5 km. Fustat soon turned into a
metropolis. The excavations of the Istabl ‘Antar pla-
teau have revealed that the southern quarters of the
town were densely built during the first centuries after
its foundation. However, the city went through many
variations throughout its history, with important ter-
ritorial changes, such as extensions, recesses, and
changes of location, in an area now completely
absorbed by the modern metropolis.

Throughout the twentieth century, the site of
Fustat was excavated by various archaeological mis-
sions. The first excavations, carried out by Aly
Bahgat, were published in collaboration with Albert
Gabriel in 1921. In the same area, important excava-
tions were also carried out by George T. Scanlon and
Wladyslaw Kubiak (1964-1980), and later by Mutsuo
Kawatoko. These investigations have revealed living
quarters of the first Fatimid century, some belonging
to a well-to-do class (Bahgat), others to a humbler
part of the population (Scanlon). The excavations of
the French Institute located in the southern part of
the town were the first to reveal layers pertaining to
the foundation of the Arab city, as well as a vast
necropolis of the eighth and tenth centuries.

Few of the Fustat monuments have survived. The
most ancient one is the ‘Amr mosque, but it has been
widened and transformed many a time, making its
original state hardly discernible. The latest restora-
tions have probably disfigured it permanently. The
Istabl ‘Antar excavations revealed the most ancient
plan of a mosque in Egypt, as well as many mausolea
belonging to the same period (that is, between ad 750
and 765). The Nilometer ( Miqyas) at the southern tip
of the Roda island (Rawda) is a particular kind of
monument, reconstructed in 861 and used for mea-
suring the high waters of the Nile. The mosque of Ibn
Tulun is probably the most impressive monument of
Fustat that can still be admired. It was inaugurated in
879 and witnesses the importation of the Mesopota-
mian Samarra art to Egypt. Two aqueducts have
partially survived: parts of the aqueduct supplying
Ibn Tulun’s palatial residence on Gabal Yashkur,
with water coming from the lake of Birkat al-Habash,
can still be seen, as well as its sdqiya. The other one,
known as “the Saladin wall,” crossed the ruins of
Fustat and reached the foot of the citadel northeast
of the city. One may also add five aqueducts dating
from the eighth to eleventh centuries, found in the
excavations of Istabl ‘Antar.

Most of the monuments of Fustat still to be
seen are funeral constructions, their position in the

273

FUSTAT

cemetery, as well as their function, having spared
them from destruction. One may mention the mauso-
lea of Sab‘ Banat and that of Hadra al-Sharifa in the
southern part of the city, built in the beginning of
the eleventh century, Ikhwat Yusuf (1125-1150), the
Imam Shafi‘i reconstructed in 1211 in the cemetery of
Qarafa. One may add numerous other mausolea to
the list, many of which have been altered during their
history, such as Sayyida ‘Atika and Muhammad
al-Ga‘fari (1122); Sayyida Ruqayya (1133); Umm
Kulthum ( 1 122); Y ahya al-Shabihi (1 1 50); al-Hasawati
(1150); and Fatima Khatun (1283). Various chur-
ches, as well as the synagogue of Old Cairo, have a
complex architectural history and also suffered from
poor restoration. They should be added to this list.

Today, unlike the medieval city of Cairo, Fustat
offers a scattered architectural heritage, difficult to
preserve, a situation that does not reflect the grandeur
of its history.

Roland-Pierre Gayraud

Further Reading

Bahgat, A., and A. Gabriel. Fouilles d’cil-Foustdt. Paris, 1921.

Casanova, P. Essai de Reconstitution Topographique de la
Vide d'al-Foustat, MIFAO, 35, Le Caire, 1919.

Creswell, K.A.C. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt. 2 vols.,
Oxford UP, 1952-1959.

Denoix, S. Decrire Le Caire. Fustat-Misr d’apres Ihn
Duqmdq et Maqrizi. IFAO, 1992.

. “Les premiers siecles arabes.” In Le Caire, ed.

A. Raymond, 57-145. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2000.

Fuad Sayyed, A., and R.-P. Gayraud. “Fustat-Le Caire a
l’epoque fatimide.” In Grandes Villes Mediterraneennes
du Monde Musulman Medieval, ed. J-Cl. Garcin, 135 —
156. Rome: EFR, 2000.

Gayraud, R-P. Fustat aux Origines du Caire: Les Fouilles
d’lstabl Antar, IFAO, Le Caire (a paraitre).

Kubiak, W. Al-Fustat: Its Foundation and Early Urban
Development. Cairo: AUC Press, 1987.

Kubiak, W., and G. T. Scanlon. Fustat Expedition Final
Report. Vol. 2: Fustdt-C., ARCE, 1989.

Raymond, A. Le Caire. Paris: Fayard, 1993.

Williams, C. Islamic Monuments in Cairo: A Practical
Guide, 4th ed. AUC Press, 1993.

274

GAMBLING

Gambling (qimar) is strictly forbidden by Islamic
law on the basis that it represents an exchange of
property that is neither productive nor sanctioned
and is thus a frivolous and useless business transac-
tion. Moreover, gambling also prevents Muslims
from performing their obligations of prayer and wor-
ship and has the potential to lead to arguments and
violence. Despite legal injunctions against the prac-
tice, gambling did occur throughout the medieval
Islamic world at all levels of society. It may be divided
into two broad categories. The first sort of gambling
consisted of board games such as nard (backgam-
mon), chess, throwing dice, casting lots, cards, gues-
sing games, and manqalah (the game of fourteen). The
other kind of gambling was the placing of stakes on
sports. The most common sports involving stakes were
horse and camel racing, swimming, archery, wrestling,
foot racing, pigeon flying, and polo. Gambling on
sporting events usually took place in large open spaces,
whereas game playing with stakes generally occurred
in private. Large cities often housed gambling estab-
lishments or casinos, and some even offered gamblers
the allure of on-site loans to continue their play. Legal
authorities tended to ignore gambling unless it caused
a disturbance to neighboring residents or businesses
in the form of noise, crime, or disorder.

The roots of gambling in the medieval Islamic world
and the debates surrounding it go back to pre-Islamic
Arabia, where a game known as maysir was widely
played. In this game, a maximum of seven players
each purchased an arrow with differing numbers of

notches representing shares (one through seven) of a
camel divided into 10 parts. These seven arrows,
along with three blank ones, were placed in an
empty drum and then chosen at random one at a
time. The winners were those whose arrow was
drawn out of the drum first. They received shares of
the camel commensurate to the number of shares
purchased and represented by the notches on their
arrow. The losers paid for the camel and its slaughter.
In the Qur’an, maysir is likened to wine and explicitly
forbidden as a sin. Many later Muslim jurists based
their judgments of gambling on the example of the
treatment of maysir in the Qur’an.

As debates among Muslim jurists progressed, the
relative legality of various sorts of gambling changed.
For instance, while some jurists argued against the
legality of chess because the game’s pieces bore what
they took to be idolatrous images, others pointed
to what they viewed as the utility of the game in
teaching foresight and military strategy. Similarly,
even if backgammon was played without stakes,
some still deemed it illegal because the game involved
the throwing of dice. What is more, the flexible nature
of Islamic law allowed technically illegal forms of
gambling to become legalized through the mechanism
of a muhallil (a legalizer). This individual participated
in the gaming or sport but did not contribute to the
stakes. Because gambling in which all the participants
added to the stakes was strictly forbidden by Muslim
jurists, the presence of an individual who did not
contribute to the stakes made the activity in question
a legal form of gambling.

275

GAMBLING

As the most common forms of gambling, back-
gammon and chess were at the center of most debates
on the subject. One of the most important challenges
these games raised struck at a core concept in the
metaphysics of Islamic monotheism: the nature of
fate. Specifically, backgammon came to be seen as
the epitome of the orthodox belief in predetermina-
tion and trust in God because the roll of the dice was
beyond the control of human will and desire. Chess,
on the other hand, symbolized all that was wrong
with humanity because it encouraged players to rely
on their own capacities and gave them a false sense of
freedom of choice.

Alan Mikhail

See also Backgammon; Camels; Chess; Divination;
Numbers; Pigeons; Pre-Destination; Sports; Toys;
Usury and Interest

Further Reading

Mayer, Leo Ary. Mamluk Playing Cards. Eds. R. Ettin-
ghausen and O. Kurz. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971.
Rosenthal, Franz. Gambling in Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1975.

GANJ-I SHAKAR, FARID AD-DIN

A prominent Sufi master of the Chishti order in India,
Farid ad-Din was born in Kahtwal, a village close to
Multan (Punjab) around 1175 CE, to a family that
had immigrated to the region from Kabul. Receiving
his early religious education (particularly in mysti-
cism) from his mother, Farid ad-Din also attended
a madrasa attached to a mosque in Multan. It was
there that he is believed to have met Qutb ad-Din
Bakhtiyar Khaki, a prominent Sufi master from
Delhi who initiated him into the Chishti order, an
order that was rapidly becoming one of the most
powerful Sufi fraternities in northern India. Accord-
ing to hagiographic accounts of his life, Farid ad-Din
quickly became renowned in Chishti circles for his
ascetic practices, such as hanging upside in a well for
45 while meditating and praying. He also became
famous for his fasts through which he is believed to
have attained the power of turning stones into sugar;
hence, his epithet Ganj-i Shakar (the treasure house
of sugar). His asceticism was so extreme that even
his own wives and children had to endure severe
austerities and restrictions on his account.

In keeping with early Chishti tradition, Farid ad-
Din considered association with rulers to be detri-
mental to a life devoted to inculcating spiritual values.
Hence he rejected land grants or gifts from rulers,
preferring to rely on gifts from devotees as a means

of maintaining himself and his disciples. His mistrust
of government and politics was so intense that he
eventually decided to abandon Delhi and the political
turmoil of a capital city to settle in Ajodhan, a small,
remote settlement on the Sutlej River in the Punjab.
As Farid ad-Din’s fame spread throughout the region
and pilgrims flocked to Ajodhan, it was eventually
renamed Pakpattan (the ferry of the pure), presum-
ably because devotees could board the metaphorical
ferry of salvation, piloted by Farid ad-Din, at this
location. On Farid ad-Din’s death in 1265, a shrine
complex developed around his tomb in Pakpattan.
As an important north Indian pilgrimage center, Pak-
pattan continues to attract devotees of all religious
faiths, who come here to seek Farid ad-Din’s blessings
and his intercession so that their prayers may be
answered.

Farid ad-Din played an instrumental role in the
expansion of the Chishti order in north India by
training several prominent disciples who eventually
were responsible for consolidating the order’s author-
ity in important cities and towns. Most prominent
among them was Nizam ad-Din Awliya, the famous
Chishti master of Delhi, whom he met in 1257, only a
few years before his death. Shaykh Salim Chishti of
Fatehpur Sikri, on account of whom the Chishti order
attained great influence in the Mughal court in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was also one of
his spiritual descendants. Although Farid ad-Din
taught his disciples classical Sufi texts, he himself is
not believed to have left behind any important
treatise. Oral tradition attributes to Farid ad-Din
numerous poems and verses in local north Indian
vernaculars, such as Panjabi and Hindawi (the earliest
form of Urdu-Hindi), suggesting that he attempted to
spread Sufi ideas among ordinary people by compos-
ing mystical folk poetry. A few scholars also believe
that the poems ascribed to a Shaykh Farid ad-Din
and incorporated into the Adigranth, the scripture of
the Sikh community may also have been composed by
Farid ad-Din (Ganj-i Shakar), although there is no
consensus on this issue.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Brookes, John. Gardens of Paradise. New York: New
Amsterdam, 1982.

Macdougall, Elizabeth, and Richard Ettinghausen, eds. The
Islamic Garden. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks,
1976.

Ruggles, D. Fairchild. Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the
Palaces of Islamic Spain. University Park, PA: Pennsyl-
vania State University Press, 2000.

. “II giardini con pianta a croce nel Mediterraneo

islamico.” In II Gicirdino Islamico: Architettura, Natura,
Paesaggio , ed. Attilio Petruccioli, 143-154. Milan:
Electa, 1993. German edition in Der islamische Garten:
Architektur. Natnr. Landschaft. Stuttgart: Deutsche
Verlag-Anstalt, 1994, 143-154.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Compared to its contemporaries in the Middle Ages,
Islamic society significantly promoted equality be-
tween the sexes and improved the social status and
rights of women. Yet, judged from the perspective of
modern conceptions of women’s rights, some of the
practices associated with Islam in the Middle Ages
may appear discriminatory, owing to continually
changing conceptions about women’s identity and
role in society and family. Islam emerged in a patriar-
chal society where fathers felt deeply ashamed for
having a female child, often culminating in the com-
mon practice of pre-Islamic Arabia of burying her
alive. There was no limit to the number of wives a
man could have. Suppression of women and inequali-
ty between the sexes were apparent in all types of
interaction.

With the emergence of Islam, the Qur’an reframed
gender difference as part of God’s creation and will
(Q 49:13). The Qur’an is explicit in calling for the
elimination of practices and customs that discriminate
against women, with the purpose of establishing
equality between the sexes, and it curses those who
kill their daughters out of shame (Q 8 1:8-9). The inter-
pretation and implementation of these reforms has
varied across the considerable historical and geograph-
ical spans encompassed by Islamic societies. Some of
the local customs of pre-Islamic times survived by con-
cealing themselves behind a veneer of religious sanc-
tion. Consequently, the Prophet Muhammad’s ideals
concerning equality between the sexes have seldom
been realized in a full and consistent manner.

The Prophet Muhammad demonstrated through
his life and actions the special importance of equality,
proper etiquette, and the mutual expression of love
and kindness between the sexes. He strictly prohibited
the beating of women, which was a common practice
before his time. He also successfully campaigned
against killing newborn daughters out of shame.
He firmly established women’s rights to property,

278

GENDER AND SEXUALITY

inheritance, and equality before the law. With the
purpose of promoting personal modesty and prevent-
ing sexual corruption, he enjoined men and women
not to expose their bodies in public, except in the
company of their spouses and family members. He
also commanded both men and women to lower their
gaze in public places. He prohibited celibacy and
strongly encouraged marriage, stating: “Marriage is
my practice; whoever turns away from my practice is
not from me.” The Prophet first married at age twenty-
five, to his wife Khadija, a forty-year-old widow. They
lived together for about 25 years and had six children.
After her death, he contracted other marriages with
elderly and widowed women, mostly to support them
and keep them from destitution. The one exception to
this was Aisha, the only virgin among his wives.

The Qur’an declares that God created man and
woman from one soul in a perfect manner: “O people!
Take shelter in your Lord, Who created you from a
single self and created from it its mate, and spread,
from these two, men and women in abundance. And
guard yourselves [for Allah] in Whom you claim [your
rights with one another], and do not cut the ties [of
kinship] to the wombs [that bore you]. Truly Allah is
ever watchful over you.” (Q 4:1). It is significant that
the wording of the previous verse is explicit in ruling
out that the first woman was derived or created from
the first man. Instead, both are created simultaneously
from a single primordial self.

Love and affection between men and women like-
wise comes from God: “And among His Signs is that
He created for you mates from among yourselves,
that you may find tranquility in them, and He has
put love and mercy between you. Surely in this are
Signs for a people who reflect” (Q 30:21). God’s
purpose in creating differences between the sexes is
not only to facilitate reproduction but also to play a
role in God’s self-disclosure through human diversity
at other levels: “O people, surely We have created you
female and male and made you peoples and tribes, so
that you might come to know one another. Truly the
most honorable among you in the sight of Allah is the
one who is most conscious of Allah, warding off evil
[within and without]” (Q 49:13).

According to the Qur’an, the duties and the rights
of both sexes are the same, except that man is elevated
one degree above woman because particular financial
responsibilities are imposed upon him as the head of
the household (see Q 2:221; 3:195; 4:32; 4:124; 6:139;
9:67-68; 9:71-72; 16:58-59; 16:97; 24:30-31; 33:35;
33:58; 33:73; 40:40; 42:49-50; 47:19; 48:5-6; 57:12;
57:18; 60:10). Expressed metaphorically, man and
woman are “garments” for each other (Q 2:187),
providing protection, pleasure, adornment, and beauty
to one other.

The Qur’an tells us that the first marriage was
conducted in Paradise between Adam and Eve before
their fall from Paradise (the Qur’an does not blame
Eve [Hawwa in Arabic] for the first sin committed in
Paradise; see Q 7:20-23, and many similar passages,
where it is made clear that the fall from this original
state of grace is a responsibility shared equally be-
tween Eve and Adam). The act of marriage in this
world must be undertaken in the intention and expec-
tation of permanence, as the righteous married couple
who love each other has the choice to continue their
marriage, even after death, in Paradise (Q 36:56; 40:8;
43:70). The Qur’an strongly recommends a man to
have only one wife based on the reason that it would
be almost impossible to maintain justice among
multiple wives (Q 4:129). However, it also allows a
man to have up to four wives provided that he treats
each one of them equally.

The only woman whose proper name is openly
mentioned in the Qur’an is the Virgin Mary, in Arabic
Maryam, to whom chapter nineteen is devoted. Chap-
ter four in the Qur’an is titled “Women” and presents
some, but by no means all, of the issues in relations
between the sexes. Another chapter (“The Woman
Who Pleads”) describes the struggle of one woman
for the rights of all women. Following a dispute with
the Prophet Muhammad, she pleaded to God for the
abolition of an unjust pre-Islamic custom, and God
accepts her prayers by prohibiting that custom (Q
58:1-3).

In Islamic law the members of both sexes are
treated equally at the level of basic rights: inviolability
of life, property, religion, consciousness, family, and
honor. Islamic law granted women the right to
work, to own property, and to inherit it, which were
rather exceptional rights in the seventh century com-
pared with other legal systems where women could
not own property independent of their husbands up
until recently.

Islamic law took special measures to protect
women from false accusations by male members of
the community for unchaste behavior. If such a claim
is not proved with certainty by the testimony of
four direct witnesses, the person who makes the false
accusation is severely punished (Q 24:4, 24:19, 24:23).
Furthermore, because he has been shown to be
dishonest, he loses his right to testify before a court
from that point forward. In Islamic law, differences
between the sexes emerge in such issues as each par-
ent’s necessary role in the family, testimony in court,
and inheritance.

Unlike many religions, sexuality is not stigmatiz-
ed in Islam. On the contrary, moral and moderate
sexuality is sanctified within the boundaries clearly
set by the Qur’an and the example and teachings

279

GENDER AND SEXUALITY

of the Prophet Muhammad. Adultery and fornication
are strongly prohibited (Q 4:24-27; 5:5; 17:32; 25:68).
The sexual attraction between members of the opp-
osite sex is a creation of God which functions as a
crucial drive for reproduction, but complete surrender
to lust is considered destructive. Moderation and
morality in sexual life are enforced by laws and
moral guidelines; while the jurists dealt with the
legal rules, the Sufis concentrated in their writings
on moral education by cleansing the heart to protect
a person from the danger of enslavement by lust. The
Sufis saw human love as a stepping-stone to divine
love. An important means of protecting self-restraint
against overwhelming lust is the lowering of the gaze
and not looking at members of the opposite sex,
particularly at the eyes. A lustful gaze is condemned
as a sin and as “adultery by the eyes,” which is very
much in line with the biblical judgment on the same
issue (Matthew 5:27-29).

In a marriage, both parties have the right to sexual
satisfaction, which in its absence may constitute a
legal ground for divorce. Lawful sex and sexual satis-
faction are praised as aids to the concentration of the
mind and heart and a means of protection for both
wife and husband from sin and corruption. Above all,
a lawful and moderate outlet for sexual expression
protects the gaze of the eyes from unlawful and im-
moral looks. Husband and wife are required to love
and respect each other and to be responsive to each
other’s sexual needs. It is the duty of both partners to
offer their best in the relationship.

The medieval Islamic literature does not recognize
a conflict between agape (divine love) and eros
(human love); instead, sexuality and love were not
seen to be mutually exclusive. In place of conflict the
relationship between them was characterized as com-
plementary, similar to the relationship between ying
and yang in Taoism. In contrast with medieval Chris-
tianity, which maintained a high level of tension be-
tween agape and eros (see John 2:15-17), a Muslim is
encouraged both to marry and to love his or her
spouse. Human feelings of love in marriage are rein-
forced by divine command, as conjugal love is re-
quired to be for the sake of God and with the
intention of following His command and the tradition
of the Prophet Muhammad. This positive approach
to sexuality and love between the sexes drew criticism
from some Christian theologians during the Middle
Ages as evidence of depraved sensuality.

Recep Senturk

Further Reading

Barlas, Asma. "Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Pa-
triarchal Interpretations of the Quran. Austin: University

of Texas Press, 2002.

Bell, Norment Joseph. Love Theory in Later Hanhalite Islam.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1979.

Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Mcde Elite: A Feminist
Interpretation of Women ’s Rights in Islam. Philadelphia:
Perseus, 1992.

Murata, Sachiko. The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on
Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought. Albany, NY:
SUNY Press, 1992.

Schimmel, Annemarie. My Soul Is a Woman: The Feminine
in Islam. New York: Continuum, 2003.

Stowasser, Barbara Freyer. Women in the Qur’an, Tradi-
tions, and Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1994.

Wadud, Amina. Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred
Text from a Woman's Perspective. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999.

GENGHIS KHAN

Genghis Khan (Mongolian: Chinggis; 1167-1227 CE)
was the founder of the Mongolian world empire.
Most of the information about his life is derived
from the anonymous and partly mythical Mongolian
source known as The Secret History of the Mongols,
compiled probably around 1228. Born as Temujin to
a minor chieftain in northeastern Mongolia, the fu-
ture Genghis Khan went through hard times as a
youth. When Temujin was just nine, his father Yesugei
was poisoned by an enemy tribe. Yesugei’s supporters
abandoned Temiijin’s family to its fate. Gradually,
Temujin managed to attract supporters from other
clans and tribes, who became his nokors (followers,
comrades) and began to assert his authority over his
clan and over the neighboring Turco-Mongol tribes.
He advanced by forging alliances with influential
leaders, then discarding them after they had served
their turns. During his rise to power he attacked and
executed his “sworn brother,” Jamuqa, and his first
patron, Ong Khan. In 1184, Temujin was enthroned
the khan of his tribe, the Mongols, and in 1206, an
assembly of the Mongol tribes ( quriltai ) proclaimed
him as Genghis Khan, the harsh or universal khan,
ruler of all the Mongols. Soon after the quriltai,
Genghis Khan began his conquests. First, he turned
to China, starting by attacking the Xi Xia dynasty in
northwestern China in 1207 and reducing it into a
tributary state in 1209. In 1211, Genghis Khan turned
against the Jin dynasty that had ruled in Manchuria
and northern China, and in 1215, he conquered its
capital in present-day Beijing. Then his attention was
drawn westward. In 1218, he overran the Central
Asian empire of the Qara Khitai, which had been
briefly ruled by one of his old enemies in Mongolia,
Kuchliig (Guchiilug). This conquest brought Genghis
Khan face to face with the empire of the Khwarazm
Shah, the strongest ruler in the eastern Islamic world.
Khwarazm’ s massacre of a group of merchants who

280

GENGHIS KHAN

Detail of Genghis Khan and his sons by Rashid al-Din (d. 1318). Persian manuscript. 19157, Sup Pers 113, f.44. Credit: Art
Resource, NY. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

served as Genghis Khan's messengers in 1218 furn-
ished a pretext for a long and bloody campaign
against the Khwarazm Shah (1219-1224), in which
the great Transoxianan cities of Bukhara and Samar-
qand were fiercely sacked, Khurasanian cities were
razed to the ground, and millions of Muslims were
slaughtered. Moreover, the neglect and ruin of Iran’s
irrigation system during the Mongol invasion inflict-
ed long-term damages on Iranian agriculture. The
Mongol troops chased the fleeting Khwarazm Shah
to the Caspian Sea, and his son to the Indus. Returning
to Mongolia on the road to the north of the Caspian
Sea, Genghis Khan’s generals also conquered vast
tracts of Russia. Genghis Khan’s last campaign was
the final subjugation of the Xi Xia dynasty in 1227,
during which the great conqueror died.

Genghis Khan died ruling over the territory be-
tween northern China and the Caspian Sea. Yet
apart from this spectacular military success, he also
laid institutional foundations for an empire that
continued to expand for several generations. One of
his main achievements was the reorganization of the
army: he retained the traditional decimal units (of ten,
one hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand men)
but eliminated its connection to the tribal system.
Tribes (or their remnants) were divided among the
different units, which were headed by Genghis
Khan’s loyal nokers. They replaced the former tribal
elite and became a focus of loyalty and identification.
This disciplined and mobile army was also armed with
an ideology, according to which Heaven entrusted
Genghis Khan with the mission of world dominion,
their blessing demonstrated by his spectacular success.

Genghis Khan also created a law system for his
people, known as the Yasa (jasaq), the exact form and
contents of which are still debated among scholars.
He also established a juridical system, which benefited
from his former decision to adopt the Uighur script
for writing the Mongolian language. Genghis Khan
borrowed administrators and administrative tech-
niques from the states that came under his control,
making use of different ethnic groups, such as
Khitans, Uighurs, Khwarazmians, and Chinese. The
combination of the newly organized army, the un-
precedented amount of devastation it created, and
Mongol willingness to learn from their subjects were
among the main reasons for Genghis Khan’s success.

Despite his tolerant attitude toward Islam and reli-
gions in general, Genghis Khan’s violent invasion into
the Muslim world, and his heirs’ extermination of the
‘Abbasid caliphate, earned him the reputation of an
archenemy of Islam. However, with the Islamization of
the Mongols in Iran and later in southern Russia and
Central Asia in the late thirteenth to mid-fourteenth
centuries, Genghis Khan became the revered father of
and a source of political legitimacy to several Muslim
dynasties in the Turco-Iranian world. The Genghisid
principle, according to which only descendants of
Genghis can bear the title of khan, remained valid in
Muslim Central Asia until the nineteenth century, and
the Yasa ascribed to him influenced the legal and
political systems of the Uzbeks, Mughals, and Otto-
mans. While in the modern Arab world Genghis Khan
is usually portrayed as a villain, the Turco-Iranian
world gives more credit to his heroic achievements.

Michal Biran

281

GENGHIS KHAN

See also Bukhara; Central Asia; China; India; Khura-
san; Mongol Warfare; Mongols; Mughals; Nomadism
and Pastoralism; Samarqand; Silk Road; Tamerlane;
Transoxiana

Further Reading

Anonymous. Shengwu qingzheng lu [Record of the Person-
al Campaigns of the Holy Warrior], ed. Wang Guowei.
In Wang Guowei yi shu. Shanghai 1983. Vol. 13; transla-
tion of part 1 in Histoire des Campagnes de Gengis Khan.
Ed. and trans. P. Pelliot and L. Hambis. Leiden, 1951,
vol. 1.

Ibn al-Athlr, ‘Izz al-Dln ‘All. Al-Kamil ft al-ta’rTkh. 13 vols.
Beirut, 1966,.

Juwaynl, ‘Ala’ al-DTn ‘AOa’-malik. Ta’nkh-i Jahan-Gushd.
Ed. M. M. Qazwlnl. 3 vols. London, 1912-1937; History
of World Conqueror. Trans. J.A. Boyle. Rpt. Manche-
ster, 1997.

Juzjanl, Minhaj al-DTn. fabciqdt-i NaOiri. Ed. W. Nassau
Lees. Calcutta, 1864.

, ed. A. Habibi. Kabul, 1342-1344/1963-1964.

2 vols; Jabakat-i NaOiri. Trans. H. G. Raverty. 2 vols.
London, 1881-1899.

De Rachewiltz, I., transl. and annot. The Secret History of
the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thir-
teenth Century. 2 vols. Brill, 2004.

Rashid al-DTn, FaAlallah Abu al-Khayr. Jdmi ‘ al-tawarikh.

Ed. B. Karlml. 2 vols. Tehran, 1338/1959.
Jami’u’t-tawarikh [sic] Compendium of Chronicles. 3 vols.
Trans. W.M. Thackston. Cambridge, MA, 1998-1999.

Studies

Allsen, Thomas T. “The Rise of the Mongolian Empire and
Mongolian Rule in North China.” In The Cambridge
History of China, Vol. 6. Eds. H. Franke and
D. Twitchett, 321M13. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1994.

De Rachewiltz, Igor. “The Title ¥inggis Qan/Qa’an Recon-
sidered.” In Gedanke und Wirkung. Festschrift zum 90.
Geburstag von Nikolaus Poppe. Wiesbaden: Harraso-
wich, 1989, 281-298.

McChesney, Robert D. Centred Asia: Foundations of
Change. Princeton, 1996.

Morgan, David O. The Mongols. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.

. Medieval Persia. London: Longman, 1988.

Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan — His Life and Legacy.
Trans. T.N. Haining. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.

GENIZA

Definition, Collection, and Contents

Jews in the lands of Islam deposited damaged sacred
books in repositories called geniza or gertizah prior to
giving them a proper ritual burial in their cemeteries.
Sacred books — primarily those with the name of God
written upon them — were treated with the same re-
spect as the human body and were never simply

thrown away. In time, this respect accorded to sacred
books was extended to written documents in general,
nearly all of which contained the name of God due to
the numerous blessings, invocations, and eulogies that
were a part of epistolary convention. We know of
genizas only in the lands of the Arabic-speaking
world. In Cairo, genizas have been found at a Karaite
synagogue, in the Basatine cemetery, and at the
Ben Ezra synagogue in Old Cairo (called Fustat in
the Middle Ages). The largest of these repositories,
which is commonly referred to as the “Cairo Geniza,”
was the one at the Ben Ezra synagogue. The contents
of the Cairo Geniza were transferred to European
and American libraries in the late nineteenth century.
The only geniza documents remaining in Egypt are
those excavated in the 1980s by the Egyptian Depart-
ment of Antiquities from three sites in the Basatine
cemetery.

Genizas As a Source for Jewish History
and Culture

The contents of the Cairo Geniza, which date largely
to the years 1000-1300 CE, are of central importance
for the information they provide about the history of
the local Jewish communities of medieval Egypt, the
Jewish communities of Palestine and North Africa,
and their relations with communities elsewhere in the
Near East. Marriage contracts between Rabbanite
and Karaite couples (with special provisions relating
to religious practice), charity lists containing the
names of both Rabbanite and Karaite contributors
and recipients, and business documents all provide
evidence for extensive social and economic relations
between Rabbanite and Karaite communities, in spite
of their doctrinal and ritual differences. The Cairo
Geniza also yields materials to write the social and
institutional history of major Jewish institutions of
law and higher learning in Mesopotamia. Our knowl-
edge of the actual workings of the Babylonian acade-
mies has been expanded greatly by the materials
available in the Geniza.

Geniza fragments allow us to contextualize previ-
ously known Jewish philosophical works in Judeo-
Arabic (a form of Arabic written in Hebrew characters)
and Hebrew, providing information about the cir-
cumstances of their composition, their distribution
and readership, and their reception. In the case of
the Kuzari of Judah ha-Levi (ca. 1071-1141), letters
from a merchant friend of his reveal that the first
version of the book was written as a response to a
Karaite who lived in a Christian country. In addition,
the Geniza has provided important finds for the

282

GENIZA

historical reconstruction of religious texts and their
variants. For example, the importance and specific
content of the Palestinian Talmud is now known in
some detail. Similarly, original Hebrew versions of
books such as the Ecclesiasticus of Ben Sira, once
thought lost forever, were in circulation in the Islamic
world in the Middle Ages and are now available to us.
In addition, the existence of a rich post-Talmudic
exegetical literature is known from the answers of
legal authorities to questions addressed to them
(responsa), many of which were deposited in the
Geniza.

While most genizas were repositories for prayer
books and other sacred writings, the Jews of medieval
Egypt deposited a variety of different documents,
including business accounts, wills, inventories of vari-
ous kinds, marriage contracts, trousseau lists, wills,
and commercial and private correspondence. Based
largely on these documents, S.D. Goitein (1900-1985)
produced his live-volume magnum opus, A Med-
iterranean Society, which provides a comprehensive
picture of the social, economic, communal, family,
and religious history of the Jewish communities
of medieval Egypt.

Geniza documents reveal that Jews were integrated
into economic and social life in Islamic lands to a very
high degree. There were no legal restrictions on the
economic activities of Jews and Christians, and the
Geniza makes it clear that no social or cultural impe-
diments to full participation in economic life existed.
Unlike Christian Europe, where Jews were restricted
to a small number of occupations and could not
own property, the Geniza reveals Jews working in
hundreds of occupations and owning property. The
documents of Jewish pious foundations reveal that
the poll tax was not merely a symbolic payment, but
was a significant financial burden for Jewish com-
munities and a major expenditure for Jewish charities.
The documents of the Geniza show clearly that some
provisions of the Pact of Umar were often ignored
and became an issue largely at times of economic and
political stress. Family life, particularly social and
economic aspects of marriage, is richly documented.
From the Geniza we learn, in some detail, that Jews
in the lands of Islam practiced polygyny. We learn
also about the daily lives of women, including their
extensive economic activities. The Geniza provides
ample evidence of Jewish use of the Muslim courts
even to adjudicate disputes between Jews, who had
the right under Islamic law to appeal intracommunal
disputes to the rabbinic courts.

The predominant language of the documentary
material of the Cairo Geniza is Judeo- Arabic. The
Judeo- Arabic of the Geniza documents is character-
ized by the use of quotations in Hebrew and Aramaic

from the Bible and the Talmud, and by the assimila-
tion of Hebrew vocabulary into Arabic. The use of
Judeo- Arabic in writing, as well as in speech, reflects
the fact that, by the tenth century, Arabic had dis-
placed Aramaic as the lingua franca of Jews (and
other communities) in the lands of Islam. The use of
an Arabic vernacular had a noticeable impact on the
development of religious and philosophical thought
among Jewish thinkers. One major effect of this ex-
posure to the so-called secular branches of learning
that were widespread among Muslim intellectuals in
the ninth and tenth centuries was the adoption of
rationalist thinking as a method of studying Jewish
texts. Arabophone Jewish rationalists embraced the
exegetical culture of the classical Islamic world and
began to write commentaries on Torah and other
parts of the Hebrew Bible in Arabic. Later commen-
tators used the same rationalist methods to produce
commentaries in Hebrew. The study of Hebrew
grammar came to be considered fundamental to the
exegetical enterprise and was developed along the
model of Arabic grammar.

Genizas As a Source of Information on
Islamic History and Culture

The Geniza contributes to many aspects of broader
Islamic history and is particularly rich in many areas
that are otherwise sparsely documented. Arabic scrib-
al encyclopedias and historical works, often written at
a much later period, describe administrative struc-
tures and transmit caliphal and administrative decrees
from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries,
but they are often described in anachronistic terms.
Legal documents of various kinds and administrative
documents emanating from the government chan-
ceries are rare, and they are known largely from the
Geniza. A number of these legal documents are con-
tracts concerning the sale of properties. These docu-
ments are written in Arabic script, and many are
contracts between Muslim parties that made their
way into the Geniza because they concerned a prop-
erty that eventually came into the hands of Jews, at
which time the contracts documenting the property’s
history came into the possession of these later owners.
Other documents no doubt made their way into the
Geniza because they were registered in a court ar-
chive, an act that gave the written document a proba-
tive value that it would not otherwise have had in the
Islamic legal system, in which oral testimony was
ordinarily required as legal proof. Arabic Geniza
documents reveal the frequent use of petitions to
rulers, judges, and other dignitaries to appeal for

283

GENIZA

assistance or redress grievances. The information in
literary historical sources about petitions is more
than verified by the petitions in the Geniza, many of
them from the Fatimid (969-1171) and Ayyubid
(1171-1250) periods.

The Geniza provides extensive material on com-
merce. It contains hundreds of trade letters, many
between Jewish merchants but a significant number
involving Muslims and Christians. These letters, as
well as inventories, accounts, and court cases, demon-
strate the extensive use of informal cooperation and
partnerships that characterized commerce in the me-
dieval Islamic world. They also document the range
of techniques used to provide credit, given Islamic
law’s prohibition on interest, particularly the use of
the commenda. Commercial documents and letters
from the Geniza provide impressive detail on indus-
tries, manufacturing processes, local and regional
market conditions and prices, and business practices.
We also learn from these documents that the govern-
ment’s involvement in commerce was expressed
primarily in exercising its rights as first buyer and in
the collection of taxes. One of the richest contribu-
tions of the Geniza is to the history of material cul-
ture. The trousseau lists, inventories, accounts, and
business letters provide voluminous information
about textiles and clothing, including details about
color, fabric, ornamentation, and value. Collectively,
the Geniza provides extensive lexical material, allow-
ing us to understand vocabulary in Arabic historical
texts that would otherwise remain obscure. Similar
information is available about housing, furnishings,
food, and jewelry.

Paula Sanders

See also Family; Grammar and Grammarians; Hebrew
and Judeo- Arabic; Interfaith Relations; Jewish Lan-
guages; Jews; Marriage, Jewish; Textiles; Trade, Med-
iterranean; Translation, Arabic to Hebrew; Usury and
Interest

Further Reading

Ben-Shammai, Haggai. “Medieval History and Religious
Thought.” In The Cambridge Genizah Collections: Their
Contents and Significance, ed. Stefan C. Reif. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Brody, Robert. The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of
Medieval Jewish Culture. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1998.

Cohen, Mark. Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

. “Goitein, the Geniza, and Muslim History.” Avail-
able on line at www.dayan.org/mel/cohen.htm (2001).
Friedman, M.A. Jewish Marriage in Palestine: A Cairo
Geniza Study. Tel Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, Chaim
Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies; New York: Jewish
Theological Seminary of America, 1980-1981.

Gil, Moshe. Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations
from the Cairo Genizah. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976.

Goitein, S.D. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1973.

. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities

of the Arab World As Portrayed in the Documents of the
Cairo Geniza. 6 vols. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1967-1993.

Kahle, Paul. The Cairo Geniza. Oxford: Blackwell Press,
1959.

Khan, Geoffrey. Arabic Legal and Administrative Docu-
ments in the Cambridge Genizah Collections. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Lambert, Phyllis, ed. Fortifications and the Synagogue: The
Fortress of Babylon and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994.

Olszowy-Schlanger, Judith. Karaite Marriage Documents
from the Cairo Geniza: Legal Tradition and Community
Life in Mediaeval Egypt and Palestine. Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1998.

Rabi’, Hasanayn Muhammad. Dalil watha’iq wa-awraq al-
Jiniza al-jadidah ( Catalogue of latest Geniza Documents
and Papers). Al-Qahirah: Jami’at al-Qahirah, Markaz
al-Dirasat al-Sharqiyah, 1993.

Reif, Stefan C. “A Centennial Assessment of Genizah
Studies.” In The Cambridge Genizah Collections: Their
Contents and Significance, ed. Stefan C. Reif. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

. A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo: The History of

Cambridge University’s Genizah Collection. Richmond,
Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000.

Stillman, Yedida. “Female Attire of Medieval Egypt:
According to the Trousseau Lists and Cognate Material
from the Cairo Geniza.” Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Pennsylvania, 1972.

Udovitch, Abraham L. Partnership and Profit in Medieval
Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970.

GEOGRAPHY

The science of geography in Islam developed on a
foundation of previous civilizations and was strongly
impacted by the expansion of the Islamic state and the
spread of the Islamic faith. The rise of the Islamic
empire entailed four major developments in regard to
scientific geography and travel: (1) the rise of a need
for geography as an auxiliary discipline to govern-
ment and administration; (2) access to the academic
and cultural heritage of the Hellenic, Mesopotamian,
Iranian, Indian, and other civilizations conquered
by Islam; (3) a new impetus and opportunities for
travel, exploration, and long-distance trade; and (4)
a specifically Islamic branch of cartography and as-
tronomical geography focused on Mecca and the
direction of prayer (qibla, q.v.). The great majority
of geographical works combined aspects of science
and literature and were composed in Arabic, although
non-Arabs and even non-Muslims made important
contributions. Some scholars treated geography as
part of history; it was also customary to discuss

284

GEOGRAPHY

other sciences in the introductions to geographical
works. For some parts of the world, or certain periods
of their history, medieval Islamic geographers provide
major, if not the only, sources of information. Their
works are thus invaluable and often indispensable
to the study of history and historical ethnography, as
well as historical geography and the history of science.

The cosmographic views of early Muslims absorbed
the pre-Islamic vision of the world registered in
the Qur’an and some hadiths, or the pre-Islamic tradi-
tions recorded in the second and third centuries of
Islam by authors such as the historian al-Dinawari
(d. AH 281 or 282/894-895 CE) and geographers
such as al-Ya‘qubi (259-292/872-873 to 905), al-Ham-
dani (d. 334/945), al-Mas‘udi (d. 345/956). According
to one view recorded by al-Ya'q ubi. the earth has the
shape of a bird with spread wings whose head is in the
East (China), tail in the West, and the breast encom-
passes Mecca, Hijaz, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, that is, the
core of the early Islamic empire. The Umayyad postal
service drove the development of precise itineraries
and distance measurements. The Roman mile, mil
(pronounced “meel”), became the common unit of
distance in the western parts of the empire. Another
measure of distance was the Iranian farsakh, equal to
three mils (six kilometers). Itineraries also used
“marches” (martial) or “days of journey” (approxi-
mately twenty kilometers). Degrees of longitude and
latitude were long confined to works of mathematical
geography and only gradually made their way into
geographical narratives. They are not found on extant
maps predating the fourteenth century, even those
using grids.

Among the earliest geographical compositions
are travel records of the Umayyad period and the
early genre of fada’il, descriptions of “advantages”
of places sacred to Muslims in some ways, which
later acquired an increasingly secular nature. Scientif-
ic Islamic geography began in Baghdad in the early
‘Abbasid period and was particularly encouraged by
the caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 198-218/813-833). The first
steps included the measurement of the degree of lati-
tude, construction of observatories, production of
maps and instruments, and especially the translation
and adaptation of Indian, Iranian, and Greek geo-
graphical and astronomical treatises. Among the
Indian borrowings were the imaginary Mount Meru,
the highest point on dry land directly under the North
Pole, the division of the inhabited regions of the earth
into nine sections, and the calculation of the longitude
from the meridian of Sri Lanka, drawn from Mount
Meru through the Cupola of the Earth (Ar. Aria,
from Ujjain — modern Avanti — site of an ancient
Indian observatory). From the Greeks were borrowed

the limitations of the inhabited world to a quarter of
the globe, the concept of the continents (Europe,
Libya, Ethiopia, Scythia), the idea of the Indian
Ocean landlocked between Asia and Africa, and
the word jughrafiya for the discipline. In mathemati-
cal geography Arabic scholars accepted the system of
seven latitudinal climates, or climes (Ar. aqalim; sing.
iqlim), from the equator to the polar circle. Ptolemy’s
Geography was translated repeatedly (as was his
Almagest)-, particularly influential was the version
of al-Khwarizmi (also Khorezmi, fl. ca. 205/820).
Iranian influences were the strongest in descriptive
geography and in cartography, including the method
of describing the world following the four cardinal
directions (beginning in the East) and the division of
the earth into seven kishvarha (equal geometric cir-
cles), the central one representing Iran (with Mesopo-
tamia). The lost map of al-Ma’mun supposedly
followed this pattern, though it was also supposed
to use the projection of Marinus.

Other notable early advances in Islamic geography
came when the administrators of the vast, newly re-
ordered empire composed or commissioned geo-
graphical reference books in the genre of Masalik wa
al-Mamalik (Routes and Kingdoms), from the title of
the first extant composition of this nature, by Ibn
Khurdadhbih (ca. 205-300/820-912). Other authors
include al-Balkhi (235-322/849-850 to 934), al-
Istakhri (ca. 340/951), and Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamad-
hani (ca. 290/903), all of whom functioned in the
eastern parts of the empire. These treatises concen-
trate on such practical needs of government as topog-
raphy, administrative information, commercial and
postal routes, and descriptions of boundaries. A sep-
arate branch of mathematical geography, shaped by
Ptolemaic influence, was developed by al-Khwarizmi,
al-Farghani (Alfraganus, fl. 247/861), and al-Battani
(Albategnius, d. AH929). To begin with, their works
contained the tables of astronomical coordinates of
locations and geographical features, and descriptions
of maps with coordinates (very few of the maps
survive).

During the classical period of Islamic geography
(ninth to eleventh centuries), two schools of des-
criptive geography developed. The first was the Iraqi
school, so called because it often followed the
Iranian system of kishvars, but substituted Iraq
(the center of the ‘Abbasid caliphate) for Iran as the
center of the Islamic empire. This school included Ibn
Khurdadhbih, al-Ya‘qubi, Ibn Rusta ( fl. ca. 290-300/
903-913), Ibn al-Faqih, and al-Mas‘udi, all of whom
wrote world geographies. Al-Ya‘qubi and al-Mas‘udi
traveled extensively, but their personal experiences
seem to have had little effect on their geographical

285

GEOGRAPHY

concepts. The second school was that of al-Balkhi,
whose own work does not survive. Among his fol-
lowers were al-Istakhri, Ibn Hawqal (ca. 366/977),
and al-Muqaddasi (al-Maqdisi, ca. 335-390/946-947
to 1000). These geographers focused on the world of
Islam and attached central importance to Mecca.
They introduced the concept of a country as a geo-
graphical unit and enlarged the scope of their science
with elements of “human geography,” discussing
the languages and races of people, their occupations,
customs, and religions. Firsthand observation dur-
ing their travels was an important source of informa-
tion for these authors, though they also borrowed
heavily from their predecessors. Al-Muqaddasi, the
last and most original representative of this school,
created the systematic foundation of Arab geography
by discussing its uses and scopes, the geographical
terminology, the various methods of division of
the earth, and the value of empirical observation.
A distinctive characteristic of this school is its atten-
tion to cartography. Texts often seem to follow
the map and were usually accompanied by a set of
twenty-one maps: one of each of the twenty climes
or regions into which they divided Islamic lands, and
one world map. These maps are very similar to each
other in character and are composed of peculiarly
simplified geometric shapes. They show roads and
towns but give no indication of coordinates or dis-
tances; collectively, they are known today as the
“Atlas of Islam.”

The physical geography of Muslim scholars in part
depended on their Greek precursors and in part con-
tributed new thinking on the nature of physical phe-
nomena. They saw the earth as a sphere, resembling
the yoke within the white of the egg. They understood
that the changing positioning of the sun resulted in
differences between climatic zones: hot, temperate,
and cold. They agreed that climate, topography, and
soils conditioned the spatial distribution of life and
water. They discussed the causes of wind, clouds, rain,
tides, and earthquakes. Many geographers who
adopted the Greek notion of the Inhabited Quarter
assumed that the parts of the earth south of the
equator were uninhabitable due to excessive heat.
Unique among the geographers of the late classical
period of Islam is al-Biruni (c. 442/1050). Apart from
his important contribution to regional geography (he
described India in detail), he compared and critically
evaluated the contributions to geography of the
Arabs, Greeks, Indians, and Iranians. An advanced
theoretician of geography and astronomy, he was also
a bold and undogmatic thinker. For example, he dis-
cussed the difference in seasons between the northern
and southern hemispheres and argued that, contrary

to the prevailing views, life was possible south of
the equator; he, alone, among Muslim geographers
conjectured that the Indian Ocean communicated
with the Atlantic (the earliest maps showing the Indi-
an Ocean somewhat realistically are considerably
older, found in manuscripts ascribed to Ibn Sa‘id al-
Maghribi [610-673 or 685/1214-1274 or 1286] and the
encyclopedist Ibn Fadlallah al-‘Umari [700-749/
1301-1349]).

The spirit of exploration and inquiry generated
both active travel beyond the better-known areas of
the Middle East, India, and Africa and demand
among the reading public for travel accounts. Some
of these accounts were reports of authentic journeys,
such as Ibn Fadlan’s diplomatic mission to the Volga
region (ca. 921) and Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub’s journey
from Spain to Germany (ca. 354/965). Others belong
to the genre of 'aja’ib (marvels): surviving composi-
tions by Abu Zayd al-Sirafi (ca. 306/916) and Buzurg
ibn Shahriyar (ca. 342/953) contain, together with
factual information, semilegendary stories, including
maritime tales; a few found their way into the One
Thousand and One Nights as the stories of Sinbad the
Sailor and may have been heard by Marco Polo. Yet,
although Muslim seafarers knew the Indian Ocean
well enough to sail from Malacca to Southeast Africa,
the formal geographical works say disappointingly
little about distant areas. Moreover, the new facts
were often overlooked or stubbornly fitted into the
old theoretically devised patterns. This conservative
attitude forced practical geography to yield to theory
and gradually led to scientific stagnation.

In the area of world geography the highest achieve-
ment was attained by al-Idrisi (493-560/1098-1165),
who worked at the Norman court in Sicily and
used data produced by the Islamic and European
geographers and travelers. His Nuzhat al-Mushtaq
fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq (Entertainment for One Who
Wants to Travel the World) was conceived as a de-
scription of a large map, each chapter detailing itin-
eraries within one of seventy sections illustrated by a
regional map. The innovation was to subdivide each
of the seven Greek climes into ten longitudinal sec-
tions, starting from the west. Although some of the
information was incorrect or outdated even at the
time, as a universal geography his work remained
unsurpassed in the Islamic world, and among map-
makers al-Idrisi’s cartographic tradition survived as
late as the sixteenth century. His system influenced
Ibn Sa‘id al-Maghribi, who supplemented his de-
scription with the coordinates of many locations,
and Ibn Khaldun.

The twelfth to sixteenth centuries produced little
conceptual development, but they are marked by the

286

GEOGRAPHY

emergence of new specialized genres: geographical
dictionaries, cosmographies, travel narratives ( rihla)
and pilgrimage guides (ziyarat), and the works of
marine geography. The largest and most famous geo-
graphical dictionary is that of Yaqut (ca. 575-626/
1179-1229), who presents a great number of place-
names, listed alphabetically and accompanied by a
wealth of geographical and historical information.
His method and much of his information were
borrowed by the most prominent cosmographer,
Zakariya al-Qazwini (d. 682/1283), whose works
remain popular even with modern Arab readers.
Specifically Islamic variations of the dictionary genre
were the guides to religious places or pilgrimage
centers, the ziyarat (see pilgrimage); the most famous
of these is by al-Harawi (d. 611/1215). Among the
travel narratives, of particular significance for Arabia
was the work of Ibn al-Mujawir (ca. 626/1229); for
the Near East, that of Ibn Jubayr (540—614/1 145—
1217); and for Europe, Abu Hamid al-Andalusi
(473-565/1080-1170). The most outstanding traveler,
Ibn Battuta, whose journeys took him from his native
Maghrib to Arabia, Europe, Central Asia, India,
Indonesia, China, and sub-Saharan Africa, was not
famous in his own time.

Outside the Arabic tradition of Islamic geography,
Persian scholarship, represented by the anonymous
Hudud al-‘Alam (Regions of the World, ca. 372/982),
was influenced by the work of al-Istakhri, which had
been translated into Persian. Some of al-Biruni’s
works were originally written in, or later translated
into, Persian. His contemporary, Nasir-i Khusraw
(394-481/1003-1060), wrote in Persian, describing
the travels in Egypt and Arabia. Generally derivative
of Arabic authorities, the works in Persian were pro-
duced mainly in Iran, Central Asia, and India. The
development of Ottoman geography began in the
fourteenth century. At first it popularized translations
of Arab cosmographies; later translations were also
made from Persian and Greek. From the early six-
teenth century, Ottoman geography was continuously
influenced by European scholarship, especially in car-
tography. A specifically Ottoman genre was repre-
sented by the campaign itineraries of the Turkish
sultans.

All the main genres of Islamic geographical litera-
ture had been set by the fourteenth century. Although
travel accounts and regional studies produced new
data, systematic innovation ceased. The new cosmog-
raphies, often of inferior quality, simply rehashed
outdated information. Use of others’ material with-
out credit and indiscriminate compilation prevailed,
and pre-Islamic concepts and mythological motifs
continued to fascinate the reader. Especially popular
among these were the Encircling Ocean surrounding

the landmass, and Mount Qaf in turn surrounding
the ocean; the Fortunate Isles and the Pillars of
Hercules as the western boundary of the inhabited
earth; the Wall of Alexander separating the civilized
world from Gog and Magog; the Isles of Waq-Waq
where trees allegedly bore fruit of human heads; and
the number seven (seven climata, seven kishvarlut,
seven seas). Marine geography for the most part
remained outside the mainstream of Islamic scholar-
ship. Only works of Ahmad ibn Majid (second half
of the fifteenth century) and Sulayman al-Mahri (first
half of the sixteenth century) survive. Among them
are sailing manuals and nautical instructions, often in
verse (for better memorization by navigators), for the
Mediterranean and the Red Seas, but particularly for
the Indian Ocean.

The majority of extant Islamic maps are found in
copies dating from the thirteenth and later centuries,
though the first Islamic reference to mapmaking
dates to 83/702. A few authors give instructions for
map production, and some texts describe maps, but
extant maps cannot be used as exact guides to loca-
tions and the projections used are still not
fully understood. In form, Arabic maps typically in-
cluded round world maps and rectangular regional
maps. There were also separate maps of seas, small
maps of astronomically determined zones, and special
Islamic maps of the Ka‘ba for orienting the viewer
to the qibla (sacred direction of prayer) from any
location. City plans must have existed, but those ex-
tant are from the sixteenth century and later. There
are no topographical maps, though there may be
some color coding of geographical features such as
rivers, cities, mountains, and roads. Ethnic divisions
and major features such as deserts are marked in
writing. Sailing charts reportedly existed, but none
survives.

The round maps show the continents of Europe,
Asia, and Africa surrounded by the Encircling Ocean
(al-Bahr al-Muhit), which is sometimes surrounded
in turn by Mount Qaf, a concept of Qur’anic cosmog-
ony. Round maps were usually centered on Mesopo-
tamia (in the “Iraqi” school) or Mecca (in the
tradition of the “Atlas of Islam”). The oldest Turkish
world map, found in the encyclopedia of Mahmud al-
Kashghari (ca. 466/1074), is centered on Balasaghun,
the capital of the then Uighur state in the mountains
of Tien Shan. Round maps were usually oriented to
the south or east, rectangular maps almost always to
the south. Some round maps mark the seven climata
of the Inhabited Quarter as latitudinal bands, num-
bered from the equator to the Polar Circle. The
Greco-Muslim tradition of cartography is best repre-
sented by al-Idrisi, who adopted Ptolemy’s map of the
world and, abandoning Ptolemy’s outdated content

287

GEOGRAPHY

and tables, superimposed on it an enormous amount
of new information gathered from books and trave-
lers. Al-Idrisi is also one of the few Arabic scholars
who provided instructions for map production and
discussed distance measures. His works contain 70
detailed sectional rectangular maps and a round
world map; he reportedly created a silver planisphere
based on the so-called al-Ma’mun map, which does
not survive.

Marina A. Tolmacheva

Further Reading

Ahmad, S. Maqbul. A History of Arab-Islamic Geography
(9th-16th century AD). Amman: al-Bayit University,
1995.

. "Djughrafiya.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New

ed. 2:575-587.

. "Kharita.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed.

4:1077-1083.

Donini, Pier Giovanni. Arab Travelers and Geographers.
London: IMMEL, 1991.

The History of Cartography, vol. 2, book 1: Cartography in
the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Eds.
J.B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago and Lon-
don: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354.
Trans, with revisions and notes from the Arabic text
C. Defremery and B.R. Sanguinetti by H.A.R. Gibb. 5
vols. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1971-2000.

Ferrand, Gabriel. Relations de Voyages et Texts Geographi-
ques Arabes, Persons et Turks, Relatifs a TExtreme-Ori-
ent du VUIe au XVIIIe siecles. 2 vols. Paris: Leroux ,
1913-1914. Reprint, 2 vols. in one. Frankfurt: Institut
fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften,
1986.

. Studies by Gabriel Ferrand on Arab-Muslim Geog-
raphy, Cartography and Navigation. Reprint in 3 vols.
Ed. Fuat Sezgin. Frankfurt: Institut fur Geschichte der
Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1994.

Kennedy, Edward S., and Mary Helen Kennedy. Geograph-
ical Coordinates of Localities from Islamic Sources.
Frankfurt: Institut fiir Geschichte der Arabisch-Isla-
mischen Wissenschaften, 1987.

King, David A. World-Maps for Finding the Direction and
Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic
Science. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Founda-
tion, 1999.

Krachkovskii, I. Iu. Arabskaia geograficheskaia literatura.
Moscow, Lenigrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR,
1957. Trans, into Arabic Salah al-Din 'Uthman Hashim.
Ta'rikh al-Adab al-Jughrafi al-'Arabi. 2 vols. Cairo,
1963-1965.

Mappae Arabicae: Arabische Welt- und Ldnderkarten des 9.-
13. Jahrhunderts, ed. Konrad Miller. 5 vols. Stuttgart,
1927-1931. Reprint in 2 vols.: Frankfurt: Institut fiir
Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften,
1994.

Miquel, Andre. La Geogrciphie Humaine du Monde Musul-
man Jusqu’au Milieu du lie siecle. 4 vols. Paris, La Haye:
Mouton, 1967-1988.

Reinaud, Joseph Toussaint. Geographic cl’Abou ‘l-Feda.
Vol. 1: Introduction Generate a la Geographic des Orien-
taux. Paris: Imperimerie Nationale, 1848. Reprint:
Frankfurt: Institut fiir Geschichte der Arabisch-

Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1998.

Sezgin, Fuat. The Contribution of the Arabic-Islamic
Geographers to the Formation of the World Map. Frank-
furt: Institut fiir Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen
Wissenschaften, 1987.

Sezgin, Fuat. Mathematische Geographic und Kartographie
im Islam und ilir Fortleben im Abendland. 3 vols.
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vols. X-XII.
Frankfurt: Institut fiir Geschichte der Arabisch-

Islamischen Wissenschaften, 2000.

Tolmacheva, Marina. “The Medieval Arabic Geographers
and the Beginnings of Modern Orientalism.” Interna-
tional Journal of Middle East Studies 27 (1995): 141-156.

Youssouf Kamal. Monumenta Cartographica Africae et
Aegypti. 5 vols. In 16 parts. Cairo, 1926-1951. Reprint
in 6 vols. Frankfurt: Institut fiir Geschichte der
Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1987.

GEOMETRY

At the beginning of Islam, some knowledge of geom-
etry was available in Syria and Iran, and in the eighth
century CE, practical geometrical rules were trans-
mitted from India into Islamic lands. However, the
history of geometry in Islamic civilization really
started when the basic textbook of Greek geometry,
the Elements of Euclid (ca. 300 BCE), was translated
into Arabic in Baghdad in the early ninth century CE.
Euclid begins with definitions and axioms (fundamen-
tal assumptions), but he then proves by logical
reasoning a series of more than three hundred geo-
metrical propositions and constructions. Initially, the
Islamic scholars of the ninth century CE studied the
Elements to understand Greek astronomy, but some
of them fell in love with Greek geometry for its own
sake and searched for Greek manuscripts of the
works of Archimedes (ca. 250 BCE) and Appollonius
(ca. 200 BCE). In the mid-ninth century CE, the three
sons of Musa (Banu Musa) — Ahmad, Muhammad,
and Hasan — were interested in the Conics on the basis
of two very corrupted Greek manuscripts of Books 1-
4 and Books 5-7. After they had succeeded, they hired
two translators — Hilal ibn Abi Halal al-Himsi and
Thabit ibn Qurra — and had them translate Books
1-4 and Books 5-7, respectively. Books 5-7 are now
lost in Greek, and thus the Banu Musa sons and
Thabit ibn Qurra saved one of the most profound
works of Greek geometry for posterity. Book 8 of
the Conics was entirely lost but reconstructed by Ibn
al-Haytham in the early eleventh century.

Already in the mid-tenth century, some Islamic
mathematicians embarked on deep investigations of
the definitions and basic assumptions made by Euclid

288

GEOMETRY

in Elements. In Book 5 of Elements , Euclid presented
a complicated definition of proportional magnitudes
(a : b= c : d) in order to deal with rational and
irrational ratios at the same time. In European math-
ematics the motivation of this definition was under-
stood only after the discovery of the modern concept
of real numbers around the year 1860. A thousand
years earlier, around 860, the Iranian mathematician
al-Mahani had replaced Euclid’s definition by an al-
ternative definition related to the modern mathemati-
cal theory of continued fractions. He also proved that
the two definitions are equivalent. A number of Is-
lamic mathematicians studied Euclid’s parallel postu-
late, to the effect that if two straight lines m and n are
intersected by a straight line / in such a way that the
sum of the two adjacent angles between / and m and
between / and n is less than two right angles, the two
lines m and n must intersect. Many mathematicians
found it inappropriate that Euclid assumed such a
complicated postulate right at the beginning of his
work Elements. Unfortunately, the postulate is neces-
sary in the proofs of the theorem of Pythagoras and
the theorem that the sum of the angles in a triangle is
equal to two right angles. Several mathematicians,
including Ibn al-Haytham (eleventh century) and
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (thirteenth century), tried to
prove Euclid’s parallel postulate on the basis of
other assumptions that they found more natural or
simpler. In the nineteenth century, it turned out that
the parallel postulate could not be proved from the
other postulates of Euclidean geometry. If we assume
the negation of the parallel postulate, we obtain the
modern non-Euclidean geometry, which was never
studied in medieval Islamic civilization.

In the tenth century, the Islamic geometers in Iraq
and Iran started to work on conic sections. They used
parabolas and hyperbolas to solve problems such
as the construction of the regular heptagon, the tri-
section of the angle, and cubic equations. By means of
conic sections, Ibn al-Haytham solved the following
problem in optics, which was later named the “prob-
lem of Alhazen” after the Latinized version of his first
name al-Hasan: Given a convex or concave circular
spherical, cylindrical, or conical mirror, and the posi-
tions of the eye and the object, construct the places in
the mirror where the eye sees the object. Conic sec-
tions were also used for the theoretical construction
of some mosaic patterns.

Another theoretical field of study was the determi-
nation of surface areas, volumes, and centers of grav-
ity of curvilinear figures. Archimedes’ work on the
surface area and volume of a sphere had been trans-
lated into Arabic, and in the preface to this work,
Archimedes says that he had found the area of
a parabolic segment as four-thirds of its inscribed

triangle. His work on the parabolic segment, as well
as most of his other investigations, were not transmit-
ted into Arabic, and thus the Islamic mathematicians
did not know Archimedes’ famous work. Method of
Mechanical Theorems. (This work was discovered
around 1900 in a Greek palimpsest manuscript,
which was stolen but has since resurfaced.) Thabit
ibn Qurra (d. 901), Ibrihim ibn Sinan (d. 946), and
Abu Sahl al-Kuhi (ca. 970) succeeded in proving that
the area of a parabolic segment is four-thirds of its
inscribed triangle. They then went on to study other
curved figures and solids. Most of their achievements
are independent rediscoveries of results in Archi-
medes’ Method of Mechanical Theorems. Ibn al-
Haytham determined the volume of a solid not
studied by Archimedes, namely the solid of revolution
of a parabola around a segment perpendicular to the
axis. To solve this difficult problem, Ibn al-Haytham
had to find a formula for the sum of the first n and
fourth powers.

In modern mathematics the surface areas, volumes,
and centers of gravity of curved figures and solids
are computed by means of the integral calculus,
which was discovered in the late seventeenth century
by Leibniz and Newton. It does not follow that the
Islamic mathematicians possessed anything like the
integral calculus, because the methods of Leibniz
and Newton were generally applicable, whereas
Archimedes and the Islamic mathematicians had to
design for every solid a new procedure. It should also
be noted that Leibniz and Newton did not prove their
methods in ways that are now considered to be rigor-
ous, but Archimedes and the Islamic mathematicians
gave rigorous proofs.

Abu Sahl al-Kuhl determined the centers of gravi-
ties of various curvilinear solids. He thought that he
had found a regularity, and derived n = 3 1/9, in
contradiction to the fact that Archimedes had proved
that 7i > 3 10/71. Around 1420, the first sixteen dec-
imals of 7i were determined correctly by Al-Kashi in
Samarkand.

Spherical trigonometry was important in late Greek
and medieval Indian and Islamic mathematics because
astronomy depends on the accurate computation of
arcs on the celestial sphere. In the tenth century, three
Iranian mathematicians introduced the concept of a
spherical triangle consisting of six elements: three arcs
of great circles and three angles contained by these
arcs. A little later, the methods are analogous to, but
more complicated than, the formulas for a plane tri-
angle. The solution of spherical triangles was studied
systematically by al-Biruni around 1030 and by Nasir
al-Din al-Tusi around 1260. The Islamic mathemati-
cians computed trigonometrical tables that were
much more accurate than the tables known in Greek

289

GEOMETRY

and Indian mathematics. A difficult problem is the
computation of sines (without computers), especially
the computation of the sine of one degree. No exact
methods for the computation were known until Al-
Kashi (ca. 1420) discovered a method by which the
sine of one degree can be easily computed with any
desired accuracy. He expressed the unknown sine as
the root of a cubic equation with known coefficients.
He then presented an easy iterative algorithm for the
numerical solution of the cubic equation.

Various projections of the sphere on a plane were
applied in geographical maps, and stereographic
projection was used in the construction of astrolabes.

It is clear that the designers of Islamic mosaics
makers and architects employed complicated geome-
try in their designs, but very little information on
their methods has been preserved in medieval Arabic
and Persian sources. Perhaps they transmitted their
methods orally.

Jan P. Hogendijk

See also Algebra; Astronomy; Al-Biruni; Ibn al-Hay-
tham; Nasir al-Din al-Tusi; Numbers; Mathematics

Further Reading

Berggren, J. Len. “Mathematics and Her Sisters in Medie-
val Islam: A Selective Review of Work Done from 1985
to 1995.” Historica Mathematica 24 (1997), no. 4,
407M40.

. “The Correspondence of Abu Sahl al-Kuhi and Abu

Ishaq al-Sabi: A Translation with Commentaries:” Jour-
nal for the History of Arabic Science 7 (1983): 39-124.

Ozdural, Alpay. “Mathematics and Arts: Connections be-
tween Theory and Practice in the Medieval Islamic
World.” Historica Mathematica 27 (2000): 171-201.

Rosenfeld, B.A., and Jan P. Hogendijk. “A Mathematical
Treatise Written in the Samarqand Observatory of
Ulugh Beg.” Zeitschrift fur Geschichet der arabisch-
islamishcn Wissenschaften. 15 (2003): 25-65.

Vahabzadeh, B. “Al-Mahani’s Commentary on the Con-
cept of Ratio.” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 12 (2002):
9-52.

GESUDARAZ

Sayyid Muhammad Husayni, popularly known as
Gesudaraz (“He With the Long Tresses”) and Ban-
danawaz (“The One Who is Kind to His Servants”),
was a prominent Sufi teacher responsible for the es-
tablishment of the Chishti Sufi order in the Deccan
province of southern India. Born in 1321 CE into a
family tracing its ancestry to Khurasan (Iran), Gesu-
daraz received his early education in Delhi studying
various religious sciences, including Qur’anic exege-
sis, theology, and jurisprudence. In 1336, he was for-
mally initiated into the Chishti order by becoming a

disciple of the renowned Chishti master Nasir ad-Din
Chiragh-i Dihli (“The Lamp of Delhi”). Gesudaraz so
distinguished himself on the Sufi path that upon the
death of his teacher he assumed leadership of the
order. As a consequence of rumors concerning
Timur’s (Tamerlane’s) invasion of northern India in
1398, Gesudaraz left Delhi and traveled south. At the
invitation of the Bahmanid ruler Firuz Shah, Gesu-
daraz eventually settled in Gulbarga, the capital of
the Bahmanids. Gesudaraz’s initial association with
Firuz Shah, as well as his later involvement with
intrigues in the Bahmanid court over the succession
to the throne, in which he supported the cause of
Firuz Shah’s brother Ahmad Shah (r. 1422-1436),
indicate that he had moved away from the ideals of
previous Chishti masters who considered contact with
royalty to be detrimental to spiritual well-being. Ap-
parently, Gesudaraz saw nothing wrong in accepting
tax-free land from his royal patrons.

In terms of his teachings, Gesudaraz was more
conservative than his Chishti predecessors, such as
Nizam ad-Din Awliya, who were strong proponents
of wahdat al-wujud (unity of existence), a philo-
sophical doctrine traditionally associated with the
Andalusian Sufi Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) and interpreted
as hama ust (everything is He). Gesudaraz felt that
this doctrine went against the legal and theological
precepts of Islam because it blurred the distinction
between created and Creator. Instead, he supported
the theory of wahdat ash-shuhud (unity of witnessing)
which, when interpreted as hama az ust (everything is
from Him), emphasized the distance between creation
and a transcendent God. Gesudaraz was also a strong
upholder of the law (shariah). As a result, he was
critical not only of Ibn Arabi but also considered
Sufis such as Jalal ad-Din Rumi to be enemies of
the faith because of their liberal pantheistic/monistic
teachings. Notwithstanding his conservatism on doc-
trinal issues, Gesudaraz upheld the Chishti tradition
of sama’ (musical concerts), because he was a firm
believer in the power of music as an aid to spiritual
transformation and ecstasy. Not surprisingly, he was
also a strong supporter of love mysticism, for he
saw passionate love as the basis of the relationship
between creation and the Divine.

Gesudaraz was such a prolific scholar and writer
that he has been called the Chishti sultan al-qalam
(“King of the Pen”). Although the exact number of
his works is not known — estimates range from thirty-
six to one hundred and fifty — he is believed to have
been multilingual, being competent in Arabic, Per-
sian, and several Indian languages. Through his com-
mentaries, he popularized the works of classical Sufi
thinkers such as Qushayri and Suhrawardi in the
Indian subcontinent. In using Dakhani, a local Indian

290

GHASSANIDS

vernacular, to compose the Mi 'raj al-'ashiqin (The
Celestial Ascent of Lovers), a book on the Prophet
Muhammad, Gesudaraz played a pioneering role in
promoting the use of local languages in religious liter-
ature, a trend that became increasingly important in
subsequent centuries.

Gesudaraz died November 1, 1422, and is buried at
Gulbarga in a vast tomb-shrine complex, the upkeep of
which has been generously patronized by various rulers.
His tomb, which is one of the most important centers
of religious pilgrimage in southern India, attracts
thousands of devotees, Muslim and non-Muslim, who
come here to seek his blessing and intercession.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Eaton, Richard. The Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1978.

Hussaini, S.S.K. The Life, Works, and Teachings of
Khwajah Bandahnawaz Gisudaraz. Gulbarga, 1986.

GHANA

Drawing on both written sources and oral sources
(the so-called Epic of Wagadu), Levtzion (1980)
dates the origins of Ghana to the first millennium
CE: “By the end of the eighth century, Ghana was
known in the Muslim world as ‘the land of Gold’.
Al-Ya‘qubi, a widely-traveled official in the service
of the ‘Abbasid caliphs during the ninth century de-
scribed the Kingdom of Ghana ‘whose king is also
powerful. In his country are the gold mines, and
under his authority are a number of kings. Among
them are the kingdom of ‘Am and the kingdom of
Sama. Gold is found in the whole of the country’”
(Hopkins and Levtzion 1981, 21).

According to the written sources, in the second
half of the ninth century, Kawkaw (an early version
of the modern term for Gao, and a predecessor of the
Songhay Empire) and Ghana were the two most pow-
erful kingdoms of western Sudan, each with vassal
chiefdoms under its dominion (Levtzion 1980, 22).
In 1067-1068, the Arab geographer al-Bakri, drawing
on accounts by travelers and other written sources,
wrote an oft-cited description of the capital of Ghana.
The city was divided into two towns, one for the
Moslems, the other, ten kilometers away, for the
ruler and his entourage. Archaeological work points
toward the remains of Ghana at Kumbi Saleh in
southeastern Mauretania. Note that there is no his-
torical or cultural connection between medieval
Ghana and the present-day Republic of Ghana.

Medieval Ghana lay far inland from the west coast
of West Africa; its main cities were Awdaghost,

situated almost five hundred kilometers from the
ocean, and Kumbi Saleh, the capital, three hundred
kilometers farther east. It sat astride the trade routes
for gold shipped from the sources of the Senegal and
Niger rivers northward via Walata to the Maghreb,
and for salt from the city of Teghazza (six hundred
kilometers to the north), which was transported
throughout the region. It is to be noted that present-
day archaeologists hesitate to point to Kumbi Saleh
as the capital of an empire, since it has no hinterland;
archaeologists have increasingly had more difficulty
in finding proof of “empires” in the Sahel, because
excavations give increasingly more and diverse data.
(A revision of Levtzion 1980 is in process.) Current
scholarship pictures in this part of West Africa, in the
Middle Ages, a trend toward the creation of state
organizations with central agencies of redistribution
possessing a majority or monopoly of power and
authority, at least episodically, for the duration of
one or more regimes. Rulers accomplished centraliza-
tion by absorbing, first politically (through conquest
or vassalage) then culturally, regions into the empire.

Probably because of its location and its powerful
army, Ghana seems to have been able to remain
unaffected by the wars and social dislocation caused
by the migrants and influence of the Almoravids until
the middle of the eleventh century. By controlling
trade in the region, the empire developed a reputation
for prosperity throughout the Sahel and the larger
Islamic world. The rulers of Ghana maintained their
own belief system while allowing that of Islam to
develop in their cities; al-Bakri underscores the free-
dom allowed to believers of Islam and those of the
local religion. The degree of Islamization probably
remained low until the nineteenth century. Ghana’s
decline can be dated by the late twelfth century, and
in the thirteenth century Mali developed as the second
great empire of the Sahel.

Jan Jansen

Further Reading

Hopkins, John F.P., and Nehemiah Levtzion. Corpus of
Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali. 2nd ed. New
York: Africana, 1980.

Masonen, Pekka. The Negroland Revisited: Discovery and
Invention of the Sudanese Middle Ages. Helsinki: The
Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2000.

GHASSANIDS

A branch of the Azd tribal group, the Ghassanids (or
Banu Ghassaan) migrated into northern Arabia at the
end of the fifth century. They quickly superseded the

291

GHASSANIDS

dominant Banu Salih as the principal local tributary
of the Byzantine Empire. Thus Ghassanid history is
to be situated against the backdrop of competing
efforts by the Byzantine and Sasanian empires to
win supremacy over southern Syria/northern Arabia.
By the turn of the fourth century, a new policy of
direct ties to nomadic powers of the region involved
the distribution of treaties, subsidies, and formal
titles. In the case of Byzantium, the rewards included
security along the southern Syrian frontier from no-
madic forces; protection of imperial commercial and
political interests, particularly those related to trade
in spices, aromatics, and other luxury goods; and
auxiliary military strength against the Sasanians.

The Ghassanids played their part ably. Their alli-
ance with Byzantium was formalized around 502 CE
by Jabala, the first Ghassanid phylarch (Greek, tribal
chief). From their principal residence, al-Jabiya,
located in al-Jawlan, a district of southern Syria
(modern-day Golan), the Ghassanids are reported to
have conducted regular campaigns as far south as the
Hijaz and central Najd. The principal phase of their
history involved the career of al-Harith ibn Jabala
(d. 569), known in Roman sources as “Arethas” and
head of the Jafna, chief clan of the Ghassanid confed-
eration. He is reported to have fought with distinct-
ion against the Sassanids during Justinian’s reign
(527-565) and, at a later point, against forces led by
Mundhir ibn N u'man (d. 554), head of the Lakhmid
state, the principal Sassanid client in the region. His
son, Mundhir ibn al-Harith, later sacked the Lakhmid
capital of al-Hira (570), a near-fatal blow to the
standing of the Lakhmids. At an early point in his
career, al-Harith was rewarded for his efforts on behalf
of Byzantium, with the rank of king ( basileus ) and
various titles, including patrikios and gloriosissimus.

Historians part ways in explaining subsequent
strains in Ghassanid-Byzantine relations. The arrest
of Mundhir ibn al-Harith in 580, and of his son,
Nu‘man ibn Mundhir, in 583, clearly signaled imperial
displeasure. One explanation holds that the Byzantines
deeply resented the Ghassanid embrace of the Mo-
nophysite form of Christianity. Efforts by al-Harith
proved vital to the survival of the Syrian Monophy-
site (Jacobite) church in its confrontation, in the
mid-sixth century, with Byzantine orthodoxy. These
efforts were pursued, in particular, by Mundhir ibn
al-Harith as described in a long biographical notice
by John of Ephesus (d. ca. 589), a leading sixth-
century Monophysite historian. A second explanation
is that the Byzantines sought to curtail the ambitions
of an emerging regional power. The Ghassanids,
routed by Sassanid forces during the invasion of
Syria (613-614), took part in the Byzantine counter-
invasion under Heraclius (r. 622-628). As Byzantine

allies, they then confronted the initial Arab-Islamic
campaigns. In 634, at Marj Rahit outside Damascus,
Ghassanid forces were overrun by a force led
by Khalid ibn al-Walid (d. 642). The remaining
Ghassanids either dispersed to Anatolia or settled in
Syria, many of them as converts to Islam.

Matthew S. Gordon

Further Reading

Hoyland, Robert G. Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze
Age to the Coming of Islam. London: Routledge, 2001.
Muraviev, Alexei. “Ghassanids.” In Late Antiquity: A Guide
to the Postclassical World , ed. G. W. Bowersock et al.,
468M69. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 1999.

GHAZALI

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali was one of the
most prominent theologians, jurists, and mystics of
Sunni Islam. He was born in 1058 CE in Tabaran-Tus
(fifteen miles north of modern Mashhad in northeast-
ern Iran), where he received his early education with his
brother Ahmad (1061-1 123 or 1 126), who later became
a famous preacher and Sufi scholar. Muhammad went
on to study with the influential AslTari theologian
al-Juwayni (1028-1085) at the Nizamiyya Madrasa
(q.v.) in nearby Nishapur. This brought him in
close contact with the court of the Grand Seljuk
Sultan Malikshah (r. 1071-1092) and his grand vizier
Nizam al-Mulk (1018-1092) (q.v.). In 1091, al-
Ghazali was appointed professor at the prestigious
Nizamiyya Madrasa in Baghdad. In addition to
being a confidante of the Sultan in Isfahan, he became
closely connected to the caliphal court in Baghdad.
He was undoubtedly the most influential intellectual
of his time, when in 1095 he suddenly gave up his
posts in Baghdad and left the city. Despite the infor-
mation al-Ghazali gives in his autobiography The
Deliverer from Error (al-Muncpdh min al-dalal), it is
still not known what led al-Ghazali to leave his posts.
This decision has become the subject of wide-ranging
speculations about a drastic change in his intellectual
outlook. Al-Ghazali went on to teach in Damascus
and Jerusalem. At the tomb of Abraham in Hebron,
he vowed never to return to the services of political
authorities. After performing the pilgrimage in 1096,
al-Ghazali returned via Baghdad to his hometown
of Tus, where he founded a small private school. In
1 106, al-Ghazali broke his vow and returned to teach
at the Nizamiyya Madrasa, apparently succumbing to
pressure from the authorities at the Seljuk court. After
teaching for a couple of years in Nishapur he again
retired to Tus, where he died in 1111.

292

GHAZNAVIDS

Al-Ghazali is a towering figure in Sunni Islam,
active at a time when Sunni theology had just passed
through its consolidation and entered a period of
intense challenges from Shi‘i Ismaili theology (see
Shi‘i thought) and the tradition of Peripatetic philos-
ophy (see Aristotle and Aristotelianism). Al-Ghazali
understood the severity of the confrontation with
these two movements and devoted his early works to
addressing the challenges presented by these schools
of thought. He closely studied the works of the Peri-
patetic philosophers Ibn Sina (d. 1037) (q.v.) and
al-Farabi (d. 950) (q.v.) and wrote The Incoherence
of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa) , a book he
later described as a “refutation” (radd ‘ala) of the
philosophical movement. His critique is focused on
epistemology. The scholars versed in the philosophi-
cal sciences are convinced, al-Ghazali complains, that
their way of knowing by “demonstrative proof”
(burhan) is superior to the kind of knowledge drawn
from revelation and its interpretation. Discussing 20
positions from the teachings of the philosophers,
al-Ghazali attempts to show that their conclusions
are not based on demonstration but often rely on
unproven premises concealed within their arguments.
The philosophers therefore have no more certain
knowledge than the theologians. Both groups’ convic-
tions rely on unproven premises that are accepted
only within that group. However, while the unproved
premises of the philosophers are based on no more
than their school tradition, those of the theologians
are rooted in divine revelation and must be given
preference. Incoherence of the Philosophers ends with
the legal condemnation of three teachings of the phi-
losophers as apostasy from Islam, punishable by
death.

Al-Ghazali argues similarly against the Ismaili
Shi‘is, criticizing the fact that they base their faith
on the teachings of the living imam rather than on
accepted interpretations of revelation. In this in-
stance, his attacks have a distinctly political compo-
nent, since the Ismaili Shi‘is, whom al-Ghazali called
“Batinites” (meaning those who arbitrarily follow
inner meaning), challenged the authority of the
‘Abbasid Sunni caliphate. Their movement under-
mined the credibility of Sunni theology, claiming its
interpretation of scripture is arbitrary. The Sunni
theologians submit God’s word to seemingly reason-
able judgments, the Ismailis said, that are purely ca-
pricious. Subsequently, al-Ghazali found himself
criticizing one kind of reliance on reason, practiced
by the philosophers, while defending another kind in
the Muslim theologians’ reliance on reason against
Ismaili attacks.

Al-Ghazali’s departure from his academic and
political career in 1095 led him to focus on ethical

subjects, a topic barely touched upon in earlier works.
It is at this point that he starts to write his most
influential book, the voluminous Revivication of the
Religions Sciences (IhycP ‘ulum al-din), a comprehen-
sive guide to ethical behavior in the everyday life of
Muslims. He severely criticizes the coveting of world-
ly matters and reminds his readers that human life is
a path toward Judgment Day and the reward or
punishment gained through it. He vigorously attacks
his colleagues in Muslim scholarship, questioning
their intellectual capacities and independence, as well
as their commitment to gaining reward in the world to
come. This increased moral consciousness brings al-
Ghazali in close connection to Sufi attitudes (Sufism),
which have a profound influence on his subsequent
writing, most notably on his autobiography and on
The Niche of Lights (Mishkat al-anwar), a commen-
tary on the Light-Verse (Q 24:35) in the Qur’an.

Frank Griffel

Further Reading

Frank, Richard M. Al-Ghazali and the Ashfiarite School.
Durham/London: Duke University Press, 1994.

Al-Ghazali. Freedom and Fulfillment : An Annotated Trans-
lation of al-Ghazali ’s al-Munqidh min cd-dalal and
Other Relevant Works of al-Gliazali. Transl. Richard
J. McCarthy. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Reprinted: Deliver-
ance from Error: Five Key Texts Including His Spiritual
Autobiography al-Munqidh min al-Dalal. Louisville, KY:
Fons Vitae, 2000.

. The Incoherence of the Philo sophers/Tahafut al-fala-

sifa, a Parallel English- Arabic Text. Transl. Michael E.
Marmura. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press,
1997.

Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence

[Book 35 of Revivication of Religious Sciences]. Transl.
David Burrell. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2001.

. The Niche of Lights: A Parallel English-Arabic

Text. Transl. David Buchman. Provo, UT: Brigham
Young University Press, 1998.

“Gazali.” Encyclopeadia Iranica. Ed. Ehsan Yarshater. Vol.
10. New York: Bibliotheca Persia Press, 2001, 358-377.

Watt, William M. Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-
Ghazali. Edinburgh: University Press, 1963.

GHAZNAVIDS

The Ghaznavids (r. 977-1186 CE) established the
largest empire in the eastern Muslim world since the
‘Abbasids. The dynasty was of Turkish slave origin,
first ruling on behalf of the disintegrating Samanid
Empire of Transoxiana and Khurasan, later as in-
dependent sovereigns. In 962, the rebel slave com-
mander Alptigin established himself at Ghazna. His
slave Sebuktigin (r. 977-997) lay the foundations of

293

GHAZNAVIDS

the empire; he was awarded governorship of much
of present-day Afghanistan (including Ghazna) by
the Samanids in 977, annexed Khurasan, Sistan, and
Lamghan, and, crushing offensives by the Hindushahi
raja Jaipal (979 and 988), conquered territory up to
Peshawar.

Sebuktigin’s son Mahmud (r. 998-1030) declared
independence, with nominal loyalty to the "Abbasid
caliph al-Qadir. He extended the empire from west-
ern Persia to the Ganges valley, financing his army
and sophisticated bureaucracy by campaigns against
wealthy Hindu religious centers and excessive taxa-
tion of Khurasan and Afghanistan. The religious im-
petus of Mahmud’s Indian forays was minimal; he
fought equally tenaciously against rival Muslim rulers
and established permanent dominion in India only up
to Lahore.

Mas’ud (r. 1030-1041) had to contend with the rise
of the Seljuks in the eastern Muslim world, losing
much of Iran and his Central Asian territories in
1040 and shifting the dynasty’s orientation toward
India. Fleeing to Lahore, he was overthrown by mu-
tinous palace guards. Though Mawdud (r. 1041-
1050) stabilized the Ghazna vid position, chaos
reigned until 1059, with power contested by various
governors, the loss of some Hindu centers, and the
siege of Lahore by the raja of Delhi.

Ibrahim (r. 1059-1099) ushered in a golden era
marked by treaties and cultural interaction with the
Seljuks. His army crossed the southern border of
Punjab, and Lahore became a major cultural center.
By Bahrain’s reign (111 8 ca. 1152), however, the
Ghaznavids were little more than Seljuk vassals. Fur-
thermore, long-standing trouble with Ghur, near
Herat, came to the forefront. Bahrain’s injudicious
poisoning of a Ghuri chief led to the destruction of
Ghazna around the year 1 1 50 and its occupation by
the Oghuz in the early 1160s. Khusrau Shah (r. ca.
1152-1160) most likely escaped to the Punjab, the sole
remaining Ghaznavid possession. After Khusrau
Malik’s rule (r. 1160-1186) in Lahore, the city was
annexed and Khusrau captured by Muhammad
Ghuri, bringing the end of the Ghaznavid dynasty.

The Ghaznavids inherited Samanid administrative,
political, and cultural traditions and laid the founda-
tions for a Persianate state in northern India. Under
Mahmud, Ghazna approached Baghdad in im-
portance, hosting luminaries such as al-Biruni and
Ferdowsi. Though the Ghaznavids initially spoke
Turkish, Persian literature was promoted at both
Ghazna and Lahore, encouraging poets such as
Unsuri, Farrukhi, Manuchihri, Runi, Sana’i, Masud
Sa'd Salman, and the Sub al-Hujwiri. The dynasty
presided over new developments in Persian literature,
notably in lyrical romances and romantic epics, as well

as a budding Turkish literature. Art and architecture
also flourished. In jurisprudence, the early Ghaznavids
were Shafi'i, but Hanaflsm gained ascendancy by
Mas‘ud’s time. Though their campaigns against the
Ismailis, Shi'i Buyids, and Hindus were driven by ma-
terial considerations and imperial ambition, the early
rulers often styled themselves as Sunni champions of
the faith.

Successful Ghaznavid military strategy involved
small forces, mounted archers, and lightning raids,
and the army’s most important components were the
Turkish slave elite and Hindu Indians. In India,
Hindu chiefs usually became tributaries in a system
of indirect rule. There was no signiflcant loss of pop-
ulation through conquest and negligible conversion
to Islam. Some scholars maintain that the large trans-
fer of wealth under the Ghaznavids facilitated trade
between India and the Muslim world. Much of this
was later passed to the Seljuks as tribute payments,
expanding circulation of precious metals to the
Levant and Asia Minor.

Homayra Ziad

See also ‘Abbasids; Abu Hanifa; Al-Biruni; Al-Shafi’i;
Buyids; Epics, Persian; Ferdowsi; India; Iran; Khura-
san; Lahore; Mahmud of Ghazna; Persian; Poetry,
Indian; Poetry, Persian; Samanids; Seljuks; Shahnama;
Sindh; Slavery, Military; Turkish and Turkic Lan-
guages; Turks; Warfare and Techniques

Further Reading

Bosworth, Clifford E. The Ghaznavids. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1963.

. “The Development of Persian Culture Under the

Early Ghaznavids.” Iran 6 (1968): 33-44.

. The Later Ghaznavids: Splendour and Decay. Edin-
burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1977.

. Medieval History of Iran, A fghanistan, and Central

Asia. London: Variorum Reprints, 1977.

Wink, Andre. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic
World, Vol. 2, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest,
llth-13th Centuries. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

GIBRALTAR

The city of Gibraltrar is located to the southeast of
the Spanish province of Cadiz and to the east of the
Algeciras Bay. It dominates the Strait of Gibraltar,
the necessary gateway from Europe to Africa, from
which stems its strategic value. Gibraltar has been
under British sovereignty since 1704. The Arabs
called it Jabal Tariq after Tariq ibn Ziyad, who dis-
embarked there in AH 92/711 CE, starting the con-
quest of al-Andalus from this spot (see Andalus).

Although Gibraltar was used as a naval base for
the armies that crossed the Strait in one direction or

294

GIFTS AND GIFT GIVING

the other, it was Algeciras, on the other side of the
bay, that became the most prosperous center of the
southern extreme of al-Andalus. Almohads built a
new city in Gibraltar, named Jabal al-Fatih, with a
congregational mosque, a palace (some remains of its
fortifications remain), and vast dwellings for taking
in high government officials. In 709/1309, Gibraltar
fell into the hands of the Castilians, but it was recap-
tured by the Marinids of Morocco (see North Africa)
in 733/1333, and later on by the sultan of Granada,
in 813/1410. The Marinids, well aware of the impor-
tance of their bases on both sides of the Straits,
reinforced the defensive installations of Gibraltar
and built another congregational mosque and some
dockyards. In 866/1462, Gibraltar definitively passed
into Christian hands.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

See also Andulus; Almohads; Mosques; Marinids;
North Africa

Further Reading

Castillo, C. “La Conquista de Gibraltar en el Diwan de
‘Abd al-Kariim al-Qaysi.” Miscelcinea de Estudios Ara-
bes y Hebraicos 42-43/1 (1993-1994): 73-80.

El 2 , s.v. “ Djabal Tarik” (Seybold, C.F.- [Huici Miranda,

A.]).

Gozalbes Busto, G. “Gibraltar y el Estrecho en las Fuentes
Arabes.” Almoraima 21 (1999): 397M10.

Manzano Rodriguez, M.A. La Intervention de los Benimer-
ines en la Peninsula Iberica. Madrid: CSIC, 1992,
223-232 y 305-307.

. “Abu Malik ‘Abd al-Wahid, Conquistador de Gi-
braltar, Rey de Algeciras y Ronda.” In Actas XVI Con-
greso UEAI. Ed. C. Vazquez de Benito and MA.
Manzano Rodriguez, 309-322. Salamanca, AECI-
CSIC-UEAI, 1995.

Norris, ITT. “The Early Islamic Settlement in Gibraltar.”
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 91 (1961):
39-51.

Rosenberger, B. “Le Controle du Detroit de Gibraltar aux
XII-XIII Siecles.” In L ’Occident Musulman et V Occident
Chretien au Moyen Age, Rabat, Faculte des Lettres et
des Sciences Humaines, Serie: Colloques et seminaires,
no. 48.

Vallve Bermejo, J. “Las Relaciones entre Al-Andalus y el
norte de Africa a Traves del Estrecho de Gibraltar:
(siglos VIII-XV).” In Actas del Congreso international
El Estrecho de Gibraltar, Ceuta noviembre 1987, ed.
E. Ripoll Perello, 9-36. Madrid, 1998.

GIFTS AND GIFT GIVING

There are many Arabic terms to express the concept
of gift, including hadiyya, nihla, tuhfa, in' am, and
hiba, the latter being the preferred legal term. This
terminology was also adopted in medieval Turkish
and Persian contexts in addition to the Persian term
pishkash (royal tribute). According to the French

sociologist Marcel Mauss, gift giving is the means by
which value can be taught and understood in society,
and the size of a gift is often linked to the giver’s
status in the community. This analysis holds true in
the Islamic context and, in addition, gift giving in the
form of charitable efforts raises one’s spiritual status,
as the rewards for those who dispense of their wealth
for the good of humankind are doubled (Q. 64:15-
18). The Prophet Muhammad is said to have encour-
aged the exchange of gifts with friends and family to
maintain good relations or remove existing grudges,
and he maintained that the recipient of a present
should reciprocate with another gift of equal value,
unless he or she is unable to do so, in which case the
offering of thanks and a prayer on behalf of the giver
would suffice.

Gift giving in the medieval Islamic context func-
tioned in the social and political spheres of society,
and the literature of this period offers us substantial
examples of the contents of gifts that were presented
or exchanged within the royal and urban milieus.
Gifts played a major part in joyous occasions such
as weddings, childbirth, circumcision ceremonies,
when a child displayed a proficiency in reading the
Qur’an, and during important festivals such as the ‘Id
al-Fitr (Feast of Ramadan) or Nawruz (New Year).
According to the medieval historian al-Tha‘alibi
(d. 1037 CE), the marriage celebration of the ‘Abbas-
id caliph al-Ma’mun, hosted by his father-in-law
al-Hasan b. Sahl, was one of the most lavish events
to have ever been held. Following a 40-day feast for
al-Ma’mun’s military commanders and courtiers,
al-Hasan scribbled the names of various estates on
small pieces of paper and whoever got hold of one of
these was transferred ownership of the named estate
as a parting gift. For the caliph’s womenfolk, al-
Hasan ordered large, unpierced pearls to be scattered
among them, and each of them chose one to show
their respect to their host.

We can glean from the documents of the Cairo
Geniza that the medieval Mediterranean Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim urban communities of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries also held elaborate
parties on such occasions. Although the magnitude
of these events was scaled down in comparison to the
banquets held at court, they were, nevertheless, full
of pomp and excitement and involved the generous
distribution of gifts. On the occasion of a circumci-
sion ceremony, held eight days after the birth of the
child, the family organized a grand affair that was
described as “second [only] to a wedding” celebra-
tion. Poems proffering good wishes upon the child
and his family were recited and ample rewards were
dispensed to the poets. Official court histories recount
the elaborate social gatherings (majalis) held by

295

GIFTS AND GIFT GIVING

caliphs and sultans during which panegyrists were
awarded with fistfuls of gold, silver, and precious
gems for their poetic performances. The gifts or
rewards presented to poets, artists, and calligraphers
in this way were deemed as necessary forms of artistic
patronage.

Another form of official gift giving at court was
the bestowal of robes of honor (khil‘a) to esteemed
individuals, a custom with pre-Islamic origins that
was institutionalized in the ‘Abbasid period and
spread across Muslim Spain to Central Asia well
into the premodern period. These costly garments
were woven in state-owned factories (dar al-tiraz)
and embellished with epigraphic bands often includ-
ing the name of the ruler, the date, and pious phrases.
The ‘Abbasid court historian, Hilal al-Sabi’, de-
scribed the investiture ceremony of the Buyid prince,
‘Adud al-Dawla, during which the caliph presented
him a ‘Kuh robe’ embroidered with gold threads
and jewels, a golden tiara, gold and crystal vessels,
and a gold-embroidered “seat of honor” with leather
cushions. Interestingly, we have evidence from the
Fatimid period that members of the urban population
also adopted the custom of presenting robes of honor
to friends and family members.

There is a great deal of literature devoted to the
content and context of diplomatic gifts exchanged
between Muslim rulers and between Muslim and
non-Muslim rulers. An excellent source for the period
up to the eleventh century is the Book of Gifts and
Rarities ( Kitab al-Hadaya wa’l-Tuhaf) . The value and
rarity of the gifts presented were not only incisive
indicators of the political power and stability of the
giver, but they also set the standard for the recipient
to reciprocate in equal measure. The Byzantines were
one of the most important players in Muslim diplo-
matic affairs, and the choice of gifts arriving from
either side was always carefully selected and often
imbued with symbolic value. According to the Book
of Gifts and Rarities, on one occasion the Byzantine
emperor presented the Fatimid caliph of Egypt with
three heavy saddles, once belonging to Alexander
the Great, made of cloisonne enamel and inlaid
with gold. Apart from gifts made of rare and precious
materials, rulers presented giraffes, elephants, and
other exotic beasts as symbolic expressions of
their power and largesse. This is particularly the
case for rulers from Egypt (Fatimids, Mamluks, and
Ottomans) and India (Mughals) who owned extensive
animal menageries, because they could source such
magnificent wild creatures from lands under their
jurisdiction.

From the sixteenth century onward the diplomatic
activities of the three great Muslim empires, the
Safavids, Mughals, and Ottomans, maintained the

tradition of exchanging manmade rarities of precious
materials, Chinese porcelain, textiles, robes of honor,
thoroughbred horses, and exotic birds and animals.
Furthermore, with the increase in European and
Russian contacts, Muslim rulers began to desire
items such as surgical and optical instruments, chan-
deliers, mirrors, clocks, and firearms. A hitherto un-
mentioned commodity that was always greatly valued
by rulers and was presented as tribute from the
earliest periods of Muslim civilization was the traf-
ficking of human slaves, for the military, court
administration, or harem.

Fahmida Suleman

See also ‘Abbasids; ‘Adud al-Dawla; Alexander; Birth;
Byzantine Empire; Cairo Geniza; Ceramics; Circumci-
sion; Charity; Court Dress; Cultural Exchange; Diplo-
macy; Egypt; Fatimids; Festivals and Celebrations;
Historical Writing; Mamluks; Al-Ma’mun; Marriage,
Islamic; Marriage, Jewish; Muhammad, the Prophet;
Mughals; Muslim-Byzantine Relations; Nawruz; Otto-
man Empire; Poets; Precious Metals; Safavids; Slaves
and Slave Trade; Textiles; Zoological Parks

Further Reading

El-Aswad, El-Sayed. “The Gift and the Image of the Self
and the Other Among Rural Egyptians.” In The Gift in
Culture, ed. R. Godula, 35-49. Krakow: Jagiellonian
University Press, 1993.

Book of Gifts and Rarities ( Kitab al-Hadaya wa al-
Tuhaf). Selections Compiled in the Fifteenth Century
from an Eleventh-Century Manuscript on Gifts and
Treasures. Transl. Ghada al-Hijjawi al-Qaddumi. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Brookshaw, D.P. “Palaces, Pavilions and Pleasure-
Gardens: The Context and Setting of the Medieval
Majlis.'” Middle Eastern Literatures 6 (July 2003):
199-223.

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish
Communities of the Arab World As Portrayed in the
Documents of the Cairo Geniza. 6 vols. Berkeley and
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967-1993.

Mauss, Marcel. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange
in Archaic Societies. Transl. Ian Cunnison. London:
Cohen & West, 1954.

Rosenthal, F., C.E. Bosworth et al. “Hiba,” Encyclopaedia
of Islam. New ed. Vol. 3, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 342-351.

Al-Sabi’, Hilal. Rusum Dar al-Khilafah (The Rules and
Regulations of the ‘Abbasid Court). Transl. Elie A.
Salem. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press,
1977.

Stillman, N.A. “Khifa.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed.
Vol. 5, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 6-7, plate 1.

Al-Tha‘alibi, Abu Mansur. The Book of Curious and Enter-
taining Information. The Lata’if al-Ma‘arif of al-Tha‘a-
libi. Transl. C.E. Bosworth. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1968.

White, C.S.J. “Gift Giving.” In The Enclopedia of Religion,
ed. Mircea Eliade, vol. 5, 552-557. New York: Macmillan.

296

GLASSWARE

Glass in medieval Islam was widely produced from
Egypt to Central Asia, drawing on the basic recipes of
earlier traditions (a silica-soda-lime composition in
which the soda was provided by natural natron as in
Roman times and was then slowly supplanted by
plant ashes in the ninth and tenth centuries CE) and
finding inspiration in shapes, decorative patterns, and
colors that were popular in the former Roman/Byz-
antine lands and in Sasanian Iran and Iraq. Muslim
and non-Muslim glassmakers working in the Islamic
areas, however, were extraordinarily creative and, in
tune with the general evolution of Islamic art,
brought this craft to new technical, technological,
and artistic heights. In the Islamic world, glass, com-
monly known in Arabic as zujaj and in Persian as
abgmeh, had a significant role both as an artistic
medium, known and appreciated as far as China
and Japan, and as an economically viable material
widely used to make windows and containers for
commercial goods (mainly liquids such as perfumes,
wine, and chemicals). An awareness of its commercial
importance is highlighted by the evidence that there
were factories, mostly on the Eastern Mediterranean
coast, specializing in producing large slabs of glass
that were shipped far from the shores to glassmaking

areas where the raw material was not readily avail-
able, in order to remelt it at a lower temperature, thus
simplifying the technology and making it less expen-
sive. Glass was also widely recycled for the same
reason, the most important archaeological evidence
for which is provided by the shipwreck of Serge
Limam off the coast of Bodrum in Turkey: The
ship, sailing from the shores of the eastern Mediterra-
nean, carried hundreds of baskets full of broken glass
that were meant to be used for remelting in factories
along the Black Sea or possibly in southern Europe.

Much work still needs to be done by art histori-
ans in this relatively neglected held. Broadly speak-
ing, however, the development of Islamic glass is
reasonably comprehensible both within the context
of the evolution of Islamic art and of glassmaking
in the medieval period. Shortly after the beginning
of the Islamic era, forms, decorative patterns, and
colors continued to resemble closely those glass
objects that were created in blown and hot-worked
glass by the late Roman and Byzantine glassmakers
along the eastern Mediterranean coasts and Egypt.
Among them are small flasks enveloped in a trailed
cage supported by a quadruped and bottles with
fancifully applied decorations. Bold and contrasting
colors and textured surfaces are characteristic traits

Goblet of luster-painted glass, made in honor of Abd al-Sammad bin Ali. Fatimid caliphate, eleventh century CE. 10.5 cm.
Credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Egypt.

297

GLASSWARE

of glass produced in this area, as well as in Iraq, in the
first centuries of Islam: “Stained” or lustre-painted
vessels, millefiori (thousand flowers) tiles and small
vessels, and needle-point incised objects are the most
representative of this trend.

In the formerly Sasanian regions of Iran, almost
colorless wheel-cut glass continued to be fashionable
through the creation of mirrorlike surfaces by means
of contiguous facets making up honeycomb pat-
terns; forms changed with time, but this pattern
remained a favorite until the tenth century. In the
same areas the glasscutters developed sophisticated
yet stylized figural and vegetal patterns in relief,
sometimes using two layers of glass of contrasting
colors (the so-called cameo technique), which can be
regarded as among the best artistic achievements in
the arts of the early Islamic period.

The transmission of the craft from father to son
for generations (a common trait of glassmaking
worldwide) favored the perpetuation of traditional
techniques of decoration and colors into the medieval
and late medieval periods. A large variety of shapes
and details in the decoration, however, allows for a
better understanding of both chronology and place of
origin of many types. Objects with “marvered” (or
"pushed-into”) threads of a paler color, applied trails,
a variety of impressed or molded patterns, and often
combinations thereof provide the widest range of ar-
tistic glass vessels created from the tenth through
thirteenth centuries in the Islamic world. Marvered
and applied glass was more popular in the central
lands and in Egypt, whereas impressed and molded
glass was favored in the Eastern Islamic areas.

The most celebrated and best-known type of
Islamic glassware has a polychrome and gilded surface
decoration. Probably originating in Syria in the twelfth
century, it was produced in Syria and Egypt until at
least the middle of the fifteenth century. Certainly
patronized by all layers of the wealthy society, there
is evidence under the Mamluks (1250-1517) that the
court and its entourage were eager sponsors of this
type of glass. Large lamps hanging from mosques,
madrasas, and mausoleums, as well as an abundance
of secular drinking vessels, bottles, basins, and bowls
include the names of sultans and emirs, making a
chronology of enameled and gilded glass possible.

The fifteenth century marks the decline of glass
production in Egypt and Syria — a decline that had
started earlier in Iran with the advent of the Mongols
in the thirteenth century — due both to economic and
political crises and to the fast rise of the glass industry
and trade in Europe. Therefore, little is known of
glassmaking in Iran in the Timurid and early Safavid
periods and in the former Mamluk, now Ottoman,
regions and in Anatolia. In Iran the industry was

revived with the help of European, mostly Venetian,
craftsmen in Isfahan and Shiraz from the seven-
teenth century. Western shapes and technology also
influenced products manufactured in the Mughal
territories of the Indian subcontinent, but their
glassmaking quickly gained inventive independence
and can be regarded as the best artistic output of the
later period.

Stefano Carboni

Further Reading

Brill, Robert. Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses. 2 vols.
Coming, 1999.

Carboni, Stefano. Glass from Islamic Lands: The Al-Sabah
Collection, Kuwait National Museum. New York:
Thames & Hudson, 2001.

Carboni, Stefano, and David Whitehouse. Glass of the Sul-
tans. Exhibition catalogue. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2001.

Charleston, Robert J. “Glass in Persia in the Safavid Period
and Later.” AARP — Art and Archaeology Research
Papers 5 (1974): 12-27.

Clairmont, Christoph. Benaki Museum. Catalogue of
Ancient and Islamic Glass (Based on the notes of
C. J. Lamm). Athens, 1977.

Dikshit, Moreshwar. History of Indian Glass. Bombay,
1969.

Fukai, Shinji. Persian Glass. Tokyo, 1977.

Goldstein, Sidney M. “Islamic Cameo Glass.” In Cameo
Glass: Masterpieces from 2000 Years of Glassmaking, ed.
S. Goldstein, L.S. Rakow and J.K. Rakow. Corning,
1982.

Hasson, Rachel. Early Islamic Glass. L.A. Mayer Memorial
Institute for Islamic Art. Jerusalem, 1979.

Kroger, Jens. Glas. Islamische Kunst. Loseblattkatalog
unpubliziert Werke aus deutschen Museen. Band 1: Berlin
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Museum fur
Islamische Kunst. Mainz/Rhein, 1984.

Nishapur: Glass of the Early Islamic Period. New

York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.

Lamm, Carl Johan. Das Glas von Samarra. Berlin, 1928.

Oliver (Harper), Prudence. “Islamic Relief Cut Glass: A Sug-
gested Chronology.” Journal of Glass Studies 3 (1961): 9-29.

Schmoranz, Gustav. Altorientalische Glas-gefdsse. Vienna,
1898.

Smith, Ray Winfield. Glass from the Ancient World: The
Ray Winfield Smith Collection. Exhibition catalogue.
Corning, 1957.

Van Doorninck, Frederick H. “The Serpe Limani Ship-
wreck: An 11th Century Cargo of Fatimid Glassware
Cullet for Byzantine Glassmakers.” In I. Uluslarasi Ana-
do lu Cam Sanati Sempozyumu 26-27 Nisan 1988 / 1st
International Anatolian Glass Symposium, April 26-27 ,
1988. Istanbul, 1990, 58-63.

Ward, Rachel, ed. Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the
Middle East. London: British Museum Press, 1998.

Whitehouse, David. “The Corning Ewer: A Masterpiece of
Islamic Cameo Glass.” Journal of Glass Studies 35
(1993): 48-56.

Wiet, Gaston. Catalogue General du Musee Arabe du Caire.
Lampes et Bouteilles en Verre Emaille. Cairo, 1929.

298

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARIANS

GNOSIS

Gnosis is a Greek term meaning knowledge. When
used in a theological discourse, its meaning becomes
synonymous with knowledge of the deity and the
spiritual realm. Therefore, a gnostic system aspires
to define the composition of the realm of the divine
and the agents that communicate between the spiritu-
al realm and the physical world. In Islamic religious
thought, gnosis corresponds to the Arabic ma'rifa,
specifically the knowledge of (1) the nature and attri-
butes of God and (2) the ways He communicates with
this world. The association of gnosis with ma'rifa is
largely championed in Sufism and Shihsm, but one
has to be careful here for there are certain differences
in the way gnosis is conceptualized by these groups.
However, in a strictly traditional Sunni context, there
is no such thing as gnosis: neither the concept nor its
theological implication is recognized.

In Sufism the entire mystical experience starts as a
quest through several stages of spiritual progression
to attain gnosis, and from there to the spiritual unity
with God. However, gnosis is not achieved by the
power of reason alone, which can barely touch the
surface. It is God who plants gnosis in the heart of the
Sufi. For that matter, what the Sufi has to do is to be
completely obedient and turn himself entirely to God
( tawakkul ) and be patient (sabr ) . According to the
celebrated Sufi Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 638/1240), it is the force
of obedience (al-ta ‘a ) that prepares the Sufi to receive
the seed of gnosis where God becomes his raison
d’etre; for then he knows God and all other things
through God. The light of gnosis illuminates for the
Sufi the various aspects of the nature and attributes of
the deity and allows him to witness the divine through
the senses. Once gnosis is entrenched in the Sufi’s
heart, he becomes one of God’s hands in this world:
He will be entirely consumed with the divine and has
no concern for his own self any longer. Those who
attain that stage are usually referred to as “the ones
who witnessed Him’’ (ashab al-mushahada) . The
miracles that a Sufi saint performs are proofs that he
attained that stage. In this respect, the following ha-
dith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad is especial-
ly praised by the Sufis: “If you truly know God you
can say to the mountains move and they will move at
your command.” One of the notable Sufi movements
that formulated a gnostic system is the Ishraqi
school — founded by the mystic Shihab al-Din ‘Umar
al-Suhrawardi (d. 587/1191). For the Ishraqis, gnosis
is a light revealed by the Angel Gabriel, the same
angel who revealed the Qur’an to the Prophet
Muhammad.

Gnosis is equally celebrated within Shihsrn, pre-
cisely by the Ismailis and the Twelvers. For both of

these sects, the world cannot exist without an imam to
lead in matters of life and religion. Like prophets,
imams are infallible (ma'sum). In Twelver theology,
the imam is the proof (hujja) that God exists, and
hence it is the divinely revealed gnosis that empowers
the imam to know God, interpret God’s revealed
scripture, and do God’s work in this world, even if
the imam is a minor. Thus the imams are the lights of
God, and, subsequently, the references in the Qur’an
to the light of/from God (see Q 4:174; 5:15; 9:32) are
understood as references to the Twelvers’ imams.

In an Ismaili context, gnosis is a much more so-
phisticated system. It comprises a cosmological order
of Intellects and Emanations, along with a cyclical
vision of sacred history that revolves around seven
prophets, each of whom brings a revelation. The first
six prophets are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus, and Muhammad, and the qa’im or mahdi is
Muhammad ibn Isma‘il (grandson of Ja‘far al-
Sadiq), who is in a stage of occupation. Each prophet
ushers in an era that features several imams who as-
sume his role and function until the coming of the
following prophet. But in an Ismaili context, the
prophet is also the Logos', an emanation from
the Active Intellect (one of the Intellects that form
the Islamili cosmological system). Hence, with the
power of gnosis, the prophet or imam defines the
exoteric meaning of the revealed scriptures for his
era (which is assumed to change over time) but main-
tains the fixed esoteric meaning (which is assumed to
be unchangeable). Generally, three angels mediate
between the physical world and the spiritual world
until the completion of the seventh and last cycle of
human history, when the last prophet returns to bring
an end to human history. These angels are Gabriel
(Jibra’il), Michael (Mika’il), and Raphael (Israfil).

Suleiman A. Mourad
See also Ibn ‘Arabi; Shihab al-Din ‘Umar al-Suhrawar-
di; Shi‘ism

Further Reading

Corbin, Henry. Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis. London:
Kegan Paul, 1983.

. Histoire de la Philosophic Islamique. Paris: Galli-

mard, 1986.

Knysh, Alexander. Islamic Mysticism: A Short History.
Leiden: Brill, 2000.

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARIANS

The science of grammar is intimately bound up with
the Islamic religion on the one hand and the pre-
dominant Arabic culture of medieval Muslims on
the other. As the language of revelation, Arabic

299

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARIANS

became the principal medium of discourse for all
theology, the Traditions of the Prophet, and jurispru-
dence, not to mention the secular disciplines and
belles lettres. It is no coincidence that the word for
grammar, nahw, means literally “way,” synonymous
with several other key terms such as sunna, sharia,
tariqa, madhhab, all denoting a “way” or “path”
taken by Muslims. Eventually, when Islamic learning
had been institutionalized in the colleges (see Edu-
cation, Madrasa), the grammarian was simply one
of a community of scholars united in the function of
expounding, preserving, and implementing the beliefs
of Islam.

Although the beginnings of grammar are obscure,
by the end of the eighth century we have the first
complete description of Arabic by Sibawayhi, a
Muslim of Persian descent who died in approximately
795 CE. His untitled work, known only as Kitah
Sibawayhi Sibawayhi’ s Book, has never been sur-
passed and remains the final authority in grammar.
Significantly, he approached language as a social ac-
tivity in which the participants (speaker and listener)
are under an obligation to produce utterances that
are both “good” ( hasan , that is, structurally well-
formed) and “right” ( mustaqim , that is, conveying
the intended meaning), with failed utterances being
termed muhal (absurd, perverted). The ethical origin
of these concepts is unmistakable, and they reflect
the notion that correct speech and correct religious
behavior are analogous.

Before becoming institutionalized, however, gram-
mar passed through a number of stages. Sibawayhi’s
grammar was primarily descriptive, and it first had
to be processed into a form suitable for prescriptive
grammar, with which the name of al-Mubarrad
(d. 898) is associated. It was not long before the
appropriation of Greek scientific concepts led to a
questioning of basic theoretical principles as the
grammarians strove to establish their professional
autonomy: here the outstanding figures are Ibn al-
Sarraj (d. 928) and al-Zajjaji (d. 949). During this
period the leading grammarians polarized themselves
into Basrans and Kufans (named after the two great
intellectual centers of the eighth to tenth centuries).
The core of the dispute was the validity of induction
in deriving grammatical rules: The Basrans argued
that such rules could not be authoritative unless the
corpus on which they were based was closed, while
the Kufans maintained that new data could always
be admitted. Needless to say, the Basran position
was the only one that would guarantee the integrity
of Islam against change and the Kufans were
effectively sidelined. It is important to observe that
the legal system went through a similar process at

much the same time, resulting in what was called
“the closing the gate of ijtihad meaning that the
corpus of the Qur’an and the Sayings of the Prophet,
the textual basis of all legal reasoning, were now fixed
and immutable.

The ideological conflict between the Basrans and
Kufans is recorded in some detail, but the grammar-
ians soon turned to a new problem, the develop-
ment of efficient pedagogical methods. Teaching
manuals (such as those by Ibn al-Sarraj and al-Zajjaji)
appear as early as the tenth century, and by the elev-
enth century, Ibn Babashadh (d. 1077), al-Jurjani
(d. 1078), and al-Zamakhshari (d. 1134) created rig-
idly schematic textbooks designed to serve the
new scholasticism of the Madrasa; we also find a
serious interest in the history of grammar and its
place among the Islamic sciences, notably in Ibn al-
Anbari (d. 1181). After this there is little to do but
refine and rearrange the material, culminating in the
works of the great masters Ibn al-Hajib (d. 1249), Ibn
Malik (d. 1274), and Ibn Hisham (d. 1360). Ibn Malik
is renowned for his enthusiastic use of verse as a
pedagogical medium, while Ibn Hisham was praised
as “an even better grammarian than Sibawayhi” for
his expository talents, though the most widely used
primer in the whole history of Arabic grammar is the
Ajurrumiyya of Ibn Ajurrum (d. 1327).

It should not be imagined that the grammarians
were all mere pedagogues with no concern for the
abstractions and subtleties of their art. There was
scope for every kind of speculation and controversy,
manifested, for example, in the occasional public
debates between grammarians and philosophers, the
latter perhaps entertaining the hope that language
control could be exercised through a universal Greek
logic rather than a specifically Islamic social theory,
which is certainly what the philosopher al-Farabi
(d. 950) believed. Ibn Faris (d. 1004), by contrast,
strongly asserted the uniqueness of Arabic and the
necessity of grammar for the maintenance of Islamic
law and values, while his contemporary, Ibn Jinni (d.
1002), displayed a remarkably open-minded curiosity
about the workings of human speech, posing, among
others, the question of whether language operates on
theological principles (that is, is essentially arbitrary
and nonrational) or on logical principles (he inclines
to the former). This reminds us that medieval Islam
accommodated a broad range of intellectual freedom
and could tolerate at one extreme a hyperrationalist
grammarian such as al-Rummani (d. 994), who was
committed to the view that language was entirely
rational, and at the other extreme the Andalusian
fundamentalist Ibn Mada’ al-Qurtubi (d. 1196), who
not only denied the existence of figurative, nonliteral

300

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARIANS, HEBREW AND JUDEO-ARABIC

meaning but also the concept of linguistic causality
altogether.

As long as Islam remains anchored in its Quranic
textual base, there will always be a normative role for
grammar, and the classical form of the Arabic lan-
guage, which it was the achievement of the medieval
grammarians to define and preserve, will continue to
act as a restraining force.

Michael G. Carter

See also Arabic; Basra; Education; Hadith, Kufa; Law
and Jurisprudence; Madrasa; iVIiftazilites; Sibawayhi

Further Reading

Auroux, Sylvain et al, eds. History of the Language
Sciences: An International Handbook on the Evolution
of the Study of Language from the Beginnings to the
Present. Handbiicher zur Sprach- und Kommunika-
tionswissenschaft. Bd. 18. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2000.
Bakalla, Muhammad H. Arabic Linguistics, and Introduc-
tion and Bibliography. London: Mansell, 1983.

Bohas, Georges, Jean-Patrick Guillaume, and Djemal E.
Kouloughli. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition. London/
New York: Routledge, 1990.

Carter, Michael G., ed. Arab Linguistics: An Introductory
Classical Text with Translation and Notes. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins, 1981.

. “Arab Linguistics and Arabic Linguistics.” Zeits-

chrift fiir Geschichte cler Arabisch-Islamischen Wis-
senschaften 4 (1989): 205-218.

. “Grammar.” In Religion, Learning and Science in

the Abbasid Period, ed. Michael J.L. Young et al,
118-138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1991; additional bibliography 531-533.

. “Writing the History of Arabic Grammar.” Histor-

iographia Linguistica 21 (1994): 387-416.

. Sibawayhi ( Makers of Islam ) . Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press/I. B. Tauris, 2004.

Diem, Werner. “Bibliographie/Bibliography, Sekundar-
literatur zur einheimischen arabischen Grammatiks-
chreibung.” In The History of Linguistics in the Middle
East, ed. C.H.M. Versteegh, K. Koerner, H. -J. Nieder-
ehe, 195-250. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1983; His-
toriographia Linguistica, 8 (1981): 431 — 486.

Goldziher, Ignaz. On the History of Grammar among the
Arabs, an Essay in Literary History, trans. and ed. Kinga
Devenyi, Tamas Ivanyi. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins, 1994.

Gully, Adrian. Grammar and Semantics in Medieval Arabic.

Richmond: Curzon Press 1995.

Owens, Jonathan. Early Arabic Grammatical Theory: Hetero-
geneity and Standardization. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
John Benjamins, 1990.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Vol. ix,
Grammatik bis c. 430 H., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1984.
Talmon, Rafael. Eighth-Century Iraqi Grammar: A Critical
Exploration of Pre-Halilian Arabic Linguistics. Winona
Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003.

Versteegh, Cornells H. M. [Kees]. “Die arabische Sprachwis-
senschaft.” In Grundrifi cler arabischen Philologie, ed.
H. Gathe, vol. ii, 148-176. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1987;
additional bibliog. vol. iii, Supplement. Ed. W. Fischer,
Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1992, 269-274.

. The Explanation of Linguistic Causes: az-Zaggaga ’s

Theory of Grammar, Introduction, Translation
and Commentary. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John

Benjamins, 1995.

. Landmarks in Linguistic Thought III: The Arabic

Linguistic Tradition. London/New York: Routledge,
1997.

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARIANS,
HEBREW AND JUDEO-ARABIC

Hebrew grammar and philology did not exist as dis-
ciplines or even as systematic activities until the clas-
sical age of Islam. For the Jews, these intellectual
ventures first arose in the Muslim East in the late
ninth century as a result of their encounter with
Arabo-Islamic culture in general and their adoption
of Arabic as a spoken and literary language in partic-
ular. Hebrew grammatical works in Judeo-Arabic and
Hebrew follow Arabic models and terminology and
represent some of the earliest literary manifestations
and the most critical components of the Jewish sub-
cultural minority’s efforts to adapt Jewish culture to
the intellectual regimen established by Islam. Just as
Arabic grammar and philology were essential tools
for Qur’anic exegesis, Hebrew linguistic study became
the cornerstone for biblical exegesis and the revival of
Hebrew as a literary language.

The first major figure associated with this cultural
program was Sa‘adia ben Joseph al-Fayyumi
(882-942 CE), the communal leader and august head
of one of the rabbinical academies in Iraq. Sa‘adia,
who wrote poetry in Hebrew but virtually everything
else (including Hebrew languages studies) in Judeo-
Arabic, was critical in legitimizing Hebrew grammati-
cal research because of his authority as a scholar of
Jewish law. His writings, which include Kitab fasih
lughat al- ‘ibraniyyin ( Book on the Eloquence of
the Language of the Hebrews) and Kitab usul al-shfr
al- ‘ibrani: ha-Egron ( The Essentials of Hebrew Poetry:
The Compilation) , have been considered unique and
foundational efforts in establishing Hebrew grammar
and philology. However, fragmentary materials
discovered in the Firkovitch genizah collection dem-
onstrate that Qaraite Jewish intellectuals in the
Muslim East contemporary with Sa‘adia were equ-
ally immersed in the systematic study of biblical
Hebrew. Several tenth-century North African scho-
lars appeared in the generation after Sa‘adia, includ-
ing Judah ibn Quraysh, who authored an epistle
(Risala) on comparative philology addressed to the
community of Fez, and David ben Abraham al-Fasi,
who composed a Hebrew-Arabic biblical lexicon,
JamVl-alfaz.

301

GRAMMAR AND GRAMMARIANS, HEBREW AND JUDEO-ARABIC

Al-Andalus emerged as a significant center of
Jewish cultural activity during the mid-tenth century.
Menahem ibn Saruq (b. 910-920), a court secretary of
the Umayyad Jewish official Hasdai b. Shaprut, com-
posed a Hebrew dictionary of biblical Hebrew roots
(Mahberet) that would be the last effort to eschew
the comparative method. Shortly thereafter Judah
Hayyuj (ca. 970 to ca. 1010) first applied the principle
of the tri-literal root and its derived forms to Hebrew
in Kitab al-af‘al dhawat huruf al-lin (Weak and
Geminate Verbs) and another work. His student,
Jonah ibn Janah (eleventh century), took this insight
further still in his companion studies, Kitab al-usul
(The Book of Hebrew Roots), a Hebrew Arabic lexi-
con, and Kitab al-luma ’ ( Book of Variegated Flower
Beds), a comprehensive grammar of biblical Hebrew.
At the end of the eleventh century, Isaac ibn Barun’s
Kitab al-muwazana bayn al-lugha al-‘ibraniyya wal-
‘arabiyya (The Book of Comparison between the
Hebrew Language and Arabic) represents the fullest
systematic application of the comparative method to
the study of Hebrew grammar and philology.

Hebrew and Judeo- Arabic grammar and philology
survived in Christian lands following the dispersal
of the Jews of al-Andalus under al-Muwahhid rule.
Some Arabic works of the previous centuries were
translated into Hebrew, while newer Hebrew studies
by the Iberian exile Abraham ibn ‘Ezra (1092-1167)
and the Provencal scholar David Qimhi (ca.
1160-1235) synthesized the results of earlier gram-
marians and achieved new insights into the behavior
of classical Hebrew. Several important grammarians
and lexicographers are known from twelfth-century
Yemen, thirteenth-century Egypt, and fourteenth-
century Catalonia, while Sa‘adia ibn Danan was a
Hebrew linguist writing in Judeo-Arabic at the fall
of Nasrid Granada and the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain. Ross Brann

Further Reading

Eldar, Ilan. “Hebrew Philology Between the East and
Spain: The Concept of Derivation as a Case Study.”
Journal of Jewish Studies XLIII (1998): 49-61.

Khan, Geoffrey. The Early Karaite Tradition of Hebrew
Grammatical Thought. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Tene, David. “Linguistic Literature, Hebrew.” Encyclope-
dia Judaica. Vol 16. Jerusalem: Keter, 1972, 1354-1390.

GRANADA

Granada (Arabic, Gharnata) is the capital of the
homonymous district (kura) and kingdom, situated
on the banks of the Darro River, near its confluence
with the Genii.

The first Muslim governors of the area lived in the
Roman settlement of Illiberris, which they Arabicized
into Ilbira or Elvira, until they moved to a new foun-
dation in its neighborhood, Granada. The district
continued to be named kura of Elvira, until the
name was replaced by that of Granada. The adminis-
trative and military territory of the kura of Elvira
corresponds roughly to the present Spanish province
of Granada, to the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula.
At the beginning of the eleventh century, after the
fall of the Umayyad caliphate of Cordoba, Granada
gained prominence at the cost of Elvira. During that
time, it became the capital of an independent king-
dom ruled by the Zirids, a branch of the Berber
Sanhaja tribe. Until then, mainly Jews and Christians
had occupied the city. When the Zirids consolidated
their power, Granada was the scene of a pogrom
against the Jewish community, some of whose mem-
bers had managed to exert political influence with
the amirs Habus and Badis ibn Ziri. Of the Zirid
palace, situated on the side of a hill sloping down
toward the Darro, only a cistern and several pieces
of wall remain. The site is known today as the
Alcazaba qadima.

In AH 483/1090 CE, ‘Abd Allah, the last Zirid king
of Granada, was dethroned by the Almoravids. They
governed in the city until 551/1156, when it was
surrendered to the new lords of al-Andalus, the
Almohads. In the interval between 557/1162 and
561/1166, Granada was under the control of the
Andalusian rebel Ibn Hamushk, who had taken the
city with the help of the Jewish and Christian popula-
tion. Subsequently, the city fell in the hands of Ibn
Hud al-Judhami, under whose leadership a general
insurrection against the Almohads took place. In
635/1237, Ibn Hud was assassinated and a year later,
his former enemy and founder of the Nasrid dynasty,
Muhammad Ibn al-Ahmar, took possession of
Granada.

The Nasrid kingdom of Granada included the
old provinces of Elvira-Granada, Almeria, Malaga,
Ronda, and part of Algeciras. The Nasrids main-
tained constant economic relations with their Chris-
tian neighbors, with whom they managed to keep a
precarious political balance until 897/1492, when the
city was conquered by the Catholic monarchs. The
fall of Granada put an end to Muslim political power
in the Iberian Peninsula.

Representative of the high level reached by the
Arabo-Islamic civilization of Granada are the
Maliki jurist al-Shatibi, who in the fourteenth century
elaborated a new legal methodology that has been a
source of inspiration for reformist thinkers of the
contemporary Islamic world, and the polymath Ibn
al-Khatib.

302

The Court of the Lions. The fountain and water course. Credit: Werner Forman/ Art Resource, NY. Alhambra, Granada, Spain.

The most remarkable example of Nasrid archi-
tecture, the famous palace of the Alhambra, has
been dehned as the final outcome and the supreme
flowering of Andalusi art.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Further Reading

Arie, R. Espana Musulmana, Siglos VIII-XV. Barcelona:
Labor, 1993.

. L’Espagne Musulmane au Temps des Nasrides

(1232-1492), reimpression suivie d’une postface et
d’une mise a jour par hauteur. Paris: De Boccard, 1990.
El Siglo XI en l a Persona: Las “Memorias” de ‘Abd Allah,
Ultimo Rey Ziri de Granada Destronado por los Almor-
avides ( 1090). Traducidos, con introduction y notas por
E. Levi-Provengal y Emilio Garcia Gomez. Madrid:
Alianza, 1982.

El 2 , s.v. “Gharnatta.” [A. Huici Miranda], Monuments
[H. Terrace],

Hoenerbach, W. “Was bleibt uns vom arabischen Gran-
ada?” Die Welt des Islams 23-24 (1984): 388^423.

Tnan, M.A.A. Lisan a!-Din Ibn al-Khatib: Hayatuhu vva-
Turathu-hu al-Fikri. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanyi, 1968.

Masud, M. Kh. Shatibi’s Philosophy of Islamic Law. Isla-
mabad, 1995.

Molina Lopez, E. Ibn al-Jatib. Granada: Comares, 2001.

Orihuela Uzal, A. “Granada, Capital del Reino Nazari.” In
La Arquitectura del Islam Occidental , R. Lopez Guzman
(coord), 195-209. Barcelona: Lunwerg, 1995.

De Santiago Simon, E. El Poligrafo Granadino Ibn al-Jatib y
el Sufismo: Aportaciones Para su Estudio. Granada:
Diputacion Provincial, 1983.

Viguera, M.J., coord. El Reino Nazari de Granada (1232-
1492 ) . Historia de Espana Musulmana Menendez Pidal,
vols. VIII-3 and VIII-4, Madrid, 2000.

GREEK

After Alexander the Great, Greek language and cul-
ture began to spread over large sections of the previ-
ously non-Greek conquered regions in the Levant and

303

GREEK

southwest Asia. Centers where Greek science and
philosophy came to be studied and further developed
were established and continued to exist even after
those areas of the world had become part of the
Roman — later Byzantine — and Sasanian empires,
and eventually, the caliphate. Such centers included
Alexandria, Antioch, Qinnesrin, Harran, Edessa,
Nisibis, al-Hira, Jundaysabur, and Marw. In addition
to Greek works on theology, books on medicine,
logic, and astrology were translated into Syriac and
Persian (Pahlavi). Farther east, in India, Pataliputra,
the capital of the Gupta kingdom, and the port of
Ujjain were centers where Greek mathematics and
astronomy were studied and developed from the
fifth to seventh centuries.

When the Arabs had conquered Damascus and the
caliphate of the Umayyads had been established, they
were confronted with the existing Greek-Christian
culture. Muslims became acquainted with Greek phi-
losophy and Christian theology. The cities al-Basra
and al-Kufa became centers of study of disciplines
such as Arabic grammar and lexicography, jurispru-
dence, and theology, and there is evidence of the
influence of Greek philosophy on Muslim theology.
However, only scant evidence of any translation
activity of Greek scientific or philosophical works
during the Umayyad caliphate has come down to us.

This changed with the establishment of the
‘Abbasid caliphate and especially after the foundation
of Baghdad as the capital in 762; until around 1000,
a majority of Greek scientific and philosophical works
were translated into Arabic, either via Syriac or
Pahlavi, or directly. The translators were, for a large
part, Syriac-speaking Christians who also knew
Greek and Arabic. This translation movement was
supported and funded by the elite of ‘Abbasid society:
caliphs, viziers, merchants, and scholars. Caliphal
support was initially motivated by interest in astrolo-
gy, a legacy of Sasanian culture. Another motivation
was the obvious need for knowledge of medicine
and the knowledge of accounting and surveying for
the secretaries that administered the empire. Indeed,
works on astrology and medicine were among the first
Arabic translations, soon to be followed by books on
arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Translations
were patronized by the Bukhtishu’ family, who had
been heads of the hospital of Jundaysabur and were
called to Baghdad as physicians at the caliphal court.
The Barmakid family, originally from Balkh (Bac-
tria), later living in Marw, came to Baghdad as ca-
liphal viziers. They took an interest in Greek science
with which they had become acquainted in Marw.
The three Banu Musa brothers also patronized the
translation of Greek works; they built an observatory
in Baghdad and wrote several works on geometry.

Among the most important translated works were
Euclid's Elements , Ptolemy’s Almagest , nearly the en-
tire collections of Aristotle and Galen, and major
Hippocratica. Arabic translations from Greek science
and philosophy formed the basis for the further
elaboration of these disciplines in the Arabic-Muslim
world.

P. Lettinck

See also Hunayn ibn Ishaq; Translation, Pre-Islamic
Learning into Arabic

Further Reading

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. London:
Routledge, 1998.

O’Leary, De Lacy. How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs.
London, Boston, and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1979 (first edition 1949).

Rosenthal, Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam. London
and New York: Routledge, 1992; reissue of the first
English edition, 1975 (translation of the German edition,
Zurich, 1965).

GUILDS, PROFESSIONAL

The study of the origins and the development of
guilds (sinf, pi. asnaf) in the Islamic world has been
a difficult task for scholars because such organiza-
tions have assumed diverse manifestations with re-
spect to economic, political, and religious terms,
which has caused difficulty in knowing their exact
characteristics. For the most part, however, the origins
of guilds in the Islamic history can be traced to the
pre-Islamic marketplace in the Arabian peninsula and
the Sasanian-controlled territories in eastern Mesopo-
tamia and Central Asia, where most professional
organizations formed the basic cadre for the control
of the urban economic, political, and social sectors.

In the Caliphate period of Islamic history, from the
seventh to the mid-tenth centuries CE, the members
of professional organizations primarily consisted of
craftsmen and merchants in cities and towns of the
eastern Islamic world. These organizations were also
comprised of professional groups such as performers,
orators, porters, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, braziers,
goldsmiths, silversmiths, tailors, and butchers. With
the decentralization of the ‘Abbasid caliphal empire
after 945, in what can be regarded as the collapse
of the classical caliphate, guild institutions also un-
derwent major changes. From the tenth to the mid-
thirteenth centuries, prior to the Mongol conquest
of Baghdad in 1258, the guild associations became
increasingly autonomous with the trade guilds, acquir-
ing an effective strength in the cities.

304

GUILDS, PROFESSIONAL

In this period, many of the guilds appear to have
also been organized in the form of futuvvat organiza-
tions, although as Willem Floor has argued, there is
lack of evidence for a strong link between the two.
The futuvvat, the plural of an Arabic term literally
meaning “young manhood,” identified chivalric and
religious brotherhoods that were widespread through-
out all urban communities in the medieval Islamic
world. The futuvvat circles fused the dual ethos of
manliness and ethics with spirituality, emphasizing
both worldly and otherworldly strength and knowl-
edge. These chivalric circles were built around notions
of comradeship, celibacy, equality, and justice, stres-
sing the ties of mutual loyalty among members. In
this regard the Islamic guilds, increasingly known as
futuvvat circles, were autonomous urban institutions
that maintained a strong sense of egalitarian and
religious spirit, while at times expressing the interests
of their associates against the official power and, at
other times, serving as a liaison between the state and
the workers. This fraternal expression of mutual loy-
alty mainly involved rigorous examination of a poten-
tial’s character and initiation ceremonies rather than
training in the trades. Under the forty-five year reign
of Caliph al-Nasir in the late twelfth and early thir-
teenth centuries in Baghdad, the futuvvat clubs were
revived and expanded as a consequence of the growth
of trade and revival of towns under the Seljuk rule.

By the time of the Mongol invasion, a major
development occurred in the professional groupings
with the merging of the futuvvat circles and Sufism.
With the exception of Syria and Egypt, where the
futuvvat maintained aristocratic features, by the end
of the fifteenth century the futuvvat had become, es-
pecially in Anatolia and northwestern Iran, essentially
the Sufi component of guild associations. In the post-
Mongol era of Islamic history, the futuvvat associa-
tions increasingly began to merge with the Anatolian
Sufi orders. This led to the creation of Akhiyat
al-Fityan or Akhi movements, which tended to fuse
the horseback warrior culture of inner Asia, embed-
ded in a culture of reverence for the spiritual sacred
person (baba), with the urbanite futuvvat traditions
of Irano-Mesopotamian regions.

Such development set the cultural and political
landscape for the emergence of an important dynastic
empire in Islamic history, namely the Safavids, at the
start of the sixteenth century. As a Sufi brotherhood

revolutionary movement, the Safavids were the most
militant political manifestation of the futuvvat in the
form of spiritual warriors in consolidating political
authority in Anatolia and the Irano-Mesopotamian
regions. The development of guilds in the late
fifteenth century also played an important role in the
expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries: They supplied armies for im-
perial military campaigns and organized guild cere-
monies that provided a channel through which the
sultan could reach the whole population of the em-
pire, especially during the imperial circumcision
rituals. The Ottoman guilds were autonomous in-
stitutions that identified a corporate, economic, and
religious community in the cities.

Babak Rahimi

See also Artisans; Chivalry; Festivals and Celebrations;
Merchants, Muslim; Performing Artists; Religious
Movements; Sufism and Sufis; Textiles; Trade,
African; Trade, Indian Ocean; Trade, Mediterranean;
Urbanism

Primary Sources

Kashifi, Husayn Va’iz. Futuvvatname-yi Sultani. Ed.
Muhammad Ja’far Mahjub. Tehran: Buhyad-I Far-
hang-I Iran, 1971.

Further Reading

Babayan, Kathyrn. Mystics, Moncirchs, and Messiahs:
Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Harvard:
Harvard University Press, 2002.

Bulliet, Richard. Islam: The View from the Edge. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1994, 164-165.

Cahen, Claude. “Futuwwa.” Encyclopedia of Islam, new ed.

Vol 2. Ed. H.A.R. Gibb. Leiden: Brill, 1965.

Cohen, Amnon. The Guilds of Ottoman Jerusalem. Leiden
and Boston: Brill, 2001.

Floor, Willem. “The Guilds in Iran: An Overview from the
Earliest Beginnings to 1972.” Zeitschrift des Deutschen
Morgenlddischen Gesellschaft . 125 (1975) 99-116.
Levtzion, Nehemia. “The Dynamics of Sufi Brotherhoods.”
In The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies, ed. Miriam
Hoexter, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, and Nehemia Levtzion.
New York, 2002.

Massignon, Louis. “La ‘Futuwwa’ ou ‘Pacte d'Honneiur
Artisanal’ entre les Travailleiurs Musulmans au Moyen
Age.” In Opera Minora, ed. Youakim Moubarac. 3 vols.
Beirut, 1963.

305

HADITH

The word hadith refers to “speech,” meaning, in
this case, both collective and individual reports of
what the Prophet said and did. Through these
words is known the Sunna, which is the model of
behavior that all Muslims should imitate. The earliest
written collections of hadith date to the last third
of the eighth century CE. The Six Books, which
make up the most highly respected Sunni collections,
are those of al-Bukhari (d. 870), Muslim (d. 875), Abu
Dawud (d. 889), al-Tirmidhi (d. 892), al-Nasa’i
(d. c. 915), and Ibn Maja (d. c. 887). Four collections
enjoy almost as much prestige among the Twelver
Shi‘is, mainly those of al-Kulayni (d. c. 940) and
Ibn Babawayh (d. 991) and two books by al-Tusi
(d. c. 1067). Other sects have their own collections
of hadith.

An individual hadith always has two parts. First is
a list of its transmitters called the isnad (support);
second is the actual text, called the matn (main part).
For example, al-Bukhari reports this: < Muhammad
ibn Bashshar < Ghundar < Shu‘ba < Qatada < Anas
ibn Malik < Qatada ibn al-Samit < Prophet: “The
believer’s dream is one forty-sixth part of prophecy.”
The isnad protects against forgery. Bukhari goes
on to name another isnad that is completely different
but in support of the same matn to show that there
is no need to rely on the veracity of any one of these
men; in addition, four persons related the same matn
from Anas directly from the Prophet, without Qatada
ibn Samit matn between them. Muslim offers eight
isnads to support the same matn.

If a hadith was supported by only a single isnad or if
only one person was known to have transmitted it
during a generation, it was called khabar al-wahid
(“the report of one”) and considered sound only if
that one person’s transmission was usually corrobo-
rated by others. For example, “The servant’s dream is
one forty-sixth part of prophecy” appears in a collec-
tion of suspect hadith with the isnad < Ishaq ibn Abi
Isra’il < ‘Abd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Abi Kathir < his
father < Abu Salama < Abu Hurayra < the Messenger
of God. It is suspect, because the link between Ibn Abi
Kathir and his father has few parallels. It was a matter
of dispute how much corroboration was enough.

Transmission of hadith by paraphrase was evident-
ly once common. Accordingly, the tradition claims
only that it reliably contains the gist of what the
Prophet said and not his exact words; this is one
reason that philologists continually quote the Qur’an
and old poetry to establish correct Arabic usage and
rarely quote hadith.

Most of the rules of Islamic law are based on
hadith. Disagreements about the rules are usually
associated with contradictory hadith. Muslim juris-
prudents held that hadith afforded probable knowl-
edge rather than certain. In case of contradiction
between hadith and the Qur’an, most jurisprudents
held that hadith explained the Qur’an; hence, in prac-
tice, hadith took precedence. Only Mu'tazili and
Khariji jurisprudents argued for dismissing hadith
that seemed to contradict the Qur’an.

The ninth and tenth centuries were the great age of
hadith criticism, when the sound was sorted from the

307

HADITH

unsound. Hadith remained the most popular of the
Islamic sciences throughout the Middle Ages, and
lectures in hadith attracted great numbers. Even if
they could look up the reliable hadith in respected
collections, Muslims enjoyed reenacting the experience
of the Companions listening to the Prophet.

Christopher Melchert

See also al-Bukhari; Muslim; al-Kulayni; Ibn
Babawayh; al-Tusi

Further Reading

Dickinson, Eerik. The Development of Early Sunnite Hadith
Criticism. Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and
Texts, 38. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Siddiqi, Muhammad Zubayr. Hadith Literature: Its Origin,
Development and Special Features, ed. Abdal Hakim
Murad. Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 1993.

HAFSA BINT AL-HA J J AL-RUKUNIY Y A

Hafsa Bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya was a Granadan
Arabic poet who died in AH 586/1190-1191 CE.
Louis di Giacomo suggests that she was perhaps the
most celebrated Andalusian woman poet of her time.
In his view, only two others warrant comparison:
her eleventh-century Cordoban predecessor Wallada
Bint al-Mustakfi and her twelfth-century Granadan
contemporary Nazhun Bint al-Qila‘i. Indeed, this
supposition has some merit. Hafsa’s love affair and
dialogue with fellow poet Abu Ja‘far Ibn Sa’id may
be less legendary than Wallada’s romantic liaison
with the poet Ibn Zaydun, but Hafsa seems to have
been more prolific. Only Nazhun’s extant corpus,
which includes an oft-overlooked strophic poem
(muwashshaha) , can quantitatively compare to that
of Hafsa, which contains about sixty lines of verse set
among nineteen compositions. Furthermore, her bi-
ography is somewhat less sketchy than those of many
female poets of her era, although the details of her
childhood (e.g., her date and place of birth) are
elusive, and little is known about her family other
than that her father was Berber. However, once she
establishes her relationship with Abu Ja‘far at about
the time that the Almohads come to power in 1154
CE, her historical personage becomes more defined,
and she begins to be linked to specific people, places,
and dates. The figure of Abu Sa‘id ‘Uthman, an
Almohad prince, patron of poets, and rival of Abu
Ja‘far for Hafsa’s affections, is particularly significant
in this regard. The rivalry between prince and poet
turned deadly when Abu JaTar joined his extended
family, the Banu Sa‘id, in their political opposition to
the reign of Abu Sa'id’s father ‘Abd al-Mu’min Bin
‘Ali. For this infraction, Abu JaTar was imprisoned

and eventually executed in 1163 CE. At some point
after this, Hafsa seems to have made a career change,
establishing herself primarily as a pedagogue rather
than a poet. In later life, she was hired by the Caliph
Ya’qub al-Mansur to educate his daughters in
Marrakech, where she died.

One of the most famous poems attributed to
Hafsa — perhaps incorrectly — is a succinct panegyric
addressing ‘Abd al-Mu’min in which she cleverly
alludes to her patron’s official insignia. Another is
her response to a poem by Abu JaTar. In his piece,
Abu JaTar personifies a garden where the lovers met
and implies that its scents and sounds were expres-
sions of its delight in their rendezvous. In her reply,
Hafsa accuses her beloved of misinterpreting the
garden’s motives, asserting that it acted not out of
admiration but rather out of envy and spite. Her
corpus also features a rather intriguing scatological
invective that she is said to have co-composed with
Abu JaTar, each poet extemporizing alternate lines.
Although many Andalusian women poets composed
amatory, satirical, and obscene verse, Hafsa is addi-
tionally remembered for her elegies devoted to Abu
JaTar; hence her poetic output had a thematic variety
and depth that make her a distinctive figure in the
history of women’s writing.

Marle Hammond

See also ‘A’isha Bint Ahmad al-Qurtubiyya; Almohads;
Wallada Bint al-Mustakfi; Women Poets

Primary Sources

Al-Maqqari, Ahmad Ibn Muhammad. Nafh al-Tib min
Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratih, 8 vols., vol. 4, 172-8, ed.
Ihsan Abbas. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1968.

Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. Nuzhat al-Julasa’ fi Ash'ar al-Nisa\
ed. Salah al-Din al-Munajjid, 32-7. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab
al-Jadid, 1978.

Further Reading

Arberry, A.J. Moorish Poetry: A Translation of The Pen-
nants, an Anthology Compiled in 1243 by the Andalusian
Ibn Sci'id , 94-5. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1953.

Di Giacomo, Louis. Une Poetesse Grenadine du Temps des
Almohacles: Hafsa Bint al-Hajj. Collection Hesperis.
Paris: Larose, 1949.

Gruendler, Beatrice. “Lightning and Memory in Poetic
Fragments from the Muslim West: Hafsah Bint al-Hajj
(d. 1191) and Sarah al-Halabiyyah (d.c.1300).” In Crisis
and Memory: Dimensions of Their Relationship in Islam
and Adjacent Cultures , eds. A. Neuwirth and A. Pflitsch,
435-52. Beirut/Stuttgart: Steiner BTS, 2001.

Pellat, Ch. “Hafsa Bint al-Hadjdj al-Rukuniyya
(al-Rakuniyya).” Encyclopaedia of Islam. CD-ROM
Edition, vol. 1.1. Leiden: Brill, 200 1.

308

HAJJ

HAFSIDS

The Hafsids were a Berber dynasty of governors
of Ifriqiyya that stopped paying allegiance to the
Almohad caliph and that started to rule indepen-
dently from AH 627/1229 CE. Together with the
Banu ‘Abd al-Wad of Tlemcen and the Marinids of
Morocco, they exerted control over the African part
of the former Almohad empire, whose unity they all
tried to restore, the Hafsids with the argument that
they were the legitimate heirs of the Almohad caliphs.
The civil and military administration of the Hafsids
and their official ideology was based on the Almohad
model, without this fact having interfered with the
spread of Malikism and mysticism (see Sufism).
They made Tunis their religious, political, and eco-
nomical capital — a situation that has prevailed to the
present day — and filled it with monuments.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Hafsid
Tunis received a wave of Andalusi Muslims who fled
the lands conquered by the Christians. Among them
the writer Ibn al-Abbar (d. 658/1260) and the ances-
tors of the historian Ibn Khaldun are to be counted.
A second wave of Andalusi immigrants arrived by the
end of the fifteenth century, after the fall of Granada
to the Catholic monarchs. In their new destination,
Andalusis made up a powerful social group whose
influence is visible in Tunisian architecture.

The Hafsids kept commercial relationships with
Provence, Languedoc, the Italian republics, Sicily,
and Aragon. These relationships experienced occa-
sional setbacks (e.g., in 668/1270, when the crusade
of St. Louis attacked Tunis). Despite its short dura-
tion, the presence of the crusaders gave a serious blow
to Hafsid prestige and opened a period of disturbance
and secession that culminated in 693/1294. In this
year, Abu Zakariyya’, a nephew of the amir Abu
Hafs (683-694/1284-1295), gained control over the
Western part of the territory, including Bougie and
Constantine (and later over Gabes). The Hafsid
emirate enjoyed a period of relative peace and pros-
perity with Abu ’1-Abbas (772-796/1369-1370) and
his successors. However, by the end of the fifteenth
century, internal division allowed first the Spaniards
and, subsequently, the Turks to take hold of the
land. In 982/1574, Tunis became part of the Ottoman
Empire.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Further Reading

Annabi, H., M. Chapoutot-Remadi, and Samia Kamarti,
eds. Itineraire du Savoir en Tunisie: Les Temps Forts de
VHistoire Tunisienne. Paris, CNRS, 1995.

Brunschvig, R. La Berberie Orientate sous les Hafsides: Des
Origines a la Fin du XVeme Siecle, 2 vols. Paris, Adrien
Maisonneuve, 1940-1947.

Daoulatli, A. Tunis Sous les Hafsides: Evolution Urbaine
et Activite Architecturale. Tunis: Institut National
d’Archeologie et d’Art, 1976.

Idris, H R. "Hafsids.” In El 2

Julien, Ch.A. Histoire de TAfrique du Nord: Tunisie, Algerie,
Maroc: De la Conquete Arabe a 1830. Paris, Payot, 1969.

. Histoire de TAfrique du Nord: Des Origines a 1830.

Paris, Payot, 1994.

Van Staevel, J.P. "Savoir Voir et le Faire Savoir: L'Exper-
tise Judiciaire en Matiere de Construction, D'Apres
un Auteur Tunisois du viiie/xive Siecle.” Annales
Islamologiques 35 (2001).

Le Tourneau, R. "North Africa to the Sixteenth Century.”
In The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 2., The Further
Islamic Lands, Islamic Society and Civilization, eds.
P.M. Holt, A.K.S. Lambton, and B. Lewis, 211-37.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

HAJJ

The Semitic root from which the Arabic term hajj de-
rives is associated with the visitation of sacred shrines.
It is an old word that is found in the northwest
Semitic languages of Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac,
and Aramaic and South Semitic Sabaean, as well as
Arabic. In the Hebrew Bible, it references the three
Pilgrimage Festivals: “Three times in the year all your
males shall appear before the Lord God” (Exodus
23:14—18). The core meaning likely includes circum-
ambulation (Hebrew hug : Proverbs 8:7, Job 26:10)
and perhaps even leaping or reeling from excessive
consumption and celebration (1 Samuel 30:16, Psalm
107:27). Indeed, depictions of pre-Islamic hajj prac-
tice mention members of the Meccan tribe of Quraysh
dancing around the Ka'ba — even naked — as part of
the encircling ritual.

Hajj visitations were a core part of pre-Islamic
religious practice in the area around Mecca. They
included a spring visitation called ‘Umra to the
Meccan Ka'ba during the month of Rajab, a cir-
cumambulation between two low nearby hills named
Safa and Marwa, and a regular visitation to ‘Arafat
some eleven miles away from the Ka‘ba. According
to the Qur’an (2:196-200), these appear to have
been separate rituals that were united under the lead-
ership of Muhammad to form the complex Islamic
pilgrimage ritual of today.

The Islamic pilgrimage became a sober time for
personal reflection and collective association with the
multiethnic and multiracial community of Muslims,
culminating in an animal sacrifice to be eaten and
distributed to the poor (22:28). The Qur’an associates
the Hajj with Abraham. After coming to Mecca to (re)
build the Ka'ba, God tells him (22:27), “Call humanity

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HAJJ

to the Hajj!” The traditional commentaries mention
how Abraham’s voice carried not only to all corners
of the world but even into the wombs of mothers; all
humanity heard the call.

Hajj is therefore a duty that is incumbent upon
those who are able (3:97), but the Qur’an was silent
regarding most of the ritual details. These were filled
in and authorized through commentaries on the
Qur’an and through the Sunna, the tradition litera-
ture that articulates the acts and discourse of the
Prophet Muhammad.

Muhammad inherited visitation activities that
had been practiced as pagan ritual for generations.
Traditions therefore emerged that associated the
ritual stations (manasik) with Abraham, the indige-
nous monotheist forbear of Islam (3:67). According
to these traditions, the originally monotheistic pil-
grimage rituals established by Abraham were cor-
rupted over the ages; Muhammad therefore restored
them to their original and pristine status of worship
and adoration of the one great God.

The Islamic hajj ritual is too complex to describe
here in any detail, but it includes the circumambula-
tion (tawaf) of the Meccan Ka‘ba, “running” (sa'i)
between Safa and Marwa, “standing” (wuquf) at
‘Arafat, and animal sacrifice. These and more ritual
acts take place during the first ten days of the month
called dhul-hijja, culminating in the Feast of Sacrifice
(‘id al-adha), which is associated by some with the
divine command of Abraham to sacrifice his son
Ishmael at the site of the Ka‘ba (although early
Muslim scholars differed strongly over who was the
intended sacrifice and where it would have taken
place).

Medieval pilgrimage routes criss-crossed the
Islamic world and beyond, bringing all kinds of
Muslims together to share the common pilgrimage
experience. Official caravans departed from key
points such as Syria, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq for the
protection of pilgrims who were sometimes attacked
by Arab marauders — even during the ten ritual days
themselves — if left unprotected. The “protection” of
pilgrims and control of pilgrimage routes signified
political power, so opportunists from Ibn Zubayr
in 692 to the followers of Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab
(wahhabis) in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries preyed upon and “protected” pilgrims in a
manner that made the journey precarious into the
modern period. Many pious believers would remain
in Mecca after their hajj, where they learned, taught,
and shared knowledge, creating a cosmopolitan cen-
ter in the middle of the Arabian desert that remains
one of the more broadminded cities of Saudi Arabia
to this day.

Reuven Firestone

Further Reading

Asad, Muhammad. The Road to Mecca. New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1954.

Al-Azraqi, Abu al-Walid Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah. Akhbar
Makka, 2 vols., ed. F. Wustenfeld. 1858.

Firestone, Reuven. Journeys in Holy Lands. Albany, NY:
State University of New York, 1990.

Kamal, Abdul Aziz. Every Man ’s Guide to Hajj and Umra.
Lahore, 1978.

Kamal, Ahmad. The Sacred Journey. New York: Duell,
Sloan and Pearce, 1961.

Peters, F.E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and
the Holy Places. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1994.

. Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy

Land. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Sargent-Aure, Barbara, ed. Journeys Toward God: Pilgrim-
age and Crusade. Kalamazoo, Mich, 1992.

HAKIM, AL-, FATIMID CALIPH

Al-Hakim bi-arnr Allah, Abu ‘Ali Mansur, was the
sixth of the Fatimid caliphs, whose quite unusual
reign featured a range of odd — even bizarre — acts
that have left a strange enigmatic historical record
not easily explained or fairly judged. As imam of the
Ismaili Muslims, he was the divinely ordained succes-
sor of the Prophet Muhammad, with full and exclu-
sive authority over his followers. Accordingly, his
word was law; Islam would be defined by his words
and actions. In practice, his various attempts at re-
form through legal restrictions on, among other
things, the consumption of certain foodstuffs and
alcoholic beverages, games of chance, religious rites
he did not approve of, the public movements of
women, the appearance of Jews and Christians with-
out markers to identify them as such, and public
expressions of veneration for the Companions of the
Prophet were never accepted by the majority in his
realm and were anathema to most. To enforce his
order, he had many killed, especially from the higher
elite of his government; he commanded the destruc-
tion of a large number of churches and synagogues,
the most famous of which was the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (destroyed in 1009 CE).
However, he was well known for his generosity and
beneficence and his support of the sciences and learn-
ing. Above all, after he reached maturity, he con-
ducted the affairs of government personally and
circulated at will among the populace both by night
and by day, riding a donkey with little or no escort.

Born in Egypt in 985, al-Hakim assumed the ca-
liphate upon the unexpected early death of his father,
al-‘Aziz, in 996 at the age of eleven. Initially he was
under the constraint of the powerful commander of
his Berber troops, Ibn ‘Ammar, and his tutor, the

310

HAMADHANI, BAD!' AL-ZAMAN

eunuch Barjawan. One by one he rid himself of these
men and emerged on his own, when he began the
series of legal enactments for which he is famous.
Many of these acts both came into effect and were
later rescinded. Cursing of the Prophet’s Companions
because they had failed to uphold the right of ‘Ali
to succeed ended with an order to remember them
for the good they had done before that fateful
betrayal. In 1005, al-Hakim created a public academy
and library, the Dar al-Tlm, which was staffed with
Sunni professors. The Isma‘ilis had their own teach-
ing institution, the Majlis al-Hikma. Churches and
synagogues once looted and torn down were given
permission to reopen; Christians formerly oppressed
were allowed to emigrate, and those who had
converted to Islam could return to their original faith.

At least twice al-Hakim faced quite serious revolts
on the fringes of his domain. In 1005, an Umayyad
pretender, Abu Rakwa, rallied tribal forces in the
Libyan desert and marched into the Delta. At first
he succeeded in defeating the Fatimid armies sent
against him, although eventually he fell himself and
was executed in Cairo two years later. In 1011 and
1012, previously loyal tribesmen in southern Palestine
rose to establish, in conjunction with the amir of
Mecca, a counter-caliphate. Skillful negotiations and
the payment of bribes by al-Hakim to the leading
men involved eliminated this threat. Despite these
signs of resistance, in general, al-Hakim’s rule pre-
vailed; the Fatimids lost no territory during his
reign, preserving their hold on much of Syria and
the Hijaz and the titular overlordship of North
Africa and Sicily. On one occasion in 1010, al-Hakim
was even acknowledged — albeit briefly — as caliph
throughout northern Mesopotamia.

During the final seven years of his life, al-Hakim
adopted a style of rule that was increasingly more
ascetic and less regal. He began to ride in public
exclusively on a donkey, he let his hair and nails
grow, he wore rough black clothing, and he tried to
delegate official functions to a cousin that he
appointed as his heir apparent. His most ardent sup-
porters confirm that many became perplexed as a
result, so unaccustomed were they to such behavior
by a supreme leader and imam. By 1017 or possibly
even earlier, others turned more enthusiastic, declar-
ing that al-Hakim was in fact divine, a god whose
actions were not to be judged by human standards.
That same year, Hamza ibn ‘Ali, the eventual founder
of the Druze, and al-Darazi, the man whose name
provided the word Druze itself, both began to preach
openly that al-Hakim was God Himself, appearing
in human form. Whether the caliph actually encour-
aged these men is doubtful; those who held official
positions under al-Hakim fought as forcefully as they

could against such tendencies. However, in 1021,
al-Hakim disappeared mysteriously during the course
of one of his nightly excursions, leaving those who
considered him to be God even more convinced of
that fact and the rest of his followers scrambling to
arrange for the succession of his son, al-Zahir; this
feat was engineered under these unusual circum-
stances by the absent caliph’s powerful sister, Sitt
al-Mulk.

Paul E. Walker

Further Reading

Canard, M. “Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.” In Encyclopaedia of
Islam, New Edition.

Halm, Hainz. Die Kalifen von Kairo: Die Fatimiden in
Agypten, 973-1074 , 167-304. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2003.
Walker, Paul E. “The Ismaili Da'wa in the Reign of the
Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim." Journal of the American
Research Center in Egypt 30 (1993): 161-82.

. “Fatimid Institutions of Learning.” Journal of the

American Research Center in Egypt 34 (1997): 179-200.

. Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani: Ismaili Thought in the

Age of al-Hakim. London: I.B. Tauris, 1999.

HAMADHANI, BADI‘ AL-ZAMAN

Abu al-Fadl Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Hamadhani
(968-1008 CE) was given the nickname “Badi‘ al-
Zaman” (“The Wonder of the Age”) in recognition
of his mastery of Arabic prose writing in the high
style. Among his teachers was the illustrious gram-
marian Ibn Faris (d. 1004), and he spent the earlier
part of his career as a litterateur in Rayy at the
renowned court of al-Sahib ibn ‘Abbad (d. 995)
before moving further East.

Al-Hamadhani was, it appears, a complete master
of the Arabic and Persian languages, able to translate
instantaneously between the two and to improvise
elaborate exercises in verbal virtuosity. Although he
wrote a number of works, including a set of rasa’il
(epistles), he is remembered chiefly as the writer who
managed to combine different narrative features into
an entirely new genre: the maqamah (the name of
the genre being derived from the idea of “standing,”
and thus perhaps contrasted with the institution of
majlis, a name that implies an “evening session”). The
primary element involved in the emergence of this
new genre was the ancient style known as saf, a
form of rhyming and cadenced prose that finds its
most notable place of expression in the text of the
Qur’an itself. The revival (and elaboration) of this
style of writing in al-Hamadhani’s time was one of
the consequences of a conscious decision on the part
of those udaba’ (litterateurs) in the chancelleries
(diwan al-rasa’il) of the Islamic courts to develop a

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HAMADHANI, BADE AL-ZAMAN

more elaborate form of prose style. Al-Hamadhani’s
invocation of this style was coupled with another
element: anecdotes concerning the daily life of the
inhabitants of the cities and regions of the Arab-
Islamic world and in particular the underworld
inhabited by beggars and tricksters. These elements
were combined into a set of fifty maqamat in which
two principal characters, a narrator named ‘Isa ibn
Hisham and a perpetually shifting rogue figure named
Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, are placed into a variety of
venues throughout the Islamic regions of West Asia
and ply their routines of trickery. The denouement of
each episode involves the disclosure of the true iden-
tity of Abu al-Fath who, up to that point, has been
playing any one of a wide variety of roles, thus allow-
ing for a good deal of pastiche of different genres —
critical debate, sermon, will and testament, and so
on — before the truth is revealed.

Although the above description covers a good per-
centage of the maqamat included in al-Hamadhani’s
collection, there is nevertheless considerable diversity
in narrative approach and content. Some examples
have ‘Isa ibn Hisham, the narrator, acting as his
own trickster (the Baghdad maqamah, for example),
whereas, in the famous al-Maqamah al-Madiriyyah (a
masterly and insightful commentary on middle-class
values reminiscent of Petronius’s “Cena Trimalchio-
nis” in the Satyricon), the narrator does not appear at
all. The Saymari maqamah is an elaborate morality
tale that points out the dangers of excessive luxury
and indulgence. The maqamah of Hulwan consists of
two separate sections (as do several other examples):
in the first, a truly farcical situation in a barber’s shop
emerges as a parody of judicial practice, whereas, in
the second, the reader/listener is treated to a wonderful
exercise in malapropism.

The pioneer status of al-Hamadhani’s set of ma-
qamat was to be acknowledged many years later by his
successor, Abu Muhammad Qasim al-Hariri (d. 1122).
However, it is this latter figure who is still one of the
most celebrated figures in the history of Arabic prose
writing; his own stylistic virtuosity exceeded even that
of al-Hamadhani and took the maqamah genre to
even greater linguistic and rhetorical heights.

Roger Allen

Further Reading

The Maqamat of BadV al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, transl. W.J.

Prenderghast. London: Curzon Press, 1973.

Makamat or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Al-Hariri of Basra ,
transl. Theodore Preston. London: Gregg International
Publishers, 1971.

Bosworth, C. Edmund. The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1976.

Hameen-Anttila, Jaako. Maqama: A History of a Genre.

Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002.

Kilito, Abdelfattah. Les Seances. Paris: Sindbad, 1983.
Monroe, James. The Art of BadV az-Zaman al-Hamadhani.
Beirut: American University in Beirut Press, 1983.

HAMDANIDS

The Hamdanids are an Arab (i.e., Bedouin but not
nomadic) family from the Banu Taghlib tribe that
has been recorded in the Djazira since pre-Islamic
times. Although initially Bedouin, the Hamdanids
established an urban regime. Their headquarters
were located in the ancient cities of Mesopotamia
and Northern Syria, and they replaced their tribal
armies with slave soldiers.

The first member of the family — and the person
after whom the family was named — was Hamdan ibn
Hamdun, who played a minor role in ‘Abbasid politics
during the second half of the AH third/ninth CE cen-
tury. His descendants established two minor dynasties
in Mesopotamia and Aleppo that survived until the
second half of the fourth/tenth century. In addition,
they gained fame for their cultural role, particularly in
Arabic poetry.

Three stages can be differentiated in the history
of the Hamdanids. The first took place in northern
Iraq and Baghdad during the final decades of the
third/ninth century. Hamdan b. Hamdun and his
son Husayn were involved in fighting against the
Khawaridjs as well as battling the armies of the
‘Abbasid caliphate. This stage ended with the incor-
poration of the Hamdanids into the coalition that
converged around the ‘Abbasid family.

Abu Muhammad al-Hasan, who succeeded his
father (317/929), became the head of the Hamdanid
family. At that junction, he served as the governor of
Mawsil (Mosul) in northern Mesopotamia. Taking
advantage of the violent struggle within the ‘Abbasid
court (which led to the murder of the caliph by his
Turkish guards and the emergence of a military re-
gime headed by the commander in chief (amir al-
umaraa’) in 324/936), al-Hasan was able not only to
maintain his position in Mawsil but also to extend
his influence southward, along the Tigris River. Dur-
ing these troubled years, his achievements peaked.
Al-Hasan had Muhammad ibn Ra’iq assassinated
and forced the caliph al-Muttaqi to bestow on him
the royal title (laqb) Nasir al-Dawla (defender of the
‘Abbasid dynasty). Later, in 330/942, he married the
caliph’s granddaughter.

The second chapter in the history of the Hamda-
nids began after their withdrawal from Baghdad,
which was taken over by the Buwayhids. During this
period, they failed to hold onto their possessions in

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HARAWI, AL-, ‘ALI B. ABI BAKR

the Djazira, and the emirate of Mosul was seized by
the Buwayhids (367/978). They were more successful
in the land west of the Euphrates, extending their rule
to new territories.

This development is related to Abu al-Hasan
‘Ali Sayf al-Dawla (the sword of the ‘Abbasid dynas-
ty). Taking advantage of the complicated political
conditions in Northern Syria, a land that was out of
reach of the three major forces in the Middle East (the
fragile 'Abbasids in Baghdad and the Ikhshids in
Egypt and Byzantine [who were gaining new lands
in Asia Minor]), he was able to become the master
of Aleppo (333/944). The fighting against the Byzan-
tines served one of Sayf al-Dawla’s legitimacy claims.
However, his delicate position was clearly demon-
strated when the Byzantine armies succeeded in tem-
porarily conquering Aleppo (351/962).

The emirate that Sayf al-Dawla established gained
fame primarily because of its role in the history of
Arabic literature. The circle of poets that congregated
in Sayf al-Dawla’s palace spread his name. Among the
prominent intellectuals in his court were his cousin
Abu Firas, al-Mutannabi, Abu al-Faradj al-Isfahani,
and al-Farabi.

After Sayf al-Dawla’s death (356/967), Aleppo
became the seat of his son Sa‘d al-Dawla Abu al-
Ma'ali, who was challenged by his uncle Abu Firas
and who, because of inner opposition, had to fight his
way into the city. This marked the beginning of the
third stage of the history of the Hamdanids. It ended
with the advance of the Fatimid armies (406/1015)
and the emergence of a new Bedouin dynasty, Banu
Kilab (414/1023).

Yehoshua Frenkel

Further Reading

Canard, Marius. Histoire de la Dynastie des Hamdanides de
Jazira et de Syrie. Algiers, 1951.

Smoor, Peter. Kings and Bedouins in the Palace of Aleppo as
Reflected in Ma’arri’s Works. Manchester, UK: Univer-
sity of Manchester Press, 1985.

HARAWI, AL-, ‘ALI B. ABI B AKR

Al-Harawi (d. 1215 CE) was an ascetic, a Sufi, a schol-
ar, a preacher, a poet, a pilgrim, an emissary, and a
counselor to rulers. He was born in Mosul, Iraq, pos-
sibly to a family from Herat, in present-day Afghani-
stan, and he later settled in Baghdad, where he was a
protege of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah,
who appointed him to the post of preacher in the
congregational mosque of Baghdad. Al-Harawi was
among a number of prominent Sufis and ascetics who

were intimates of the Caliph, who was instrumental in
consolidating his spiritual authority over the Sufi
orders of Baghdad and facilitating rapprochement be-
tween the Sunnis and the Shi‘is. It is alleged that al-
Nasir gave al-Harawi charge over regulating the moral
conduct of the markets in all of Greater Syria, reviving
the uncultivated lands, and serving as preacher in the
congregational mosque of Aleppo.

Although an ascetic, al-Harawi was very much
involved in diplomacy and warfare by serving as an
emissary during the reign of Saladin, and he most
likely joined the ruler on military campaigns. In this
role, al-Harawi met with the Muslim ruler of Sicily
and, in 1179 or 1180, with the Byzantine Emperor
Emmanuel Comnenos. From 1173, he even visited
Jerusalem and other cities in Palestine that were
under Crusader rule and the Muslim and Christian
holy sites therein. In 1192, King Richard the Lion-
heart requested an audience with al-Harawi to return
to him his stolen writings and recompense him after
his troops set upon al-Harawi’s convoy at the out-
skirts of Palestine near Gaza. Circumstances did not
permit al-Harawi to meet him.

Al-Harawi eventually came to reside in Aleppo,
where he served as an advisor to Saladin’s son al-
Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, who endowed a nradrasa
(teaching college) for him. His detractors falsely
accused al-Harawi of being a Shi‘i, and he was also
accused of being a conjurer and magician who
exercised undue influence over his patron, al-Malik
al-Zahir Ghazi.

Al-Harawi is the author of the only pilgrimage
guide to the shrines, holy places, and antiquities of
the entire medieval Islamic world: Kitab al-Isharat ila
Ma'rifat al-Ziyarat ( Guide to Pilgrimage Places). Al-
Harawi’s guide is a testament to the diversity of Mus-
lim — and, to a lesser extent, Christian and Jewish —
holy places and to the antiquities of ancient civiliza-
tions. Al-Harawi also authored a manual on warfare
entitled al-Tadhkira al-Harawiyya fi ’l-Hiyal al-
Harbiyya ( Memoirs of al-Harawi on the Stratagems
of War), which he wrote for the ruler of Aleppo and
which focused on the etiquette of waging war.

The inscriptions on his Aleppo mausoleum that al-
Harawi built during his lifetime attest to his longing
for the hereafter and meeting the Creator and his lack
of faith in his fellow man.

Josef W. Meri

See also Ascetics and Asceticism
Further Reading

Guide de Lieux des Pelerinage, transl. Janine Sourdel-

Thomine. Damascus, 1957.

313

HARAWI, AL-, ‘ALI B. ABI BAKR

A Lonely Wayfarer’s Guide to Pilgrimage: ‘AH b. Abi Baler
al-Harawi’s Kitab al-Isharat ila Ma'rifat al-Ziyarat,
transl. Josef W. Meri. Princeton, NJ, 2004.

HARIZI, AL-, JUDAH

An eight-page entry from the Arabic biographical
dictionary of Ibn al-Sha’ar al-Mawsili (1197-1256)
contains an entry about Judah al-Harizi (b. ca. 1166
in Toledo, d. 1225 in Aleppo):

Yahya Ibn Suleiman Ibn Sha'ul Abu Zakariyya al-Harizi
the Jew from the people of Toledo. He was a poet of
great talent and prolific creation who composed poems
in the area of panegyric and invective... He composed
numerous works in the Hebrew language such as the
"Book of Maqamat;" [he also composed] a single
maqama in the Arabic language that he titled "The
Elegant Garden."

The entry preserves Arabic poems by al-Harizi and
reveals details such as the author’s uncommon height,
his inability to grow a beard, and his Maghrebi accent.
Al-Harizi was born in Toledo, which was then part of
the Iberian Christian kingdom of Castile, and he later
migrated to the Islamic east, traveling as far as Bagh-
dad and ultimately settling in Aleppo. Al-Harizi’s
earliest Hebrew compositions are translations from
Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, including Maimonides’
Guide of the Perplexed; Ali Ibn Rudhwan’s (d. ca.
1068) Epistle on Morals; a book about poetics and
exegesis by Moses Ibn Ezra; and the famous maqama
collection of al-Hariri of Basra. Al-Harizi’s transla-
tion method preserves the sense of the original, often
through paraphrase, while striving to produce a
Hebrew text that is clear and elegant. His translation
of al-Hariri’s maqamat entitled Mahbarot 'Itti’el
(’Itti’el’s Compositions) is executed in a pure biblical
Hebrew and replaces Arabic and Islamic references
with Hebrew and Jewish ones. Al-Harizi strives to
preserve literary conceits (e.g., the composition of
palindromes) around which he structures maqamat.

Al-Harizi composed his original Hebrew maqama
collection, The Book of Tahkemoni, after leaving
Iberia for the east. Following a trend toward Hebrew
rhymed-prose composition and modeling structure
after the maqamat of al-Hamadhani and al-Hariri,
al-Harizi produced fifty tales in rhymed prose with
poems interspersed. As in the classical maqamat,
episodes revolve around the encounters of a narrator
and a protagonist rogue. The rhetoric-hungry narra-
tor travels throughout the world and repeatedly
encounters an itinerant rhetorician who makes a
living through eloquence and petty scams. Episodes
often incorporate a ruse motif, denouement through

anagnorisis (recognition), and witty speech mediated
through biblical allusions. Al-Harizi undertakes liter-
ary feats, including a trilingual poem (Hebrew, Ara-
maic, and Arabic) in a single rhyme and meter and a
letter that, read forward, is panegyric but that, read
backward, is invective. Numerous plots are borrowed
from al-Hamadhani, al-Hariri, and other Arabic
authors.

The six surviving Arabic poems by al-Harizi include
panegyrics to the Ayyubid ruler Al-Malik al-Ashraf
Ibn Abu Bakr Ayyub (d. 1237). Al-Harizi’s al-Rawda
al-Aniqa (The Elegant Garden) is an Arabic maqama
that details the author’s journeys through the lands of
the Islamic east (paralleling chapter forty-six of the
Tahkemoni). He describes Damascus as a “garden for
souls... the torrent beds of its elevated places are like
those of Najd.” Since Najd is a place the author never
visited, the author’s association with the nostalgia-
laden locus of the Arabian Peninsula demonstrates
his intimacy with the Arabic literary tradition.

Jonathan P. Decter

See also Al-Hamadhani; al-Hariri; Maqama; Poetry,
Hebrew

Further Reading

Al-Harizi, Judah Ben Solomon. The Book of Tahkemoni:
Jewish Tales from Medieval Spain, transl. David Simha
Segal. London and Portland, Oregon: The Littman Li-
brary of Jewish Civilization, 2001.

Drory, Rina. “Al-Harizi’s Maqamat : A Tricultural Literary
Product?” Medieval Translator 4 (1994): 66-85.

Sadan, Joseph. “Rabi Yehudah al-Harizi ke-Tzomet Tar-
buti.” Pe'amim 68 (1996): 52-61.

Yahalom, Joseph, and Joshua Blau. Mas'ei Yehudah. Jer-
usalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2002.

HARUN AL-RASHID

Harun, the son of al-Mahdi, became the fifth ‘Abbas-
id caliph in the fall of 786 CE. He ruled until 809. His
succession to rule was a result of a factional power
struggle within the court. In short order after the
death of Harun’s older brother al-Hadi, the Barmakid
faction — in collusion with Harun’s mother, al-Khay-
zuran — was able to outmaneuver the supporters of
al-Hadi’s son Ja’far. Harun’s reign is often described
as a golden age or, at the very least, as the apex of
‘Abbasid stability and culture. Although this is not
necessarily true, his reign does represent a period of
tremendous wealth and the furthest extent of the
‘Abbasid realm.

The empire was prosperous. Baghdad was a
thriving, cultured metropolis to which poets, artists,

314

HASAN AL-BASRI, AL-

and litterateurs flocked. In the west, Harun’s court is
known as the one that presided over the tales of the
One Thousand and One Nights. However, it is in com-
parison with the civil war between Harun’s two sons
and the steady decline thereafter that Harun’s reign
shines so brightly. For the first decade of his reign,
Harun was under the tutelage of the Barmakids.
They endeavored to more aggressively assert central
control, which left Harun in a much stronger financial
position. However, they were never quite able to gar-
ner the military support that they needed. In addition,
in trying to soften the policy towards the Alids, they
made many enemies within the court.

The beginning of the end for the Barmakids came
with the succession arrangement established in Mecca
in 802. It was there that Harun declared that his son
Muhammad al-Amin would succeed him and follow-
ing him would be Abdallah al-Ma’mun; he made all
parties swear publicly to uphold this. Also, when
Muhammad came to the throne, his brother would be
autonomous in Khurasan. This elaborate succession
arrangement appears to be intended to short-circuit
factional rivalries and to channel them in productive
ways. Muhammad's support base was among the non-
Barmakid elite of Baghdad, whereas Abdallah’s was
among the Barmakids and consequently the bureau-
cracy. It was upon return from a pilgrimage in 803 that
the fall of the Barmakids occurred. As a result of its
shockingly precipitous nature, this episode stands out
and has been the object of much commentary.

It seems that, fundamentally, Harun was no longer
willing to accept so powerful a faction within the
court. Kennedy suggests that perhaps the family
resisted an arrangement that clearly subordinated
them, and this was the trigger for their fall. In the
wake of this action, Harun began a campaign of
strengthening his legitimacy by participating in raids
against the Byzantines. These raids did not bring new
lands under control, but they did serve to highlight his
role as Commander of the Faithful. For the rest of his
reign, he spent very little time in Baghdad and based
himself on the Byzantine frontier. A series of rebel-
lions broke out in the east, and, in 808, Harun went to
deal with them. It was on this campaign that he died
in 809 in Tus, near present-day Mashhad.

John P. Turner

See also ‘Abbasids; Baghdad; Khurasan; Tus
Primary Sources

Dinawari, Abu Hanifa Ahmad b. Dawud. Kitab al-Akhbar

al-Tiwal, eds. V.F. Guirgass and I.I.U. Kratchkovsky.

Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1888.

Ibn al-Athir, Izz al-Din. al-Kamil fi’l-Tci’rikh , ed. K.J.

Tornberg. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1965.

Tabari, Abu Ja‘far. The Abbasid Caliphate in Equilibrium,
vol. 30, transl. C.E. Bosworth. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1989.

Ya'qubi, Ahmad b. Abi Ya’qub. al-Ta’rikh, 2 vols., ed.
M.T. Houtsma. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1883.

Further Reading

Bonner, M. "Al-Khalifa al-Mardi: The Accession of Harun
al-Rashid.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 108
(1988): 79-91.

El-Hibri, T. “Harun al-Rashid and the Mecca Protocol of
802.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 24
(1992): 461-80.

Kennedy, H. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The
Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century,
2nd ed. London: Longman, 2004.

. The Early Abbasid Caliphate. London: Croom

Helm, 1981.

Kimber, R.A. “Harun al-Rashid’s Meccan Settlement of
AH 186/ AD 802.” Occasional Papers of the School
of Abbasid Studies 1 (1986): 55-79.

HASAN AL-BASRI, AL-

Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Basri was born in
AH 21/624 CE and probably grew up in or around
Medina. He resided most of his life in Basra (Iraq),
where he died on Rajab 1, 110/October 10, 728.

Al-Hasan’s legacy must have originated from his
charisma as a storyteller and from his piety; it was
then spread by a number of disciples who played a
significant role in the development of several religious
and theological trends. The corpus of anecdotes
attributed to him is often contradictory and irrecon-
cilable. Al-Hasan’s significance, therefore, is not to be
measured with respect to his historical role in the
formulation of particular trends. It is rather the
ongoing expansion of his posthumous legacy as one
of the founding fathers of Islam that has been used
for legitimization by competing religious movements
and sects.

Al-Hasan likely believed in part to Free Will theol-
ogy (Qadar): sins are made by humans and cannot
be attributed to God. The advocates of that doctrine,
including Mu'tazilitcs and Slii'is, claimed al-Hasan
and attributed to him a significant number of
anecdotes and letters supporting their theology.
They also ascertained that he was involved in upris-
ings against the Umayyads, especially the revolt of
Ibn al-Ash‘ath (killed AH 85/704 CE). However, one
has to be cautious with what these groups attributed
to al-Hasan, for two reasons: (1) they had a theologi-
cal and political anti-Umayyad agenda, and (2) they
reclaimed al-Hasan after the proto-Sunnites and then
Sunnites were on a crusade to dissociate him from
the Free Will doctrine and from political activism.
The Epistle against the Pre-Destinarians to Caliph

315

HASAN AL-BASR1, AL-

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan that has been ascribed to
al-Hasan is the most elaborate example of false attri-
bution. The text reflects theological debates of the
third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries, and it includes
anachronistic cases that cannot be dated to ‘Abd al-
Malik’s reign.

The proto-Sunnites and later Sunnites who advo-
cated predestination ascertained that al-Hasan upheld
their creed and similarly attributed to him anecdotes
and correspondences, which include the inauthentic
Treatise against the Believers in Free Will to Caliph
‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. They also ascertained that
al-Hasan, as a notable predecessor, could not have
participated in intra-Muslim civil wars. This concert-
ed effort on their part leaves many obvious clues that
they were “changing” the historical al-Hasan to fit
Sunni expectations.

As for piety, medieval literature overwhelmingly
presents al-Hasan as a model, but they disagree as
to whether he enjoined moderation in life or complete
renunciation of worldly pleasures and preoccupations.
In this respect, the largest body of material transmitted
about his authority are piety-related sermons and let-
ters, including the inauthentic Treatise on Asceticism
to Caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, which ridicules this
world and warns against its deception. The claim that
al-Hasan was the inceptor of Mysticism (Sufism) was
initially made in Basra by groups like that of Abu Talib
al-Makki (d. 386/996), and al-Hasan’s name gradually
became a major feature in mystical silsilas (chains
of teachers/disciples) going back to Muhammad. The
mystic ‘Attar produced fabricated hadiths in which
the child al-Hasan is said to have met the prophet of
Islam.

Al-Hasan was a qadi (judge) of Basra for a short
time, but only a small number of legal opinions attrib-
uted to him survived. That none of his disciples went
on to become prominent scholars of law probably
helps explain why his legal legacy did not form. How-
ever, he is famous for clashing with a few of his
students, who established the Mu‘tazilite movement
over the judgment of a Muslim committing a grave
sin; al-Hasan’s position was that the grave sinner is a
hypocrite.

Al-Hasan was also believed to have authored a
commentary of the Qur’an (Tafsir). However, the
glosses attributed to him in a number of Tafsirs do
not constitute a complete work. Al-Hasan was a re-
citer of the Qur’an, and in that capacity it is likely that
he offered commentary glosses that were later
recorded by his disciples, giving the impression that
he authored a Tafsir. It is in this context as well that
his famed Qur’an recitation and occasions of revela-
tion (asbab al-nuzul) glosses were likely taught.

Suleiman Mourad

See also Qur’an, Reciters and Recitations

Primary Sources

Al-Dhahabi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. Siyar a' Lam al-
Nubala’, 25 vols., vol. 4, 563-88, eds. Shu’ayb Arna’ut
and Ma’mun al-Saghirji. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala,
1990-1992.

Al-Isfahani, Abu Ny'aym. Hilyat al-Awliya’ wa-Tabaqat al-
Asfiya’, 10 vols., vol. 2, 131-61. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab
al-‘Arabi, 1967-1968.

Ibn al-Jawzi. Adab al-Shaykh al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan al-
Basri, ed. Sulayman M. al-Harash. Riyad: Dar al-Mi‘raj,
1993.

Ibn Hanbal. Kitab al-Zuhd, ed. Muhammad Zaghlul, 367-
406. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1994.

Ibn Sa'd. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, 8 vols., vol. 7, 156-78.
Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1958.

Further Reading

Cook, Michael A. Early Muslim Dogma: A Source-Critical
Study , 112-23. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1981.

Knysh, Alexander D. Islamic Mysticism: A Short History,
10-3. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Mourad, Suleiman A. “Between Myth and History: al-
Hasan al-Basri in Medieval and Modern Scholarship.”
PhD dissertation. New Haven, CT: Yale University,
2004.

"The Letter of al-Hasan al-Basri.” In Textual Sources
for the Study of Islam, eds. Andrew Rippin and Jan
Knappert, 115-21. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1986.

Van Ess, Josef. Tlieologie unci Gesellschaft im 2. unci 3.
Jahrhundert Hidschra, 6 vols., vol. 2, 41-50. Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 1991-1997.

HASAN-I SABBAH

Hasan-i Sabbah was a prominent Isma’ili da‘i (reli-
giopolitical missionary) and founder of the Nizari
Isma‘ili state in Persia. The events of Hasan’s life
and career as the first ruler of the Nizari state, cen-
tered at the fortress of Alamut, were recorded in a
chronicle, Sargudhasht-i Sayvidna, which has not sur-
vived. However, this work was available to a number
of Persian historians of the Mongol Ilkhanid period,
most notably Juwayni and Rashid al-Din, who re-
main the chief authorities on Hasan-i Sabbah.

Hasan-i Sabbah was bom in the mid- 1050s CE in
Qum, Persia, into a Twelver Shi’i family. His father,
‘Ali ibn Muhammad b. Ja‘far al-Sabbah, a Kufan
claiming Yamani origins, had migrated from Kufa to
Qum. Subsequently, the Sabbah family settled in the
nearby city of Ray, another center of Shi‘i learning as
well as Isma'ili activities in Persia. There, Hasan was
introduced to Isma’ili teachings and converted to the
Isma’ili form of Shi‘ism around the age of seventeen,

316

HEBREW

taking the oath of allegiance to the Isma'ili imam of
the time, the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir.

Soon afterward, in 1072, Hasan was appointed to a
position in the da'wa (missionary organization) by
Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Attash, the chief Isma'ili da‘i in
Persia, who had been impressed by the talents of the
newly initiated youth. In 1076, Hasan left for Fatimid
Egypt to further his Isma‘ili education, and he spent
three years in Cairo and Alexandria. In 1081, he
returned to Isfahan, the secret headquarters of the
Isma'ili da‘wa in central Persia. Subsequently,
Hasan traveled for nine years to different parts of
Persia in the service of the da‘wa while also formulat-
ing his own revolutionary strategy against the Seljuk
Turks, whose alien and oppressive rule was detested
by the Persians. Hasan’s seizure of the fortress of
Alamut in northern Persia in 1090 by a clever plan
of infiltration marked the beginning of the open revolt
of the Persian Isma'ilis against the Seljuks as well as
the foundation of the Nizari Isma‘ili state of Persia,
which later acquired a subsidiary in Syria. In the
dispute over the succession to the Fatimid Caliph/
imam al-Mustansir (d. 1094), Hasan supported
Nizar, the original heir-designate, against his brother
al-Musta‘li, who was installed to the Fatimid caliph-
ate. Hasan now recognized Nizar as al-Mustansir’s
successor to the Isma'ili imamate, effectively founding
the Nizari Isma'ili da'wa independently of Fatimid
Cairo, henceforth the seat of the rival Musta'li
da'wa. After Nizar, who was murdered in Egypt in
1095 in the aftermath of his abortive revolt, the Nizari
imams remained in hiding for three generations, while
Hasan and his next two successors at Alamut led the
Nizari da'wa and state with the rank of hujja (chief
representative) of the hidden Nizari imam.

Outsiders from early on had the impression that
the movement of the Persian Isma'ilis under the lead-
ership of Hasan-i Sabbah represented a new preach-
ing (al-da'wa al-jadida) that was in contradistinction
with the old preaching (al-da'wa al-qadima) of the
Fatimid times. However, the new preaching was no
more than the reformulation by Hasan of the estab-
lished Shi'i doctrine of ta'lim (authoritative instruc-
tion). In his reformulation, which contained a treatise
entitled ''The Four Chapters” that has been preserved
only fragmentarily, Hasan argued for the inadequacy
of human reason for knowing God and for the neces-
sity of an authoritative teacher as the spiritual guide
of humankind: a teacher who would be none other
than the Isma'ili imam of the time. The anti-Isma'ili
literary campaign of the contemporary Sunni estab-
lishment, led by Muhammad al-Ghazali, was directed
against this doctrine, which served as the central
teaching of the early Nizaris and was also designated
as the Ta'limiyya.

An organizer and a strategist of the highest caliber,
Hasan-i Sabbah was also a learned theologian. He led
an austere life, and he observed the shari'a very strict-
ly. He died on June 12, 1124, and was buried near
Alamut. Although Hasan failed to uproot the Seljuks,
he did succeed in founding both a territorial state and
the independent Nizari Ismai'ili da'wa, which sur-
vived the downfall of the Nizari state in 1256.

Farhad Daftary

Further Reading

Daftary, F. The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines, 324-
371. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

. “Hasan-i Sabbah and the Origins of the Nizari

Isma'ili Movement.” In Mediaeval Isma'ili History and
Thought, ed. F. Daftary, 181-204. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Order of Assassins, 41-98. The
Hague: Mouton, 1955.

Lewis, Bernard. The Assassins, 38-63, 145-52. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967.

HEBREW

A member of the Semitic language family, like Arabic
and Aramaic, Hebrew (‘ivrit) is the language of the
Jewish Bible (Old Testament). In the Bible, the adjec-
tive ‘ivri connotes a specific ethnic origin or affiliation
(e.g., Genesis 14:13, 39:14; Exodus 1:15, 21:2).
Rabbinic sources dating to the first centuries CE
(e.g., Mishnah Gittin 9:8; Yadayim 4:5) refer to the
Hebrew language as ‘ivrit, which they also call “the
sacred tongue” (leshon ha-qodesh). Although it prob-
ably was no longer spoken during this period, Hebrew
retained its special place in Judaism as the language of
the Torah, the Mishnah, and the liturgy. According to
Midrashic texts, Hebrew is the primordial language
with which God created the world.

With the rise of Islam, the Jewish belief in He-
brew’s primacy was challenged by Muslim claims for
the purity, perfection, and inimitability (ijaz) of
Qur’anic Arabic. Prompted by the development of

317

HEBREW

Arabic grammar and lexicography, Jews in Islamic
lands founded the field of biblical Hebrew philology.
Sa‘adyah Gaon (d. 942) compiled the first Hebrew
dictionary and composed grammatical treatises;
Karaite grammarians in Jerusalem were not far be-
hind. The greatest Hebraists, however, were Andalu-
sians, most notably Judah Hayyuj (d. ca. 1010) and
Abu’l-Walid Ibn Janah (fl. 1050), whose works have
shaped virtually all subsequent Hebrew philology.
These authors all wrote in Arabic, which served as
the primary language of scholarship among the Jews
of Islam during the Middle Ages. In general, they
reserved Hebrew for poetry and belles-lettres.
According to the Andalusian poets, in fact, only
pure biblical Hebrew would do. The verse they
wrote was intended, in part, as a statement of cultur-
al independence from the Arabic aesthetic espoused
by contemporary Muslims. By contrast, prose works,
such as Judah Halevi’s Kuzari and Moses Maimo-
nides’ Guide, were composed in Judeo-Arabic for
purely utilitarian reasons. When a new readership
for them emerged in Provence, they were quickly
translated into Hebrew.

The Muslim encounter with Hebrew dates back to
the Prophet’s lifetime. Indeed, the Qur’an itself con-
tains words of obvious Hebrew origin for which tra-
ditional Muslim scholarship has sought Arabic
etymologies in an attempt to demonstrate the purity
of the Qur’anic idiom. Examples include the follow-
ing: sakina, meaning “divine presence” (2:248, 9:26;
cf. Hebrew shekhinah ); taurat, meaning “law”;
“Torah” (48:29); jahannam, meaning “hell” (3:12; cf.
Gehenna); and al-rahman, meaning “the Merciful”
(1:1,3; cf. ha-rahaman). However, although Muslims
and Jews have long lived in close proximity, there has
never been a concerted Muslim effort to learn Hebrew
that is comparable with the European phenomenon of
Christian Hebraism. In large measure this is the result
of the lack of a shared scripture, but it has meant that
Muslim access to Hebrew writings has always been
limited. A few medieval Muslim scholars, such as al-
Kirmani, al-Biruni, and Ibn Hazm, cite the Bible in
polemic contexts but without evincing real familiarity
with the Hebrew language. A few converts, such as
Samau‘al al-Maghribi (d. 1175), learned Hebrew
when they were still Jewish. However, these were
exceptions. Mastery of Arabic could open many
doors in the world of medieval Islam; by and large,
basic Hebrew literacy helped bind most Jews to their
ancestral faith.

Daniel Frank

See also Poetry, Hebrew; Scriptural Exegesis,
Jews; Translation, Arabic to Hebrew; Judah ha-Levi;
Judeo-Arabic

Further Reading

Adang, Camilla. Muslim Writers on Judaism & the Hebrew
Bible. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996.

Halkin, A.S. “The Medieval Jewish Attitude Toward He-
brew.” In Biblical and Other Studies, ed. Alexander
Altmann, 233 — 48. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Universi-
ty Press, 1963.

Jeffery, Arthur. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran. Bar-
oda: Oriental Institute, 1938.

Khan, Geoffrey. “The Karaite Tradition of Hebrew Gram-
matical Thought." In Hebrew Study from Ezra to Ben-
Yehuda, ed. William Horbury, 186-203. Edinburgh: T &
T Clark, 1999.

Maman, Aharon. “The Linguistic School.” In Hebrew
Bible/Old Testament, vol. 1/2, ed. Magne Saebo, 26 1
281. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.

Saenz-Badillos, Angel. A History of the Hebrew Language.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Wechter, Pinchas. Ibn Banin’s Arabic Works on Hebrew
Grammar and Lexicography. Philadelphia: Dropsie
College, 1964.

HEBRON (AL-KHALIL AL-RAHMAN;
AL-KHALIL)

Known in Arabic as al-Khalil al-Rahman (the Friend
of God; Abraham) or simply as al-Khalil, Hebron’s
name reflects its long past in pre-Islamic and Islamic
history as well as emphasizing the perdurance of the
sacred character of the city within the monotheistic
tradition that Islam continues. Located in al-ard al-
muqaddas (the Holy Land), Hebron lies in a moun-
tainous region roughly twenty miles south of al-Quds
(Jerusalem) at approximately three thousand feet
above sea level. Associated with Abraham, al-Khalil
constitutes sacred space to Muslims, Christians, and
Jews. These religious communities all revere the
Tomb of the Prophets (al-Anbiya’), and each recounts
the story of Abraham’s resting place under an oak in
Hebron’s plain of Mamre as well as his subsequent
purchase from Ephron the Hittite of the burial cave
at Hebron. Muslims also believe that the prophet
Muhammad visited the city on his isra’ (nocturnal
journey) from Mecca to Medina.

Hebron’s Islamic history begins with the peaceful
surrender of the city to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab in 638
CE. The ninth-/fifteenth-century Jerusalem-born his-
torian of al-Quds and al-Khalil, Mujir al-Dln al-
‘Ulayml al-Hanball records fully the Prophet
Muhammad’s gift in 630 or 631 of Hebron and its
surrounding territory to Tamlm al-Darl and his
brothers. Muslim patronage of al-Khalil revived its
fortunes; the city had suffered Byzantine neglect.

The Haram al-Ibrahlml (Sanctuary of Abraham)
sits atop the cave and the ruins of a Byzantine
church. The foundation and the walls of the structure

318

HERAT

are Herodian. Added to by the Crusaders who cap-
tured the city in 1099, the Haram also benefited from
Ayyubid and Mamluk constructive energies. Al-
though Salah al-dln ibn Ayyub (Saladin) donated its
intricately carved wooden minbar in 1191 and 1192,
internally and externally, much of the present mosque
reflects Mamluk (1259/1260-1516) efforts to preserve
and embellish this important Muslim religious site.
Baybars I restored the Tomb of Abraham, while
Mamluk amirs, serving either as na’ib al-sultana,
nazir al-Haramayn al-Sharlfayn, or both continued
to beautify and maintain al-Khalll. Notably, the
seventh-/ thirteenth-century nazir al-Haramayn ‘Ala’
al-din al-Aydughdi personally oversaw the distribu-
tion of the weekly meal of lentils, barley, and bread
that the Khallll waqf (endowment) provided to the
poor of the city and to travelers. Generosity to pil-
grims of all nations marked the pious endowment at
al-Khalll and drew extensive favorable comment.
Mamluk attention to the city was consistent, and it
aimed toward good government, especially in terms
of the management of the waqf funds that supported
worthy religious and charitable purposes.

Selim 1’s victory at Marj Dabiq in August 1516
brought new rulers to Palestine; the Ottoman sultan
entered al-Quds in December. Under Selim’s succes-
sor, his son Suleiman al-Qanunl (1520-1566), prosper-
ity reigned in al-Quds, al-Khalll, and the entire region.
Late in the sixteenth century, as a result of the marked
decline in public security (especially along the shrine
routes where Bedouin tribesmen attacked pilgrim cara-
vans en route to al-Haram al-Ibrahlml), Hebron’s so-
cioeconomic position deteriorated during the early
modern era. Al-Khalll, however, retained its status as
the fourth-holiest city within the Muslim world.

Carol L. Bargeron

See also Baybars I; Jerusalem; Mamluks; Muhammad,
the Prophet; Ottoman Empire; Palestine; Saladin
(Salah al-Din); Suleiman the Magnificent; Waqf

Primary Source

AUUlayml, Mujir al-din ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad.
al-Uns al-Jalf! bi-Tarikh al-Quds wa-al-Khalil, 2 vols.
Amman: Maktabat al-Muhtasib, 1973.

Further Reading

Gil, Moshe. A History of Palestine, 634 to 1099. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Le Strange, Guy, transl. Palestine Under the Moslems: A
Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to
1500. Oriental Repr. no. 14. Beirut: Khayats, 1965.
Little, Donald. "Mujir al-Din aUUlaymfs Vision of Jeru-
salem in the Ninth/Fifteenth Century.” Journal of the
American Oriented Society 115 (1995): 231-41 .

HERAT

Herat was a city of considerable prominence during
the medieval period that was located on the Hari Rud
river in eastern Khurasan (now Afghanistan).

The origins of Herat date back to the Achaemeni-
an age (c. 550-330 BCE), and its name in Old Persian
(Haraiva) reflects its proximity to the vigorous Hari
Rud river. The river valley and plains, which are
bordered by the Ghur and Safid Kuh mountain
ranges, made Herat an optimal oasis area and cara-
van way station for the web of trade routes connect-
ing East Asia with the Indian Ocean and the Irano-
Mediterranean frontier. Historical evidence suggests
that Alexander the Great made this city a provincial
capital of Areia after his campaign of 330 BCE, and
subsequent records indicate that Herat grew in strate-
gic and administrative importance during the Sasani-
an period (226-652 CE). With the seventh-century
Arab Muslim invasions and the subsuming of this
region into the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid empires,
Herat attained a greater profile; its agricultural pros-
perity and commercial potential encouraged Arab
tribal settlement, and, by the tenth century, the city
was noted by geographers such as Ibn Hawqul and
Istakhri for its urban infrastructure, markets, and
mosque complexes. Herat would change hands innu-
merably during the ninth through eleventh centuries
as various eastern Iranian dynasties (Tahirids, Saffar-
ids, Samanids, Ghaznavids) vied with one another
for control of eastern Khurasan. Political continuity
and substantial economic growth (Herat was especial-
ly coveted for its currency mint) were achieved
under the Ghurids during the twelfth century, but
not without numerous invasions and sieges by the
Khvarazmian dynasty to the northwest.

In 1221, the history of Herat was changed inexora-
bly with the arrival of the Mongol invasions in
Khurasan. The response to the Heratis’ decision to
kill some Mongol representatives was swift and bru-
tal: the city was pulverized, and every single citizen
was massacred. The demographic and agricultural
impact of the Mongol invasion and their subsequent
policies in Khurasan was profound: numbers vary
considerably, but it would not be ambitious to put
the number of regional casualties in the millions.
After a brief period of governing on behalf of the
Mongols, the Kartid dynasty (1245-1389) attained
independence; they rebuilt the city, restored the sur-
rounding qanat (canal) systems, and developed a
comprehensive administration. The Kartids were sub-
jugated by Timur in 1380, and, by the time of Timur’s
death in 1405, Herat had been fully subsumed into the
expansive Timurid empire. Because of the public
works programs and systems of patronage developed

319

HERAT

by the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh (1405-1447), Herat
recaptured much of its cultural and economic appeal.
This, in turn, laid the foundation for the architectural,
intellectual, artistic, and agricultural flourishing of
Herat under Sultan-Husain Baiqara (1470-1506). As
a result of the efforts of courtly litterateurs like Mir
‘Ali Shir Nava’i and ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami and artists
and calligraphers like Kamal al-Din Behzad, Herat
materialized as the preeminent center of Perso-lslamic
culture during the fifteenth century. The Shibani
Uzbek invasions of the early sixteenth century termi-
nated the Timurid dynasty in Khurasan, and the re-
mainder of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
saw the vitality of Herat depreciate considerably
as the rival Safavid and Uzbek dynasties fought
numerous wars in the region.

Colin Paul Mitchell

See also Jami; Kabul; Khurasan; Road Networks;
Safavids; Tamerlane; Timurids

Primary Sources

Amir Mahmud ibn Khvandamir. Tarikh-i Shah Isma'il va
Shah Tahmasp , ed. Muhammad Ali Jarahi. Tehran,
1994.

‘Ata Malik Juvaini. Tarikh-i Jahan Gusha, 3 vols., ed. M.
Qazvini. Leiden, 1912-1937.

Ghiyas al-Di ibn Humam al-Din Khvandamir. Habib al-
Siyar, 3 vols., ed. Muhammad Dabir Siyaqi. Tehran,
1983.

Hamd-Allah Mustaufi. Nuzhat al-Qulub, 2 vols., ed. and
transl. G. LeStrange. London, 1916-1919.

Kamal al-Din ‘Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi. Marla ‘-i Sadain
wa Majma'-i Bahrain , ed. A. Nava’i. Tehran, 1978.
Mu‘in al-Din Muhammad Zamchi Isfizari. Rauzat al-
Jannat fi Ausaf Madinat Herat, 2 vols., ed. S.M.K.
Imam. Tehran, 1959.

Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani. Jami' al-Tavarikh, 3
vols., ed. B. Karimi. Tehran, 1959.

Saif b. Muhammad b. Ya’qub Haravi. Tarikh-i Nama-i
Harat, ed. M.Z. Siddiqi. Calcutta, 1944.

Shihab al-Din ‘Abd Allah Hafiz-i Abru. Zail-i Jami' al-
Tavarikh-i Rashidi, ed. K. Bayani. Tehran, 1938.

Zain al-Din Muhammad Vasili. Badayi'-i al-Vaqayi‘, ed.
A.N. Boldyrev. Moscow, 1961.

Further Reading

Allen, Terry. Timurid Herat. Wiesbaden, 1983.

Bartold, W. Four Studies in the History of Central Asia, 3
vols., ed. and transl. T. Minorsky. Leiden, 1956-1962.

. Herat Unter Husein Baiqara, ed. and transl. W.

Hinz. Nendeln Kraus, 1966.

Daniel, E. The Political and Social History of Khurasan
under Abbasid Rule, 747-820. Chicago, 1979.

Dickson, Martin. The Duel for Khurasan: Shah Tahmasp
and the Ozbeks. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Prince-
ton, NJ: Princeton, 1958.

Gaube, Heinz. “Herat: An Indo-Iranian City?’’ In Iranian
Cities, 31-63. New York, 1979.

McChesney, Robert. “The Conquest of Herat 995-6/1587-
8: Sources for the Study of Safavid/Qizilbash-Shibanid/
Uzbak Relations.” In Etudes Safavides, ed. J. Calmard,
69-107. Paris, 1993.

Paul, Jurgen. Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ost Iran
und Transoxanian in Vormongolischer Zeit. Stuttgart,
1996.

. “The Local Histories of Herat.” Iranian Studies 33

(2000): 93-115.

Subtelny, Maria. “A Medieval Persian Agricultural Manual
in Context: The Irshad al-zira‘a in Late Timurid and
Early Safavid Khorasan.” Studio Iranica 22 (1993):
167-217.

. “A Timurid Educational and Charitable Founda-
tion: The Ikhlasiyya Complex of ‘Ali Shir Nava’I in
15th-century Herat and its Endowment.” Journal of the
American Oriental Society 111 (1991): 38-61.

. “The Timurid Legacy: A Reaffirmation and a Re-
assessment.” Cahiers d’Asie Centrale 3-4 (1997): 9-19.

Szuppe, Maria. Entre Timourides, Uzbeks et Safavides:
Questions d’Histoire Politique et Sociale de Herat dans
la Premiere Moitie du XVIe Siecle. Paris, 1992.

. “Herat: iii. History, Medieval Period.” In Encyclo-
pedia Iranica, vol. 11, ed. E. Yarshater.

. “Les Residences Princieres de Herat: Problemes de

Continuite Fonctionnelle Entre les Epoques Timouride
et Safa vide ( 1 Ere Moitie du XVIe Siecle).” In Etudes
Safavides, ed. J. Calmard. 267-86. Paris, 1993.

Tumanovich, Nataliya. “The Bazaar and Urban Life of
Herat in the Middle Ages.” In Materiaux pour VHistoire
Economique du Monde Iranien, eds. R. Gyselen and
M. Szuppe, 277-85. Paris, 1999.

HERESY AND HERETICS

Deviation from proper Islamic norms and beliefs is
rendered in Arabic with different terms, many of
which precisely imply the idea of going astray from
the right path that believers must follow. That path
was laid out by God through His revelation contained
in the Qur’an and the Prophetic example compiled
in the hadith literature; after the prophetic/revelatory
event, the right direction and margins of the path
were explained to the Muslim community by experts
engaged in authoritative legal and theological
reasoning. A widely used term to refer to devia-
tions from the path established by Revelation and
Tradition is bid’a (pi. bida’), which means “inno-
vation” and is used to refer to those religious beliefs
and practices that, regardless of their historical antiq-
uity, were condemned by some religious authorities
as novelties introduced in the Islamic tradition
(“Every novelty is an innovation, every innovation is
an error, and every error leads to Hell,” says a well-
known hadith).

Although the term bid’a was often applied to theo-
logical doctrines, it came to be used mostly to refer to
the ’ibadat (the ritual practices pertaining to the rela-
tionship between God and the believers). Examples of

320

HERESY AND HERETICS

these are local pilgrimages seen as rivaling the pil-
grimage to Mecca, worship of local saints feared as
detrimental to the veneration due to the Prophet
Muhammad, the celebration of non-Islamic festivals
and of festivals of contested Islamic soundness (e.g.,
a mid-sha’ban), and funerary ceremonies in which
forbidden practices were acted upon. Some scholars
labeled such practices “innovations,” whereas others
defended them as traditional and correct practices
and beliefs or as “good innovations” that did not go
against God’s law. The latter possibility was intro-
duced by the Shafi‘is, who deemed all bida’ to be bad
but not all novelties to be bida’. This differentiation
opened the road to the application to bid’a of the five
legal categories so that an innovation could be labeled
as forbidden, reprehensible, indifferent, commendable,
or even obligatory (e.g., hospitals, madrasas).

Throughout history, Muslim scholars have engaged
in debates involving different understandings of the
Revelation and the Prophetic tradition as well as the
relationship between universal norms and local prac-
tices. Diversity of opinion ( ikhtilaf) was, in itself, not
considered to be negative but rather a necessary out-
come of the hermeneutical process (ikhtilaf ummati
rahma; “difference of opinion in my community is
a concession [rahma] on the part of Allah,” as a Pro-
phetic tradition states). Because of this, a plurality of
interpretations was accepted insofar as these were
contained within the framework of the four legal
schools (Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi’is, and Hanbalis)
and the accepted theological doctrines (Ash’arism
and Maturidism).

Disagreement with regard to legal and religious
matters in the fields of worship (’ibadat) and mu’a-
malat (the relationships inter vivos et mortis causa) as
well as on theological issues would sometimes provoke
bitter exchanges among scholars, who could even
attack their opponents with accusations of infidelity
(kufr), apostasy (irtidad, radd), hidden apostasy, and
heresy (zandaqa, ilhad, zaygh, dalal). Those accusa-
tions did not usually have much effect (unless a fac-
tion of scholars could secure support from the ruler)
apart from trying to influence the formation of a
consensus (ijma’) in favor of one’s opinion against
the other’s view, always with the risk of provoking the
opposite effect by appearing too radical and extremist
in the attack against a fellow scholar who was just
doing his job in trying to understand God’s will. The
doctrine “every interpreter (of that will) is correct”
(kull mujtahid musib) was meant to counteract any
attempt at disqualifying as deviants or heretics those
opponents who had the required training and abilities
and who followed adequate methodologies in their
interpretative effort (Hallaq, 2001). The famous jurist
and theologian al-Ghazali, in his work Faysal

al-Tafricia Bayna l-Islam wa-l-Zandaqa, aimed as well
at putting restrictions on the accusation of infidelity
in theological disputes (Jackson, 2002).

This does not mean, of course, that there were no
limits to what was deemed to be acceptable both in
practices and beliefs, and al-Ghazali’s work points to
some of these limits, condemning, for example, the
belief in the eternity of the world. Islam had its own
share of free thinkers, sectarians, and heretics. The
early history of the community witnessed the appear-
ance of internal divisions centered on different theolog-
ical issues, such as who the legitimate political
and religious imam should be (the salvation of the
community was at stake) and determinism and free will.

The hadith predicting that the Muslim community
would divide into seventy-three sects reflects this early
split among sectarian lines. Heresiographical treatises
were written to identify those sects. Although seventy-
two of them were said to be destined to Hell and only
one to salvation, in fact there was reluctance to allow
an indiscriminate use of the accusation of unbelief
( takfir) against sectarians. The abuse of declaring one’s
opponents infidels had precisely been a distinguishing
feature of one of the early sects, the Kharijites, among
whom the most radical branches even allowed the
killing of those who did not partake in their beliefs.
Shi’is (especially the Imamis) and Sunnites found
ways of accommodating themselves to living together
(Stewart, 1998). Only extremist groups like the zin-
diqs (Manicheists) of the early ‘Abbasid times and
the Shi’i ghulat (those who denied the finality of
prophecy or those who supported antinomianism)
were clearly excluded from the Muslim community.
However, other religious thinkers who were subject to
continued suspicion concerning the correctness of
their beliefs were never completely marginalized or
excluded from the Islamic community, as shown in
the case of the famous Sufi Muhyi al-din Ibn ’Arabi
(Knysh, 1993).

Islam has often been defined as an orthopraxis
more than an orthodoxy, so, according to this view,
it would be the area of religious practices in which
Muslims had to prove themselves. However, to drink
wine was to commit a forbidden act that involved a
specified penalty without the sinner ceasing to be a
Muslim, whereas to maintain that drinking wine
was a licit act meant departing from correct belief
(i.e., heterodoxy). Now, in Sunni Islam, no institutio-
nalized religious hierarchy was put in charge of iden-
tifying and persecuting dissenters by labeling them
heretics, which has led some Western scholars to
point out the difficulties of finding a term equivalent
to the Christian notion of heresy (an opinion chosen
by human perception contrary to holy scripture,
publicly avowed and obstinately defended).

321

HERESY AND HERETICS

However, this does not mean that Muslims lacked
the concept of orthodoxy and heterodoxy. T. Asad
(with his insistence on Islam as a “discursive tradi-
tion”) and S. Jackson, among others, have reminded
us that orthodoxy can be established and sustained
not only by an institution backed by formal authority
but by authority that may be formal or informal.
Religious scholars such as the ulama, whose (mostly)
informal authority was based on reputation without
any formal investiture, can succeed in establishing
and sustaining orthodoxy in their religious commu-
nities, even in the absence of a formal ecclesiastical
hierarchy. The pedagogical process is of fundamental
importance here, involving the transmission of knowl-
edge, the debates among scholars, the social practices
of the scholars themselves, and their ability to influ-
ence the community through the acknowledgment
and acceptance of their authority.

The fact that suspects of heretical ideas were often
never persecuted has been pointed by almost every
scholar dealing with the subject of heresy in Islam.
J. Kraemer explains that the Mu’tazilis or the philo-
sophers were not persecuted as such, because, al-
though they upheld the supremacy of reason over
revelation, they expounded a system that kept the
revealed law of Islam intact, and they remained rela-
tively free from harm provided they maintained a low
profile and did not openly attempt to convert others
to their views. Alternatively, the heretics who were
truly heretics (e.g., Ibn al-Rawandi) were considered
to be the enemies of religion, because their rational-
ism attacked the revealed religions in general and
Islam in particular; they were also considered to be
a danger to the state and social order, thereby
provoking persecution and suppression on the part
of the state authorities.

The legal rationale for punishing religious and
ideological dissent was that the views and beliefs of
those accused would cause upheaval if allowed to be
propagated. The punishment inflicted upon deviants,
apostates, and heretics was the same as the retribution
meted out to ordinary brigands, highwaymen, and
rebels. However, persecution usually took place only
during times of stress and upheaval, when revolution-
ary movements posed a military and political threat
against the state. Official persecution on the part of
the state was rare, the most famous case being the
mihna (inquisition) in the times of al-Ma’mun, and
even then the point at issue was not so much a partic-
ular theological doctrine but rather the authority of
the caliph versus the authority of those men who saw
themselves — rather than the caliph — as the legitimate
repository and authentic transmitters of religious
knowledge and tradition (Nawas, 1994). Apart from

this mihna and other similar episodes, there were no
state or corporate bodies with jurisdiction over her-
esy, no specialized agencies for determining truth
from error, and no specialized procedures such as
trials or inquisitions (although there were trends to-
ward the latter) (Chamberlain, 1994; Fierro, 1992).

Generally, the identification and suppression of
error took the form of debates among scholars before
the elites, with or without the presence of the ruler.
When the latter took part in these struggles, it was
usually at the instigation of an outside group; in any
case, his interest was usually in maintaining a balance
between social peace and the satisfaction of the schol-
arly factions that supported him (Chamberlain, 1994).
This attitude on the part of the rulers may have helped
the trend toward moderation and homogeneization.

A. Knysh has insisted upon the need to recreate the
wide variety of conflicting visions and understandings
of Islamic religion that existed in the Islamic societies,
a variety that has been well depicted by some Muslim
Medieval scholars (e.g., the well-known heresiogra-
pher al-Shahrastani) and that has found an excellent
treatment in the historical and social study of early
Muslim theology by the German scholar J. van Ess.
What this reveals, to borrow A. Knysh’s expression, is
“orthodoxy-in-the-making”: “a perpetual collision of
individual opinions over an invariant set of theologi-
cal problems that eventually leads to a transient con-
sensus that already contains the seeds of future
disagreement.”

For his part, N. Calder, in a very perceptive study,
put the emphasis on the discursive process (the ongo-
ing process of interpreting their tradition) in which
Muslims are embroiled. He added that, if it is accept-
ed that a religious belief can be categorized under the
five headings of “scripture, community, gnosis, rea-
son, and charisma,” Sunni Islam would lie somewhere
between scripture and community, the latter being of
paramount importance, because the major under-
standing of God is expressed through the acknowl-
edgment of what happens inside the community. This
means that each succeeding generation has to take
into consideration the work of the preceding genera-
tions and that those thinkers who go back to the
original sources of revelation without taking into ac-
count the accumulated experience of the community
are liable to be met with rejection and exclusion.

Maribel Fierro

Further Reading

Asad, T. “Medieval Heresy: An Anthropological View.”

Social History 11/3 (1986): 345-62.

Ayoub, M. "Religious Freedom and the Law of Apostasy

in Islam.” IslamoChristiana 20 (1994): 75-91.

322

HEROES AND HEROISM

Calder, N. “The Limits of Islamic Orthodoxy.” In Intellec-
tual Traditions in Islam , ed. F. Daftary, 66-86. London,
2000 .

Chamberlain, M. Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval
Damascus, 1190-1350. Cambridge, UK, 1994.

Chokr, M. Zandaqa et Zindiqs en Islam ait Second Siecle de
1’Hegire. Damascus, 1993.

Cook, M. “Weber and Islamic Sects.” In Max Weber and
Islam, eds. Toby E. Huff and Wolfgang Schluchter, 273-
9. New Brunswick and London, 1999.

Edde, A.-M. "Heresie et Pouvoir Politique en Syrie au Xlle
Siecle: L’Execution d’al-Suhrawardi en 1191.” La Reli-
gion Civique a VEpoque Medievale et Moclerne
( Chretiente et Islam), 235-44. Rome, 1995.

van Ess, J. Theologie und Gesellscliaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhun-
dert Hidschra. Eine Geschichte des Religiosen Denkens im
Friihen Islam, 6 vols. Berlin, 1991-1998;

Fierro, M. "The Treatises Against Innovations ( Kutub al-
Bida,).” Der Islam 69 (1992): 204—46.

Fierro, M. “Religious Dissension in al-Andalus: Ways
of Exclusion and Inclusion.” Al-Qantara XXII (2001):
463-87.

Gaborieau, M. “Tariqa et Orthodoxie.” In Les Voies
d Allah. Les Ordres Mystiques dans I’Islam des Origines
a Aujourd’hui, eds. G. Veinstein and A. Popovic, 195—
202. Paris, 1996.

Griffel, F. Apostasie und Toleranz im Islam: Die Entwick-
lung zu al-Gazalis Urteil Gegen die Philosophic und die
Reaktionen der Philosophen. Leiden, 2000.

Hallaq, W.B. Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic
Law. Cambridge, UK, 2001.

Masud, M. Kh., B. Messick, and D. Powers, eds. Islamic
Legal Interpretation. Muftis and Their Fatwas.
Cambridge, Mass, and London, 1996.

de Jong, F., and B. Radtke. Islamic Mysticism Contested.
Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics.
Leiden, 1999.

Jackson, Sh. On the Boundaries of Theological Acceptance in
Islam. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Faysal al-Tafriqa Bayna
l-Islam wa-l-Zandaqa. Princeton, NJ, 2002.

Knysh, A. “Orthodoxy and Heresy in Medieval Islam: An
Essay in Reassessment.” The Muslim World LXXXIII
(1993): 48-67.

. Ibn ’Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The

Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam. New
York, 1999.

Kraemer, J. “Heresy Versus the State in Medieval Islam.”
In Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica Presented
to Leon Nemoy on his Eightieth Birthday, ed. Sh. R.
Brunswick, 167-80. Bar-Ilan, 1982.

Laoust, H. Les Schismes dans I’Islam. Paris, 1977.

Lapidus, I.M. “State and Religion in Islamic Societies.”
Past and Present 151 (1996): 3-27.

Lewis, B. “Some Observations on the Significance of Heresy
in the History of Islam.” Studia Islamica I (1953): 43-64.

Makdisi, G. “Tabaqat- biography: Law and Orthodoxy in
Classical Islam.” Islamic Studies 32 (1993): 371-96.

Melchert, Ch. “Sectaries in the Six Books: Evidence for
Their Exclusion from the Sunni Community.” The
Muslim World LXXXII/3-4 (1992): 287-95.

Memon, M.U. Ibn Taymiya’s Struggle against Popular
Religion. The Hague: Mouton, 1976.

Nawas, J. “A Reexamination of Three Current Explana-
tions for al-Ma’mun’s Introduction of the Mihna.”
IJMES 26 ( 1994): 615-29.

Rispler-Chaim, V. “Toward a New Understanding of the
Term Bid’a .” Der Islam 68 (1992): 320-8.

Stewart, D. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite
Responses to the Sunni Legal System. Salt Lake City,
Utah, 1998.

Stroumsa, S. Freethinkers of Medieval Islam. Ibn al-Raw-
andi, Abu Bakr al-Razi and Their Impact on Islamic
Thought. Leiden, 1999.

Urvoy, D. Les Penseurs Libres dans I’Islam Classique. Paris,
1996.

Watt, W.M. “Conditions of Membership of the Islamic
Community.” Studia Islamica XXI (1964): 5-12.

HEROES AND HEROISM

The terms hero and heroism have lost the cultural
grounding of their ancient Greek provenance. In mod-
ern usage, they refer simply to the protagonist in any
narrative or drama. In ancient Greek epic and drama,
on the other hand, the heroism of the hero was clearly
defined in terms of the interaction between character
and plot in these genres, as Aristotle indicates in his
Poetics. To the extent that the genres of literary tradi-
tions in medieval Islamic civilization are comparable
to what we find in classical traditions stemming direct-
ly from ancient Greek civilization, the terms hero and
heroism are also applicable for comparison.

Older modern scholarship on heroes and heroism
in medieval Islamic civilization applied the classical
models in negative ways, holding Islamic values up to
the standards of Greek values in a mismatch between
supposedly inferior and superior systems. The empir-
icism that is required for typological comparison was
wanting. A case in point is the work of Ignaz Gold-
ziher, who saw a sharp division between the Islamic
notion of din (the faith-based code of Islam) and the
pre-Islamic Arab system of conduct exemplified in the
word muruwwa, which was defined in Greco-Roman
terms as “virtus.” Goldziher (1967) concedes, howev-
er, that this word muruwwa was still in use after the
rise of Islam: hence the famous Islamic saying “there
is no religion [din] without manly virtue [muruwwa].”
More recent modern scholarship (Bravmann, 1972;
Fares Izutsu, 1966) elaborates on the convergences
as well as divergences between muruwwa and din,
emphasizing the subtle changes and shifting associa-
tions in the meanings of these concepts over time.

Both pre-Islamic Arabia [Jahiliya] and the pre-
Islamic Iran of the Sasanian dynasty have been
regarded in the popular imagination as “heroic
ages,” providing fecund sources for the portrayal of
heroes and heroism. Such foregrounding has led mod-
ern scholars to exaggerate a sense of rupture between
the pre-Islamic and the Islamic eras. The exaggeration
is less pronounced in the case of Iranian traditions,

323

HEROES AND HEROISM

which preserve genres that closely parallel what is
known as epic in Greek terms. The Shdhnndma of
Ferdowsi is a case in point: greater in length than
the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey combined, this monu-
mental composition highlights the Iranian heroic
ideal of javanmardi (youngmanliness), the meaning
of which is roughly the equivalent of chivalry.

The exaggeration of differences between the pre-
Islamic and the Islamic eras is far more pronounced in
the case of Arab traditions. For example, von Grune-
baum (1975) implies that the Arabs essentially lacked
the concept of a hero because they did not produce
any long epic poems. Even the Persians do not escape
the negative comparison. Although von Grunebaum
concedes that they had heroes like Rostam, Sohrab,
Esfandiyar, and so on, he insists that such characters
were not tragic heroes; rather, the overriding fatalism
inherent in the Persian epic precludes any possibility
of tragedy. However, the heroism of Persian epic
figures like Iraj or Siyavosh derives precisely from
the fact that, despite their foreknowledge, they do
not swerve from righteous conduct.

In ongoing modern research on heroism and the
hero, scholars have moved away from applying eth-
nocentric criteria and have gravitated toward the goal
of finding ethical and esthetic norms from within
Islamic civilization itself, which has its own critical
vocabulary. The range of study needs to extend to
genres that are quite different from epic and drama:
examples include the Maqamat and popular prose
narratives (Arabic) as well as the popular oral poetry
of Central Asia, among many others.

Olga M. Davidson

See also Alexander; Biography and Biographical
Works; Death and Dying; Epic Poetry; Epics, Arabic;
Epics, Persian; Epics, Turkish; Folk Literature,
Arabic; Folk Literature, Persian; Folk Literature,
Turkish; Mahmud of Ghazna; Maqama; Mirrors for
Princes; Nizami; Popular Literature; Saints and Saint-
hood; Sasanians: Islamic Tradition; Shahnama; Sira,
Stories and Storytelling; Sufism and Sufis; Supernatu-
ral Beings; Women Warriors

Further Reading

Bravmann, M.M. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam.

Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972.

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

"Hamasa.” Ch. Pellat, Arabic; H. Masse, Persian; I. Melik-
off, Turkish; A. T. Hatto, Central Asia; Aziz Ahmad,
Urdu, vol. Ill, 110-9.

"Manakib.” Ch. Pellat, vol. VI, 349-57.

"Marthiya.” Ch. Pellat, Arabic; W. L. Hanaway, Jr.
Persian; B. Flemming, Turkish; J. A. Haywood, Urdu;
J. Knappert, Swahili, vol. VI, 602-13.

"Muru’a." B. Fares, vol. VII, 636-38.

"Sira.”

Davidson, O.M. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of
Kings. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Davis, D. Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferclowsi’s
Shahnameh. Fayetteville, AK, 1992.

Goldziher, I. “Introductory: ’Muruwwa and Din.’” In Mus-
lim Studies ( Muhammedanische Studien), 2 vols., ed.
S.M. Stern, vol. 1, 11-44. London: Gerge Allen &
Unwin, 1967.

Von Grunebaum, G.E. “The Hero in Medieval Arabic
Prose.” In Concepts of the Hero in the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance, eds. N.T. Burns and C.J. Regan, 83-
100. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Izutsu, T. Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’an. Mon-
treal: McGill University Press, 1966.

Lyons, M.C. The Arabian Epic, 3 vols. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Renard, J. Islam and the Heroic Image. Columbia, SC:
University of South Carolina Press, 1993.

Reynolds, D.F. Heroic Poets, Poetic Heroes: An Ethnogra-
phy of Performance in an Arabic Oral Epic Tradition.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

HILLI, AL-, AL-ALLAMA, HASAN IBN
YUSUF IBNAL-MUTAHHAR

Al-Hilli was a prominent Twelver Shi‘i theologian and
jurist from a well-established family of Imami scholars
who was born in al-Hilla on 27 or 29 Ramadan AH
648/23 CE or 25 December 1250 and died there on 20
or 21 Muharram 726/27 or 28 December 1325. Among
his first teachers in al-Hilla were his father Sadid al-
Din Yusuf al-Mutahhar al-Hilli (d. c. 665/1267) and
his maternal uncle, al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d. 676/1277).
He subsequently spent some time at the Maragha
observatory founded by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 672/
1274), where he studied primarily philosophy and
logic with al-Tusi and al-Katibi al-Qazwini (d. 675/
1277). Presumably after the death of al-Tusi, al-Hilli
left Maragha for Baghdad, where he studied with
the Sunni scholars Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Kishi (d. 695/1296),
Burhan al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nasafi
(d. 687/1288), Jamal al-Din Husayn ibn Ayaz al-
Baghdadi al-Nahwi (d. 681/1282-1283), and ‘Izz al-
Din Abu al-‘Abbas ibn Ibrahim ibn ‘Umar al-Faruthi
al-Wasiti (d. 694/1294-1295). For a short time, al-Hilli
studied in Kufa with the Hanafi scholar Taqi al-Din
‘Abd Allah ibn al-Sabbagh Kufi. From around 709/
1309-1310 to 714/1314-1315 or perhaps 716/1316-
1317, al-Hilli, together with his son Fakhr al-
Muhaqqiqin (d. 771/1369), stayed at the court of the
Ilkhan Oljeitii (r. 703/1304-716/1316). Some bio-
graphical accounts attribute Oljeitii’s conversion
to Shi‘ism in Sha‘ban 709/January-February 1310 to
the influence of al-Hilli, although the historical sources

324

HIPPOLOGY

of the period do not confirm these reports. During his
stay at court, al-Hilli frequently engaged in theological
discussions with other scholars. He was on good terms
with the vizier Rashid al-Din (d. 718/1312-1313), and
he was highly regarded by Oljeitii, who appointed
al-Hilli as teacher in the madrasa sayyara that accom-
panied the llkhan wherever he went. Al-Hilli also
authored several works of Shi‘i apologetics dedicated
to Oljeitii. It is not clear when al-Hilli departed from
court; the last years of his life were spent in al-Hilla.

Al-Hilli was a prolific writer on a wide range of
religious topics. He composed more than a hundred
works, of which nearly sixty are extant. The number
of extant manuscripts as well as the amount of com-
mentaries written about his works indicate the popu-
larity of most of his writings. Of his works about
theology, mention should be made in particular of
his popular commentary on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s
Tajrid al-i'Tiqad , Kashf al-Murad fi Shark al-i‘Tiqad.
His most extensive work in this discipline was Nihayat
al-Maram fi ‘ilm al-Kalam. One of his most popular
works was his short creed al-Bab al-Hadi Ashar;
this is indicated by numerous commentaries and
translations. Of his philosophical works, only a few
are extant, among them his commentary of al-Katibi
al-Qazwini’s Hihnat al-Ayn , Idah al-Maqasid fi
Shark Hikmat al-‘Ayn. In the field of legal methodol-
ogy, his most extensive work is Nihayat al- Wimd Ila
'Ilm al-Usul, which was completed in 704/1305.
Al-Hilli played a formative part in the development
of Shi‘i law; he composed numerous legal works,
the most important of which are extant. His first
work in the held, as well as his most extensive, was
Muntaha al-Matlab fi Tahqiq al-Madhhab, although it
only covers the held of acts of devotion (/ibadat).
Mukhtalaf al-Shia fi Ahkam al-SharVa, another ex-
tensive work of al-Hilli about jurisprudence, covers
all helds of law; however, it merely describes various
legal questions about which there was disagreement
among the Shi‘i jurists. His more concise legal writ-
ings, Qawa'id al- Ahkam and Irshad al-Adhhan fi
Ahkam al-Iman, were extremely popular among later
scholars as is indicated by the large number of com-
mentaries on both. Among his last and very extensive
works about hqh were Tadhkirat al-Fuqaha’ ' ala
Talkhis Fatawi at- ‘U/ama ’ and Nihayat al-Ihkam fi
ma' Rifat al- Ahkam. Among al-Hilli’s biographical
works, mention should be made in particular of his
Khulasat al-Aqwalfi ma' Rifat al-Rijal, which lists reli-
able transmitters in the hrst part and unreliable ones
in the second. None of al-Hilli’s writings about gram-
mar and tafsir are extant. Of his works about tradi-
tions, only al-Durr wa-l-Marjan fi l-Ahadith al-Sihah
wa-l-Hisan is partly extant in manuscript form.

Sabine Schmidtke

Primary Sources

Al-Hilli, Hasan ibn Yusuf. Idah al-Maqasid Min Hikmat
‘Avn al-Qawa‘id, ed. ‘A. Khaqani Najafi. Najaf, 1354/
1935.

. Kashf al-Murad fi Shark Tajrid al-I'tiqad. Qum.

. [Khulasat al-Aqwal\ Kitab al-Rijal, ed. M.S. Bahr

Al-‘Ulum. Najaf, 1381/1961.

. Mukhtalaf al-Shi‘a fi Ahkam al-Shari'a. Tehran,

1323-1324/1905-1906.

. Muntaha al-Matlab fi Tahqiq al-Madhhab. Tehran,

1333/1915.

. Nihayat al-Maram fi ‘Ilm al-Kalam, ed. Fadil al-

‘Irfan. Qum, 1412/1992.

. Qawa'id al- Ahkam fi ma'Rijat al-Halal wa l-Haram.

Qum, 1984. (Reprint of the 1315/1898 edition.

. Tadhkirat al-Fuqaha’ ‘Ala Talkhis Fatawi al-

Fuqaha’. Tehran, 1984. (Reprint of the 1388/1968
edition.)

Further Reading

Laoust, H. “La Critique du Sunnisme dans la Doctrine
d’al-Hilli." Revue des Etudes Islamiques 34 (1966): 35-60.

. “Les Fondaments de l’lmamat dans le Minhaj

d’al-Hilli." Revue des Etudes Islamiques 46 ( 1978): 3-55.

Miller, W.M., transl. Al-Babu i-Hadi ‘Ashar. A Treatise on
the Principles of Shi'ite Theology. London, 1928.

Modarressi Tabataba’i, Hossein. An Introduction to Shi'i
Law: A Bibliographical Study, 8, 23, 47-49, 70-76, 103,
152, 204. London, 1984.

Pfeiffer, Judith. Twelver Shi'ism in Mongol Iran. Istanbul,
1999.

Schmidtke, Sabine. The Theology of al-'Allama al-Hilli
(d. 726/1325). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1991.

Stewart, Devin J. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite
Responses to the Sunni Legal System, 72ff, 191 ff, 205ff.
Salt Lake City, UT: The University of Utah Press, 1998.

Al-Tabataba’i, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. Maktabat al-'Allama al-Hilli.
Qom, 1348/1416.

HIPPOLOGY

Numerous Arabic texts deal with horse knowledge
from either a theoretical or practical point of view.
This knowledge (furusiyya) refers to hippological
matters or to the nature of horses (khalq al-khayl),
such as their different illnesses and cures (bay tar a)
and equestrianism or horsemanship (siyasa al-khayl).
Among these Arabic texts are the following:

1. Religious works: The Qur’an exalts the horse.
For example, it refers to “pure-bred horses”
among the things of which man is fond (3:14);
it mentions horses’ efficacy during combat
(8:60), and horses are also mentioned as
divine favors (16:8). Religious tradition
(hadith) praises horses for their usefulness,
for the honor they produce, and also for their
strength and speed, which distinguish them
from other animals.

325

HIPPOLOGY

2. Juridical works: These include chapters or even

entire treatises on warfare based on faith (Jihad)
and horses’ role in it, with praises for their
fundamental intervention. For example, Ibn
Abi Zamanin (d. 399/1009) describes “the model
fighter’’ in his book ( Kitab qidwat al-gazi).

3. Military technical works: These deal with the

horse with regard to its fighting strategies.

4. Lexicons: These are collections of terminology

such as “books of horses” (Kitab al-Khayl),
like the famous one by Ibn al-Kalbi (d. 204/
819 or 206/821). The numerous works about
“horses’ characteristics” (khalq al-faras/sifat
al-khayl) are placed between lexicography
and literature.

5. Adab: The adab encyclopedia gathers tech-

nical and scientific data, religious traditions,
verses, and heroic anecdotes about horses
within a cared-for literary framework. Exam-
ples of this styles are The Book of Animals
(Kitab al-hayawan) by al-Jahiz (d. 255/868)
and various works by Ibn al-Hudhayl al-
Garnati (eighth/fourteenth century), especial-
ly his work Kitab Hilyat al-Fursan wa-Shiar
al-Shufan, which includes fourteen chapters
about horses that deal with, for example, their
creation and taming; good habits and vices;
management and care; colors; hair; and rid-
ing. In Arabic poetry, horses are seen with
an outstanding frequency that shapes their
characteristics and activities.

6. Scientific works: These deal with the physiology

of the horse, in such works as veterinary (bay-
tara) books, in which Fuat Sezgin and other
authors bring forward abundant information.
Arabic zoological and veterinary knowledge
has incorporated elements from Greek and
Latin science; later on it had its own contribu-
tions, which were handed down to Europe.
Arabic agricultural treatises contain, at times,
animal references, such as Ibn al-‘Awwam’s
(fifth/twelfth century) Kitab al-Filaha , of which
Chapters 31 and 33 clearly state many matters
that are relevant to the horse.

All of these kinds of works form a large whole that
contains an impressive quantity and diversity of data
about horses, showing not only their real dimensions
but also their symbolic ones, because they have been an
indispensable element of Islam’s defense and expansion.
This high appreciation for horses imbues all kinds of
Arabic sources, even the iconographic ones; there are
numerous references to cared-for horse representations
in various types of pieces of Islamic and Arabic art.

M.J. VlGUERA AND T. SOBREDO

Primary Sources

Ibn Abi Zamanin. Kitab Qidwat al-Gazi, ed. ‘A. al-
Sulaymani. Beirut: Dar al-Garb al-Islami, 1989.

Ibn al-‘Awwam. Le Livre de V Agriculture ( Kitab al-Fiiaha),
transl. J.J. Clement-Mullet. Arles: Actes Sud, 2000.

Ibn Hudhayl. La Parure des Cavaliers et L’Insigne des
Preux, transl. L. Mercier. Paris, 1924.

M.J. Viguera, transl. Gala de Caballeros, Blason de Pala-
dines. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1977.

Al-Jahiz. Kitab al-Hayawan, 7 vols., ed. ‘A. al-S.M. Harun.
Cairo: Dar al-ma‘Arifa, 1378/1958. (Reprint, Beirut:
Dar ihya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1388/1969.

Les “Livres des Chevaux” de Hisham ibn al-Kalbi et
Muhammad ibn al-A ‘rabi, Publies D ’Apres le Manuscrit
de VEscorial Ar. 1705 , ed. G. Levi della Vida. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1928.

Further Reading

Al-Andalus y el Caballo. Granada: El Legado Andalusi,
1995.

Alvarez de Morales, C., ed. Ciencias de !a Naturaleza en al-
Andalus. Granada: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas, 1996.

Araber, Asil. Arabians Edle Pferde/The Noble Arabian
Horses, 5 vols. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1985-2000.

Brockelmann, C. Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, 5
vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1937-1949.

Encyclopaedia of Islam, CD-ROM Edition. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 2001.

Guintard, Claude, and Christine Mazzoli-Guintard, eds.
Elevage D'Hier, Elevage D’Auhourdhui. Melanges
dEthnozootechnie Offerts d Bernard Denis. Presses Uni-
versitaires de Rennes, 2004.

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The
Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and
Early ‘Abbasid Society ( 2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries).
London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Pinon, Laurent. Les Livres de Zoologie a la Renaissance.
Geneve: Droz, 2004.

Sanchez Gallego, R., and M. Espinar. “Arqueologia y Cul-
tura Material de Lorca (Murcia): El Caballo y Otros
Amuletos.” Estuclios Sobre Patrimonio, Cultura y Cien-
cia Medievales, 5-6 (2003-2004): 121-44.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, Vol. 3,
Medizin, Pharmazie, Zoologie, Tierheilkunde. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1970.

Shatzmiller, Maya. “The Crusades and Islamic Warfare:
A Re-evaluation.” Der Islam 59 (1992), 247-88.

Vernet, J. Ce cpie la Culture Doit aux Arabes dEspagne,
transl. G. Martinez-Gros. Paris: Sindbad, 1985.

Lo Que Europa Debe al Islam de Espaha. Barcelona: El
Acantilado, 1999.

HIRABA, OR BRIGANDAGE

Hiraba or qat ‘ al-sabil (brigandage; highway robbery)
is one of a handful of crimes known in Islamic law as
hudud (sing, hadd ); its distinguishing legal feature is
the mandatory nature of the penalties that are at-
tached to these crimes. The Qur’anic origin of the

326

HIRABA, OR BRIGANDAGE

crime of brigandage is found in verse 5:34-5
( Al-Ma’ida) where the Qur’an states that “the recom-
pense for those who wage war against God and His
messenger and spread disorder throughout the land is
either that they are killed, crucified, amputation of
their limbs on alternating sides or banishment from
the land, unless they repent before they fall under your
control, in which case God is Forgiving, Merciful.”

Qur’anic commentary reveals an interesting body
of disagreement regarding the circumstances in which
this verse was revealed. Although the majority of
interpreters concluded that it dealt with an incident
involving a group of Arabs that at least outwardly
professed Islam, others believed that this verse dealt
with an incident involving pagans or a group from the
ahl al-kitab who violated the terms of their peace
treaty with the Prophet Muhammad. All commenta-
tors agreed that, regardless of the circumstances
involved in the revelation of 5:34-5, the substance of
the verses applied to Muslims. Jurists were also of the
view that the crime of brigandage applied not only to
Muslims but also to non-Muslims who were perma-
nently residing in an Islamic state as a protected
group (ahl al-dhimma) .

According to the majority of commentators, a
group of persons came to the Prophet in Medina
and professed Islam. While in Medina, they grew ill
(a condition that occurred frequently among
Bedouins who visited Medina) and complained to
the Prophet. In response to their complaints, the
Prophet provided them with camels and shepherds
and instructed them to depart to the outskirts of the
city while they recuperated. When they recovered,
however, they murdered the shepherds and made off
with the camels. Historians reported that the culprits,
in addition to killing the shepherds, also amputated
their limbs and blinded them. The Muslims, however,
were able to track them down and capture them
before they returned to their home territory. Upon
their return to Medina, the Prophet ordered their
execution, which involved a combination of amputat-
ing their limbs on alternating sides, blinding them,
and abandoning them in the lava plains outside of
Medina until they died. The Prophet’s treatment of
the criminals raised many questions in the eyes of the
commentators, including whether 5:34-5, as well as
the Prophetic statement prohibiting mutilation, sub-
sequently abrogated the Prophet’s action in this case.
Those who argued in favor of abrogation assumed
that the verses in question were revealed after the
aforementioned incident and represented divine re-
proach (‘itab). Others, however, argued that the
Prophet’s actions went beyond the text of the verse
and represented retaliation in kind (qisas) for the
injuries inflicted by the culprits on the shepherds and

that, accordingly, the verses did not abrogate the
Prophet’s actions.

Finally, commentators also point out that the verse
includes an elided noun — friends (awliya’) or ser-
vants (‘ibad) of God — because it is impossible for
anyone to wage war against God in a literal sense.

Although the circumstances that were the occasion
of 5:34—5 involved an element of treachery, jurists did
not include treachery or deception (ghila) as an ele-
ment of the substantive crime of brigandage. Instead,
they focused on the effect of the crime on the security
of the public. Accordingly, the brigand who was sub-
ject to the mandatory penalties for brigandage was
defined by the Shaffis, for example, as “an adult
Muslim interdicting the public highways who relies
on force to overpower [a victim in circumstances
where the victim is] distant from succor [of the gov-
ernment], even if in a town, or who enters at night
into a home and openly takes property and prevents
[its residents] from seeking succor of the govern-
ment.” Eater jurists also included other crimes of
violence (e.g., rape) as instances of brigandage.

Despite the fact that the apparent sense of the verse
seems to leave open the possibility for the exercise of
discretion in the punishment of a brigand, Muslim
jurists — with the exception of the Malikis, who pre-
served the state’s discretion in all circumstances —
obliged the government to enforce a particular penal-
ty depending on the substantive conduct of the defen-
dant. The Hanafis, for example, held that, if a
defendant brigand took property but did not murder,
he was subject only to the amputation of his hand and
foot; if he murdered and did not take property, he was
to be executed; if he murdered and took property, the
government could either amputate him and then exe-
cute him or simply execute him (this latter was the
position of Muhammad al-Shaybani and Abu Yusuf,
the two leading students of Abu Hanifa); and, if he
terrorized the public without taking property or
killing, he was to be banished.

The law of brigandage, although nominally con-
sidered a species of hudud, functioned as public law.
For example, considerations of status (e.g., religion,
freedom) were irrelevant to the application of the law
of brigandage; this is in contrast with the private
law of retaliation. Accordingly, if a free Muslim brig-
and killed a protected non-Muslim person or a slave
as part of his brigandage, he would be subject to
execution, although he would not have been subject
to retaliation (according to most Muslim jurists) had
he killed a slave or a non-Muslim protected person in
the context of a private dispute. Similarly, although
in principle hudud penalties were not generally appli-
cable to non-Muslim protected persons, the law
against brigandage applied to any person who

327

HIRABA, OR BRIGANDAGE

"had undertaken to obey the law (al-multazim
bi-fal-ahkam) regardless of religion. On the other
hand, non-Muslims from hostile states (harbi) could
not be charged with brigandage; they would simply be
treated as prisoners of war.

The public aspect of the law of brigandage makes
it similar to the law governing murder by treachery or
deception ( ghila ) . Because the defendant in both crimes
is believed to threaten the public’s security (as opposed
to the security of a particular member of the public),
the government’s responsibility to protect the right
of the public to safety trumps whatever private rights
the victim or the victim’s heirs may have. Accordingly,
the government, in each of these two crimes, continues
to have power to punish the defendant, even if the
victim or his or her family has forgiven the perpetrator
or otherwise reached a settlement with him.

Mohammad H. Fadel

Further Reading

El Fadl, Khaled Abou. Rebellion and Violence in Islamic

Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001 .

HORTICULTURE

Gardens in the Arabo-Islamic world resulted from the
association of a broad range of heterogeneous com-
ponents. The janna, defined as a garden as opposed to
the desert, was associated with the Persian concept of
closed royal parks (pairidaeza; paradeisos in Greek)
that are known, for example, through the Greek
Xenophon (428/427-354 BC), and also with the
Greco-Roman garden for the cultivation of flowers
and vegetables. Gardens constituted an important
component of Arabo-Islamic culture, first as a sym-
bolic echo of paradise. Although rooted in the Persian
tradition of parks for pleasure, the Arabo-Islamic
garden was also influenced by Byzantine horticulture,
particularly the gardens of Nestorian monasteries in
Iraq. In most of the Arabo-Muslim world, the garden
was essentially a response to terrain and climatic
conditions, which were characterized by dryness and
heat. Water was always an important element: in royal
gardens, it was normally flowing from the highest point
toward the entrance so that visitors faced it on arrival.

The ‘Abbasid caliphs built gardens first in Baghdad
(762 CE) and later in Samarra (835), with magnificent
architectural structures, ponds, lakes, pools, courts
decorated with flowers, playgrounds, parks for wild
and domesticated animals (zoos with animal houses),
rivers (natural and manmade), basins, channels,
and harbors for boats. However, the most important

centers for Arabic horticulture were in Al-Andalus.
Gardens — particularly those belonging to princes —
were transformed into horticultural stations where
experiments were made to acclimatize non-native spe-
cies of oriental and tropical origin coming from the
East and as far as the Near East (India and China).
Such specialization of Andalusian horticulture dates
back to the first Andalusian emir ‘Abd al-Rahman I
(756-788), who built the ar-Rusafa garden near Cor-
doba on the model of his grandfather’s residence in
Syria. Closed to the north by a wood, it was bordered
on its western side by a river. At the center, there was
the palace and the vegetable gardens, where non-na-
tive species imported from Syria were acclimatized. At
Medina Azahara, which was also close to Cordova,
another garden with a similar vocation was built by the
Caliph ‘Abd al-Rahman III (912-961). Both gardens
were destroyed in the attack on Cordoba in 1010. In
the Taifa kingdoms, rulers had gardens built mainly in
Toledo and Almeria but also in Sevilla. The Toledo
garden (Bustan al-Na‘ura; The Orchard of the Water-
wheel) was made under the direction of Ibn Wafid (d.
1075) from Toledo working in collaboration with Ibn
Bassal, who reported his horticultural experiments in
his Book on Agriculture . In Almeria, the Sumadihyya
garden was built under al-Mu‘tasim (1052-1091) and
had the twofold purpose of food production and ex-
perimental station. In Sevilla, the al-Buhayra was built
in 1171 by the Almohad Caliph Abu Ya’qub Yusuf
(d. 1199), and fruits were brought from Granada
and Guadix to be planted. Gardens were also built
in Zaragoza, Valencia, and Tortosa and in private
properties all over al-Andalus.

The arrangement of these princes’ gardens is not
known in detail. The species introduced to Spain from
the East and acclimatized during the tenth century
included eggplant (Solanum melongea), henna (Law-
sonia inermis), cotton ( Gossypium spp.), rice (Oryza
saliva), banana (Musa sp.), jasmine (Jasminum offici-
nale ) , and perhaps lemon ( Citrus limon ) , saffron
(Crocus sativus), sugar cane (Saccharum offici-
narum), and mulberry (Morus spp.). During the elev-
enth century, acclimatized species included spinach
(Spinacia oleracea), sorghum (Sorghum spp.), lemon
( Citrus limon), and orange ( Citrus aurantium) .

The eleventh-century Book on Agriculture of Ibn
Bassal mentions one hundred and forty different
plant names, which probably correspond to a higher
number of contemporary species. The most frequently
quoted are fig tree, grapevine, almond tree, and
olive tree. Next in number of mentions come a dozen
different kinds of fruit trees, among which are pome-
granate, apple, and plum. Vegetables follow, with egg-
plant, zucchini, onions, beans, cucumber, and cabbage

328

HORTICULTURE

being mentioned, among others. After such fruit trees
as lemon, orange, and palm tree come the legumes
and cotton, and, finally, the aromatic herbs, with
coriander, sesame, cumin, and saffron being men-
tioned, as well as some ornamental plants.

Experiments involving horticultural techniques
were especially developed in the area of Sevilla in
the so-called al-Sharaf (aljarafe). This was an elevat-
ed table-land with a surface of approximately one
thousand six hundred and fifty square kilometers
that was bordered with water. Its soil was made of
sand mixed with lime and local layers of clay, and it
was highly fertile. The area, which was occupied by an
estimated eight hundred to two thousand villages, was
cultivated by a dense population working for the
wealthy families of Sevilla who hired agronomists
and agriculturists to improve cultivation techniques
and production. Research relied on such earlier
sources as the Kitab Fil&hat al-Ard ( Book of the Cul-
ture of Arable Land), the Kitab al-Fildha ar-Rumiyya
(Byzantine Book of Agriculture) , and the Kitcib al-
Fildha an-Nabatiyya ( Book of Nabatean Agriculture ) .
According to such agricultural works as the books by
Ibn Hajjaj (eleventh century) and Ibn al-‘Awwam
(twelfth century) that reported local experiments, re-
search dealt with such topics as the quality of earth,
fertilizers, vegetable production, growing of flowers,
improving the production of the olive tree, grapevine
pruning, and viticulture.

The tradition of Arabic gardens and horticulture
was perpetuated in the Ottoman world, including in
the mosque gardens.

Alain Touwaide

See also Botany; Gardens
Primary Sources

Lopez y Lopez, Angel C. Kitab fi Tartib Awqat al-Girdsa
wa-l-Magrusdt. Un Tratado Agricola Andalusi Anonimo.
Edition, Traduction y Estudio con Glosario. Madrid:
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Escuela
de Estudios Arabes, 1990.

Millas Vallicrosa, J.M., and M. Aziman. Ibn Bassdl, Libro
de Agricultura. Tetuan: Instituto Muley el-Hasan, 1955.

Further Reading

Alemi, Mahvash. “II Giardino Persiano: Tipi e Modelli.” In
II Giardino Islamico: Architettura, Natura, Paesaggio, ed.
A. Petrucci, 39-62. Milan: Electa, 1994.

Atasoy, Nurhan. A Garden for the Sultan: Gardens and Flow-
ers in the Ottoman Culture. Istanbul: AYGAZ, 2002.
Aubaille-Sallenave, Frangoise. “La Greffe Chez les Agro-
nomes Andalous.” In Ciencias de la Naturaleza en al-
Andalus. Textos y Estudios. Ill, ed. E. Garcia Sanchez,
11-41. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas, 1994.

Carabaza Bravo, Julia Ma. “El Olivo en los Tratados
Agronomicos Clasicos y Andalusies.” In Ciencias de la
Naturaleza en al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios. IV, ed.
C. Alvarez de Morales, 11-39. Madrid: Consejo Superi-
or de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1996.

Carabaza Bravo, Julia Ma., Expiracion Garcia Sanchez,
J. Esteban Hernandez Bermejo, and Alfonso Jimenez
Ramirez. “Arboles y Arbustos en los Textos Agricolas
Andalusies I.” In Ciencias de la Naturaleza en al-Andalus.
Textos y Estudios. V, ed. C. Alvarez de Morales, 269-307.
Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,
1998.

. “Arboles y Arbustos en los Textos Agricolas

Andalusies II.” In Ciencias de la Naturaleza en al-Anda-
lus. Textos y Estudios. VI, ed. C. Alvarez de Morales,
157-222. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas, 2001.

Dickie, J. “The Islamic Garden in Spain.” In The Islamic
Garden, eds. Elisabeth B. MacDougall and Richard
Etthinghausen, 89-105. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks,
1976.

El Faiz, Mohammed. “L'Aljarafe of Sevilla: An Experimen-
tal Garden for the Agronomists of Muslim Spain.” In
The Authentic Garden, eds. L. Tjon Sie Fat and E. de
Jong, 139-152. Leiden: Clusius Foundation, 1991.

Fahd, Toufic. “Botany and Agriculture”. In Encyclopedia
of the History of Arabic Science, 3rd ed., ed. R. Rashed.,
813-852. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Fahd, Toufic. “L’Agriculture Nabateenne en Andalousie.”
In Ciencias de la Naturaleza en al-Andalus. Textos y
Estudios. IV, ed. C. Alvarez de Morales, 41-52.
Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,
1996.

Garcia Sanchez, Expiracion, and Angel Lopez y Lopez.
“The Botanic Gardens in Muslim Spain.” In The
Authentic Garden, eds. L. Tjon Sie Fat and E. de Jong,
165-176. Leiden: Clusius Foundation, 1991.

Hernandez Bermejo, J. Esteban. “Dificultades en la Identi-
fication e Intrepretacion de las Especies Vegetales Cita-
das por los Autores Hispanoarabes. Application a la
Obra de Ibn Bassal.” In Ciencias de la Naturaleza en
al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios. I, ed. E. Garcia Sanchez,
241-61. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas, 1990.

Ilhan, Nevzat. “The Culture of Gardens and Flowers in the
Ottoman Empire.” In The Authentic Garden, eds. L.
Tjon Sie Fat and E. de Jong. Leiden: Clusius Founda-
tion, 1991.

Lagardere, Vincent. “Canne a Sucre et Sucreries en al-An-
dalus au Moyen Age (VUI-XVieme s.).” In Ciencias de
la Naturaleza en al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios, III, ed.
E. Garcia Sanchez, 337-59. Madrid: Consejo Superior
de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1994.

Montoro, M.C. “El Cultivo de los Citricos en la Espana
Musulmana.” In Ciencias de la Naturaleza en al-Andalus.
Textos y Estudios, I, ed. E. Garcia Sanchez, 263-315.
Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,
1990.

Rubiera y Mata, Maria Jesus. “II Giardino Islamico Como
Metafora del Paradiso.” In II Giardino Islamico. Archi-
tettura, Natura, Paesaggio, ed. A. Petrucci, 13-24.
Milan: Electa, 1994.

Ruggles, D. Fairchild. Gardens, Landscape, & Vision in the
Palaces of Islamic Spain. University Park, Penn: The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.

329

HORTICULTURE

Saez Fernandez, Pedro. “Fuentes Grecolatinas del Tratado
Agricola Andalusl Anonimo.” In Ciencias de la Natur-
aleza en al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios, III, ed. E. Garcia
Sanchez, 237-93. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investi-
gaciones Cientificas, 1994.

Al-Samarrai, Qasim. “The ‘Abbasid gardens in Baghdad
and Samarra (7 12th century).” In The Authentic
Garden, eds. L. Tjon Sie Fat and E. de Jong, 115-122.
Leiden: Clusius Foundation, 1991.

Samso, Julio. Las Ciencias de los Antiguos en Al-Andalus.
Madrid: Fundacion MAPFRE, 1992.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums. 4.
Alchimie, Chemie, Botanik, Agrikultur bis ca. 430
H. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971.

Ullmann, Manfred. Die Natur — Unci Gegeimwissenschaften
in Islam. Leiden and Cologne: E.J. Brill, 1972.

HOUSES

Two words are commonly used in Arabic for a house:
dcir, derived from dara (to surround, an enclosure),
which is used to describe larger houses up to the
palace of the caliph ( Ddr al-Khilafcr. House of the
Caliphate), and bayt, derived from bdta (to spend
the night), which is used for a small house or apart-
ment or even a single room.

Evidently, the range of housing across the Islamic
world is vast and cannot be characterized by brief
generalizations. The form of the house is stylistically
dictated by environmental conditions and the wealth
of the occupants in addition to local culture. In terms
of environmental conditions, the area stretches from
the cold, green, and mountainous Anatolia and the
Caucasus in the north to the hot deserts of Saudi
Arabia and Saharan Africa in the south and from
the Mediterranean coasts of Andalusia in the west to
the monsoon-touched tropics of Bangladesh and
Indonesia in the east. The climate and locally avail-
able materials dictated the format: wood and stone in
the mountains of Anatolia and the Caucasus, unfired
earth brick in many drier areas. The variety of envi-
ronmental conditions also extends from the con-
stricted urban dwelling within a walled city to the
more extensive village complex and further to the
open spaces of the desert edge dwelling of the semi-
nomad. With regard to range of wealth, the poor
commonly occupied one or two rooms, whereas the
mansion of the wealthy of Samarra in the third/ninth
century could well be two hundred meters long and
contain one hundred fifty rooms. The House of the
Caliphate in Samarra is one thousand three hundred
meters long and covers one hundred twenty-five
hectares.

In theory, the Muslim house was centered around
a courtyard with a blank wall to the outside, a recep-
tion room at the entrance for outside visitors, and a

reserved area for family life in the interior to preserve
the segregation of women. In reality, practical reasons
meant that only the very largest houses conformed to
this ideal: for example, Topkapi Saray, the palace of
Mehmed II in Istanbul (1482 CE), met these stan-
dards. In this palace, there is an outer public court-
yard, an inner men's courtyard with reception room
(the audience hall of Ahmet III), and the harem for
the women and family life on the north side. Never-
theless, the courtyard surrounded by rooms, although
by no means original to Islam, played an important
role. Only the mountain houses of Anatolia (because
of the climate) and the desert edge houses (where
there was no pressure of land) lacked courtyards,
although today the western model of a house has
invaded nearly all of the Middle East.

The first Muslim house was that of the Prophet in
Medina, which was at once the mosque of the nascent
Islamic community and the residence of its leader.
According to the Sira (the biography of the Prophet),
as the house existed at the time of the Prophet’s death
in the year AH 11/632 CE, there was a square court-
yard of unfired earth that was one hundred cubits
(c. fifty m) in length per side; three entrances; a cov-
ered area to the south with palm trunks supporting a
roof of palm leaves to protect the faithful at prayer
from the sun; four apartments (bayt) for the Prophet’s
wives, which were described as having partitions di-
viding them into several rooms; and about five other
apartments for dependent women. The Prophet did
not possess his own apartment but rather lived in pub-
lic, preaching and receiving visitors in the courtyard
while sleeping each night with a different wife.

This familial pattern was continued under the
Umayyad caliphate (41/661 1 32/750), according to
the archaeological evidence. Starting with the mosque
of Kufa, probably dating in its present form to the
reconstruction by Ziyad b. Abl Sufyan in 50/670, the
Dar al-Imara (government house) was placed adja-
cent to the mosque until the beginning of the third/
ninth century, when a separation became evident. The
Umayyad Desert Castles (e.g., Qasr Kharana, before
92/710) are characterized by a reception hall and a
subdivision of the plan into a series of familial apart-
ments, each having a reception room and four small
chambers; these were called, by Creswell, “Syrian
bayts.” The smaller houses of the Umayyad period
that were excavated at the Amman Citadel, ‘Anjar,
and elsewhere, have a Syrian bayt accompanied by
rooms around a courtyard. The specialized room
functions typical of Late Roman houses are no longer
visible.

The basic house in early ‘Abbasid architecture is
made up of seven rooms on two sides of a courtyard.
The palaces and great houses at Raqqa and Samarra

330

HUMANISM

employ this unit as an apartment, whereas reception
rooms often employ the Twan (vaulted reception room
open to the courtyard) and are fronted by a portico to
make a T-Iwan. The Iwan, which is commonly found
in symmetrical four-Iwan plans around a courtyard,
first originated in Parthian second-century Iraq; it
then became standard in palaces and large houses in
Iraq and Iran, and it was later transferred to mosques
and madrasas. The T-Iwan version is found in early
Islamic Fustat (Old Cairo) in the third/ninth century,
and from there it was transferred to Western architec-
ture at Sabra/Mansuriyya in Tunisia (935) and Madl-
nat al-Zahra’ in Spain (936), although the form there
is modified into a basilical hall.

Outside of the state-sponsored sector of the great
capitals, fewer medieval houses have been excavated.
Merchants’ houses of the third/ninth and fourth/tenth
centuries have been excavated at Slraf on the Iranian
coast of the Gulf; these consist of four to eight rooms
around a courtyard, probably supporting living
rooms on a second story. The same plan is found
again in Ayyubid Syria (seventh/thirteenth century)
at Balis/Meskene and Mayadine. At Balis, smaller
houses were again found, with one or two Iwans on
a courtyard and few other rooms. The same con-
straints of urban space are found in the dense warren
of earth construction of fourth-/tenth-century through
fifth-/eleventh-century Nishapur in eastern Iran,
reflecting earlier Central Asian construction of the
eighth century at Pianjikent in Tajikistan.

By the eighth/fourteenth century, there were stand-
ing buildings in Mamluk Cairo. There the reception
room (qaa) is placed in the upper story, and, for the
first time, the mashrabiyya is found; this is the wood-
en-grilled projecting window that permitted inhabi-
tants — particularly women — to see out without
being seen. From the ninth/fifteenth century in
Cairo, there are examples of ‘imarat (multi-storied
buildings with regularly planned apartments). One
study of traditional houses of Baghdad has concluded
that occupation of the courtyard house was not
organized by specialized function of the rooms but
by seasonal occupation of the cooler and warmer
parts of the house. In the hot zones (e.g., southern
Iran, the Gulf, Baghdad, Cairo), subterranean rooms
(Persian: sardab) are common, with wind towers
(Persian: bcidglr ) to direct airflow into the rooms.
Only in the most extremist Islamic societies, such as
the Wahhabi-influenced Sa‘udl traditional palaces of
Riyadh, is there found architectural evidence of female
separation via harem bridges crossing public streets;
however, tunnels crossing public areas are already
known in third/ninth century ‘Abbasid Samarra, but
it is not certain that these are intended for women.

Alastair Northedge

Further Reading

Bazzana, A. Maisons d’Al-Andalus: Habitat Medieval et
Structures du Peuplement dans L’Espagne Oriental,
2 vols. Madrid: Casa de Velasquez, 1992.

Chehab, H. “Al-Qusur al-Umawiyya fl ‘Anjar bi-Lubnan.”
Sumer 34 (1978): 172-80.

Creswell, K.A.C. A Short Account of Early Muslim Archi-
tecture. Aldershot, 1989.

Hillenbrand, R. Islamic Architecture , Ch. VII. Edinburgh:
The Palace, 1994.

Insoll, T. The Archaeology of Islam, Ch. III., “The Domes-
tic Environment.” Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.

Keall, E.J. “Some Thoughts on the Early Eyvan.” In Near
Eastern Numismatics, Iconography, Epigraphy and His-
tory, ed. D.K. Kouymjian, 122-36. Beirut, 1974.

L 'Habitat Traditionnel dans les Pays Musulmans Autour de
la Mediterranee. Actes du Rencontre d’Aix 6-8 Juin
1984. Le Caire: Institut Franpais D'Archeologie Orien-
tale, 1988

Northedge, A. Studies on Roman and Islamic Amman, Vol.
1, History, Site and Architecture. British Academy
Monographs in Archaeology no. 3. British Academy/
OUP, 1993.

. The Historical Topography of Samarra. Samarra

Studies 1. British Academy Monographs in Archaeolo-
gy/British School of Archaeology in Iraq.

Raymond, A., and J.-L. Paillet. Balis II: Histoire de Balis et
Fouilles des Ilots I et II. Damascus, 1995.

Revault, J., and B. Maury. Palais et Maisons du Caire du
XlVe au XVIIIe Siecle. Cairo, 1977.

Warren, J., and I. Fethi. Traditional Houses in Baghdad.
Horsham, 1982.

Whitehouse, D. “Excavations at Siraf: Third Interim Re-
port.” Iran 8 (1970): 1-18.

Wilkinson, C.K. Nishapur: Some Early Islamic Buildings
and Their Decoration. New York, 1986.

HUMANISM

That humanism is not incompatible with a revealed
religion is clear from the existence of humanism in all
its varieties within Christianity. The same is true for
medieval Islam, which shared with Christianity not
only its monotheism but also its high degree of urban-
ization, its well-developed educational system, and its
sophisticated court life, all of which are essential for
the emergence of humanism. Islam showed itself to be
no less open than Christianity to humanistic tenden-
cies; indeed, the encounter with classical Greek cul-
ture, which is generally seen as the defining quality of
humanism in the West, took place in the Arab world
some centuries before the European Renaissance.

In the secondary literature, seven different kinds of
humanism have been mentioned, which will be dealt
with here in the following order: ( 1 ) tribal humanism,
(2) steppe humanism, (3) legal humanism, (4) philo-
sophical humanism, (5) religious humanism, (6) liter-
ary humanism, and (7) intellectual humanism. The
understanding of the term humanism varies in each

331

HUMANISM

of these, ranging from absolute secularism to the
deepest empathy with humankind in all its diversity.

Tribal humanism refers to a pre-Islamic secularism
among the pagan Arabs, which was partly absorbed
and redirected by the mission of Muhammad (e.g., the
equation of fate [ dahr] with Allah). This is of great
importance for the evolution of an Arab-Islamic liter-
ary aesthetic, through which pre-Islamic poetry grad-
ually acquired its “classical” status despite its heathen
origins, rather like the Christianization of Latin and
Greek literature. There is, as a result, a literary fiction
of the desert Arab as a laconic and fatalistic nomad
who at best combines eloquence with naive cunning
and at worst is a simpleton to be treated with derision
by the refined town dweller.

Steppe humanism is a marginal variety that may be
considered as a subset of tribal humanism, because
the term was applied to the world of the Mughul
court as depicted in the autobiography of Babur (see
Timurids), which portrays the society of that time as
highly secularized and materialistic, with obvious
similarities to the Renaissance courts of Europe.

A latent humanism has also been perceived in the
vast corpus of legal literature. Here the humanism lies
in the earthy pragmatism of Islamic law, which
acknowledges and indeed seems to approve of (al-
though this aspect is seldom emphasized) the com-
plexity and unpredictability of human nature. The
theory frankly admits the ad hoc quality of human
judgment, and the case law abundantly documents
the irrepressible ingenuity of ordinary Muslims. It
has been claimed that the law represents the very
essence of Islamic learning, and it is true that the
institutions of higher education (see Madrasa) were
principally devoted to the training of jurists and prac-
titioners of the religious sciences. Hence it is reason-
able to suppose that the textual and exegetical
challenge of applying the holy texts to the events of
everyday life would lead to a perception of man that
can deservedly be considered humanistic.

Philosophical humanism (i.e., the purely Hellenistic
type of humanism) appeared in Islam almost as soon
as the translators had created an accessible corpus of
Greek philosophical, ethical, and scientific literature
in Arabic. By the tenth century, this classically
derived intellectual mode was well enough established
to allow the Arab philosophers a public role, and they
attended the rulers at court, holding forth on the
duties of princes and the way to achieve happiness.
They found their inspiration in the writings of Plato
and Aristotle and their Hellenistic commentators, but
they also imparted a tradition of political and ethical
theory that had come to them from the Persians.
From this fusion of Greek and Persian culture
emerged a uniquely Muslim perspective that has

been labeled philosophical humanism, with Miska-
wayhi (d. 1030) as perhaps the most consistent adher-
ent — in practice as well as theory — of the Greek ideal
of virtue through education in an Islamic context.

Not every Muslim scholar felt the same admiration
for Greek philosophy as it radiates from the works of
Miskawayhi and his predecessor al-Farabi (the latter
displaying the greatest commitment to the Platonic
ideal of the philosopher as the indispensable moral
guide of the monarch; see Al-Farabi [d. 950]). There
was an unbridgeable gulf between the way of thought
that regarded virtue, happiness, and truth as the inev-
itable consequences of correct reasoning and the
deeply pious belief that all knowledge of the good
and true was contained in revelation. However,
those Muslims who rejected the universalism of
(Greek) logic in favor of the particularity of the
(Arabic) Qur’an did not at the same time abandon
the use of their intellectual powers; instead, they ap-
plied their acumen to the study of Arabic, the history
of the Arabs, and the preservation of Islamic values,
with a mentality that has been labeled religious human-
ism and that is characterized as a complete acceptance
of this and the next world in Islamic terms. The cate-
gory is somewhat vague, and it would be difficult to
single out individual Muslim representatives, but it
may best be compared with the Christian scholars
who saw themselves as members of a “textual commu-
nity” with the responsibility of serving as guardians of
the language (Latin, Arabic) and the faith articulated
by and embodied in it (Christianity, Islam).

Literary humanism is the form that has the most
similarities to its European counterpart and is usually
understood when humanism is mentioned without
qualification, except in a philosophical context, al-
though the two are very closely related. What sepa-
rates them is the degree of loyalty to the foreign
sources (Greek, Persian) and the supremacy of the
discipline of philosophy on the one hand as compared
with the much broader basis of Arab culture and
aesthetics and Islamic morality that underlies literary
humanism on the other hand. They have in common
the presumption that virtue can be acquired by train-
ing (or, even better, innate virtue enhanced by educa-
tion), for which they share the term adab, loosely
translated as “upbringing, discipline” (for other
senses, especially literature, see Adab). This training
corresponds closely with the Greek ideal of paideia,
and the product of adab is a refined and well-educated
individual, usually a courtier or scholar, who is a
member of what Arkoun has called “an aristocracy
of the mind.”

The adib (one so educated) was not only
acquainted with a broad curriculum of religious and
secular literature but was also adept in the composition

332

HUMAYUN

of such works, in addition to which the adib was
expected to display perfect manners both at court
and in society at large. Indeed it is “manners” above
all that are implied in the term adab, and books were
written to prescribe the correct professional behavior
of doctors, lawyers, ministers, judges, academics,
and others. The founders (so to speak) of the largely
secular Arabic literature that resulted are Ibn al-
Muqaffa‘ (d. 758 CE) and al-Jahiz (d. ca. 868), who
set the pattern for the prose style and the range of
themes that together expressed the Islamic humanist
ideal. Its inclusiveness, which sets literary humanism
apart from the philosophical type, is seen in the works
of writers such as Ibn Durayd (d. ca. 914), in which
Greek, Persian, Christian, Muslim, and pre-Islamic
pagan Arab sources are all mingled.

The term intellectual humanism is not widely recog-
nized in the secondary literature, but it was proposed
(Carter, 1997) to accommodate a form of humanism
that seems to lie outside — or, rather, across from —
those outlined above. Traditional adab, by definition,
does not favor the outsider or the eccentric any more
than orthodoxy does, but there were Muslim scholars
who preferred to allow their curiosity to roam beyond
the limits of conformity, exploiting the freedom of
thought available to them in their day at the price of
being labeled misfits or heretics. Their dissent did not
lead to persecution, however, because it was recog-
nized that by testing the boundaries of faith they
might (as they in fact did) contribute to the reinforce-
ment of its dogmatic integrity. The name Mu‘tazilite,
meaning “one who stands apart,” covers most of
these individuals.

The most striking figure in this category is Abu
Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. 1023), who is frequently la-
beled a humanist, although his manners fell far short
of the standards of an adib; indeed, he despised the
patronized subordination of the courtly litterateur.
However, it was he who most succinctly expressed
the humanist ideal: “Man is a problem for man.”
Ibn Jinni (d. 1002) is another such individualist: a
free-thinking rationalist, boundlessly inquisitive
about the workings of language, he reveals more
than any other grammarian a deep sensitivity to the
vagaries and illogicalities of human speech. An earlier
contemporary, al-Rummani (d. 994), went the other
way; true to his Mu‘tazilite position, he analyzed
language as if it were totally rational and all its incon-
sistencies fully explicable.

These people might fit into the category of the
literary or religious humanists (their works certainly
range over the same fields), but their individua-
lism justifies giving them a separate label. Medieval
Muslims inhabited a fluid and adventurous environ-
ment; although an iron orthodoxy was being forged at

the time, there was nevertheless a degree of intellectu-
al liberty and experimentalism that gave free rein to
the exercise of the powers of reason. This is, after all,
the explicit duty of all thinking Muslims.

Michael G. Carter

See also Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Ethics; Miirrors
for Princes; Political Theory; Scholarship

Further Reading

Arkoun, Muhammad. “L’Humanisme Arabe D’Apres le
Kitdh al-Hawamil wa-’l-«AwdmiT.” Studia Islamica 14
(1961): 73-108. (Reprinted in Essais sur la Pensee Isla-
mique. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1984.

Arkoun, Muhammad. L’Humanisme Arabe au I WIN’ Sie-
cle, Miskawayh, Philosophe et Historien , 2nd ed. Paris:
Vrin, 1982.

Berge, Maurice. Pour un Humanisme Vecu: Abu Hayyan al-
Tawhidi. Damascus: Institut Franpais de Damas, 1979.

Carter, Michael G. “Humanism and the Language Sciences
in Mediaeval Islam.” In Humanism, Culture and Lan-
guage in the Near East, Studies in Honor of Georg Krotk-
off eds. A. Afsaruddin and A.H.M. Zahneiser, 27-38.
Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1997.

Dale, S.F. “Steppe Humanism: The Autobiography of
Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530).” Interna-
tional Journal of Middle East Studies 22 (1990): 37-58.

Gabrieli, Francesco. “Literary Tendencies.” In Unity and
Variety in Muslim Civilization, ed. G.E. von Grune-
baum, 87-106. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1955.

Goodman, Lenn E. Islamic Humanism. Oxford, UK: Ox-
ford University Press, 2003.

Kraemer, Joel L. “Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam,
a Preliminary Study.” Journal of the American Oriented
Society 104 (1984): 135-164.

. Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam, the Cultural

Revival During the Buyid Age. Leiden: Brill, 1986.

Makdisi, George. The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam
and the Christian West, with Special Reference to Scho-
lasticism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990.

Watt, William Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca, 24f.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953.

HUMAYUN

Nasir ad-Din Humayun, the second ruler of the
Mughal dynasty, was born in 1508 CE in Kabul, a
few years after his father, Zahir ad-Din Babur, who
had been displaced from the Timurid stronghold in
Transoxiana, conquered the city. A favorite son,
Humayun spent his early career assisting his father
with the administration of Kabul and Badakhshan.
He joined his father in his invasions of India, partici-
pating in the momentous battle of Panipat in 1 526 at
which Babur defeated the Afghan ruler, Ibrahim
Lodi, and established his family’s rule in India.
Babur died four years later in 1530, leaving Humayun
to succeed him as the ruler of a small but shaky state.

333

HUMAYUN

Shah Tahmasp receiving the Moghul Emperor Humayun (detail). Period of Abbas II. Sufarid mural in main hall, 1660s.
Credit: SEF / Art Resource, NY. Chihil Sutun (Pavilion of Forty Columns), Isfahan, Iran.

Humayun spent the first decade of his rule trying
to maintain control over the territories he had inher-
ited from his father. On the one hand, he had to
contend with challenges from his brothers who, at
various times, rebelled against his authority and
threatened to establish their own independence. His
brother Kamran, in particular, betrayed him several
times, although Humayun, as a forgiving elder broth-
er, refused to have him executed. More threatening to
his rule were the challenges he faced from two exter-
nal forces that were gradually encroaching on his
territory: Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat from the south-
west and the Pathan leader Sher Khan Suri from the
east. The threat from Sultan Bahadur disappeared
when he was killed by the Portuguese. The threat
from Sher Khan, however, turned out to be so serious
that, after a series of defeats (starting with the battle
in Bengal in 1539) Humayun had to flee north India,
while Sher Khan, then known as Sher Shah, declared
himself ruler. Humayun first sought refuge in Sind
(ruled at that time by the Arghuns), where he was
joined by Bairam Khan, a loyal friend of his father’s
who would eventually help him recapture the territory
he had lost. It was in Sind that Humayun’s son,

Akbar, who would turn out to be one of the greatest
of Mughal emperors, was born in 1542. From Sind,
Humayun eventually went to Iran, where he sought
help for his cause from the Safawid Shah Tahmasp.
Shah Tahmasp was happy to provide him with mili-
tary support as long as Humayun pledged allegiance
to Shi’i Islam, which had been introduced as the state
religion of the Safavid Empire.

In 1545, with the help of Persian forces, Humayun
wrested control over both Kandahar and Kabul from
his brothers. He spent several years consolidating his
authority over his family resources in Afghanistan
before finally turning his attention to territories in
north India. Squabbles among the descendants of
Sher Shah made it possible for Humayun’s armies,
under the able command of Bairam Khan, to recap-
ture Punjab. In July 1555, he was able to defeat
Sikandar Shah Suri and remount his father’s throne
in Delhi. The last year of his reign was relatively
stable, allowing him to pursue his favorite hobbies,
primarily poetry and painting. During his sojourn in
Iran, he had met several outstanding miniature pain-
ters such as Mir Sayyid Ali, Dost Muhammad, and
Abdussamad. Having regained control of Delhi, he

334

HUMOR

invited them to his court, where they were respon-
sible for training Indian artists and for the eventual
development of the Mughal style of painting.

Throughout his life, Humayun showed an interest
in astrology and astronomy to the point that he has
often been characterized as being superstitious. At one
time, he had even unsuccessfully attempted to organize
his empire along astrological lines. On January 24,
1556, he climbed onto the roof of his library to observe
the rising of the planet Venus when he heard the call to
prayer. As he bent down to kneel out of respect, he
slipped and fell down the steep staircase; he died three
days later as a result of his injuries.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls. London: Consta-
ble, 1998.

HUMOR

The concept of humor is derived from the ancient
Greek theory of the body fluids determining a per-
son’s character and temperament, and humor has
often been defined as a quintessential human charac-
teristic. Although humor, to a certain extent, denotes
a mental disposition, its tangible effects are most
evident in humorous behavior, itself resulting in the
articulation of jocular verbal expression. Modern the-
ory understands humor as a way of coping with the
conflicts of human existence, aiming to solve the ex-
perienced incongruities through the application of
humorous verbal aggression and eventually leading
to their dissolution in laughter.

The medieval Islamic attitude toward humor and
laughter has to a major extent been determined by
both the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad's nor-
mative example. The Qur’an (53:43), on the one
hand, mentions God as the one “who makes humans
laugh or cry.” Because this passage considers laugh-
ter as being created and intended by God, it falls
within the range of legitimate human behavior. On
the other hand, the Qur’an (49:11) unambiguously
condemns satire and ridicule as acts that risk jeopar-
dizing the unity of the true believers. The Prophet
Muhammad’s attitude toward humor is documented
in some fifty traditions (hadith). It is well known that
Muhammad liked to laugh, although his laughter
was rarely of an aggressive kind; rather, he would
smile benevolently, giggle understandingly, or laugh
as an act of relief. At the same time, the sources do
not fail to tell us about a few practical jokes on the

part of the Prophet, such as when he addressed one
of the sahaba (Companions) as “the one with the
two ears” (although all human beings normally have
two ears) and when he told an old woman that
she would not enter paradise (although all women in
paradise, by definition, are huris). Moreover,
Muhammad is known to have laughed at times
“until one could see his molar teeth.” Hence, the
Prophet’s behavior is understood as legitimizing a
humorous approach to life, including its practical
consequences of joking and jesting. Alternatively,
Muhammad is also quoted as having characterized
people who enjoy a ringing laugh as “those who
shorten the prayer and eat all kinds of food;” true
believers, by contrast, should smile rather than laugh.
This rule of intensity implies a degree of moderation,
such as had been introduced by the Arabic transla-
tion of Aristotle’s Ethics in the ninth century. An
additional rule of frequency has Muhammad say
that “frequent (or intensive) laughter kills the
heart”; critical research has, however, proven that
this rule is a later attribution, because the maxim
had originally been uttered by the ascetic Hasan
al-Basri (d. 728 CE).

Against the backdrop of the dual norms of the
Qur’an and the sunna, later discussions within the
Islamic community have mostly focused on two posi-
tions. On the one hand, ascetics, mistrusting human
vanity, would not accept humor in the face of life’s
transitoriness and the imminent threat of judg-
ment day; the best they permitted was laughter as
an expression of happiness or of wondering about
the marvels of God's creation. Pious opponents of
the prohibition of laughter would, on the other
hand, quote the example of prominent characters
of Islamic tradition, such as the learned Ibn Sirin
(d. 728), who is said to have laughed until his eyes
became wet and saliva dropped from his mouth.

Notwithstanding the ambiguous attitude of
learned Islam, joking and jesting have been the topics
of authors of Arabic literature ever since its begin-
ning. Early authors, such as al-Jahiz (d. 868), argued
for a balance between the two aspects of al-jidd (seri-
ousness) and al-hazl (humor): serious matters should
be discussed as long as the readers or listeners could
focus their attention; the subsequent presentation of
humorous narratives was permissible so as to liven up
serious discourse and serve as a relaxing interlude
before the discourse would again return to serious
topics. It was not long before this attitude resulted
in the separate publication of jocular material, the
presentation of which only superficially pretended to
submit to the stricter standard. Although the tradi-
tional ambiguity is notably felt in the anecdotal com-
pilations of Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201), already al-Abi

335

HUMOR

(d. 1030) had compiled a veritable encyclopedia of
anecdotes and jokes that included several thousand
items. Although his work starts with anecdotes about
the basic Islamic tenets and about the early caliphs,
already at the end of the second volume al-Abi treats
the jocular types of tufayli (sponger) and greedy per-
sons. The third volume, in addition to popular jesters,
contains jokes about crazy and stingy people; the fifth
volume has chapters about transvestites and homo-
sexuals; and the seventh and final volume treats
various professions, including stupid weavers and
sweepers, preachers, thieves, and fanatics.

As a jocular monument of Arabic literature in the
classical period, al-Abi’ s encyclopedia also implicitly
documents a considerable degree of tolerance in terms
of a humorous approach to the contradictions of
social life. In addition to the mentioned works, a
survey of humorous literature in the Islamic world
would probably have to start from invective poetry
(practiced since pre-Islamic times), and it would have
to mention, above all, the Maqamat of Badi' al-
Zaman al-Hamadani (d. 1007) and the pointed satire
in the works of the Persian poet ‘Ubayd-i Zakani (d.
ca. 1371). Popular protagonists of jocular narratives
in medieval times — in addition to numerous charac-
ters whose names are all but forgotten — include Juh,
who, over the centuries, became the quintessential
jester of Islamic tradition; Ash‘ab, the stereotypical
greedy person whose greed made him even believe his
own lies; and Buhlul, the wise fool who would ad-
monish the contemporary Caliph Harun al-Rashid in
a manner similar to that of the European court jester.
Numerous medieval jocular narratives lived on after
the introduction of printing to the Islamic world, and
numerous chapbooks of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries continued to exploit the tradition-
al sources.

The topics of medieval Islamic humor, as much as
anywhere else, exhibit two contrasting tendencies: on
the one hand, a tolerant approach to the exigencies of
human existence and to human foibles is regarded as
exemplary; on the other hand, a moderate attitude is
recommended so that the vanity implied in human
nature should not gain the upper hand against the
respect for God’s omnipotence.

Ulrich Marzolph

See also Al-Jahiz; Companions of the Prophet; Hasan
al-Basri; Ibn al-Jawzi; Maqama

Further Reading

Ammann, Ludwig. Vorbild und Vernunft: Die Regelung von

Lachen und Scherzen im Mittelalterlichen Islam. Hilde-

sheim and others: Olms, 1993.

Marzolph, Ulrich. Arabia Ridens: Die Humoristische Kurz-
prosa der Friihen Adab-Literatur im Internationalen
Traditionsgeflecht , 2 vols. Frankfurt am Main:

Klostermann, 1992.

Rosenthal, Franz. Humor in Early Islam. Leiden: Brill,
1956.

HUNAYN IBN ISHAQ (809-873 OR
877 CE)

A gifted translator, philosopher, and physician,
Hunayn Ibn Ishaq came from the suburbs of Kufa
to the center of ninth-century Baghdad’s intellectual
life. Hunayn’s entire career must be understood with-
in the context of the Translation Movement, which
flourished during the Baghdad-based ‘Abbasid ca-
liphate (750-1258 CE). The Islamic conquest of the
Near East during the seventh century brought under
Muslim control areas with Christian scholars, such as
Hunayn, who were capable of translating texts from
Greek into Arabic. The earliest impetus for the Trans-
lation Movement was the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-
Malik’s (d. 705) order for the imperial record books
(Arabic diwan, pi. dawawin) to be translated from
Greek and Persian into Arabic. Because native Arabic
speakers would now be able to become viziers, there
was a need for information, in Arabic, about geome-
try, arithmetic, and so on. Moreover, viziers could
enhance their social status by patronizing translators,
philosophers, and physicians such as Hunayn.

The nascent Translation Movement, with its socio-
economic origins, intensified during the ‘Abbasid ca-
liphate, because the ‘Abbasid caliphs cultivated a
mythical connection with the kings of the earlier
Sasanian Empire as an appeal to Persian populist
sentiments (shu ‘ubiyya ) . A key component of this
mythology was the inclusion of Hellenistic Greek
philosophy and science within the Sasanian intellec-
tual heritage. Recovering this heritage became a pri-
ority to the viziers who patronized Hunayn, and they
paid a full-time translator as much as 24 thousand
dollars per month. Analysis of Hunayn’s autobiogra-
phy has demonstrated that Hunayn’s success aroused
envy and jealously that in turn led to his temporary
downfall.

Although medieval accounts of Hunayn’s career
method attributed his success in translating to his
attention to the contextual meaning of a word or
sentence rather than its literal meaning, recent schol-
arship has shown that he combined the literal and
contextual techniques even within the same text.
Additionally, sometimes he translated into Arabic
directly from the Greek, and other times he first
created a Syriac version for his own use or for a co-
translator. Hunayn’s fame and the cooperative nature

336

HUNTING

of translation make a precise determination of his
oeuvre impossible. By his own account, he translated
more than a hundred texts from Galen alone, and
these translations should be understood as creative
acts in and of themselves.

As a philosopher and scientist, Hunayn’s writings
pioneered a technical vocabulary for medical litera-
ture and natural philosophy that became a founda-
tion for future work. His writings about optics
combined a knowledge of ocular anatomy with a
theory of vision that was based on Aristotle’s.
Hunayn held that light is not a body but rather a
state of a transparent medium, such as air, that
makes that body receptive to color. In medicine,
Hunayn’s translations of Galen defended the value
of both empirical and theoretical medical knowledge,
and Hunayn’s own compositions (e.g., Questions on
Medicine) were thorough and thoughtfully organized.
Accounts of his service as physician to the caliph
attributed his prowess to both his adab (an awareness
of how to behave at court) and his medical acumen.

Robert Morrison

See also Translation: Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic;
Medical Literature, Arabic; Medical Literature, Syriac;
Materia Medica; Medicine; Ophthalmology; Physi-
cians; Aristotle and Aristotelianism

Further Reading

Anawati, Georges C., and Albert Z. Iskandar. “Hunayn ibn
Ishaq al-‘Ibadi.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography,
eds. C.C. Gillispie et al, Supplement 1, 23CM-9. New
York.

Bergstrasser, Gotthelf. “Hunain ibn Ishaq uber die Syr-
ischen und Arabischen Galen-Ubersetzungen.” Abhan-
dlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes XVII (1925).
Leipzig.

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. London:
Routledge, 1998.

Morrison, Robert. “Hunayn ibn Ishaq.” In Dictionary of
Literary Biography.

HUNTING

The hunting exercised by the ancient Arabs was es-
sential subsistence hunting or defense from wild ani-
mals in the Arabian desert. The Qur’an (in particular
verse 3:4) and the traditions of the Prophet imposed
laws on hunting in cases in which the meat is not
lawful (i.e., cats, dogs, mammals with canine teeth,
birds with claws, and animals without ritual killing).
With the blooming of the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid
dynasties, a type of hunting done for fun and sport
for the monarchs was developed using the example
of the traditions of adjacent nations. This led to a
specific vocabulary of falconry that was used in

the Umayyad age (e.g., bazi, meaning “goshawk,” a
common name for falcons and hawks). Hunting was
practiced with horses, arcs and arrows, swords,
nozzles, and nets, and it was aided by trained
hawks, dogs, and cheetahs. The main Arabic works
depicting hunting range from the eighth to the four-
teenth century.

Influences were noted in the hunting handbook
of medieval Europe ( The First Book of Falconry of
Emperor Federico II, which was later translated into
The Book of Moamiri). The most ancient form of hunt-
ing, predating falconry, was practiced around 780 CE
by al-Ghitrib ibn Qudama al-Ghassani, the master of
hunting of the Umayyad monarchs, by the order
of Caliph al-Mahdi. It was based on the acquaintances
of Adham ibn Muhriz, on sources from Sasanian times,
a Turkish handbook, and a Byzantine handbook
received as a gift from al-Mahdi. These sources
brought back the history of the origin of falconry,
a description of the four types of birds used in falconry
(hawk, peregrine, saker, and eagle), a classification
based on the black or yellow colors of their eyes, train-
ing methods, and cures for diseases. A treaty about
hunting and its many aspects was created by the poet
al-Kushajim (ca. 961 ), author of the Kitab al-Masavid
as-l-Matarid ( Book of the Traps and Hunting Spears),
in which literary aspects prevailed.

Decades later, the falconer of the Fatimid Caliph
al-‘Aziz Bi-llah wrote for the monarch a treaty about
falconry, al-Bayzara, which contained two clearly
distinguished parts. First, the author exposed techni-
cal matters, with descriptions of the fauna of the
Egyptian Delta; in the second part, poems traced the
work of al-Kushajim. A true summation of the fal-
conry knowledge of the Muslims of the Middle Ages,
it was entitled al-Jamhara f ‘Ilm al-Bayzara ( Collec-
tion on the Science of Falconry), and it was compiled
by Isa al-Asadi (thirteenth century). This volume was
not limited to birds but also described other animals,
several hunting techniques, the various legal schools,
specific vocabulary, hunting dogs, hunting with leo-
pards, and the medical usefulness of specific animal
parts. The Turk Ibn al-Mangli (fourteenth century)
was an expert in the military arms that serviced
the monarch slaves of al-Malik al-Ashraf; immense
synthesis of the Jamhara of al-Asani was compiled,
with the title Uns al-Mala’ bi-Wahsh al-Fala (Enter-
tainment of the Audience [Speaking About] the Wild
Animals of the Desert). According to the author,
hunting is above all suited to the king and his digni-
taries, and it involves ten merits: among these, it
constitutes the best training for horses and physical
exercise for the knights; it helps one acquire courage
and distance from suffering and worries; and it
removes vain thoughts and develops sharper sight.

337

HUNTING

Thirteenth century CE. Plate showing a knight with a falcon. Persian, Saljuq dynasty. Ceramic with polychrome point,
unglazed. Photo: Herve Lewandowski. Credit: Reunion des Musees Nationaun/Art Resource, NY. Louvre, Paris, France.

The slaves preferred a form of hunting that involved
pursuit by horses, with the participants forming a great
circle (halqa) that locked on the prey. The preferred
targets were gazelle, lions, panthers, ostriches, and
cranes. Every animal demanded particular hunting
techniques, which were meticulously described in the
handbook (although sometimes the techniques were
decidedly improbable). The Syrian nobleman Usama
ibn Munqidh (thirteenth century) described his mem-
ories of falconry among noblemen and of capturing
aquatic birds, gazelle, and wild donkeys. The products
gained from hunting were then used for commerce in
all areas of the Muslim world, and they also increased
the desire of caliphs to possess exotic animals. Many
citations of hunting poems are found in geographic
works; in the zoology of al-Jahiz, al-Qazwini, for the
Damiri; and in literary anthologies.

Preparation for hunting contained great meaning
in that the Muslim hunter must undergo a purifica-
tion ritual and invoke the name of God on the hawk
and the prey. Dogs trained to obey — despite the im-
purity that Islam attributes to this animal and the
curse on those from the black mantle — are used in
hunting on the basis of verse four of the Qur’an. It is
noted that the hunter was the saluki (a tall, slender

dog): according to Arabic tradition, the name derives
from Saluq, which is located in Yemen. South Arabia
also deserves note, because hunting wild goats intro-
duced a peculiar ritual that lasted from the pre-Islamic
age. Even if medieval testimonies are insufficient, the
traditions have maintained many elements of conti-
nuity. One form of hunting involved a great number
of hunters with various tasks, such as pushing the
animal and killing it. The hunting concluded with a
procession of dances and songs and with the exhibi-
tion of the bodies of the wild goats, which were later
placed on walls of edifices in proportional scope.

Scenes of hunting are frequent in ceramics, bas
relief in wood and stucco, ivory and metal objects,
and miniatures from the tenth to the fifteenth century.
The most common type consists of the reconfigura-
tion of falconry, on foot or by horse; it is represented
in action or when a member of a court holding a hawk
presents it as a reparation to the monarch (the Turk-
Iranian). Other reconfigurations show a hawk in
action to assault the prey. In manuscripts of the
Shahnama, hunting scenes appear in illustrations in
the text (e.g., Bahrain Gur hunting the wild donkey)
but without particular differences from those that
describe the activity of the principals. Hunting by

338

HUSAYN IBN ‘ALI

monarchs is represented in the art of Turkish minia-
tures, the Saravidi, and the Moghuls during the
sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.

Giovanni Canova

See also Hippology; Usama ibn Munqidh; Veterinary
Medicine; al-Jahiz; al-Qazwini

Further Reading

Ahsan, Muhammad M. Social Life under the Ahbasids.

London and New York: Longman, 1979.

Al-Gitrif ibn Qudama al-Gassani. Die Beizvogel, transl.

D. Moller and F. Vire. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1988.
Grube, E.J. “Caccia. Islam." In Enciclopedia Dell’ Arte Med-
ievale, vol. IV, 33-7. Roma: Istituto Dell’Enciclopedia
Italiana, 1993.

Ibn Mangli. De la chasse, transl. F. Vire. Paris: Sindbad,
1984.

Ibn al-Marzuban. The Superiority of Dogs over Many of
Those Who Wear Clothes, transl. G.R. Smith and M.A.
S. Abdel Haleem. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1978.
Lombard, M. “La Chasse et les Produits de la Chasse dans
le Monde Musulman (VUIe-XIe Siecle).” Annales
Economies Societes Civilisations 24 (1969): 572-93.
Mercier, Louis. La Chasse et les Sports Che: les Arabes.
Paris: M. Riviere, 1927.

Serjeant, R.B. South Arabian Hunt. London: Luzac, 1976.
Vire, Francois "Le Traite de L’Art de Volerie (K. al-Bay-
zara).” Arabica 12 (1965): 1-26, 113-39, 262-96; 13
(1966): 39-76.

HUSAYN IBN ‘ALI

Husayn ibn ‘Ali was the grandson of the Prophet
Muhammad and the son of Ali and the Prophet’s
daughter Fatima. He is regarded as one of the early
imams of the Shi’is, and his defiance of the Umayyad
Caliph Yazid, which led to his death and the massacre
of his family and supporters at Karbala in 680 CE,
has immortalized him in the Muslim — and particular-
ly Shi’i — imagination as one of the great martyr fig-
ures of Islam.

Husayn was born in Medina in 626 and as a child is
believed to have been held in great affection by the
Prophet. As a young man, he participated in the work
of his father, Ali, including in his military campaigns.
After the death of his father in 661 and the accession to
power of Muawiyah, Husayn maintained a low profile
and, although dismissive of the usurpation of power by
Muawiyah, did not seek to foment open rebellion.
However, when Muawiyah sought to impose his son
Yazid as successor and thereby to institutionalize the
rule of the Umayyad dynasty, Husayn declined to
offer allegiance (bay a). He was approached by the
people of Kufa to oppose Yazid and accept the mantle
of leadership, which they believed was his right. In
response to their call, Husayn — together with a small

band of followers and members of his family — left
Mecca for Kufa. On his way, he learned of the execu-
tions of some of his closest supporters by the
Umayyads and decided to urge those from his group
who were not willing to put their lives at risk to volun-
tarily depart. He continued on his way to Kufa with
the rest of the group, and he camped at a place called
Karbala. In the meantime, a contingent from Yazid’s
army of about four thousand members arrived at the
scene and ordered the small band to acknowledge
Yazid’s authority while also cutting off their access to
the river for water.

The final confrontation as recorded by Muslim
historians is the tragic account of the encirclement
and massacre of Husayn and his small army, which
was said to number seventy-two men. They fought
gallantly, but they were soon overpowered, and
Husayn, his brother, and some of his closest relatives
were slaughtered. Husayn’s head was taken to
Damascus to be displayed before Yazid and his court.

The events of Karbala and the death of Husayn
catalyzed opposition to the Umayyad dynasty and
rallied support around the family of Husayn and the
general cause of the Alids. Husayn’s son, Ali, who
was spared in the battle, assumed the role of leader
and imam of Husayn’s followers, thus crystallizing
further a distinctive Shi’i identity.

Although there are differing accounts regarding
where Husayn’s remains were taken, it is generally
believed that he was buried at Karbala, where, in
time, a mausoleum was built to honor his memory.
The mausoleum at Karbala is the most visited pil-
grimage center in Shi’i Islam after the Ka’ba. It is
the center of prayers, devotions, and rituals asso-
ciated with Husayn’s memory and death, which is
commemorated in particular and with great religious
fervor and intensity during the first ten days of
Muharram, known as Ashura.

The devotions during Ashura have evolved to rep-
resent two major ritual expressions. The first, known
as rawzeh-khani, involves preaching that is based on
the Karbala narrative, and, over the ten-day period, a
formal recounting of the events is made in the context
of the Shi’i interpretation of Muslim history, with a
special focus on notions of persecution, suffering,
resistance, and martyrdom. Another major ritual ex-
pression developed much later in history and is
known as taziyeh, a form of passion play that reenacts
the events of Karbala. During these rituals, some
participants express their internal grief through acts
of chest beating and flagellation. Taziyed processions
can be highly stylized and may include structures
representing Husayn’s bier and a riderless horse.

Husayn’s life and death are also evoked in special
poems of remembrance that have been composed to

339

HUSAYN IBN ‘ALI

highlight key themes such as justice, devotion, and
courage in the face of oppression. Recitations of these
poems, accompanied by music, have also developed
into a special genre. Although a significant part of
the focus of these expressions is found in Shi’i litera-
ture and cultural life, Husayn’s example has pervaded
all periods of Muslim history, thought, and culture,
and it transcends geographic and ethnic differen-
ces. Shrines, mosques, and places of remembrance
are found throughout the Muslim world. Among the
Shi’is, special structures called Husayniyah are built
to commemorate Ashura and to hold sessions of
remembrance for other imams and martyred figures.

In situations of historical conflict and warfare,
Husayn’s example is often invoked to gain support
for particular political and religious causes. This is
illustrated in the appropriation of the Karbala narra-
tive, for example, during the Iranian revolution in

1979 and during the conflicts in Iraq in the 1990s
and 2000s. However, the more enduring aspects of
Husayn’s life are the ones that continue to inspire
Muslims: selfless leadership, commitment to justice,
courage in the face of oppression, and, above all,
devotion to God and the cause of Islam.

Azim Nanji

Further Reading

Ahmad, Fazl. Husayn, the Great Martyr. Lahore:
Muhammad Ashraf, 1969.

Ayoub, M. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the
Devotional Aspects of Ashura in Twelver Shiism. The
Hague: Mouton, 1978.

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shii Islam. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Sobhani, Jafar. Doctrines of Shii Islam. London: Institute of
Ismaili Studies and I.B. Tauris, 2001.

340

IB ADIS

Ibadis (whites) were a moderate madhhab (school)
of the Kharijite sect who had survived the defeat of
the more extreme ‘Azraqite’ Kharijite sect in Iraq in
699 CE. The Kharijite center in Basra, Iraq, then
became the center of an extensive network of Ibadite
propagandists — hamalat al-‘ilm (transmitters of
learning). As with other Kharijite-inspired sects, Iba-
dites made headway only on the fringes of the caliphal
lands where the sect’s leadership and common goal
often helped coalesce otherwise fissiparous “tribal
identities.” In the later eighth century until the end
of the ninth century, Ibadites maintained an indepen-
dent imamate in 'Ll man (Oman). There was a brief
‘Umani Ibadite resurgence in the eleventh century
and the development of an Ibadi madhhab (theologi-
cal school), and ‘Umani activity in Indian Ocean
trade led to the establishment of Ibadi colonies on
the East African coast. During the seventeenth centu-
ry, Ibadite Omanis became a considerable force in the
Indian Ocean.

However, it was in the Maghrib where Ibadis were
to have their most significant impact. Kharijite emis-
saries from Basra, both Sufrite (yellow) and Ibadite
(white) Kharijites, are reputed to have appeared in
Qayrawan in Ifriqiyya circa 719. Kharijite doctrine
provided the ideological leadership for the great
Berber Kharijite revolt in North Africa that began
in Tangier in 740.

In North Africa, Ibadites were first strongest
in Tripolitania, and following the collapse of the
Umayyad caliphate and prior to ‘Abbasid consolida-
tion, an Ibadite imamate was proclaimed — probably

also in reaction to the rival Kharijite Sufrite sect’s
conquest of Qayrawan in 756. The Ibadites then brief-
ly conquered Qayrawan in 758 and installed the
(Iranian) Ibadite missionary Imam Ibn Rustman.
However, the new ‘Abbasid caliphate forced Ibadite
tribes to move westward. Although the new ‘Abbasid
caliphate managed to wrest back power over Ifriqiyya
in the Maghrib proper, the unity of Islam had
been destroyed. Imam Ibn Rustman, forced from
Qayrawan, founded an Ibadite confederacy of Berber
tribes with a capital at Tahart (ca. 761-762). Tahert
became the de facto imamate and capital of Ibadite
Berber tribes across North Africa.

Trade was vital to the Kharijite success in the
Maghrib, and the dynamic of conquest and rebellion
reified old trade routes and connections between
communities in North Africa dormant since the
Arab conquest. Pushed to the fringes of caliphal
power, Kharijite communities survived at the oases
that were important to the growing trans-Saharan
trade. Merchants were prominent members of the
original Ibadite community, perhaps accounting for
its moderate and pragmatic stance in comparison
with other Kharijite sects. Many Ibadite emissaries
or missionaries were also merchants, and in the
ninth century the persecution of the Ibadite com-
munity in the ‘Abbasid east forced more of them
westward. By the ninth and tenth centuries, mer-
chants from Basra, Kufa, and Khurasan from the
old Kharijite strongholds were present in the new
Kharijite centers of Tahert, Zawila, and Sijilmasa.
Trade routes from Tahert reached the rich Sudanic
kingdoms of Gao and Ghana.

341

IBADIS

The Fatimids brought an end to the Ibadite imam-
ate of Tahert in 909, but Ibadite communities main-
tained their strong role in trans-Saharan trade and
dominated the commercial towns along the route,
such as Zawila, Tadmekka, and Awdaghust. Ibadite
merchants and missionaries converted some of the first
sub-Saharan Africans to Islam, and one community
elected a "black slave” as their Imam.

Cedric Barnes

Further Reading

Brett, M. Ibn Khaldun and the Medieval Maghrib. Aider-
shot, 1999.

. “The Arab Conquest and the Rise of Islam

in North Africa.” In The Cambridge History of Africa,
vol 2., from c. 500 BC to AD 1050, edited by J.D. Fage.
Cambridge, 1978.

Levtzion, N. “The Sahara and Sudan from the Arab Con-
quest of the Maghrib to the Rise of the Almoravids.” In
The Cambridge History of Africa, vol 2., from c. 500 BC
to AD 1050, edited by J.D. Fage. Cambridge, 1978.

Lewicki, Tadeuz. “The Ibadites in Arabia and Africa.”
Journal of World History XIII, no. 1 (1971).

Trimingham, J.S. Islam in East Africa. Oxford, 1964.

Wilkinson, John C. The Imamate Tradition of Oman.
Cambridge, 1987.

IBN AL-‘ADIM, KAMAL AL-DIN ABU
HAFS ‘UMAR B. AHMAD

Ibn al-‘Adim was a prominent religious, political, and
literary figure of the North Syrian city of Aleppo. He
was born in Aleppo in AH 588/1193 CE into a family
celebrated for supplying qadis (Islamic judges) to the
city over generations. Ibn al-‘Adim was trained in fiqh
(Islamic jurisprudence) and became director of one of
Aleppo’s principal Islamic schools, the Madrasah al-
Hallawiyya. Successive Ayyubid rulers of Aleppo
entrusted him with a number of diplomatic missions.
The last of these was in AH 658/1260 CE, in which he
went to Egypt to seek help against the Mongols,
shortly before they took Aleppo. He died in exile in
Cairo two years later.

Ibn al-‘Adim wrote a number of works, not all
of which have survived. They include a treatise on
handwriting, a thesis on the preparation of perfumes,
and an address to a ruler of Aleppo on the birth of
his son. But he is best known to modern scholarship
for his chronicle of Aleppo and northern Syria,
the Zubdat al-halab fi ta’rikh Halab (The Cream of
the Milk as Regards the History of Aleppo ) . This is the
principal source for events in the area during the
author’s lifetime.

In his own day, however, Ibn al-‘Adim was cele-
brated for his Bughyat al-talab fi ta ’rikh Halab ( What

Is Desirable in the Pursuit for the History of Aleppo ) .
A characteristic production of the medieval adab
(belles-lettres) tradition, the Bughyat al-talab is a
biographical dictionary of notable people associated
with Aleppo, from remotest antiquity to the com-
piler’s own times. In addition to factual information,
an entry often contains examples of the subject’s
verse, or transmission of hadith (Prophetic tradition).
The original work, of which only a quarter survives,
apparently filled forty volumes containing seventeen
thousand pages of twenty lines each, and is believed
to have been penned by Ibn al-‘Adim himself during
the last two years of his life.

David Morray

See also Adab; Aleppo; Ayyubid; Biography and
Biographical Works; Madrasa

Primary Sources

Ibn al-‘Adim. Zubdat al-hcdab fi ta’rikh Halab. 3 vols. Edi-
ted by Sami al-Dahhan. Damascus: Institut Frangais de
Damas, 1951-1968.

. Bughyat al-talab fi ta’rikh Halab. 1 1 vols. Edited by

Suhayl Zakkar. Damascus: Dar al-Ba‘th, 1988.

Further Reading

Morray, David W. An Ayyubid Notable and His World: Ibn
al-Adim and Aleppo as Portrayed in His Biographical
Dictionary of People Associated with the City. Leiden:
E. J. Brill, 1994.

IBN AL-ATHIR, ‘ALI ABU ‘L HASAN
‘IZZ AL-DIN

Ibn al-Athir was a scholar ( 1160-1232 CE) who spent
most of his life in Mosul (present-day northern Iraq),
with short spells in Syria. Details of his life are hardly
known because he rarely referred to himself in his
writings. He was the scion of a notable Mosulian
family that had acquired some wealth by engaging
in trade and owned real estates. His father and two
of his brothers played an active role in political life by
serving Zankid and Ayyubid rulers in northern Iraq
and Syria. It is not clear whether Ibn al-Athir himself
had official positions, but he enjoyed at least the
patronage of members of the Zankid dynasty and
their high officials and served as the dynasty’s envoy
to Baghdad.

Ibn al-Athir’s fame has rested with his universal
history al- Kamil fi al-ta’rikh (The Perfect History),
which reports events from the creation of the world
until shortly before the author’s death. The scope
of this voluminous work was unusual for its period

342

IBN AL-HAYTHAM, OR ALHAZEN

because most chronicles tended to be local histories
that concentrated on the immediate past (such as
those by Abu Shama, Ibn al-‘Adim, and Ibn Wasil).
The Kamil was regarded by its contemporaries and
following generations as an outstanding achievement
in the field of history for several reasons. The coher-
ent account focuses on the main events by artfully
integrating a variety of sources. At the same time
Ibn al-Athir strove to treat also events in neighboring
regions of the Islamic world, such as Egypt and
Persia. Although the chronicle followed the period’s
dominant annalistic scheme of organizing the materi-
al, Ibn al-Athir transgressed this rigid framework
when necessary. He drew together elements of events,
which stretched over several years, under one heading
in order to avoid the continuous interruption of the
narrative. Finally, as the author eschewed explicit
partisanship to political or sectarian causes he was
able to reach a broad readership.

Shortcomings of his work, for example, that
he hardly covered more distant areas such as the
Maghrib, did not alter its popularity. However,
from a modern perspective the chronicle poses several
problems, chief among them the author’s method
of omitting his sources to avoid interrupting the nar-
rative. Consequently, the bulk of his work prior to his
own lifetime, while retaining its literary value, can
hardly be used for historical purposes. The parts
contemporary to him are of greater historical value,
but the implicit support of the Zankid dynasty has to
be kept in mind when reading the text.

The Crusades play no particular role in the
Kamil'?, narrative because they hardly altered the
chain of events as laid out by Ibn al-Athir. However,
in a famous passage the author linked the advent
of the First Crusade in the late eleventh-century
Middle East to the Christian advances into Muslim
territories in Andalus/Spain and Sicily, an insight
of historical broadness rarely found among his
contemporaries.

Ibn al-Athir composed another chronicle, al-
Ta ’rikh al-bahir ( The Splendid History ) , on the Zankid
dynasty of his hometown of Mosul, which due to its
limited geographical and chronological focus, as well
as its more explicit partisanship for the Zankids, did
not reach the reputation of the Kamil. Ibn al-Athir’s
fame in history did not only rest on his chronicle but
also on biographical works, especially his account of
the Companions of the Prophet. This work’s virtues,
again, were its coherent account and its focus on
main issues.

Konrad Hirschler

See also Historical Writing; Biography and Biographi-
cal Works

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Athir. al-Kamil fi al-tci ’rikh. 1 3 vols. Edited by Carolus
J. Tornberg. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1965-1967 (eprint of
1851-1871 edition with corrections and new pagination).

Further Reading

Ahmad, M. H. M. “Some Notes on Arabic Historiography
during the Zengid and Ayyubid Periods (521/1127-648/
1250).” In Historians of the Middle East, edited by
Bernard Lewis and Peter M. Holt, 79-97 . Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1962.

Robinson, Chase F. Islamic Historiography. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Rosenthal, Franz. A History of Muslim Historiography.
Leiden: Brill, 1968.

IBN AL-FURAT

Nasir al-Din b. ‘Abd al-Rahim b. ‘Ali b. al-Furat al-
Misri al-Hanafi (d. 1404—1405), was the Mamluk-era
author of a universal history titled Ta’rikh al-Duwal
wa-l-Muluk. The work has proved valuable for mod-
ern historians, particularly for its coverage of the
Ayyubid and Mamluk periods — including details of
the late Crusade period — although there are gaps in
the surviving manuscripts. The T a ‘rikh al-Duwal wa-1-
Muluk was subsequently used by later Mamluk-era
historians, notably al-Maqrizi (d. 1442). An analysis
of portions of his work reveals Ibn al-Furat to have
been interested primarily in the recording of signifi-
cant political and economic events and the associated
activities of the ruling elite.

Warren C. Schultz

Further Reading

Cahen. Cl. “Ibn al-Furat.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed.,
vol. 3.2, 768-769.

Little, D.P. An Introduction to Mamluk Historiography.
Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1970.

IBN AL-HAYTHAM, OR ALHAZEN

The polymath Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (ca.
965-1039 CE), known in Latin as Alhazen, was born
in Basra, Iraq. After completing his studies in Iraq, he

343

IBN AL-HAYTHAM, OR ALHAZEN

settled in Egypt, wherein he was commissioned to
design a dam on the Nile. The failure of this project
led him to feign madness until the death of his erratic
patron, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim (1021 CE).
Although his prolific contributions covered a variety
of disciplines in mathematics, astronomy, and me-
chanics, his impact was greatest in the field of optics.
His chef-d'oeuvre Kit ah al-Manazir (The Optics, ca.
1027 CE), which was translated into Latin as De
aspectibus (ca. 1270 CE), decisively shaped the
emerging theory of perspective in medieval and
Renaissance science and art. His influence is notice-
able in medieval scholars such as Roger Bacon, John
Peckham, and Witelo and in Renaissance theorists
such as Leon Battista Alberti and Lorenzo Ghiberti.
In medieval science in Islam, Kamal al-Din al-Farisi’s
Tanqih al-Manazir (The Revision of the Optics)
advanced the most substantive critical interpretation
of Ibn al-Haytham. His theory of vision constituted
an outstanding achievement in optics in the period
between Claudius Ptolemy and Johannes Kepler. He
resolved the ancient Greek dispute over the nature
and causation of vision, which had either been
derived, in physical terms, from the intromission of
the form of a visible object into the eye or from the
mathematical model of the extromission of a cone
of light from the eye. Following physicists like
Aristotle, Ibn al-Haytham argued that vision occurs
by intromission of the luminous form of the visible
object into the eye. However, in elucidating this pro-
cess he employed the model of the cone of vision as
formulated by mathematicians such as Euclid and
Ptolemy. He thus demonstrated that vision results
from the intromission of a luminous form by way of
the rectilinear propagation of light through a trans-
parent medium; there is a virtual cone whose vertex is
in the center of the eye and whose base is on the
surface of the visible entity. He also held that visual
perception is not a mere sensation but is primarily an
inferential act of discernment and judgment. More-
over, he supplemented his Optics with Treatise on
Light (Risala fi l-Daw’), which further investigated
the essence and comportment of luminosity and its
radiant dispersion through various transparent and
translucent media. His ocular observations were
founded on anatomical examinations of the structure
of the eye, as well as being supported by experimental
installations devised to detect errors and illusions in
visual perception and to explore phenomena like the
camera obscura (the darkroom principle behind the
pinhole camera). Ibn al-Haytham also investigated
meteorological aspects related to the rainbow and to
the density of the atmosphere, as well as inquiring
about the nature of celestial phenomena such as the
eclipse, the twilight, and moonlight. In this endeavor.

he relied on his accounts of refraction and on catop-
trical experimentations with spherical and parabolic
mirrors and magnifying lenses. He also presented a
thorough critique of the conception of place ( topos)
as set in Aristotle’s Physics, wherein it was stated
that the place of something is the two-dimensional
boundary of the containing body that is at rest and
is in contact with what it contains. In contrast with
this definition, Ibn al-Haytham rather attempted to
demonstrate in his Risala ji’l-makan (Treatise on
Place) that place (al-makan) is the imagined three-
dimensional void between the inner surfaces of the
containing body. Consequently, he showed that place
was akin to space in a manner that prefigures De-
scartes’s extensio. Building on the legacy of Euclid,
and partly informed by the works of the mathemati-
cian Thabit ibn Qurra (d. 901 CE), Ibn al-Haytham
further systematized the arts of analytical geometry
(linking algebra to geometry), infinitesimal mathe-
matics, conics, and number theory. In addition, he
studied the mechanics of the first law of motion
according to which it is held that a body moves per-
petually unless prevented from doing so by an ex-
ternal force that arrests it or alters its direction. In
examining the attraction between masses he also
seems to have been tangentially aware of the magni-
tude of acceleration due to a principle akin to the
force of gravity. Pioneer in his pursuits, he also striv-
ed to develop rigorous experimental methods of
controlled scientific testing in view of verifying
theoretical hypotheses and substantiating inductive
conjectures.

Nader El-Bizri

See also Algebra; Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Astro-
nomy; Geometry; Mathematics; Meteorology; Optics;
Ptolemy; Thabit ibn Qurra

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Haytham. Kitab al-manazir. Edited by Abdelhamid I.
Sabra. Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts and
Letters, 1983.

. The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books I-III, On

Direct Vision. Translated by Abdelhamid I. Sabra. Lon-
don: The Warburg Institute, University of London,
1989.

. Majmu ’ al-rasa ’il. Haydar Abad: Da’irat al-Ma’arif

al-‘Uthmaniyya, 1937.

Further Reading

Beshara, Saleh O. Ibn cil-Haytham' s Optics: A Study of
the Origins of Experimental Science. Minneapolis:
Bibliotheca Islamica, 1977.

Nazif, Mustafa. al-Hasan bin al-Haytham. 2 vols. Cairo:
Mcitba'at cil-nuri, 1942-1943.

344

IBN AL-JAWZI

Rashed, Roshdi. Les mathematiques infinitesimales du IX e
au XI e siecle: Ibn al-Haytham, Volumes II-IV. London:
al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1993-2002.

Sabra, Abdelhamid 1. “The Physical and the Mathematical
in Ibn al-Haytham’s Theory of Light and Vision.”
In The Commemoration Volume of Biruni International
Congress in Tehran. Vol. 38. Tehran: High Council of
Culture and Arts, 1976.

. “Sensation and Inference in Alhazen’s Theory of

Visual Perception.” In Studies in Perception: Interrela-
tions in the History of Philosophy and Science. Edited
by Peter K. Machamer and Robert G. Turnbull. Ohio:
Ohio State University Press, 1978.

IBN AL-JAWZI

Ibn al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Ali b. Muhammad
Abu ’1-Faraj, a legal scholar, theologian, preacher,
and historian, was one of the most prominent figures
of twelfth-century Baghdad. Born around 1126 CE to
a fairly wealthy family, he lived in the city a life of
great intellectual, religious, and political activity. Elis
life, which lasted to the end of the twelfth century,
illustrates major characteristics of the political and
religious milieu of Baghdad during the so-called
Sunni Revival. In particular, his career and activities
as a Hanbali master and preacher reflect the sig-
nificant role played by Elanbali popular preachers
of this period in shaping the city’s public sphere.
Seen in the broader perspective of the medieval Is-
lamic civilization, the century during which he lived
was a particularly productive and significant period
in the history of Islamic preaching, comparable to the
twelfth century in the history of preaching in the
Latin West.

By the twelfth century, Baghdad had become a
major scene in the development of the madrasa and
the crystallization of the Sunni schools of jurispru-
dence. Ibn al-Jawzi’s teaching career began as an assis-
tant to his master in his two madrasas and culminated
in the directorship of five prestigious madrasas erect-
ed in the city for adherents to the Hanbali school.
His prominence in Baghdad’s official and public
spheres was due to his preaching as to his teaching
activity at the Hanbali law colleges. Not only did he
deliver the official sermons of the Palace mosque
but he also preached many popular sermons to very
large and enthusiastic crowds. His sermons vigor-
ously defended the Sunna against all those whom he
considered to be schismatic and criticized those Sunni
scholars who, in his view, did not fully adhere to the
uncompromising demand of Hanbali scholars for
conformity and uniformity among the “people of
the Sunna” in accordance with the perfect integrity
of the simple original faith. At the same time, he called
for the restoration of the caliphate — an institution

commonly perceived as the symbol of legitimate gov-
ernment and unity among Muslims. For many years
he was closely associated with the ‘Abbasids who
supported and encouraged his teaching and preaching
activities in Baghdad’s public arena. However, to-
ward the end of his life, he was exiled and put under
house arrest by decree of the caliph al-Nasir, whose
policy he had refuted. Soon after his triumphant
return to Baghdad, Ibn al-Jawzi died in 1200.

Ibn al-Jawzi was clearly one of the most prolific
and versatile authors of medieval Arabic literature.
Several medieval authors place the number of his
writings at nearly a thousand. While this is probably
an exaggerated figure, enough information is avail-
able to indicate that the extent of his literary corpus
is very considerable indeed. A glance at the titles of
his works that are extant indicates that they range
across the entire spectrum of the great Islamic and
literary disciplines.

His outstanding work, al-Muntazam, is a universal
history, relating the history of the world in chrono-
logical order from its beginnings to the year 1179.
Following each year entry, he provides richly docu-
mented biographies of all prominent people who died
during that particular year: caliphs, viziers, judges,
high officials, scholars, and pious men. His two
other major historical works belong to the biographi-
cal genre, one of the most productive genres of the
Islamic literary tradition. His Sifat al-safwa is a col-
lection of biographies of those whom he considered
to be true Sufis, that is, the ascetic worshipers who
followed faithfully the teaching of the Prophet and
his Companions. His Manaqib is a collection of pane-
gyric biographies of the historic figures he regarded as
models of proper Islamic creed and conduct.

Ibn al-Jawzi’s zeal as a defender of true faith
appears with particular fervor in his Tcdbis iblis, one
of the major works of Hanbali polemic. In this work
he launched an attack not only on the various here-
tical sects but also on all those whom he considered
responsible for introducing bid' a (negative innova-
tions) into Sunnism, and of these, particularly, the
Muslim mystics. His views and tenets are no more
clearly expressed than in his collections of homilies
consisting of the four subgenres that make up the
medieval Arabic homily: the khutba (hymn of praise),
the qissa (pious story), the wa'z (admonition), and the
khawatim (concluding verses of poetry). Furthermore,
the collection of sermons he left reflects his promi-
nence in the society within which he was embedded
and his significant contribution to the evolution of
the Islamic art of sermon composition and preaching.

Daphna Ephrat

Further Reading

Ibn al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Ali. Kitab al-Lutf
fi’l-wa'z. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 1984.

. Kitab al-qussas wa’l-mudhakkirin. Edited and trans-
lated by Merlin Swartz. Beirut: Dar al-Machreq, 1984.

. Al-Muntazam fi ta’rikh al-muluk wa’l-umam. 5 vols.

[=Vols. V-X]. Hyderabad, Deccan: Dairat el-Maaref
Osmania, 1938-1940.

. Sifat al-safwa. Hyderabad, Deccan: Dairat el-

Maaref Osmania, 1936-1938.

. Talbis iblis. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiyya, n.d.

Hartmann, A. “Les ambivalences d'un sermonnaire hanba-
lite.” Annales Islamologiques 22 (1986), 52 ff.

. “La predication islamique au moyen age: Ibn al-

Jawzi et des sermons (fin du 6 e /12 e siecle).” Quadrani di
studiarabi. 5-6 (1987-1988): 337-346.

Laoust, H. “Les Agitations Religieuses a Baghdad aux IV e
et V e siecles de l'Hegire.” In Islamic Civilization 950-
1150, edited by D.S. Richards. Oxford: Cassirer, 1973.

Leder, S. Ibn al-Gauzi und seine Kompilation wider die
Leidenschaft. Beirut: In Kommission bei Franz Steiner
Verlag, 1984.

Swartz, Merlin. “The Rules of Popular Preaching in
Twelfth-Century Baghdad According to Ibn al-Jawzi”.
In Preaching and Propaganda in the Middle Ages, edited
by G. Makdisi et al, 223-239. Islam, Byzantium, Latin
West. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1983.

. “Arabic Rhetoric and the Art of Homily in Medie-
val Islam.” In Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam,
edited by Richard G. Hovannisian and George Sabagh.
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.

IBN AL-MU Q AFF A‘

Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (c. 723-759 CE) was a prolific trans-
lator and the author of original works on ethics and
statecraft. He was born in Fars (Southwest Persia,
today Iran) to a family of local notables. In the course
of his education he mastered the various scripts used
to write Pahlavi, an archaic written form of Persian.
He was thus able to read the epic histories, works of
advice to kings, and other genres of wisdom literature
left behind by the Sasanian Empire that had once
ruled Southwest Asia.

After studying in the southern Iraqi city of Basra
to perfect his knowledge of Arabic, Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
held a series of secretarial posts under the Umayyad
governors of Shapur and Kirman. Unlike many of his
colleagues, he escaped persecution when the ‘Abbasid
revolution (750) overthrew the Umayyad dynasty.
Returning to Basra, he served as a secretary to the
brothers of the reigning caliph al-Mansur. When one
of the brothers made an abortive bid for the throne,
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ was asked to draft a letter asking the
caliph not to retaliate against his rebellious relative.
The terms of the letter angered the caliph, who
expressed the wish that someone might rid him of

this troublesome secretary. Taking the hint, the
governor of Basra had Ibn al-MuqafTa' executed,
reportedly by being chopped to pieces.

In the course of his short career, Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
translated numerous works of Sasanian literature
from Pahlavi into Arabic. The most famous of these
is Kalila and Dimna, a collection of fables that had
been translated from Sanskrit into Pahlavi. The
stories, which feature both human and animal char-
acters, show how foresight, self-restraint, and trickery
can be used to one’s advantage. The book’s preface,
which claims to be the autobiography of the Persian
physician who translated the book from the original
Sanskrit, contains a searching critique of institutiona-
lized religion. The work inspired at least seven direct
translations from the Arabic into other languages. The
most influential was the second Hebrew translation,
which was made around 1270. It inspired versions in
German, Spanish, and Italian, the last of which served
as the basis of the first English rendering (1570).

In addition to Kalila and Dimna, Ibn al-Muqaffa‘
translated Pahlavi works on history, statecraft, and
ethics. None of his translations survives in its entirety,
although one ( The Letter of Tansar ) is known through
a later rendering into New Persian. The rest are widely
quoted by classical Arabic authors, and even in this
fragmentary form constitute an important source of
information on pre-Islamic Iran. He has also been
credited with a translation of an Aristotelian work
on logic, but the attribution is erroneous.

Of the works he himself wrote in Arabic, the most
famous is his work on adab. Adab means “the right
way of doing something,” and his book offers advice
on how to win friends, prosper in one’s career, and
avoid incurring the wrath of one’s superiors. Due to
the influence of this work (as well as an imitation of it
commonly misattributed to him), adab came to mean
not only “social skills” but also “books about social
skills,” and eventually “secular literature,” which,
along with “good manners,” is the meaning of the
term in modern Arabic.

Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ is also famous for his letter of
advice to the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (AH 136-
158/754-775 CE) recommending that the latter pro-
mulgate an official statement of the Islamic creed,
adopt a uniform code of law, and pay the army regu-
larly. The recommendations were not adopted, but
the diagnosis of the state of the empire proved strik-
ingly prescient.

To Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ also are ascribed a defense of
Manichean dualism and a few lines of prose written in
imitation of the Qur’an. Authentic or not, these texts
contributed to his posthumous reputation as a here-
tic, which clung to him despite his conversion from
Zoroastrianism to Islam.

346

IBN AL-NAFIS

Industrious, unsentimental, and often irreverent,
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ deserves much of the credit for
preserving the literary legacy of the Sasanian empire
and, in the process, creating a precedent for the use of
Arabic as a vehicle for secular prose literature.

Michael Cooperson

See also ‘Abbasids; Adab; Aristotle and Aristotelian-
ism; Basra; Sasanians, Islamic Traditions; Umayyads

Primary Sources

Al-aclab al-kabir wa al-adab al-saghir. Edited by In'am
Fawwal. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1994.

Kalila wa Dimna li 'Abel Allah Ibn al-Muqaffa' . Edited by
‘Abd al-Wahhab ‘Azzam et al. Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq,
1973. English translation (based on other sources) in
Kalilah and Dimnah. An English Version of Bidpai ’s Fables
Based upon Ancient Arabic and Spanish Manuscripts.
Translated by Thomas Ballantine Irving. Newark, DE:
Juan de la Cuesta, 1980.

La Lotta tra I’Islam e il Manicheismo: un libro di Ibn
al-Muqaffa‘ contro il Corano confutato da al-Qasim b.
Ibrahim. Edited and translated by Michaelangelo
Guidi. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1927
(contains passages from the Manichean tract with Italian
translation).

Pellat, Charles. Ibn al-Muqaffa', mort vers 140/757, “con-
seilleur” du caliphe. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1976 (contains
the letter to al-Mansur).

The Letter of Tansar. Translated by Mary Boyce. Rome:
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1968.

Further Reading

de Blois, Francois. Burzoy’s Voyage to India and the Origin
of the Book of Kalilah wa Dimnah. London: Royal Asi-
atic Society, 1990 (with extensive further bibliography).

Latham, J.D. “Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ and Early ‘Abbasid Prose.”
In ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, edited by Julia Ashtiany et al.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

van Ess, Josef. “Some Fragments of the Mu'aradat al-
Qur’an Attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffa‘.” [the passages in
imitation of the Qur’an] In Studio Arabica et Islamica,
Festchrift for Ihsan ‘Abbas, edited by Wadad al-Qadi.
Beirut: American University in Beirut, 1981.

IBN AL-NAFIS

‘Ala’ al-Din ‘Ali ibn Abi 1‘Haram al-Qurasi, com-
monly known as Ibn al-Nafis, was a renowned physi-
cian and an author of and commentator on medical
works. He also wrote about the fields of grammar,
rhetoric, logic, religious sciences, and, famously, of
religious philosophy. Ibn al-Nafis was born probably
in the second decade of the thirteenth century and
grew up and was educated in Damascus. At some
point, he moved to Cairo, where he practiced and
taught at a hospital of unknown identity, perhaps

the Bimaristan al-Nasiri, and eventually attained
the post of chief of physicians (ray ‘is al-aibba) of
Egypt and the influential honor of being personal
physician to the Mamluk sultan, probably al-Zahir
Baybars (r. 1260-1277). One of his contemporary and
compatriot students was the surgeon Ibn al-Quff
(1233-1286). Ibn al-Nafis may have crossed paths
with Ibn abi Usaybi’a (d. 1270) in Cairo, but it does
not figure in the latter’s biographical collection of
Arabic medicine. Toward the end of his life, Ibn
al-Nafis bequeathed his house and library to the
Mansuri hospital, founded by the sultan al-Mansur
Qallwun (r. 1279-1290) in 1284. He died in Cairo on
Dec. 17, 1288.

Ibn al-Nafis was extolled by his admiring bio-
graphers and colleagues as a “second Avicenna”; his
prominent position in the scholarly heritage of the
Arabs until today is reflected in the fact that many
hospitals in the Arab world are named after him. In
fact, the breadth of his scholarship, his ability for
synthesis, and his independent judgment, an indicator
of which is the scarcity of his literal references to
preceding scholarly literature, are remarkable. More
decisive is the fact that Ibn al-Nafis, with his treat-
ment of Avicenna’s Qanun, inaugurated a long series
of commentaries and supercommentaries to this
medical encyclopedia and helped to establish its do-
minant position for some centuries to come. Of his
extant commentaries on medical writings a number
deal with the Corpus Hippocraticum : the Aphorisms,
the Prognostics, the Epidemics (for which cf. the essay
by P. Bachmann), and De natura hominis ; the writings
of Galen do not seem to have attracted Ibn al-Nafis’
solicitude, because, according to his biographer, al-
Safadi, and contrary to his Damascene teacher,
Muhaddib al-Din al-Dahwar (d. 1230), “he loathed
the style of Galen and described it as weak and pro-
fuse with nothing in it.” Apart from a commentary on
the famous medical catechism al-Masa’il fi l-Oibb by
Hunayn b. Ishaq (d. 873 or 877), he dealt markedly
with Avicenna’s Qanun, first in the form of an
epitome, Mujiz, treating all parts of medicine as they
are dealt with in the Qanun, except for anatomy and
physiology; and second, a commentary, Sarh al-
Qanun. The Mujiz gave rise to a host of commentar-
ies, and one Hebrew and two Turkish translations
are known. Among the commentators, the most widely
read authors are Sadld al-Din al-Kazaruni (d. 1357);
Gamal al-Din al-Aqsara’i (d. 1378); Nafis b. ‘Iwad al-
Kirmani (wrote in 1437), whose commentary in turn
was repeatedly commented on into the nineteenth
century; and Ibn al-Amsati (d. 1496). Ibn al-Nafis’
Sarh al- Qanun, as well as at least one of his manu-
scripts, written before 1242 and bearing the separate
title Sarh tasrih al- Qanun, contain the earliest account

347

IBN AL-NAFIS

of the pulmonary blood circulation, which contradicts
both common theories of a visible passage and the
Galenic assumption of an invisible passage of the
blood between the two cavities of the heart and
which antedates the publication, in 1553, of the perti-
nent account by Michael Servetus, possibly through
the communication of Ibn al-Nafis’ ideas by the trans-
lator Andrea Alpago (d. 1520), by three centuries. The
anatomical observation that the cardiac wall is imper-
meable leads Ibn al-Nafis to the logical postulation
that “when the blood [in the right cavity] has become
thin, it is passed through the arterial vein into the lung,
in order to be dispersed within the substance of the
lung and to mix with the air, whereupon the finest parts
of the blood are refined and, after mixing with the air
and becoming fit for the generation of pneuma, are
passed through the venous artery into the left cavity”
(cf. Iskandar 1970-1980: 603, and Ullmann 1970: 173-
176; for the recent discussion of Ibn al-Nafis’ theory,
cf. Iskandar 1970-1980: 605 f.). Ibn al-Nafis’ construc-
tion of the pulmonary blood circulation was received
scarcely, if at all, by later scholars of Islamic medicine.
Equally small was the visible reception of his compre-
hensive handbook on ophthalmology, K. al-Muhaddab
fi l-kuhl al-mugarrah . Of his medical Summa, the K. al-
Samil fi l-sina al-tihbiyya , projected to consist of three
hundred volumes, only eighty were completed, and
a number of manuscripts are extant, some of them
autographs of the author.

In his Muhtasar fi ‘ilm uEUl al-hadir, Ibn al-Nafis
gives a short summary (some twenty-four folia) of the
principles of the science of Tradition, “a reminder for
the advanced student and an auxiliary manual for the
beginner,” which is informed by the school of al-Safr’i
and makes extensive use of al-Harib al-Bagdadi’s
Kifaya and, particularly, al-Gazali’s Mustasfa.

Certainly the most original of Ibn al-Nafis’ works
is his Risala al-kamiliyya fi l-sira al-nabawiyya. The
two predecessors of this philosophical allegory are
Avicenna’s Risalat Hayy b. Yaqzan and a work with
the same title (but different intention) by the An-
dalusian physician and philosopher Ibn Tufayl
(d. 1185). While Avicenna’s tale, with its program-
matic title hero who comes into being by spontaneous
generation, grows up on an island without fellow
human beings, and, by his own observation and
reasoning, attains the natural, philosophical, and
theological truths, clearly is the inspiration for both
Ibn Tufayl’s and Ibn al-Nafis’ accounts, the relation-
ship between these two latter authors vis-a-vis
Avicenna is much closer. This shows in the similar
treatment of the hero’s anatomical observations,
which proceed toward a study of the plants, the
meteorological phenomena, the celestial bodies, the
Creator and His attributes, and a number of other

parallels, as the hermeneutical issue of why the Divine
Law is mediated to the common people in the form
of allegories. In turn, Ibn al-Nafis’ account deviates
significantly from that of Ibn Tufayl insofar as his
hero, Kamil, “the Perfect,” deduces not only the rules
of the religious law, the duties of man in worship and
social relations — hence the editors’ title of the edition
of Ibn al-Nafis’ text, Theologns Autodidactus — but
also the historical events from the Prophet Muham-
mad down into the author’s lifetime, not from in-
formation given by visitors to the island from
outside, as Ibn Tufayl had related a hundred years
before, but by his own reasoning. Ibn al-Nafis links
his theological and historical ideas by the concept that
the divine providence is bound to produce a course of
history that is asiah for the community, “that which is
best and most proper,” a concept that is informed
both by Mu‘tazilite thought and Galen’s anatomical
ideas, as famously represented in his De usu partium.

Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt

Primary Sources

Amarat, Hasan (Ed). Ibn an-Nafis. Kompendium iiber die
Wissenschaft von den Grundlagen des Hadit. Edition and
kommentierte Ubersetzung. Hildesheim, Zurich, New
York: Georg Olms Verlag, 1986 (Arabistische Texte
und Studien. Band 1).

Meyerhof, Max, and Joseph Schacht (Eds). The Theologus
Autodidactus of Ibn al-Nafis. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1968.

Qataya, Salman (Ed). K. Sarh tasrih al-Qanun li-Abi
1-Hasan [. . .] Ibn al-Nafis. Al-Qahira: al-Maglis al-A‘la
li-l-taqhfa, al-Hay’a al-misriyya, 1988.

al-Wafa’i, Muhammad Zafir and Muhammad Rawwas
Qal’agi (Eds). Al-Muhaddab fi l-kuhl al-mugarrab li-Ali
b. a. l-Hazm [. . .] Ibn al-Nafis. Casablanca: Malba’at
an-Nagah al-gadida, 1408/1988.

Zaydan, Yusuf (Ed). Sarh Fusul Abuqral li-Alai al-Din
‘Ali [. . .] Ibn al-Nafis. Al-Qahira: al-Dar al-misriyya
al-lubnaniyya, 1411/1991.

Zaydan, Yusuf (Ed). Al-Muhtar min al-aydiya, ma'a dirasa
li-nazariyyat al-tadawi bi-l-gida’ li- [. . .] Ibn al-Nafis.
Al-Qahira: al-Dar al-misriyya al-lubnaniyya, 1412/1992.

Further Reading

Bachmann, Peter. "Quelques remarques sur le commentaire
du premier livre des Epidemies par Ibn an-Nafis.” In
Adas do IV Congresso de Estudos drabes e islamicos.
Coimbra-Lisboa 1 a 8 setembro de 1968. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1971, 301-309.

Heer, Nicholas, “Talafat mugalladat min Kitab as-Samil
li-Ibn an-Nafis.” In Revue de I’lnstitut des Manuscripts
Arabes. 6 (1960): 203-210.

Iskandar, Albert Z. “Ibn al-Nafis.” In Dictionary of Scien-
tific Biography, 14 vols, edited by Charles C. Gillespie,
602-606. Vol 9. New York, 1970-1980.

Iskandar, Albert Z. “Comprehensive book on the art of
medicine by Ibn al-Nafis.” In: www.islamset.com/isc/
nafis/iskandar.html (accessed online on 9/20/2004).

348

IBN ‘ARAB

Kruk, Remke. “History and Apocalypse: Ibn al-Nafis’
Justification of Mamluk rule.” Der Islam 72 (1995):
324—337.

Meyerhof, Max, and Joseph Schacht. “Ibn al-Nafis.“ In
The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New edition. 1 1 vols, edited
by B. Lewis et al. Leiden, 1954-2002. Vol. 3: 897-898.

Savage-Smith, Emilie. “Ibn al-Nafis’s Perfected Book on
Ophthalmology and his Treatment of Trachoma and Its
Sequelae.” Journal for the History of Arabic Science.
4 (1980): 147-187 [with an edition of parts of K.
al-Muhaddab fi tibb al-payn : namat 2, gumla 2, bob 1,
fast 20: fi l-garab ; gumla 3, bab \,fasl 8: fi s-sabal; fast 9:
fi z-zafara, 31M9 (Arabic pagination)].

Ullmann, Manfred. Die Medizin im Islam. Handbuch
der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung. Erganzungsband 6,
Erster Abschnitt. Leiden and Koln: E.J. Brill, 1970,
172-176.

IBN AL-RAWANDI, ABU ’L HUSAYN
AHMAD IBN YAHYA

Perhaps the most notorious freethinker of medieval
Islam, Ibn al-Rawandi was born in Khurasan around
815 CE. He started out as a respected Mu'tazilite
theologian but later became estranged from his for-
mer colleagues, perhaps due to the association with
his mentor, the Manichaean Abu ‘Isa al-Warraq.
From that point on Ibn al-Rawandi is depicted by
most (though not all) of our sources as a heretic who
maliciously scoffs at all religions, particularly Islam. . .
He left Baghdad, apparently to escape persecution by
the authorities, and died in 860 (or, according to other
sources, in 912).

Although one can see this image as a distorted
picture composed by his opponents (as suggested by
Josef van Ess), the accumulated information provid-
ed by the texts suggests that the image had a firm base
in reality, and that Ibn al-Rawandi had indeed out-
stepped the boundaries of Islam. He is said to have
written numerous books, none of which is extant.
Extensive quotations in later Muslim sources, howev-
er, allow us to reconstruct many of his arguments. In
his Book of the Emerald he argued that the human
intellect makes revelation superfluous. God has
provided humanity with the intellect. This intellect,
which is part of the definition of humanity, is given
equally to all human beings and is sufficient to guide
them. The pretenders to prophecy are thus nothing
but impostors and charlatans who exploit their
knowledge of natural phenomena in order to manipu-
late and delude simple people. In this book, those who
serve as Ibn al-Rawandi’s mouthpiece and who pres-
ent his antiprophetic lore are the so-called Brahmans:
Indian polemicists who uphold the intellectual and
spiritual equality of all humans. This literary device
may reflect actual contacts with Indian philos-
ophy, but it may also have been conceived to ward

off accusations of heresy, and as a protective device
against persecution.

Apart from a strong skeptical tenor, it is difficult
to attribute to Ibn al-Rawandi any identifiable posi-
tive belief. He spared no religion, but his most severe
criticism was directed against Islam. His sharp, sar-
castic censure of the Qur’an is characterized by
mocking and irreverent style. He pointed out appar-
ent inconsistencies in the text, as well as to its illogical,
immoral concept of a vengeful God who acts arbi-
trarily. He was preoccupied by questions of theodicy,
to which he dedicated one of his books.

Ibn al-Rawandi’s mastery of the art of dialectical
disputation is recognized by his fiercest opponents.
They claim, however, that he put this talent to ill
use. His image of an enfant terrible is enhanced by
lists of his books, from which it appears that he
cultivated a habit of writing books on various topics,
and then writing refutations of the same books.
Muslim heresiographers and polemicists are baffled
by this practice, which they see as the mark of sense-
less nihilism. Thus, they depict Ibn al-Rawandi as
motivated by mercenary malice alone. But the quota-
tions from his books transpire with genuine exis-
tential anxiety, which must have driven him to his
rebellious ideas.

Sarah Stroumsa

See also Freethinkers; Heresy and Heretics; Mu‘tazi-
lites; Al-Razi (Rhazes)

Further Reading

Stroumsa, Sarah. Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-
Rawandi, Abu Bakr al-Razi, and Their Impact on Islamic
Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

van Ess, Josef. “Ibn ar-Rewandi, or the Making of an
Image.” AI-Abhath 27 (1978-1979): 5-26.

IBN ‘ARAB

Muhyi al-Din Muhammad (1165-1240 CE) was born
in Murcia (present-day Spain) and spent his formative
years in Seville. After receiving an excellent religious
and secular education, he embraced Sufism and
traveled widely in search of authoritative Sufi masters
in both Andalus and North Africa. In 1201, Ibn ‘Arabi
set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, never to come
back. Although Ibn ‘Arabi spent the first half of
his life in al- Andalus and North Africa, his talents
came to full bloom in the East — the Hijaz, Anatolia,
and Syria. There he composed the bulk of his works —
including his controversial masterpieces, Bezels of
Wisdom (Fusus al-hikam) and Meccan Revelations
(al-Futuhat al-makkiyya) — and trained his foremost

349

IBN ‘ARAB

disciple, Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi (1207-1274), who
spread his ideas among the scholars of Anatolia,
Egypt, and beyond. Ibn ‘Arabi died and was buried
in Damascus, where his tomb is still in evidence.
Although he occasionally counseled rulers on reli-
gious matters, Ibn ‘Arabi generally eschewed close
contacts with secular authorities and amassed no for-
tune. His written legacy consists, in his own estima-
tion, of some 250-300 works. Nowhere in this vast
corpus of writings did Ibn ‘Arabi provide a succinct
and unequivocal account of his basic tenets. On the
contrary, he was deliberately elusive in presenting his
ideas and prone to offset them with numerous disclai-
mers. In conveying to the reader his personal mystical
insights, Ibn ‘Arabi made skillful use of “symbolic
images that evoke emergent associations rather than
fixed propositions.” Although familiar with the syllo-
gistic methods of reasoning of Muslim philosophers
and theologians, he always emphasized that they fell
short of capturing the dizzying dynamic of oneness/
plurality that characterizes the relationship between
God and his creation. To capture this subtle dynamic,
Ibn ‘Arabi availed himself of shocking antinomies
and breathtaking paradoxes meant to awaken his
readers to what he regarded as the real condition of
the universe, namely, the underlying oneness and
identity of all its elements. The intuitive, supersensory
awareness of this oneness constituted for Ibn ‘Arabi
the essence of mystical gnosis (ma'rifa), which he
restricted to the perfected Sufi “gnostics,” or “saints.”
His mystical teachings strike us as a mishmash of
seemingly disparate themes, images, and motifs bor-
rowed from scriptural exegesis, love poetry, mytholo-
gy, jurisprudence, and speculative theology. Ibn
‘Arabi explored such controversial issues as the status
of prophecy vis-a-vis sainthood (the latter, in his view,
being more encompassing), the concept of the perfect
man (identified as the supreme Sufi “gnostic” of the
epoch), the parallelism between the human “micro-
cosm” and its cosmic counterpart — the universe, the
ever-changing self-manifestation of the Divine in the
events and phenomena of the empirical universe, the
different modes and realms of the divine will (namely,
the existential as opposed to the normative), and the
allegoric aspects of the Muslim scripture. He
addressed these issues in ways that were “never really
repeated or adequately imitated by any subsequent
Islamic author.” The goal of this deliberately devious
and polyvalent discourse was to “carry the reader
outside the work itself into the life and cosmos
which it is attempting to interpret.” His writings
thus function “as a sort of spiritual mirror, reflecting
and revealing the inner intentions, assumptions and
predilections of each reader. . . with profound clari-
ty.” It is hardly surprising that each Islamic century

produced new interpretations of Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas
and works, especially his controversial Bezels of Wis-
dom, resulting in an entire “industry” of commentar-
ies aimed at bringing out and elucidating the true
teaching of the “Greatest Master,” as he came to be
known among his numerous followers across the
Muslim world. Given Ibn ‘Arabi’s deliberately elusive
style it is very difficult to summarize his complex
metaphysical ideas. Suffice it to say that he viewed
the universe as a product of God’s self-reflection that
urged his unique and indivisible essence to reveal itself
in the things and phenomena of the material universe
as in a giant mirror. All divine perfections that are
dispersed in the universe are brought together in the
persona of the “perfect man” (al-insan al-kamil), who
thus serves as their epitome and allows God to con-
template himself in his full beauty and glory. This idea
scandalized many medieval Muslim divines who ac-
cused Ibn ‘Arabi of admitting the substantial identity
of God and world — a concept that contravened the
doctrine of divine transcendence, which was so central
to mainstream Islamic theology. In Ibn ‘Arabi’s
teaching, God’s absolute otherworldliness and inscru-
tability is postulated, paradoxically, alongside the
notion of his imminent and immediate presence in
the empirical world. His identity/nonidentity with
the latter is just a matter of perspective, which should
reflect the constant changes in the fluid modes of
divine existence. Ibn ‘Arabi’s complex synthesis of
Sufi moral and ethical teaching, Neoplatonic meta-
physics, gnosticism, and mainstream Sunni theology
(AslTarism) and legal theory aptly capture the as-
tounding diversity of post-classical Sufism. This di-
versity allowed it to effectively meet the intellectual
and spiritual needs of a broad variety of potential
constituencies — from a pious merchant or craftsman
in the marketplace to a refined scholar at the ruler’s
court. Contrary to a commonly held assumption, his
philosophical and metaphysical system was not a
“foreign implant” grafted onto the pristine body of
“traditional” Sufism. Rather, it was a natural devel-
opment of certain tendencies inherent in Sufism from
its very inception. With Ibn ‘Arabi these tendencies
evolved — probably under the influence of Ibn Sina
and al-Ghazali — into a vision of God not just as the
only agent but also the only essence possessing real
and unconditional existence. This vision, which may
loosely be defined as “monistic,” was rebuffed by the
great Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328),
who condemned its followers as heretical “unifica-
tionists” (al-ittihadiyya) bent on undermining divine
transcendence and blurring the all-important border-
line between God and his creatures. A fierce polemic
between the champions of Ibn ‘Arabi and his detrac-
tors ensued that has not quite abated down to the

350

IBN ‘ASAKIR

present. It has divided Muslim intellectuals into two
warring factions, one of which has declared Ibn
‘Arabi to be the greatest “saint” (wali) and divine
“gnostic” (arif) of all time, while the other has
condemned him as a dangerous heretic who under-
mined the very foundations of Islamic doctrine and
communal life.

Alexander Knysh

See also Andalus; Ash‘aris; al-Ghazali; Gnosis; Ibn
Sina; Ibn Taymiyya; Plato and Neoplatonism; Saints/
Sainthood; Theology

Further Reading

Addas, Claude. Quest for the Red Sulphur. Cambridge:
Islamic Texts Society, 1993.

Chittick, William. The Sufi Path of Knowledge. Albany:
SUNY Press, 1989.

. The Self-Disclosure of God. Albany: SUNY Press,

1998.

. “Ibn ‘Arabi and His School.” In Islamic Spirituali-
ty: Manifestations, edited by S.H. Nasr.

Chodkiewicz, Michel. An Ocean Without Shore. Albany:
SUNY Press, 1993.

Corbin, Henry. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn
‘Arabi. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Hirtenstein, Stephen. The Unlimited Mercifier. Ashland,
OR: Anqa Press and White Cloud Publishing, 1999.
Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Venture of Islam. Vol. 2.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.

Ibn al-‘Arabi. The Bezels of Wisdom. Translated by Ralph
Austin. New York: Paulist Press, 1980.

Knysh, Alexander. Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition.
Albany: SUNY Press, 1999.

Morris, James W. “How to Study the Futuhat.” In Muhyid-
din Ibn 'Arabi: A Commemorative Volume , Edited by
Stephn Hirtenstein and Michael Tiernan. Brisbane:
Element, 1993.

Nettler, Ronald. Sufi Metaphysics and Quranic Prophets,
Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2003.

IBN ‘ASAKIR

Abu al-Qasim ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn ‘Asakir is the
most notable figure of the ‘Asakir family, whose
members occupied prestigious positions as judges
and scholars of the Shafi‘i school of Sunni law in
Damascus for almost two centuries (AH 470-660/
1077-1261 CE). Ibn ‘Asakir was born in 499/1105
and died in 571/1176. He started his pursuit of reli-
gious education at a very young age (six years old),
accompanying his father and elder brother to the
teaching circles of several renowned Damascene scho-
lars. Between 520/1126 and 535/1141, Ibn ‘Asakir
embarked on two ambitious educational journeys
that took him to the most influential learning centers
in the Islamic world, from Egypt and the Hijaz (Mecca
and Medina) to Iran and Central Asia (Khurasan and

Transoxiana); he wrote a three-volume work. Mu jam
al-shuyukh, in which he mentioned some fourteen
hundred teachers whom he met and studied with,
including approximately eighty women. The enor-
mous knowledge that he acquired, especially of ha-
dith, law, and scriptural exegesis, earned him the title
of Hafiz (great memorizer), and he became the most
learned and renowned scholar of his day.

Shortly after Ibn ‘Asakir returned from his travels
to settle in his hometown of Damascus, Nur al-Din
occupied the city (549/1154). Nur al-Din’s political
and religious ambition had two focuses: first, on the
unification of Syria and Egypt under the banner of
Sunni Islam and on putting an end to the Fatimid
Shi’i dynasty; second, on mounting an effective mili-
tary campaign against the Crusaders. Nur al-Din
found in Ibn ‘Asakir the perfect scholar who could
help him achieve his goals: an ardent defender of
Sunni Islam, in particular the AslTari branch. He
ordered that a madrasa be built for Ibn ‘Asakir,
known as Dar al-Hadith (School of Hadith). Also
under Nur al-Din’s patronage, Ibn ‘Asakir composed
several books, among them the largest work of his-
tory ever produced by a medieval Muslim scholar:
Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq (The History of Damascus
and Its Environs), which he started in 529/1134. The
History of Damascus is primarily a biographical
dictionary — now published in a partially complete
edition in seventy five volumes plus indices — that
celebrates the holiness of Syria, with Damascus as
its center, by documenting the lives and achievements
of the scholars who lived in it or passed by it. It is one
of the treasures of medieval Islamic historiography, in
that it preserves extensive excerpts from hundreds of
now-lost works authored by historians and religious
scholars before the time of Ibn ‘Asakir. The first two
chapters of the History of Damascus focus on the
sanctity of the city and its environs and list the sites
and events that make it holy. Ibn ‘Asakir did not
restrict his work to Muslim figures. He included bib-
lical prophets and figures as well: Abraham, Sarah,
Hagar, David, Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist,
to name a few. This is the only Muslim biographi-
cal dictionary that features substantial biographical
notices for pre-Islamic figures.

In addition to the History of Damascus, Ibn
‘Asakir authored several other politically motivated
works. With respect to theology, he authored two
books in defense of the theologian al-Ash‘ari and
his school ( see Ash‘aris ) , which was under attack by
rival Sunni groups in Damascus, especially the
Hanbalites (see Ibn Hanbal). The two works are
Manaqib ash'ariyya (Ash'arite Virtues) and Tabyin
kadhib al-muftari ‘ala Abi al-Hasan al-Ash ‘ari ( Expos-
ing the Slanderer’s Mendacity against Abu al-Hasan

351

IBN ‘ASAKIR

al-Ash‘ari). Ibn ‘Asakir also composed two other
works on the virtue of jihad'. Arba'in fi al-ijtihad fi
iqamat al-jihad, which is a collection of forty hadiths
attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which empha-
size the duty and obligation to wage jihad ; and Fadl
Asqalan (The Merits of Ascalon), which was written
in reaction to the fall of Ascalon to the Crusaders
in 548/1153 and as an appeal for the Muslims to
recapture it. Ibn ‘Asakir obviously used religion to
serve the political agenda of his patron, Nur al-Din,
and used politics to promote his religious conviction.
Exalting the holiness of Syria (Damascus, Jerusalem,
Ascalon) and urging the Muslims to wage jihad
against the Crusaders are, therefore, to be seen as
his contributions as a scholar to the success of Nur
al-Din’s campaign and, subsequently, to the triumph
of Sunni Islam in Syria and Egypt.

Ibn ‘Asakir’s eldest son, al-Qasim (d. 600/1203),
followed in his father’s footsteps. He composed a
continuation of the History of Damascus and
authored a treatise on the merits of Jerusalem, titled
al-JamV al-mustaqsa fi fada'il al-masjid al-aqsa (The
Verified Compendium on the Merits of the Aqsa
Mosque). The works of Ibn ‘Asakir, especially the
History of Damascus, inspired later Syrian scholars
to follow his lead, like Ibn al-‘Adim (d. 660/1262),
who composed a biographical dictionary of the nota-
bles of Aleppo and its environs, and a chronological
history of the city. They were also heavily used by
scholars such as al-Dhahabi (d. 748/1348).

Suleiman A. Mourad

See also Ash‘aris; Ibn al-‘Adim; Ibn Hanbal; Jihad;
Madrasa; Nur al-Din

Further Reading

Lindsay, James E. (Ed). Ibn ‘Asakir and Early Islamic His-
tory. Princeton: The Darwin Press, 2002. (This edited
volume comprises five studies on Ibn ‘Asakir’s History
of Damascus , his methodology and agenda for the recon-
struction of Syria’s past.)

IBN BABAWAYH, MUHAMMAD
IBN ‘ADI AL-QUMMI, AL-SHAYKH
AL-SADUQ

Ibn Babawayh (d. AH 381/991-992 CE) was a Twelver
Shi‘i compiler of Man la Yahdaruhu al-Faqih (He
Who Has No Jurisprudence with Him), which was
later considered the second great collection of Twel-
ver Shi'i hadith, after Kulayni’s al-Kafi, and numerous
other collections of the Imams’ traditions. Ibn Baba-
wayh collected many traditions from his father, a
contemporary of al-Kulayni, but he also traveled

throughout the region collecting traditions. His
‘Uyun Akhbar al-Rida ( Sources of the Traditions of
al-Rida), was the product of a sojourn to Khurasan
in search of the traditions of the eighth Imam ‘Ali
al-Rida (d. 202/818).

Andrew J. Newman

See also al-Kulayni; al-Tusi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan

Further Reading

Newman, Andrew. The Formative Period of Twelver
Shi ’ism: Hadith as Discourse between Qum and Baghdad.
Routledge Curzon, 2000.

IBN BATTUTA

Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Lawati, known as Ibn
Battuta (1304-1368 or 1369 CE), was born in Tangier,
Morocco. In 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn
Battuta embarked on his first journey to perform the
Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) in Arabia. This voyage
would end up lasting almost twenty-four years
(1325-1349) and would take him to lands on three
continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. He returned to
his native Morocco in 1 349 and within a year decided
to cross the Strait of Gibraltar for a visit to Granada,
Spain (1350). Three years later, he joined a caravan
crossing the Sahara Desert and arrived in West
Africa. By 1354, he settled in Morocco, where news
of his travels reached the Marlnid ruler Abu ‘Inan
Faris (r. 1348-1359), who entrusted Ibn Juzayy (d. ca.
1358), a native of Granada at his employ, with the
composition of Ibn Battuta’s account of his travels.
The result was a work titled Tuhfat al-Nuzzar fi Ghar-
a'ib al-Amsar wa-Aja'ib al-Asfdr, commonly known
as the Rihla (journey or travel narrative) of Ibn Bat-
tuta. Not much is known of Ibn Battuta’s life after he
settled down in his native Morocco, other than that
he held a judgeship in “some town” and that he died
around AH 720/1368-1369 CE. Ibn Battuta’s account
was received with skepticism and incredulity by his
contemporaries, as stated by the Tunisian-born Ibn
Khaldun (d. 1406).

Ibn Battuta traveled from Morocco, through
North Africa, to the Middle East, Anatolia and Con-
stantinople, the Indian subcontinent and Southwest
Asia, several islands in South Asia, China, Transoxi-
ana, and areas north of the Black Sea. After returning
to Morocco he took two additional trips to Spain and
West Africa. His longest continuous stay (almost nine
years) was in India, where he was appointed a Malikite
judge by the sultan of Delhi, Muhammad Tughluq
Shah (r. 1325-1351). In his travels, Ibn Battuta pur-
sued the medieval Muslim learning tradition of joining

352

IBN EZRA, ABRAHAM (1089-1164 CE)

the lecture circles of several teachers and collecting
certificates (ijazat) from them to serve as scholarly
credentials or as qualifications for future employ-
ment, especially in the legal profession. He took ad-
vantage of the existence of the Akin and Futuwwa
networks in Anatolia and of the ‘ufT brotherhoods
elsewhere to secure lodging and, at times, material
help. In 1348, he witnessed the effects of the Black
Death while in Aleppo, Syria.

The degree of reliability of Ibn Battuta’s Rihla is
open to argument. This travel narrative is the product
of a joint effort: Ibn Battuta as the source of informa-
tion and Ibn Juzayy as the ghostwriter. It has been
long assumed that Ibn Battuta dictated the content
from memory and that the inconsistencies, factual
errors, and confusing chronology are due to the fail-
ings of his memory. This assumption originated with
the first complete edition of the text, which empha-
sized, based on a misinterpretation of a passage, that
the entire Rihla was dictated from memory. However,
this view is now losing ground and recent studies tend
to show, through internal evidence, the existence
of written notes of unequal quality in Ibn Battuta’s
possession and that the Rihla is therefore the com-
bination of his recollections, written notes, and occa-
sional exaggeration, if not outright boasting, on the
one hand, and the finishing touches of Ibn Juzayy on
the other.

The first complete edition of the Rihla was
made by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti and
published with a French translation in four volumes
between 1853 and 1858, under the auspices of the
Societe Asiatique. In 1866, the Hakluyt Society pub-
lished Sir Henry Yule’s abridged English translation
of the section on Bengal and China. Between 1958
and 1971, the same Hakluyt Society published
H. A. R. Gibb’s English translation in three volumes.
This English translation was completed by C. F.
Beckingham (vol. 4, published in 1994) and followed
by an index compiled by A. D. H. Bivar (vol. 5,
published in 2000).

In 1953, Mahdi Husain published an English trans-
lation of the section on India, the Maidive Islands,
and Sri Lanka. Finally, the part on West Africa,
translated by Said Hamdun and Noel King, was
published in 1994.

Adel Allouche

Primary Sources

Cathay and the Way Thither. 4 vols. Translated and edited
by Sir Henry Yule. New edition revised in light of recent
discoveries by Henri Cordier. London: The Hakluyt
Society, 1913-1916.

Husain, Mahdi. The Rehla of Ibn Battuta. Baroda, India:
The Oriental Institute, 1953.

Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. Translated by Said Hamdun
and Noel King, forward by Ross E. Dunn. Princeton,
NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994.

Ibn Jubayr, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. The Travels of Ibn
Jubayr. Translated by R. J. C. Broadhurst. London:
J. Cape, 1952.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History.
3 vols. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. 2d ed. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.

The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325-1354. 5 vols. Trans-
lated by H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham. London:
The Hakluyt Society, 1958-2000.

Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah: Texte arabe accompagne d’une
traduction. 4 vols. Arabic text with a French translation
by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti. Paris: Imprim-
erie Imperiale, 1853-1858.

Further Reading

Allouche, Adel. “A Study of Ibn Battutah’s Account of His
726/1326 Journey through Syria and Arabia.” Journal of
Semitic Studies 35, no. 2 (autumn 1990): 283-299.

Dunn, Ross E. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim
Traveler of the 14 th Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
The University of California Press, 1986.

Hrbek, Ivan. “The Chronology of Ibn Battuta’s Travels.”
Archiv Orientdlni 30 (1962): 409-486.

“Ibn Battuta, 1304—1369.” Classical and Medievcd Litera-
ture Criticism 57 (2003): 1-75 (a collection of essays).

Netton, Ian Richardson. “Myth, Miracle, and Magic in
the Rihla of Ibn Battuta.” Journal of Semitic Studies
29, no. 1 (spring 1984): 131-140.

IBN EZRA, ABRAHAM (1089-1164 CE)

Ibn Ezra’s life was divided among many areas: poet,
grammarian, biblical commentator, philosopher, and
physician. Born in Tudela, Spain, Ibn Ezra had two
very different periods in his life. The first period began
in Spain, from where he seems to have traveled
through North Africa, seeking the company of scho-
lars in the present-day lands of Morocco, Algeria, and
Tunisia. He had a specifically close relationship with
the scholar Judah Halevi, and legend even says that
Ibn Ezra married Halevi’s daughter. Although five of
Ibn Ezra’s sons are mentioned, only one of them is
known, whereas the others may have died young.

The second period of Ibn Ezra’s life was from 1 140
until his death in 1164. Regarding that period, he
stated that he had left Spain for Rome in restless
wandering, supposedly “in a troubled spirit” because
of the real, or alleged, conversion (ca. 1143) of
his only surviving son, Issac, who had lived in Egypt
and Baghdad. Most of his work was done in the latter
part of his life, partly in Rome, where he wrote a
poem that expressed his bitterness against the Jewish
community there. He went on to Lucca and from
there to Mantua. Then he left Italy for Provence,
and later on traveled to northern France, where he

353

IBN EZRA, ABRAHAM (1089-1164 CE)

wrote a great deal. According to one writer, Ibn Ezra
is said to have written no fewer than 108 books. From
Spain to the north and east, Ibn Ezra introduced
some very needed important works on Hebrew gram-
mar, which most scholars there had never learned
previously.

As a poet he wrote both secular and religious
poems, introducing them to eastern and northern
European scholars. He did so both in the Spanish
poetic school, as well as in the Arabic of Jewish
poets who therefore tried to write poems in the Span-
ish meter and imitate its school of structure, form,
and style. As a commentator on the Bible, he also
began this activity in Rome in 1 140, but a number of
his books there are not extant.

Although he did not create any new or original
grammatical systems for newer generations, he was
considered one of the fathers of Hebrew grammar,
both because he collected the conclusions of the east-
ern philologists and those of Spain, and because
he wrote in Hebrew, unlike earlier grammarians.
Only two of Ibn Ezra's works on mathematics and
astronomy are available; the latter was only discov-
ered and published in the twentieth century. His
philosophical areas were essentially Neoplatonic,
strongly influenced by Solomon Ibn Gabirol, with
views, for example, that like God, the intelligible
world is eternal, while the terrestrial world was creat-
ed in time from preexistent matter. The universe was
in three “worlds”: the “upper world” of intelligibility
or angels; the “intermediate world” of the celestial
spheres, and the “lower, sublunar world” that was
created in time.

William M. Brinner

Further Reading

Center for Jewish Studies. Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra: Studies
in Writings of a Twelfth-Century Polymath. Cambridge,
England, 1993.

Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir. Twilight of a Golden Age:
Selected Poems of Abraham Ibn Ezra. University of
Alabama Press, 1997.

Lancaster, Irene. Deconstructing the Bible: Abraham Ibn
Ezra’s Introduction to the Torah. London, 2003.

Levi, R. The Astrological Works of Abraham Ibn Ezra. 1927.

Sela, Shlomo. Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval
Hebrew Science. Leiden, 2003.

IBN EZRA, MOSES BEN JACOB
(CA. 1055 TO AFTER 1135 CE)

Moses Ibn Ezra (also known as Abu Harun), a
Spanish Hebrew poet and philosopher born in
Granada, appears to have held an honored position.

Moses Ibn Ezra encouraged Judah Halevi in his
early poetic efforts, supporting him and forming a
lasting friendship. A very decisive change took place
in his life in 1090, when the Almoravids captured
Granada, its Jewish community was destroyed, and
the members of the Ibn Ezra family were dispersed.
For some reason he remained in Granada for a
while, but only after much effort and suffering was
he able to flee to Christian Spain in the North. He
was, however, unable to return to his native city for
which he yearned the rest of his life. His later years
were full of misfortune and disappointments, wan-
dering through Christian Spain and seeking the
aid of patrons for whom he had to sing and write
their praise. Unable to adapt himself to the manners
of the northern Jewish population in its low
cultural standards in Christian Spain, he could not
adapt himself to all those ways and died far from his
native city. Moses Ibn Ezra was one of the most
prolific poets of the Spanish school, and the rhetoric
of his poetry was seen for many years as a model of
perfection that greatly appealed to many. Some mod-
ern writers have seen him as having an exaggerated
desire for a beautiful poetic form, replete with orna-
mentation, restricting the flow of free poetic expres-
sion. However, many of his poems are perfect in every
aspect, with their main themes belonging to love,
wine, and nature, and served as a model for medieval
poets.

One of his earliest works on Hebrew poetics is
found in his treatise on rhetoric and poetry, one
of the earliest works on Hebrew poetical literature.
This eight-chapter work was written in his old age
in an answer to questions on Hebrew poetry posed
by a friend. It was published in more modern times:
first in a small part of the Arabic original in 1895,
then translated into Hebrew in 1924. This was a
valuable historical source for Spanish Hebrew poetry
and relates to the poet and his environment. Using
many metaphors from the Bible, Moses Ibn Ezra
showed an appreciation for literary charm and
beauty but neglected Jewish writers until recently.
Although some seemed perfect, his poetic images
and linguistic patterns are so intricate that only
other poets can unravel their complexity. Some
themes deal with rural life, infidelity in friendship,
old age, vicissitudes in luck, death, trust in God,
and the beauty of poetry. In his old age, though bitter
and dejected, his mood neither impeded his poetic
sense nor undermined his joyful poetry. In his great
corpus of poems, the Selihot (penitential prayers) are
so impressive that he was called Ha-Sallah (the writer
of prayers). Some of his sacred poetry shows signs
of ideas, images, and idioms from his secular verse,
directly influenced and interwoven with Arabic

354

IBN HAMDIS

literature. Many of his poems are scattered in the
prayer books of different rites of Judaism.

William M. Brinner

Further Reading

Brody, H., and S. De Solis Cohen (Eds and Trans). Selected
Poems of Moses Ibn Ezra. 1934.

IBN GABIROL, SOLOMON

Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol (ca. 1021-1058 CE),
known as Abu Ayyub Sulayman ibn Yahya ibn
Jabirul in Arabic, was one of the most important
Jewish literary and religious intellectuals of eleventh-
century al-Andalus. Scant biographical details
of Ibn Gabirol’s life survive in brief reports from
Ibn Sa‘id al-Andalusi, a contemporary Muslim in-
tellectual of Toledo, and from the late eleventh
to twelfth century Andalusi Jewish scholar Moses
ibn Ezra. Following the collapse of the Umayyad
caliphate, Ibn Gabirol’s family made its way from
Malaga to Saragossa. There the young Solomon
established himself in the social and intellectual
circle of the Jewish courtier Abu Ishaq Yequti’el
b. Isaac ibn Hasan. Yequti’el met an untimely death
by execution in 1039, but Solomon also found pat-
ronage and developed a relationship, sometimes
strained, with the leading Andalusi Jewish sociopolit-
ical and intellectual figure of the period, Samuel ibn
Naghrela (Samuel the Nagid) of Granada. Despite his
associations with Andalusi Jewish notables Ibn
Gabirol seems to have been reclusive and socially
alienated and was certainly so preoccupied with the
advanced study of philosophy that he expressed con-
siderable disdain for mundane social concerns.
According to the testimony of his poetry, Solomon
suffered from a serious skin ailment. He died in
Valencia in 1058.

Ibn Gabirol’s literary production includes highly
original devotional and social poetry he composed in
Hebrew and philosophical works written in Arabic,
some of which are no longer extant in the original.
A treatise on ethics, Islah al-akhlaq ( Improvement of
the Moral Qualities), includes citations from the
Hebrew Bible, Greek philosophers, and Arabic poet-
ry. An Arabic metaphysical work on cosmology, The
Source of Life, survived only in Latin translation
(Tons Vitae) and in a few Hebrew fragments. The
Cairo Genizah also yielded fragments of a collection
of Arabic aphorisms attributed to Ibn Gabirol.
Entitled Mukhtar al-jawahir (Choice of Pearls), the
full compilation survived only in Hebrew translation.
Ibn Gabirol’s philosophical writings addressed the

general rather than specifically Jewish concerns of a
Neoplatonic intellectual during the classical age of
Islam. In particular Ibn Gabirol seems to have been
a reader of the classical encyclopedia Rasa’il ikhwan
al-safa ( Epistles of the Brethren of Purity ) that ar-
rived in al-Andalus from the Muslim East during the
eleventh century. At the same time, the philosophical
vocabulary and speculative orientation of his Arabic
prose works inform the language and conceptual
framework of Ibn Gabirol’s idiosyncratic and enig-
matic occasional Hebrew poetry that celebrates his
quest for wisdom. An Arabo-Islamic literary and in-
tellectual background is equally apparent in Ibn
Gabirol’s verse written specifically for recitation in
the synagogue about the soul’s craving to be restored
to its sublime source. Studies of Ibn GabiroTs liturgi-
cal verse have also shown the Hebrew poet to be a
devotee of contemporary Sufi poetry. A masterful
synthesis of Ibn Gabirol’s intellectual and literary
creativity is the Hebrew philosophical poem Keter
malkhut (Kingdom’s Crown).

Ross Brann

See also Samuel ibn Naghrela; Neoplatonic; Epistles of
the Brethren of Purity

Further Reading

Cole, Peter. Selected Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol. Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Loewe, Raphael. Ibn Gabirol. London: Peter Halban, 1989.
Schlanger, Jacques. La philosophic de Salomon ibn Gabirol.
Etudes dim neoplatonisme. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1968.

IBN HAMDIS

Abd al-Jabbar Ibn Hamdis, the most notable and
prolific of Arab Sicilian poets, was born in Syracuse
in 1055 CE to a noble family of the Azd tribe. He
spent his childhood between the privileged life of
landed gentry and the first rumblings of the Norman
Conquest of Sicily. He chose self-imposed exile in
1078, seeking fame and fortune as a court poet and
panegyrist.

His thirteen-year sojourn at the 'Abbasid Court in
Seville (1078-1091) gave him the security of royal
patronage and exposure to wider spheres of poetic
experimentation that shaped his literary sensibilities
and talents. His praise poems and celebratory odes to
al-Mu’tamid on his victory at the Battle of al-Zallaqa
in 1086 against Alfonse VI illustrate the perils of life
in frontier areas ravaged by civil unrest and threats of
the Christian Reconquest, as well as on the diction,
themes, and motifs the poet chose to poeticize his life
experiences.

355

IBN HAMDIS

The Almoravid invasion of Seville and the expul-
sion of his patron forced Ibn Hamdis to flee again,
this time along the North African littoral where he
settled in the province of Ifriqiyya. He spent the sec-
ond half of his long life shuffling to and from the
Zirid court at al-Mahdiyya (modern Tunisia), singing
the praises of new patrons and lamenting the loss of
his beloved homeland, themes that often collapse into
a single poem.

Ibn Hamdis bequeathed to Arabic literature an
anthology ( Diwan) containing 370 poems, from two
lines short to eighty lines long. The multiple genres of
panegyric, elegy, love poem, devotional poem, wine
song, description, and celebratory ode underscore his
artistic versatility. The preponderance of the panegy-
ric, from his earlier to his twilight years, calls attention
to a career financially and professionally dependent on
the political whims and winds of his time.

Ibn Hamdis’s poetics is intricately connected to the
neoclassicism of the later ‘Abbasid period, one that
revamped old forms to convey new meanings. His
reworking of the stock phrases, imagery, themes,
and motifs of the poetic canons, his conscious tam-
pering with the early tripartite and later bipartite
structure of the qasida, and his playful manipulation
of the rhetorical devices of the new poetry (al-badi’),
that is, of punning and antithesis, disclose influences
by poets such as Abu Tammam and al-Mutannabi.

Ibn Hamdis is best known for his verses celebrating
the life of and lamenting the loss of his beloved Sicily.
Themes of nostalgia for the homeland, lost youth, the
vicissitudes of time, and Islam’s struggle against the
infidel enemy coalesce around imagery of a paradise
lost.

I remember Sicily as agony stirs in my soul memories of
her.

An abode for the pleasures of my youth, now vacant,
once inhabited by the noblest of people.

I have been banished from Paradise and I long to tell
you her story.

Were it not for the saltiness of my tears, I would
imagine them to be her rivers.

I laughed at twenty years old out of youthful passion.
Now I cry at sixty for her crimes.

William Granara

Further Reading

‘Abbas, Ihsan. al-'Arcib fi Siqilliya. Cairo: Dar al-M’arif,
1959.

Amari, Michele. Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. 2d ed.
Edited by C.A. Nallino. Catania: Romeo Prampolini,
1933.

Borruso, Andrea. “La nostalgia della Sicilia nel diwan di
Ibn Hamdis.” Bollettino del Centro di studi filologici
e linguistici siciliani XII (1073): 38-54.

Gabrieli, Francesco. “Sicilia e Spagna nella vita e nella
poesia di Ibn Hamdis.” In Dal Mondo dell’Islam. Naples:
Riccardo Ricciardi Editore, 1954, 109-126.

Granara, William. “Remaking Muslim Sicily: Ibn Hamdis
and the Poetics of Exile.” Edebiyat 9, no. 2 (1998):
167-198.

Ibn Hamdis, ‘Abd al-Jabbar. Diwan. Edited by Ihsan
‘Abbas. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1960.

IBN HANBAL

Ibn Hanbal, Abu ‘Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad,
a hadith collector, critic, jurisprudent, and dogmatist,
was born in Baghdad circa 780 and died in Baghdad
in 855.

Ibn Hanbal’s father, who died when Ibn Hanbal
was three years old, was a military officer in Khurasan.
An uncle apparently oversaw Ibn Hanbal’s early edu-
cation in Baghdad. At age fifteen, he chose not to be-
come a bureaucrat but rather devoted himself to
hadith. He first studied in Baghdad, then traveled
to Kufa, Basra, Mecca, Yemen, and Syria. He finally
settled down in Baghdad again after 820. His first and
second wives each bore one son and predeceased Ibn
Hanbal. A concubine then bore him one daughter and
four sons. They all lived together in a large house,
supported mainly by urban rents.

Ibn Hanbal famously suffered in the Inquisition
that the caliph al-Ma’mun instituted in 833, requiring
men of religion to testify that the Qur’an was created.
The caliph’s point seems to have been that he was the
arbiter of Islamic orthodoxy. Ibn Hanbal was one of
the few to refuse the orders. He was imprisoned, then
tried probably two years later before al-Ma’mun’s
successor, al-Mu‘tasim (r. 833-842). He was finally
flogged and released. Mu‘tazili sources assert that he
first testified as bidden, but Hanbali sources state that
he lost consciousness (and so could not have been
responsible for anything he said).

At the accession of al-Wathiq (r. 842-847), Ibn
Hanbal briefly emerged from his house to teach
hadith again. He was threatened by the caliph’s
agents and stayed out of sight until the accession
of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861), who dismantled the
Inquisition over the next five years. Near the end
of this period, al-Mutawakkil summoned Ibn Hanbal
to Samarra to teach; however, he was unhappy to
have anything to do with the ruler, refused to eat,
and was finally sent home. There ensued many bitter
quarrels with his oldest sons, who were willing
to accept the caliph’s gifts in spite of their father’s
objections.

Ibn Hanbal’s greatest literary monument is by far
Musnad, a collection of almost twenty-eight thousand
hadith reports (about 80% repeats with variant chains

356

IBN ISHAQ

of transmitters; compare the Sahih of Bukhari with
7400 hadith reports, about 60% repeats). He gener-
ally evaluated hadith reports by comparing variant
chains of transmitters. If someone’s transmissions
were too often uncorroborated by parallels from con-
temporaries, Ibn Hanbal considered the transmitter
unreliable.

Various followers transmitted Ibn Hanbal’s legal
opinions. He strongly preferred to infer rules from
hadith, from the Prophet if possible and from Compa-
nions if necessary. Confronted with two contradictory
hadith reports, he tested their chains of transmitters
to see which was more reliable. If they seemed equally
good, he would simply state the alternatives without
presuming to impose his own opinion.

Also extant are several collections of his comments
on hadith transmitters and two sayings he transmitted
concerning the pious life, mainly by early renunciants.
In theology he rejected almost all speculation that
went beyond what was expressly stated in the
Qur’an and hadith. He recognized ‘Ali as the legiti-
mate fourth caliph but staunchly rejected Shi‘i asser-
tions that some of the Companions had been
unrighteous.

Christopher Melchert

See also Hadith; al-Ma’mun
Further Reading

Cooperson, Michael. Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs
of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma’mun. Cambridge
Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: University
Press, 2000.

Hurvitz, Nimrod. The Formation of Hanbalism: Piety into
Power. Culture and Civilisation in the Middle East.
London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.

Patton, Walter Melville. Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1897.

Spectorsky, Susan A. “Ahmad Ibn Hanbal’s Fiqh.” Journal
of the American Oriental Society, 102 (1982): 461-465.

IBN ISHAQ

The traditionalist and historiographer Muhammad

b. Ishaq b. Yasar is one of the main authorities in
the biography of the Prophet. He was born in Medina
ca. AH 85/704 CE, and died in Baghdad in ca. 150/
767. Like other authors of this genre, he sprang from a
family of manumitted slaves (maw all). His grandfa-
ther, probably a Christian Arab, was, at the taking of
‘Ayn Tamr in Iraq in 12/633, sent with other prisoners
to Medina. Ibn Ishaq collected most of his material in
Medina and Egypt. He was accused of having Shi‘i
tendencies and of being a Qadarite (that is, professing
free will and not absolute predestination).

The great work of Ibn Ishaq on the life of
Muhammad, related historical, pseudohistorical, and
legendary topics, pertains to the historical and ha-
giographical genre ( historia sacra, or salvation histo-
ry). It bears the title The Book of the Military
Campaigns [of the Prophet] (Kitab al-Maghazi) .
The most known recension of this work is the re-
script/abridgment (tahdhib) of [‘Abd al-Malik] Ibn
Hisharn (d. ca. 218/833), known as The Life of the
Prophet (al-Sira al-nabawiyya), who wrote it on the
basis of the transmission of one of Ibn Ishaq’s imme-
diate students, al-Bakka’i (d. 183/799). Ibn Hisham
undertook omissions in order to reduce the volume of
the work. Therefore, he left out the biblical history
from Adam to Abraham, and also named of the
progeny of Ismael only those who are supposed to
have been direct ancestors of Muhammad. Further
on, “he has left out some tales recorded by Ibn Ishaq
in which the Prophet is not mentioned, to which there
are no allusions in the Qur’an.” He made in it sundry
emendations and additions of manifold and genealog-
ical and lexical import. He has also discarded “such
poems as were known to no connoisseur of poetry
questioned by him; besides allegations whereof the
mention was malicious, or likely to be disagreable to
certain people” (Foreword of Ibn Hisham, according
to Horovitz).

Ibn Ishaq’s work was originally divided into three
main sections:

1. The beginning (al-Mubtada’): a pre-Islamic

history of Revelation. It was divided into
four parts:

a. The pre-Islamic Revelation from the

creation of the world till Jesus

b. The history of Yemen in pre-Islamic times

c. Arabian tribes and their idol worship

d. The immediate ancestors of Muhammad and

the Meccan cult

2. The sending (al-Mab‘ath): the youth of

Muhammad and his activity in Mecca.

3. The military campaigns: the Medinan period.

It has been often said that the “complete book” of
Ibn Ishaq is no more extant. The problem is that
he never wrote or published such a “complete”
book, as it has been shown by the Iraqi scholar
Sadun Mahmud Al-Samuk for whom: “There never
existed a unified text for the traditions of Ibn Ishaq to
which the transmitters and later authors could have
referred,” because Ibn Ishaq has delivered them, often
orally, at different times and occasions. It is for this
reason that we find different traditions according to
the transmitters. Besides al-Bakka’i’s recension used
by Ibn Hisham, there was that of Salama b. al-Fadl
al-Razi (d. 191/806) to which Tabari (d. 3010/923)

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IBN ISHAQ

had access both in his Annals and his Qur’anic com-
mentary, and that of Yunus b. Bukayr (d. 199/815),
and so on.

As for the sources of Ibn Ishaq, his weightiest
teacher was the traditionalist and jurist Ibn Shihab
al-Zuhri (d. 124/742), who is credited with a book
on the Campaigns of the Prophet. He also received
information from several adherents of the house of
al-Zubayr. Of course, he quotes the Qur’an, Islamic
connoisseurs of Hadith, Qur’anic exegesis, and poetry
and poets. He turns also to non-Islamic learned men
concerning Jewish, Christian, and Parsi traditions, a
thing for which he has been criticized. Apart from
Wahb b. Munabbih (d. 110/728 or 114/732), he
appears to be the oldest Arabic author who gives
passages of the Old and New Testament in literal
translation, sometimes in the so-called Palestinian-
Christian translation.

Claude Gilliot

Further Reading

Primary

Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad. A translation of
Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Lahore. Pakistan Branch
of the Oxford University Press, 1955; reprint, Karachi,
1978.

The History of al-Tabari. Translated by Franz Rosenthal
et al. Vols. I-IX (the whole 39 vols.). Albany: SUNY,
1987-1999.

Secondary

Al-Samuk, Sadun Mahmoud. “Die historischen Uberliefer-
ungen nach Ibn Ishaq. Eine synoptische Rekonstruk-
tion.” Inaugural-Dissertation. Frankfurt am Main:
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat, 1978.

Horovitz, Josef. The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet and
Their authors. Edited by Lawrence 1. Conrad. Princeton,
NJ: The Darwin Press, 2002, 74—90.

Jones, J.M.B. “Ibn Ishak.” £7111, 811.

Watt, William Montgomery “Ibn Hisham.” El III, 800-
801.

IBN JUBAYR, ABU’L-HU S A YN
MUHAMMAD B. AHMAD

Ibn Jubayr was an Andalusian traveler, author, and
muhaddith (recounter of Prophetic tradition). He was
born in Balansiya (Valencia) in AH 540/1145 CE, in
the last days of Almoravid rule in Sharq al-Andalus
(eastern Andalusia), into an Arab family that had
settled in Spain soon after the Muslim conquest. He
was educated in the religious sciences and adab (belles-
lettres) at Shatiba (modern Xativa south of Valencia),
where his father worked as an official during the

unsettled period between Almoravid and Almohad
rule. Ibn Jubayr himself was a katib (chancery secre-
tary) in Sabta (modern Ceuta on the northern Moroc-
co coast) and Granada for ‘Uthman Abu Sa‘id,
brother of the second Almohad ruler, Abu Ya'qub
Yusuf I, and governor of Granada.

In AH Shawwal 578/February 1183 CE Ibn Jubayr
left Granada on the first of three journeys that he was
to make in the course of his life. It is the only one that
he wrote about, or at least the only one of which the
account survives. He first went to Egypt, traveling by
sea from Ceuta via Sardinia, Sicily, and Crete. After
landing at Alexandria, he went south to Cairo, and
thence, after crossing the Red Sea, to Jedda. He
stayed in Mecca for nine months, and performed the
hajj (pilgrimage). He then made the desert crossing to
Kufa in western Iraq. From there he went north to
Baghdad and Mosul, and crossed the Jazira (northern
Mesopotamia) to Aleppo in Syria. He next turned
south to Damascus, from where he made for Acre
on the coast of Palestine. He returned to Spain by
sea via Sicily, arriving in Granada in AH Muharram
581/April 1185 CE.

Ibn Jubayr is supposed to have made the pilgrim-
age to Mecca to expiate the sin of drinking wine. This,
perhaps, accounts for the emphasis on the rigors of
travel in the account of his first journey, titled Rihla
(Journey). At the same time, Ibn Jubayr gives a vivid
picture of the eastern Mediterranean and beyond in
the late twelfth century. His book is an abundant
source of information about religious practices, social
customs, commercial life, modes of travel by land and
sea, and the principal monuments of the towns and
cities that he visited. From Ibn Jubayr we learn, for
example, about the formalities to which arrivals by
sea at Alexandria were subjected and about the details
of the pilgrimage to Mecca. His description of
Damascus, meanwhile, is the fullest contemporary
account that we have of the medieval city. He also
offers a firsthand (Muslim) view of Frankish Palestine:
among the places in Frankish hands when Ibn Jubayr
visited them were Acre and Tyre.

Encouraged by the news of Saladin’s capture of
Jerusalem in AH 583/1187 CE, Ibn Jubayr set out on
his second journey to the east in AH 585/1189 CE,
returning to Granada two years later. He lived succes-
sively there and at Malaga, Ceuta, and Fez, devoting
himself to the study of hadith (prophetic tradition) and
tasawwuf (Sufism). After the death of his wife in AH
614/1217 CE, he left Spain on his third journey to the
east, dying at Alexandria in the same year.

David Morray

See also Andalus; Autobiographical Writings; Hajj;
Muslim-Crusader Relations; Travel

358

IBN KHURRADADHBIH

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Khatib. al-Ihatafi akhbar Gharnata. Cairo, 1973.

Further Reading

Ibn Jubayr. Rihlat Ibn Jubayr. Translated by R.J.C. Broad-
hurst as The Travels of Ibn Jubayr. London, 1952.

IBN KHALDUN

The jurist and historian Abu Zayd ‘Abd al-Rahman
Wali al-Din al-Hadrami, known as Ibn Khaldun, was
bom in 1332 in Tunis. He is best known as the author
of Muqaddima (Introduction), the first part of his
universal history titled Kitab al-Tbar. This introduc-
tion serves as prolegomena to the study of history, in
which Ibn Khaldun developed the concepts he felt
were necessary to comprehend human civilization.
While his universal history is generally considered
not to have met the standards detailed in the intro-
duction, his work Muqaddima is commonly regarded
as one of the most significant works of medieval
Muslim civilization.

Ibn Khaldun was concerned with the history of
civilization (‘umran) in all its complexity, and
Muqaddima outlines the importance of social, eco-
nomic, and natural factors, as well as political and
religious factors. (Ibn Khaldun is thus labeled by
some modern scholars as a founder of “scientific his-
tory,” as well as of sociology.) A major theme of
Muqaddima is the rise and fall of states, or dynasties
(he used the word dawla for both). States, as explained
by Ibn Khaldun, rose and fell in a cycle similar to
human life: birth, maturity, decline, and death. Cen-
tral to Ibn Khaldun’s discussion of the life cycles of
states was the concept of ‘asabiyya, variously translat-
ed as solidarity, group feeling, or group conscious-
ness. A group with strong ‘asabiyya (established
through means such as blood relation, religious soli-
darity, or other means) would be able to achieve
supremacy over other groups and establish a state.
However, once predominance was achieved, ‘asabiyya
would eventually fade, leading to the overthrow of
that dawla and the establishment of a new one.

It is likely that Ibn Khaldun’s views were shaped in
part by the events he witnessed in his own life. Born
in Hafsid Tunis, his early career as scholar and pub-
lic official involved him in the politics and struggles
between the Hafsids of Tunis, the Marinids of Fez,
and the Nasrids of Granada. He left public life for a
four-year sojourn in Tunis (1378-1382), which he de-
voted to scholarship. (Details of his career are known
primarily through his autobiography, Tarif bi-Ibn
Khaldun.) It was in this period that he completed his

first versions of both the Muqaddima and the ‘Ibar,
although he continued to revise these texts for the
remainder of his life. In 1382, he moved to Cairo,
the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate, where he had a
second career in education and as the occasional state
official. He was an acquaintance of the Mamluk sul-
tan Barquq (r. 1382-1389 and 1390-1399). While in
the service of Barquq’s son Faraj (r. 1399-1412 with a
brief interregnum), Ibn Khaldun traveled to Damas-
cus as part of an expedition to counter the invasion of
Tamerlane (Timur). Ibn Khaldun met with Timur
after the latter had taken Damascus, and subsequent-
ly wrote a detailed account of his interview, which is
preserved in the Ta‘rif. Ibn Khaldun returned to
Cairo where he died in 1406, shortly after his sixth
appointment as chief Maliki qadi.

Warren C. Schultz

Further Reading

The scholarship devoted to Ibn Khaldun is abundant. A
search of his name in the Mamluk online bibliography
( www. lib. uchicago. edu/e/su/mideast/mamluk/) maintained by
the University of Chicago’s Middle East Documentation
Center, for example, yields almost six hundred titles. Useful
starting points include the following:

Fischel, Walter J. Ibn Khaldun in Egypt: His Public Func-
tions and His Historical Research ( 1382-1406 ) : A Study
in Islamic Historiography. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California, 1967.

Mahdi, Muhsin. Ibn Khaldun’s Philosophy of History: A
Study in the Philosophic Foundation of the Science of
Culture. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1957.

IBN KHURRADADHBIH

Abu T-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah is the author
of, among other works, the influential geogra-
phical treatise Kitab al-masdlik wa-l-mamdlik (The
Book of Routes and Kingdoms). Little is known of
his life, and even the most basic biographical details
have eluded scholars. He has been referred to as
Ubaydallah or Abdallah, ibn Abdallah or Ahmad,
and Ibn Khurradadhbih or Khurdad(h)bih — a

359

IBN KHURRADADHBIH

name of uncertain meaning, presumably of Persian,
Zoroastrian origin. The son of a former governor of
Tabaristan, Ibn Khurradadhbih was born either in
820 or 825 CE in Khurasan and grew up in Baghdad,
where he received a thorough education in a wide
range of subjects. He served as chief of the Band
postal service in the Jibal region and, according to
some authors, subsequently in Samarra and Baghdad.
Importantly, Ibn Khurradadhbih also served as a
nadim (boon-companion) and close confidante of
the caliph al-MuTamid (r. 870-82 CE). Hence, the
bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim includes him in his chap-
ter on boon-companions and courtiers, rather than in
the chapter on state secretaries and administrators
(where such “geographers” as Qudama ibn JaTar,
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, and al-Jayhani are featured).
Ibn Khurradadhbih died in 912 CE.

The breadth of his interests and knowledge is
reflected in the nine works attributed to him. These
include expositions on the etiquette of listening to
music, Persian genealogy, cooking, drinking, astral
patterns, boon-companions, world history, music
and musical instruments, and descriptive geography.
Only the latter two have been published; the former
(Kitab al-lahw wa-l-malahi) is a slim volume on the
history of musical instruments, especially in the pre-
Islamic period; the latter will be the focus of what
follows.

Ibn Khurradadhbih is known primarily for his
work Book of Routes and Kingdoms, composed in its
original version during the reign of the caliph al-
Wathiq (r. 842-847 CE) and continuously revised
until the reign of al-Mu‘tamid. The work is among
the earliest extant books on descriptive geography
composed in Arabic; a man named JaTar ibn
Ahmad al-Marwazi (d. 888 CE) is said to have
embarked on a similarly titled work at an earlier
date, but his work remained incomplete at the time
of his death. Having few, if any, prototypes with
which to work, Ibn Khurradadhbih drew heavily
on foreign sources in his description of the world.
Claudius Ptolemy (d. 170 CE) is named as an influence
both by modern scholars and by the author him-
self, and there is internal textual evidence that Greek
geographical notions shaped Ibn Khurradadhbih’s
understanding of the universe. However, Ptolemy’s
mathematical approach manifests itself more obvi-
ously in the Arabic works of, for example, Musa ibn
Ahmad al-Khwarizmi (d. 847 CE) than it does in
Book of Routes and Kingdoms. Furthermore, the fre-
quent use of Persian administrative terms, the atten-
tion given to pre-lslamic Iranian history, and the
division of the world according to Iranian cosmologi-
cal divisions point to the existence of Iranian sources
at the core of the work.

Aside from the pioneering nature of Ibn Khurra-
dadhbih’s project, the book is of unique importance
for a number of reasons. First, the work contains
exhaustive itineraries of the caliphal road system, as
well as descriptions of the routes, both overland and
maritime, to foreign lands. Such information was of
practical use for couriers, armies, pilgrims, merchants,
and other geographical writers, some who openly
admit to having taken a copy of the work on their
travels. Second, the author includes detailed informa-
tion on the revenue yielded by the various tax regions
of the caliphate, information that has been invaluable
to historians of the social and economic conditions of
the period. Third, the work treats non-Muslim lands
in great detail, providing descriptions of China,
Byzantium, and the Indian Ocean region atypical of
comparable Arabic works that were often limited to
the lands of Islam or those aspects of non-Muslim
countries that were of direct relevance to rulers and
administrators at the time. Finally, Ibn Khurradadh-
bih provides miscellaneous data for which he is the
only — or at least the original — source, including,
most famously, passages on an official expedition to
the fabled wall of Gog and Magog, and the activities
of the Rus merchants and the Radhanite Jews. The
passage on the Rus has played a pivotal role in the
Normanist debate, while that on the Radhanites has
provoked controversy and extensive commentary.

Ibn Khurradadhbih’s Book of Routes and King-
doms had a perceptible influence on later writers;
some quote the author directly, whereas others pre-
ferred to pass off entire passages as their own work.
The genre of “Routes and Kingdoms” matured in
subsequent centuries, but the content of these later
works was often Islamo-centric and laconic on details
of the non-Muslim world.

Adam Silverstein

See also Human Geography; Mathematical Geogra-
phy; Merchants, Jewish; Road Networks

Primary Sources

Barbier de Maynard, C. Le livre des routes et des provinces
par Ibn Khordadbeh. Paris: Journal Asiatique, V (1865).
Ibn Khurradadhbih. Kitab al-lahw wa l-malahi. Edited by
LA. Khalifa. Beirut, 1964.

. Kitab al-masalik wa l-mamalik. Edited by M.J. de

Geoje. Leiden, 1889.

Maqbul Ahmad, Syed (Trans). Arabic Classical Accounts of
India and China. Shimla, 1989.

Further Reading

Bosworth, C. Edmund. “Ibn Kordadbeh.” Elr 8: 37-38.
Hadj-Sadok, Muhammad. “Ibn Khurradadhbih.” EI2 3:
839-840.

360

IBN NAGHRELA, SAMUEL

Heck, Paul. The Construction of Knowledge in Islamic Civi-
lization: Qudama h. Ja'far and his “Kitab al-Kharaj wa
Sina'at al-Kitabah.” Leiden, 2001 (Ch. II: Geography).

Maqbul Ahmad, Syed A History of Arab-Islamic Geography
(9 ,h -16' h Century AD). Amman, 1995.

Miquel, Andre. “Geography." The Encyclopedia of the His-
tory of Arabic Science: Volume 3 Technology, Alchemy
and Life Sciences, edited by R. Rashed, 796-812.
London: Routledge, 1996-1998.

Montgomery, James E. “Serendipity, Resistance, and Mul-
tivalency: Ibn Khurradadhbih and his Kitab al-Masalik
wa-l-Mamalik.” Adab and Fiction in Medieval Arabic
Literature , edited by P.F. Kennedy. Harrasowitz,
Wiesbaden, (forthcoming).

IBN NAGHRELA, SAMUEL

Samuel ibn Naghrela (993-1056), known in Andalusi-
Arabic historiography as Isma‘il ibn Naghrila and in
Jewish history as Samuel the Nagid, was a rabbinic
scholar, Hebrew poet and grammarian, and a Jewish
communal leader in eleventh-century Muslim
Granada. He assumed the role of the unofficial head
(Nagid or prince,) of the Jews of Granada around
1027. Thereafter, Ibn Naghrela cultivated extensive
contacts with the leaders of various Jewish commu-
nities under Islam as far as the Muslim East, and he
became a patron of other Jewish literary and religious
intellectuals and the communal institutions support-
ing their activities. Because he was also an ambitious
and opportunistic Arabic court secretary who rose
through the ranks of the state bureaucracy to promi-
nence as vizier in the service of the Zirid Berbers of
Granada, Ibn Naghrela arguably came to be the most
eminent Jew in Andalusi social and political history.
Reliance on non-Muslim administrators such as Ibn
Naghrela was not uncommon throughout the lands of
classical Islam, but it seems to have been especially
pronounced during this period in Andalusi political
history. Indeed, Samuel was succeeded by his son
Joseph in the office of vizier, as well as in his role as
Nagid of the Jews of Granada.

Ibn Naghrela’s position in the affairs of the
Muslim state as the highest fiscal and administrative
official of Granada, from 1038 until his death in 1056,
is discussed in important Andalusi sources such as Ibn
Hayyan al-Qurtubi, as preserved in Ibn al-Khatib’s
history of Granada and in The Tibyan, a political
memoir by ‘Abd Allah b. Buluggin, the last Zirid
king to rule Granada. The famous and unconven-
tional Muslim polymath Ibn Hazm also reports
having come into contact with Samuel when they
were young men and engaging him in polemical de-
bate on matters of religion. Both Arabic and Jewish
sources credit Ibn Naghrela’s rise to position and
influence to his legendary mastery of Arabic language

and learning, and it is on account of this accomplish-
ment that the figure of Ibn Naghrela became typolog-
ical among Jews and Muslims. According to his
Hebrew poetry, Samuel served Granada in some un-
specified military capacity, although recent research
raises serious questions about the nature and even
likelihood of such service.

Ibn Naghrela was probably the most significant
Jewish cultural mediator of eleventh-century al-
Andalus, in part because his social and political status
among Andalusi Jews and Muslims conferred legiti-
macy on his production of and support for Judeo-
Arabic culture and its fusion of Jewish and Arabo-
Islamic elements. His many intellectual endeavors in-
cluded two works that survive only in fragments: an
Arabic treatise on biblical Hebrew grammar, and an
Aramaic rabbinical compendium on Jewish law. How-
ever, in terms of literary production Ibn Naghrela
is remembered principally for his three collections
of Arabic-style Hebrew poetry that were edited by
his sons. The first highly accomplished poet of the
“Golden Age” of Jewish culture in al-Andalus, Ibn
Naghrela established the new style of Hebrew verse
by drawing fully and creatively upon the prosodic
forms, genre conventions, and rhetorical style of
Arabic poetry, applying them to biblical Hebrew
with all of its important textual associations and allu-
sions. A twelfth-century Hebrew historiography ac-
knowledged Ibn Naghrela’s unique position in the
history of Hebrew poetry in al-Andalus, by noting
that during the two generations before him “the
bards began to twitter, and in the days of R. Samuel
the Nagid they burst into song.”

Ibn Naghrela’s distinctive style and range opened
Hebrew verse to all of the major genres prominent in
Arabic poetry: love lyrics and wine songs, many of
which are exercises on a theme, panegyric in the form
of epistolary poems of friendship, laments, boasts,
satire and invective, gnomic poetry, reflective verse
on the vicissitudes of life and human mortality, and
“war poems” devoted to Samuel’s involvement in the
affairs of state. In particular, Ibn Naghrela stands out
as a poet for the ways in which he used many of these
genres to reflect poetically on his experiences, aspira-
tions and concerns, his achievements and frustrations,
and to publicize his claims to unique status and au-
thority among the Jews and to display his grandiose
sense of destiny.

Ross Brann

Further Reading

Brann, Ross. Power in the Portrayal: Representations of
Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Mus-
lim Spain. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.

361

IBN NAGHRELA, SAMUEL

Cole, Peter. Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1996.

Wasserstein, David J. “Samuel ibn Naghrila ha-Nagid and
Islamic Historiography in al-Andalus Al-Qantara xiv
(1993): 109-125.

IBN QADl SHUHBA

TaqI al-Din Abu Bakr b. Ahmad b. Muhammad b.
‘Umar (d. 851/1448) is, for modern historians, the
most prominent member of the Ibn Qadl Shuhba
family. This family, known for its religious scho-
lars, resided in Mamluk Damascus. The name derives
from an ancestor who had been a qadl in the village
of Shuhba in the Hawran district of southern Syria.
Abu Bakr b. Ahmad, most widely known by the
appellation Ibn Qadl Shuhba, was a noted jurist
(he was chief Qadi of Damascus for most of AH
842-844/1438-1440 CE) and author. Of his works,
he is best known today for his biographical dictio-
nary, al-Tabaqdt al-shdfi‘iyya, and a work of history,
Ta ’rtkh ibn qadl shuhba. The published edition of this
work covers the years 741-800/1340-1397, although a
manuscript (Chester Beatty 5527) subsequently found
extends to 810/1407. The work is an important source
for the decades following the death of the Mamluk
sultan al-Nasir Muhammad b. Qalawun (whose third
reign ended with his death in 741/1340), years marked
by intense struggle for political power within the
sultanate and by the appearance of bubonic plague
in Mamluk lands, to name just two significant
developments.

The historical work Ta’rikh ibn qadl shuhba is con-
sidered as part of the so-called Syrian School of
Mamluk historiography. This loose designation refers
to the tendency of Mamluk-era Syrian historians to
place more emphasis on the biographies of the ulama
than the more court-centered histories of the “Egyp-
tian School.” Ibn Qadl Shuhba’s work is also part of
the dhayl (continuation) genre of medieval Muslim
historiography, in which the historian envisioned the
work as continuing (and frequently modifying) a his-
tory written by an earlier author. In this case, Ibn
Qadl Shuhba built upon a historical work by Ibn
Hijjl (d. 816/1413), one of his teachers. While he
maintained Ibn Hijjl’ s annalistic structure of yearly
coverage, with each year divided into months, and a
list of biographies (in alphabetical order) attached at
the end of each year, Ibn Qadl Shuhba extensively
reworked Ibn Hijjfs text with additional material,
and subsequently abridged his version at least twice.

Warren C. Schultz

Further Reading

Reisman, David C. “A Holograph MS of Ibn Qadl Shuh-
bah’s Dhayl.” Mamluk Studies Review 2 (1998): 19M9.
Schacht, Josef. “Ibn Kadi Shuhba.” Encyclopaedia of
Islam. 2d ed, vol III, 814.

IBN QAYYIM AL-JAWZIYYA, SHAMS
AL-SHAMS AL-DlN ABU B AKR
MUHAMMAD IBN ABI BAKR AU-ZAR’I
(AH 691-751/1292-1350 CE)

A prolific writer and a much-appreciated Hanbali
scholar, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya is mostly known as
the devoted disciple and exegete of the salient Hanbali
theologian and jurist, Ibn Taymiyya. His nickname,
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, which may be rendered
approximately as “the son of the superintendent of
al-Jawziyya,” indicates his father’s occupation and
social status. Al-Jawziyya was a madrasa (religious
school) and court in Damascus.

Biographical details on Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
can be found in the works of Ibn Kathlr (d. 774/
1373) and Ibn Rajab (d. 795/1397), two prominent
scholars who were also his closest students. However,
their description of their teacher, although favorable
and admiring, is scanty. It seems that ever since Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyya first met Ibn Taymiyya, at the
age of twenty-one, until the latter’s death in the year
AH 728/1328 CE, their lives were interwoven. The
major events of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s life are
connected to the turbulent religious polemics that
Ibn Taymiyya conducted with his rivals. The ratio-
nale of these polemics lies in Ibn Taymiyya’s overall
view, which demands an utterly devout adherence to
the precepts and exact wording of the Qur’an and
hadith (the traditions related to the Prophet and his
Companions), as well as to the ijma (consensus) and
the teachings of the salaf (ancestors, that is, the fol-
lowers of the Prophet in the first two centuries of
Islam), along with a laborious effort to integrate
them with some of the doctrines of kalam (speculative
theology ). However, Ibn Taymiyya was most hostile to
the methods, theses, and convictions of the traditional-
ist Ash’ari kalam, widely implemented by most of the
religious senior officials of the Mamluk state. By pu-
blicly demonstrating the ignorance of his opponents in
the content of religious literature, Ibn Taymiyya
gained a lot of enemies within the highest ranks of

362

IBN QUTAYBA

the religious traditionalist establishment of Damascus
and Cairo. He also condemned the extreme form
of Sufism, embodied in the Ittihadiyya, namely the
followers of the Sufi Ibn al-‘ArabI (d. 637/1240).

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who shared his master’s
extreme views, although not his zealous style, also
shared his fate of persecutions. In the year 726/
1326, he was imprisoned in the citadel of Damascus
with Ibn Taymiyya, after the latter was accused by his
rivals of holding anthropomorphist views.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya was arrested at least twice
after his master’s death for defending Ibn Taymiyya’s
teachings and fatawa (formal legal opinions given by
a mufti) and refusing to recognize al- Khalil (Hebron)
as a site for Muslim pilgrimage.

During his imprisonments Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
deepened his interest in the mystic theories and prac-
tices of Sufism. While Ibn Taymiyya tended toward a
moderate form of Sufism as a part of his efforts to
combine all doctrines of Islam into one, Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyya was extensively preoccupied with Sufism.
He also wrote one of the most important commentar-
ies to al-Ansarl al-Harawfs (d. 482/1089) Sufi manu-
al, Manazil al-sairm (The Stations of the Travelers).
His commentary, titled Madarij al-salikm ( The Roads
of the Travelers) combines not only Ibn Qayyim al-
Jawziyya’s own mystic concepts but also a meticulous
theological analysis. Nevertheless, following his mas-
ter’s footsteps, in this work Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
does not hesitate to attack several aspects of al-
Ansarl’s Sufi doctrine, which seem to him extreme
and even wrong.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya wrote works in almost
every branch of the Islamic sciences. In the field of
theology his works are an elaborated arrangement of
his master’s work. For example, an extensive part of his
theological treatise, Shifa ‘ al- 'alTlfi masa ‘il al-qada ‘ wa-
1-qadar wa-l-hikma wa-l-ta’lil ( Healing the Person with
Wrong Concepts about Predetermination and Causali-
ty), cites freely from Ibn Taymiyya’s fatwas and epis-
tles, although it is clear that he has succeeded in
developing an original thought. In most cases, he
uses Ibn Taymiyya’s assertions and ideas as a platform
to introduce his own ideas, even though they are hard
to trace between the heavily ornamented phrases he
inserts, which are the trademark of his eloquent
writing.

In the field of jurisprudence, his Ahkam aid al-
dhimma , which deals with laws regarding Jewish,
Christian, and Sabaean subjects of the Muslim state,
is a frequently cited work. His interest in medicine is
reflected in al-ibb al-nabawi, which deals with reme-
dies for mental and physical illnesses mentioned in
hadith literature.

Livnat Holtzman

See also Ash’aris; Ibn ‘Arabi; Ibn Hanbal; Ibn
Taymiyya; Mu‘tazilites; Sufism and Sufis

Primary Sources

Ibn Kathlr, Abu al-Fida’ Isma’Il Ibn ’Umar. Al-Bidaya
wa'l-nihaya. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, 1421/
2001 .

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Muhammad Ibn Abl Bakr
al-Zar'I. Ahkam ahl al-dhimma. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub
al-'Ilmiyya, 1415/1995.

. Madarij al-salikm bayna manazil ‘iyydka na’budu

wa-'iyydka nasta’m. Beirut: Dar al-Jll, 1412/1991.

. Shifa ‘ al-‘alTl fi masa ‘il al-qada waj-qadar wa'I-

hikma wa'l-talil. Cairo: al-Matba’a al-Husayniyya,
1323/1903.

. Al-Tibb al-nabawT. Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifa, 1417/

1996.

Ibn Rajab, Zayn al-Dln Abu al-Faraj. Al-Dhayl 'aid tabaqdt
al-hanabila. Cairo: Matba’at al-Sunna al-Muhamma-
diyya, 1372/1953.

Further Reading

Abrahamov, Binyamin. “Ibn Taymiyya on the Agreement
of Reason with Tradition.” The Muslim World 82, no.
3M (1992). 256-272.

Bell, Joseph Norment Love Theory in Later Hanbalite
Islam. Albany: State University of New York Press,
1979.

Laoust, Henri. Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de
Taki-d-Din Ahmad b. Taimiya. le Caire: Imprimerie de
Tinstitut frangais d’archeologie orientale, 1939.

. La Profession de foi d'Ibn Taymiyya- La Wasitiyya.

Paris: Geuthner, 1986.

. “Ibn Kayyim al-D/awziyya.” Encyclopedia of Islam

(new edition and CD-ROM version). Vol 3. Leiden:
Brill, 2001, 821-822.

Makdisi, George. “Hanbalite Islam." In Studies on Islam ,
edited by Merlin L. Swartz, 115-126. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1981.

. “The Hanbali School and Sufism.” In Religion,

Law and Learning in Classical Islam, edited by G.
Maksis, 118-129. Hampshire: Variorum, 1991.

Meier, Fritz. “The Cleanest about Predestination: A Bit
of Ibn Taymiyya.” In Essays on Islamic Piety and
Mysticism, edited by Fritz Meier 309-334. Leiden:
Brill, 1999.

van Ess, Josef. “Sufism and Its Opponents — Reflections on
Topoi, Tribulations and Transformations.” In Islamic
Mysticism Contested, edited by Frederick De Jong and
Bernd Radtke, 22-44. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

IBN QUTAYBA

Ibn Qutayba (828-889 CE) wrote books in a wide
range of fields but was prized by later generations
primarily as a scholar of language and literature. Ibn
Qutayba pursued a lifelong scholarly interest in Ara-
bic language and literature, an interest that grew out

363

IBN QUTAYBA

of and remained closely tied to his early study of
religious texts, above all the Qur’an and Hadith.

The close connection between language study and
the study of religious texts emerges very clearly in Ibn
Qutayba’s early writings, which concern problems in
the language of the Qur’an and Hadith. It was a book
that he wrote around the year 851, however, that
secured him ‘Abbasid court patronage in the form of
a judgeship, a posting that took him from his native
Iraq to Iran. That book, the A dab al-katib (The
Chancery Secretary’s Handbook) , furnishes ‘Abbasid
chancery secretaries, or those who aspired to be secre-
taries, with a broad range of information about cor-
rect Arabic usage, including general matters of style
and vocabulary, technical terms in official correspon-
dence, penmanship and orthography, appropriate
diction in official correspondence, and the semantic
implications of Arabic morphology. The Adab al-
katib also likely sought to redirect the cultural inter-
ests of Persophile bureaucrats back to the intricacies
of Arabic as a worthy vehicle of cultural sophistica-
tion and appropriate idiom of imperial splendor. The
work came to be considered fundamental for the
study of Arabic literature (adab) by later writers,
such as Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406).

The Adab al-katib also marked an intellectual turn-
ing point in Ibn Qutayba’s writings, which thereafter
take up a broader range of topics, including tradition-
al Arab astronomy and other pre-lslamic Arab cus-
toms, dream interpretation, history, and literary
anthologies. One such anthology is the Kitab al-shi'r
wa-1-slm'ara’ (The Book of Poetry and Poets), which
collects Arabic poetry up through the early ninth
century and also contains an important contribution
to Arabic poetics, in its introduction. Another is the
‘Uyun al-akhbar (The Jewel-like Anecdotes) , which
collects prose anecdotes, stories, and other literary
excerpts under topic headings that range from politics
to asceticism to food.

A final group of writings, composed after Ibn
Qutayba’s retirement from the judiciary (ca. 870),
directly addresses matters of theological dogma. In
these works, and consistent with his earliest writings
on the language of religious texts, Ibn Qutayba de-
clares himself against speculative theology (kalam),
analogical reasoning (qiyas), and the doctrine of the
createdness of the Qur’an.

Later writings of Ibn Qutayba never achieved the
stature of his works on language, literature, and cul-
ture. Perhaps his discussion of theological matters
was not sufficiently nuanced or rigorous for those
preoccupied exclusively with such questions. On the
other hand, in these and in his other works, Ibn
Qutayba made a variety of topics accessible to a newly
emerging class of private readers, a trait that has led

some to refer to him as a popularizer. For all that
he insisted on grounding the high culture of his time
in the Arabic and Arabian heritages, Ibn Qutayba’s
wide-ranging interests and inclusive view of litera-
ture inaugurate the characteristic universalism and
humanism of classical Islamic civilization.

Joseph E. Lowry

See also Archives and Chanceries; Education; Grammar
and Grammarians; Historical Writing; Intellectual His-
tory; Judges; Scholars; Scriptural Exegesis, Islamic;
Stories and Storytelling; Theologians

Primary Sources

Ibn Qutayba. Adab al-katib. Edited by M.M. ‘Abd al-
Hamid. Cairo: Maktabat al-Sa‘ada, 1963.

. Kitab al-shi'r wa’l-shu'ara’. Edited by A.M.

Shakir.2 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1945-1950.

. al-Ma‘arif. Edited by Tharwat ‘Ukasha. Cairo: Dar

al-Ma‘arif, 1960.

. ‘Uyun al-akhbar. Edited by Ahmad Zaki al-‘Adwi.

4 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 1925-1930.

Further Reading

Bray, Julia. “Lists and Memory: Ibn Qutayba and Muham-
mad b. Habib.” In Culture and Memory in Medieval
Islam, edited by F. Daftary and J.W. Meri. London:
I. B. Tauris, 2002.

Ibn Qutayba. Introduction an Livre de la Poesie et des
Poetes. Translated by M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes.
Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1947.

. Le Trait e des divergences du hadith d’Ibn Qutayba.

Translated by G. Lecomte. Damascus: Institut Franpais
de Damas, 1962.

. “Ibn Quteiba’s ‘Uyun al-Akhbar” (translated into

English). Islamic Culture 4 (1930): 171-198, 331-362,
487-530; and 4 (1931): 1-27 (translated by Josef
Horowitz).

Lecomte, Gerard. “Ibn Kutayba.” In Encyclopaedia of
Islam. New Ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954-2002.

. Ibn Qutayba: I'homme, son oeuvre, ses idees.

Damascus: Institut Franpais de Damas, 1965.

IBN QUZMAN, ABU BAKR IBN ’ABD
AL-MALIK

Despite the fact, or perhaps because he defied the
norms of classical Arabic poetry, Ibn Quzman has
come to embody the essence of Hispano-Arabic poet-
ry. Indeed, he has become for modern scholarship the
best-known literary figure from the entire 780-year
Arabo-Muslim presence on the Iberian Peninsula
(modern Spain and Portugal). Ibn Quzman, whose
full name was Abu Bakr ibn ’Abd al-Malik, was
born in the Andalusian city of Cordoba in AH 470-
472/1078-1080 CE, where he also died in 555/1160.

364

IBN RUSHD, OR AVERROES

Little of Ibn Quzman’s biography has been documen-
ted. However, as is the case with many premodern
literary figures, much biographical information, reli-
able or unreliable, has been extrapolated from Ibn
Guzman’s poetry.

Before Ibn Quzman’s time, the traditional means
of livelihood for professional poets in both the
East and West was the composition of panegyrics in
praise of contemporary rulers. On the Iberian Penin-
sula this situation changed abruptly with the arrival
of the Almoravids, led by Yusuf bin Tashfin (489/
1096). The Almoravids’ conquest and occupation of
territories previously held by the fragmented “faction-
al kings” (muluk al-tawa’if) led to the displacement of
professional court poets employed by the Almoravids’
predecessors. Because the Berber-speaking Almora-
vids had little appreciation for the encomia composed
in classical Arabic, poets were compelled to earn a
living by composing praise poetry for the lesser aris-
tocracy, or to redirect their efforts into nonpanegyric
forms of poetry. Although Ibn Quzman was not the
first to compose zajals (Ibn Bajja [d. 533/1138] was the
most probable originator), he is considered the gen-
re’s foremost practitioner. In the context of a volatile
social and cultural environment, Ibn Quzman inter-
jected and popularized the zajal, a genre of poetry
very different from the classical praise poetry that
preceded it.

Ibn Quzman’s zajals represent a radical departure
from the seriousness of the classical panegyric that
had been the standard poetic form in both the East
and West of the Arabic-speaking world. Instead of the
formalized, ritualized praise of rulers common in the
encomia, Ibn Quzman’s zajals constitute a highly iro-
nic countergenre to established norms. Ibn Guzman’s
zajal substitutes the bombastic, florid praise of the
panegyric with parodic, tongue-in-cheek, faint praise
of individuals who in earlier times never would have
been the object of serious poetry. This emphasis on
the popular, lower strata of society is also apparent
in Ibn Quzman’s depiction of popular events, such as
carnivals, jugglers’ entertainment, marketplaces, and
foods. Transgressive elements, such as drunkenness,
seduction, fornication, adultery, divorce, and slapstick
violence are prominent features of his zajals.

The zajal, as practiced by Ibn Quzman, not only
dealt with subject matter alien to classical poetry, but
also, the zajal’s form and language differed signifi-
cantly from those found in the classical variety. In
its structure the zajal resembles its counterpart, the
classical muwashshaha, a form consisting of five to
seven strophes with a complicated rhyme scheme.
However, the zajal differs from the muwashshaha in
the use of an introductory strophe rather than a con-
cluding envoi. The most striking feature of the zajal

is its language. In contrast to the highly formal dic-
tion of all classical poetry, the zajal subverts the clas-
sical norm by introducing often-lengthy passages of
the written representation of colloquial speech of Ibn
Quzman’s time and locale. Ibn Quzman’s zajals,
therefore, not only constitute an innovation on poetic
language but also his representations of colloquial
speech serve as valuable documentation of Hispano-
Arabic, a dialect that often incorporated words and
structures from the Romance dialect that coexisted
with Arabic in the Iberian Peninsula.

Douglas C. Young

See also Adultery; Alcohol; Almoravids; Andalus; Cor-
doba; Decadence; Divorce; Gender and Sexuality;
Markets; Nawrus; Popular Literature; Romance,
Iberian; Shadow Plays; Wine

Primary Sources

de Gunzburg, David (Ed and Trans). Le Divan d’lhn Guz-
man: Texte, Traduction, Commentate. Berlin: S. Calvary
& Co., 1896.

Further Reading

Lewis, B., V. L. Menage, C. Pellat, and J. Schacht (Eds).
The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1971, 3:849-852.

Monroe, James T. Hispcmo- Arabic Poetry: A Student An-
thology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

IBN RUSHD, OR AVERROES

Born in 1126 in Cordoba to a family of distinguished
jurists, Abu al-Wahid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn
Muhammad Ibn Rushd served as Qadi at Seville
and Cordoba and studied deeply works of Shari 'ah
(religious law), Kalam (theological discourse), Aristo-
telian philosophy, and medicine until his death in
1198. In dialectical religious writings he upheld natu-
ral causality in the face of Ash‘arite occasionalist
assertions of absolute divine power, denied that the
Qur’an teaches creation ex nihilo, argued that Divine
knowledge is prior to all forms of universal or partic-
ular knowledge, and asserted that the Qur’an com-
mands the study of philosophy as obligatory for those
capable. In understanding different human beings to
be swayed to assent by rhetoric, dialectic, or demon-
stration, he was able to deny that there can be any
“double truth,” one of religion and another of philos-
ophy and science, by arguing for the unity of truth. In
his fatwa-Wkz Decisive Treatise on religious law and
philosophy, Ibn Rushd insisted that philosophical
demonstration, with its necessary character, can be

365

IBN RUSHD, OR AVERROES

the ultimate arbiter of the meaning of religious state-
ments and even of Qur’anic passages, saying “Truth
does not contradict truth but rather is consistent with
it and bears witness to it,” a surreptitious quotation
of Aristotle (Prior Analytics 1.32, 47a8-9). That confi-
dence in philosophical method is even more prominent
in his work Incoherence of the Incoherence, a detailed
commentary on Incoherence of the Philosophers by
Abu Elamid al-Ghazali, arguably Islam’s greatest
theologian. Working to refute many of al-Ghazali’s
attacks on the philosophers, Ibn Rushd also pointed
out the non-Aristotelian excesses of al-Farabi and Ibn
Sina (Avicenna). In his work Kashf al-Mahanij and
other dialectical writings he appears to reflect the
rationalism of the religious reformer al-M di Ibn
Tumart (d. ca. 1129-1130), who held for the essential
rationality of the Qur’an and the ability of human
rationality to apprehend the created nature of the
world.

While in some early philosophical works Ibn
Rushd followed the Neoplatonic teachings of his fa-
mous predecessors, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, in his ma-
ture works he rejected emanationism and vigorously
defended many teachings that he held to be geniunely
those of Aristotle, such as the eternity of the world,
the transcendent and separate nature of the human
material and agent intellects, the mortal nature of
individual human existence, and the final causality
of God as Unmoved Mover subtly argued to be ap-
propriately called “Creator.” Although he wrote
many valuable short treatises, his philosophical
thought is predominantly found in his commentaries
on works of Aristotle. Medieval Jewish philosophical
thought was powerfully influenced by the dialectical
works, a number of his early synthetic Short Commen-
taries and his paraphrasing Middle Commentaries, as
well as his detailed Long Commentaries on the Poste-
rior Analytics and Physics. In contrast, the Latin
translations of the thirteenth century were, for the
most part, of Long Commentaries, with those on nat-
ural philosophy, psychology, and metaphysics promi-
nent; none of his dialectical religious writings were
translated. In these commentaries the Latin West dis-
covered the power of philosophical reasoning apart
from religious belief, something that scandalized
some Christian thinkers, led others to uphold the
value of independent reason, and generally compelled
a rethinking of the relation of faith and reason.
Though he taught a controversial theory of the unity
of human material intellect, Ibn Rushd had many
Western admirers and some followers through the
period of the Renaissance, when additional works
translated from Hebrew became available in Latin.

Toward the end of his life, he was condemned, his
books were burned, and he was sent into a brief

exile. After his death, philosophy was suppressed
in Andalusia, and in Islamic lands no school devel-
oped following his Aristotelian approach. After a
nineteenth-century revival of interest in his dialectical
thought, various social and educational reformers in
the Arabic-reading world have drawn on his work to
provide a way for the conciliation of Islamic religion
and the methods of scientific reasoning prominent in
the West.

Richard C. Taylor

Further Reading

Aertsen, Jan A., and Gerhard Endress (Eds). Averroes and
the Aristotelian Tradition: Sources, Constitution and Re-
ception of the Philosophy of Ibn Rushd (1126-1198).
Leiden: Brill, 1999.

Averroes database: www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/thomasinst/
averroes/index.htm. Thomas-Institut, Cologne, 2004.

Ibn Rushd. Averroes. On the Harmony of Religion and
Philosophy. Translated by George F. Hourani. London:
Luzac & Co., 1961.

. Averroes’ Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of

the Incoherence) . Translated by Simon Van Den Bergh.
London: Luzac & Co., 1969.

. Faith and Reason in Islam. Averroes’ Exposition of

Religious Arguments. Translated by Ibrahim Y. Najjar.
Oxford: Oneworld, 2001. (Kashf al-Mahanij) Najjar,
Fauzi M. “Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and the Egyptian
Englightenment Movement.” British Journal of Middle
Eastern Studies 31 (Nov 2004): 195-213.

IBN SA‘D

Ibn Sa‘d (784-845) was among the pioneers of bio-
graphical writings in Arabic. He was born in Basra
and studied Hadith before moving to Baghdad. Un-
usual for a Hadith scholar, he was also familiar with
Arab genealogy, pre-Islamic tribal lore, and Jewish
and Christian narrative traditions. In Baghdad, he
apprenticed himself to al-Waqidi (d. 823), a collector
of reports on the early history of the Muslim com-
munity. After al-Waqidi’s death, Ibn Sa‘d devoted
the rest of his life to arranging his teacher’s notes
and his own into a book. The result was the Tahaqat
(Generations ) , the earliest biographical and historical
compilation to be preserved in its entirety.

Before Ibn Sa’d's time, Arabic biographical writing
had consisted largely of name-lists or collections of
anecdotes about notable personalities. The only work
that resembled a proper biography, at least by later
standards, was the Life of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaq
(d. 767). The remaining biographical material at Ibn
Sa‘d’s disposal consisted of historical legends, name-
lists, and reports on the Prophet’s contemporaries
and their successors. By putting all of this material

366

IBN SA‘D

together, Ibn Sa‘d’s Generations became one of the
earliest Arabic works to present a coherent (if implicit)
vision of universal history.

The work begins with a brief history of the proph-
ets from Adam to Muhammad, intended to establish
the latter’s descent from the founders of monotheism.
It then offers biographies of Muhammad’s ancestors,
who are represented as devout and courageous men
despite being pagans. The biography of Muhammad
himself, which takes up approximately one-fourth of
the book, follows his career from birth to death. It
includes accounts of his childhood and marriage, his
reception of the Qur’an, his preaching in Mecca, his
emigration to Medina, his negotiations with the tribes
of Arabia, his military campaigns, and his final illness.
There are also sections (with no parallels in Ibn Ishaq)
on the Prophet’s appearance, habits, clothing, diet,
and personal possessions.

As a biographer of the Prophet, Ibn Sa‘d follows
the convention of citing first-person reports rather
than narrating in his own voice, although he occa-
sionally admits to having combined several reports
into a single account. He seems to have been scrupu-
lous in reporting everything he was told, including
mutually contradictory reports of the same event.
He has no hesitation about miracle stories, which
appear in profusion. For these reasons his biogra-
phy of the Prophet is hardly reliable as a source of
documentary evidence. However, it is an indispen-
sable source of information on early Islamic history
as it was remembered or imagined in the mid-ninth
century.

Unlike Ibn Ishaq, whose work ends with the death
of Muhammad, Ibn Sa‘d continued his account with
biographies of the Prophet’s successors, that is, the
men and women who took part in the transmission of
Hadith. These biographies, which number more than
four thousand, are arranged in sections and subsec-
tions according to generation, tribal affiliation, and
place of residence, with all the women appearing to-
gether in a section of their own at the end. Some of
the entries, such as those on the first four caliphs, are
quite long. The majority, however, consist of short
notices giving the names of the subject’s teachers and
students (that is, the persons from whom and to
whom he or she transmitted Hadith), as well as a
date of death, if known.

Modern scholarship has tended to assume that
Generations was used as a work of reference. Given
its content, the book could certainly have served as a
basis for the validation of isnads (the lists of transmit-
ters that precede a Hadith report). Nevertheless, it
also contains a good deal of anecdotal information
with little evident relevance to Hadith transmission.
Clearly, then, Ibn Sa'd was not simply a recordkeeper

working for the benefit of Hadith scholars. Rather, he
seems to have been a historian whose vision of history
happens to give pride of place to the transmission of
Hadith.

Ibn Sa‘d’s Generations exerted a formative influ-
ence on Arabic historical writing. The arrangements
he used for organizing entries were adopted and mod-
ified by the authors of subsequent biographical
works, many of which were arranged by generation
or by place of residence. (The only system of organi-
zation Ibn Sa‘d did not use was the alphabetical one,
which was developed independently at approximately
the same time.) Most important, perhaps, Generations
offered a vision of history writing that was based on
the collection of individual life stories. This under-
standing of historiography remained dominant, or at
least influential, until the beginning of the modern
period.

In 833, Ibn Sa‘d was summoned to affirm the
createdness of the Qur’an. This controversial opinion
had been raised to the status of official state doctrine
by the caliph al-Ma’mun (813-833), who sought to
rein in the power of the religious scholars by forcing
them to proclaim assent to it. Ibn Sa‘d gave his assent,
although it is likely that he did so under duress.
Thereafter, he seems to have been left in peace until
his death in Baghdad at the age of sixty-two.

Michael Cooperson

See also Biography and Biographical Works

Primary Sources

Ibn Sa‘d. Al-Tabaqat al-kubra. 9 vols. Edited by Ihsan
‘Abbas. Beirut: Dar Bayrut and Dar Sadir, 1957.

. Al-Tabaqat al-kubra. 8 parts in 4. Edited by Riyad

‘Abd Allah ‘Abd al-Hadi. Beirut: Dar Ihya al-Turath
al-‘Arabi, 1996 (contains passages unpublished in ear-
lier editions). Partial translations in The women of
Madina. Translated by Aisha Bewley. London: Ta Ha,
1995.

The Men of Madina. Translated by Aisha Bewley. London:
Ta-Ha, 1997-2000.

The Men of Madina II. Translated by Aisha Bewley. Lon-
don: Ta-Ha, 2000.

Further Reading

Loth, Otto. “Ursprung und Bedeutung der Tabaqat.”
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft
23 (1869): 593-614.

al-Qadi, Wadad. “Biographical Dictionaries: Inner Struc-
ture and Cultural Significance.” In The Book in the
Islamic World: The Written Word and Communication in
the Middle East, edited by George N. Atiyeh. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1995.

Roded, Ruth. Women in Islamic Biographical Collections:
From Ibn Sa'd to Who's Who. Boulder: Lynne Rienner,
1994.

367

IBN SHADDAD

Baha’ al-Din Abu’l-Mahasin Yusuf b. Rafi‘

Baha’ al-Din Abu’l-Mahasin Yusuf b. Rali‘, a leading
scholar, writer, and official of the Jazira and Syria, was
born in the northern Mesopotamian city of Mosul in
AH 439/1145 CE. After a period in Baghdad as mu ‘id
(assistant teacher) at the madrasa (Islamic school), the
celebrated Madrasa al-Nizamiyya, founded by the
Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk, he was made mudarris
(professor) in one of his native city’s madrasa s.

During this period Baha’ al-Din was appointed by
the Zankid rulers of Mosul to several diplomatic
missions, including two embassies to Saladin. In
AH 584/1188 CE, on his return home from the pil-
grimage, he was received by Saladin, who was besie-
ging the northern Syrian stronghold of Krak des
Chevaliers. The judicious presentation to the sultan
by Baha’ al-Din of a treatise he had written, titled
Fada’il al- Jihad (The Virtues of Holy War), resulted
soon after in Baha’ al-Din’s appointment as Saladin’s
qadi al-‘askar (Islamic judge of the army). He was
later given judicial and administrative responsibil-
ities in Jerusalem. Baha’ al-Din became a close com-
panion and confidant of the sultan, remaining so until
Saladin’s death at Damascus in AH 589/1193 CE.
He then played an important part in negotiating the
division of power among Saladin’s heirs.

After two years in the service of Saladin’s eldest
son al-Malik al-Afdal 'Ali, ruler of Damascus, in AH
591/1195 CE, Baha’ al-Din moved to Aleppo. There
he was appointed qadi (Islamic judge) of the city by
its ruler, al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, who was another
of Saladin’s sons. In AH 601/1204 CE, he founded
his own religious school in Aleppo, the Madrasa al-
Sahibiyya, adding to it a dar al-hadith (school for
the study of prophetic tradition). Linking the two
foundations was a mausoleum that he prepared for
himself.

Meanwhile, Baha’ al-Din’s diplomatic skills
proved useful to the ruler of Aleppo: He made several
visits to Cairo on behalf of al-Malik al-Zahir in an
effort to resolve disputes among the Ayyubids. He
continued to serve al-Zahir’s heir, al-Malik al-‘Aziz.
In AH 629/1232 CE, he headed the delegation that
went to Cairo to bring the daughter of the Ayyubid
ruler of Egypt back to Aleppo to marry al-Malik al-
‘Aziz. Baha’ al-Din died at Aleppo in AH 632/1235
CE, at nearly ninety years of age.

Baha’ al-Din’s most important work is his
biography of Saladin, Sirat Salah al-Din , also called

al-Nawadir al-sultaniyyah wa-l-mahasin al- Yusufiyyah
(The Sultan’s Rare Qualities and the Excellences
of Yusuf [ that is, Saladin]). It combines elements
of hagiography, propaganda, history, and auto-
biography. The first part of the work describes the
sultan’s accomplishments and moral excellence.
Throughout the work Saladin is presented as exhort-
ing the Muslims not to slacken their efforts against
the Crusaders. The second part of the book is an
account of Saladin’s career from AH 558/1163
CE, when he accompanied his Uncle Shirkuh’s expe-
dition to Egypt, until his death in AH 589/1193 CE.
For events after the summer of AH 584/1188
CE, when Baha’ al-Din joined the service of the sul-
tan, the narrative becomes the eyewitness account of
someone in Saladin’s inner circle, and a commensu-
rately valuable source for the events of the Third
Crusade.

David Morray

See also Biography and Biographical Works; Diplo-
macy; Excellences Literature; Historical Writing;
Madrasa

Further Reading

Ahmad, M. Hilmy M. “Some Notes on Arabic Historiog-
raphy during the Zengid and Ayyubid Periods (521/
1127-648/1250).” In Historians of the Middle East,
edited by B. Lewis and P.M. Holt. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1962.

Cahen, C. La Syrie du Nord a I’epoque des Croisades. Paris,
1940.

Ibn Shaddad, Baha’ al-Din. al-Nawadir al-Sultaniyya
wa’l-mahasin al-Yusufiyya. Translated by D.S. Richards
as The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin. Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2001.

IBN SHAHIN, NISSIM BEN JACOB
(C. 990-1062)

Nissim was a Talmudic scholar of Qayrawan who
studied under his father, Rabbi Jacob ben Nissim,
and Rabbi Hushiel, an illustrious scholar of Italian
origin. Nissim was supported financially by the famed
poet and patron of Jewish learning, Samuel Ibn
Naghrela. The latter composed a poem of consolation
upon the death of Nissim’s young and only son and
married his son Joseph to Nissim’s daughter. Several
works (some fragmentary) by Nissim survive in addi-
tion to commentaries on tracts of the Talmud and a
compilation of legal rulings. Composed in Judeo-
Arabic, his A Key to the Locks of the Talmud is a
reference work of quotations found in the Talmud,
and his Revelation of Mysteries is a topical treatment

368

IBN SINA, OR AVICENNA

of subjects such as biblical exegesis, religious polemics,
responsa, and explications of sections of the Talmud
and Midrash. These works exhibit tendencies toward
systemization and had profound effects on Jewish
intellectuals in the Islamic and Christian domains.
The Judeo-Arabic collection of rabbinic tales titled
Kitab al-faraj ba‘d al-shidda ( Book of Relief after
Adversity) is addressed to console a relative called
Dunash who had requested a book to relieve him
following the death of a son. Dunash had mentioned
that the “heretics” (that is, Muslims) possessed such a
book on the subject of relief after adversity, possibly
referring to al-Tanukhi’s Kitab al-faraj bad al-shidda
or a similar work. Al-Tanukhi’s work is an adab col-
lection on various species of relief (foretold in omens,
realized through dreams, freedom from prison or exe-
cution, and so on) and aphorisms concerning relief from
Qur’an, hadith, and poetry. Ibn Shahin’s book is an
anthology of stories, mostly gleaned from rabbinic
sources, that assures the reader of God’s justice (despite
its mysteries) and discusses the qualities of scholars,
virtuous and perfidious women, the wickedness of
hypocrites, and the duty to pursue kindness and charity
while abstaining from evil. The book also draws on
apocryphal Jewish books (such as Ben Sira) and, in all
likelihood, stories from Islamic literature; the book
bears some earmarks of Arabic storytelling techniques.
It enjoyed great popularity in the medieval period (as
testified by Geniza letters) and had direct influence on
later Jewish works, such as Joseph Ibn Zabarah’s
Book of Delights and Moses de Leon’s Zohar.

Jonathan P. Decter

See also Adab; Judeo-Arabic; Ibn Naghrela, Samuel;
Qayrawan; al-Tanukhi

Further Reading

Abramson, Shraga. Rah Nissim Ga 'on, Hamishah Sefarim.

Jerusalem: Mekitzei Nirdamim, 1965.

Ibn Shahin, Nissim Ben Jacob. The Arabic Original of Ibn
Shahin ’s Book of Comfort Known as the Hibbur Yaphe of
R. Nissim B. Ya’aqobh. Edited by Julian Obermann.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1933.

. An Elegant Composition Concerning Relief after

Adversity. Translated with introduction and notes by
William M. Brinner. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1977.

Scholem, Gershom. “The Paradisiac Garb of Souls and the
Origin of the Concept of Hahika de-Rabbanan.” Tarbis
24 (1956): 290-306.

IBN SINA, OR AVICENNA

Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan Ibn Sina (ca. 980-1037 CE),
known in Latin as Avicenna, was a physician, natural
philosopher, mathematician, poetic mystic, and

princely minister. Of Persian descent, he was born in
Afshana in the province of Bukhara. His philosophi-
cal chief work, Kitab al-shifa’ (Book of Healing),
which was known in Latin as Liber Sufficientia, to-
gether with its condensed revision, Kitab al-najat
(Book of Deliverance), led many to regard him as
being the authoritative Neoplatonist integrator of the
Aristotelian corpus. However, his intellectual acumen
elevates his station beyond that of a commentator and
lets him stand as an insightful thinker in his own
right. His philosophical investigations covered math-
ematics, music, logic, physical and psychical sciences,
as well as metaphysics and theology. In geometry, he
critically examined Euclid’s Elements and attempted
to prove its fifth postulate. In his Aristotelian intro-
mission conception of vision, he showed that the
velocity of light had a finite magnitude. Partly influ-
enced by Porphyry’s Isagoge, Aristotle’s Organon, and
Galen’s logical investigations, he eventually devel-
oped intricate forms of propositional logic. Lurther-
more, he founded a prototheory of meaning that was
partially embodied in his work Kitab al-hudud ( Book
of Definitions) , wherein he arrived at definitions by
way of a rigorous distinction among concepts while,
unlike most Platonists, he celebrated the merits of
the art of persuasion and rhetoric. In astronomy he
endeavored to systematize his observations that were
grounded by Ptolemy’s Almagest, and in mechanics
he built on the theories of Heron of Alexandria while
also seeking to improve the precision of instrumental
readings. In his physical inquiries he studied different
forms of energy, heat, and force, while presenting a
more coherent account of the interconnection be-
tween time and motion than what is habitually asso-
ciated with Aristotle’s Physics. One of his important
achievements in natural philosophy is attested to in
his account of the soul in Kitab al-nafs (Treatise on
the Soul), which was preserved in his al-Shifa and al-
Najat, and was translated into Latin under the title De
Anima. Therein, he presented an affirmation of the
existence of the soul that rested on a radical mind-
body dualism in an argument that is customarily
referred to as “the flying person argument,” which
anticipates Descartes’s “cogito ergo sum.” He also
elucidated the notion of “intentionality” in the work-
ings of the internal sense of the faculty of estimation
(wahm) and its pragmatic entailments. Ranking
among the most influential of metaphysicians in the
history of philosophy, Ibn Sina offered an original
elucidation of the question of “being” (al-wujud)
that was mediated by a methodical distinction be-
tween essence and existence and oriented by an onto-
logical consideration of the modalities of necessity,
contingency, and impossibility. Taking the contingent
to be a mere potentiality of being, whose existence or

369

IBN SINA, OR AVICENNA

nonexistence did not entail a contradiction, Ibn Sina
construed all creatures in actuality as being necessary
existents due to something other than themselves.
Consequently, any contingent had its essence distinct
from its existence while being existentially dependent
on causes that are external to it, which lead back to
the One Necessary Existent due to Itself Whose Es-
sence is none other than Its Existence. In this,
Ibn Sina eschewed Aristotle’s reduction of “being”
into the Greek conception of ousia (substance or
essence), and he conceived the Deity as being the
metaphysical First Cause of existence rather than
being the physical Unmoved Cause of motion. Al-
though his consideration of Divine creation was pri-
marily mediated by an attempt to found a synthesis
between Aristotle’s naturalism and monotheistic
creationism, his ontology remained more akin to
Neoplatonist emanationism, which took the One Nec-
essary Existent to be the Source of all existential
effusion. In this processional hierarchical partici-
pation in “being,” the Active Intellect played a neces-
sary role in the genesis of human knowledge.
Following Plato, Ibn Sina held that knowledge,
which consisted of grasping the intelligible, did ulti-
mately determine the fate of the rational soul in the
hereafter. Believing that the universality of our ideas
was attributed to the mind itself, he additionally held
that our passive individual intellects are in a state of
potency with regard to knowledge, unlike the Active
impersonal and separate Intellect that is in a state of
actual perennial thinking. Consequently, our passive
intellect qua mind acquires ideas by being in contact
with the Active Intellect without compromising its
own independent substantiality or immortality. In a
mystical tone that becomes most pronounced in Kitah
al-isharat wa-l-tanbihat ( Book of Hints and Pointers),
Ibn Sina also maintained that certain elect souls are
capable of realizing a union with the Universal Active
Intellect, thereby attaining the station of prophecy.
His philosophical views were debated by Averroes
and Maimonides, criticized by al-Ghazali, and
integrated by intellectual authorities in medieval
Europe, such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus,
and Roger Bacon. His thinking also impacted the
course of development of the ontotheological systems
of prominent Muslim scholars such as Suhrawardi,
Tusi, and Mulla Sadra. In all of this, his philo-
sophical wisdom did not outshine his celebrated
reputation as a physician, and his classic Kitab
al-qanun fi’l-tibb (The Canon in Medicine), which
was translated into Latin in the twelfth century CE
(Liber Canonis), commanded an authority that
almost surpassed that of Hippocrates and Galen
and acted as the decisive compendium of the Greco-
Roman-Arabic scientific medicine, and as the

reference Materia Medica, throughout the medieval
period and up to the Renaissance.

Nader El-Bizri

See also Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Astronomy;
al-Farabi (Alfarabius or Avennasar); al-Ghazali; Ibn
Rushd (Averroes); Illuminationism; Maimonides;
Materia Medica; Medical Literature, Arabic; Medi-
cine; Meteorology; Mulla Sadra; Mysticism; Optics;
Physicians; Plato and Neoplatonism; Ptolemy; al-Suh-
rawardi, Shihab al-Din ‘Umar; Theology

Primary Sources

Ibn Sina. Kitab al-shifa’, al-ilahiyyat. Edited by Ibrahim
Madkour, George Anawati, and Said Zayed. Cairo:
al-Hay’a al-misriyya al-‘amma lil-kitab, 1975.

. Kitab al-shifa’, Kitab al-nafs. Edited by Fazlur

Rahman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960.

. Kitab al-najat. Edited by Majid Fakhry. Beirut: Dar

al-afaq al-jadida, 1985.

. Kitab al-hudud (Livre des definitions). Edited and

translated by A.-M. Goichon. Cairo: Institut franpais
d'archeologie orientale du Caire, 1963.

. Kitab al-'isharat wa’l-tanbihat (Le livre des direc-
tives et remarques) . Edited and translated by A.-M.
Goichon. Paris: J. Vrin, 1999.

Further Reading

Afnan, Soheil. Avicenna: His Life and His Works. London:
Allen and Unwin, 1958.

Corbin, Henry. Avicenne et le recit visionnaire. Tehran:
Societe des monuments nationaux de l’lran, 1954.

Gardet, Louis. La connaissance mystique chez Ibn Sina et ses
presupposes philosophiques. Cairo: Institut franpais
d'archeologie orientale du Caire, 1952.

Goichon, A.-M. Lexique de la langue philosophique d’Ibn
Sina. Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 1938.

. “Ibn Sina.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. III.

Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.

. La philosophic d Avicenne et son influence en Europe

medievale. Paris: Librairie d’Amerique et d’Orient, 1971.

Goodman, Lenn E. Avicenna. London: Routledge, 1992.

Gutas, Dimitri. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988.

Hasse, Dag Nikolaus. Avicenna’s De Anima in the Latin
West. London: The Warburg Institute, University of
London, 2000.

Janssens, Jules, and Daniel De Smet (Eds). Avicenna and
His Heritage. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002.

IBN TAGHRI BIRDI, ABU ‘L-MAHASIN
YUSUF (C. 1410-1470 CE)

Ibn Taghri Birdi was a historian of the Mamluk
Sultanate of Egypt and Syria (1250-1517) known for
his close ties to the Mamluk elite. His father, Taghri
Birdi, was a mamluk amir (holder of military rank)

370

IBN TAYMIYYA

who rose through the ranks during the reigns of the
Mamluk sultans Barquq (r. 1382-1399) and Faraj
(r. 1399-1412), achieving the position of Viceroy in
Damascus prior to his death in 1412. Ibn Taghri
Birdi’s eldest sister was married to Faraj, and Ibn
Taghri Birdi was a close companion of a son of sultan
Jaqmaq (r. 1438-1453). Ibn Taghri Birdi received a
grant of land revenues from Sultan al-Mu’ayyad
Shaykh (r. 1412-1421) and accompanied Sultan
Barsbay (r. 1422-1437) on a military campaign in
Syria. He also knew Turkish quite well and was fa-
miliar with court life in Mamluk Cairo. These and
other connections served him well during his career as
religious stipendiary, scholar, and author.

Ibn Taghri Birdi wrote several works, but he is best
known today for his biographical dictionary and two
historical chronicles. The dictionary, Al-Manhal
al-Safi wa al-Mustawfi bad al-Wafi, written in early
adulthood, provides biographies of rulers, scholars,
and amirs for the period 1248-1451, with scattered
additions dating as late as 1458. His chronicle
Al-Nujum al-Zahira fi Muluk Misr wa-al-Qahira
surveys Egyptian history from the Muslim conquest
in 641 up to 1468, although the sections post-1441 are
mainly summaries taken from his second major chro-
nicle, Al-Hawadith al-Duhur fi Mada al-Ayyam wa-al-
Shuhur, a detailed account of Mamluk history cover-
ing the period 1441-1469. Ibn Taghri Birdi considered
this second work a continuation of al-Maqrizi’s
important history, Kitab al-Suluk li-Ma‘rifat Duwal
wa-al-Muluk.

Ibn Taghri Birdi’s chronicles are focused on the
elite segments of Mamluk-era society. As a walad
al-nass (Arabic “son of the people,” meaning literally
a son of those who mattered, that is, the Mamluks), it
is perhaps not surprising that comparative studies of
his work have indicated a tendency by Ibn Taghri
Birdi to defend the actions and policies of the Mam-
luk rulers who were frequently criticized by other
observers such as al-Maqrizi. That said, his work
also contains frank and critical comments about spe-
cific officials both living and dead, for which it is
possible that Ibn Taghri Birdi suffered both verbal
and physical attacks.

Warren C. Schultz

See also Historical Writing
Primary Sources

Ibn Taghri Birdi, Abu ‘1-Mahasin Yusuf. History of Egypt
(845-854 A. H., A. D. 1441-1450) : An Extract from Abu
1-Mahasin ibn Taghri Birdi’s Chronicle Entitled Hawadith
ad-Duhur fi Madd l-Ayyam wash-Shuhur. Translated by
William Popper. New Haven: American Oriental Socie-
ty, 1967. American Oriental Series, Essays, 5.

. History of Egypt, 1382-1469 AD, Translated from

the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Mahdsin ibn Taghri Birdi.
Translated by William Popper. 8 vols. Berkeley and
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1954—1963.
University of California Publications in Semitic Philolo-
gy, vols. 13-14, 17-19, 22-24.

. al-Manhal al-Safi wa-al-Mustawfd ba'da al-Wafi.

Edited by Ahmad Yusuf Najati. Vol. 1. Cairo: Matba‘at
Dar al-Kutub, 1956.

. al-Manhal al-Safi wa-al-Mustawfd ba'da al-Wafi.

Edited by Muhammad Muhammad Amin. Vols. 2-7 .
Cairo: al-Hay’ah al-Misriyah al-‘Ammah lil-Kitab,
1984-1993.

Further Reading

Laoust, H. Essai sur les doctrines socials et politiques de
Taki-d-Din Ahmad b. Taimiya. Cairo: Institute Franpais
d'Archeologe Orientale, 1939.

Little, D. P. “The Historical and Historiographical Signifi-
cance of the Detention of Ibn Taymiyya.” International
Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 4 (1973): 313-320.
Makdisi, George. “Ibn Taymiya: A Sufi of the Qadiriya
Order.” American Journal of Arabic Studies 1 (1973):
118-129.

IBN TUFAYL

Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Malik Abu Bakr Ibn
Tufayl was born in Guadix, not far from Granada,
in 1110. Reputed for his learning in philosophy,

jurisprudence, theology, and logic, as well as natural
science, he gained the favor of the Almohad ruler,
Abu Ya‘qub Yusuf, whom he served for many years
as a political advisor and physician. Apart from
his philosophical novel, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (Living
the Son of Awakened) — the only writing of his that
has survived — Ibn Tufayl is known for the important
role he played in presenting Averroes to Abu Ya‘qub
as the person most capable of commenting on the
works of Aristotle, this being a task Ibn Tufayl con-
sidered beyond his own reach. He died in Marrakesh
in 1185.

Ibn Tufayl focused on the relationship between the
rational acquisition of knowledge and the path to it
pursued by those who favor mysticism or Sufism in
the philosophical introduction to Hayy Ibn Yaqzan.
The work consists of three major parts. In the intro-
duction, Ibn Tufayl explains his reasons for writing a
book such as this and provides a general critique of
philosophy, theology, and mysticism within the Arab
world during his time. It is followed by the story of
Hayy and by a formal conclusion in which Ibn Tufayl
returns to the main theme of the work.

As he explains in the introduction, the tale of Hayy
ibn Yaqzan comes as a response to a request from a
friend that he unfold what he knows “of the secrets of
the Oriental wisdom mentioned by the master, the
chief, Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina.” The question, he says,
moved him to a strange state and caused him to
discern a world beyond the present; it also caused
him to discern the difficulty of speaking intelligently
and circumspectly about this state. To prove the latter
point, Ibn Tufayl passes in review what mystics and
philosophers have said about it. Desirous of avoiding
their foolishness, he speaks about the state only to the
extent necessary, all the while pointing out the errors
of his predecessors. He insists it is to be reached by
“speculative knowledge” and “deliberative inquiry”
and intimates that at least one philosopher — Ibn
Bajja — reached that rank or perhaps even managed
to go beyond it.

Ibn Bajja did not describe this state in a book; nor
has any other philosopher — either because they had
no awareness of it or because it is too difficult to
explain in a book. Ibn Tufayl dismisses as useless
this task that has come down from Aristotle, Alfar-
abi, Avicenna, and all Andalusians prior to Ibn Bajja.
Even Ibn Bajja, capable as he was of providing an
account, failed to do so.

To meet his friend’s request, Ibn Tufayl promises
to expose the truth and knowledge he has learned
from Alghazali and Avicenna, plus what he has
gained from the philosophically inclined people of
his time via study and reflection. Even so, he hesitates
to give the results of what he has witnessed without

372

IBN TULUN

also providing the principles, lest his interlocutor be
content with a lower degree of insight. To arouse his
interlocutor’s longing and encourage him to move
along the path, Ibn Tufayl offers the tale of Hayy
ibn Yaqzan. In other words, to leave us short of the
end, it will indicate what the path is like.

Hayy is either self-generated from a lump of clay or
comes into being as do all humans but is then put into
the sea in a basket because his mother, the sister of a
very proud monarch, has wedded beneath her status
in secret and fears for the fruit of this union should
her brother learn of Hayy’s existence. However gen-
erated, Hayy grows up on a deserted island, nursed
by a doe until he can fend for himself. During seven
periods of seven years each, he discovers his natural
surroundings and the way they interact, ascending by
a series of inductions to embrace physics and its many
divisions, as well as mathematics and its parts. He
also gains insight into the nature of the heavenly
bodies and into the character of the creator, as well
as of his messenger and prophet, Muhammad.

Hayy’s education is all the more wondrous, for his
enforced solitude deprives him of language. Only
when he encounters Asal, the inhabitant of a neigh-
boring island who is discontent with the way his
fellow citizens practice religion, does Hayy learn to
speak. They return to Asal’s island intent upon
showing people the correct path, but they fail misera-
bly. Only Salaman, a friend of Asal’s who discerns
that most people cannot appreciate the truths Hayy
wishes them to grasp and who is content to let them
flounder, understands the limits of human reason. He
is also too complacent for Hayy and Asal, not to
mention most of Ibn Tufayl’s readers.

The tale ends with Hayy and Asal deciding to
return to the desert island to spend their remaining
days meditating about divine matters. The people
on the mainland are left without a solution to the
problems that plague them, just as Ibn Tufayl’s inter-
locutor is left without a clear answer to his quest.
We readers, having been enticed by this story, must
now figure out for ourselves what it can possibly
mean for us.

Charles E. Butterworth

Further Reading

Fradkin, Hillel. “The Political Thought of Ibn Tufayl.” In
The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, Essays in
Honor of Muhsin S. Mahdi , edited by Charles E. Butter-
worth, 234-261. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1992.

Hayy ibn Yaqzan. Translated by Lenn Evan Goodman.
New York: Gee Tee Bee, 1995.

Mallet, Dominique. “Les livres de Hayy.” Arabica. 44, no. 1
(1997): 1-34.

IBN TULUN

Ibn Tulun, also Ahmad b. Tulun, was the founder of
the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria dur-
ing the late ninth and early tenth centuries CE. Fol-
lowing the example of the Tahirids in Khurasan and
the Aghlabids in North Africa, Ibn Tulun exploited
his position in Egypt, establishing a semiautonomous
state a secure distance from the 'Abbasid capital in
Baghdad while the caliphs battled rebellions and
independence movements in the East.

Ibn Tulun’s father, Tulun, entered the caliphate’s
service as a Turkish slave, reportedly sent to the
caliph al-Ma’mun from Bukhara. He formed part of
a large cadre of Turks who served in important mili-
tary and administrative positions during his time.
He eventually rose to become chief of al-Ma’mun’s
personal guard.

Ibn Tulun received training in military affairs and
distinguished himself for his bravery. His widowed
mother’s marriage to the Turkish general Bakbak
gave him new opportunities for advancement. The
caliph al-Mu‘tamid appointed Bakbak over Egypt in
868. Ibn Tulun became his stepfather’s lieutenant.

Ibn Tulun increased his power through scheming,
marriage, and fortuitous circumstances. He cultivated
good relations with the caliph al-Mu'tamid. After
having the infamous controller of finances, Ibn al-
Mudabbir, removed, he assumed primary responsibil-
ity for Egypt’s treasury, especially payments of tribute
to Baghdad. When Ibn Tulun’s stepfather was assas-
sinated, the new governor, Yarjukh, to whom he was
related by marriage, kept him as lieutenant governor.
The revolt of the governor of Palestine shortly after-
ward offered him a pretext to purchase military slaves,
though he did not actually put down the revolt. These
slaves were fiercely loyal to him and formed the core
of his army. He soon gained control of the financial
administration of Syria, as well as Egypt.

The appointment of the caliph’s son, JaTar, over
Egypt and other Western provinces in 872 CE led to
Ibn Tulun’s bid for autonomy. JaTar was a minor so
Ibn Tulun exercised nearly independent authority.
The caliph’s brother, al-Muwaffaq, who controlled
the East and held most of the caliphate’s effective
power, was preoccupied with repelling Turkish incur-
sions and quelling independence movements. When
Ibn Tulun failed to send a satisfactory sum of tribute,
al-Muwaffaq dispatched an expedition to remove
him. The expedition, however, returned without
achieving its purpose. The ongoing rebellion of the
Zanj in southern Iraq prevented al-Muwaffaq from
pressing the matter further.

Ibn Tulun consolidated his power in the years af-
terwards. He occupied Syria following al-Muwaffaq’s

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IBN TULUN

failed expedition and led raids against the Byzantines
in Anatolia. These raids enhanced his stature as a
leader of holy war against the infidel. He later
inscribed his name on his coinage, in addition to that
of the JaTar. He never openly opposed the authority
of the caliph. The prosperity of Egypt and Syria under
his rule owes in part to his skill as an administrator.
He showed restraint in his taxation. He kept, in addi-
tion, most revenues in these provinces rather than
remitting them to Baghdad. Upon his death in 884,
rule went to one of his sons, Khumarawayh.

Stuart Sears

Further Reading

Hassan, Z.M. Les Tulunides. Paris, 1937.

. “Ahmad b. Tulun.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. 2d

ed, vol. I. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960 (504 words, S.D. Sears,
Roger Williams University).

Kennedy, H. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.
London and New York, 1986, 309-313.

IBN TUMART

The founder of the al-Muwahhidun confederation,
Abu Abdillah Muhammad b. Abdillah b. Tumart, a
Masmudian Berber, was born (AH 471/1078 CE
or AH 474/1081 CE) in the city of Sus, located in
Morocco’s Anti-Atlas Mountains. We do not have
much information about his youth. Observing nega-
tive developments such as moral and social deca-
dence, the abandonment of religious principles, and
the spread of the anthropomorphist conception of
God under the al-Murabitun dynasty, Ibn Tumart
was convinced of the necessity of social reform. He
went to Cordoba to study theological sciences (499/
1 106). After taking lessons for about a year from Abu
Abdillah Muhammed b. Ali b. Hamdin, Kadhi of
Cordoba, he traveled to Mahdiya in Tunisia; there
he participated in theological congregations of Abu
Abdillah al-Mazeri. Studying with Ibn Abu Rendeka
et-Turtushi in Alexandria, Kiya el-Herras in Bagh-
dad, Abu Bakir Muhammed b. Ahmed al-Shashi,
and Mubarek b. Abdilcabbar, Ibn Tumart also read

Imam Malik’s al-Muvatta’ with Abu Abdillah
Muhammed b. Mansur al-Hadhrami. He traveled
back to Maghreb from Alexandria in 510-511/1116.
He also served his duty of pilgrimage to Mecca in this
traveling period of eleven years. Traveling first to
Bougie, and then to Beni Mallal, he met his first
disciple and future successor Abduhnu’min al-Kumi.
His courageous personality caused him to be expelled
front Vansharis, Tlemcem, Shubat Enlil, and Fez; so
he went to Marrakech, the capital of the al-Murabitun
dynasty, but his activities there also caused him to be
expelled to Aghmat. He then went on to Tin Mai and
continued his “common knowledge and forbid from
denied” (al-amr bi’l-ma'riif wa al-nahy an al-munkar)
activities. Rejecting Ali b. Yusuf b. Tashfin’s invita-
tion to return to Marrakech, he retreated to a cave,
the Ghar al-muqaddas, and in Maghreb he began to
spread the idea that Mahdi’s appearance was near
(515/1121).

That same year, his disciple Abdulmu’min and
nine other men declared that Ibn Tumart was the
Mahdi and that they would be loyal to him for all
their lives. Ibn Tumart then started a violent rebellion
in the command of Abdulmu’min el-Kumi ve Abu
Muhammed al-Bashir against al-Murabitun, claiming
that they supported an anthropomorphist conception
of God, that they were unjust and causing the corrup-
tion of society, they had designs upon people’s lives
and properties, and that they had thus given up the
Islamic faith. There were many battles in the Anti-
Atlas region and the city of Sus for the next two years.
Against al-Murabitun’s efforts to build up their
strength, Ibn Tumart moved to Tin Mai to have a
stronger defense (517/1123).

Ibn Tumart began a large campaign in the com-
mand of Abu Muhammed al-Bashir to acquire
Marrakech in 524 AH/1 130. However, al-Muwahhidun
could not gain hold of the city after a siege of six
weeks and was defeated in the battle of Buhayra; five
members of the council of ten were lost in this battle.
Ibn Tumart passed away several months after this
defeat in 14 Ramadhan 524/August 21, 1130. His
successor, Abdulmu’min, and close friends concealed
his death for about three years.

His works include: ( 1 ) Kitabu Aazzi ma yutlab
(edited by Ignaz Goldziher) Algeria 1903 and
AmmAr UAlibi (Algeria, 1985); (2) al-Murshida
(published by Goldziher with a French translation
(ZDMG, XL1, 72-73; XL IV, 168-170); (3) al-Aqide.
In addition to the Egypt edition (Cairo, 1328), anoth-
er edition is also available in French, translated by
Henri Masse (Paris, 1928); (4) Muhdzzi’l-Muwauua’
(Hizanatu’l-Karawiyyin, no. 40/181; Rabat el-
Hizanetul-eAmma, no. 840c, 1222c; published by
Goldziher as Muwatta’u’l-Im&m al-Mahdi (Algeria,

374

IBN WASIL, MUHAMMAD B. SALIM JAMAL AL-DIN

1905). (5) Mukhtasaru Sahihi Muslim (Ibn Yusuf
Library, Marakesh, no. 403).

Thinking himself a religious reformist, Ibn Tumart
emphasized the notion of unity and doctrine of the
imamate in his theory of faith. He defines knowledge,
which he takes as the only basis for faith, as “the
divine radiance in the heart which allows us to make
a distinction between facts and qualities,” thus sug-
gesting that only the qualities of objects and events
can be known, not their essences. Because of Ibn
Tumart’s emphasis on the unity of God, his followers
were known as al-Muwahhidun (that is, Unitarians).
God’s existence was known from intelligence; how-
ever, this knowledge was not innate, but deductive.
Ibn Tumart ascribed some negative and demonstrative
attributes to Allah. However, he gave intelligence no
function in his definition of the relationship between
the individual and his attributes. Therefore, his ap-
proach to this problem cannot be taken as the suspen-
sion of all attributes but a distinctive approach that
avoided comparison and solidification. According to
Ibn Tumart, predicative attributes in the dogmas
must be believed, without trying to look for analogies.

Ibn Tumart considered the imamate as a religious
obligation and maintained that Imam was innocent
(maesum), therefore, we can assert that Ibn Tumart
was influenced by Shi‘i doctrine. However, he consid-
ered only the first three caliphs as legitimate Imams.
Ibn Tumart received the acknowledgment of fealty
through his disciples, who acknowledged him as the
Mahdi, and he named only those who obeyed him as
al-Muwahhidun; all others were regarded as infidels.
He accepted the idea that the only creator is Allah and
believed that the power of acting in a good or bad way
was given by Allah to mankind; thus empowerment is
the act in the place of the power of the human being.

According to Ibn Tumart, all canonical judge-
ments originated only from the Qur’an and Sunnah,
all convictions and conventions reached by syllo-
gisms were not primary, but supplementary; intelli-
gence had no law-making authority. Ibn Tumart
accepted ideas of several religious sects on some mat-
ters: He was more like an AslTari in subjects concern-
ing faith, a Maliki in subjects of fiqh, and also
followed Ibn Hazm’s zahiri-salafi thought on some
matters. However, the movement initiated by him
can be regarded as a political movement to put an
end to Al-Murabit’s confederation more than being a
movement of religion and faith.

Huseyin Sarioglu

Further Reading

Abdulmacid an-Naccar. al-Mahdi b. Tumart. Beyrouth,

1983, 24—30, 73-83, 116-117, 145-158, 449M50.

Abu an-Nasr, J.M. A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic
Period. Cambridge, 1987, 90.

Ammar at-Talibi, “Ibn Tumart.” Mawsu’atu’l-hadareti’l-
Islamiyya. Amman, 1993.

Aytekin, A. “Ibn Tumert.” Islam Ansiklopedisi Istanbul,
1999, XX.

Basset, R. “Ibn Tumert.” I A Vol. 2, s. 831-833.

Cornell, V.J. “Understanding is the Mother of Ability:
Responsibility and Action in the Doctrine of ibn
Tumart.” Sudia Islamica Paris LXVI, (1987): 71-103.
Ibnu’l-Athir. al-KAmil fi’t-tArid. Edited by C.J. Tornberg.

Leiden, 1851-1876/Beyrouth, 1979, X, 569-578.

Ibn Khaldun, al-IIbar wa diwanu’l-mubtada' wa’l-khabar.

Vols. I-VII. Bulaq, 1284/1979, VI, 225-229.

Ibn Khallikan, Wafavatu’l-Avan wa abna’u abna’i’z-zaman.

Edited by I. Abbas. Vols. I-VIII/Beyrouth, 1968-1972.
Salinger, G. “A Christian Muhammad Legend and a Mus-
lim ibn Tumart Legend in the 13 lh Century.” In Zeits-
chrift der Deutschen Morgenlandichen Gesellchaft.
Leibzig/Wiesbaden 1967, CXVII, 318-328.

SelAwi. al-lstiqsa li akhbari’d-duwali’l-maaribiTaqsA. Edi-
ted by C. an-Nasiri-M. An-Nasiri. Vols I-IX. Daru’l-
Beyza, 1954-1956.

Ebu Bekir b. Ali es-Sanhaci. Akhbd.ru ’l-Mahdi b. Tumart wa
bidAyatu dawlati’l-Muwahhidin. Rabat, 1971.

IBN WASIL, MUHAMMAD B. SALIM
JAMAL AL-DIN

Ibn Wasil (1208-1298) was a Syrian scholar most
renowned for his chronicle Mufarrij al-kurub fi akhbar
bani Ayyub ( The Dissipater of Anxieties on the
Reports of the Ayyubids), which covers, in detail,
historical events of the twelfth and the first half of
the thirteenth century. This work has drawn modern
interest because it presents succinctly the main Cru-
sading campaigns from a Middle Eastern point of
view. Although Ibn Wasil relied on an array of earlier
sources for the earlier parts of his work, some of
which has been lost since then, he based his account
of thirteenth-century events (such as the Crusade of
Louis IX, King of France, to Egypt in 1249-1250) on
eyewitnesses or his own experiences.

Ibn Wasil was well placed to observe the political
developments and military events in the Middle East
during his lifetime, as he was widely traveled and close-
ly linked to the ruling echelons of society. Originating
from Hama in northern Syria, he visited or dwelled in
the main urban centers such as Baghdad, Cairo, and
Damascus. Although descending from a family of rel-
atively low prominence, he forged close relationships
with prominent administrators and military comman-
ders, as well as with Ayyubid and Mamluk rulers. In
his sixties he returned to his hometown, where he led a
low-profile life as the town’s chief judge.

His educational and professional specialization
was law, but no writings of his in this field are trace-
able. Rather, his extant oeuvre focuses on history,

375

IBN WASIL, MUHAMMAD B. SALIM JAMAL AL-DIN

poetry, logic, and astronomy, all of which were of
profit to him at various courts. For example, in
1261, while staying in southern Italy at the court
of Manfred, the Staufer ruler of Sicily and son of
Frederick II, as ambassador of the Mamluk ruler
Baybars I, his knowledge of logic gained him the
ruler’s praise. It is the immersion into these fields of
knowledge that allowed him throughout his life close
contacts with non-Muslim scholars. Consequently,
one finds in his aforementioned chronicle passages
where he discusses, for example, the conflict between
the emperor and the papacy in thirteenth-century
Europe, which is rarely found in other medieval
chronicles by Muslim authors.

Ibn Wash’s chronicle did not enjoy wider popular-
ity in the following centuries and was only “redis-
covered” in the late nineteenth century with the
rising interest in Crusading history.

Konrad Hirschler

See also Historical Writing
Primary Sources

Ibn Wasil. Mufarrij al-kurub f akhbar bani Ayyub. 5 vols.
Edited by J. al-Shayyal, H. al-Rabi‘, and S. ‘Ashur.
Cairo, 1953 (final sixth volume not published yet).

Short extracts of Ibn Wasil’s chronicle are translated in
Arab Historians of the Crusades. Selected and Translated
from the Arabic Sources. Edited by Francesco Gabrieli.
Translated from the Italian by E.J. Costello. New York:
Dorset Press, 1989.

Further Reading

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades. Islamic Perspectives.
New York: Routledge, 1999.

Robinson, Chase F. Islamic Historiography. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
el-Shayyal, Gamal el-Din. “Ibn Wasil.” In Encyclopaedia of
Islam. New Ed. 1 1 vols. Prepared by a number of leading
orientalists. Leiden: Brill, 1960-2002.

IBN YUNUS, ‘ALI IBN ‘ABD
AL-RAHMAN, D. FUSTAT, EGYPT

Ibn Yunus was the leading astronomer of medieval
Egypt and perhaps the most important of the entire
Muslim world. He was a careful observer, a highly
competent mathematician and calculator, and
proposed much that was original. He was also the
principal initiator of a tradition of astronomical time-
keeping ( ‘ilm al-miq&t ) in Islamic society, which is of
prime importance because it included the regulation
of the times of prayer. He compiled a monumental zij,
or astronomical handbook with tables, some four
times the size of that of his predecessor al-Battani

(q.v.). This was called al-Zij al-Hakimt because it
was dedicated to the Fatimid ruler al-Hakim (q.v.).
One of its most remarkable features is a record of
more than one hundred observations of planetary
conjunctions and solar and lunar eclipses, made by
his predecessors in ninth- and tenth-century Baghdad
and by himself. His solar, lunar, and planetary tables
were much appreciated in later Egypt and the Yemen,
but some of them were also adopted in a modified
form in Iran. It was Ibn Yunus who compiled the first
batch of the tables for timekeeping by the sun and
regulating the times of Muslim prayer that later
became part of the Cairo corpus of nearly two hun-
dred pages of tables. These tables were used there
until the nineteenth century. The medieval tables of
this kind for such centers of astronomical activity as
Damascus, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Istanbul, Tunis, and
Taiz were inspired by the Cairo corpus.

David A. King

Further Reading

Haddad, Cyrille. ‘Isa ibn Zur'a, philosophe arabe et apolo-
giste chretien. Beirut: Dar al-Kalima, 1971.

Kraemer, Joel L. Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam.
Leiden: Brill, 1986.

Pines, Shlomo. “La Loi naturelle et la societe: La doctrine
politico-theologique d’Ibn Zur‘a, philosophe chretien de
Baghdad.” In Studies in Islamic History and Civilization ,
edited by U. Heyd. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1961.

Starr, Peter. “The Epistle to Bishr ibn Finhas.” Ph.D. disser-
tation. United Kingdom: University of Cambridge, 2000.

IDOLATRY

In the tradition of Middle Eastern monotheism, idol-
atry (literally, the worship of an image of a false
god) is one of the greatest sins. Only God may be an
object of worship, and some versions of monotheism

377

IDOLATRY

prohibit any representation, even of God, for a num-
ber of reasons, including the fear that the representa-
tion will become an object of worship in itself. In
religious contexts Muslims, like Jews, have tended to
reject the figural representation of God or of any
moving being, and some Muslims have extended
that rejection more widely.

Although there are words and expressions in Ara-
bic that are semantically equivalent to the English
“idolatry,” in premodern Islamic culture the concept
was more frequently conveyed by shirk , a word that
at a basic level gives the idea of sharing or associat-
ing with something. Shirk comes to denote idolatry
because it refers to the sin of associating with God,
as worthy of worship, other beings or things —
divine, human, or superhuman. Although frequently
translated as “idolatry” because it is not semanti-
cally equivalent to that word, shirk may also be ren-
dered by related concepts such as “polytheism” (the
recognition of a plurality of gods).

Both idolatry and polytheism are frequently rela-
tive and subjective accusations, denied by those ac-
cused of them. They are frequently words used in a
polemical way to attack opponents. Nobody is likely
to refer to his own religion as a form of idolatry, and
the distinction between monotheism and polytheism
is often in the eye of the beholder. From an Islamic
perspective, traditional African religion or Hinduism,
for example, might be described as shirk with some
degree of objectivity, but just as often Muslims have
applied the word to other forms of monotheism
(notably Christianity) and to other Muslims, accused
of failing to respect the unity and uniqueness of
God ( tawhid, requiring on the part of the believer
an attitude of complete devotion, ikhlas).

In the AH first/seventh CE century, some of his
opponents are reported to have accused the caliph
‘Ali of shirk when he agreed to put his dispute with
Mu'awiya to human arbiters. They claimed that in
doing so he was giving mere humans a share in a
decision that should have been left to God, an idea
expressed in the slogan of the Kharijite movement,
“judgment belongs to God alone” (la hukma ilia lil-
lah ) . In the third/ninth century the rationalist Mu‘ta-
zili theologians accused their traditionalist opponents
of shirk for insisting that God’s attributes, such as
speech, were real and eternal while distinct from the
divine essence. In the Muslim west in the fifth/eleventh
century the Miftazili critique was echoed by the Almo-
had followers of Ibn Tumart in their attacks on the
scholars of the Maliki school of Islam. The accusation
has frequently been a part of the arguments between
Sufis and their legalist Muslim opponents. Some Sufis
are reported as having qualms about reciting the
second part of the Muslim credal formula (“there is

no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of
God”) since, they said, by including the Prophet along-
side God they were in danger of lapsing into shirk.

Another group prone to accuse its Muslim oppo-
nents (Sunni and Shi' i) of shirk are the neo-Hanbali
followers of Ibn Taymiyya, especially the Wahhabis
whose school of Islam is the official one of Saudi
Arabia. Prominent among what the Wahhabis identi-
fy as the errors of other Muslims that reduce them,
in effect, to the status of idolaters is their excessive
veneration of other human beings (holy men, scho-
lars, Imams, and even the Prophet Muhammad
himself). According to the Wahhabis, their venera-
tion, often associated with visits to and prayers at
their tombs, necessarily detracted from the veneration
and worship of God.

In the Qur’an, there are numerous accusations of
shirk against opponents whose identity is often not
clear. Generally the relevant passages of the Qur’an
give the impression that those opponents had an under-
standing that God (Allah) is the creator and controller
of the universe, but in their day-to-day life they took
little account of that fact and instead devoted their
worship to those whom they “associated” with God.

In traditional accounts of the setting within which
the Qur’an was revealed, those opponents are identi-
fied as pagan Arabs, in Mecca and elsewhere in Ara-
bia. They were idolaters in a literal sense: people who
believed in a multiplicity of gods and worshipped
them in the form of representations made out of
wood or stone, or as trees, rocks, and other such
natural features. Commentaries on the Qur’an, lives
of Muhammad, and other types of traditional litera-
ture provide us with a relative wealth of detail about
this pre-Islamic Arab idolatry — the names of sanctu-
aries and idols, tribes and families associated with
them, geographical locations, stories about the de-
struction of sanctuaries and idols with the coming of
Islam, and other such details. Individual works, such
as the Book of Idols of Ibn Kalbi (d. 206/820), were
devoted to accounts of that idolatry.

According to the tradition the idolatry of the
Arabs had come about by the gradual corruption of
the pure monotheistic religion that at one time had
been brought to Arabia by Abraham (Ibrahim), the
father of monotheism. He had built the Ka'ba in
Mecca on God’s command and established the wor-
ship of the one true God there. For some generations
the Arabs followed that true monotheism but then
gradually fell away from it — partly as a result of
human error, partly of Satanic intervention. By the
time of Muhammad they had lapsed into a gross
idolatry. It was Muhammad’s task to rescue them
from their corrupt religion and restore them to the
pure Abrahamic monotheism identical with Islam.

378

1DRIS1

Most academic scholarship has accepted the image
of Arab idolatry that the tradition conveys and agreed
that the Qur’anic attacks on shirk were directed against
the idolatrous Arabs. In place of the account of the
corruption of Abrahamic religion in Arabia, many
academic scholars have substituted an evolutionary
theory of Arab religion to explain the mixture of poly-
theism and monotheism that the Qur’an and the tradi-
tional literature, in different ways, attribute to the
Arab contemporaries of Muhammad. According to
that theory, the Arabs were evolving out of their an-
cestral paganism into a monotheistic stage of religion
but were still in a process of transition. The coming of
Islam marked the completion of the process. It was
because of its origins in such a milieu that Islam has
constantly been so concerned with the dangers of idol-
atry and the need to stress absolute monotheism.

However, the author of this entry questions the
traditional accounts of pre-Islamic Arab idolatry
and the academic. The author regards it as likely
that the Qur’an’s accusation of shirk against its oppo-
nents is part of a polemic against other monotheists,
and not directed at people who were idolaters in any
literal sense. The author suggests that Islam’s recur-
rent concern with the problem of shirk reflects the
tendency within monotheism to extend the notion of
idolatry to the critique of monotheist opponents.

Gerald R. Hawting

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Kalbi. Kit ah Al-Asnam (The Book of Idols). English
translation by N.A. Faris, Princeton: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 1952.

Ibn Hisham, Sira. English translation by A. Guillaume, The
Life of Muhammad. A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat
Rasul Allah, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Further Reading

Halbertal, Moshe, and Avishai Marghalit. Idolatry. English
translation. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard
University Press, 1992

Hawting, G.R. The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of
Islam. From Polemic to History. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999.

Noldeke, Theodor. “Arabs (Ancient).” in Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings, 13 vols.
Edinburgh, 1908-1926.

Wellhausen, Julius. Reste arabischen Heidentums. 2d ed.
Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1897.

IDRISI

Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn
‘Abd Allah ibn Idris al-‘Ala bi-Amr Allah (ca.
AH 493-560/1 100-1165 CE) was the greatest medieval

geographer. As a descendant of the Prophet
Muhammad, this Muslim Arab scholar was titled
al-Sharif al-Idrisi, but in the West he was known for
a long time as Geographus Nubiensis, the Nubian
Geographer. Born in Morocco and educated in
Cordoba, he worked in Palermo at the court of the
Norman king Roger II. The most important book
he produced is a world geography in 1154, Nuzhat
al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Entertainment for
One Desiring to Travel Far)', it is also called Kitab
Rujjar (Book of Roger). He later wrote a shorter
geography, known under a variety of Arabic titles
and usually referred to as “The Little Idrisi.” Both
are extensively illustrated with maps; the maps in
Nuzhat al-mushtaq are oriented to the South, the
maps in the latter book are smaller and often oriented
to the east.

Al-Idrisi traveled in Asia Minor, Europe, and
North Africa, and in Sicily he was able to consult
both European and Islamic sources procured from
books and travel reports. Thus his Geography is a
synthesis of information and cartographic traditions
from both Islamic and European cultures; it is unsur-
passed in narrative geography and maps of the Mid-
dle Ages. Because the work is a compilation and
the data occasionally anachronistic, al-Idrisi’s work
sometimes has been judged unoriginal. However,
he introduced a new type of map that strongly
impacted later cosmographers and thinkers, such as
Ibn Khaldun, and used a projection that remains
unexplained. Al-Idrisi produced more regional maps
of the world than any other medieval cartographer,
and his description of certain regions, such as the
Balkans or northern Europe, is remarkably precise.
The parts dealing with Africa remained an impor-
tant source for Islamic and European cosmogra-
phers into the seventeenth century. Al-Idrisi’s
distinctive cartography and narrative method make
it possible to identify later imitations as works in
“The Idrisi School.” Medieval European Mediterra-
nean cartographers may have had some knowledge of
his maps. The book Nuzhat al-mushtaq became the
first secular Arabic work printed in Europe (Rome,
1592); a Latin translation was published in Paris in
1619.

Al-Idrisi credited his patron Roger with the
construction of a large world map, but the work was
done by al-Idrisi. The text is a detailed description
of the map, engraved on a silver disk and based on
the Arabic version of Marinus’s map reportedly
created under the caliph al-Ma’mun (813-833). The
silver prototype was lost, but the book contains a
round, schematic map of the world and seventy
rectangular maps of the seventy parts into which
al-Idrisi had divided the world. Ten manuscripts of

379

IDRISI

Nuzhat al-mushtaq survive, eight of them with maps;
there is no complete good translation.

The system developed by al-Idrisi used the Ptole-
maic foundation adopted by the early Islamic scho-
lars, whereby the round earth is divided into quarters
and only the Inhabited Quarter is described. It is
astronomically divided into seven latitudinal belts
(“climates”), leaving off the extreme north and equa-
torial south. Although familiar with coordinates, al-
Idrisi did not use them; in addition to the parallel
boundaries of the climates, he introduced, instead of
meridians, ten longitudinal divisions. Thus the map
and the narrative became divided into seventy sec-
tions. The numbering of climates is from south to
north, the numbers of sections go west to east, again
showing Greek influence. The text follows this
arrangement after a brief general introduction, de-
scribing important geographical features of each sec-
tion: cities, mountains, rivers, seas, islands, and so
on, progressing eastward. Al-Idrisi names the most
toponyms since Ptolemy, expanding and updating
the medieval Arabic geographical inventory. He is
academically unbiased, and all locations get more or
less equal attention; he describes many identifiable

locations for the first time in the geographical litera-
ture. Only ten of al-Idrisi’s sources are named, and
contemporary information gets indiscriminately
mixed with data compiled from the Greek, Latin,
and earlier Islamic sources.

The narrative follows itineraries, connected by
travel distances expressed in miles (mil), units (far-
sakh) (three miles), caravan stages (marhala), day
marches, or days of sailing. The earth is depicted as
surrounded by the Encircling Sea, al-Bahr al-Muhit
(the Greek Ocean). Africa is extended eastward to
form the southern coast of the Indian ocean, which,
however, remains open in the Far East. The southern
limit of the inhabited world is north of the equator in
Nuzhat al-mushtaq, but south of the equator in The
Little Idrisi. The southern portion of the round world
map is filled with the African landmass, not shown on
sectional maps. The western limit is the prime mer-
idian drawn through the westernmost part of Africa,
but the Fortunate Isles in the Atlantic are included.
The easternmost country is Sila (Korea), suppo-
sedly at 180°E. The northern limit is at the Polar
Circle (64°N.). The color-coded maps demonstrate
a thoughtful and somewhat artistic approach, but

Al-Idrisi (twelfth century). Geographic Atlas of the Indian Ocean. Eleventh to twelfth century. Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudon/
Art Resource, NY. National Library (Dar-al-Kutub), Cairo, Egypt.

380

IDRIS1DS

neither the degrees nor itineraries are drawn on them,

and their practical value is doubtful. A pieced-togeth-

er Latin version of this map was produced in Paris by

Petrus Bertius in the 1620s.

Marina A. Tolmacheva

Primary Sources

Al-Idrisi, Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad. Opus geographicum ;
sive, “Liber ad eorum delectationem qui terras peragrare
studeant. ” 9 vols. Edited by Enrico Cerulli a.o. Naples:
Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli and Rome:
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente,
1970-1984.

. Uns al-muhaj wa-rawd al-furaj. Edited by Fuat

Sezgin. Frankfurt: Institut fur Geschichte der arabisch-
islamischen Wissenschaften, 1984.

Al-Idrisi, al-Sharif. Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq. Reprint of the
1592 Rome edition. Frankfurt: Institut fur Geschichte
der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 1992.

Miller, Konrad. Mappae Arabicae. Arabische Welt- und
Landkarten 6 vols. Stuttgart: Miller, 1926-1927, vol. I,
part 2 and vol. VI. Reprint: Frankfurt: Institut fiir
Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften,
1994.

Further Reading

Ahmad, S. Maqbul. “Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi.” In
The History of Cartography, vol. 2, book 1 : Cartography
in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, edi-
ted by J.B. Harley and David Woodward, 156-174.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Drecoll, Carsten. Idrisi aus Sizilien: der Einfluss einers ara-
bischen Wissenschaf tiers auf die Entwicklung der euro-
pdischen Geographie. Egelsbach; New York: Hansel-
Hohenhausen, 2000.

Khuri, Ibrahim. Al-Sharif al-Idrisi: Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi
ikhtiraq al-afciq. Al-‘Ayn: Markaz Zaydi lil-Turath wa-
al-Ta’rikh, 2000.

Tolmacheva, Marina. “The Medieval Arabic Geographers
and the Beginnings of Modern Orientalism.” Internation-
al Journal of Middle East Studies 27/2 (1995): 141-156.

. “Bertius and al-Idrisi: An Experiment in Orientalist

Cartography.” Terrae Incognitae 28 (1996): 49-59.

Vernay-Nouri, Annie, Aleksandra Sarrabezolles, and Jean-
Paul Saint-Aubin. La geographie d’lclrisi: un atlas du
monde au Xlle siecle. CD-ROM. Paris: Bibliotheque
nationale de France; Montparnasse multimedia, 2000.

IDRISIDS

The Idrisids, a local dynasty of Arab origin, emerged
out of the shifting Berber tribal groupings of Islamic
northwestern Africa (al-Maghrib) in the late eighth
century CE. Surviving, often tenuously for some two
centuries, the dynasty is notable for having founded
the city of Fez ( Fas), which was their capital, and for
establishing Arabo-Islamic religious and political
culture in this area.

In 789, the leader of a powerful Berber tribal
group, the Awraba, determined to politically and reli-
giously legitimize his dominion, invited a local sharif
Idris ibn ‘Abd Allah, a descendant of ‘Ali b. Abu
Talib, to serve as the regime’s imam , or spiritual
leader. After imam Idris was assassinated in 791, a
period of political unrest followed, after which one
of his young sons was named imam as Idris II (808—
828). Idris II gained the political initiative from his
Berber sponsors in 809 by founding a new capital city,
Fez, and inviting Arabs from al-Andalus and the
Aghlabid territories to settle there. Fez soon became
the capital of the most powerful and dynamic state
in the Maghrib, Idrisid power having expanded to
include most of modern Morocco. Idris II was suc-
ceeded by his brother Muhammad (828-836), who
passed the throne on to his son ‘Ali (836-859),
who was then followed by his brother Yahya (859
863). This was the period of greatest stability for the
Idrisids, and Fez continued to be a favored destina-
tion of refugees and immigrants from al-Andalus and
Ifriqiyya.

The reign of the weak Yahya II (863-866) ushered
in the decline of the dynasty, which was beset by
internal rivalries and degenerated into a state of civil
war. This was aggravated in the early tenth century
by the rise of the Fatimids, who made them tribu-
taries in 917. Eventually expelled from their capital
by Miknasa Berbers, the Idrisids were driven into
an alliance with the Umayyads of Cordoba, who
allowed the dynasty to reconstitute itself, this time in
the ROf mountains in the 930s, where their capital
was the fortress of Hajar al-Nasr. For the following
half century the Idrisids survived in semiautonomy by
playing off the Umayyads and Fatimids, all the while
beset by a host of tribal enemies. Following a defeat
of the Umayyads in 958, the family recognized the
authority of the Fatimids. In 972, the Umayyads
rallied, defeated the Fatimid forces, and took mem-
bers of the Idrisid family as prisoners to Cordoba,
formally deposing al-Hasan b. al-Qasim Gannun in
974. Eventually al-Hasan made his way to Egypt and
was reinstalled by the Fatimids in 985. That same
year, al-Mansur, ruler of Umayyad al-Andalus, dis-
patched an army to depose al-Hasan, who was taken
prisoner and executed.

Fez is the Idrisid's greatest legacy. The two
great mosques, al-Qarawiyyin and al-Andalusiyyin,
founded by refugees from Tunisia and al-Andalus,
became centers of a vibrant religious culture, further
stimulated by the dynasty’s connection to the family
of ‘Ali. The city remained the cultural capital of the
Maghrib until the dawn of the colonial period.

Brian A. Catlos

381

IDRISIDS

Further Reading

Cressier, Patrice. “Hagar al-Nasr, capitale idreisside
du Maroc septentrional: archeologie et historiore (IVe
H./Xe ap. J.C.).”In Genese de la villa islamique en al-
Andalus et ait Mghreb occidental, edited by P. Cressier
and M. Garcia-Arenal, 305-334. Madrid: Casa de
Velazques, 1998.

Manzano Moreno, Eduardo and Mercedes Garcia-Arenal.
“Legitimite et villes idrissides.” In Genese de la villa
islamique en al-Andalus et au Mghreb occidental, edited
by P. Cressier and M. Garcia-Arenal, 257-284. Madrid:
Casa de Velazques, 1998.

Taha, ‘Abdulwahid Dhan t n. The Muslim Conquest and
Settlement of North Africa and Spain. London: Routle-
dge, 1989.

IKHSHIDIDS

The Ikhshidids were a short-lived Turkish dynasty
that ruled Egypt and Syria from 935 to 966. The dy-
nasty originally claimed power as the representatives
of the ‘Abbasid caliph, much like the Tulunids before
them. However, with the occupation of Baghdad by
the Shi‘i Buyids in 945, they styled themselves as
independent Sunni rulers.

The founder of this dynasty, Muhammad b. Tughj
b. Juff al-Ikhshid, belonged to a military family that
served the caliphal government over three generations
and was sometimes embroiled in its internecine con-
flicts. Muhammad grew up in Tulunid Syria and was
briefly jailed, along with his father and brother, after the
‘Abbasid reconquest. He later received appointment as
governor of Egypt. After turning back a Fatimid inva-
sion at Alexandria in 936, he repelled the forces of the
‘Abbasids’ chief general (amir l-umara), Ibn Ra’iq, in
Syria, who wished to check his growing power.

The caliph al-Radi invested Muhammad with the
title of al-lkhshid at the latter’s request in 939. This
marked a significant concession by the caliph. The
title derives from a word for king or ruler in Old
Persian and was originally claimed by pre-lslamic
rulers of Soghdia and Ferghana.

Muhammad’s success relied on his military prowess
and practical nature. In addition to the Fatimids and
Ibn Ra’iq, he defeated the Hamdanids in Syria in 942
and 945. He did not, however, exploit these victo-
ries to his full advantage. He preferred to negotiate
settlements in their aftermath to secure the peace.

Political interests tempered Muhammad's profes-
sion of support for the ‘Abbasids. During his conflict
with Ibn Ra’iq, he considered recognizing the Fatimid
imam in the Friday prayer and marrying his daughter
to the imam’s son. Although he offered sanctuary to
the caliph al-Muttaqi in 944, he presumably intended
to use his presence to bolster his legitimacy. The
caliph declined his invitation.

Muhammad sought to ensure the succession of his
family, which proved a difficult task. His authority
rested on his personal prestige. He and his family did
not have an ethnic or religious following. The deteri-
oration of ‘Abbasid fortunes, however, aided his
plans. During a campaign to Damascus in 942, he
had his troops swear fealty to his son Abu T-Qasim
Unujur. In 944, he secured a thirty-year claim to
govern Egypt and Syria from the caliph al-Muttaqqi
for himself and his descendants while this caliph
fended off dire threats from the East.

Although succeeded by his son Unujur, Muham-
mad’s principal military commander and black eu-
nuch, Kafur, assumed effective control after his death
in 946. Kafur had been purchased from Nubia and
enjoyed Muhammad’s confidence. He participated in
important military engagements such as the campaign
against the Hamdanids in 945. He was also entrusted
with the education of Muhammad’s two sons.

Kafur earned distinction as a capable chief minis-
ter and later ruler in his own right despite facing
numerous crises. He guaranteed the succession of
Unujur in 946 and ‘Ali in 961. He finally declared
himself ruler upon ‘Ali’s death in 966. ‘Ali’s son
Ahmad was a minor and therefore ineligible to
succeed. The ‘Abbasid caliph granted Kafur a diplo-
ma of investiture, though he seems to have refrained
from inscribing his name on his coinage. Kafur guid-
ed Egypt and Syria through recurrent famine, a des-
tructive fire in Fustat, and an earthquake, in addition
to revolts and external military threats from the
Fatimids and Hamdanids. He built palaces, mosques,
a hospital, and the capital’s Kafuriyya gardens, but
no trace of these monuments survives.

The Ikhshidids presented a Sunni bulwark against
a rising tide of Shi‘i domination in the Near East. The
occupation of Baghdad by the Buyids in 945 left them
as nearly the only significant Sunni power. Their de-
mise allowed the Fatimids to conquer Egypt and
Syria.

Stuart D. Sears

Primary Sources

Ibn Sa‘id al-Andalusi. Kitab al-Mughrib fi iula al-Maghrib.

Edited by K. L. Tallquist. Leiden, 1899.

Ibn al-‘Adim. Zubdat al-ialab min tarikh Ialab. Edited by
Sami Dahhan. Damascus, 1951.

Taghribirdi. al-Nujum al-ceahira fi muluk Miter wa-l-Qdhira.
Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, n.d.

Further Reading

Bacharach, Jere L. Tughj. “The Career of al-Ikhshid, a
Tenth Century Governor of Egypt.” Speculum 1 (1975),
86-612.

382

ILKHANIDS (1258-1335)

. “Muiammad b. Tughj al-Ikhshid.” In The Encyclo-
pedia of Islam. 2d ed,. vol. VII. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991,
411.

Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. “Kafur.” In The Encyclopedia of
Islam. 2d ed, vol. IV. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974, 418-419.
Kashif, S.I. Miter ft ‘ater al-Ikhsliidiyin. Cairo, 1970.

ILKHANIDS (1258-1335)

Bowing to the request and entreaties of an envoy from
the northern Persian city of Qazvin, the Great Khan
Mongke (1251-1259), grandson of Genghis Khan,
assigned his brother, Hiilegii Khan, to march west-
ward toward the Islamic heartlands. The Iranian Qadi
(chief justice) had been explicit in his audience with
Mongke Khan. Mongol military rule in Iran was
corrupt, brutal, and inefficient. The Assassins or
Ismailis, considered heretics and terrorists by most
Iranians, were undermining the social fabric of
Persian society and terrorizing its citizens and indeed
had probably even infiltrated the court of the Great
Khan himself. The Iranians wanted the Great Khan
to extend his justice and rule into the west and end the
anarchy that prevailed there. When Mongke discov-
ered that Ismaili assassins had indeed infiltrated his
court, he instructed Hiilegii to march on Iran, rid the
country of the “heretical” Ismailis, seek the submis-
sion of the caliph of Baghdad, and extend the rule of
his justice and glory from the banks of the Oxus to the
sands of Egypt.

Hulegii razed Alamut, the headquarters of the
Ismaili Assassins, to the ground in 1256. For Juwayni,
the historian and Hiilegii’s governor of Baghdad, the
annihilation of Alamut justified and explained God’s
purpose in sending the Mongols to the lands of Islam.
In 1258, the caliph of Islam, heeding the self-serving
intrigues at his court, foolishly rebuffed Hiilegii’s calls
to peacefully submit and defied the gathering Mongol
forces. Advised by his Muslim aides and assisted by
local armies of Muslim, Armenian, Kurdish, and
Turkish troops, Hiilegii destroyed Baghdad, though
many including Shi' is, clerics, and Christians were
given safe conduct from the city. After the battle the
caliph was executed, and it is probable that the libraries
and treasures of the city found their way to the first
Ilkhanid capital, Maragheh (Azerbaijan, northwestern
Iran) where Hiilegii built an observatory and universi-
ty for his court favorite, Shaykh Nassir al-Din Tusi.

Both Hiilegii (d. 1265) and his son, Abaqa
(r. 1265-1282), the first Ilkhans of Iran, were renown-
ed for their wisdom and justice, and Iran experienced
for the first time in many decades a period of security,
peace, and prosperity. Maragheh, and later Tabriz,
became prosperous hubs of international commerce
and cultural exchange. Italian traders, Armenian

merchants, Uighur middlemen, Persian poets, Chinese
astrologers, Arab mathematicians, and intellectuals,
scientists, agronomists, and scholars from east and
west mingled in the halls and chambers and crowded
bazaars of the Ilkhanid capitals. The city-states of
Yazd, Kirman, Shiraz, and Herat all pledged alle-
giance to the Ilkhan and thrived under Mongol rule.

Ghazan Khan (1295-1304) converted to Islam
probably more from political astuteness than from
conviction, and Islam became the official religion of
the state. However, ties with the Yuan dynasty of
China continued to strengthen in all spheres bolstered
by the personal ties between the “renaissance men,”
Bolad Chinksank, a Mongol, and Rashid al-Din, the
Persian wazir. Both Iran and China thrived economi-
cally, culturally, and socially under the relatively
enlightened administration of their Mongol rulers
and there was mutual benefit from the close ties they
maintained. The Ilkhanate did not decline but simply
disappeared. The last Ilkhan, Abu Sa'id (r. 1316-
1335), died without an heir, and it was at its peak
that the Ilkhanate ceased. In its wake it left a state
roughly corresponding to the modern state of Iran,
and its legacy was a rebirth of the Iranian sense of
statehood and national identity.

George Lane

Further Reading

Allsen, Thomas. Mongol Imperialism: The Policies of the
Grand Qan Mongke 1251-1259. Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1987.

. “Mongolian Princes and Their Merchant Partners

1200-1260.” Asia Major. 3rd series. Vol. II. Part 2.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire. A

Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1997.

. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Amitai-Preiss, R. Mongols and Mamluks. CUP, 1995

. “The Conversion of Tegiider Ilkhan to Islam.”

Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 25 (2001): 15-43.

. “Sufis and Shamans: Some Remarks on the Islami-

sation of the Mongols of the Ilkhanate.” JESHO 17,
no. 1, 1999.

Browne, E.G. Literary History of Persia. Vol. III. New
Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997.

Komaroff, Linda, and Stefano Carboni (Eds). The Legacy
of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western
Asia 1256-1353. New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art. ,2002.

Lambton, A.K.S. Continuity and Change in Medieval Per-
sia. Aspects of Administrative, Economic, Social History
in llth-14th Century Persia. London: I. B. Taurus. 1988.

Lane, George, Early Mongol Rule in 13 th Century Iran.
London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

383

ILKHANIDS (1258-1335)

. Genghis Khan and Mongol Rule. Westport, CT:

Greenwood Press, 2004.

. Daily Life in the Mongol Empire. Westport, CT:

Greenwood Press, 2005. [forthcoming]

. “Arghun Aqa: Mongol Bureaucrat?” Iranian Stud-
ies 32, no. 4, 2000.

. “An Account of Bar Hebraeus Abu al-Faraj and

His Relations with the Mongols of Persia.” Hugoye:
Journal of Syriac Studies 2, no. 2, July 1999.

Lewis, Bernard. The Assassins. A Radical Sect in Islam.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Lewis, Franklin. Rumi: Past and Present, East and West.
Oxford: Oneworld, 2000.

Melville, Charles. “Padishah-i-Islam: The Conversion of
Sultan Mahmud Ghazan Khan.” Pembroke Papers /,
1990.

Morgan, David. The Mongols. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.

. Medieval Persia, 1040-1797. London and New

York: Longman. 1988.

. “Rashid al-Dln and Gazan Khan.” Bibliotheque

Iranienne 45, 1998.

Rashiduddin Fazlullah. Jami’u’t-Tawarikh: Compendium of
Chronicles, a History of the Mongols. Translated by
Wheeler Thackston. 3 vols. Harvard University, 1999.

ILLUMINATIONISM

Derived from “illumination,” a conventional transla-
tion of the Arabic term ishraq (lit. radiance, shining of
the rising sun), “illuminationism” refers to the doc-
trine of the Ishraqiyyun, a school of philosophical and
mystical thought of various Graeco-Oriental roots
whose principles were propounded as an ancient “sci-
ence of lights” (‘ilm al-anwar) by Shihab al-Din
Yajrya al-Suhrawardi in his Kit at hikmat al-ishraq , a
fundamental work completed in AH 582/1186 CE.
The author — not to be confused with the well-
known Sufi Shaykh Shihab al-Don ‘Umar al-Suhra-
wardi (d. 632/1234) — was an original thinker in the
tradition of Avicenna and, like the latter, a prolific
writer of Arabic and Persian philosophical treatises,
as well as a number of tales of a more mystical and
allusive nature. Born probably around 550/1155 in
Suhraward, a village near Zanjan (Iranian Azerbay-
jan), he is said to have studied philosophy and Shafi‘i
law in Maragha, according to some accounts also in
Isfahan. Some time later, he must have moved for an
extended period within the upper Mesopotamian re-
gion of Mardin, Diyarbakir, and Kharput, where the
Artuqid prince ‘Imad al-Din Abu Bakr b. Qara
Arslan (r. AH 581-600/1185-1204 CE) became his
patron. It was to this ‘Imad al-Din that he dedicated
one of his characteristic writings, Al-Alwah al- ‘I ma-
dly y a, a work of mixed philosophical and Sufi content
ending up with a fervent glorification of the mythical
Iranian kings Faridun and Kay Khusraw. He finally
settled in Aleppo, where his ideas evidently met with
the displeasure of the established religious authorities.

He was executed on charges of heresy in 587/1191 or
thereabouts by order of the famous sultan Saladin
(hence his byname al-maqtul, “executed one”).

Skeptical of the formalized structures of Avicen-
nian metaphysics and epistemology in which he him-
self had been raised, Suhrawardi made an attempt to
work out an alternative approach to reality. Based on
visionary experience and the recognition of a separate
world of images, he envisioned a dynamic world of
multiple irradiations originating with the distant
"light of lights” (nur al-anwar , the ishraqi equivalent
of the Avicennian “necessary of existence,” that is,
God) and falling in various ways and degrees of
intensity on obscure matter. In technical language
his approach came to be known later as the doctrine
of the primary reality of quiddities (asalat aim
mahiyya), as opposed to the primary reality of exis-
tence ( asalat al-wujud ) . According to Suhrawardi, the
human soul is a luminous substance, namely, the
“regent light” (al-nur al-mudabbir or al-nur al-isfah-
bud in ishraqi terminology — perhaps a reminiscence
of the Stoic hegemonikon) , knows whatever it does
really know through a direct encounter with the illu-
mined object ( muqabalat al-mustanir) rather than by
way of abstraction in terms of Aristotelian species
and genera. The discovery of this type of knowledge,
called presential knowledge (al-‘ilm al-huduri), is
regarded as one of Suhrawardi’ s lasting contributions
in the history of Islamic thought.

There can be no doubt that Suhrawardi was inti-
mately familiar with Sufi traditions and spiritual prac-
tices such as dhikr (remembering or memorizing God)
and samci (listening to music), but he does not seem
to have been part of the established Sufi organizations
of his time, which generally rather enjoyed the favors
of Saladin. In his “tales of initiation,” the luminous
guiding principle is frequently encountered as a cos-
mic Intellect, a figure of angelic or otherwise mythical
qualities (such as the bird Simurgh), sometimes with
the attributes of a Sufi Shaykh, or simply as the
“Teacher.” Suhrawardi makes it clear that he consid-
ered classical Sufi saints rather than the falasifa as the
true philosophers of the present (Islamic) era, and
also hints that the ancient wisdom had reached him
through mysterious Sufi channels, but he associates
his science of lights principally with the names of
Plato, Hermes, Empedokles, Pythagoras, and the
“Oriental principle (qa'idat al-sharq) concerning
light and darkness” of the Sages of ancient Iran. In
effect, he created a new school of Neoplatonic
thought of a distinctly Iranian flavor, which to some
extent paralleled earlier developments in Fatimid
Ismaili thought. This, together with his ambiguous
allusions to the “time deprived of divine administra-
tion,” when the “powers of darkness take over” and

384

IMAM

the rightful “representative of God” (khalifat Allah)
or “divinely inspired leader” (al-imam al-muta’allih)
is hidden, may well have been enough to provoke his
enemies among the ‘ulama ’ and to eventually lead to
his execution.

His ideas were nevertheless taken up and elabo-
rated one or two generations later by philosophers
such as Ibn Kamm.na (d. 683/1284), Shams al-Din
Muhammad al-Shahrazuri (d. after 687/1288), and
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 710/1311 or 716/1316),
and were at that time well-known among philosophi-
cal Sufis (such as ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani, d. 736/
1335) as a distinct ishraqi tradition. They continued to
exercise considerable influence on later intellectual
developments in Persia, especially in the philosophical
schools of Shiraz (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)
and Isfahan (seventeenth century) with Mir Damad
and Mulla Sadra. They were also influential in Mo-
ghul India (notably in mixed Sufi and Zoroastrian
milieux at the court of the emperor Akbar) and in
Ottoman Turkey, where they appear to have found
their way into more orthodox Sufi circles (for exam-
ple, Isma‘il Ankaravi, d. 1041/1631). However, it
should be noted that the occurrence of the term ishraq
in Sufi texts does not necessarily indicate an influence
of illuminationism as understood by Suhrawardi. The
North African Sufi treatise titled Qawanin hikam al-
ishraq by Abu 1-Mawahib al-Tunisi al-Shadhili (d.
882/1477) and published in English as Illumination in
Islamic Mysticism (translated by E.J. Jurji, Princeton,
1938) has little more in common with Suhrawardi’s
principal work than a similar title.

On the other hand, Suhrawardi’s Ishraqiyyun were
by no means unknown in fourteenth-century Muslim
Spain, as is evident from the excellent summary of
“the views of the followers of [the doctrine of] the
lights among the Ancients” given by Lisan al-Din
Ibn al-Khatib al-Gharnati (d. 776/1374) in his Rawdat
al ta'rif hi l-hubb al-sharif (edited by M. al-Kattani,
Beirut, 1970, II, 564-574); and it is worth noting that
this author clearly distinguishes them from “the views
of the philosophers naturalized among the Muslims”
on one hand, that is, the Aristotelian tradition ending
up with Averroes, and from Sufism on the other.

Hermann Landolt

See also Isma’ili Thought; Mir Damad; Mulla Sadra;
Al-Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din; Saladin

Primary Sources

Kitab hikmat al-ishraq: Shihabiddub Yahya Sohravardi
Shaykh al-Ishraq, Le Livre de la sagesse orientale [Anno-
tated French translation of part II of Kitab hikmat al-
ishraq plus commentaries by Q. Shirazi and Mulla Sadra

by Henry Corbin], edited and intro, by Christian Jam-
bet. Lagrasse: Verdier, 1986.

Shihaboddin Yahya Sohravardi Shaykh al-Ishraq.
L ’Archange empourpre: Quinze trades et recits mystiques
[annotated French translation of 15 treatises and mysti-
cal tales by Henry Corbin], Paris: Fayard, 1976.

Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi. The Philosophical Alle-
gories and Mystical Treatises. A parallel Persian-English
text edited and translated with an introduction by
Wheeler McIntosh Thackston. Costa Mesa, CA:
Mazda Publishers, 1999.

Sohravardi. The Book of Radiance. A parallel English-
Persian text edited and translated, with an introduction
by Hossein Ziai. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers,
1998.

Suhrawardi. The Philosophy of Illumination. A new critical
edition of the text of Hikmat al-Ishraq, with English
translation, notes, commentary and introduction by
John Walbridge and Hossein Ziai. Provo, UT: Brigham
Young University Press, 1999.

Suhrawardi. Hayakil al-nur [see entry by B. Kuspinar],

Further Reading

Aminrazavi, M. Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination.
London: Curzon, 1996.

Corbin, H. En Islam iranien Sohravardi et les platoniciens de
Perse. 4 vols, vol. 2. Paris: Gallimard, 1971.

Kuspinar, B. Ismail Ankaravi on the Illuminative Philoso-
phy. Kuala Lumpur: Istac, 1996 [contains English trans.
of Suhrawardi’s Hayakil al-nur],

Landolt, H. “Suhrawardi’s ‘Tales of Initiation.’” Review
article. Journal of the American Oriental Society 107.3
(1987): 475M86.

Marcotte, R. Suhrawardi ( d. 1191 ) and His Interpretation of
Avicenna’s (cl. 1037) Philosophical Anthropology. Ph.D.
thesis. McGill University, 2000 (accessible online at:
www.collectionscanada.ca).

Pourjavady [Purjawadi], N. Ishraq wa ‘irfan [important col-
lection of articles, text editions, and reviews, in Persian],
Tehran: University Press, 1380/2001-2002.

Schmidtke, S. “The Doctrine of the Transmigration of the
Soul According to Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi (Killed
587/1191) and His Followers.” Studio Iranica 28.2
(1999): 237-254.

Walbridge, J. The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and
the Heritage of the Greeks. Albany: SUNYP, 2000.

. The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardi and

Platonic Orientalism. Albany: SUNYP, 2001.

Ziai, H. “Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi: Founder of the Illu-
minationist School.” In History of Islamic Philosophy,
edited by S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman, 434—464. London:
Routledge, 1996.

. “The Illuminationist Tradition.” In History of Is-
lamic Philosophy , edited by S. H. Nasr and O. Leaman,
part I, 465-496. London: Routledge, 1996.

IMAM

The word imam (lit., leader, guide) has different con-
notations in Sunnism and Shi’ism. In Sunnism the
word bears no specific doctrinal importance; it may

385

IMAM

refer to a political/religious leader, a religious scho-
lar, or the person who leads a collective prayer. In
Shi‘ism, however, the word carries an important se-
mantic and doctrinal significance. To understand its
full extent, one must know that the person of the
imam is the true hub around which revolves the entire
Shi‘i faith. The function and the nature of the imam,
both concentrated in the central concept of the wal&ya
(friendship or divine covenant), constitute the esoteric
front of the prophecy ( nubuwwa ) .

In Shi'ism’s fundamental vision of the world, any
reality is made up of a manifest aspect (zahir) and a
secret aspect (batin), the latter being hidden under
the former. One of the many consequences of this
basic doctrine is that the Divine Word, the Revelation
at the root of the religion, also has an apparent aspect
(that is, an exoteric dimension, a letter) and a hidden
aspect (that is, esoteric, a spirit).

In this dialectic, the Prophet is the messenger of the
letter of the Revelation. He is always accompanied in
his mission by one or more imams who are the guides
to the spirit of the Revelation. Moreover, in theology,
Shi‘ism represents the historical imam as the apparent
front of a metaphysical, cosmic, archetypal Imam,
who is in turn the revealed face of God, a theophanic
vehicle of the Divine Names and Attributes.

These fundamental facts make it possible in Shi‘ism
to distinguish three separate but complementary
meanings to the word “imam,” from an exoteric
level to more esoteric dimensions:

1. Imam as a religious scholar, teaching exoteric

aspects of law, theology, exegesis, cosmology,
and so on to an audience of mixed pupils, both
Shi‘is and non-Shi‘is.

2. Imam as initiating master and thaumaturge,

who holds the secret knowledge of the
mysteries of God, of man, and of the universe
and who possesses supranormal and miraculous
powers. At this level the imam is the divine guide
who teaches the esoteric level of the teachings
only to Shi‘i disciples. He thus transmits his
knowledge and powers to those he has initiated.

3. Lastly, imam as the Face of God, perfect Man

in which the divine attributes are manifested.
This image of the deified man constitutes the
“esoteric of the esoteric” of the imam’s person
and can be considered as The Secret of all
secrets in the Shi‘i doctrinal teachings. It is
illustrated in several traditions going back to
the historical imams, whose daring tone recalls
the mystics’ paradoxical words ( shatah&t )\
“We are (we, imams) the Most Beautiful
Names of God; we are the Face of God, His
Hand, His Tongue”; “I am the First and the

Last; I am the Apparent and the Hidden; I am
the Merciful and the Compassionate.”

One can thus measure the impact of this sacrosanct
title held by political leaders, such as Musa al-Sadr in
Lebanon and Khomeyni in Iran, for the first time in
Shi‘ism after the historical imams, having recourse to
the many meanings of the word, as well as to the
ambiguity of its connotations.

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

See also Shi‘i Thought; Shi‘ism; Titles
Further Reading

Amir-Moezzi, M.A. Le Guide Divin dans le Shi’isme origi-
nal. Paris, 1992 [English translation: The Divine Guide in
Early Shi’ism. Albany, NY, 1994],

. “Remarques sur la divinite de l’lmam (Aspects de

1’imamologie duodecimaine I).” Studia Iranica 25.2
(1996): 193-216.

. “Notes a propos de la walaya imamite (Aspects de

l’imamologie duodecimaine X).” Journal of the American
Oriental Society 122.4 (2002): 722-741.

Kohlberg, E. “Imam and Community in the Pre-Ghayba
Period.” In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism ,
edited by Said Amir Arjomand, 25-53. Albany, NY,
1988.

INDIA

The earliest Muslims came to the Indian subcontinent
to earn a living, to conquer, to teach religion, and to
seek refuge. The first immigrants were Arab traders
who, as early as the eighth century, settled in many of
the seaports along the western and southern coasts of
India. Later, their descendants moved to major cities
inland, as well as farther south to Sri Lanka. In 711,
a small Arab expedition, under the command of a
seventeen-year-old general, Muhammad ibn Qasim,
was sent to subjugate pirates who had been pillaging
Arab ships. The expedition conquered parts of Sind
and, with the assistance of local allies, founded a state
that survived for nearly three centuries. These early
Arab mercantile and political connections laid the
basis for the strong affinity of later Muslim commu-
nities in southern and southwestern India with the
Arab world and Arabian culture. In contrast, in
northern and northwestern regions of the subconti-
nent, the first immigrants were from Central Asia,
mostly consisting of Turks and Afghans who had
been culturally Persianized. As a result of political
turmoil in Central Asia in the tenth century, these
groups crossed the Himalayas and entered India.
Initially they were interested in acquiring booty rather
than settling in the region. The most prominent of
these invaders was Mahmud (d. 1030), ruler of the

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INHERITANCE

kingdom of Ghazna (now in Afghanistan) who, from
1000 CE onward, invaded India seventeen times. His
looting of a famous temple in Somnath in Kathiawar
in 1026 has earned him a reputation of the quintes-
sential Muslim archenemy among Hindu nationalistic
circles in contemporary India. The most remarkable
legacy of Mahmud’s invasions is the Kitab al-Hind,
the earliest Arabic account of the life, thought, and
culture of India, written by al-Biruni, a scholar of
Central Asian origin attached to Mahmud’s court.

After Mahmud’s death, the Ghaznavid empire ex-
panded into India, with the city of Lahore becoming
its capital. Over the next several centuries, dynasties
such as the “Slave Kings” established a state centered
at Delhi, while other Afghans and Central Asians
established kingdoms in Bengal, the Deccan, and
western India. The most famous of these Central
Asian dynasties were the Mughals, founded in 1526
by the emperor Babur. With the support of local
Hindu allies such as the Rajputs, the Mughals con-
solidated control over a vast portion of India, creat-
ing an empire under whose auspices there was a
veritable renaissance in Indo-Muslim culture.

The growth of sultanates resulted in an influx of
Central Asian Turks, Iranians, and Afghans into
India. Some sought administrative positions in the
state bureaucracies. Poets and artists came in search
of royal patronage while religious scholars (ulama)
and Sufi shaykhs looked for new opportunities. Al-
though immigrants were significant to the establish-
ment of a Muslim presence in India, they eventually
constituted a minority within the total Muslim popu-
lation. Ethnically, the vast majority of Muslims in the
region are of indigenous origin. We are only now
beginning to understand the complex processes by
which they became Muslim.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent .

Leiden-Koln: E.J. Brill, 1980.

INHERITANCE

Inheritance (ilm al-fara’id, mirath) pertains to the
rules for the division of wealth among the heirs of a
deceased Muslim man or woman.

Traditional Islamic Perspective

The intergenerational transmission of property, by
means of a last will and testament (wasiyya), was

reportedly a common procedure prior to the rise of
Islam and during the Meccan period.

In 622, the hijra to Medina necessitated changes in
the existing inheritance rules. The Emigrants cut
themselves off from their nonbelieving relatives in
Mecca, and, for this reason, Muhammad instituted a
pact of brotherhood between the Emigrants and the
Helpers: Emigrants might no longer inherit from their
relatives in Mecca, but they could inherit from Help-
ers in Medina, and vice versa (Q 8:72). This arrange-
ment was subsequently abrogated by Q 8:75 and
Q 33:6.

In the early Medinan period, six verses that regu-
late testamentary succession were revealed to
Muhammad. Q 2:180 enjoins a person contemplating
death to leave a bequest for parents and relatives;
Q 2:181 holds accountable to God anyone who alters
a last will and testament; Q 2:182 encourages the
reconciliation of parties who disagree about the pro-
visions of a will; Q 2:240 permits a testator to stipu-
late that his widow is entitled to a maximum of one
year’s maintenance, on the condition that she remain
in her deceased husband’s home; and Q 5:105-106
establish that a last will and testament should be
drawn up or dictated in the presence of two witnesses.
Under this regime, a person contemplating death
continued to enjoy substantial freedom to determine
who his or her heirs would be and what they would
inherit (hereinafter, Q 2:180 and 2:240 will be referred
to as “the bequest verses”).

Following the Battle of Uhud in 625, Muhammad
received a second series of revelations that appear to
establish compulsory rules for the division of proper-
ty: Q 4:8 affirms the inheritance rights of men and
women, while Q 4:11-12 and 4:176 specify the exact
fractional shares to which daughter(s), parent(s), sib-
ling(s), and a spouse are entitled. Known as “the
inheritance verses,” Q 4:11, 4:12, and 4:176 form the
core of what would become “science of the shares,” a
system that imposes compulsory rules for the division
of property and is justly renowned for its mathemati-
cal complexity.

Almost immediately, the Muslim community iden-
tified certain redundancies in, and apparent incon-
sistencies between, the bequest verses and the
inheritance verses. Some of these inconsistencies
were reportedly resolved by Muhammad. Following
the conquest of Mecca in 630, the Prophet stipulated
that “a bequest may not exceed 1/3,” a pronounce-
ment that strikes a balance between the compulsory
and voluntary aspects of the science of the shares: a
minimum of two-thirds of any estate is distributed
among the heirs in accordance with the inheritance
verses; a maximum of one-third may be used, at the
discretion of a person contemplating death, for

387

INHERITANCE

bequests. May a close relative receive a bequest of up
to a third of the estate in addition to the fractional
share specified in the inheritance verses? No, because
Muhammad is reported to have said on the occasion
of his Farewell Pilgrimage in 632, “No bequest to an
heir,” that is, a person contemplating death may not
leave a bequest for anyone who will receive a fraction-
al share of the estate as specified in the inheritance
verses. Since the time of al-Shafi’i (d. 820), Muslim
jurists have regarded this prophetic dictum as an
indicator that the inheritance verses abrogated the
bequest verses.

Other problems were identified and resolved dur-
ing the first century AH. Oddly, Q 4:12b awards sib-
lings a maximum of one-third of the estate, whereas
Q 4:176 awards siblings anywhere from 50% to 100%
of the estate. The apparent contradiction was harmo-
nized by Qur’an commentators who taught that uter-
ine siblings are intended in Q 4:12b, whereas
consanguine and/or germane siblings are intended in
Q 4:176. This explanation requires that the revelation
of Q. 4:12b precede that of Q 4:176. To this end the
tradition teaches that Q 4:176 was the last verse
revealed to Muhammad.

The mechanical operation of the Quranic rules
created further problems. For example, Q 4:11 speci-
fies that “a male is entitled to a share of two females,”
a phrase that the scholars understood as a general
principle applying to all males and females of the
same class and degree of relationship to the deceased
(for example, sons and daughters, brothers and sis-
ters, mothers and fathers). This principle is contra-
dicted, however, in the case of a childless man who
dies, leaving his wife and both parents: Q 4: 1 1 assigns
one-third of the estate to the mother; and Q 4:12
assigns one-fourth to the widow, leaving five-twelfths
for the father, who inherits as the closest surviving
agnate. Clearly, the father’s share is not twice as large
as that of the mother. The principle is also violated
if a childless woman dies, leaving her husband and
both parents, in which case the Qur’an assigns half to
the widower, one-third to the mother, and one-sixth
to the father, a solution that inverts the M = 2F
“principle.”

The solution to this problem is attributed to the
second caliph, Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 634-644).
Asked about a childless man who died, leaving a
wife and both parents, Umar replied, “The wife is
entitled to 1/4, the mother is entitled to 1/3 of what
remains [viz., 1/4], and the father is entitled to what-
ever is left [viz., 1/2].” Here, Umar preserves the M =
2F principle (the father inherits half, the mother
one-fourth) by interpolating the Qur’anic phrase
that awards a share of the estate to the mother as if

it reads “one-third of what remains.” But the princi-
ple was saved at the expense of the Qur’anic specifica-
tion that the mother should inherit “one-third” of
the estate. The solution to the case in which a
woman dies, leaving her husband and both parents,
was reportedly resolved in a similar manner by Ali (d.
661), al-Harith al-A’war (d. 684), or Zayd b. Thabit
(d. 665).

A different problem arises when a person dies and
leaves a particular constellation of heirs, all of whom
are sharers, and yet, the sum of their Qur’anic frac-
tional shares exceeds 100% of the estate. Suppose that
a man dies and leaves two daughters, both parents,
and a wife. All six persons qualify as sharers, but the
sum of the shares specified in the Qur’an (two-thirds
for the daughters, one-sixth for the father, one-sixth
for the mother, and one-eighth for the wife) equals 27/
24. The solution to this problem is attributed to the
caliph Umar, Zayd b. Thabit, and/or Ali: By reducing
the share of each heir on a pro rata basis (a procedure
known as awl), the sum total of the shares is reduced
to one. In the present case the shares become 16/27
(for the two daughters), 4/27 (father), 4/27 (mother)
and 3/27 (wife), with a total of 100% (27/27). Al-
though this procedure solved a mathematical prob-
lem, it created a further hermeneutical and theological
complication, for the result of this procedure is that
no heir receives the exact share specified in the
Qur’an.

The general features of the science of the shares
were clearly established by the middle of the second
century AH, as reflected in the earliest extant treatise
on the topic, written by Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/
778): There are two classes of heirs — sharers and
agnates. The sharers are those persons for whom the
Qur’an specifies a fractional share of the estate
(daughters], father, mother, spouse, and, in the ab-
sence of children, sibling[s]). The agnates are persons
related to the deceased exclusively through male links,
arranged in a series of hierarchical classes, with a
member of a higher class, excluding all members of
a lower class from entering the inheritance; within
each class, a person nearer in degree of relationship
to the deceased excludes all others in a more remote
degree, for example, a son excludes a grandson. In the
absence of a blood relative, the mawla, or patron, of
the deceased inherits.

The division of an estate proceeds in three stages:
( 1 ) any debts and/or bequests are paid; (2) the sharers
take their Qur’anic entitlements; and (3) the closest
surviving agnate inherits whatever remains. For ex-
ample, if a man dies, leaving a wife, son, and two
brothers, the wife inherits one-eighth as a sharer and
the son inherits the remaining seven-eighths as the

388

INHERITANCE

closest surviving agnate, totally excluding the
brothers as heirs. If the deceased also leaves a daugh-
ter, she is transformed into a residuary heir by her
brother: he inherits 7/12 and she inherits 7/24, after
the wife takes her 1/8 share. In theory, the person
contemplating death is powerless to affect the relative
entitlement of the heirs; he or she may not, for exam-
ple, stipulate that the estate will pass to one heir to the
exclusion of the others, that is, the deceased does not
have the power to disinherit his close relatives.

The Imami Shi’is reject the systematic residuary
entitlement of the agnates. Instead of a principle of
male agnatic succession, they rely on a criterion of
nearness of relationship that applies equally to males
and females and to both agnatic and uterine relations
of the deceased. Their system gives priority in inheri-
tance to an inner family consisting of the children,
parents, and siblings of the deceased, together with
the spouse. These close relatives are regarded as the
“roots” through whom are linked to the deceased
the “branches” of the outer family, who stand next
in priority in inheritance. No branch is excluded on
the grounds of nonagnatic relationship to the de-
ceased; every root is capable of transmitting its right
of inheritance to its “branch.”

Western Perspectives

Islamic sources indicate that the Muslim community’s
understanding of the Qur’anic inheritance verses was
the subject of controversy during the lifetime of
Muhammad and in the years immediately following
his death.

At the center of this controversy stand Umar b. al-
Khattab and the word kalala, which occurs twice in
the Qur’an, once in Q 4:12b and again in 4:176. The
commentators define kalala as “a person who dies
leaving neither parent nor child.” The sources, how-
ever, preserve a series of vivid reports that point to
early confusion over the meaning of this word and the
“reading” (qira’a) of Q 4:12b: On one occasion
Umar said that he would rather know the meaning
of al-kalala than possess the equivalent of the poll-tax
of the fortresses of Byzantium. After he became ca-
liph, Umar announced his intention to issue a decree
about this word but was dissuaded from doing so by
the appearance of a snake. Shortly before his demise,
Umar said, “If I live, I will issue a decree about [al-
kalala] so that no one who recites the Quran will
disagree about it.” On his deathbed, Umar destroyed
a document that he had written about al-kalala
(al-Tabari, Jami’, 6:43-44).

Taking these narratives as his starting point, D.
Powers has proposed three significant departures
from the traditional understanding of the Qur’anic
inheritance verses. First, he has suggested an alterna-
tive “reading” of Q. 4:12b according to which this
subverse refers to the possibility of designating a
testamentary heir; understood in this manner, the
verse then clarifies the situation in which the deceased
disinherits a brother or sister in favor of a wife or
daughter-in-law. Second, he argues that the fractional
share awarded to a surviving spouse in Q 4:12a was
originally intended to apply only in the exceptional
case of a wife who had received no dower, and that
the exception was transformed into a rule during
the generation following the death of the Prophet.
Third, he argues that the bequest verses remained
in force for at least twenty-five years after Muham-
mad’s death, at which time a shift in the understand-
ing of Q 4:12 made it appear as if the bequest verses
were incompatible with the inheritance verses. Mus-
lim scholars harmonized the relationship between the
bequest and inheritance verses by invoking the doc-
trine of abrogation, ostensibly a sign of a change
in the divine will, in reality a sign of changed percep-
tions of the meaning of the divine word. One advan-
tage of the thesis proposed by Powers is that it
eliminates the apparent contradictions and mathe-
matical complexities associated with the science of
the shares.

Islamic Inheritance System

As the conquests unfolded, Muslims living in the
Near East and beyond found themselves subject to
the science of the shares, which, to the extent that it
was applied, resulted in the progressive fragmentation
of wealth and capital. It is not surprising that pro-
prietors found numerous ways to circumvent the in-
heritance rules or that they received important
assistance in this regard from Muslim jurists who,
distinguishing between postmortem and inter vivos
transactions, taught that the inheritance rules take
effect only on property owned by the deceased at the
moment that he or she enters his or her deathbed
illness and that proprietors are free, for the most
part, to dispose of their property in any way they
wish prior to that moment. Thus a proprietor may
shift assets to his desired heir or heirs by means of a
gift, acknowledgment of a debt, sale, or creation of a
family endowment, on the condition that these legal
actions conform to the requisite formalities. Thus, to
understand how property passed from one generation

389

INHERITANCE

to the next in Muslim societies, it is important to
consider not only the science of the shares but also
the wider and more comprehensive Islamic inheri-
tance system.

David Stephan Powers

Primary Sources

al-Baydawi. Anwar al-tanzil wa-asrar al-ta'wil , 2 vols. Edi-
ted by H.O. Flesicher. 1846-1848; repr. Osnabriick,
1968.

al-Bayhaqi. al-Sunan al-kubra. 10 vols. Hayderabad, AH
1344—1357; repr. Beirut, 1968.

Bukhari. Sahih. 4 vols. Edited by M. Ludolf Krehl and Th.

W. Juynboll. Leiden, 1862-1898.

Ibn Ishaq. Kitab sirat rasul allah (recension of ‘Abd al-
Malik b. Hisham). 2 vols in 3. Edited by F. Wiistenfeld.
Gottingen, 1858-1860.

Ibn Shubah. Kitab al-Sunan. Edited by Habib ‘Abd al-
Rahman al-A‘zami. Dabhil, 1967.

Muslim b. al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri. Sahih. 5 vols. Edited by
Muhammad Fu‘ad ‘Abd al-Baqi. Cairo, 1375/1955.
al-Qurtubi. al-Jami’ li-ahkam al-qur‘an. 20 vols. Cairo,
1387/1967.

al-Shafi’i. al-Risala. Edited by Muhammad Sayyid Kaylani.
Cairo 1388/1969.

al-Tabari. Jami’ al-bayan 'an ta'wil av al-qur‘an. 3rd ed., 30
vols. in 12. Cairo 1954-1968.

al-Wahidi. Asbab nuzul al-qur'an. Edited by Ahmad Saqr.
Cairo, 1389/1969.

al-Zamakhshari. al-Kashshaf 'an haqa ‘iq ghawamid al-tanzil.
4 vols. Beirut, 1947.

Further Reading

Chaumont, Eric. “Legs et succession dans le droit musul-
man.” In La Transmission du Patrimoine: Byzance
etl’aire mediterraneenne, edited by J. Beaucamp and
G. Dagron, 35-51. Paris, 1998.

Cilardo, Agostino. Diritto Ereditario Islamico delle Scuole
Giuridiche Sunnite (Hanafita, Malikita, 'afi'ita e Han-
balita) e Delle Scuole Giuridiche Zaydita, Zahirita
e Ibadita. Napoli, 1994.

Coulson, Noel J. Succession in the Muslim Family. Cam-
bridge, 1971.

Crone, Patricia. Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law: The
Origins of the Islamic Patronate. Cambridge, 1987.

Kimber, Richard. “The Qur‘anic Law of Inheritance.” Is-
lamic Law and Society 5 (1998): 291-325.

Mundy, Martha. “The Family, Inheritance, and Islam: A
Re-Examination of the Sociology of Fara'id Law.” In
Islamic Law: Social and Historical Contexts, edited by
Aziz Al-Azmeh, 1-123. London and New York, 1988.

Powers, David S. Studies in Qur'an and Hadith: The Forma-
tion of the Islamic Law of Inheritance . Berkeley, 1986.

. “On Bequests in Early Islam.” Journal of Near

Eastern Studies 48 (1989): 185-200.

. “Islamic Inheritance Law: A Socio-Historical Ap-
proach.” In Islamic Family Law and the State, edited by
Chibli Mallat and Jane Conners, 1 1-29. London, 1990.

Raddatz, H.-P. “Fruislamisches Erbrecht nach dem Kitab
al-Fara‘id des Sufyan at-Tauri.” Welt des Islams 13
(1971): 26-78.

Yanagihashi, Hiroyuki. “The Doctrinal Development of
Marad al-Mawt in the Formative Period of Islamic
Law.” Islamic Law and Society 5 (1998): 326-358.

INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Definition

Islamic intellectual history, like that of other move-
ments, is the story of the longitudinal effort to assist
it in surviving, and to implement its ideology in
practice. One should bear in mind that the following
is a rather schematic survey of positions whose
boundaries in reality were far less clear cut.

Age of Ideology

Islam, as a total system, was the solution offered
to the basically local practical problem of social jus-
tice in Mecca, as reflected in the Meccan suras of the
Qur'an. In the seventh century the intellectual con-
text of that society was, according to Islamic his-
toriography, pagan fatalism mixed with harsh
capitalism, although some modern scholars question
this view.

Viewed from a scholarly point of view, Muham-
mad’s Islam is an Arabic version of earlier monotheis-
tic beliefs of Judaism and Christianity. As many
ideologies tend to be puristic, viewed from a believer’s
point of view, Islam is a renewal of the original mono-
theistic religion that was sent to the Prophet Muham-
mad directly from its eternal source, with no foreign
contribution whatsoever.

Both ideology and measures were more or less suf-
ficient for the needs of the time of the Prophet and
perhaps somewhat into the era of the four righteous
caliphs.

Practicality Problems

Already during their reign difficult practical problems
arose that threatened ideology:

1. Firstly, Islam as a tool for the solution of a
specific problem turned into an end in itself,
that is, a universal solution for any problem.
Inevitably, with the spreading of the original

390

INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

faith thinly on new Muslims, the gap between
ideology and practicality widened. Perhaps the
principal question became how to translate
ideology into practicality in running an
empire rather than a town.

2. Secondly, class strife, such as the Medinan

aristocracy’s attempt to preserve power, did
little to bridge the widening gap between
ideology and practicality. Personal conflicts
over claim to justice and power turned
ideological: ‘Alid’s, Shi‘a came to occupy a
position of guardians of the ideological
against what seemed to them unjustified
deviation toward the practical.

3. Thirdly, after the death of the Prophet

Muhammad, the authoritative fountain-head
for ideology ceased to provide, leaving ever-
created new questions unanswered. Attempts
to solve the problems were made on both the
personal and the general levels by assassination
and military steps (the first and second civil
wars of the old Medinan aristocracy against
the Prophet’s cousin and son in law ‘Ali ibn
Abi Talib), neither providing any real remedy.

As the ideological approach was seen to fall short
of addressing all the above difficulties, a shift toward
the practical was made on more than one level:

Leadership ceased to be granted to individually
elected leaders on a basis of equality in Islam. In
addition, the Umayyads, replacing it by a dynastic
system, were faced with a major problem of ideologi-
cal justification.

Among the salient problems that resulted was in-
equality of both the internal Arabs, and also such
perceived as directed against the new non-Arab Mus-
lims. Another was the fact that the Qur’an did not
suffice for addressing all the contemporary practical
needs. Loreign input and connection therefore needed
to be sought. As part of the openness toward the
exterior, the capital was moved to Damascus, closer
to Byzantium and centers of Christianity.

Preference was given to political leaning over reli-
gious purist policy. In addition, and perhaps more
menacingly, along with a rationalistic view to problem
solving, a more humanistic, skeptical, and philosophi-
cal direction infiltrated Islam, especially in the form of
the Qadariyya and the beginnings of the Muhtazilah.

As a result, the Umayyads were perceived as lea-
ders who were inclined too heavily toward the practi-
cal (and also to what might be called secular) at the
expense of the ideological.

The reaction was an open conflict between ‘ulama’
and the court, with strong political opposition that
culminated in the Abbasid revolution of 750 CE.

Return to Ideology

The ‘Abbasids, belonging to the family of the Prophet
Muhammad, claimed to constitute a return to ideolo-
gy and condemned their predecessors on religious
grounds. They, in turn, moved the capital to Al+s
basis of power, Baghdad. As on principle the tension
between ideology and practicality cannot be undone,
not only did it remain during their five centuries of
reign, but also it became more acute, spreading over
the entire intellectual range.

In the earlier part of the period it took the form of
division between the sciences of the Arabs, such as
Qur’anic interpretation (ideology), as well as artistic
means (poetry), those of the Ancients, such as medi-
cine (practicality), which were translated systemati-
cally during the ninth and tenth centuries, and a
range of disciplines to bridge the two (for example,
kalAm).

The sciences of the Ancients were all imported, but
other disciplines were imported as well, such as liter-
ary genres (adab), politics, and some poetic themes
from Persia, and philosophies (such as Indian atom-
ism). Furthermore, even within the ideological camp
the views ranged; for example, the institution of legal
schools (madhAhib ) , the existence of the discipline of
legal stratagems (Yilm al-hiyal), or the wide range of
Qur’anic interpretation (starting with bilA kaifa, and
ending with allegorical ones). On the other hand,
ideology had to defend itself against opposition
from within too (Sufism), where the conflict some-
times took a bloody turn. By contrast, that between
practicality and ideology at the time of al-Mamkn
created the Milnah, the Islamic form of inquisition.
Its most illustrious victim was Ibn Hanbal (d. 855
CE), whose redefinition of the ideological holds to
date.

Non-Arab Muslims, especially Persians, reacted to
Arab Islam puristic attitude with the Slnf ubiyya
movement that on the one hand stressed equality in
Islam, but on the other hand stressed their special
side. This movement produced some of the most out-
standing Muslim thinkers in all intellectual domains,
thus responding to Islam’s practical and growing need
for external fertilization.

On the political level, one of the discrepancies
between ideology and practicality had to do with the
proliferation of Islamic dynasties. It was solved in
such a way as to allow their existence (practica-
lity) while maintaining the institution of the caliph
(ideology) and justifying reality as the manifestation
of God’s will. In spite, or perhaps because of, this
competition between ideology and practicality, the
tenth century was the richest in Islamic history in

391

INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

all domains and contributed the most to world
culture.

The shift toward the closed ideological grew stron-
ger especially after al-Ghazali (d. 1111). On the one
hand, he declared amnesty to Sufism and incorporated
it into official Islam, but on the other hand he revived
religious studies (ideological) and attacked philoso-
phy. This very discipline was an issue of reciprocal
influence with other cultures, and an important criteri-
on for our controversy: Although import of ideas
existed already in the time of the Prophet, it was
presented as anything but import.

Ideologically, Islam could, and had to, export its
religious message only by inclusion of nonbelievers.
Starting in the tenth century CE it exported other
ideas that were theological, philosophical, scientific,
and medical, without gaining new believers as a result.
The Crusades served as yet another, unwelcome, cat-
alyst for this mutual exchange.

Although the fall of the caliphate (1286) to the
Mongols put an end to the political representation
of the Islamic ideological position, in other domains
the latter seems to have gained the upper hand. This
was especially manifest in Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328
AD), who, more than anyone else, has represented
the ideological, not the least thanks to his fierce op-
position to foreign intellectual import (Against the
Logicians ) .

With the exception of Ibn Khaldun’s (d. 1406)
unique contribution to the practical, it would seem
as though the ideological had the upper hand toward
the end of the period.

In conclusion it would seem that it was practical
openness to reciprocity with other cultures, rather
than exclusive ideology, that helped Islam survive
and prosper.

Ilai Alon

See also ‘Abbasids; Adab; al-Mamkn; Caliph; Civil
Wars; Crusades; Fatalism; Ghazali; Ibn Hanbal; Ibn
Khaldun; Ibn Taymiyya; Minah; Mutazilah; Philoso-
phy; Qadariyya; Umayyads

Further Reading

Kraemer, Joel L. Humanism In The Renaissance Of Islam:
The Cultural Revival during The Buvid Age. Leiden and
New York: E.J. Brill, 1992.

Lewis, Bernard. Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events
in the Middle East. Chicago: Open Court, 1993.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islam: Religion, History, And Civili-
zation. San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 2003.
Rosenthal, Franz. Four Essays on Art and Literature in
Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1971.

Von Grunebaum, Gustave E. Islam; Essays in the Nature
and Growth of a Cultural Tradition. London, Routledge
& Kegan Paul, 1961.

INTERFAITH RELATIONS

It would be anachronistic to think of interfaith rela-
tions in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages in
contemporary postenlightenment terms. The modern
virtues of social, religious, and political equality would
have been incomprehensible to anyone living in the
three great medieval cultural zones west of India — the
Dar al-Islam (domain of Islam), Byzantium, and
Latin Christendom. Muslims, Christians, and Jews
all believed that they had been granted the most
perfect of Divine dispensations, and whether they
had been given temporal power over others or were
themselves subjects to nonbelievers, they would be
justified in the next world, if not in this one. A medie-
val person’s true citizenship was not within a political
state but within a religious polity, and adherents of
other religions were, in a very real sense, aliens al-
though not necessarily enemies. Contact between
individuals from the different religious communities
took place on many levels (economic, administrative,
intellectual, even social) and, depending on time and
circumstance, could be more or less cordial, but the
overarching framework of interfaith relations was
always subject to the parameters imposed by religious
identity.

Early Theological, Legal, and Social Setting

Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, who were deemed
by Islam to have valid, albeit imperfect, scriptural
religions, were accorded freedom of religion within
certain discreet boundaries, freedom of economic en-
deavor with some minor disadvantages, and the pro-
tection of the state in exchange for accepting the
Islamic rule, a measure of social inferiority, and the
paying of the jizya, or poll tax. They had their
own communal officials, courts, schools, and welfare
institutions. Under the so-called Pact of ‘Umar, they
were proteges ( dhimmis ) of the Muslim community.
The dominance of Muslims and the subordinance
of dhimmis was at all times and in all places an under-
lying subtext to all interconfessional intercourse.

The Qur’an specifically enjoins Muslims not to
form friendships with members of the tolerated faiths:
“O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the
Christians as friends. They are friends to one another.
Whoever of you befriends them is one of them. Allah
does not guide the people who do evil” (Sura 5:51 ). In
the earliest years following the establishment of the
Dar al-Islam, this injunction probably was strictly
adhered to, except with regard to the Christian-
Arab tribesmen of Taghlib who took part in the
wars of conquest and were not considered dhimmis.

392

INTERFAITH RELATIONS

The ruling Arab Muslims who concentrated at first in
their own military camp towns (the amsar ) consti-
tuted a small military elite governing an enormous
empire, the inhabitants of which not only belonged
to other faiths but spoke other languages as well.
However, with the conversion of large numbers of
the native population to Islam, the progressive Arab-
ization, urbanization, and prosperity of the empire in
the two centuries following the conquests, Muslims
and non-Muslims increasingly came into daily face-
to-face contact with one another. Although much of
this contact was in the commercial sphere of the
marketplace or the administrative sphere of the bu-
reaucracy in which many dhimmis were employed,
there were social and intellectual exchanges even be-
fore the period of the Hellenistic renaissance of the
ninth through twelfth centuries.

Interfaith Relations on the Intellectual Level

During the Umayyad period (661-750 CE), Syria was
one of the few provinces where Muslims and non-
Muslims lived side by side in mixed urban commu-
nities, and many Arabs had lived there well before
the advent of Islam. From the polemical writings of
John of Damascus (ca. 675-750) and Theodore Abu
Qurra (ca. 740-820), it is clear that Syrian Christian
intellectuals were well informed of Islamic beliefs and
intra-Islamic theological debates probably from first-
hand contact with Muslims. Even if Damascene’s Dia-
logue between a Saracen and a Christian is a fictional
account, it reflects the kinds of interfaith discussions,
both amicable and controversial, that were beginning
to take place in the Levant. These discussions centered
around such issues as the unity of God and the ques-
tion of free will versus predestination. Representatives
of the dhimmi communities sometimes were drawn into
religious discussions at the ruler’s court. Even when
the dialogue was friendly, the inequality of status re-
quired the non-Muslim to be defensive and, no less
important, inoffensive. The Nestorian Catholicos
Timothy I records such a discussion that he had with
the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi in Baghdad around 781
in a work appropriately titled Apology for the Christian
Faith. The Shi’i traditionalist Ibn Babawayh records a
theological discussion between a Jewish exilarch and
the twelfth ‘Alid imam, ‘Ali Rida, at the court of the
caliph al-Ma’mun, which took place probably some-
time between 816 and 818. The Andalusian literary
scholar, Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih, describes Jews and Chris-
tians discussing allegorical scriptural exegesis ( ta ’wil )
also in front of al-Ma’mun.

During the period of the Hellenistic revival in the
medieval Muslim world, which Adam Mez has
dubbed “the Renaissance of Islam,” there was con-
siderable contact and even intellectual cooperation
that crossed confessional lines. This was particularly
true among men of science, medicine, and philosophy.
Muslim, Christian, and Jewish physicians served
alongside one another not only at the ruler’s court
but also in the public hospital (bimaristan), and it
was not at all unusual for a medical student of one
faith to study with a notable teacher of another reli-
gion. For example, Ibn al-Jazzar, a well-known
Muslim physician, was the pupil of Isaac Israeli (ca.
850-950), a Jew and one of the greatest figures in
medieval medicine. Neither was it at all extraordinary
for a doctor to have a non-coreligionist as a patient.
Several generations of the Christian Bukhtishu’ fami-
ly served as physicians to the early ‘Abbasids, and the
Jewish physician and philosopher Moses Maimo-
nides, was not only the personal doctor of the qadi
al-Fadil and later the Sultan al-Malik al-Afdal in
twelfth-century Cairo, but he also was lauded in
verses by the Muslim poet Ibn Sana’ al-Mulk. Bio-
graphical dictionaries of physicians, such as Ibn Abi
Usaybi‘a’s Tabaqat al-Atibba' (The Classes of the
Physicians) include respectful and complimentary
entries on Christian and Jewish doctors.

But in no realm was interfaith cooperation more
salient during the height of the Islamic Hellenic renais-
sance than in the realm of philosophy (falsafa) and
rational theology (kalam). The Muslim philosopher
al-Farabi (d. 950) received his philosophical training in
Baghdad from the Nestorian Yuhanna b. Haylan, and
later al-Farabi himself took on at least one Christian
student. A tenth-century visitor from the Islamic West,
Ahmad ibn Sa’di, mentions that at an assembly of
theologians in Baghdad, he found not only Muslims,
“but unbelievers, Magians, materialists, atheists, Jews
and Christians, in short, unbelievers of all kinds.” He
reports that debates were carried on exclusively on the
basis of rational arguments without resort to citing
scripture. Disturbed by what he saw, Ibn Sa’di sought
out another such gathering but found the same thing,
which he described in his own words as “calamity.”
Even legal scholars of different faiths cooperated with
one another on occasion. Although the practice was
strongly discouraged by Christian and Jewish autho-
rities, members of their flock sometimes had recourse
to the Islamic courts, and cases sometimes went back
and forth between the latter and the dhimmi courts.
Sometimes, the non-Muslim authorities themselves
turned to the qadi for government backing when
their own rulings had been challenged by recalci-
trant members of their community. As Goitein has
noted based on the evidence of the Cairo Geniza,

393

INTERFAITH RELATIONS

professional contacts between members of the Jewish
and Muslim judiciary could even develop into personal
friendships.

Although it was not a common practice, students
of one confessional community sometimes studied in
the school of another. The decree of the ‘Abbasid
caliph al-Mutawakkil issued in 850, reiterating and
reenforcing the Pact of ‘Umar, specifically prohibits
dhimmi children from studying in Muslim schools and
bans Muslims from acting as their tutors. The inclu-
sion of such prohibitions that are not stipulated in the
original Pact would indicate that in ninth-
century Iraq, non-Muslim pupils were to be found
studying in Muslim schools or at least with Muslim
teachers. Hai Gaon (939-1038), the head of the Pum-
bedita yeshiva and the highest Jewish authority of his
day, writes in a responsum that while it is preferable
to dissuade non-Jews from attending Jewish schools
(which were normally attached to the synagogue, just
as Muslim schools were part of the mosque complex
and Christian schools were in the church or monas-
tery), it was permissible for the sake of maintaining
good relations. However, he rules that they should
only be admitted to classes in secular subjects such as
arithmetic and mathematics. Muslim scholars voiced
similar opinions at the time. The latter occasionally
also raised objections to dhimmis being taught Arabic
language and grammar from Muslim teachers, the
primary reason being that such instruction invariably
included quotations from the Qur’an, and Qur’anic
study was specifically forbidden to non-Muslims by
the Pact of ‘Umar. Nevertheless, non-Muslims did
sometimes pursue Arabic studies with Muslim tea-
chers. The Andalusian poet and anthologist Ibn Bas-
sam (d. 1 147) mentions an outstanding Jewish student
in the literary study circle of the poet and belle-lettrist
Ibn Shuhayd (992-1035) without the slightest indica-
tion that this was something unusual.

Interfaith Relations on the Ordinary,

Daily Level

The aforementioned interfaith relations took place
for the most part on a highly rarefied level between
members of a very small social and intellectual elite
with the sole, widespread exception of the physician
of one faith and his patient of another. However,
there were also daily face-to-face contacts between
members of the different confessional communities
in the cities and towns throughout the length and
breadth of the medieval Islamic world. Although
there were no enforced ghettos during the first
five centuries of Islamic history, dhimmis generally

preferred concentrating in particular neighborhoods.
Some cities in Iraq, Syria, and Spain had Christian
and Jewish quarters. In Baghdad, some of these quar-
ters had actually been pre-existing Christian and Jew-
ish villages that were incorporated into the newly
founded ‘Abbasid capital. However, the documents
of the Cairo Geniza indicate that in Fustat in Egypt,
and in Qayrawan in Ifriqiyya, both of which were
founded as amsar, there were no Jewish quarters as
such, only neighborhoods with a highly concentrated
Jewish population, but with Muslim and Christian
residents as well. Dhimmis clustered in neighborhoods
not only for convenient access to their communal
institutions but also for practical security reasons.
Because of the stipulations of the Pact of ‘Umar, it
was advisable not to have a church or synagogue near
a large concentration of Muslims. It was also prefera-
ble to have a route of access to the Christian or Jewish
cemetery that did not go through a predominantly
Muslim neighborhood. Dhimmi funeral processions
were the object of occasional harassment — sometimes
minor, sometimes serious — from medieval to modern
times.

Living in close proximity to one another and shar-
ing the same market space, members of the different
religious communities might maintain cordial, neigh-
borly relations. Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors
and business associates exchanged good wishes on
each others’ holidays despite religious injunctions in
each of the different faiths against such practices.
However, there were serious impediments to more
intimate conviviality. Muslim dietary rules precluded
eating meat in Christian homes, and Jewish dietary
restrictions kept Jews from eating any prepared food
in Muslim or Christian homes. Nor would the vast
majority of ordinary Muslims drink wine, the stan-
dard beverage of Christian and Jewish hospitality.
(The laws of kashrut also strictly forbade Jews from
drinking wine produced — and indeed even touched —
by gentiles.) Still, there were always exceptions. When
Muslims joined Jewish drinking parties, an observant
host might add honey to the wine, thus desacraliz-
ing it, eliminating the problem of it being rendered
unkosher by the touch of a gentile, and at the same
time avoiding giving any offense to the Muslim
guests.

Perhaps nowhere was more conducive to intercon-
fessional conviviality than the public bath ( hammam ) .
As in Roman times the bath was a place for socializ-
ing, as well as hygiene. Because all outer signs of
status were shed with one’s clothing, there were peri-
odic attempts to impose upon non-Muslims some sort
of distinguishing mark, even in the bath where one
normally wore only a loincloth. An early example of
this was the mad Fatimid caliph al-Hakim’s decree,

394

INTERFAITH RELATIONS

issued in 1009, commanding Christians and Jews to
wear, respectively, a cross and a bell around their
necks when bathing. These measures fell into desue-
tude with the disappearance of the caliph a few years
later, and similar restrictions were not imposed for
several more centuries when interfaith relations had
seriously eroded throughout the Muslim world.

The commercial sphere also provided for interfaith
contact and cooperation. Although business partner-
ships were preferred among family and coreligionists,
it is clear from the evidence of the Cairo Geniza
documents that business contracts, joint ventures,
and partnerships among members of different faiths
were not at all extraordinary. In such cases, it was
Islamic commercial law that prevailed. Artisans of
different faiths who owned an atelier in common,
each took off their own weekly day of rest.

Interfaith Participation in Popular
Religious Practices

It may seem paradoxical that in a society in which
individual and group identities, state administration,
and law were defined first and foremost by religion,
that one important domain of interfaith contact
among the common folk was within a religious con-
text. This was not the realm of formal, orthodox reli-
gion, but of noncanonical popular religious practice.
Unlike Christianity with its officially sanctioned cult of
saints, normative Islam and Judaism looked askance
at the veneration of holy men and making shrines of
their tombs. Nevertheless, the graves of biblical fig-
ures, rabbinical sages, companions of the Prophet
Muhammad, martyrs, and wonder workers not only
attracted the faithful from one religious community
but not infrequently from others as well. In Iraq,
Muslims and Jews visited the shrines of Ezra and
Ezekiel, both of which were maintained by the Jewish
authorities, and members of all three faiths visited
Daniel’s tomb in Persia. Likewise the synagogue of
Dammuh in Egypt, which supposedly was founded by
Moses prior to the exodus, attracted Muslims along-
side the Jewish pilgrims. In Damascus, Christians,
Jews, and even Zoroastrians brought votive offerings
to the tomb of the Muslim saint Shaykh Arslan. The
Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), who
rejected all such popular cults as heretical innovation
(bid a), is particularly contemptuous of “ignorant
Muslims” who make votive offerings at Christian
shrines and “seek blessings from priests, monks and
the like.” In Islamic Spain and Fatimid Egypt where
Christians made up a significant proportion of the
population, some Christian festivals were occasions

for celebration by the general public despite periodic
objections raised by Islamic authorities.

Deterioration of Interfaith Relations in the
Late Middle Ages

The spiritual, social, and economic climate of the
Islamic world underwent a profound transformation
during the course of the thirteenth century due to
both internal and external pressures: the Crusades,
the Reconquista, the Mongol invasions, the debase-
ment of the currency, and plague. The secular and
humanistic tendencies of the Hellenistic renaissance
declined and were replaced by a less tolerant and
more institutionalized Islam. The number of non-
Muslims steadily declined (in the Maghrib, indige-
nous Christians disappeared in the wake of the
Almohads), and they became ever more marginalized
in Islamic society. This had a corrosive effect on
interfaith relations. The laws of differentiation
(ghiyar) came to be enforced with new stringency
and vigor. Anti -dhimmi riots erupted periodically —
in Baghdad in 1284 and throughout the Il-Khanid
empire in 1291, in Cairo in 1301 and 1354, and in
Fez in 1438 and 1465. The intellectual common
ground that had allowed for interfaith debates in
earlier centuries, even at the caliphal court, disap-
peared. In 1419, the Coptic patriarch was summoned
by the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Mu’ayyad and
was compelled to remain standing before him while
Muslim scholars delivered lengthy anti-Christian dia-
tribes. So too, the secular domain of the sciences was
no longer congenial to interfaith contact and cooper-
ation. Although there had always been some pious
opposition to dhimmis practicing medicine on Mus-
lims, it was never taken seriously. However, in 1448,
Sultan Jaqmaq promulgated a decree forbidding
Christian and Jewish doctors from treating Muslim
patients. During the preceding two centuries, pole-
mical treatises such as al-Jawbari’s Kashf al-Asrar
(Unveiled Secrets) and al-Wasiti’s Radd ‘ ala Ahl
al-Dhimma ( Refutation of the People of the Pact )
contained horror stories concerning dhimmi physi-
cians and Muslim patients, and legal handbooks
such as Ibn al-Hajj’s Madkhal al-Shaf al- Sharif
(Introduction to the Noble Religious Law) stated out-
right that such interconfessional doctor-patient rela-
tionships are forbidden. The spirit of the times and
the general decline in education made attendance by
members of one faith at the school of another even
rarer than in the past. The implacable Ibn al-Hajj
states that Muslim parents should not send their

395

INTERFAITH RELATIONS

children to Christian schools even to learn arithmetic
and geometry and that such conduct is an insult to
Islam. Islamic institutions of higher education reflect
the hardening attitudes. A deed of endowment for a
madrasa stipulates that “no Jew, Christian, Hanbali,
or literalist (hashwi)” should be admitted.

Members of the different faiths still came face to
face in the marketplace. However, even here the scope
of interfaith contact was lessened. The economy of
the Muslim world began closing in on itself in many
places within trade guilds and state monopolies. One
area in which dhimmis found for themselves an in-
creasingly important niche was as middlemen between
European merchants and the local economy. By early
modern times this role would only further highlight
their otherness.

Domestic living patterns also made for reduced
interfaith contact. Non-Muslims increasingly clus-
tered within their own separate quarters by custom
or law. The mellah of Fez, established in 1438, became
the prototype of such ghettolike quarters in Morocco
and the rest of the Maghrib in the following centuries.
Physical separation reinforced social isolation. In late
medieval Yemen and Persia the rise of Shi‘i states
added an additional impediment to socialization and
conviviality because, according to Shi‘i doctrine,
dhimmis were considered najs (ritually impure).

Despite the increased barriers standing in the way
of interfaith relations at the end of the Middle Ages,
the members of different religions still interacted at
popular religious shrines and in the recourse to seers
and dispensers of folk medicines and amulets.

Norman A. Stillman

See also Cairo Geniza; Christians; Copts; Hospitals;
Ibn Babawayh; Ibn Taymiyya; Al-Jahiz; Jews; Maimo-
nides; Al-Ma’mun; Pilgrimage; Polemics and Disputa-
tion; Popular Religion; Zoroastrianism

Further Reading

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society. 6 vols. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967
1993.

Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1984.

Meri, Josef. The Cult of Saints Among Muslims and Jews
in Medieval Syria. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2002 .

Powers, J.F. “Frontier Municipal Baths and Social
Interaction in Thirteenth-Century Spain.” American
Historical Review 84 (1979): 649-667.

Stillman, Norman A. The Jews of Arab Lands : A History
and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society, 1979.

. “Subordinance and Dominance: Non-Muslim

Minorities and the Traditional Islamic State as Perceived
from Above and Below.” In A Way Prepared: Essays on

Islamic Culture in Honor of Richard Bayly Winder, edited
by Farhad Kazemi and R.D. McChesney. New York
and London: New York University Press, 1988.

Tritton, A.S. Materials on Muslim Education in the Middle
Ages. London: Luzac, 1957.

IRANIAN LANGUAGES

Iranian languages is the name given to a large group-
ing of languages, ancient and modern, within the
Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language
family. Iranian languages and dialects are classified
as Old, Middle, or New, and by region of origin,
especially “western” and “eastern,” and sometimes
also “northern” and “southern.” The oldest stage of
linguistic development is represented by Old Persian
(the language of the Achaemenids, 559-330 BCE) and
the language of the Avesta; the middle stage by Mid-
dle Persian, Parthian, Soghdian, and Khvarazmian,
all written in the Aramaic script, Bactrian, written in
the Greek alphabet, and Khotanese, most writings
in which appeared after the fall of the Sasanians
(226-651 CE); and the latest stage by (New) Persian
(Parsi, Farsi) and its close relatives Dari (spoken in
parts of present-day Afghanistan) and Tajiki (spoken
in present-day Tajikistan and adjoining areas), to-
gether with other languages of the western group,
such as Kurdish, Gurani and Zaza, Baluchi, Tati,
Taleshi, Azari, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Luri, Laristani,
and Bakhtiyari, as well as the eastern Iranian lan-
guages of Pashto, Ossetic, Yaghnobi, the Shughni
group, Wakhi, Munji and Yidgha, Parachi, and
Ormuri, among others. The “eastern” or “western”
origin of an Iranian language does not always coin-
cide with the region where it came to be spoken;
for example, Ossetic, a language belonging to the
eastern branch, is spoken in the Caucasus, whereas
Baluchi, a member of the western branch, is spoken in
modern-day Baluchistan, in southern Pakistan.

Among the most authoritative sources of infor-
mation regarding the linguistic geography of late
Sasanian and early Islamic Iran is the Fihrist of Ibn
al-Nadim, who records a notice from Ibn al-MuqaH'a'
(d. ca. 759), the Persian man of letters noted for his
translations from Middle Persian into Arabic, as well
as for his erudition in the latter language. According
to Ibn al-Muqaffa\ the “languages of Persian”
(lughat al-farisiyya) were five: Pahlavi, Dari, Parsi
(Ar. farisiyya, Farsi), Khuzi, and Suryani (Ibn al-
Nadim, Fihrist, Cairo, 1991, I: 23). Of these five lan-
guages the first three are Iranian, and the shifting uses
and connotations of Pahlavi, Dari, and Parsi, as Gil-
bert Lazard has demonstrated, reflect important lin-
guistic and cultural developments in the early
centuries of the Islamic period. Pahlavi referred to

396

IRANIAN LANGUAGES

the Middle Iranian language of Parthian and to the
dialects that grew out of that language. Parthian had
originated in the eastern regions of Iran but was
also adopted as an imperial language, written in the
Aramaic script, in the west when the Arsacids (247
BCE-224 CE) made their capital there. Parsi, or liter-
ary Middle Persian, also written in Aramaic, was the
imperial language of the Sasanians who succeeded the
Arsacids, and of the Zoroastrian religious tradition.
At the beginning of the Sasanian era, two imperial
languages, both written in Aramaic, were in use; how-
ever, Parsi eventually displaced Pahlavi, and by the
close of the Sasanian era, Parsi was the sole official
and written language. Dari was the name given to the
vernacular language derived from literary Middle Per-
sian. By the end of the Sasanian period, Dari was
spoken not only at the court, from which its name
derived (P. dar, door, gate, or court), but also proba-
bly in much of the empire, and certainly in Khurasan.
It seems that in the course of the Sasanian period
the vernacular had diverged from the written lan-
guage to a considerable degree, and had thus acquired
a distinct name.

The meanings of Pahlavi, Parsi, and Dari under-
went considerable change both during the Sasanian
period and after the beginning of the Islamic era in
Iran. While the usage of “Parsi” to designate literary
Middle Persian is attested to in the works of Ibn al-
M Li q alia' and other writers in Arabic, with the advent
of Islamic rule it became customary to refer to literary
Middle Persian as “Pahlavi.” This development
reflects the changing context for the use of Iranian
languages. Following the conquests, the most striking
linguistic contrast was no longer that between Parsi
(Middle Persian) and Pahlavi (Parthian), but that
between Arabic and any form of Persian, that is,
any language or dialect spoken by the Persians (al-
Furs). Accordingly, the term Parsi or (in Arabic)
Farsi came increasingly to denote both the common
spoken vernacular and the literary language of Islam-
ic Iran. As Parsi acquired this broader use, it became
synonymous with Dari, which name, rendered super-
fluous, gradually fell out of use in most regions. In the
Islamic period, Middle Persian continued to be used
among Zoroastrians. Indeed, most of the extant liter-
ature was committed to writing by priests in the
AH third/ninth CE century; it was also used by
Manichaeans in Central Asia until the seventh/thir-
teenth century. Over time, however, the language fell
into disuse, such that by the second half of the fourth/
tenth century, the script was little known even among
Zoroastrians (it is striking that the Zoroastrian
Kayka’us, writing in Rayy before 978, composed his
Zaratushtnama not in Middle Persian but in New
Persian).

The major developments in the use of Iranian lan-
guages during the early and medieval periods of
Islamic history are (1) the gradual spread of one
Iranian language, known as Dari or Parsi (Persian),
as a spoken language throughout the eastern Islamic
world, often at the expense of other Iranian lan-
guages, which in turn influenced the various forms
of Persian that developed in different regions; (2) the
related emergence of literary New Persian, which
would develop into a second official and cultural
language alongside Arabic, and as such would ex-
tend the range of Persian and Perso-Islamic culture
well beyond the areas in which Iranian languages
were used in daily communication; and (3) the surviv-
al and cultivation of other Iranian languages and
dialects (the distinction is not always easily drawn)
long after the ascendancy of Persian as a literary and
official lingua franca.

Spread of Dari as a Spoken Language

In the early centuries of the Islamic period, the use of
Dari as a spoken language gradually decreased in
Iraq, but elsewhere, especially in the east, it spread
considerably. In Khurasan, Dari had largely super-
ceded Parthian during the Sasanian period, and it
continued its eastward expansion as Transoxiana
and the present-day Afghanistan became integrated
into the Islamic world. While numerous languages
and dialects remained in use, Persian served as a
means of verbal communication among members of
different linguistic groups, including Arabs who had
settled in the eastern regions. Thus long before the
emergence of literary New Persian in Transoxiana
and Khurasan, Dari, or Persian, had come to consti-
tute the common language in these regions. The
spread of Islam facilitated the linguistic integration
of much of the Iranian world in a process similar
to that associated with the spread of Arabic in the
Western territories.

The variety within Dari is evident from prose
works written in the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh
centuries. The Dari used in the Southwest, known in
particular through a number of Judeo-Persian texts,
remained relatively close to Middle Persian, which
had itself originated in the southwestern regions of
Fars and Khuzistan; by contrast, the Dari spoken in
Khurasan had diverged much further from its Middle
Persian forebear and was characterized by elements
found in other Iranian languages and dialects, espe-
cially Parthian. It was this latter form of Dari that
spread into the neighboring regions of Afghanistan
and Transoxiana, where it also acquired a number of

397

IRANIAN LANGUAGES

Soghdian words and evolved into the languages
known today as Dari and Tajiki. At the same time,
the southwestern form of Persian spread across the
South as far as Sistan, as attested by a translation of
the Qur’an produced in that region in the eleventh
century or perhaps even later.

Emergence of Literary New Persian

Given the predominance of Dari as the lingua franca
of the eastern regions of Iran and Transoxiana, it is
more readily understandable that it was there, under
the Samanids (819-1005) or perhaps the Saffarids
(861-1003), that the language subsequently known
as Farsi or (New) Persian would first find literary
form. While the phonetic and grammatical shifts
from Middle to New Persian are relatively slight, the
new language, sometimes referred to as parsi-yi dari,
marks a significant break with the past in its adoption
of the Arabic script and, as previously noted, in its
assimilation of vocabulary from Parthian, Soghdian,
and, increasingly, from Arabic. Literary New Persian
first appears as a medium for poetic expression, the
earliest samples of which date from the middle of the
third/ninth century; the earliest surviving prose texts
date from a century later. Literary composition in
Persian gradually spread to the west, and, in the
course of the fifth/eleventh century, Persian emerged
as the primary literary language throughout Iran,
although several authors continued to write in Arabic
as well, especially in the religious sciences.

Additionally, Persian replaced Arabic in official
contexts in many of the eastern regions. After the
advent of Islamic rule, Middle Persian continued to
be used for administrative purposes in western Iran
until 78/697-698 and in Khurasan until 124/741-742,
when it was replaced by Arabic. In the fourth/tenth
century, Arabic gradually ceded its role as the princi-
pal official language to Persian, which would become
the administrative language of states not only in Iran
and present-day Afghanistan but also in Central Asia,
Anatolia, and India, most notably under the Mughals
(1526-1858); furthermore, courts in these regions
often provided generous patronage for Persian poetry
and literature.

Continuance of Regional Languages and
Dialects

Just as in Sasanian times, local dialects had coexis-
ted with Middle Persian and with Dari, numerous

(non-Persian) Iranian languages and dialects, several
of which have persisted to the present day and have,
like Persian, assumed written form, are recorded by
the geographers and historians of the early and medi-
eval Islamic periods. Al-Mas’udi (d. 956) mentions
Azari alongside Dari and Pahlavi; in the Caspian
regions a number of languages persisted, including
Daylami and Tabari, the latter of which also emerged
as a literary language in about the fourth/tenth centu-
ry; Khvarazmian, written in a modified Arabic script,
is found from the fifth/eleventh to the eighth/four-
teenth centuries. Several regions, including Kirman,
Makran, Ushrusana, Gharjistan, and Ghur, were
characterized by distinctive dialects, and according
to al-Muqaddasi, who wrote in the second half of
the fourth/tenth century, the spoken idiom in almost
every Khurasanian town differed from the common
language, Dari. Pahlavi also survived, especially in
its oral literature. It gave its name to the quatrains
and other poems in dialect known as the fahlaviyyat;
indeed, as knowledge of both Middle Persian and
Parthian receded, the term Pahlavi was occasionally
used to describe poetry in other dialects, as long
as they were distinct from poetry in Persian. Kurdish
flourished as a spoken language with several dia-
lects and a rich oral literature; it was written in
the Arabic and in other scripts. Pashto was simil-
arly distinguished by many dialects and a written
literature.

Lousie Marlow

Further Reading

Frye, R.N. (Ed). The Cambridge History of Iran. 1 volumes.
The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Seljuqs. Vol. 4.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Golombek, Lisa. “Urban Patterna in Pre-Safavid Isfahan.”
In Studies on Isfahan [Proceedings of the Isfahan Collo-
quium], Iranian Studies VII, Pt. I, 18-44.

Grabar, Oleg. The Great Mosque of Isfahan. New York:
New York University Press, 1990.

Holod, Renata (Ed). Studies on Isfahan [Proceedings of the
Isfahan Colloquium], Iranian Studies VII, Pts. I and 11.
Jackson, Peter, and Laurence Lockhart (Eds). The Cam-
bridge History of Iran. 7 vols. The Timurid and Safavid
Periods. Vol. 6. Cambridge, London, and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1986.

ISFAHANI, AL-, ABU NU‘AYM

Al-Isfahani Abu Nu‘aym Ahmad b. ‘Abdallah, was
born in Isfahan in around AH 336/948 CE. Although
he wrote exclusively in Arabic, he was of Persian
origin. His second/eighth century ancestor, Mihran,
appears to have been the first to have converted to
Islam. His most famous ancestor was his maternal
grandfather, Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Ma‘dan al-
Banna’ (d. 365/976), who was the leader of a school of
Sufism in Isfahan, which was still flourishing in Abu
Nu‘aym’s lifetime.

Abu Nu‘aym’s three major works, all of which
have been published, are: (1) his magnum opus, the
Hilyat al-awliya’ wa-tabaqat al-asfiya’, which is a
voluminous collection of biographies of Sufis and
other early Muslim religious leaders; (2) Dhikr akhbar
Isfahan, a biographical dictionary of the prominent
scholars of his native Isfahan; and (3) Dala’il al-
nubuwwa, a biography of the Prophet Muhammad,
which focuses in particular on the evident signs of his
status. These three works demonstrate Abu Nu‘aym’s
interest in collecting and compiling hadiths and bio-
graphical reports about important religious leaders.
Like other such traditionist historians preoccupied
with seeking knowledge, he would have traveled wide-
ly to collect his material. Abu Nu‘aym makes specific
reference to travels for this purpose to the Hijaz, Iraq,
Syria, and Khurasan. In turn, Abu Nu‘aym himself
attracted traditionists from distant origins who

wished to hear his material, the most famous of whom
was probably al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, the compiler of
Ta'rikh Baghdad.

Abu Nu‘aym’s most influential work by far, his
Hilyat al-awliya’ (The Ornament of the Saints), con-
sists of 689 biographies in ten volumes (amounting
to approximately four thousand pages of twenty-five
lines each in the printed edition). He cast a wide net in
his selection of religious figures to represent in this
work. They include, in roughly chronological order:
the first generations of the Prophet’s religious succes-
sors according to Sunnism ( al-salaf al-salih) , the first
six individual successors of the Prophet, or Imams,
according to Shi'ism, the eponymous founders of
three of the four major Sunni schools of jurisprudence
(see later in the paragraph in regard to the notable
omission), scholastic theologians, ascetics, pietists,
and mystics. However, in spite of its broad sweep
the Hilyat al-awliya’ is certainly not all-inclusive;
Abu Nu‘aym appears to have deliberately omitted a
number of individuals for polemical reasons, includ-
ing most conspicuously: Abu Hanifa, the eponym of
the Hanafite legal school; and al-Hallaj, the outspo-
ken mystic whose execution in Baghdad in 922 is
traditionally seen as a major turning point in the
history of Sufism.

Like many other such vast works written in the
same period, the Hilyat al-awliya ’ shows signs that it
was not under the control of a single author. While its
colophon gives the date of completion of the work as
AH 422 (1030 CE), and its list of biographies ends
with his own contemporaries from among the succes-
sors of Ibn Ma‘dan al-Banna’, a number of the chains
of transmission, or isnads, within the text include Abu
Nu‘aym himself, and not simply as the immediate
source. Like many other works of Islamic scholarship
in the early centuries, the Hilyat al-awliya’ appears to
have been compiled by the students of the author to
whom it is attributed, probably for the most part
under his direction. The history of the text of the
Hilyat al-awliya ’ explains why its biographies appear
to have been ordered in various parts according to a
number of competing principles (such as chronology,
geography, affiliation, alphabetically by name), as
well as why certain biographies have been repeated.

Abu Nu‘aym’s fame rests primarily on the Hilyat
al-awliya’, which has been used as a vast mine of
biographical data by later Muslim historians, as well
as some modern academics. The fact that its biogra-
phies are invariably much longer than those found in
comparable biographical dictionaries of the period
has made it especially attractive for this purpose.
Abu Nu‘aym is rarely recalled as a Sufi authority in
Sufi biography collections. He is celebrated as a past
hero in the later biographical dictionaries of the

401

ISFAHAN!, AL-, ABU NU’AYM

Shafi’i school of jurisprudence more than any other,
where he is depicted as a staunch defender of this
school during disputes with the rival Hanbali school
of jurisprudence in Isfahan at the turn of the eleventh
century, as a result of which he was expelled from the
city. Some Hanbali sources also include Abu Nu’aym
among their number. Due to the fact that the pro-
minent Safavid al-Majlisi family considered them-
selves to have been his descendants, Abu Nu‘aym is
also portrayed in late medieval Shi’i literature as a
sympathizer, and sometimes even as a crypto-Shi‘i.

Jawid Mojaddedi

See also Biography and Biographical Works; Saints
and Sainthood; Sufism and Sufis

Further Reading

al-Isfahani, Abu Nu'aym. Geschichte Isbahans. Translated
by S. Dedering. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1931-1934.

. Hilyat al-awliya. 10 vols Cairo, 1032-1038.

. Dala’il al-nubuwwa. Hyderabad, 1950.

Studies

Khoury, R.G. “Importance et authenticity de textes de
Hilyat al-awliya'.” Stadia Islamica , 46 (1977): 73-113.
Mojaddedi, Jawid. The Biographical Tradition in Sufism:
The Tabaqat Genre from al-Sulami to Jami. Richmond:
Routledge Curzon, 2001.

ISHAQ IBN IBRAHIM

A member of the Tahirid family, Ishaq ibn Ibra-
him al-Mus'abi held a prominent place serving the
‘Abbasids. After a long career he died in 850 CE.
All that is known of his early background is that he
was a cousin of Abdallah ibn Tahir and that he was
possibly born in 793. He first appears in 821, when he
was appointed by Abdallah as the chief of police in
Baghdad. For the next twenty-nine years he served as
the caliphal enforcer of policy, mostly in Baghdad.
Given this information, it is striking that we know so
little about him. We are forced to infer based on the
record in the chronicles of his activities. In 829 or 830,
he served as governor of Aleppo, ‘Awasim, and the
Thughur. In 830, al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833) made him
his deputy in Baghdad while he was on cam-
paign against the Byzantines. In 831, al-Ma’mun or-
dered him to make the soldiers in Baghdad say the
takbir (Allah Akbar, God is most great) as part of
their prayers. Al-Ma’mun began the Mihna (the
Inquisition of 833-848 or 851) with a series of letters
to Ishaq, instructing him to question all of the judges
and hadith transmitters about their position on the
createdness of the Qur’an. He was to inform them
that the caliph held that it was created. He was the

primary questioner of Ibn Hanbal, a role that he
reprised in many cases as the caliphal enforcer of the
Mihna in Baghdad. When al-Ma’mun died, his will
advised al-Mu'tasim (r. 833-842) to take him into
his confidence. He was responsible for bringing
the Khurramiyya to heel in 833 on the orders of al-
Mu’tasim. He is mentioned, among the most powerful
figures in the caliphate, as one of the few witnesses to
the trial of the disgraced general al-Afshin in 841.
When al-Mu‘tasim died, Ishaq was responsible for
administering in Baghdad the oath of loyalty to the
next caliph, al-Wathiq (r. 842-847). Al-Wathiq relied
on him to deliberate the cases against the secretaries
in 844. Interestingly, he was not part of the group that
placed al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) upon the throne.
However, he was one of the primary individuals that
al-Mutawakkil relied on to strengthen his hold on
power. In 850, on al-Mutawakkil’s order, he arrested
the Turkish general, Itakh, who had been lured to
Baghdad by an elaborate ruse. Al-Tabari states quite
explicitly that this took place in Baghdad because
Itakh was too powerful to be accosted in Samarra.
Itakh was killed in Ishaq’s house. What becomes clear
from this account of his activities is that he served a
pivotal role for the post-Ma’mun caliphs. He was
their enforcer in Baghdad. The continuity of his posi-
tion in what still was the most important city in
the caliphate economically and culturally argues for
his power and influence. It also highlights his
surprising loyalty to the office of caliph. He does not
make a bid for independence or independent power.
He was seemingly content with serving at the will of
the sitting caliph.

John P. Turner

See also Aleppo; Ibn Hanbal; al-Ma’mun; Samarra;
al-Tabari

Further Reading

Ka‘bi, al-Munji. Les Tahirides : Etude historico-litteraire de
la dynastie des Banu Tahir b. al-Husayn au Hurasan et en
Iraq au Illeme s. de VHegire/IXeme s. J.-C. Paris: Uni-
versity de Paris-Sorbonne, Faculte des lettres et sciences
humaines, 1983.

Primary Sources

Tabari, Abu Ja’far. The Crisis of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate.
Translated by G. Saliba. Vol. 35. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1985.

. The Reunification of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate. Trans-
lated by C.E. Bosworth. Vol. 32. Albany: SUNY Press,
1987.

. Incipient Decline. Translated by J. L. Kraemer. Vol.

34. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989.

402

ISMAILIS

. Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of

the ‘Ahhasid Caliphate. Translated by C.E. Bosworth.
Vol. 33. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.

ISLAM

Islam is the religious faith that has its origins in the
heart of the Arabian peninsula and whose core teach-
ings enshrine not only a firm and uncompromising
monotheism but also a detailed system of law and
ritual practice. The Arabic term Islam technically
denotes the act of submission; it is used in the reli-
gious context to signify obedience to the will of God.
The Prophet Muhammad serves as the figure with
whom the Islamic faith emerged in the mid-seventh
century in the city of Mecca. The faith appears as an
inspired challenge to the cult of polytheistic and ani-
mistic rituals that had developed in and around the
shrine at Mecca, the Ka‘ha. This setting provides the
background for the promulgation of a return to
monotheism preached by the Prophet Muhammad,
whom Islam proclaims as being God's final messen-
ger and the recipient of His ultimate book of revela-
tion the Qur’an. The Islamic faith promotes not
only a distinct revival of the Abrahamic tradition
disseminated by biblical Prophets, with whom it
shares a common spiritual heritage, but also a dis-
tinctive brand of devotional rituals fused with legal
and moral dictates. These dictates covered a wide
spectrum of issues ranging from the intricacies of
political theory and commerce, extending to family
law, dietary code, and personal piety.

The teachings of Islam are decisively derived from
two sources: the Qur’an, which encompasses theolog-
ical, juristic, and ethical imperatives while also serving
as a devotional text; and the Prophetic sunna (cus-
tom), which theoretically forms the sum and sub-
stance of the Prophet’s words, deeds, and silent
affirmations as enshrined in the Prophetic hadith (tra-
ditions), serving as a normative model for Muslims to
emulate. Qiyas (analogical reasoning) and ijma ‘ (con-
sensus of the community) also play a key role in the
formulation of Islamic law. The primary creed of
Islam is the belief that there is no deity save God
and that Muhammad is His messenger. This pillar of
faith is followed by four essential religious obliga-
tions: the performance of five daily prayers (salat)-,
the payment of alms (zakat); the observance of fast-
ing during the month of Ramadan ( saw m ) ; and the
pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), once in a lifetime for
those able to do so. Islam also teaches that a Muslim
must believe in all God’s Prophets, hence the revered
status it grants to biblical figures such as Abraham,
David, Moses, and Jesus together with their Divine

revelation and scripture. However, Islamic scripture
offered critical distinctions regarding the lives and
roles of these biblical Prophets. Islam defined an
array of eschatological dogmas, including the belief
in angels and the reality of the Day of Judgment.
Theological doctrines were also refined on issues
such as predestination and the infallibility of Proph-
ets. The adherents of Islam are divided into two main
denominations: Sunnis, who represent 85% of the
faith’s followers; and Shi‘is, who constitute the
remaining 15%, although further, finer subdivisions
of these denominations do exist. The religion pro-
claimed by Muhammad became the predominant
creed of the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.

Mustafa Shah

See also Angels; Arabic; Caliphate and Imamate; Char-
ity; Circumcision; Commanding Good and Forbidding
Evil; Crime and Punishment; Eschatology; Ethics; Fes-
tivals and Celebrations; Food and Diet; God; Hadith;
Imam; Law and Jurisprudence; Jesus; Jews; Jihad;
Ka‘ba; Mecca; Medina; Mosques; Pilgrimage; Political
Theory; Predestination; Qur’an; Usury and Interest;
Shari’a; Shi’ism; Sufism and Sufis

Further Reading

Berkey, Johnathan. The Formation of Islam, Religion Socie-
ty in the Near East 600-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.

Brown, Daniel. Islam: A New Introduction. Oxford: Black-
well Publishing, 2004.

Endress, Gerhard. An Introduction to Islam. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2001.

Watt, Montgomery. Islam: A Short History. Oxford:
Oneworld, 1999.

ISMAILIS

The second most important Shi‘i community after the
Ithna’asharis or Twelvers, Ismailis have subdivided
into a number of major branches and minor groups
in the course of their long and complex history dating
back to the middle of the AH second/eighth CE century.

Early and Fatimid Periods until 487/1094

In 148/765, on the death of Ja‘far al-Sadiq, who had
consolidated Imami Shi'ism, the majority of his fol-
lowers recognized his son Musa al-Kazim as their new
imam. However, other Imami Shi‘i groups acknowl-
edged the imamate of Musa’s older half-brother,
Isma’il, the eponym of the Isma'ilivya, or Isma‘il’s
son Muhammad. Little is known about the life and

403

ISMAILIS

career of Muhammad ibn Isma‘il, who went into hid-
ing, marking the initiation of the dawr al-satr, or peri-
od of concealment, in early Ismailism which lasted
until the foundation of the Fatimid state when the
Ismaili imams emerged openly as Fatimid caliphs.

On the death of Muhammad ibn Isma‘il, not long
after 179/795, his followers, who were at the time
evidently known as Mubarakiyya, split into two
groups. A majority refused to accept his death; they
recognized him as their seventh and last imam and
awaited his return as the Mahdi, the restorer of jus-
tice and true Islam. A second, smaller group acknowl-
edged Muhammad’s death and traced the imamate
in his progeny. Almost nothing is known about
the subsequent history of these earliest Ismaili
groups until shortly after the middle of the third/
ninth century.

It is certain that for almost a century after Muham-
mad ibn Ismail, a group of his descendants worked
secretly for the creation of a revolutionary movement
against the ‘Abbasids. The aim of this religiopolitical
movement was to install the Ismaili imam belonging
to the Prophet Muhammad’s family ( ahl al-bayt) to a
new caliphate ruling over the entire Muslim commu-
nity; and the message of the movement was
disseminated by a network of dais, summoners or
religiopolitical propagandists. Observing taqiyya, or
precautionary dissimulation, these central leaders
concealed their true identities in order to escape
‘Abbasid persecution. ‘Abdullah, the first of these
leaders, had organized his da‘wa (mission) around
the doctrine of the majority of the earliest Ismailis,
namely, the Mahdiship of Muhammad ibn Ismail.
‘Abdullah eventually settled in Salamiyya, central
Syria, which served as the secret headquarters of the
Ismaili da ‘wa for some time. The efforts of ‘Abdullah
and his successors bore results in the 260s/870s, when
numerous da ‘is appeared in southern Iraq and adja-
cent regions under the leadership of Hamdan Qarmat
and his chief assistant ‘Abdan. The Ismailis now re-
ferred to their movement simply as al-da ‘wa, the mis-
sion, or al-da ‘wa al-hadiya, the rightly guiding
mission. Soon, the Ismaili da'wa appeared in numer-
ous other regions, notably Yaman, where Ibn Haw-
shab Mansur al-Yaman (d. 302/914) acted as the chief
da'i, Egypt, Bahrayn, Persia, Transoxiana, and Sind,
as well as remoter regions in North Africa.

By the early 280s/890s, a unified Ismaili move-
ment had replaced the earlier splinter groups. Howev-
er, in 286/899, soon after ‘Abdullah al-Mahdi, the
future Fatimid caliph, had succeeded to leadership
in Salamiyya, Ismailism was rent by a major schism.
‘Abdullah claimed the Ismaili imamate openly for
himself and his ancestors who had organized the

early Ismaili da'wa, also explaining the various
forms of guises adopted by the earlier central Ismaili
leaders who had preferred to assume the rank of hujja
(proof or full representative) of the hidden Imam
Muhammad ibn Ismail. The doctrinal reform of
‘Abdullah al-Mahdi split the Ismaili movement into
two rival factions. A loyalist faction, comprised main-
ly of the Ismailis of Yaman, Egypt, North Africa, and
Sind, did recognize continuity in the imamate,
acknowledging ‘Abdullah and his ‘Alid ancestors as
their imams. On the other hand, a dissident faction,
originally led by Hamdan Qarmat, retained their orig-
inal belief in the Mahdiship of Muhammad ibn
Ismail. Henceforth, the term Qarmati came to be
applied specifically to the dissidents who did not ac-
knowledge ‘Abdullah al-Mahdi, as well as his prede-
cessors and successors to the Fatimid caliphate, as
their imams. The dissident Qarmatis acquired their
most important stronghold in the Qarmati state of
Bahrayn, founded in 286/899 by the da‘i Abu Said
al-Jannabi. The Qarmati state of Bahrayn eventually
collapsed in 470/1077.

The early Ismailis elaborated a distinctive gnostic
system of religious thought, which was further devel-
oped or modified in the Fatimid period. Central
to this system was a fundamental distinction between
the exoteric (zahir) and esoteric (batin) aspects of the
sacred scriptures, as well as religious command-
ments and prohibitions. They further held that the
religious laws, representing the zahir of religion, enun-
ciated by prophets, underwent periodical changes
while the batin, containing the spiritual truths
(haqa’iq) remained immutable and unchanged.
These truths, forming a gnostic system of thought,
were explained through ta’wil, esoteric exegesis,
which became the hallmark of Ismaili thought. The
two main components of this system were a cyclical
history of revelations and a cosmological doctrine.

The early success of the Ismaili movement culmi-
nated in the foundation of the Fatimid caliphate in
North Africa, where the da 7 Abu ‘Abdullah al-Shil (d.
298/911) had spread the da'wa among the Berbers of
the Maghrib. The new dynasty, established in 297/909,
was named Fatimid (Fatimiyyun) after the Prophet
Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, to whom the Fatimid
caliphs traced their ‘Alid ancestry. ‘Abdullah al-
Mahdi (d. 322/934), the first Fatimid caliph-imam,
and his successors ruled over an important state that
soon grew into an empire stretching from North
Africa to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. The Fatimid
period was also the “golden age” of Ismailism when
Ismaili thought and literature and da'wa activities
attained their summit and Ismailis made important
contributions to Islamic civilization, especially after

404

ISMAILIS

the seat of the Fatimid caliphate was transferred to
Cairo, itself founded in 358/969 by the Fatimids.

The Ismaili da'wa of the Fatimid times achieved its
greatest successes, however, outside the Fatimid
dominions, especially in Yaman, where the Ismaili
Sulayhids ruled as vassals of the Fatimids, Persia,
and Central Asia. The dais of the Iranian lands,
such as Abu Ya‘qub al-Sijistani, Hamid al-Din al-
Kirmani, and Nasir-i Khusraw, also elaborated com-
plex metaphysical systems of thought with a distinct
emanational cosmology. The Fatimid da'wa was par-
ticularly concerned with educating the new converts
in Ismaili doctrine, known as the hikma (wisdom);
and a variety of lectures, generally designated as ses-
sions of wisdom (majalis al-hikma), were organized
for this purpose. Ismaili law was also codified mainly
through the efforts of al-Qadi al-Nu‘man (d. 363/
974), the foremost jurist of the Fatimid period. Ismaili
law accorded special importance to the Shi‘i doctrine
of the imamate.

The Ismailis experienced a major schism in
487/1094, on the death of al-Mustansir, the eighth
Fatimid caliph and the eighteenth Ismaili imam. Al-
Mustansir’s succession was disputed by his sons —
Nizar, the original heir designate, and al-Musta‘li,
who was installed to the Fatimid caliphate by the all-
powerful vizier al-Afdal. As a result, the unified Ismaili
da'wa and community were split into rival branches,
designated later as Nizari and Mustaii (or Musta‘-
lawi). The da'wa organization in Cairo, as well as the
Ismaili communities of Egypt, Yaman, and western
India, also recognized al-Musta‘li as his father’s suc-
cessor to the imamate. On the other hand, the Ismailis
of Persia and adjacent lands supported the succession
right of Nizar and recognized his imamate. Nizar him-
self revolted against al-Musta‘li (d. 495/1101), but he
was defeated and killed in 488/1095. Henceforth, the
Ismaili imamate was handed down in two parallel lines
among the descendants of al-Mustansir.

Mustaii Ismailis

On the death of al-Musta‘li’s son and successor
al-Amir in 524/1130, the Mustaii Ismailis split
into Hafizi and Tayyibi branches. The Mustaii
da'wa headquarters in Cairo endorsed the imamate
of al-Amir’s cousin and successor to the Fatimid
throne, al-Hafiz. As a result, his imamate was also
acknowledged by the Mustaii Ismailis of Egypt and
Syria, as well as a portion of the Mustaiis of Yaman.
These Ismailis, who recognized al-Hafiz (d. 544/1149)
and the later Fatimid caliphs as their imams, became

known as Hafizis. The Mustaii Ismailis of the Sulay-
hid state in Yaman, as well as those of Gujarat,
recognized the imamate of al-Amir’s son, al-Tayyib,
and they became known as Tayyibis. Hafizi Ismailism
disappeared completely soon after the collapse of the
Fatimid dynasty in 567/1171. Thereafter, Mustaii
Ismailism survived only in its Tayyibi form with
permanent strongholds in Yaman.

The Tayyibi imams have remained in concealment
since the time of al-Tayyib himself, who disappeared
under mysterious circumstances. In the absence of
their imams, the affairs of the Tayyibi da'wa and
community have been administered by da'i mutlaqs,
that is, supreme da ‘is with full authority. In the doc-
trinal field, the Tayyibis maintained the Fatimid tra-
ditions and preserved a substantial portion of the
Ismaili texts of the Fatimid period. Building particu-
larly on Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani’s metaphysical
system, they elaborated their own esoteric system of
religious thought with its distinctive eschatological
themes. The Tayyibi da'wa spread successfully in the
Haraz region of Yaman, as well as in Gujarat. By the
end of the tenth/sixteenth century, the Tayyibi Ismai-
lis split into Da’udi and Sulaymani branches over the
question of the succession to their twenty-sixth da'i
mutlaq , Da’ud ibn ‘Ajabshah (d. 997/1589). By that
time the Tayyibis of India, known locally as Bohras,
greatly outnumbered their Yamani coreligionists.
Henceforth, the Da’udi and Sulaymani Tayyibis, con-
centrated in South Asia and Yaman, respectively,
followed different lines of da'is. Da’udi Bohras have
subdivided into several groupings, with the largest
numbering around eight hundred thousand. Since
the 1920s, Bombay has served as the permanent ad-
ministrative seat of the Da’udi da'i mutlaq. The lead-
ership of the Sulaymani Tayyibis has remained
hereditary in the Makrami family with their headquar-
ters in Najran, in northeastern Yaman. At present the
Sulaymani Tayyibis number around seventy thousand
in Yaman, with an additional few thousand in India.

Nizari Ismailis

In al-Mustansir’s time, the da'i Hasan-i Sabbah
succeeded ‘Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Attash as the leader of
the Isma‘ili da'wa within the Saljuq dominions in
Persia. His seizure of the fortress of Alamut in 483/
1090 had, in fact, marked the effective foundation of
what became the Nizari Ismaili state of Persia with a
subsidiary in Syria. In al-Mustansir’s succession dis-
pute, Hasan supported Nizar’s cause and severed his
relations with the da'wa headquarters in Cairo. By

405

ISMAILIS

this decision, Hasan-i Sabbah also founded the Nizari
da‘wa independently of the Fatimid regime. The
Nizaris acquired political prominence under Flasan-i
Sabbah (d. 518/1124) and his seven successors at Ala-
mut. Hasan’s armed revolt against the Saljuq Turks,
whose alien rule was detested by the Persians, did not
succeed; and the Saljuqs, despite their superior mili-
tary power, failed to destroy the Nizari fortress com-
munities. In effect, a stalemate developed between the
Nizaris and their various enemies until their state in
Persia was destroyed by the Mongols in 654/1256. The
Nizaris of Syria, who had numerous encounters with
the Crusaders and reached the peak of their fame
under the da'i Rashid al-Din al-Sinan (d. 589/1193),
were eventually subdued by the Mamluks. The
Nizaris elaborated their own teachings, initially
revolving around the Shi'i doctrine of ta'lim or au-
thoritative guidance by the imam of the time. The
Nizari imams, who had remained in hiding since
Nizar, emerged openly at Alamut in 559/1164.

Disorganized and deprived of any central leader-
ship, the Nizari Ismailis survived the Mongol destruc-
tion of their state. For about two centuries, while the
imams remained inaccessible, various Nizari commu-
nities developed independently, also adopting Sunni
and Sufi guises to safeguard themselves against perse-
cution. By the middle of the ninth/fifteenth century, the
Nizari imams emerged in the village of Anjudan, in
central Persia, initiating a revival in the da‘wa and
literary activities of their community. The Nizari
da'wa became particularly successful in Central Asia
and India, where the Hindu converts were known as
Khojas. The Nizari Khojas developed an indigenous
religious tradition designated as Satpanth or the “true
path,” as well as a devotional literature known as the
ginans. With the advent of the Safavids, who adopted
Twelver Shi'ism as the religion of their state in 907/
1501, the Nizaris of Persia also practiced taqiyya as
Twelvers. The Nizaris of Badakhshan, now divided
between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, have preserved
numerous Persian Ismaili texts of the Alamut and later
periods. The Nizari Khojas, together with the Tayyibi
Bohras, were among the earliest Asian communities to
settle during the nineteenth century in East Africa. In
the 1970s, the bulk of the East African Ismailis were
obliged to immigrate to the west. Under the leadership
of their last two imams, Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga
Khan III (1885-1957) and his grandson, Prince Karim
Aga Khan IV, the current forty-ninth imam, the Nizari
Ismailis have emerged as a progressive Muslim minor-
ity with high standards of education and well-being.
Numbering several millions, they are scattered in more
than twenty-live countries of Asia, the Middle East,
Africa, Europe, and North America.

Farhad Daftary

Further Reading

Corbin, Henry. Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis Translated
by R. Manheim and J.W. Morris. London, 1983.

Daftary, F. The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines.
Cambridge, 1990 (with full references to the sources).

. A Short History of the Ismailis. Edinburgh, 1998.

. Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and

Studies. London, 2004.

Halm, Heinz. The Fatimids and Their Traditions of
Learning. London, 1997.

Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Order of Assassins. The
Hague, 1955.

Madelung, Wilferd. “Das Imamat in der friihen ismaili-
tischen Lehre.” Der Islam, 37(1961): 43-135.

Walker, Paul E. Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili
Neoplatonism of Abu Ya'qub al- Sijistani. Cambridge,
1993.

ISTANBUL

For almost sixteen centuries, Istanbul enjoyed a
unique status as the capital city of two great civiliza-
tions: the Byzantine empire and the Ottoman empire.

The first settlements in the peninsula date from the
late third or early second millennium BCE. In 330
CE, Constantine moved the seat of the Roman empire
to Byzantium and created a new state. Its name even-
tually became “Constantinople,” meaning the city of
Constantine. The name had currency among even the
Turks, whose documents and coins frequently re-
ferred to the capital as “Konstantiniye” for centuries.
In addition, it was used alternately with “Istanbul” in
official documents. Constantinople gained some of its
most famous architectural landmarks under Justinian
(527-565). The Roman construction ingenuity
meshed with the Hellenistic design legacy to produce
a new synthesis in Justinian’s buildings. Aya Sophia
(532-537) is the culmination of this synthesis.

Through the ages, the city had seen several sieges
of Arabs and a dramatic Latin invasion (1204). On
May 30, 1453, Mehmed II made his ceremonial entry
into Constantinople and declared it to be his capital.
He then inaugurated a new era of building activity
aimed at making the city the economic, administra-
tive, cultural, and religious center of the empire. In
creating a Muslim city, the process started with the
conversion of Aya Sophia into the Great Mosque and
seventeen other churches. After the conquest, at the
eastern end of the peninsula, almost the entire struc-
ture of the Topkapi Palace had been built. The Top-
kapi Palace remained the official imperial residence
until the construction of the Dolmabahge Palace
across the Golden Horn in 1856.

The sixteenth century was a time of great building
activity. During the reign of Suleyman (1520-1566),
istanbul was endowed with many monuments, and

406

IZZ AL-DIN ABU ‘ABD ALLAH MUHAMMAD B. ‘AL1

it was the work of the great architect Sinan
(1490-1588). Sinan’s kiilliyes brought the ultimate
Islamic and Ottoman definition to Istanbul's urban
form.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
istanbul continued to develop, but the scale of the
building activity was by no means comparable to
that of previous centuries due largely to the gradual
decline in the economic power of the empire. The
population continued to escalate between seven hun-
dred thousand and eight hundred thousand. This
was almost twice the size of the population in 1535.
The seventeenth century contributed two monuments
to the capital: the kiilliye of Ahmed 1 and the Valide
mosque. The eighteenth century brought no signifi-
cant monuments to istanbul but nonetheless marked
an important first step toward embracing European
architectural fashions. Many foreign architects and
artists were invited to Istanbul. The architectural
language they introduced to istanbul developed into
the “Ottoman Baroque.” Western influences began
to be apparent from the early eighteenth century,
new forms and dynamic profiles of the Nuruosma-
niye and Laleli mosques attesting to the influence of
the French and Italian Baroque and Rococo on
traditional Ottoman building types. However, the
nineteenth century saw an unparalleled stylistic eclec-
ticism, as well as the introduction of a great diversity
of new building types: banks, office buildings, thea-
ters, department stores, hotels, and multistory apart-
ment buildings.

Suat Alp

See also Aya Sophia; Sinan; Siileymaniye Mosque;
Ottoman Empire

Further Reading

And, M. Istanbul in the 16 th Century, The City, The Palace,
Daily Life, istanbul, 1994.

Bator, Robert. Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Istanbul.
Minneapolis: Runestone Press, 2000.

Celik, Zeynep. The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an
Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century. Seattle: Univer-
sity of Washington, 1986.

Freely, John. Istanbul: The Imperial City. London: Penguin
Books, 1998.

Goodwin, G. A History of Ottoman Architecture. London,
1971.

Inalcik, H. “istanbul: An Islamic City.” Journal of Islamic
Studies I (1990): 1-23.

Kuban, Dogan. Istanbul, birkent tarihi: Bizantion, Konstan-
tinopolis, Istanbul. Istanbul: Turkiye Ekonomik ve
Toplumsal Tarih Vakfi, 2000.

Lewis, Bernard. Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman
Empire. University of Oklahoma, 1963.

Runciman, Steven. The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University, 1990.

‘IZZ AL-DIN ABU ‘ABD ALLAH
MUHAMMAD B. ‘ALI

‘Izz al-Din Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad b. ‘Ali
(sometimes confused with Baha’ al-Din Abu ’1-
Mahasin Yusuf b. Raff) was a Syrian administra-
tor and author of topographical and historical
works. He was born in Aleppo in AH 613/1217 CE,
and subsequently served in the government of the
city. After an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate
an agreement between the Mongols and the ruler
of Aleppo in AH 657/1259 CE, he fled to Egypt
where he prospered in the service of the Mamluk
ruler Baybars I and the latter’s successors. ‘Izz
al-Din died in Cairo in AH 684/1285 CE.

‘Izz al-Din wrote a historical topography of great-
er Syria, Palestine, and the Jazira called al-A‘laq
al-khatira fi dhikr umara’ al-Sham wa-l-Jazira (Pre-
cious Things of Moment in the Account of the Princes
of Syria and the Jazira), as well as a life of Baybars I
al-Bunduqdari.

David Morray

See also Archives and Chanceries; Bureaucrats;
Muslim-Mongol Diplomacy

Primary Sources

al-A'lciq al-khatira fi dhikr umara’ al-Sham wa’l-Jazira.
(a) Bk. 1, pt. 1 (Aleppo). Edited by D. Sourdel. Beirut,
1953. (b) Ta’rikh madinat Dimashq. Edited by Sami
al-Dahhan. Damascus, 1956. (c) Ta’rikh Lubnan
wa’l-Urdunn wa-Filastin. Edited by Sami al-Dahhan.
Damascus, 1963. (d) Ta’rikh al-Jazira. 2 vols. Edited
by Yahya ‘Abbara. Damascus, 1977-1978.

Die Geschichte des Sultan Baibars. Edited by Ahmad
Hutait. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1983.

Further Reading

Ibn Shaddad, ‘Izz al-Din. al-A‘laq al-khatira fi dhikr umara’
al-Sham wa’l-Jazira. Translated by Anne-Marie Edde-
Terrasse as Description de la Syrie du Nord de ‘Izz al-Din
ibn Saddad. Damascus, 1984.

407

JA’FAR AL-SADIQ (D. AH 148/765 CE)

Ja’far al-Sadiq was bom in Medina in 80/699 or 83/
703 and became one of the foremost exponents of the
teachings from the Prophet’s family. He is the most
frequently cited authority on points of law and tradi-
tion, transmitting his family’s wisdom to Muslims of
diverse backgrounds and advocates of other religions,
theosophists as well as gnostics who frequented his
house in quest of knowledge.

Ja’far al-Sadiq is a central figure in Shi’i tradition,
and he is the last common imam recognized by both
the Ithna’asharis and the Isma’ilis. His contribution
and influence, however, are far wider than his Shi’a.
He is cited in a wide range of historical sources,
including al-Tabari, al-Ya’qubi, and al-Masudi.
Sunni, Sufi’ and Shi’i sources all give testimony to his
influence. Al-Dhahabi recognizes his contribution to
Sunni tradition, whereas Abu Nu’aym and Farid al-
Din Attar see him at the head of the Sufi line of saints
and mystics. Ithna’ashari writers like al-Kulayni and
Isma’ili scholars such as al-Qadi al-Nu’man record
his monumental contribution to their respective Shi’i
traditions.

Ja’far al-Sadiq inherited his position as a Shi’i
imam from his father, al-Baqir. His versatile personal-
ity is, however, beyond classification, and his family
perhaps saw him as a last attempt for reconciling the
diverse groups of Muslims, since he was the great-
great-grandson of ’Ali on one side and of Abu Bakr
on the other. He remained distant in the power struggle
that ensued from extremist Shi’is, with the Zaydiyya
and the ’Abbasid movement of the Hashimiyya

unfolding from the Kaysaniyya. He faced doctrinal
difficulties from individuals who exaggerated his po-
sition, who were later known in history as the ghulat.
Like his father before him, he repudiated them.
Ja’far’s detachment from politics gave him more time
for scholarly activities, holding sessions at home as
well as following his family’s practice.

Law and Thought

Following the foundations laid by his father, al-Sadiq
developed an extensive system of law and theology so
that the Shi’i community had its own distinct ritual
and religious doctrine. His traditions represent a
range of subjects involving the ’ibadat and the mu’a-
malat, incorporating themes such as faith, devotion,
alms, fasting, pilgrimage, and faith (jihad) as well as
food, drink, social and business transactions, mar-
riage and divorce, inheritance, criminal punishments,
and a number of issues dealing with practically all
aspects of life. Law in Islam, as is well known, is an
all-embracing body of commands and prohibitions
consisting of ordinances governing worship and ritual
in addition to a proper legal system. Ja’far al-Sadiq is
the most frequently quoted authority in Shi’i tradi-
tion. The Ithna ’ashari legal school is called the Ja’fari
madhhab after him. Ismaili fiqh (jurisprudence) as
codified by al-Qadi al-Nu’man is also primarily
based on al-Sadiq’s traditions and those of his father,
al-Baqir. Besides guiding his own followers, he was

409

JA’FAR AL-SADIQ (D. AH 148/765 CE)

widely regarded as a central reference point for many
who sought his advice.

Amidst the theological issues of his day, such as
those beliefs held by the Murji’a, the Qadariyya, the
Jahmiyya and the Mu’tazila, Ja’far had his own dis-
tinct position. For example, he taught a middle posi-
tion on the question of determinism and followed his
father’s views, which portrayed human responsibility
but preserved God’s autocracy. Knowledge was a
central theme in his teaching, a duty for all Muslims
to acquire through ’aql (intellect), a supreme faculty
through which God is worshipped and the knowledge
of good and evil acquired. Thus, his views on the
imamate as well as those on ’aql, ’ilm, a’mal, and
iman were geared toward self-actualization. The per-
sonal ethics, morality, and individual communion
with God that are discussed in his teachings are used
to obtain receptivity in the heart and mind, which
he refers to, at times, as ma’rifa (this is not to be
confused with the later usage of that word).

Imam and Teacher

In addition to disseminating knowledge of Shi’i law
and theology, Ja’far al-Sadiq played the role of a spiri-
tual guide; he was imam and teacher for his Shi’a,
initiating them into the inner wisdom that could be
experienced in their hearts. The search for haqiqa in
the revelation is thus an important aspect of Ja’far’s
thought. The imam undertakes the amana (trust)
from God, rendering him a guarantor (hujja) and a
link (sabab) with the celestial world for those who
accept his authority. This is part of the universal
history, beginning with the pre-creation covenant
( yawm al-mithaq) and manifested through the proph-
ets and the imams.

The imam’s task is therefore, man’s purification,
preparing receptacles for the haqiqa (truth), which is
the raison d’etre of history: restoring man to his orig-
inal home. This was his role as an imam: to help
others achieve ma’rifa qalbiyya (cognition of the
heart), channeled through the imam to his followers.
The vision of men’s hearts perceiving realities of faith
does not delegitimize the authority of the intellect or
that of the community. In fact, self-sufficiency, which
is a serious sin in the Qur’an, can easily become
intellectual pride; consequently, man’s ’ilm is subor-
dinated to God’s gift of ma’rifa, according to Ja’far.
It is the prophets and the imams who form the point
of contact between man and God, and it is in this
respect, perhaps, that Ja’far refers to the sirr (secret)
that is discovered through transconscience and for

which he possibly advocated taqiyya (precautionary
dissimulation) as a principle.

Ja’far’s ideas also became pervasive in the develop-
ment of Sufi thought, where identical issues were
raised, although in a more individualistic manner.
His theology was especially significant in that it
made use of experience as a hermeneutical principle.
Paul Nywia (1970) emphasizes this contribution of
Ja’far al-Sadiq, referring to his esoteric interpretation
of the Qur’an collected by al-Sulami (d. 412/1021). He
emphasised that Muslim conscience is not to be found
in the world of imagination but rather in the experi-
ence of life itself and that the external symbols have to
be transformed by experience to become the truth. It
is therefore important to internalize the letters or
symbols of the Qur’an through experience. Ja’far
thus read the Qur’an discerning a merger between
the inner and the outer meanings, and he presented
a new exegesis that involved no longer a reading of
the Qur’an but revisiting the experience in a new
interpretation of it ( ta ’wil ) .

Ja’far al-Sadiq is linked to other disciplines as well:
divination, including alchemy; the science of jafr,
which includes letter-number correspondences; the
occult arts, including pulmonancy (divination from
body pulses); and hemerology (the study of calendars
of auspicious and inauspicious days). These were pop-
ular among the Turks and Persians and have been
reported in works known as falnamas. In the Indian
subcontinent, these also played an important role in
the popular life of Muslims and Hindus; evidence of
this is found in Sindhi pothis (private religious manu-
scripts). In South Asia, Ja’far al-Sadiq is credited with
writing khab-namas (interpretations of dreams),
which are sometimes known as risala or bayan in
Sindhi literature.

The plurality of Ja’far’s teachings, his magnetic
personality, and his spirituality have influenced
subsequent generations in more ways than one. His
influential contributions to Shi’i thought provided a
momentum for the development of law, theology, and
mysticism that is apparent in the impressive literature
preserved in his name.

Arzina R. Lalani

Further Reading

Amir-Moezzi, M.A. The Divine Guide in Early Shi’ism,
transl. David Streight. Albany, NY, 1994.

Attar, Farid al-Din. Tadhkirat al-Awliya', part 1, ed.
Nicholson. London, 1905.

Al-Dhahabi. Tadhkirat al-Hufaz, vol. 1. Hyderabad, 1375/
1955.

Ebeid, R.Y., and M.J.L. Young. “A Treatise on Hemerol-
ogy Ascribed to Ga’far al-Sadiq.” Arabica 23/3 (1976):
296-307.

410

JAHIZ, AL-

Fahd, T. “Ga’far as-Sadiq et la Tradition Scientifique
Arabe.” In Le Shi’isme Imamite Colloque de Strasbourg.
Paris, 1970.

Al-Isfahani, Abu Nu'aym. Hilvat al-Awliya’, vol. 3. Cairo,
1352/1933.

Al-Kulayni, Muhammad b. Ya’qub. Al-Usul min al-Kafi.
Tehran, 1388/1968.

Lalani, Arzina R. “Ja’far al-Sadiq.” In Encyclopaedia of
Religion, 2nd ed., 4760-2. Detroit, 2005.

Nywia, Paul. Exegese Coranique et le Language Mystique.
Beirut, 1970.

Al-Qaai al-Nu’man, Abu Hanifa. Da’a’im al-Isldm, 2 vols.,
ed. A. A. A. Fyzee. Cairo, 1950 and 1960. (See also Ismail
K. Poonawala’s revised translation of the first volume,
The Pillars of Islam. Oxford, 2002.)

Sells, Michael A. “Early Sufi Qur’an Interpretation.” In
Early Islamic Mysticism, 75-89. New York, 1996.

Al-Tabari, Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir. Ta’rikh al-Rusul
\va al-Muluk. Annales, ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-
1901

Taylor, John B. “Ja’far al-Sadiq, Spiritual Forebear of the
Sufis.” Islamic Culture 40/2 (1966): 97-113.

. "Man’s Knowledge of God in the Thought of Ja’far

al-Sadiq.” Islamic Culture October (1966): 195-206.

Al-Ya’qubi, Ahmad b. Ibn Wadih. Ta’rikh, vol. 2. Beirut.

JAHIZ, AL-

Abu ’Uthman ’Amr ibn Bahr ibn Mahbub al-Kinani
al-Fuqaymi al-Basri al-Jahiz (“Goggle-Eyes”) was a
ninth-century intellectual ( mutakallim ) of conceptual
subtlety who composed some 200 works (of which
sixty are at least partially extant) dealing with the
major religious, political, and theological issues of
his day. These works have later been understood as
prime examples of the belletrist and encyclopedic style
( adab ) , and they are universally prized for their com-
mand of the ’Arabiyya (the Arabic of the Qur’an).
For his immediate contemporaries, al-Jahiz’s works
were examples of dialectically informed theological
speculation (kalam) in the tradition of the Mu’tazilite
school of thought.

Born in Basra into an obscure family (possibly of
Abyssinian origin) of vassals of the Kinana tribe
around 776 CE, he received but scant formal educa-
tion, attending the elementary Qur’an school and per-
haps at one time earning a living selling fish. Through
frequenting the congregational mosque of Basra and
the caravan stop, the Mirbad, where philologists
quizzed the Bedouins on the Arabic language, he was
exposed to significant trends in contemporary thought
and developed his mastery of the Arabic language.
Several works on the imamate earned him the favor
of the Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833), who had him
brought to Baghdad. Little is known of his employ-
ment thereafter, apart from brief spells in the chan-
cellery as a bureaucrat (katib) and later, fleetingly, as
tutor to Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861). His most

prominent patrons included the following: the vizier
and master architect of the Mihna (the caliphal “in-
quisition” designed by al-Ma’mun to establish the
caliph’s sole right to religious leadership of the com-
munity), Muhammad ibn ’Abd al-Malik al-Zayyat,
(d. 847) to whom he dedicated the first version of
The Treatise of Living Creatures ( Kitab al-Hayawan,
an early Islamic investigation of the “argument from
design”); the Flanafite Chief Qadi Ahmad ibn Abi
Da’ud (d. ca. 854), the dedicatee of his distinctive
theory of communication (bay an). The Treatise on
Clarity and Clarification ( al-Bayan wa-l-Tabyin, a sur-
vey of Arabic rhetoric and an inquiry into the nature
of language, set against the controversial doctrine of
the createdness of the Qur’an) and of an early exer-
cise in legal reasoning, The Treatise on Legal Verdicts,
and for whose son, Muhammad (d. 854), al-Jahiz had
written some works of ethical instruction (such as The
Treatise on the Here and the Hereafter: On Aphorisms,
Managing People and Ways of Dealing with Them)',
and al-Fath ibn Khaqan, al-Mutawakkil’s vizier
(d. 247/861), at whose request he revised his work
On the Virtues of the Turks for the caliph (Turks
having become a significant component of the caliph-
al army). For most of his mature career, al-Jahiz was
engaged in the harmonization of the speculations of
his master in speculative theology (kalam), Ibrahim
ibn Sayyar al-Nazzam (d. between 835 and 845), and
the natural philosophy (fcdsafa) of the Greco-Arabic
translation movement in an attempt to synthesize a
theologically, religiously, emotionally, and intellectu-
ally satisfying system of thought that remained faith-
ful to the tenets of the Qur’an. He died in 868 or 869
in Basra, a hemiplegic who was crushed, according to
one authority, by a pile of books. Because of their
length and difficulty, al-Jahiz’s two main works, Liv-
ing Creatures and Clarity and Clarification, have not
been translated, but there are translations of some of
the shorter essays and of two satirical works, the Book
of Misers and the Epistle on Singing-Girls.

James E. Montgomery

See also ’Abbasids; Adab; Arabic; Basra; Law and
Jurisprudence; al-Ma’mun; Theology; Translation

Further Reading

Al-Jahiz. Abu ’Uthman ibn Bahr al-Jahiz. The Book of Mis-
ers. A Translation of al-Bukhala’, trans. R.B. Serjeant.
Reading, 1997.

. The Epistle on Singing-Girls of Jahiz, trans. A.F.L.

Beeston. Warminster, 1980.

Montgomery, J.E. “Of Models and Amanuenses: The
Remarks on the Qasida in Ibn Qutayba’s Kitab al-shi’r
wa-l-shu’ara’.” In Islamic Reflections, Arabic Musings:
Studies in Honour of Professor Alan Jones, eds. R.G.
Hoyland and P.F. Kennedy, 1-49. Oxford, UK, 2004.

411

JAHIZ, AL-

. “Al-Jahiz’s Kitab al-Bayan wa-l-Tabyin .” In Writing

and Representation in Medieval Islam: Muslim Horizons,
ed. J. Bray. London and New York, forthcoming.

. “Al-Jahiz.” In The Dictionary of Literary Biogra-
phy Volume 311: Arabic Literary Culture, 500-925, eds.
M. Cooperson and S.M. Toorawa. Columbia, SC,
forthcoming.

. “’Every Man Speaks in Accordance with his

Nature and Ethical Disposition’: Al-Jahiz, Bay an
2.175-207.” In Arabic Theology, Arabic Philosophy.
From the Many to the One: Essays in Celebration
of Richard M. Frank, ed. J.E. Montgomery. Leuven,
forthcoming.

. “Al-Jahiz’s Kitab al-Tarbi wa-l-Tadwir and the

Reception of Greek Falsafa .” In The Libraries of the
Neoplcitonists, ed. C. D’Ancona. Leiden, forthcoming.

Pellat, Ch. “Al-Djahiz.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition, vol. ii, 385a.

. The Life and Works of al-Jahiz, Translation of

Selected Texts, transl. D.M. Hawke. London, 1969.

. “Al-Jahiz.” In The Cambridge History of Arabic

Literature: Abbasicl Belles-Lettres, ed. J. Ashtiany,
78-95. Cambridge, UK, 1990.

JAMI

Nur al-Din ’Abd al-Rahman Jami was bom in Jam
(in Khorasan) in 1414 CE, and died in 1492 in Herat,
where he had spent much of his life as a valued
dependent of the local Timurid court. He was hon-
ored in his own lifetime as a poet, a Nakshbandi
Sufi, and a prose writer. His conscious attempt to
surpass his poetic predecessors, his enormous facility
as a writer of both didactic and lyrical verse, and the
fact that, with the accession of the Shi’i Safavid dy-
nasty to power in 1501, the cultural life of Iran
changed radically within a few years of his death,
have together led to his work being traditionally
seen as the culmination of the “classic” period of
Persian verse.

His major work in verse is the Haft Ourang ( Seven
Thrones ) , a collection of seven masnavis (long poems
in couplets) that was written in emulation of Nezami’s
five masnavis (his Khamseh). The best known of the
seven are Yusof o Zuleikha and Salomon o Absal; both
use stories of carnal desire as allegories for the neces-
sity for the soul to reject the world of the flesh and
aspire to the divine. His most famous prose work, the
Baharistan (The Garden in Spring), a collection of
didactic tales interspersed with gnomic verses, was
written in imitation of Sa’di’s Golestan; predictably,
Jami claims his work is superior to Sa’di’s. As com-
pared with his predecessors’ productions, Jami’s
works undoubtedly “smell of the lamp,” but his im-
mense rhetorical mastery is never in doubt and has
ensured their survival.

Richard Davis

Further Reading

Burgel, J.C. “The Romance.” In Persian Literature, ed. E.
Yarshater. New York, 1988.

Safa, Zabihollah. Tarikh-e Adabiyat clar Iran (The History
of Literature in Iran), 5 vols. Tehran, 1366/1987.

JAVA

Unlike the more westerly, trade-oriented Malay
lands, largely agricultural Java appears to have
attracted little direct interest from Muslim shippers
until the late twelfth century CE, when its states
began to play a more assertive role in the region
politically and as a corollary to increased dealings
with the southern Song dynasty of China.

Java has been the site of several major kingdoms,
reflecting its diverse terrain and three major ethnic
groups: the Sundanese in the west, the Javanese ma-
jority, and the people of the neighboring island of
Madura, many of whom live in East Java. The most
famous of Java’s early kingdoms was ruled by the
Sailendra dynasty, which was active in central Java
until the middle of the ninth century and to which the
great Buddhist stupa of Borobudur is attributed.
There is also evidence that this dynasty was linked
to that of Srivijaya in Sumatra. After the ejection of
the Sailendras, most of the successive rulers in the
east and central plains were Saivite, including the
thirteenth-century kings of Singasari, who raided
and claimed suzerainty over the ports of Sumatra
and the Malay Peninsula. Singasari collapsed as
Mongol forces, sent to Java on a punitive mission
by Qubilai in late 1292, took sides with the rival
court of Majapahit, which emerged victorious in
1293 and took Singasari’s place as regional hegemon,
reaching its apogee under Rajasanagara (Hayam
Wuruk) (r. 1350-1389).

Over the course of the fourteenth century, Islam
planted strong roots in the western part of the archi-
pelago. By the fifteenth century, it was represented in
some of Java’s coastal ports, starting with Demak,
Gresik, and Jepara, where it appears to have been
introduced by local strongmen, who were recorded
in the indigenous literature as being of mixed Chinese
and Javanese blood.

Writing from Malacca between 1512 and 1515, the
Portuguese apothecary Tome Pires observed that, al-
though coastal Java had been Islamicized, the major
kingdom at its heart remained non-Muslim. However,
there was already a Muslim presence at this court. In
addition, although Demak is known to have been the
first Muslim kingdom on Java, the first hard evidence
of Islam on the island is to be found in fourteenth-
century gravestones from near the site of Majapahit

412

JERUSALEM

at Trawulan and Tralaya, which suggests a Muslim
presence at court there, perhaps even among the royal
family.

According to some Javanese traditions, the Maja-
pahit capital was sacked in 1478 by a force from
Demak, with the hero of these raids later founding
his own capital at Kudus (named after Jerusalem [al-
Quds]). Although the actual course of events linking
the rise of Islam to the fall of Majapahit and the
foundation in its place of the Sultanate of Mataram
is still unclear (1527 is the more likely date for the
Demak attack), Java certainly became a more notice-
ably Muslim island over the course of the coming
centuries. By the seventeenth century, the related sul-
tanates of Banten and Cirebon (said to have been
Islamized by a saint from the Sumatran kingdom of
Pasai) had emerged and played a role in maritime
trade with the Atlantic powers. Banten in particular
had excellent access to holdings of pepper and main-
tained close links with the court of Aceh in northern
Sumatra. In addition, as they were in Aceh, links
were cultivated with the wider Muslim world. The
Bantenese king, Pangeran Ratu (r. 1596-1651), sent
a mission to Mecca in 1638 to obtain the title of
Sultan, reigning thereafter as Mahmud Abd al-Qadir
Abu ’1-Mafakhir.

The teachings of the mystical orders associated
with the courts — particularly the Shattariyya and
Qadiriyya orders — were also fostered. The cult of
’Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani was particularly prominent,
and Javanese, Sundanese, and Malay literature con-
tain adaptations of the stories of his life, especially
those compiled by the Yemen-born hagiographer
’Abd Allah b. As’ad al-Yafi’i (1298-1367). Further-
more, these stories appear to have been seminal to the
very transmission of Islam. Some of his miracles are
paralleled in some of the conversion stories found
in the wider region. In addition, as G.W.J. Drewes
once suggested, Sultan Mahmud Abd al-Qadir Abu
’1-Mafakhir of Banten even appears to have chosen a
regal title in 1638 that harmonized with that of a work
of al-Yafi’i (Asna al-Mafakhir fi Manaqib ’Abd
al-Qadir) and his favorite saint al-Jilani, who is still
seen as the primary intercessor for southeast Asian
Sufis.

Michael Laffan

See also ’Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani; Sufism and Sufis;
Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula

Further Reading

Jones, Russell. “Ten Conversion Myths from Indonesia.”

In Conversion to Islam , ed. Nehemia Levtzion, 129-58.

London: Methuen.

Prapanca, Mpu. Desawarnana (Nagarakrtagama), ed.

Stuart Robson. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1995.

Pigeaud, Theodore G. Th., and H.J. de Graaf. Islamic
States in Java, 1500-1700. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff,
1976.

Ricklefs, M.C. A History of Modern Indonesia Since c.1200.
London: Palgrave, 2001.

The Suma Oriental of Tome Tires (. . .) and the Book of
Fransisco Rodriguez (...), Cortesao, Armando, trans.
and ed., second series no. 89. London: The Hakluyt
Society, 1944.

JERUSALEM

Jerusalem in medieval Arabic literature is known as
Ilya (from the Latin Aelia Capitolina ), Bayt al-Maq-
dis, al-Bayt al-Muqaddas, or, simply, al-Quds. The
latter three names all derive from the pure Arabic
roots b.y.t. and q.d.s ., meaning "home” and “holy”;
hence, “The Holy House.” The form of the appella-
tion, however, is an exact Arabization of the Hebrew
Beyt HaMiqdasli , the common Jewish designation for
the ancient Israelite at Temple Jerusalem. The partic-
ular Hebrew locution, Beyt HaMiqdash , is not bibli-
cal, but it first appears in the Mishnah (c. 200 CE).

The sanctity of Jerusalem predates even ancient
Israel; it was a Jebusite (and probably a pre-Jebusite)
holy site, the tribal or ethnic name of which has been
lost (Genesis 14:18-20). However, as Oleg Grabar has
observed, memories can be released from the spaces
they occupy, and new memories can fill them. Asso-
ciated with the great Israelite kings David and Solo-
mon, the Jerusalem Temple on the eastern hill of the
city was destroyed by the Romans in 70, a symbolic
act that ended any semblance of Jewish political and
religious hegemony. Jerusalem would not become a
national center again until the twentieth century, but
it would nevertheless play an occasional role in the
politics of nation and empire.

The city was largely destroyed and then rebuilt
under the Roman Hadrian (mid-second century), and
its biblical memories were replaced with the standard
pagan imperial themes associated with Roman mon-
umental structures. Only after the Christianization of
the city under Constantine and his successors (fourth
century onward) was Jerusalem refilled with mono-
theistic sanctity. However, this sanctity was Christian
rather than Jewish, and its center of gravity moved
westward to the Holy Sepulchre Church, in which the
memories of the Crucifixion and Resurrection were
linked. The eastern hill, upon which the Temple once
stood, was left in ruins as a sign of God’s abandonment
of the Jews for the new dispensation of Christianity.

Not only did historical and pious memories infuse
the city, but there were also “memories” of the future:

413

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JESUS

the eschaton or end time, when humanity will be
finally judged. Jerusalem became the “gateway to
heaven,” and the pious made their way there in pil-
grimage or burial in hope of resurrection and eternal
life. This infused the city with a psychological quality
of expectation and hope, but it also suggested that
its political control might improve one’s merit for
salvation. Individuals made their way to Jerusalem to
die and be buried there, and Crusades and counter-
Crusades would radically increase the number of the
holy dead.

When Jerusalem was conquered by the Arabs in 637
or 638, the center of holiness returned to the Temple
Mount, now called the Sacred Precinct (Haram
al-Sharif). At this early period of Arab conquest, the
religion of Islam was in its infancy, and it is not clear
how “Islamic” the conquest led by the forces of the
second caliph, ’Umar Ibn al-Khattab, actually was.
This may account for the ambivalence reflected by
the sources regarding the sanctity of Jerusalem in rela-
tion to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. In any
case, tradition credits ’Umar with constructing a sim-
ple mosque on the Haram. On the same raised earth-
works but further to the north, where the Solomonic
Temple once stood, the Umayyad caliph ’Abd al-
Malik constructed the oldest surviving Islamic monu-
mental structure (ca. 691), the Qubbat al-Sakhra (the
Dome of the Rock). Within a few decades, he or his son
Walid built the mosque called Al-Aqsa (“the distant
mosque”), which became associated with the night
journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem.

Unlike Christian Jerusalem, which preserved
the memory of prior religions only as archaic ruins,
Islamic Jerusalem allowed for Christians to maintain
their religious monuments and shrines, and Jews were
allowed their synagogues. Only occasionally, such
as during the reign of the Fatimid Caliph Hakim
during the early eleventh century, were churches and
synagogues sacked and destroyed.

Medieval Islamic Jerusalem reflected the “mem-
ories” of both the past and the future Day of Judg-
ment. In these memories, the new Dome of the Rock
represents the Solomonic Temple and the gateway to
heaven of past sacrifice and future salvation. At the
end time, the rock under the dome will be the strong-
hold of Muslims against al-Dajjal (the Antichrist) and
the place to which the Mahdi (the Messiah) will come
in triumph to restore justice to earth. Both Mecca and
Medina will be brought to Jerusalem on the Day of
Judgment.

However, the primary memory of Islamic Jerusalem
is the isra (night journey) of the Prophet Muhammad
to Jerusalem and his mi’raj (ascension) from the
al-sakhra (rock) to heaven. In heaven, beyond the
Lotus tree, he meets God and receives the wisdom

that guides him and forms the authority for his lead-
ership and pious behavior. The Prophet’s behaviors
and aphorisms make up the sunna, and the sunna
forms the most sacred religious literature of Islam
after the Qur’an. The authority for the sunna derives
from Muhammad’s infallibility, and that infallibility
derives from his journey through the gateway to
Heaven in Jerusalem to meet the Creator.

Reuven Firestone

Further Reading

Asali, K.J., ed. Jerusalem in History. Essex: Scorpion, 1989.
Canaan, Tewfik. “Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in
Palestine.” Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society
(1927).

Levine, Lee, ed. The Jerusalem Cathedral, vols. 2 and 3.

Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1982 and 1983.

, ed. Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Juda-
ism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Continuum,
1999.

Al-Wasiti, Abu Makr Muhammad b. Ahmad. Fada’il al-
Bayt al-Muqaddas , ed. Isaac Hasson. Jerusalem: Hebrew
University, 1978.

JESUS

Islam celebrates Jesus as a prophet who is superior to
all other prophets except Muhammad. Two particular
issues in the Islamic dogma led to this recognition: (1)
Jesus proclaimed the coming of Muhammad, and (2)
Islam will achieve ultimate triumph with Jesus’ sec-
ond coming at the End of Times. The stories about
Jesus in the Qur’an and Islamic literature, including
the Tales of the Prophets genre, relate to his birth, life,
career, and miracles. Most of these stories have close
parallels in canonical and apocryphal Christian texts.
In this respect, one can say that Jesus is a figure who is
claimed simultaneously by two religions (Christianity
and Islam). However, it is the nature of Jesus where
these two religions differ.

Jesus is a legitimizer of Islam. According to Qur’an
(61:6), one of the duties of Jesus was to proclaim the
coming of Ahmad, which Muslim exegetes identify
with Muhammad and relate to one of Jesus’ sayings
in the Gospel of John (15:26) about the coming of the
Paraclete. The eminent relation between the two
prophets is emphasized in the hadith; one in particular
features Muhammad assuring that adding Jesus’ name
to the Shahada earns the believer unconditional admis-
sion to Paradise (Bukhari, Sahih , III, 1267, no. 3252).

The Islamic belief about the second coming of
Jesus revolves around the Quranic assertion that he
did not die but instead was taken from the world by
God (4:158). Jesus shall return at the End of Time to
bring about the triumph of Islam and then die like

415

JESUS

every human, thus concluding his prophetic mission.
The elaboration of this doctrine is in the hadith; the
Qur'an only refers to it vaguely by nicknaming Jesus
’alamun li-l-sa’a (sign/condition of the coming of the
hour) (43:61). At first, the Mahdi of Islam came to be
identified with Jesus, but this became a less-popular
view after the Mahdi was determined to be a descen-
dant of Muhammad. In Shi’i theology in particular,
Jesus becomes the lieutenant of the Mahdi; his second
coming will usher in the return of the Mahdi from his
ghayba (occultation).

Islamic theology, including the Qur’an, was partly
concerned with “correcting” the wrong Christian per-
ceptions about Jesus, in particular his divinity (i.e.,
whether he should be considered to be God, the son of
God, or part of the Trinity). This has to be under-
stood in the context of the Islamic obsession with the
concept of the oneness of God (al-Tawhid) and the
outright rejection of any hint of divine associates.
The Qur’anic denial of the crucifixion (4:157) is not
addressed to the Christians, but it became an accepted
discourse in Islamic theology to challenge the Chris-
tian belief about the reality of the crucifixion. Howev-
er, Islam accepts particular Christian concepts about
the nature of Jesus, especially Jesus as the Word of
God and a Spirit from God (Qur’an 4:171).

Jesus has also been implicated in several religious
and political controversies in Islam. His sayings were
quoted, for instance, in support of the Murji’a’s view
of abstaining from judging other Muslims and refer-
ring the judging to God (see Khalidi, nos. 1 and 3),
and also in support of the predestination creed that
God determines everything (Khalidi, no. 69). As for
Islamic asceticism and mysticism (Sufism), Jesus fea-
tures as a patron saint, and his perceived lifestyle
became a model to imitate, especially his celibacy,
unconcern for property and wealth, and struggle
against Satan. His miracles were constantly high-
lighted, and they were explained as resulting from
the divine empowerment because of his total devotion
to and reliance on God.

Suleiman A. Mourad

See also Qur’an and Christians; Prophets, Tales of;
Messianism; Shi’ism

Further Reading

Ayyoub, Mahmoud. “Towards an Islamic Christology, 2:
The Death of Jesus — Reality or Illusion?” The Muslim
World 70 (1980): 91-121.

Khalidi, Tarif. The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in
Islamic Literature. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University
Press, 2001.

Khalidi, Tarif. “The Role of Jesus in Intra-Muslim
Polemics of the First Two Islamic Centuries.” In
Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period,

750-1258, eds. S.K. Samir and J. S. Nielsen, 146-56.
Leiden: Brill, 1994.

Leirvik, Oddbjorn. Images of Jesus Christ in Islam: Intro-
duction, Survey of Research, Issues of Dialogue. Uppsala:
Swedish Institute of Missionary Research, 1998.

Mourad, Suleiman. “From Hellenism to Christianity and
Islam: The Origin of the Palm-tree Story Concerning
Mary and Jesus in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and
the Qur’an.” Oriens Christianas 85 (2002).

. “On the Qur’anic Stories About Mary and Jesus.”

Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies 1.2
(1999): 13-24.

. “Jesus According to Ibn ’Asakir.” In Ilm 'Asakir

and Early Islamic History, ed. James E. Lindsay, 24-43.
Princeton: The Darwin Press, 2001.

O’Shaughnessy, Thomas. The Koranic Concept of the Word
of God. Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1940.

Robinson, Neal. Christ in Islam and Christianity. Hound-
mills: Macmillian, 1991.

JEWELRY

In the Qur’an, the use of jewelry is not specifically
encouraged or prohibited. However, its material
value, aesthetic qualities, and ornamental function
are definitely acknowledged through several mentions
of precious sartorial accessories constituting rewards
given to true believers in Paradise. For example, the
faithful will be adorned with “bracelets of gold” in
Surah 18:31 and “bracelets of silver” in Surah 76:21.
Surahs 22:23 and 35:33 state similar promises of add-
ing pearls to bracelets. Belonging to the category of
jewelry, pearls, corals, and precious stones are espe-
cially considered in the Qur’an, because they are won-
ders to be found in nature, God's creation (Surah
55:22). In depicting Paradise, Surah 55:58 mentions
rubies and pearls as paradigms of beauty and perfec-
tion, whereas Surah 76:19 compares heavenly crea-
tures to pearls. By thus including jewels in the
depiction of Paradise, the Qur'an attributes a great
value to this branch of metalwork; however, it
remains mute concerning sumptuary laws in the
framework of earthly life.

One has to consult the hadith to find elements of
an ethical approach to the custom of using jewels in
the Muslim society. Many passages recommend the
use of silver instead of gold. However, men are strictly
forbidden to wear gold jewelry, although they may use
silver rings in reference to the one that Muhammad
possessed. With regard to women, the prescriptions
appear to be less well defined. Some excerpts allow the
use of gold whereas others do not, although there is a
demonstrated predominance against it and a negative
attitude toward goldsmiths as well. An early hadith
(that was later revoked) says: “The Prophet said: ’O
Ye women, bedeck yourselves in silver but any
woman who adorns herself with gold and displays it

416

JEWELRY

Gold necklace decorated with tiny floral designs in filigree; on the center pendant inscription “da'im” (everlasting prosperity).
Naskki script. Mamluk dynasty, thirteenth CE. Credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Egypt.

openly shall be punished.’” A few traditions report
that Muhammad and after him men of wisdom
compared gold to lire, obviously alluding to Hell.
However, in another hadith, the Prophet also stated
that “gold and silk are permitted to women of my
congregation and forbidden to the men.” In contrast
with the ambiguous connotation of gold jewelry, sil-
ver adornments clearly constitute licit jewelry accord-
ing to the Prophetic tradition.

There are numerous references to jewelry in Islamic
historical and literary sources. Jewelry was a con-
trolled commodity, subject to taxation ( zakat ) . Both
the commerce and making of jewels were supervised by
an inspector (muhtasib) in a specific office (Dar al-
ly ar). The Hisba literature provides many details
about the profession of muhtasib. Inventories and
chronicles describe quantities of precious objects that
princes of the great medieval dynasties amassed in
their treasuries, like the famous one of the Fatimids.
Symbols of power and social status, jewels constituted
honorific and diplomatic gifts exchanged among rulers
and members of the royal family or offered to court
subjects and representatives of the state during official
ceremonies. Together with descriptive texts, pieces

preserved in the worldly museums and private collec-
tions attest to the variety of techniques and stylistic
influences that shaped the art of Islamic jewelry in the
Middle Ages. Goldsmiths adapted the old Oriental
Persian-Sasanian and Mediterranean Greco-Roman
traditions to the taste and needs of Islamic culture,
thereby at once creating new forms and perpetuating
the native lore of lands conquered by the Muslims.

Valerie Gonzalez

See also Amulets; Artisans; Beauty and Aesthetics;
Clothing and Costume; Court Dress; Fatimids; Gender
and Sexuality; Gifts and Gift Giving; Guilds, Profes-
sional; Hadith; Marvels and Wonders; Metalwork;
Mythology and Mythical Beings; Precious Metal;
Qur’an; Qur’an and Arabic Literature; Roman Empire,
Islamic Traditions; Sasanians, Islamic Traditions;
Talismans and Talismanic Objects; Tax and Taxation

Primary Sources

Al-Bukhari, Abu ’Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Isma’il al-
Ju’fi. Sahih.

Ibn al-Athir. Janii’ al-Usul min Ahadith al-Rasul, vol. 5,
408-10. Cairo, 1955.

417

JEWELRY

Ibn Bassam al-Muhtasib. Nihayyat al Rutba fi Talab al
Hisba. Baghdad, 1968.

Ibn al-Salam ’Abd al-Qasim. Kitab al-Amwal, 441, 443M,
448. Cairo, 1934.

Ibn Majah. Al-Sunan, vol. 2, 156-57, 728. Cairo, 1902.
Al-Maqrizi, Ahmad Ibn ’Ali. Al Mawa’iz Wal I’Tibar bi-
Dhikr al Khitat Wa’l Athar , vol. 2, 72. Cairo, 1856.
Al-Nasa’i. Sunan, Shark Hafiz Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, vol. 5,
160-1, 165, 172. Cairo, 1930.

Further Reading

Ackerman, P. “Jewellery in the Islamic Period.” In A Sur-
vey of Persian Art , vol. Ill, 2664-72. Oxford, UK, A.U.
Pope, 1938-1939.

Allan, James W. Islamic Metalwork: The Nuhad Es-Said
Collection. London: Sotheby Publications, 1982.
"Djawhar.” In Encyclopedic de l 'Islam, Supplement , 250-62.
1982.

Gonzalez, Valerie. Emaux d’Al-Andalus et du Maghreb.

Aix-en-Provence, France: Edisud, 1994.

Hasson, Rachel. Early Islamic Jewellery. Jerusalem: L.A.

Mayer Memorial Institute For Islamic Art, 1987.

Al Hijjawi al-Qaddumi, Ghada. Book of Gifts and Rarities,
(Kitab al-Hadaya wa al-Tuhaf). Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1996.

Jenkins, M., and M. Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metro-
politan Museum of Art. New York. 1983.

Jewelry and Goldsmithing in the Islamic World. International
Symposium. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1987.

JEWS

The word Jew can be traced back to the Hebrew
Yehudi, a word that comes originally from the tribe
of Judah (Yehudah), named for the fourth son of the
patriarch Jacof (Ya’aqov). After King Solomon died
and the kingdom of Judah was split into two king-
doms, the northern kingdom was called Israel and the
southern Judah. From the period of the biblical figure
Ezra, the name Israel (Yisra’el) is used in all Hebrew
literature, with a few exceptions during the time of the
Maccabees. In the Christian Gospels, the Jews are
recorded as having mocked Jesus by calling him
“King of Israel,” whereas Pilate the Roman and his
soldiers refer to him as “King of the Jews.” For early
Christians, the figure of Judas Iscariot was early con-
flated with the gospel story about him as being linked
with the devil (Luke 22:3), and there became an evil
triangle of “devil — Jew — Judas”; the word Judaeus
helped to establish the pejorative meaning of Jew in
popular usage.

The Pentateuch became sacred scripture no later
than the fifth century BCE, whereas the later works
of the kings, prophets, and other important figures
were finally part of the Jewish Bible, or TaNaKH,
the letters of which stand for its three sections:

Torah (Pentateuch), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketu-
vim (Hagiographia). By the second century CE
important civilizations of the East (Persians, Greeks,
Zoroastrians, and Romans) influenced several Jewish
usages and beliefs.

From early usage in Aramaic and Persian names,
there came the Greek name Ioudaios and the Latin
Judaeus. These later developed into early English, and
the word can be found from about the year 1000 C.E.
in various forms, such as Iudea, Gyu, luw, and lew,
which developed into Jew.

During the nineteenth century, to avoid the un-
pleasant association and connotation of the word
Jew as mentioned above, among many Jewish orga-
nizations it became usual to use the terms Hebrews
and Israelites. However, these new names quickly
became as pejorative as the usage of “Jews” in many
nineteenth-century novels and other written works.
More recently, in the twentieth century (especially
during the years before the Nazi period and more so
during World War II), many millions of Jews — even
thousands of those who had left Judaism — suffered
from the efforts to rid Europe and other parts of the
world of all the Jews.

William M. Brinner

Further Reading

Grabbe, Lester L. A History of the Jews and Judaism in the
Second Temple Period. London, 2004.

Peters, F.E. The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christiani-
ty, Islam. Princeton, 2004.

Trachtenberg, Joshua. The Devil and the Jews: The Medie-
val Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern
Anti-semitism. Philadelphia, 1993.

JIHAD

Jihad is the term most often used in Islamic sources to
denote war that is authorized by God. Because the
ultimate authority for this category of war is the
divinity, it most closely approximates what Western
languages refer to as “holy war.”

The actual meaning of the term, however, has
nothing to do with warring or aggression. It means,
rather, “striving,” and it is commonly used in the
Qur’an and elsewhere in the idiomatic expression
“striving in the path of God” (al-jihad fi sabil
Allah). This is striving to do the divine will and to
fulfill one’s religious obligation. Such religious obli-
gation, in the Islamic context, includes protecting the
religion from both outside aggressors who would
dominate it and from internal sedition or subversion
away from what is perceived to be the straight path
established by God and His Prophet.

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JIHAD

In the Qur’an

Although some Qur’anic contexts in which “striving
in the path of God” occurs do not convey a sense of
stress or physical defense (2:218; 9:64; 49:15), most do
(4:95; 8:72, 74; 5:54; 9:16, 19, 41; 31:15; 60:1; 61:11),
and some quite clearly refer to engaging in war on
behalf of a beleaguered young Muslim community.
The more common Qur’anic term, however, is qital,
and this word means, literally, “warring” (2:190, 244,
246; 3:13, 167; 4:74-76, 84; 9:111; 21:4; 73:20). Like
jihad, qital also occurs in the idiomatic expression “in
the path of God”; qital thus conveys a sense of reli-
gious war more consistently than does jihad. A third
term, harb, also refers to wars, but this term does not
occur in the idiom, “in the path of God,” and it is
distinguished by designating only aggression and wars
that are not legitimized by religious authority.

The Qur’an acknowledges that conflict between
peoples, religions, and individuals is a part of life
(22:40: “If God did not push off [some] people by
means of others, then monasteries and churches and
synagogues and mosques in which the name of God is
often cited would have been destroyed.” 5:8, 48; 16:93;
34:24—26; 49:10-13, 109). Other means of resolving
religious disputes, such as argument or discussion, are
also found in the Qur’an (16:125; 29:46).

In the Hadith

Various activities subsumed under jihad are said by
Muhammad to distinguish true believers who are
loyal to God’s Prophet: “Every prophet sent by God
to a nation ( umma ) before me has had disciples and
followers who followed his ways ( surma ) and obeyed
his commands. But after them came successors who
preached what they did not practice and practiced
what they were not commanded. Whoever strives
(jahada) against them with one’s hand is a believer,
whoever strives against them with one’s tongue is a
believer, whoever strives against them with one’s
heart is a believer. There is nothing greater than [the
size of] a mustard seed beyond that in the way
of faith” (Muslim, Sahih, Cairo; K. al-Iman 20.80,
1:69-70). Muhammad is also credited with saying:
“The best jihad is [speaking] a word of justice to a
tyrannical ruler” (Abu Dawud, Swum, Cairo, 1988/
1408; K. al-Malahim 4344, 4:122).

There are, thus, various subcategories of jihad
found in the hadith literature, such as jihad of the
heart, the tongue, and the hand, all of which are said
to promote God’s kingdom on earth by behaving

ethically, by speaking without causing harm to others,
and by defending Islam and propagating the faith,
respectively. Jihad as religiously grounded warfare —
sometimes referred to as jihad of the sword (jihad al-
sayf ) — is subsumed under the last two categories of
defending Islam and propagating the faith, although
these need not be accomplished only through war.
When the term jihad is used without qualifiers
such as “of the heart,” or “of the tongue,” it is
universally understood as war on behalf of Islam
(equivalent to “jihad of the sword“), and the merits
of engaging in such jihad are described plentifully in
the most-respected religious works.

Nevertheless, Muslim thinkers (and particularly
ascetics and mystics) often differentiate between the
greater jihad ( al-jihad al-akbar ) and the lesser jihad
( al-jihad al-asghar ) , with the former representing the
struggle against the self, and only the lesser jihad refer-
ring to warring in the path of God. It should be noted
that this is not a sound tradition and cannot be found
in any of the canonical Sunni hadith collections.

Even within its range of meaning as war on behalf of
Islam, the term is often used in relation to conflicts
between Muslims. Such examples of jihad include wars
fought against groups of apostates rebelling against
proper Islamic authority (murtaddun), dissenting
groups denouncing legitimate Muslim leadership
(baghi ), highway robbers and other violent people,
and deviant or un-Islamic leadership. The determina-
tion of when Muslim leaders may call for jihad and the
requisite demands that such a call makes upon the
Muslim populace are developed in the legal literature.

In Islamic Law

Muslim jurists developed a highly sophisticated legal
doctrine of war, and Averroes (Muhammad ibn
Rushd) makes several general points. First, it is a
collective legal obligation for healthy, adult, free men
who have the means at their disposal to go to war. All
polytheists should be fought (Jews and Christians
are included in this group). Second, the aim of war-
fare against Peoples of the Book is either conversion
to Islam or payment of the jizya (a poll tax) signal-
ing subjugation to Islam. Generally, collection of
the jizya is only accepted from Jews, Christians, and
Zoroastrians, although some scholars allow it for
“any polytheist other than Arabs” (which would
include Hindus). Otherwise, conversion to Islam is
required of non-monotheists. Third, damage inflicted
on the enemy may consist of damage to his property,
injury to his person, or violation of his personal liber-
ty (slavery). Such damage may be directed against

419

JIHAD

men, women, and children, but some scholars omit
monks. Captives may be pardoned, enslaved, killed,
or released either on ransom or as dhimmi (protected
Peoples of the Book), who must then pay the jizya to
the Muslim head of state. Some scholars forbid the
killing of captives. Fourth, certain individuals among
the enemy may receive status of aman (safe conduct)
to conduct political or economic activities that
benefit the state. Finally, in times of war, all adult,
able-bodied, unbelieving males may be slain, but
noncombatant women and children may not be.

The juridical literature contains discussions of
rules of engagement, the use of weapons of mass
destruction such as fire, how much damage may be
inflicted on the property of the enemy, and so on.
Truce is permitted, but there is much discussion
about who has the authority to call for it and under
what conditions it may be called.

In History

The earliest references to jihad are Quranic, but
Islamic doctrine was formulated later, during the clas-
sical period, when Islam dominated from Western Eur-
ope to the Indian subcontinent. Perpetual war against
the non-Muslim world seemed natural at the time until
victory, but, as with all empires, perpetual conquest
could not be sustained. Reversals were considered tem-
porary, however, so until the modern period little new
thought was given by Muslim scholars to Islamic mili-
tary doctrines in either the legal or moral spheres.

A renewed interest in other forms of conflict resolu-
tion has appeared recently (Salmi, 1998; Said, 2001),
and less aggressive Qur’anic references are beginning
to be revisited. The attacks against the U.S. World
Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001 and the response
of the United States by invading Afghanistan and Iraq
has shocked the Muslim world and has encouraged
additional reevaluation.

Reuven Firestone

Primary Sources

Qur’an

Sunan Abi Daud. Cairo.

Sahih Muslim. Cairo, 1988/1408.

Rushd, Muhammad b. AI-Bidaya wal-Nihaya. In R. Peters
(below).

Further Reading

Abdul Aziz Said, Nathan Funk, and Ayse Kadayifci, eds.
Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam. Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 2001.

Cook, David. “Muslim Apocalyptic and Jihad:’

Firestone, Reuven. Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Johnson, James Turner, and John Kelsay, eds. Cross,
Crescent, and Sword: The Justification and Limitation of
War in Western and Islamic Tradition. New York:
Greenwood Press, 1990.

Kelsay, John, and James Turner Johnson, eds. Just War and
Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War
and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions. New
York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Kelsay, John. Islam and War: A Study in Comparative
Ethics. Westminster: John Knox, 1993.

Kramer, Joel. “Apostates, Rebels, Brigands.” Israel Orien-
tal Studies X (1980): 34-73.

Morabia, Alfred. Le Gihad dans li'Islam Medieval. Paris:
Albin Michel, 1975.

Peters, Rudolf. Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam.
Princeton, NJ: Marcus Weiner, 1996.

Ralph Salmi, Cesar Adib Majul, and George K. Tanham,
eds. Islam and Conflict Resolution. Lanham, Md:
University Press of America, 1998.

JINN

The Arabic term jinn means “invisible beings.” The
jinn are sentient beings who are composed from a
subtle matter. Before Islam, they were worshiped as
gods, as tutelary deities, or as spiritual protectors not
only in the Arabian Peninsula but also in neighboring
areas, such as the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra.
Islam incorporated them into the new religion and
changed their status from gods to supernatural beings
that could be either good or evil. In fact, Islam is the
only one of the three monotheistic religions to address
its message to both human beings and jinn. Muslims
accept the existence of the jinn as part of their faith.

The most important source for understanding the
concept of the jinn in Islam is the Qur’an, which
strongly condemns the worship of the jinn by the
Arabs before Islam and their search for protection
from them (72:6). In Qur’an verses 15:26-7 and
55:14-5, there is mention that they are created from
“scorching winds” and “a smokeless fire,” and it is
also said that they are like humans in that they are
rational beings formed of nations (7:38). In fact, the
jinn are always addressed in the plural. The Holy
Book points out also that both jinn and humans are
called to worship God (51:56).

In verse 6:130, it is said that God sent messengers
to both jinn and humans. Muslim sources differ re-
garding whether these messengers were from the side
of the jinn, or if they were from the human side alone.
However, if the messengers were indeed from the
human side alone, how did the jinn learn about
these messages? The Qur’an says that the jinn have
their own communication channel that allows them
to receive the Word of God. In one instance, they

420

JUDAH HA-LEVI

listened to a recitation of the Qur’an and then went to
inform their fellow jinn about Islam (72:1-5).

Islam considers the jinn to be responsible for their
deeds. Both humans and jinn are described as free and
fully capable of making choices that will determine
their abode in Paradise or Hell, and the jinn and
humankind are closely associated in the afterlife as
well. Both confront the same destiny (6:128; 55:39),
both will be judged simultaneously by God, and both
will be rewarded or punished in accordance with their
deeds (7:179; 55:56).

To understand the concept of jinn in Islam, em-
phasis must be placed on the repetition of the striking
phrase, “Lord of the worlds,” that Muslims use in
their daily prayers and that is mentioned at the begin-
ning of each chapter of the Qur’an. The use of the
plural implies the existence of other worlds that are
inhabited by numerous kinds of intelligences, all of
which are outside humankind's perception. The world
of the jinn is only one of many of such realms.

In many chapters, the Qur’an reminds humankind
and jinn of the impossibility of physically coming close
to God (55:33). However, this incapability before God
is not only physical, it also includes the mental and
creative limitations that are shared by jinn and humans
alike. God sets a challenge for both species (17:90).

However, the numerous instances of the associa-
tion of jinn and humans do not imply that these two
species are equal. God says in the Qur’an that humans
alone are the inheritors of the earth. The first man and
prophet, Adam, is considered God’s vicegerent on
earth; this honor does not go to the jinn who share
the earth with humankind nor even to the angels who
worship God in the heavens by day and by night
(17:70). Even the basic elements from which human
beings and jinn are composed give humans greater
distinction over the jinn. Although the jinn generally
boast about their superiority because they are made
of air and smokeless fire, the element of water, which
gives life to everything, and from which human beings
themselves are created, bestows upon them actual
superiority over the jinn. The supremacy of human
beings above all other creatures derives from the fact
that they are a combination of elements from lower
compounds (the same as animals and plants) as well
as higher compounds (angelic entities). Only human
beings are constituted from both realms.

The association of humans and jinn is not limited
to the Qur’an. It is also found in classical Arabic
literature, Sufi texts, folklore, and even modern nar-
ratives. These diverse texts unravel the belief of a
large population of the Arab Muslim world in an
abiding relationship between the jinn and humans.
Popular culture, even today, abounds with stories of
jinn carrying off humans, of marriages between the

two species, and of people possessed by jinn, in which
case the jinn are internalized within the human psyche.
These lasting beliefs insinuate that, where there are
human beings, there are almost always jinn nearby
who interfere in their existence and who are subject to
the same set of laws and beliefs.

Amira El-Zein

Primary Sources

fiAbdu l-?akim, Shawqi. Madkhal ila Dirasat al-Fulklur wa
l-Asafr al-Fiarabiyyah. Beirut: Dar Ibn Khaldun, 1983.

Ajinah, Muhammad. Mawsufiat Asa ir al-Fiarab, 2 vols.
Beirut: Dar Al-Farabi, 1994.

Arberry, A.J., transl. The Koran Interpreted. Simon &
Schuster. 1996.

Ibn Al-Kalbi, Hisham. Al-Ajindm, transl. Nabih Faris.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952.

Ibn Shuhayd, fiAbdu al-Malik. Risalat at-Tawabifi wa
l-Zawabfi. Beirut: Dar (3adir, 1967.

Shqar, fiUmar al -.fiAlam al-Jinn wa l-Shayaim. Cairo: Dar
al-Kutub al-Salafiyyah, 1985.

Further Reading

Crapanzano, Vincent. The Hamadsha: A Study in Moroccan
Ethnopsychiatry. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press, 1973.

Drijvers, H.J.W. The Religion of Palmyra. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1976.

Goodman, Lenn Evan, transl. The Case of the Animals
Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn: A Tenth-Century
Ecological Fable of the Pure Brethren of Basra. Boston:
Twayne Publishers, 1978.

JUDAH HA-LEVI

The poet and religious philosopher Judah (Abu’l-
Hasan) ben Samuel Halevi (c. 1075-1141) was one
of the outstanding figures among Andalusian Jewry
during the first half of the twelfth century. Hailing
from Tudela or Toledo, he came to Cordoba at the
invitation of the poet Moses Ibn Ezra. Although
Halevi was a practicing physician, he also engaged
in commerce and was apparently quite prosperous.
His fame, however, derived from his Hebrew verse.
According to Judah al-Harizi (c. 1165-1225), Halevi
was the most versatile of Hebrew writers, a virtuoso
in every genre of secular and sacred poetry and
rhymed prose. He pioneered the Hebrew girdle song
( muwashshah ) and also produced Hebrew renderings
of Arabic verse. The superscriptions to his poems
indicate warm relationships with other members of
the Jewish elite. Much of his verse was gathered post-
humously into a diwan (collected poems), which has
survived in two recensions. Many of his liturgical
compositions are preserved in the rites of Sephardic
and oriental Jewish communities.

421

JUDAH HA-LEVI

Deeply immersed in Greco-Arabic culture, Halevi
commanded a line Arabic prose style and was thor-
oughly conversant with Islamic philosophy. Shi’i and
Sufi influences have also been detected in his writings.
However, he came to repudiate the truth claims of
speculative knowledge while adopting a conservative,
particularist conception of Judaism. He expounded his
views in The Book of the Khazar ( Kitab al-Khazari) , a
platonic dialogue between a rabbi and a pagan king
seeking religious enlightenment. The work draws
upon the etiological legend of the conversion of the
Khazar kingdom (located in southern Russia between
the Black and Caspian Seas) to Judaism during the
eighth and ninth centuries. The book’s alternate title,
The Book of Argument and Proof for the Despised
Faith, aptly expresses its apologetic character. The
rabbi argues for the intrinsic superiority of the Jewish
religious tradition, the Jewish people, and the land of
Israel while rejecting the claims of other religions
(Islam and Christianity), other intellectual systems
(Greek and Islamic philosophy ), and heresies (Karaite
Judaism). Because of its engaging form and power-
ful, positive message, the Book of the Khazar was
soon translated into Hebrew by Judah Ibn Tibbon
(Provence, 1167); Sefer ha-Kuzari became one of the
classic works of Jewish thought.

Toward the conclusion of the Khazar i, the rabbi
asserts that he must leave the diaspora for the land of
Israel, which is the noblest place on earth. In fact, as
an old man, Halevi himself finally abandoned his
comfortable life in Andalusia and traveled east to
the Holy Land. This journey is documented in a
remarkable series of poems that describe his longing
for Zion, his planned pilgrimage, his parting from
family and friends in Andalusia, and his voyage.
This final chapter of Halevi’s life has been illuminated
by documents from the Cairo Geniza relating to his
stay in Egypt (1140-1141) before his final departure
for the Holy Land. He died in August 1141, appar-
ently after reaching his destination.

Daniel Frank

See also Judeo- Arabic; Pilgrimage; Poetry, Hebrew;
Translation, Arabic to Hebrew

Primary Sources

Brody, Heinrich, and Nina Salaman. Selected Poems of
Jehudah Halevi. Philadelphia: JPSA, 1924.

Halevi, Judah. The Kuzari: An Argument for the Faith of
Israel, transl. Hartwig Hirschfeld. New York: Schocken,
1964.

Further Reading

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society, vol. 5, 448-68.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.

Lobel, Diana. Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Lan-
guage of Religious Experience in Judah Ha-Levi’s Kuzari.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000.
Silman, Yochanan. Philosopher and Prophet: Judah Halevi,
the Kuzari, and the Evolution of His Thought. Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Tanenbaum, Adena. The Contemplative Soul: Hebrew Poet-
ry and Philosophical Theory in Medieval Spain, 174-94.
Leiden: Brill, 2002.

JUDEO- ARABIC

Since antiquity, Jewish communities have adopted
local vernaculars as well as literary languages. German
and Spanish, for example, have Jewish forms known
respectively as Yiddish and Judezmo (sometimes
Ladino). Written in Hebrew characters, they possess
a traditional Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary, which
varies in size and scope according to situation and
speaker/writer. Judeo-Arabic conforms to this pat-
tern. As far back as the seventh century CE, Jews
in the Arabian Peninsula spoke a dialect of Arabic
called al-yahudiya in the hadith (tradition) literature.
With the Islamic conquests, Jews throughout the
Near East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula
began to acquire Arabic, the new lingua franca; by the
late tenth century, it had largely replaced Aramaic as
the language of Jews in Islamic lands. For the most
part, they reserved Hebrew for sacred and secular
poetry. Judeo-Arabic was their primary language of
communication and technical writing in all disci-
plines, including the religious sciences (biblical exege-
sis, Hebrew grammar and lexicography, homiletics,
law, theology, and philosophy) as well as astronomy
and medicine. Sa’adyah’s Kitab al-Amanat, Moses
Ibn Ezra’s book on Hebrew poetics, Maimonides’
Guide, and the great Karaite Bible commentaries
were all written in Judeo-Arabic.

Judeo-Arabic is a variety of Middle Arabic, a stage
of the language that often deviates from classical usage
and includes vernacular, “neo-Arabic” features. The
Middle Arabic corpus includes Christian religious
writings, Muslim literary works (e.g., The Thousand
and One Nights), and Jewish texts of many different
types. Aside from its Hebrew and Aramaic lexical
component, Judeo-Arabic preserves all of the typical
Middle Arabic features found in Christian and Muslim
texts. These include the following: ( 1 ) the disappear-
ance of case endings; (2) the replacement of the ending
-una with -u in the imperfect indicative tense of verbs;
(3) the interchange of certain consonants, such as sin
and sad; (4) the interchange of verbal themes, such as I
for IV and vice versa; (5) the use of ma to negate the
imperfect; and (6) asyndetic syntax. Most characteris-
tic are the numerous “pseudocorrections,” or failed
attempts at classical usage that result in incorrect or

422

JUDGES

even nonexistent forms (e.g., akhyar, “better/best”;
Classical Arabic: khayr).

With the exception of some Karaites who preferred
to use Arabic script even for Hebrew texts, most Jews
wrote Arabic in the Hebrew alphabet, which all Jew-
ish children learned. This loyalty to Hebrew charac-
ters had two important consequences. First, Muslims
and Christians could not read Jewish writings of any
kind unless they had been specially copied in Arabic
letters. The Hebrew alphabet, therefore, constituted a
boundary between religious communities in Islamic
lands. Second, because the Jewish veneration for the
divine name precludes the intentional destruction of
any text upon which it may be written, Jews discarded
all unwanted documents by placing them in special
repositories, such as the Cairo Geniza. This trove of
manuscripts contains Judeo-Arabic texts in a range of
linguistic registers and in many different genres, from
theological treatises to legal documents and personal
letters. It attests to the great richness of Jewish
scholarship in the lands of medieval Islam.

Daniel Frank

See also Education, Jewish; Hebrew; Judah Halevi;
Poetry, Hebrew; Nissim Ibn Shahin; Scriptural Exege-
sis, Jewish; Solomon Ibn Gabirol; Translation, Arabic
to Hebrew

Further Reading

Blau, Joshua. The Emergence and Linguistic Background of
Judaeo- Arabic. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.
(Revised edition, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1981.)

. Studies in Middle Arabic. Jerusalem: Magnes Press,

1988.

. A Handbook of Early Middle Arabic. Jerusalem:

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2002.

Fenton, P.B. “Judaeo- Arabic Literature.” In Religion,
Learning and Science in the 'Abbasid Period, ed. M.J.L.
Young et al., 461-76. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.

Halkin, A.S. “Judaeo-Arabic Literature.” In Great Ages
and Ideas of the Jewish People, ed. L.W. Schwarz. New
York, 1956.

JUDGES

The qadi (judge) has been a key figure in Muslim
societies for more than fourteen hundred years. Some-
times a trained scholar, sometimes not, the qadi
performs judicial, administrative, and symbolic func-
tions. To him belongs the domain of resolving legal
disputes by hearing complaints, applying rules of
procedure, soliciting and assessing witness testimony,
and issuing and enforcing binding judgments. In many
Muslim communities, the qadi also serves as an ad-
ministrator and an intermediary between the state

and its subjects, executing the ruler’s decrees and
collecting his taxes. The qadi is frequently a revered
figure whose office is a symbol of divine justice. He
is responsible for the general welfare of Muslims
and non-Muslims, the safety and security of travel,
ensuring that people are accorded their rights, and
promoting respect for Islam and its adherents.

Early History

The early Umayyad caliphs held their own courts but
also appointed the first qadis, who were subject to
their authority. Recruited from the ranks of pre-
Islamic arbitrators, the earliest qadis lacked formal
training. Their duties included the resolution of dis-
putes among the conquering tribesmen in the garrison
towns based on their understanding of the regulations
contained in the Qur’an and the example of the
Prophet Muhammad. In the absence of Quranic
stipulations or prophetic precedent, they exercised
personal discretion and relied on ad hoc reasoning.
For most of the first century AH, the jurisdiction
of the qadis was limited to the garrison towns and
to the resolution of disputes among the Arab tribes-
men and their families; it did not yet extend to the
surrounding countryside or to the towns and cities
inhabited by Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, and
others.

Upon his accession to the caliphate, Mu’awiya
(r. 661-680 CE) delegated his authority to qadis and
other agents in the garrison towns. In addition to
resolving disputes, these qadis served as governors,
tax collectors, military commanders, leaders of
prayer, and supervisors of the public treasury and
the land tax. The qadi al-jund exercised authority
over the Muslim soldiers who were organized accord-
ing to military units in the garrison towns, distributing
stipends to soldiers among the members of their re-
spective tribes, and guarding the interests of orphans
within a particular tribe. Under the Umayyads, the
functions of criminal enforcement and the judgeship
were often united in the hands of a single individual.

By the turn of the first century AH, the judicial
apparatus had expanded outward from the garrison
towns and embraced major towns in which Muslims
were as yet only a minority of the population. The
rapid expansion of the Arab empire and the growing
complexity and sophistication of the state apparatus
led to the development of the judgeship as a profes-
sional office. During the last decade of the first centu-
ry AH, the functions of the qadi came to be limited to
the resolution of legal disputes and the administration
of the emerging judicial apparatus. Beginning with

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JUDGES

Sulayman b. ’Abd al-Malik (r. 715-717), judges were
appointed directly by the caliphs from the capital in
Damascus.

The Umayyads used the qadiship as a form of
patronage, appointing important and influential reli-
gious figures as qadis and using them to disseminate
their ideology and to promote the popularity of the
regime. Although there was no lack of qualified can-
didates to fill these posts, many potential candidates
either refused to accept such appointments or had to
be cajoled to do so, presumably because they were
reluctant to associate themselves with a state regarded
as unjust or impious.

The early qadis issued their judgments on the basis
of their understanding of the Qur’an (sunna) and
local custom, supplemented by ra’y (personal discre-
tion), thereby contributing to the formation of nascent
legal doctrine and laying the foundation for what
would become the mature legal doctrine of the law
schools ( madhhabs ) .

After 750 CE

In Umayyad and early ’Abbasid times, the jurisdic-
tion of the qadi was limited to the town over which he
was appointed. At first, the qadi was usually a local
representative of the inhabitants of a town who was
familiar with many of the residents and responsive to
public opinion. Candidates for the office were invited
to appear before the caliph or governor, who attached
great importance to popular sentiment when making
a decision to appoint — or dismiss — a qadi.

The ’Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775-785)
initiated the regular hearing of petitions and com-
plaints in the forum that came to be known as the
mazalim (courts of complaint). This was the institu-
tion by means of which the state assumed direct
responsibility for dispensing justice and responding
to complaints regarding administrative and judicial
abuses.

A key step in the consolidation of state control
over judges was taken by Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-
809), who created the office of qadi al-qudat (chief
qadi), appointing Abu Yusuf (d. 798) as its first
incumbent. The chief qadi was empowered to ap-
point, supervise, and dismiss qadis and other judicial
officials throughout the empire. Eventually, it became
customary for the chief qadi to nominate the main
provincial judge who, in turn, delegated his judicial
powers to one or more local agents. Some of these
agents were empowered to hear specific types of dis-
putes, whereas others had jurisdiction in all fields in a
limited geographical district.

The caliph retained the power to adjudicate cases
even though, in practice, he generally assigned this
power to qadis who acted as his agents. In most Mus-
lim polities, the caliph (later, the sultan) and executive
officials exercised general — albeit not exclusive —
jurisdiction over criminal cases. This type of justice
is called siyasa (literally discipline), a term that sig-
nifies both state policy and the right of the ruler and
his agents to impose discretionary punishments.

With the failure of the Inquisition ( Mihna) in 849,
the caliph no longer attempted to impose religious
uniformity, and, as a consequence, the status of the
chief qadiship declined. By the time of al-Mu’tadid
(r. 892-902), the vizier had replaced the chief qadi as
second-in-command to the caliph, and henceforth it
was the vizier who appointed the chief qadi and, on
occasion, provincial qadis as well.

By the middle of the ninth century, the men who
received appointments as qadis increasingly were peo-
ple of high standing at the ’Abbasid court who were
loyal to the caliph and ready to implement his poli-
cies. These men often had no ties to and did not reside
in the towns over which they were appointed, and
they were appointed from Baghdad rather than by
local governors. The jurisdiction of a single qadi
now might include as many as three or four towns
and their surrounding districts, although the range of
legal issues over which he exercised control became
more limited. The qadi had become a state func-
tionary whose authority emanated from and was
dependent upon his nomination by the caliph.

The qadi carried out his judicial activities in his
court (mahkama), where he applied the fully devel-
oped legal doctrine of a specific law school. In theory,
the qadi’s jurisdiction was general and included both
civil and criminal cases; in practice, most criminal
cases were handled by the police and military gover-
nors. Qadis also administered charitable endowments,
supervised funds earmarked for orphans, and, espe-
cially during later periods, collected the alms tax and
poll tax.

Legal doctrine recommends that a qadi should
consult with other jurists, and he may ask legal
experts to sit with him in the court. Qadis worked
closely with muftis (jurisprudents), from whom they
solicited fatwas (expert legal opinions); in the Islamic
West, qadi courts usually included a council of jur-
isprudents known as a shura. Indeed, a proper appre-
ciation of the nature of Islamic justice requires a
consideration of the complementary roles of the
qadi and the mufti. A mufti’s opinion is not binding,
however, and a qadi is expected to issue his judgment
on the strength of what he himself determines to be
the truth of a matter. He must abide by the consensus
of the jurists, and he should exercise independent

424

JUDGES

reasoning (ijtihad) only on matters with respect
to which no consensus has emerged. If he is qualified
to exercise independent reasoning, he is bound by it,
and he should not follow the recommendation of his
advisors, even if their juristic qualifications are better
than his.

The classical position of the law schools holds that
a judge’s decision, when based on the proper legal
texts and fulfilling the necessary procedural condi-
tions of judgment, is binding and may not be re-
versed. However, this formulation leaves open the
possibility of reversing a decision that fails to meet
these conditions. In fact, a judgment may be reversed
in two circumstances: (1) if the pronouncing judge
was not legally competent to pass judgment; and (2)
if a judge who was legally competent nevertheless
engaged in the improper use of ijtihad — that is, if his
judgment contradicts a Qur’anic text (the plain mean-
ing of which there is universal agreement on ), a widely
transmitted hadith, or the consensus of Muslim jur-
ists. Thus, if a judge is not legally competent or if a
legally competent judge engages in the improper use
of independent reasoning, his judgment may be nulli-
fied by another judge. Conversely, a judgment issued
by a competent judge that is based on sound ijtihad
may not be reversed under any circumstances. Islamic
law developed a system of successor review that reg-
ulates how a succeeding judge should treat judgments
issued by his predecessor.

In those areas of the Muslim world that were inde-
pendent of central control, local rulers introduced
variations on the above-mentioned patterns of judi-
cial administration. In Cordoba, the Umayyad Caliph
’Abd al-Rahman (r. 756-788) manifested his indepen-
dence from the ’Abbasids by designating his military
judge as qadi al-jama’a , a term that came to be used
throughout al-Andalus and the Maghrib. After con-
quering Egypt in 969, the Fatimids (909-1171) estab-
lished a chief qadi in Cairo, and the holder of this
office exercised his authority in the name of the imam.
Under the Fatimids and Mamluks (1250-1517), there
were two chief qadis, one in Baghdad and the other in
Cairo. Under the Mamluks, the chief qadi of Cairo
delegated his authority to chief qadis in the major
cities of the empire so that several chief qadis oper-
ated throughout the realm. The Mamluks also
appointed a chief qadi for each of the four madhhabs.

The qadi system developed by the ’Abbasids
continued to operate under the Mughals in India
(1526-1858), the Safavids in Iran (1501-1722), and
the Ottomans in the Middle East (1512-1918). The
Ottomans, however, transformed the structure of the
judiciary. In an effort to exercise greater control over
the provinces, Selim I (r. 1512-1520) and Suleiman
the Magnificent (r. 1520-1560) created a hierarchical

judicial structure headed by the qadi ’askar (military
qadi) and the Shaykh al- Islam (state mufti). Below
them were the qadis of the major towns and cities,
and then came local qadis, whose jurisdiction was
restricted to a district or subdistrict.

Ottoman qadis played a key role in the administra-
tion of the empire, serving as conduits between local
individuals or groups and the central government.
They also performed important administrative duties,
such as supervising guilds, recommending the suitabil-
ity of buildings, securing the availability of foodstuffs,
and enforcing economic regulations. The jurisdiction
of qadis and of local officials was defined by legisla-
tion ( qanun ) . The local qadi monitored the lawfulness
of the acts of officials involved in siyasa justice, there-
by ensuring the proper conduct of criminal proceed-
ings, including the interrogation and custody of
people accused of a crime. The conduct and behavior
of the qadi was, in theory, the responsibility of the
sultan, although in practice he delegated this respon-
sibility to the local governor, who was empowered to
open an investigation into a qadi’s actions and, if
necessary, to dismiss and/or imprison him.

The Ottomans designated the Hanafi madhhab as
the official law school of the empire and instructed
qadis to follow the most authoritative opinion within
the Hanafi school, although exceptions were allowed
for political reasons or expediency. Any judgment
issued that was contrary to these instructions was
null and void and would not be enforced by the
executive authorities.

Beginning during the early nineteenth century, the
institutional framework within which qadis operated
underwent major changes that have dramatically
transformed the nature of the office.

David Stephan Powers

See also Caliphate and Imamate; Consultation; Courts;
Crime and Punishment; Law and Jurisprudence; Pris-
ons; Schools of Jurisprudence

Further Reading

Azad, Ghulam Murtaza. Judicial System of Islam. Islama-
bad: Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic
University, 1987.

Bligh-Abramski, Irit. “The Judiciary (Qadis) as a Govern-
mental-Administrative Tool in Early Islam.” Journal of
the Economic and Social History of the Orient 35 (1992):
40-71.

Dannhauer, Paul Gerhard. Untersuchungen zur Friihen
Geschichte des Qadi-Amtes. Bonn Inaugural-Dissertation
zur Erlangung der Doktowtirde der Philosophischen.
Bonn: Fakultat der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-
Universitat, 1975.

Hallaq, Wael B. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

425

JUDGES

Johansen, Baber. “Wahrheit und Geltungsanspruch: Zur
Begriindung und Begrenzung der Autoritat des Qadi-
Urteils im Islamischen Recht.” In La Giustizia Nell ’Alto
Medioevo (Secoli IX-XI), 975-1074. Spoleto: Presso la
Sede del Centro, 1997.

Masud, Muhammad Khalid, Brinkley Messick, and David
S. Powers, eds. Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and
Their Fatwas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1996.

Al-Mawardi. The Ordinances of Government: al-Ahkam
al-Sultaniyya wa’l-Wilayat al-Diniyya, transl. Wafaa H.
Wahba. Reading: Garnet, 1996.

Muller, Christian. Gerichtspraxis im Stadtstaat Cordoba:
Zum Recht der Gesellschaft in Einer Malilcitisch-
Islamischen Rechtstradition des 5.11. Jahrliunderts.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999.

. “Judging with God’s Law on Earth: Judicial

Powers of the Oacli al-jama’a of Cordoba in the Fifth/
Eleventh Century .” Islamic Law and Society 1 (2000):
159-86.

Nielsen, J.S. “Mazalim.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd ed.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.

Powers, David S. Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib,
1300-1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 2002.

Schneider, Irene. Das Bild des Richters in der “Adab al-
Qadi” Literatur. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1990.

Serrano, Delfina. “Legal Practice in an Andalusi-Maghribi
Source From the Twelfth Century CE: The Madhaliib al-
Hukkam fi Nawazil al-Ahkam.” Islamic Law and Society
7 (2000): 187-234.

Tsafrir, Nurit. The History of an Islamic School of Law: The
Early Spread of Hanafism. Cambridge, MA: Islamic
Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School, 2004.

Tyan, Emile. Histoire de L’ Organisation Judiciaire en Pays
d’Islam, 2nd rev. ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960.

. “Judicial Organization.” In Law in the Middle East ,

eds. Majid Khadduri and Herbert J. Liebesny, 236-78.
Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1955.

JUHA

Jtiha, a pseudohistorical character, is the most promi-
nent protagonist of jocular prose narratives in the
entire Islamic world. The first securely datable anec-
dote about Juha is narrated in both al-Jahiz’s (d. ca.
255 AH/869 CE) al-Qawl fi 1-Bighal( Remarks About
Mules) and his Rasa’ll (Epistles). Substantial anec-
dotal material about Juha is available in the large
adab compilations of the tenth and eleventh centuries,
such as the works of al-Tawhidi (d. 414/1023) and
al-Abi (d. 421/1030). By the eleventh century, Juha
had already been firmly established as a “focusee” of
a cycle of jocular prose narratives, and a booklet
devoted to these narratives is listed in Ibn al-Nadim’s
Fihrist ( The Index; a late tenth-century Baghdad
bookseller’s bibliography of works he knew or be-
lieved to be extant). During the following centuries,
the character attracted ever more material. The only
monograph collection of his tales surviving from
premodern Arabic literature, a booklet called Irshad

Man Naha ila Nawadir Juha ( The Guidance of Those
Who Feel Inclined to the Stories of Juha), was com-
piled by Yusuf ibn al-Wakil al-Milawi in the seven-
teenth century and contains a total of seventy-four
tales. The modern image of Juha was shaped by nine-
teenth-century print tradition. Printed editions of
Juha’s tales present an amalgam of traditional Arabic
material about him, together with tales that had orig-
inally been attributed to the Turkish jester Nasreddin
Hodja and anecdotes derived from traditional Arabic
literature.

Similar to the expansion of the narrative repertoire
attributed to him, the depiction of Juha’s character
has also undergone considerable development. The
traditional repertoire presents him mostly as an ado-
lescent with a certain preference for sexual, scatologi-
cal and otherwise “obscene” matters. Even so, the
early anecdotes already imply some of the more
charming traits of character, such as when he buries
his money in the desert and remembers the position
of a specific cloud so as to locate the place later.
These traits were elaborated by later compilers, who
established Juha in modern tradition as a naive
philosopher and social critic.

Ulrich Marzolph

Further Reading

Abu Deeb, Kamal. Al-Jurjani’s Theory of Poetic Imagery.
England: Aris & Phillips, Ltd., 1979.

Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid. “Mafhum al-Nazm Tnda ’Abd
al-Qahir al-Jurjani: Qira’a fi Daw’ al-Uslubiyya.”
(The Concept of "Nazm” according to ’Abd al-Qahir
al-Jurjani: A Reading From the Perspective of Stylis-
tics.”) Fusul 5 (1984): 11-24.

Cantarino, Vicente. Arabic Poetics in the Golden Age. Lei-
den: Brill, 1975.

Larkin, Margaret. “The Inimitability of the Qur’an: Two
Perspectives,” Religion and Literature 20.1 (1988): 3 1^47.

. The Theology of Meaning: 'Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani’s

Theory of Discourse. New Haven, CT: American Oriental
Society, 1995.

427

JUWAYNI (AH 419/1028 CE-478/1085)

JUWAYNI (AH 419/1028 CEM78/1085)

An Ash’arite theologian and a Shaf’ite jurist, Abu’l-
Ma’ali Rukn al-Din Abd al-Malik b. Abdullah al-
Juwayni was bom in Nishapur in northern Persia.
Also known as Imam al-Haramayn, he received his
primary education from his father. He later studied
under Al-Bayhaqi, Al-Iskali, and Abu Nu’aym al-
Isfahani, the well-known scholars of the region, and
he became a teacher (mudarris) in his twenties after
the death of his father. He had to leave Nishapur in
450/1058 and stay in Mecca and Medina for four
years as a result of the discriminations of the Seljuki
Vizier al-Kunduri against the Ash’arites. Soon after
his return to his hometown, he was appointed the
head of the Nizamiyya Madrasa, a higher educational
institution built by the new grand vizier Nizam al-
Mulk. Among his many students at Nizamiyya were
famous Islamic scholars such as Al-Ghazzali, Kiya
al-Harrasi, and Ali b. Muhammad al-Tabari. He
died in Nishapur in his fifties.

Most of Juwayni’s works address theological and
legal theories; his al-Shamil, al-Irshad, and al-Burhan
are major source books in these fields. He also wrote
books about governance, dialectics, and inter religious
polemics. Because he did not necessarily follow his
own school of thought in all theological and legal
issues, he represents the period of transition between
the early Ash’arite theology and the post-Ghazzalian
synthesis with logic and philosophy. Contrary to the
previous Ash’arite thinker al-Baqillani, for instance,
Juwayni did not hesitate to include philosophical ter-
minology and use logical premises in his theological
arguments. He also tends to partly accommodate the
Mu’tazilite theory of ahwal (modes) with regard to the
relationship between divine essence and attributes
within the Ash’arite system. Although he supports
the possibility of ta’wil (rational interpretations) of
certain verses in the Qur’an when the literal meaning
of the text raises difficulties, he considers it to be
applicable only when necessary. The sources of reli-
gious knowledge, according to Juwayni, are primarily
scriptural; therefore, God’s will and authority identify
good and bad. Regarding the question of divine
justice, he rejects the Mu’tazilite theory of the intrin-
sic nature of the moral act, instead defending the
Ash’arite idea of subjectivity.

Juwayni was also interested in and wrote about
Islamic political thought. Under the patronage of

Nizam al-Mulk, he dealt with the principles of gov-
ernance in his book al-Ghiyasi. According to al-
Juwayni, some of the qualities required for governing
are essential, whereas the others are advisory only and
could be ignored depending on time or conditions.
For example, the capability for the leadership and
full control of authority are always necessary; howev-
er, characteristics such as belonging to a certain fami-
ly (i.e., Kuraysh) or being a mujtahid (scholar) or
a pious person are not to be weighted as heavily.
Because the main responsibility of the governing
body is the protection and public service of society,
Juwayni thinks that, to avoid a potential problem, the
head of state and other important officials should
excuse themselves from, for example, the performance
of hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) for the sake of unity and
stability. Hajj is an individual duty, whereas public
interest is a collective obligation and should therefore
be given priority.

Mehmet Sait Ozervarli

Further Reading

Al-Juwayni, Imam al Haramayn. A Guide to the Conclusive
Proofs for the Principles of Belief: Kitab al Irshacl ila
Qawati 'al-Adilla fi Usui al I’tiqad, transl. Paul Walker.
Reading: Garnet Publishing, 2001.

Allard, Michel. Textes Apologetiques cle Guwaini. Beirut:
Dar al-Mashriq, 1968.

Bernand, M. “Abu-l-Ma’ali al-Guwayni: al-Giyati,” Bulle-
tin Critique des Annates Islamologique 3 (1986): 46-7.

Dib, Abd al-Azim. Fiqh Imam al-Haramayn. Cairo: Dar
al-Wafa, 1988.

Gilliot, Claude. “Quand la Theologie S’Allie a L’Histoire:
Triomphe et Echec du Rationalisme Musulman a
Travers L’Oeuvre d’al-Guwayni.” Arabica 39 (1992):
241-60.

Harfush, Ashraf. Falsafat al-Kalam Inda Imam al-Hara-
mayn el-Juawayni. Damascus: al-Hikma li-al-Tiba’a
wa’l-Nashr, 1994.

Hourani, George F. “Juwayni’s Criticisms of Mu’tazilite
Ethics.” The Muslim World 65 /3 (1975): 161-73.

Jah, Omar. “Preliminary Remarks on De Facto Govern-
ment and the Problem of its Legitimacy: Imam al-
Juwayni’s Theory of al-Shawka.” al-Shajarah 6/2
(2001): 229-51.

Nagel, Tilman. “Al-Guwaini’s Kitab al-Burhan un die
Theologische Begrundung der Scharia.” In Actas del
XII. Congreso de I’Union Europeenne des Arabisants et
Islamisants, 647-56. Madrid: UEAI, 1986.

Saflo, Mohammad Moslem Adel, al- Juwayni ’s Thought and
Methodology with a Translation and Commentary on
Luma’ al-Adillah. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 2000.

428

KA’BA, OR KAABA

The structure and its immediate precincts in Mecca
that also house a large mosque are referred to in
the Qur’an and subsequently in Muslim tradition as
the House of God fbayt Allah) and the sacred
Mosque ( masjid al hay am ) . The Ka’ba is the point
of orientation for Muslims when they pray, and it is
also the focal point of the Pilgrimage ( Hajj) as well as
the umra (minor pilgrimage). The Hajj takes place
over a fixed period in the prescribed month, whereas
the umra may be undertaken at any other time.

During pre-Islamic times, the Ka’ba served as a
shrine and a sacred space (haram). Arab tribes and
others made annual pilgrimages to the site and visit-
ed it to honor tribal and ancestral deities that in-
cluded several goddesses. Representatives of these
deities were kept in the Ka’ba, and the ritual visits
were often accompanied by music, dance, and the
recitation of poetry.

The Prophet Muhammad was forced to leave
Mecca as a result of the opposition he encountered
because of his preaching, his activities against many
tribal practices and values, and his claim to be the
messenger of a new revelation. He migrated to Medi-
na in 622 CE, but he subsequently negotiated to
undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca with his followers.
In 629, Mecca submitted to him, and he was able to
enter the town peacefully and purge the Ka’ba of its
idols, restoring it to its original role as the symbol of a
monotheistic faith and affirming its place as the site of
the Hajj, which became established as a major pil-
grimage practice of the new faith of Islam. He also

linked the Ka’ba to Abraham, who, with his wife
Hagar and son Ismail (Ishmael), is also believed to
have established a place of worship there. According
to Muslim tradition, it is also the location of the first-
ever place of worship. The formalized practices for
the Hajj were also instituted by the Prophet, thereby
linking the Ka’ba to other nearby centers to consti-
tute the totality of pilgrimage rituals. An irregular
cube-like structure, the Ka’ba itself measures approx-
imately fifteen meters in height, ten meters in length
and twelve meters in width. Its four corners are gen-
erally aligned with the four points of the compass. On
one of the corners, set in a silver bezel, is the Black
Stone ( al hajar al aswad ) , which is believed to be of
miraculous and ancient origin. Pilgrims customarily
kiss or touch it, and they also begin the circling
(tawaf) of the Ka’ba during the pilgrimage from
this point.

The Ka’ba is generally covered with a black silk
covering embroidered with Quranic verses which is
replaced annually, a practice that originated during
medieval Muslim history. It has one entrance and the
interior is empty, but it is customarily cleansed and
swept in a ritual that precedes the Hajj.

The maqam (station) of Abraham is located just
outside of the Ka’ba. Muslim tradition records that
God instructed Abraham to establish the Ka’ba as a
place of worship. In the vicinity, just east of the
Ka’ba, is also found the Well of Zamzam, which
carries forward the linkage with the Abrahamic tradi-
tions in which the well sprang forth by God’s grace in
response to the fervent prayers of Hagar. Its water is

429

KABA, OR KAABA

Muslim pilgrims before the Kaaba in Mecca. Miniature, 1577. Inv.: Ding A, fol.3/fol.46a. (Pertscn Nr. 1016) Photo: Ruth
Schacht. Oriental Division. Credit: Bildarchiv preussischer Kulturbestiz/Art Resource, NY. Staatsbibliothek Zu Berlin, Berlin,
Germany.

430

KABBALA

now circulated through a modem system of pipes
and made available to pilgrims as is ancient Muslim
custom.

The symbolism and significance of the Ka’ba are
evoked in Muslim mystical tradition, in which it
plays a cosmic role as the center of the earth. Al-
though the Ka’ba serves as the qibla (direction for
prayer), Muslims also traditionally bury the dead
facing the Ka’ba.

Azim Nanji

Further Reading

Bianchi, Robert. Events of God: Pilgrimage and Politics in
the Islamic World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press, 2004.

Crone, Patricia. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Prin-
ceton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Kamal, Ahmad. The Sacred Journey: The Pilgrimage to
Mecca. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1961.

KABBALA

Derived from the root qbl, which is a cognate to the
Arabic, the term qabb&l&h (reception, initiation) des-
ignates the Jewish esoteric tradition, but it is not syn-
onymous with all of Jewish mysticism. It is specifically
based on the system of the ten sefirot (powers)
through which the Divine Being progressively mani-
fests itself in the existential realm. There existed pre-
Qabbalistic forms of Jewish esotericism, some of
which — like many of the later major developments of
Qabbalah itself — flourished in an Islamic environ-
ment. Several points of contact and similarity (not
only external) exist between Islamic mysticism and
Qabbalah, although they are far from being variations
of an identical doctrine, as early comparatists
suggested. The ten sefirot of the Qabbalistic system
have no immediate equivalent in Sufism. Despite their
independent developments, significant parallels exist
between them. Certain Qabbalists distinguish three
levels of the sefirotic world: the highest and most
recondite aspect of the Divinity is called keter
(crown); the intermediate level extends until the lowest
sefirah and is called malkhuth (kingship), which is the
interface (much like the Sufi notion of barzakh) be-
tween the metaphysical and the lowest level, which is
the phenomenal world. These three levels roughly cor-
respond with the Sufi designations of ‘alam al-jabarut,
‘alam al-malakut, and ‘alam al-mulk. Some scholars
assign a post-lslamic date to the two great classics of
Qabbalistic literature, the Book of Creation (Sefer
Yesirah ) and the Book of Splendor ( Sefer ha-Bahir) .

The Provencal Qabbalists and even the Ashkenazi
pietists saw as their spiritual forebears the sages of

the Ge’onic period in Baghdad, whose mystical specu-
lations form the ancient strata of Qabbalistic litera-
ture. Their early writings, such as the contemplation
of the Heavenly chariot (Oofey ha-Merkabah), bear
a striking resemblance to the Oufi accounts of spiri-
tual ascension, such as that of al-Bistami. Sufis also
see Baghdad as their spiritual cradle, and it is there
that Sufism’s formative period evolved in the shadow
of the great Eastern wellsprings of Jewish spirituali-
ty. Although recognized in early studies of compara-
tive religion, the connections between Jewish and
Islamic mysticism in Spain are still unclear. Both
were imbued with prophetic and messianic aspira-
tions, which were later transported to Egypt, a land
where the two mysticisms developed into institutio-
nalized brotherhoods. R. Abraham Maimonides’
(d. 1237 CE) attempt to legitimize his Sufi-type
Jewish pietism parallels Sufism’s efforts to shed itself
of the suspicion of heresy by espousing strictly
orthodox norms, as exemplified in the works of
al-Ghazzali (d. 1111).

Just as Sufism integrated philosophical elements
from the Neoplatonist and Aristotelian systems, so
too the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Spanish
Qabbalists in particular undertook to reconcile the
doctrines of Qabbalah and philosophy. Some, such
as Judah Ibn Malka and Joseph Ibn Waqar, com-
posed their esoteric writings in Arabic. The “science
of letters” plays a central role in the speculative and
contemplative methods of many Sufis, such as at-
Tustari and Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240), just as its Hebrew
equivalent permeated the works of Qabbalists, such
as R. Abraham Abu l-’Afiyah (d. ca. 1291). Indeed,
the latter’s “balance of letters” and his meditative
technique known as hazkarah recall both by their
names and methods the doctrine of Jabir ibn Hazyyan
and the Sufi dhikr ritual. The speculative and cosmo-
logical system embodied in Muhyi d-Din Ibn ‘Arabi’s
Mekkan Revelations ( al-Futuhdt al-Makkiya ) com-
pletely revolutionized Islamic mysticism, as did the
teachings of R. Isaac Lurya (d. 1574), which reached
maturity in the Muslim East. Just as all previous Sufi
theory was reinterpreted through the prism of Ibn
‘Arabi’s system, so too in Judaism was the Spanish
Qabbalah; even its crowning work, the Zohar, was
reconstructed in the light of Luryanism.

Analogies can also be observed in the literary do-
main. The listing and clarification of istilahat (techni-
cal terms) used by Sufis are essential components of
their manuals, as are the technical lexicons (kin-
nuyim) that are found in Qabbalistic textbooks. The
formation of Sufi brotherhoods around their shaykhs
affords yet again an instructive analogy to the various
Qabbalistic groups centered around the charismatic
saddiq.

431

KABBALA

Finally, the modern politicization of Sufi frater-
nities and the involvement of their spiritual leaders in
the public areas of politics and academia (e.g., the
Khalwatis in Egypt) parallels the activities in prewar
Poland and contemporary Israel of Hasidic dynasties,
whose ranks have furnished not a few public figures
and academic scholars. The most significant influences
of Sufism on the development of the Qabbala came in
the period of the latter’s expansion at the time of Isaac
Lurya, who lived in Safed. Safed was a center of
Muslim mysticism, and several practices were adopted
by the Qabbalists, such as the visitation of tombs.
Influence was felt too in the musical domain, where
Qabbalists and Sufis often shared the same melodies
and developed spiritual concerts known as baqashh-
shot that were based on the structure of the Sufi samas.
At the time of the pseudo-messiah, Sabbatay Zebi,
close relations were established between the Bekatshis
and his disciples, some of whom, as doenme (con-
verts), became Mevlevi shaykhs.

Paul B. Fenton

Further Reading

Cohen, G. "The Soteriology of Abraham Maimuni.” Pro-
ceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 35
(1967): 75-98; 36 (1968): 33-56.'

Fenton, P.B. “Some Judaeo-Arabic Fragments by Rabbi
Abraham he-Hasid, the Jewish Sufi.” Journal of Semitic
Studies 26 (1981): 47-72.

. The Treatise of the Pool, al-Maqala al-Iawdiyya by

’Obadyah Maimonides. London, 1981.

. "The Literary Legacy of David II Maimuni.” Jew-
ish Quarterly Review 74 (1984): 1-56.

. Deux Trades de Mystique Juive. Lagrasse, 1987.

. “La Hitbodedut Chez les Premiers Qabbalistes

d’Orient et Chez les Soufis.” In Priere, Mystique et
Judaisme, ed. R. Goetschel, 133-58. Paris, 1987.

. “Shabbatay Sebi and the Muslim Mystic Muham-
mad an-Niyazi.” Approaches to Judaism in Medieval
Times 3 (1988): 81-88.

Goitein, S.D. “A Jewish Addict to Sufism in the Time of
Nagid David II Maimonides.” Jewish Quarterly Review
44 (1953-1954): 37M9.

. “A Treatise in Defence of the Pietists.” Journal of

Jewish Studies 16 (1965): 105-14.

. “Abraham Maimonides and his Pietist Circle.”

In Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, ed.
A. Altmann, 145-64. Cambridge, Mass, 1967.

Goldziher, I. “Ibn Hud, the Muhammadan Mystic, and the
Jews of Damascus.” Jewish Quarterly Review 6 (1893):
218-20.

Idel, M. Abraham Abulafia and the Mystical Experience.
New York, 1988.

Maimonides, David. Al-Murshid ila t-Tafarrud, ed. P.B.
Fenton. Jerusalem, 1987.

Rosenblatt, S., ed. The High Ways to Perfection of Abraham
Maimonides. New York and Baltimore, 1927-1938.

KALILA WA DIMNA

There once lived a lion who terrorized the animals of
the jungle by hunting them, until one day they agreed
to supply him daily with an animal as long as he
stopped his cruelty. The animals continued to cast
their lots every day until one day it was the hare’s
turn. The crafty hare arrived late to the hungry and
angry lion and explained to him, “I was bringing
another hare for your lunch, but on our way here
another lion snatched the hare from me, proclaiming
that he is the true king of the jungle.” The furious lion
wished to confront his adversary, and so he followed
the hare to a deep well full of clear water. “Look here,
my king!” said the hare, perched over the well. The
lion saw his reflection and, thinking it was the other
lion, leaped in and drowned. Thereafter, the animals
lived happily ever after.

This is just one of the many “nested” stories from
the tales of Kalila wa Dimna, adapted and translated
into Arabic from the Pahlavi in the eighth century by
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d. c. 757 CE). The ultimate source of
the Kalila wa Dimna can be traced to an original
Sanskrit “mirror for princes” that was compiled
by an unknown author around 300 and entitled the
Pancatantra ( Five Books or Five Cases of Cleverness) .
The Sanskrit tales were translated in the sixth century
into Middle Persian (Pahlavi) by the physician Bur-
zuya (or Burzoy) at the behest of the Sasanian King
Khusraw Anushirwan (r. 531-579). In addition to
the tales of the Pancatantra, Burzuya incorporated
various other stories into his corpus, principally
from the Mahabharata epic and other Hindu and
Buddhist sources. Burzuya’s Pahlavi title, Karirak ud
Damanak, was derived from the names of two jackals,
Karataka and Damanaka, the principal characters in
the first book of the Pancatantra. Ibn al-Muqaffa”s
Kalila wa Dimna is therefore an Arabic recension of
Burzuya’s now lost Karirak ud Damanak, although
the Arab author also inserted a number of additions
into his final work.

The earliest surviving manuscripts of the Kalila wa
Dimna date from the thirteenth and fourteenth centu-
ries, and the widespread popularity of this work is
clearly attested to by references to it in other medieval
literary works, including the Shahnama of Firdawsi.
However, the Kalila wa Dimna was never seen as a
fixed corpus of stories, and later authors and editors
felt free to add to, subtract from, and otherwise alter
its contents. Scholars from the nineteenth century on-
ward have attempted to trace the complex history and
origins of the Kalila wa Dimna through both literary
and art historical analysis. The tradition of illustrating
the tales of the Kalila wa Dimna is probably based
on older, well-established traditions of illustrating

432

KARAITES

the animal fables of the Pancatantra. Eighth-century
frescoes found at Panjikent, near Samarkand, that
include depictions of the Pancatantra tales attest to a
well-established iconographic tradition that was later
absorbed and adapted in the Muslim Near East.

Ibn al-M uqalTa' states in his introduction the four-
fold purpose of the Kalila wa Dimna: (1 ) to engage the
youth through the vehicle of animal fables; (2) to
delight the hearts of princes through richly illustrated
depictions of the tales; (3) to entice kings and com-
mon folk everywhere to acquire their own copies and
benefit the painters and scribes; and (4) to engage the
philosophers in the wisdom of its tales. Were he alive
today, Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ would not have been disap-
pointed in the least. Throughout the ages, the Kalila
wa Dimna has been reworked and translated, as both
prose and poetic verse, into Persian, Mongol, Malay,
Ethiopian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian,
French, German, and several Slavonic languages.
The most famous Persian recension from the Timurid
period is the Anvar-i Suhayli, which was later trans-
lated into Ottoman rhymed prose as the Humayun-
nama for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. A new
version of the Timurid work entitled Iyar-i Danish
was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar.

Fahmida Suleman

See also Adab; Akbar; Arabic; Books; Firdawsi;
Frescoes; Hindus; Ibn al-Muqaffa‘; Manuscripts; Mir-
rors for Princes; Mughals; Painting, Miniature; Paint-
ing, Monumental and Frescoes; Persian; Poets; Popular
Literature; Scribes; Shahnama; Stories and Storytell-
ing; Suleiman the Magnificent; Timurids; Translation,
Arabic to Persian; Turkish and Turkic Languages

Further Reading

Atil, Esin. Kalila wa Dimna: Fables from a Fourteenth-
Century Arabic Manuscript. Washington, DC: Smithso-
nian Institution Press, 1981.

Brockelmann, C. " Kalila wa-Dimna In Encyclopaedia of
Islam, New Edition, vol. 4, 503-6. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

De Blois, Francois. Burzoy’s Voyage to India and the Origin
of the Book of Kalilah wa Dimnah. London: Royal
Asiatic Society, 1990.

Grube, Ernst J., ed. A Mirror for Princes from India: Illu-
strated Versions of the Kalilah wa Dimnah, Anvar-i
Suhayli, Iyar-i Danish, and Humayun Nameh. Bombay:
Marg Publications, 1991.

O’Kane, Bernard. Early Persian Painting: Kalila and Dimna
Manuscripts of the Late Fourteenth Century. London and
New York: IB. Tauris, 2003.

Raby, Julian. "The Earliest Illustrations to Kalila wa
Dimna.” In A Mirror for Princes from India, ed. Ernst
J. Grube, 16-31.

Walzer, Sofie. “An Illustrated Leaf from a Lost Mamluk
Kalilah wa-Dimnah Manuscript.” Ars Orientalis
2 (1957): 503-5.

KARAITES

A Jewish sect, the Karaites emerged in the Islamic
East during the eighth and ninth centuries CE. The
Hebrew name qara’im (Arabic qara’iyun) probably
derives from miqra, or “scripture,” because the Kar-
aites are scripturalists who deny the authority of the
rabbinic tradition embodied in talmudic and midrash-
ic literature, depending instead directly on the Bible,
which they interpret rationally. Although the sect’s
origins remain obscure, medieval sources connect its
rise with a certain Anan ben David (active in Iraq
during the middle of the eighth century). During the
late ninth century, Karaite ideology crystallized
around three principal ideas: (1) opposition to rab-
binic teachings and leadership; (2) an apocalyptic
worldview; and (3) the physical return to Zion. Daniel
al-Qumisi of Damaghan argued that the Jews’
suffering in exile was divine punishment for their
having instituted rabbinic legislation of human origin.
Reading scripture prognostically, he referred prophe-
cies to contemporary times, identifying biblical
names, places, people, and images with the world he
knew. Assuming a central role in the unfolding escha-
tological drama, his followers called themselves
“Mourners for Zion” (Isa. 61:3). Settling in Jerusa-
lem, they studied and recited scripture, observed vig-
ils, and fasted.

The Karaites elicited firm opposition from rabbinic
leaders, notably Sa’adyah Gaon. Polemics between
Rabbanites (adherents of rabbinic Judaism) and Kar-
aites were harsh, but competition between the two
groups undoubtedly contributed to the intellectual
flowering of eastern Jewry. During the tenth century,
Karaite scholars stood at the forefront of Jewish
learning. Like Sa’adyah, they wrote extensively in
Arabic on a range of subjects, including law, biblical
exegesis, grammar, lexicography, and theology. Most
of the leading figures hailed from Iran and Iraq, but,
with the notable exception of the exegete and codifier
Ya’qub al-Qirqisani (d. c. 938), they migrated to the
Holy Land.

During the tenth and eleventh centuries, Jerusalem
became the Karaites’ intellectual center. Among the
foremost scholars of the city were the commentator
Japheth ben Eli, the grammarian Abu’l-Faraj Harun,
and the theologian and jurist Yusuf al-Basir. Writing
mostly in Arabic, they adapted Mu’tazilite theology,
Islamic legal theory, Qur’anic hermeneutics, and Ara-
bic grammatical terminology to their own sectarian
needs.

Meanwhile, new Karaite centers developed in
Egypt, Byzantium, and Andalusia. In Egypt, where
members of the Karaite Tustari family served the Fati-
mid caliphs, Rabbanite and Karaite Jews maintained

433

KARAITES

cordial relations, even intermarrying. With the ex-
tinction of the Jerusalem community (late eleventh
century), the Egyptian center became the most impor-
tant in the Islamic lands, surviving until the end of
the twentieth century. In Spain, Ibn Elazm documen-
ted the presence of Karaites during the mid-eleventh
century. Andalusian Rabbanites, such as Judah
Halevi, Abraham Ibn Daud, and Maimonides, sharp-
ly condemned Karaite teachings, and they recorded
efforts to suppress the sect. In Byzantium, the sectar-
ians translated a large body of scholarship from
Arabic to Hebrew, adapting Karaite teachings and
practices to a new Christian environment. The com-
munities that later developed in the Crimea, Poland,
and Lithuania originally looked to Constantinople
for spiritual guidance. Today, there are perhaps
twenty-live thousand Karaites in the world; most are
of Egyptian extraction and reside in Israel.

Daniel Frank

See also Hebrew; Judah Halevi; Judeo- Arabic; Kalam;
Polemics and Disputation; Sa‘adyah Gaon; Scriptural
Exegesis, Jewish; Translation, Arabic to Hebrew

Primary Sources

Nemoy, Leon. Karaite Anthology. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1952.

Further Reading

Ankori, Zvi. Karaites in Byzantium: The Formative Years,
970-1100. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959.
Baron, Salo W. A Social and Religious History of the Jews,
2nd ed. 18 vols., vol. 5, 209-85. New York: Columbia
University Press; Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication
Society of America, 1952-1983.

Frank, Daniel. Search Scripture Well: Karaite Exegetes and
the Origins of the Jewish Bible Commentary in the Islamic
East. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004.

Polliack, Meira, ed. Karaite Judaism: A Guide to Its History
and Literary Sources. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers,
2003.

KARBALA

Karbala is the site of one of the earliest tragedies in
Muslim history, where Husayn (grandson of the
Prophet Muhammad) and several members of his
family and supporters were killed in 680 CE. It
became in time a place of pilgrimage for the Slii'is
and other devotees and the location of the mausoleum
of Husayn. At present, it is one of the largest towns in
southern Iraq, located some sixty miles southwest of
Baghdad, and it has grown to become one of the most
important pilgrimage centers for Shi’i Muslims.

More recently, after the fall of Saddam Hussein
and his regime in 2003, Karbala became the scene of
battles and conflict for control by various Shi’i groups
and others, but it has also regained its significance as
a pilgrimage site for the global Shi’i community after
a long period of the suppression of devotional prac-
tices associated with its historical significance. Its
many seminaries attract Twelver Shi’i students for
study and training as religious teachers and leaders.

In 680 CE, after the death of Muawiyah, who
had forcibly assumed the role of caliph and estab-
lished his rule based in Damascus, Yazid, his son,
whom he had nominated as his successor, faced op-
position from several quarters. Many Muslims saw an
opportunity to restore just and legitimate rule though
Husayn, whose accession to power they supported.
He set out from Medina to Kufa to build further
support and to challenge Yazid. However, he and
his band of followers and family members were inter-
cepted by Yazid’s troops and forced to camp at
Karbala. The battle — or, more appropriately, the
massacre — that ensued at the hands of Yazid’s army
is recorded by Muslim historians as an event of tragic
proportions and as an act of brave defiance, leading
to the martyrdom of Husayn. The event and the site
became reference points for commemorating the
tragedy and elaborating a set of ritual acts and
remembrances that reflect themes of suffering, perse-
cution, oppression, and martyrdom that have since
dominated Shi’i writings and rituals.

Husayn and his brother Abbas, as well as others
killed in the battle, were buried in Karbala, and soon
members of his family and followers visited Karbala
for prayers and remembrance. Over the course of
Muslim history, several rulers opposed to its signifi-
cance as a pilgrimage site either attempted to destroy
the site or to restrict access to it, and the tomb was
also destroyed by fire. The great fourteenth-century
traveler Ibn Battuta describes his visit to Karbala and
the site of the tomb as well as the presence of a
mosque and madrasa. Over the course of subsequent
history, Safavid rulers from Iran and the Ottoman
sultan visited the site to pay homage and to endow
improvements and enhancement of the shrines of
Imam Husayn and his brother Abbas. The present
gold covering of the dome of the mausoleum was
donated by the Iranian Qajar ruler toward the end
of the eighteenth century.

In 1801, Karbala was taken by the new Wahhabis
from Arabia, who destroyed and looted the shrine,
sacking the town in the process. However, the shrine
was restored in due course through donations from
the devout, and it has undergone continuous refur-
bishment and expansion since that time. During the
regime of Saddam Hussein (1979-2003), the Shi’is

434

KHARIJIS (768 CE)

of Karbala and other groups who were opposed to
Hussein were severely persecuted, and heavy restric-
tions were placed on visits to the shrine as well as on
scholarly activity in Karbala. Karbala is surrounded
by a number of cemeteries, reflecting the wish of many
devout Shi’is to be buried near Imam Husayn and
other martyrs. It is also the seat of several places of
learning, and, after its recent turbulent history,
Karbala is struggling to revive its traditional role as
a pilgrimage city and a seat of religious learning and
scholarship.

Azim Nanji

Further Reading

Ayoub, M. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the
Devotional Aspects of Ashura in Twelver Shiism. The
Hague: Mouton, 1978.

Cole, Juan. Sacred Space and Holy War. London: I.B.
Tauris, 2002.

Jafri, S.M. The Origins and Early Development of Shia
Islam. London and New York: Longman, 1979.

Litvak, Meir. Shii Scholars of Nineteenth Century Iraq:
The Ulama of Najaf and Karbala. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Pinault, D. Horse of Karbala: Muslim Devotional Life in
India. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

KHALID IBN AL-WALID

Khalid ibn al-Walid was the most famous military
commander of early Islamic times. He was a member
of the powerful Makhzum tribe, who converted to
Islam after the hijra. He fought against Muhammad
at Uhud in AH 3/625 CE, where his tactical brilliance
played a significant role in Muhammad’s first military
defeat. After his conversion, Khalid assisted Muham-
mad in taking Mecca in 9/630. He then subdued the
Hawazin and the Thaqafis, who continued to defy
Muhammad after his success at Mecca. During the
ridda wars, Khalid aided Abu Bakr in preserving the
community by defeating the false prophet Musaylima
at Akraba in 12/633.

Khalid is most famous for his leadership of cam-
paigns against the Byzantines and Sasanians to the
north. Abu Bakr sent a force under Khalid's command
to Iraq in 12/633. There, Khalid subdued al-Hira and
other important cities along the Euphrates. In 13/634,
he was ordered to turn his forces to the west to rein-
force the Muslim armies fighting the Byzantines in
Syria. His six-day march through the waterless Syrian
desert is one of the most daring and celebrated exploits
of the Muslim conquests. After successfully crossing
the desert, he led Muslim forces at Bostra and
Yarmuk, and he then negotiated the surrender of
Damascus in 14/635. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab dismissed

him from his command soon thereafter. Khalid con-
tinued to campaign on the Byzantine frontier until his
death in 21/642.

Like ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and others, Khalid was an
elite Meccan who joined Muhammad’s movement
rather late but rose to prominence despite his earlier
opposition to Muhammad. The historical sources dis-
play a certain ambivalence about him, reflecting the
distrust many of the ansar held for the Meccan late-
comers who supplanted them in leadership positions.
Consequently, his tactical brilliance and martial valor
were tainted by suspicions about his morality and the
sincerity of his faith. His moral shortcomings were
apparently sufficient to persuade ‘Umar ibn al-Khat-
tab to dismiss his most successful general.

There is also some debate among scholars about
details of Khalid’s famous journey across the Syrian
desert. It is impossible to reconcile contradictions in
his itinerary, which has him taking either a northern
or a southern route through the desert. However,
details of his route are less important than the evi-
dence of the centralized command presented in the
stories. The caliph’s orders to his army in Iraq to
reinforce his army in Syria suggest a high degree of
coordination of forces under the command of the
caliph. Khalid’s willingness to submit to the com-
mand of other generals in Syria and to accept the
caliph’s dismissal also suggest that the command
structure of the conquering armies was more sophis-
ticated and hierarchical than is sometimes suggested.

Steven C. Judd

Primary Sources

Al-Baladhuri, Amad ibn Yahya. Futuh al-BuIdan, ed. M.J.
de Goeje. Leiden, 1866.

Al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir. Ta'rikh al-Rusul
wa-l-Muluk, ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901.

Further Reading

Donner, Fred. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1981.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.
London: Longman, 1986.

KHARIJIS (768 CE)

The Khariji “seceders” or “those who go out” (kha-
warij) were a sect that arose at the time of the first
Rashidun (Rightly Guided) Caliphate and during the
struggles over succession between the companions of
the Prophet. Kharijis who had initially supported
‘Ali’s (656-661) accession to the caliphate found that
his compromises with Arab interests after the battle

435

KHARIJIS (768 CE)

of Siffin (in 657) against Mu’awiya after the murder of
‘Uthman were a violation of religious principles.
Kharijis rose against ‘Ali at Nahrawan in 658 and
were defeated, but a Khariji later assassinated ‘Ali in
661, indirectly leading to the Arab succession of
Mu’awiya and the Umayyad dynasty.

The Khariji opposition centered on the political
leadership of Islam and the rejection of the worldly
authority of the (initially) Umayyad caliphal regime.
They maintained that there was no precedence in
Islam except for virtue (the fulfillment of all laws
and duties incumbent on Muslims as individuals),
and, by committing a sin, sinners had apostatized,
renounced their faith, and — some extreme Kharijis
said — thus incurred the penalty of death. The Kharijis
thus rejected the hereditary succession to the caliphate
and the restriction of it to Arabs; rather, Kharijis held
that the head of the Islamic community was the imam
elected on the basis of religious learning and piety.
Ultimately, the Kharijis contributed to the emergence
of a self-conscious Islamic identity.

With such an uncompromising stance, especially
toward the incumbent caliphal regime, the Kharijis
became a disparate and persecuted group with rebel-
lious and fanatical inclinations, and they often found
refuge in the peripheral regions of the empire. Initially
based in Basra, the Kharijis inspired numerous rebel-
lions against Umayyad rule in the Arab east
(Mashriq) from the 660s. In Iraq, Kharijis led by
Ibn al-Azraq (known later as Azariqa) gained the
support of non-Arab Persian Muslims and propa-
gated the most extreme form of Khariji doctrine.
However, from 675 to 684, the Umayyad Governor
‘Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad undertook a bloody cam-
paign against the Kharijis, supplying numerous mar-
tyrs to the sect. From their ideological epicenter in
Basra, the Kharijis gradually divided into three dis-
tinct groups named after their eponymous leaders: the
extremist Azariqa (“blues”), the radical Sufriya (“yel-
low”), and the moderate Ibadiya (“whites”). In the
Arab peninsula, Najda ibn Amir in particular used
Kharijism as a banner for rebellion in the empire, and
the Najdites controlled large territories in eastern
Arabia, Yemen, and the Hadramawt until they were
finally defeated by ‘Abbasid power. Later in the ninth
century, Khariji doctrine inspired a revolt of African
slaves (the Zanj) in southern Iraq. At times and places
in which the caliphate was weak, Khariji leadership
filled the void.

Khariji Islam had its most profound influence in
North African Maghrib. Political fugitives from the
Arab east (Mashriq) brought the Khariji teachings
and found a receptive audience in the independently
minded Berber populations in the Maghrib. Khariji

missionaries (both Sufrite and Ibadite Khariji) are
reputed to have appeared in Qayrawan (Ifriqiya) at
around 719. Sufrite Khariji influence in the Maghrib
is attributed to a Berber missionary, Tkrima. Berbers
used the Khariji doctrine against the remote and
sometimes oppressive rule of their Arab conquerors,
denouncing caliphal rule as having departed from the
true Islamic path. At issue were the demands that the
Arab conquerors of the Maghreb made on the Berber
populations, who, as well as the usual — and Islamic —
principles of jizya (poll tax) and kharaj (land tax),
also bore the unlawful levying of human tribute, es-
pecially of slave girls. Moreover, as non-Arab con-
verts to Islam (mawali; clients of Arab tribes), Muslim
Berber recruits to the Muslim army were given a
status that was inferior to Arabs.

The Berbers, who were initially under the leadership
of the Sufrite Maysara, a “water carrier from Qayra-
wan” who was influenced by Tkrima, rebelled against
caliphal rule in 739 and 740 in Tangier. In 741, they
destroyed a large Umayyad army in North Africa, but
they were prevented from taking Qayrawan. Only in
756 did the Sufrite Kharijis (and the Warfajuma Ber-
bers who dominated the ranks) conquer Qayrawan.
Ibadi Kharijis then briefly conquered Qayrawan in
758 and installed the (Iranian) Imam Ibn Rustman,
who was forced westward by the consolidation of the
new ‘Abbasid dynasty over the empire.

Resistance and recalcitrance continued, which
brought about the foundation of small sectarian
Khariji states in Algeria and Morocco. The western
Maghrib became a stronghold for independent Khariji
Berber leaders. Berber-Khariji states were founded at
Tlemsen (under the Sufrite leadership of Abu Qurra),
Tahert (Ibadite Rustamids), and Sijilmassa (Sufrite
Midrarids). The Berber Kharijis also founded small
trading oases, and they developed trade routes with
the Sudanic African kingdoms and were among the
first carriers of Islam into Sudanic Africa.

Cedric Barnes

Further Reading

Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib in the
Islamic Period. Princeton, NJ: 1987.

Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam: Religion and
Society in the Near East 600-1800. Cambridge, 2003.

Brett, M. “The Arab Conquest and the Rise of Islam in North
Africa.” In The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 2., From
c. 500 BC to AD 1050, ed. J.D. Fage. Cambridge, 1978.

Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. London,
1991.

Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge,
2002 .

Lewicki, Tadeuz. “The Ibadites in Arabia and Africa.”
Journal of World History Vol. XIII (1971 ).

436

KHURASAN

KHATIB AL-BAGHDADI, AL-

Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn ' A 1 i
ibn Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Shafi’i, the
“Preacher of Baghdad” and the “Traditionalist of
the East,” was born in 1002 CE in a village in the
vicinity of Baghdad, and he died in the city in 1071.
Beginning his studies very early with his father and
other local sheikhs, he soon immersed himself in the
science of the prophetic traditions (hadith), which
remained the focus of his intellectual pursuits thereaf-
ter. His keen interest in the hadith led him to under-
take long journeys to several centers of learning,
reaching as far as Nishapur in search of knowledge.
He sought to hear Islamic traditions directly from the
lips of various authorities and, through them, become
a link in the chain of transmission extending back to
the Prophet. During the years after his first return to
Baghdad in 1028, he became a great authority on
hadith, and his fame spread far beyond the city’s
walls.

Al-Khatib’s life belonged to a particularly crucial
period in the history of Baghdad and the eastern part
of the ‘Abbasid caliphate as a whole, a period marked
by the expansion of Shi’ism under the Buyids and the
restoration of Sunnism under the Seljuks. During the
“Shi’i century” as well as the period immediately
after, Ibn al-Hanbal’s pupils, who were numerous
and powerful in Baghdad, not only took it upon
themselves to persecute the Shi’is, but they were also
occupied in fighting rationalism of all types. At first a
Hanbali like his father, al-Khatib later followed the
Shafi’i school of jurisprudence and adopted the
Ash’ari opinions, thereby entering upon the clashes
between the Hanbalis and the “masters of opinion”
over the status of rational investigation. The religious
and political turmoil in Baghdad at his time further
encouraged him to embark on long journeys to sever-
al Syrian towns and on a pilgrimage and long sojourn
to Mecca. Finally, in 1059, he returned to his native
city after the Seljuks restored order there.

Al-Khatib’s magnum opus is Ta’rikh Baghdad,
an immense biographical dictionary containing
more than 7800 entries about scholarly, pious, and
famous men and women connected with Baghdad
from the earliest times. Prefaced by a substantial
topographical introduction, the History of Baghdad
was intended by its author to convey the imperial
splendor of the city’s physical image and the intellec-
tual climate created by its thousands of noted scholars
and pious individuals. In the view of the famous
preacher, Baghdad was the geographical center of
the Islamic empire and the most important center of
Islamic thought. At the same time, his monumental
work set the model for the genre of local history, one

of the most productive genres of Arabic and Persian
historiography during the Middle Periods (950-1500).

For all its value as a local history and for further-
ing the evolution of this genre, Ta’rikh Baghdad
should not be regarded merely as a panegyric of
local intellect. The accuracy with which al-Khatib
reconstructed the chains of transmission over the
generations and the judicious care with which he
recorded and narrated the transmitters’ lives and activ-
ities resulted in a comprehensive work of scholarship
and the product of a renowned traditionalist. His
extensive work on hadith demonstrated his profound
erudition in this science and established his authority
as one of the greatest critical experts of hadith
methodology throughout the Islamic medieval period.

Daphna Ephrat

Further Reading

Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn
Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi. Ta’rikh Baghdad aw
Madinat al-Salam, 14 vols. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji,
1931.

. Ta’rikh Baghdad. (Topographical introduction.)

a) Arabic text: Vol. 1 of 1931 Cairo Edition.

b) Translated by G. Salmon as L 'Introduction Topogra-
phique a L’Histoire d’Ahou Bakr Ahmad ibn Thabit
al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. Paris: Bouillon, 1904.

c) Translated by Jacob Lassner as Topography of Bagh-
dad in the Early Middle Ages : Texts and Studies.
Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press, 1970.

Ahmed, Munir ud-Din. Muslim Education and the Scholars’
Social Status up to the 5th Century Muslim Era (11th
Century Christian Era) in Light of Ta’rikh Baghdad.
Zurich: Verlag “Der Islam,” 1968.

Cahen, Claude. “L’Historiographie Arabe: Des Origins au
VII e S. H.” Arabica 33 (1986): 150-198.

Humphreys, R. Stephen, “Historiography, Islamic.” Dictio-
nary of the Middle Ages, 13 vols., ed. Joseph R. Strayer,
vol. vi, 249-55. New York: Charles Scribner & Sons,
1982-1989.

Sellheim, R. Arabische Handschriften, Materialien zur Ara-
bischen Literaturgeschichte. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1974.

KHURASAN

One of the most important cradles of the Iranian
civilization, the province of Khurasan (also called
Khorasan) has been a crossroads of cultures since
antiquity. The cultures of Iran during the pre-Islamic,
Islamic and Pahlavi (ca. 1925-1979 CE) periods, the
cultures of Central Asia up to China, and the cultures
of India encountered each other constantly. The name
is probably a contraction of Khur and is tan. literally
the "place of the sun.”

The province’s borders have blurred and changed
with time. One can, however, roughly delineate them

437

KHURASAN

during the classical and medieval eras from the south-
east of the Caspian Sea to the center of modern
Afghanistan and from the upper Oxus River in
Central Asia up to the north of Sistan.

During the Middle Ages and up to the Mongol
invasion at the beginning of the AH seventh/thirteenth
century CE, the city of Marw and the capital city of
Nishapur were two of the biggest metropolises of the
Islamic empire. Both were almost entirely destroyed
by the Mongol troops, and even if historians have
possibly exaggerated, it seems that about 1.5 million
people were massacred there. The devastation of
Khurasan would last for more than a century, and it
would not be until the arrival of the Timurids in the
mid-eighth/fourteenth century that both great cities —
and others, such as Herat and Bayhaq — would grad-
ually recover their former prosperity.

What was once the village of Sanabad became the
city of Mashhad (“place of martyrdom”), which was
built around the mausoleum of the Twelvers’ eighth
imam ‘Ali al-Rida; the mausoleum was already richly
decorated by the time of Ilkhanid Iran. Mashhad
began to grow more and more, starting with the
Safavid era (tenth/sixteenth century) and the procla-
mation of Shi’ism as the state religion in Iran. To this
day, Mashhad remains the capital city of Khurasan,
with more than two million inhabitants.

The population of Khurasan has always been
mixed. The Iranian substratum has of course al-
ways been its main component. After the Arab con-
quest, however, under the reign of the third caliph
‘Uthman, expatriates from Yemen’s Qaysite and
Azdite tribes settled there permanently. In addition,
Turkmens, Kurds, Baluches, Hazaras, and Central
Asian nomads contributed to make the population a
rich ethnic melting pot.

Around 130/748, Khurasan became the center of
the ‘Abbasid revolution, and the Khurasanian troops
of the famous Abu Muslim were its main participants.
Al-Ma’mun acceded to the caliphate from Marw in
193/813. This explains, at least in part, the great influ-
ence of the Iranians under the first ‘Abbasid rulers.

During the Islamic era, Khurasan was indeed the
heart of what could be called “Iranity.” The Sama-
nids from Khurasan, succeeding two other Iranian
dynasties, the Tahirid and Safavid, started in the
third/ninth century the great movement to preserve
Persian culture and language. Thus, Persian became
the second language of Islam, after Arabic.

To illustrate this Irano-Islamic Renaissance, one
need only recall the great numbers of scholars, learned
persons, and intellectuals that came from Khurasan:
Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ghazali,
Bayhaqi, Nasir-i Khusraw, the authors of the great
classics of Sufism (Sarraj, Kalabadhi, Qushayri,

Ansari, and Jami), and the founders of Persian mysti-
cal poetry (Abu Sa’id Abu ’1-Khayr, Sana’i, and

‘Attar).

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

Further Reading

Cambridge History of Iran, vol. I, ed. W.B. Fischer. Cam-
bridge, 1968. vol. IV, ed. CE Bosworth. Cambridge,
1975.

Bosworth, C.E. “Khurasan.” In EI2, vol. V, 57-61.

Herzfeld, E. “ Khorasan: Denkmalsgeographische Studien
zur Kulturgeschichte des Islams in Iran.” Der Islam 1 1
(1921): 107-194.

Shaban, A. “Khurasan at the Time of the Arab Conquest.”
In Iran and Islam. In Memory of the Late Vladimir
Minorsky, ed. C.E. Bosworth, 479-90. Edinburgh, 1971.

KHUZA’I, AHMAD IBN NASR

Ahmad ibn Nasr al-Khuza’i died in 846 CE at the
hands of the Caliph al-Wathiq. Of the different ver-
sions of this story, al-Tabari presents the most com-
plete account. Ahmad’s execution is usually pointed
to as being the result of a steadfast refusal to acqui-
esce during the Mihna (the Inquisition of 833 through
848 or 851); however, when his activities are consid-
ered in context, this assessment seems to be less cer-
tain. The basic outline of events is that, in 846,
Ahmad, at the prodding of a group of prominent
hadith (tradition) scholars, proclaimed his vehement
opposition to the createdness of the Qur’an, and fol-
lowers quickly gathered around him. Al-Tabari, in an
aside, tells us that Ahmad was one of the members of
the “vigilante” movement in Baghdad from 813 to
819; however, he does not mention this in his recount-
ing of those troubles. One suspects that this informa-
tion was added to enhance Ahmad’s prestige as one
who had a long history of commanding good and
forbidding evil.

Ahmad gathered followers and prepared for a re-
volt. There is disagreement about the particulars, but
his attempt to rebel was discovered, and the plotters
were rounded up. Evidence was found to implicate
some of them, but not Ahmad. He and five other
conspirators were sent off to Samarra to face trial in
front of the caliph. At this point, the narrative turns
to focus on Ahmad exclusively. The Caliph al-Wathiq
(r. 842-847) tried Ahmad himself. Asked twice about
his position on the createdness of the Qur’an, Ahmad
responded twice saying that it is “the word of God”
and refused to go any further.

Next, Ahmad was questioned about the beatific
vision — that is, whether one would be able to see
God on the Day of Judgment. His response did not

438

KILWA (KILWA KISIWANI)

mollify the caliph. The caliph then turned and asked
those around him for their verdict. Ahmad’s blood
was declared forfeit, and the caliph moved to enforce
the verdict. However, it is made clear that the caliph
was in charge the entire time. Al-Wathiq called for his
sword and proceeded to implement the sentence. It
took a series of blows, but the job was eventually
done. This, however, leaves the central question
unanswered: for what was Ahmad convicted that in-
curred the death penalty? There were many others
tried during the Mihna, but very few were actually
executed. In all versions of the narrative, Ahmad’s
body was then gibbeted next to the notorious rebel
Babak. His head was sent to Baghdad to be put on
display, with a description of his crime hung on his ear.
This gives us some clues as to what al-Tabari perceived
to be his crime. He was clearly tried and convicted as a
rebel against the community of believers as embodied
in the caliph. His association with rebellion established
a case against him, and his refusal to answer the caliph
correctly under questioning defined and proved his
rebellion. Some sources characterize him as a steadfast
defender of the faith in the same vein as Ibn Hanbal;
other versions characterize him as a rebel worthy of his
punishment. Al-Tabari includes the removal of
Ahmad’s body from the gibbet in 851 as part of his
notation that al-Mutawakkil forbade any debate
about the createdness or uncreatedness of the Qur’an,
thus indicating that the Mihna had come to an end.

John P. Turner

See also Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil; Ibn
Hanbal; al-Ma’mun; al-Tabari

Primary Sources

Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi. Ta’rikh Baghdad , vol. 5. Cairo:
Maktabat al-Khanji, 1931.

Al-Tabari, Abu Ja’far. Incipient Decline, transl. J.L.
Kraemer, vol. 34. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1989.

Al-Ya’qubi, Ahmad ibn Abi Ya’qub. Ta’rikh al-Ya’qubi, ed.
‘Abd al-Amir Muhanna. Beirut: Mu’assasa al-‘Ulami
li’l-Matbu‘at, 1993.

KILWA (KILWA KISIWANI)

Kilwa is an island off the coast of southern Tanzania.
The urban settlement located there and known by the
same name (also known as Kilwa Kisiwani; “Kilwa
on the island”) was one of the earliest Swahili trading
towns. From approximately the tenth century CE,
stone structures were erected, as were sea barriers.
Iron was used, and it was also an important trade
item. During the following centuries, because of its
safe harbor and good fresh water supply, Kilwa rose
to become the foremost entrepot of East African

Kilwa, East African trading town. The ruins of the great
mosque which was founded in the thirteenth c. and much
extended in the fifteenth c. by Sultan Muhamed. Islamic.
Credit: Werner Forman/ Art Resource, NY. Kilwa, Tanzania.

coast goods such as gold, slaves, and ivory from the
interior. Imported goods included cloth, beads, fur-
nishings, and pottery, mainly of Asian origin. Chinese
pottery and Persian earthenware have been excavated
from the early Kilwa settlements.

Like many of the Swahili cities, Kilwa mythologi-
cal origins are recorded in a chronicle. The oldest
recorded version of the Kilwa chronicle was recorded
by the Portuguese de Barros during the sixteenth
century. This was called the Cronica dos Reyes de
Quiloa, and it referred to the arrival of kings from
Shiraz, Persia, who set up kingdoms in Kilwa, as well
as other places. Later research has interpreted the
chronicle as the arrival of social and political hierar-
chical structures related to the emergence of Kilwa
as a Muslim society as well as the transition from
hunting and fishing to trade.

Archaeological evidence has demonstrated that the
minting of coins took place at Kilwa and in the north-
ern islands of Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mafia in the
period from about 1000 to 1150. There is also architec-
tural evidence of a uniform layout of mosques and
prayer rooms. On this basis, Horton and Middleton
have suggested that a closely related Muslim dynasty
may have lived on these islands during the period
before 1200, thus adding some substance to the mythi-
cal origins related in the chronicle. There exists also a
corresponding Arab foundation myth, which is also
found in the chronicles. Here, the newcomers arrive
from Arabia (most likely Yemen or al-Hasa near

439

KILWA (KILWA KISIWANI)

Bahrain), and they are Zaydis. Here, too, archaeo-
logical and historical evidence suggest some truth to
the myth, revealing information about ruling houses of
Arab origin that ruled from approximately 1300 to
1600.

By the time the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta
visited Kilwa in 1331, it was a well-established city
with one- or two-story houses and a Friday mosque
that was first constructed during the eleventh century
and expanded during the 1300s. Between about 1100
and 1500, Kilwa remained one of the principal ports
for Indian Ocean trade.

Starting in the late fifteenth century, Kilwa went
into a decline. This was marked by the arrival of the
Portuguese on the coast and later by the rise of the
northern cities of Mombasa, Lamu, and — finally,
during the nineteenth century, under Omani rule —
Zanzibar. After a brief period of revival based on
slave trade, Kilwa, by the late eighteenth century,
had become an outpost of the Omani empire. By the
mid-nineteenth century, it was abandoned. In 1981,
the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani were named a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.

Anne K. Bang

Further Reading

Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. The East African Coast: Select
Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Cen-
tury. London, 1962.

Chittick, H.N. Kilwa: An Islamic Trading City on the East
African Coast, 2 vols., memo 5. Nairobi: British Institute
in Eastern Africa, 1974.

Hamdun, S., and N. King. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa.
Princeton, NJ: Marcus Wiener Publications, 1998.
(First edition: 1975.)

Horton, Mark, and John Middleton. The Swahili. Blackwell
Publishers, 2000.

KINDI, AL-,

Al-Kindi was a tenth-century Arab-Muslim historian
of Egypt who died in 961 CE. There is little available
information on the life of Abu ‘Umar Muhammad
ibn Yusuf al-Kindi apart from that transmitted by a
contemporary, the historian Abu Muhammad ‘Abd
Allah ibn Ahmad al-Farghani (d. 973). The latter’s
writings, in turn, are known only from quotations in
later Arab-Islamic sources, most notably the Kitab
al-Muqaffa al-Kabir of al-Maqrizi (d. 1441), which
contains a short biographical note about al-Kindi
with material from al-Farghani. A small amount of
information can also be culled from al-Kindi’s two
surviving works (see below). Born in Egypt in 897,
al-Kindi was of Arab descent. He received a classical

education that consisted mainly of Qur’anic exegesis,
study and transmission of hadith (tradition), and
the law. Al-Maqrizi identifies him as an historian
(mu’arrikh) and legal scholar (faqih) and adds that
he belonged to the Hanafi legal school. Among those
from whom al-Kindi learned hadith were the promi-
nent scholar and author of one of the canonical Sunni
collections of hadith, Abu ‘Abd al-Rahhman al-
Nasa’i (d. 915). Another teacher, ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan
ibn Qudayd (d. 925), was a key historical informant
judging from the frequent citations of his name in al-
Kindi’s writings.

Al-Kindi is credited with at least eight works,
only two of which appear to have survived. These
two works, preserved in a British Museum manu-
script, are Tasmiyat Wulat Misr (The Enumeration
of the Rulers of Egypt), usually called Umar a’ Misr
(The Governors of Egypt), and al-Qudat (The Judg-
es). These were edited and published in 1912 by
Rhuvon Guest. Both works are used extensively
by later writers, most notably al-Maqrizi who,
in many instances, is content to do so without
acknowledgment.

The Governors, in its extant form, covers the period
from the Arab-Islamic conquest of Egypt (641) to the
end of the reign of Muhammad ibn Tughj (d. 946), the
first of the Ikshidid rulers of Egypt. A later unknown
writer added material to the manuscript that brings
the work up to the arrival of the Fatimids (969). The
book, arranged chronologically, is divided into sec-
tions that are each devoted to a particular governor or
ruler. It consists largely of political and administrative
history, although it provides valuable details about
the lives of the officials themselves. It is often cited as
a key example of provincial histories from the early
Islamic period that provide counterweight to the
sources generated in Iraq, most notably al-Tabari’s
Ta’rikh (History). Among the sections of greatest
value are those devoted to al-Sari ibn al-Hakam
(d. 820), an early ‘Abbasid governor, and to Ahmad
ibn Tulun (d. 884), head of the Tulunids (868-905),
the first autonomous dynasty in Egypt. Al-Kindi’s
lost works apparently included a biography of Sari
ibn al-Hakam.

The second work, The Judges, concludes around
861 (with the appointment of a certain Bakkar ibn
Qutayba) and is similarly supplemented by two con-
tinuations, one attributed to an Ahmad ibn Burd
and the second by an anonymous author, that bring
the work into the eleventh century; it is organized
chronologically as well. Information, often given in
anecdotal form, sheds valuable light on the judicial
and legal history of Egypt during the early Islamic
period.

Matthew S. Gordon

440

KIRMANI, AL-, HAMID AL-DIN

Further Reading

Guest, Rhuvon. “Introduction.” In al-Kindi, Muhammad
ibn Yusuf. The Governors and Judges of Egypt, ed. R.
Guest. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1912
Rosenthal, Franz. “Al-Kindi, Abu ‘Umar Muhammad.” In
The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed.

KINDI, AL-, PHILOSOPHER

Al-Kindi, Abu-Yusuf Ya’qub ibn-lshaq ibn-
al-Sabbah (d. ca. AH 252/865 CE), was a scientist
and philosopher. Coming from a distinguished family
of the Kinda Arabs, he was connected with the ca-
liphal court of Baghdad until the political changes of
the mid-century. He was tutor to the ‘Abbasid
Prince Ahmad ibn al-Mu’tasim (son of the Caliph
al-Mu’tasim, r. 833-842). Both as a scientist and as
a literary figure, he reflected the practical and intel-
lectual interests of the autocratic aristocracy and
its administrative elite. His enormous oeuvre encom-
passes the whole range of the Hellenistic sciences,
which were made accessible during his lifetime
through translations from Greek and Syriac, where
al-Kindi appears to have been directing his own circle
of translators. His activity marks the taking over —
after the predominantly Iranian bias of the early
‘Abbasid administration — of Hellenism (allied with
Arabism in literary erudition [adab]) during the
formative period of classical Islamic culture; this
earned him the byname of “Philosopher of the
Arabs” (Faylasuf al-‘ Arab).

In astronomy, his writings attended the final suc-
cess of Ptolemy’s Almagest (e.g., his Book on the
Great Art [k. ft -Sind' a al-'Uzma; dependent on
Theon’s commentary]), and descriptions of observa-
tional instruments. In astrology, while applying the
Iranian “world year” model, he used it for predicting
the continuance of the Arab caliphate (Epistle on the
Kingdom of the Arabs and Its Duration [Risdla ft
Mulk al- Arab wa-Kammiyyatihtf ) . In optics, he con-
tributed to the Euclidian geometry of vision and
perspective in his Revision of Euclid’s Book on Optics
(Isldh al-Mandzir). In musical theory, he presented
the Greek doctrine of harmonic proportions (e.g., in
his Risdla ft Khubr ta’lTf al-Alhdn). In pharmacology,
he applied Galen’s doctrine of the forces of the
simplicia to develop a theory of the action of
composite drugs ( K . ft Ma’rifat Quwd l-Adwiya al-
Murakkaba and other works on pharmacy and
perfumes). His works on magic and the occult (e.g.,
De Radiis, which is extant in a Latin version) and
also his doctrine of the immortal soul and its return
to the “world of intellect” are based on a system of
cosmic sympathy in which the gnostic and hermetic

tendencies of late Neoplatonism survive in a religion
for intellectuals.

His philosophy is based on the physics and meta-
physics of Aristotle as well as on the Neoplatonic
sources transmitted under Aristotle’s name, all of
which were translated in his circle. In his treatise On
the First Philosophy, which was dedicated to the ca-
liph al-Mutasim (K. ild l-Mu’tasim bi-Lldh ft l-Falsafa
al-ula), he demonstrated that the First Cause — the
cause of being and the highest object of knowl-
edge — must, by necessity, be one. With this, he legit-
imized the rational sciences by exposing their
consistency with the Islamic creed, the unity of God
(tawhtd Allah). Employing the creationist Neoplato-
nism of his sources, he built a philosophical ideology
that was in harmony with Islam and in which the
revelation to the Arabic Prophet serves as a necessary
mediator of absolute knowledge to all of mankind.

Gerhard Endress

Further Reading

El 2 s.n.; Sezgin, GAS, iii: 244 -7, 375-6 (medicine), v: 117,
255-9 (optics, mathematics), vi: 151-5 (astronomy), vii:
13CM- (astrology).

d’Alverny, M.-Th., and F. Hudry. “al-Kindi: De Radiis.”
Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Litteraire du Moyen
Age 41 (1975): 139-267.

Endress, G. “Die Wissenschaftliche Literatur.” In Grundriss
der Arabischen Philologie, vol. iii, 3-152. Wiesbaden,
1992.

Endress, G. “Al-Kindi Uber die Wiedererinnerung der
Seele.” Oriens 34 (1994): 174 -221.

Farmer, H. G. The Sources of Arabian Music, 45-56. Lei-
den, 1965.

Ivry, A.L. Al-Kindi’ s Metaphysics. Albany, 1974.

Jolivet, J. L’lntellect Selon Kindi. Leiden, 1971.

Jolivet, J., and Roshdi Rashed, eds. CEuvres Philosophiques
et Scientifiques d’ al-Kindi. Leiden, 1997-1998).

Lindberg, D.C. “Alkindi’s Critique of Euclid’s Theory of
Vision.” Isis 62 (1971): 469-89.

Loth, O. “Al-Kindi als Astrolog.” In Morgenlandische For-
schungen, 261-309. Leipzig, 1875.

Rescher, N. Al-Kindi: An Annotated Bibliography.

Pittsburgh, 1964.

Rosenthal, V.F. “Al-Kindi and Ptolemy.” In Studi Orienta-
listici in Onore di G. Levi Della Vida, vol. ii, 436-56.
Rome, 1956.

Ullmann, M. Die Medizin im Islam, 123, 301f, 314. Leiden,
1970.

. Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam,

313f. Leiden, 1972.

Walzer, R. Greek into Arabic, 172-205. Oxford, UK, 1962.

KIRMANI, AL-, HAMID AL-DIN

Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani was a major Islamic theo-
logian-philosopher who was the most prominent
voice of the intellectual tradition among the Ismailis

441

KIRMANI, AL-, HAMID AL-D1N

at the time of the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (r. 996-
1021). A substantial number of his writings survive,
although — typically — almost no information about
his life and career is available. In fact, all of the details
available now derive from chance comments made by
him in his own books and treatises. They indicate that
he was originally active in Iraq and that later he visit-
ed Egypt and taught there before ultimately returning
eastward again. The only dates known for him range
from 1007 CE, when the earliest of his works was
written, to 1021, the year of his last known work; all
carry an explicit dedication to al-Hakim.

In his exposition of Ismaili doctrine, al-Kirmani
followed his predecessors in that movement except
with regard to the exceptional rigor that he himself
brought to the explanation of it. In matters of philos-
ophy, by contrast, he tended to steer away from the
Neoplatonism of the earlier Ismaili writers, such as al-
Sijistani and al-Nasafi, and instead to favor of a more
Aristotelian approach. In doing so he was evidently
influenced by the famous philosopher Abu Nasr al-
Farabi, many of whose ideas were reinterpreted by al-
Kirmani to create an Ismaili version of them. In his
adoption of such elements from the thought of al-
Farabi, he resembles his contemporary Abu ‘Ali lbn
Sina (Avicenna).

His most important teachings include the follow-
ing: a radically austere concept of God’s absolute,
unqualified unity that excludes the supreme deity
from any form of intellectual apprehension; a scheme
of ten angelic intellects that correspond with the heav-
enly spheres that together govern the physical realm;
a doctrine of human soul that has it commence its
existence as the first perfection of the natural body,
then be devoid of knowledge but able thereafter both
to learn and to perform worthy acts, if properly guid-
ed, and finally to achieve a second perfection when it
survives the death of its body; and a doctrine of
prophecy that considers the prophets to be the inter-
mediaries between the higher intellects and the human
community, making of them those who are res-
ponsible for conveying the enduring reality of the
world of intellect to mankind and thus lead the latter
to salvation and ultimate bliss.

His major works are The Comfort of Reason
(Rabat al-‘Aql ); The Golden Sayings (al-Aqwal al-
Dhahabivya); The Meadow (al-Riyad )\ The Exhor-
tation to the Guiders and the Guided ( Tanbih al-Hadi
wa’l-Mustahdi); The Pure Treatise Concerning the
Hallmarks of Religion (al-Risala al-Wadi’a fi ma’A-
lim al-Din); The Protecting Links to Guidance and
the Validation of the Superiority of ‘Ali Over the
Companions (Ma’asim al-Huda wa’l-Isaba fi Tafdil
Ali ‘ala al-Sahaba); and Lights to Illuminate the
Proof of the Imamate ( Masabih fi Ithbat al-Imama ) .

All of these survive, although several have not been
published; others exist in unreliable editions. A num-
ber of his minor treatises are also important, but to
date none have been translated.

Although a towering figure in his own time, al-
Kirmani’s subsequent influence during the era of Fati-
mid rule was not as remarkable. Among the later
Tayyibi Ismailis of the Yemen and India, however,
he and his works rose once again to the highest levels.

Paul E. Walker

Further Reading

De Bruijn, M.T.P. “al-Kirmani.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition.

De Smet, Daniel. La Quietude de L'Intellect: Neoplatonisme
et Gnose Ismaelienne dans L ’Oeuvre de Hamid ad-Din al-
Kirmani ( X e /Xf s. ) . Leuven: Peters, 1995.

. “Perfectio Prima — Perfectio Secunda, ou les Vicis-
situdes D’Une Notion, de S. Thomas aux Ismaeliens
Tayyibites du Yemen.” Recherches de Theologies et de
Philosophic Medievales 66 (1999): 254-88.

Walker, Paul E. Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani: Ismaili Thought
in the Age of al-Hakim. London, 1999.

KONYA

The modern town of Konya in Turkey is dominated
by the green cupola of the shrine marking the torbat
(grave) of its most illustrious son, Jalal al-Din RumI,
Maulana. Today RumI is big business, and the RumI
industry pervades the town as once the spirit of the
Mevlevi dervish order did Konya’s mosques and
bazaars. Although Konya, which was named Iconium
in Roman times, has a long history, it was the Seljuk
sultans of Rum that saw the city in its heyday, and it
was the Seljuk sultans under Mongol domination that
nurtured the creative and vibrant milieu in which
RumI and the ethnically and culturally diverse citizens
of Konya thrived.

The apogee of the Seljuk state in Anatolia with its
capital in Konya occurred during the thirteenth cen-
tury. Under the reign of Kay Khosrow I (1205-1211
CE) through to that of his grandson Kay Khosrow II
(1237-1246), the city blossomed. The battle of Kose
Dag in 1243 saw the Mongols defeat the heteroge-
neous Seljuk armies. Using classic Mongol maneuvers
of feigned retreats, Baiju Noyen, the Mongol com-
mander, achieved so overwhelming a victory that he
felt he could afford to be gracious in his triumph, and
he allowed negotiations to decide the fate of Anatolia.
Batu Khan of the Golden Horde, the kingmaker
of the Mongol Empire, recognized the Seljuk sultans
and endorsed their continued rule from Konya as
Mongol vassals. Real power, however, was exercised
by the Mongols through their own appointee, the

442

KUFA

pervane: Mu’In al-Dln Suleyman, governor of the
province.

Medieval Konya reflected the cultural, religious, and
ethnic diversity that made up the Anatolian peninsula
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Turco-
mans, Mongols, and other nomadic elements usually
kept to the mountains and hills outside of the city. In
the city, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Persians, Jews, Eur-
opeans, and the Mongol elite each had their own quar-
ters. Emigres, refugees, religious exiles, wandering
dervishes, qalandars (antinomian heterodox dervishes),
poets, and Sufis all found a home in this spiritually and
culturally vibrant city. The Mongol-appointed pervane
maintained the delicate balance between representing
the interests of the citizens and satisfying the mainly
monetary demands of the Il-Khans (the Mongol dynas-
ty ruling greater Iran from 1256 to 1 335) in their capital,
Tabriz. His moral dilennna is recounted by Rumi in the
poet’s book Discourses.

Medieval Konya acted as a beacon of hope and a
symbol of enlightenment in what was often a chaotic
and violent period in western Asia. By being in but
not of the Mongol Empire, the Seljuk Sultanate of
Rum with its capital of Konya gained all of the
advantages of inclusion in the greatest contiguous
land empire ever while retaining enough independence
to fully exploit the cultural and economic benefits that
the empire bestowed on those it encompassed.

George Lane

Further Reading

Cahen, Claude. The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid

Sultanate of Rum; 11th to 14tli Century, transl. P.M.

Holt. Harlow: Longman, 2001.

Lewis, Franklin D. Rumi: Past and Present, East and West.

Oxford, UK: Oneworld, 2000.

Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the

11th Century to 1517. Harlow: Longman, 1986

KUFA

After the defeat of the Iranian Sasanian dynasty in
637-638 CE, the conquering Muslim army occupied
Iraq and established on the banks of the Euphrates a
garrison town called Kufa. The new province would
henceforth be ruled from this newly founded settle-
ment. In time, it grew into a major administrative
capital that had a mosque, a governor’s palace, mar-
kets, and accommodation for a growing population
of soldiers and immigrants.

As the diverse population of Kufa that included
various Arab groups as well as converts of Iranian
origin increased, it also grew as a center of learning,
attracting scholars and also becoming a commercial

center for trade and agriculture. The expansion of the
economy of the growing Muslim state and the rise of
a cosmopolitan Muslim community were largely
under the control and direction of the caliph in Medi-
na. Under Caliph Uthman (r. 644-656), growing dif-
ferences and an increasing pattern of decentralization
of authority often caused conflicts with regard to
official appointments and the distribution of land
and wealth, mirroring emerging tensions within the
Muslim community based in Medina.

Opposition to Uthman’s policies, emanating from
Kufa, erupted into conflict and resulted in his assassi-
nation, throwing the young Muslim community into
turmoil. Ali, the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law,
whom many regarded as the originally designated
successor to the Prophet, received majority support
and became the new caliph. He shifted his headquar-
ters to Kufa, effectively making it the new center of
authority. He was opposed by several leaders in
Medina but supported by the Prophet’s wife Aisha.
He was forced to put down the revolt, but he faced a
more serious challenge from the governor of Syria,
Muawiyah, an appointee as well as a close relative of
Uthman who was putting pressure on Ali to execute
those he held to be responsible for the murder. These
divisive events are recorded by Muslim historians as
fitna (civil disorder), and Ali eventually found himself
having to confront Muawiyah in battle as the gover-
nor’s larger ambitions for power became apparent.

After attempts were made to prevent bloodshed,
hostilities were ended, and arbitration was agreed
upon. However, emotions ran high on the part of
some of Ali’s followers who were adamantly opposed
to Muawiyah and to arbitration, and the group seced-
ed, turning its wrath on both armies. One of the
secessionist murdered Ali while he was at prayer in
the mosque in Kufa in 661.

After Ali’s death, Muawiyah succeeded in gaining
power and eventually control of many of the new
Muslim dominions, and he imposed his authority in
all regions. He appointed a new governor for the
region that included Kufa, who was ordered to insti-
tute public cursing of Ali’s name during the Friday
prayers in the mosque of Kufa and to brutally sup-
press all partisan support in favor of Ali. During the
Ummayad period to 75 1 and later under the ‘Abbasids,
Kufa had evolved into a major city, particularly as the,
‘Abbasids made it their headquarters while awaiting
the construction of Baghdad, their new capital.

As other towns and cities developed and the focus
of trade and political power shifted to other regions,
Kufa declined in importance. However, as a center of
Shi’i influence and scholarship and as the city closest
to Najaf, where a mausoleum was erected over Ali’s
grave, Kufa continued to be influential as a center of

443

KUFA

learning and Shi’i activity throughout the period of
later Muslim history. In particular, Kufa became well
known as a center for Arabic literature, language, and
grammar. It gave birth to a new Arabic script called
Kufic, and it continued to attract important scholars,
jurists, historians, and poets. In addition, it remains
to this day a major site for visits and remembrance,
including to the grave of Muslim b. Aqil, a cousin of
Husayn who was executed by the Ummayads for
supporting the Ali cause. In modern times, Kufa has
continued to be a cultural and religious center and a
home to various scholars and centers of Shi’i learning
and scholarship.

Azim Nanji

Further Reading

Djait, Hickem. Kufa, Naissance de ia Ville Islamique. Paris:
Maissoneuve, 1986.

Morony, Michael G. Iraq After the Muslim Conquest. Prin-
ceton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. Religion and Politics Under the
Early Abbasids. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997.

KULAYNI, AL-

Muhammad b. Ya’qub al-Kulayni (d. AH 329/941
CE) was a Twelver Shi’i compiler of al-Kafi fi ‘Ilm
al-Din (What is Sufficient in the Knowledge of the
Faith), a collection of more than sixteen thousand
hadith (traditions) attributed to the Shi’i imams of
whom the twelfth had disappeared in 260/873-874.
A native of Kulayn, near the Iranian city of Rayy,
al-Kulayni resided in Qum for some years before
relocating to Baghdad, where he assembled al-Kafi.

Although the bulk of al-Kafi’s traditions come
from a handful of members of Qum’s Ash’ari tribal
elite, the collection speaks to an effort to strike
a balance between conflicting tendencies within the
contemporary Shi’i community.

Traditions circulating in Qum, the region’s only
Shi’i city-state that had withstood repeated challenges
from Sunni Baghdad, presented the imams as posses-
sing near-miraculous knowledge and powers and
depicted the twelfth imam’s return as imminent. In
Baghdad, the Shi’i minority, facing rising Sunni tra-
ditionism (typified by the appearance of such great
Sunni hadith collections as the Sahih of al-Bukhari [d.
256/870]) and hostility to Shi’i messianism, were dis-
avowing the imams’ traditions as the source of knowl-
edge and inspiration in favor of rationalist and
politically quiescent discourse.

Al-Kafi’s traditions downplayed the separatist and
messianic tendencies of the previous century, rejected
the anti-traditionist tendencies of Baghdadi Shi’is, and

countered rising Sunni traditionism with a collection
of texts that at once addressed both theological issues
and, on a par with contemporary Sunni collections,
practical issues.

Andrew J. Newman

See also Ibn Babawayh; Al-Tusi, Muhammad ibn
al-Hasan

Further Reading

Newman. AJN. 2000.

KURDISH

In general, the term Kurdish applies to a range of lan-
guages and dialects belonging to the Iranian language
family spoken in the Kurdish areas, from eastern
Anatolia via northern Iraq and northern Syria to west-
ern Iran and by significant groups in Georgia and
Armenia (see also Kurds). From a perspective of histor-
ical linguistics, however, these languages can be divided
into Kurdish proper on the one hand and Gurani and
Zazaki on the other. The latter two languages derive
from a different Old Iranian dialect than does Kurdish.
The oft-heard assertion that Kurdish derives from an-
cient Median is not borne out by the available data.

Kurdish proper can be divided into three groups of
dialects: Northern, Central, and Southern Kurdish.
Northern Kurdish, which is also known as Kurmanji,
is now spoken in Turkey, northern Syria, northwest-
ern Iraq, northwestern Iran, Georgia, and Armenia.
Central Kurdish, or Sorani, is spoken in northeastern
Iraq and the adjoining regions in Iran. Southern
Kurdish dialects, such as Lakki, are spoken in Iran
in the provinces Ilam, Kermanshah, and Lorestan.
Southern dialects do not have a standard written
form and have not yet been adequately studied.
Zazaki is spoken in eastern Anatolia in the triangle
formed by Diyarbakir, Sivas, and Erzurum. Gurani
or Hawrami, once an important literary language in
the region, is now spoken by a relatively small number
of people in the Iranian province of Kermanshah.

There is no evidence that a significant written litera-
ture existed in any of these languages before the late
sixteenth century CE. The textual traditions of religious
groups such as the Yazidis and Ahl-i Haqq were com-
posed during the medieval period; these were mainly
transmitted orally, but writing may have played a role
in their genesis. For most forms of written communica-
tion, however, Kurds used the dominant language of
their region — Arabic, Persian, or Turkish — so that no
literary standard languages evolved until later. The
existence of a standard language often counteracts a
tendency for dialects and subdialects to diverge rapidly.

444

KURDS

Their absence in the Kurdish sphere during the medie-
val period may account in part for the profound differ-
ences that developed between, for example. Northern
and Central Kurdish. Although the former dialect still
has case endings and gender, the latter does not; con-
tacts with Gurani, it seems, caused Central Kurdish to
adopt a number of grammatical features of that
language, which are unknown in Kurmanji. Therefore,
from a grammatical point of view, these dialects are
very different from each other. Even subdialects be-
longing to the same dialect group can show consider-
able differences. Given the use of languages other than
Kurdish for purposes of writing and the considerable
similarities in vocabulary, it seems unlikely that dialec-
tal or linguistic differences were perceived as markers of
separate linguistic identities during the Middle Ages.

Philip G. Kreyenbroek

Further Reading

Kreyenbroek, Philip G., and Stefan Sperl, eds. The Kurds: A
Contemporary Overview. London and New York, Rou-
tledge, 1992.

Kreyenbroek, Philip G., and Christine Allison, eds. Kurdish
Culture and Identity. London and New Jersey: ZED
Books, 1996.

MacKenzie, D.N. Kurdish Dialect Studies , 2 vols. London,
Oxford University Press, 1961-1962.

KURDS

The word Kurd is generally used for an ethnic and
linguistic group living in a more or less continuous
area from the eastern part of Anatolia, via northern
Iraq and northern Syria, to the central western
regions of modern Iran. During the medieval period,
some Kurdish groups lived in Transcaucasia. An ac-
count of Kurdish society and history during the peri-
od from the mid-seventh to the sixteenth centuries CE
can at best be tentative, owing to the scarcity of
reliable data. A contributory factor to these uncer-
tainties is that the word Kurd was not necessarily used
in medieval sources in the sense it has today. In pre-
Islamic, Sasanian Iran, it is thought, the word
denoted the largely tribal populations of the moun-
tainous areas to the west of the Iranian heartland, so
certain non-Iranian tribes in those areas may have
been referred to as Kurd, whereas sedentary people
speaking an early form of Kurdish may not. Because
a significant part of the population in question spoke
Iranian languages, however, the word eventually
came to be used particularly for speakers of these
languages. Except in discussions of historical linguis-
tics, speakers of the Gurani and Zazaki languages are
generally regarded as Kurds.

During the period under discussion, Kurdish socie-
ty was strongly tribal in character, with tribal confed-
erations, (semi-)nomadic tribes, and subtribes and a
sedentary population at the bottom of the social struc-
ture. Tensions usually existed between the Kurds’
aspirations to autonomy and the desire of surround-
ing states to control them. During the early centuries
of Islam, the Kurds were a force to be reckoned with.
They are known to have revolted several times against
the Umayyads. They supported the ‘Abbasid al-
Ma’mun against his brother al-Amin in the 810s CE,
and they rebelled repeatedly when ‘Abbasid power
grew weaker during the second half of the ninth cen-
tury. On the other hand, Kurdish troops, with their
reputation for military prowess, were often recruited
into the ‘Abbasid — and later into the Seljuq — army.
Saladin (Salah al-Din, born in 1138 of Kurdish par-
entage), who defeated the Crusaders and founded the
Ayyubid dynasty that ruled in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq,
is the best known of many Kurds who achieved fame
as military leaders in the Islamic army. Among the
Kurdish tribes in the heartlands, Islamization was a
slow process, and large tribal groups were still said to
be Magians (adherents of a non-Islamic Iranian faith)
during the early thirteenth century.

As ‘Abbasid power waned, several Kurdish dynas-
ties emerged for a time, most notably the Shaddadids
(955-1075) in Transcaucasia, the Marwanids (984-
1083) in the region from Diyarbakir in the north to
the Jazira area in the south, and the Hasanwayhids
(959-1095) in the Zagros region. None of these dynas-
ties seem to have been very influential, and they were
quickly defeated when the Seljuqs and others reas-
serted their authority over the region. The Kurdish
areas suffered greatly under the Mongols from 1231
to 1258 and later again under Tamerlane in 1393 and
1401. With the new balance of power between the
surrounding Safavid and Ottoman states during the
sixteenth century, the Kurds entered a new phase in
their history.

Philip G. Kreyenbroek

Further Reading

Van Bruinessen, Martin. Agha, Shaikh and State: The So-
cial and Political Structures of Kurdistan. London and
New Jersey: ZED Books, 1992.

Kreyenbroek, Philip G., and Stefan Sperl, eds. The Kurds:
A Contemporary Overview. London and New York,
Routledge, 1992.

Kreyenbroek, Philip G., and Christine Allison, eds. Kurdish
Culture and Identity. London and New Jersey: ZED
Books, 1996.

McDowall, David. A Modern History of the Kurds. London
and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1996.

445

LAND TENURE AND OWNERSHIP,

OR IQTA‘

Iqta‘ is an Arabic term designating the land or tax
revenues allocated by the great amir or sultan to
soldiers in return for military service (khidma).
Khubz (bread) was synonymous with this term in
Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt and in Syria. Its holder
was called muqta‘ in Arabic and iqtadar in Persian.

Qati‘a and Day‘a in the Early
Islamic Period

Three Sunnite schools of law (the Shafi’is, Malikis,
and Hanbalis), but not the Hanahs, regard that the
land conquered by force belonged to the Muslim
community as fay’, which was not to be assigned to
the Arabs. However, since the early Islamic period it
was often granted as qatVa to the people who ren-
dered distinguished services to the state. According to
al-Mawardi (d. 1058 CE), the iqta‘s in Islamic law are
classified into two types. The first type is an “iqta‘ of
private ownership” (iqta‘ al-tamlik), which means
privately owned land assigned by the state, provided
that owners pay the land tax (kharaj) or the tithe
(ushr) according to land category. The second type
is an “iqta‘ of usufruct” (iqta‘ al-istighlal), by which
revenue from a piece of land is apportioned in place
of a salary (al-Ahkam al-sultaniya: 190-198). The first
type of iqta‘ is termed qati‘a in the early historical
sources, while the second type of iqta‘ designates the
military iqta‘ since the middle of the tenth century.

Apart from the qati‘a, the privately owned land
that was valid for the duration of life was called
tu ‘ma, and other privileged landownership appeared,
such as ighar, carrying with it partial immunity
from taxation, and taswigh, having complete immu-
nity from taxation. As C. Cahen suggests, based on
such privileged landownership, large-scale landown-
ership developed gradually from the Umayyad to the
‘Abbasid periods. A. A. al-Duri further advanced
this topic, showing that the land system was
connected closely with the origin of the iqta‘ system
(1969:3-22). He states that in the early Islamic period
there rose a new aristocracy who held the qati‘a
assigned from treasury lands ( sawafi ) . Besides, since
the cultivated land was evaluated as a source for
stable income during the ‘Abbasid period, tax collec-
tors aimed at obtaining private domains (day ‘a), and
merchants also invested their commercial profits to
purchase day‘a. According to J. Shimada, large-scale
day‘as were invented by such means as reclamation,
promise of protection, and enclosure (hawz), whereas
small-scale qati‘as were apportioned by the person
superior in rank (caliph or provincial governor). The
state coffers thus suffered as such privileged landown-
ership by merchants, high officials, and the Turkish
commanders developed, particularly in Iraq after the
ninth century.

As Turkish soldiers (mamluks or ghulams) extended
their power after the middle of the ninth century, the
authority of the ‘Abbasid caliphate declined signi-
ficantly. In addition, the independence of local gover-
nors — for example, the Samanids (875-999) in Iran
and the Tulunids (869-905) in Egypt — led to decreases

447

LAND TENURE AND OWNERSHIP, OR IQTA ‘

in state revenue, which caused great fiscal difficulties.
Other than the development of privileged landowner-
ship, pecuniary waste by the ‘Abbasid court also
added to these difficulties. Al-Maqrizi (d. 1442), an
Egyptian historian, explains that the ‘ata’ (salary)
system was conducted in the early Islamic period,
paying salaries to the soldiers and officials out of the
state treasury (Khitat 1:95). However, these serious
problems made it more difficult to maintain the ‘ata’
system by the early tenth century. Accordingly, when
the Buwayhid army entered Baghdad at the beginning
of the year 946, the military iqta‘ system was first
introduced in Islamic history.

Establishment and Development of the
Iqta‘ System

Miskawayh (d. 1030) relates that Mu‘izz al-Dawla,
the Buwayhid great amir, granted iqta‘s to his
officers (quwwad), his associates (khawass), and his
Turkish chivalry (Tajarib al-Umam, II, 96). A few
years later, when the whole of Iraq came to be appor-
tioned into iqta‘, small iqta‘s were granted to Day-
lamite foot soldiers as well. The peasants under the
iqta‘ system, who now paid the land tax not to the
government but to their muqta‘ (iqta‘ holder), had to
bear hardships of the unjust rule of the muqta‘.
According to B. Johansen, the distinction between
tax (kharaj) and rent (ujra) first became vague
through the spread of the iqta‘ system, which led to
the fundamental changes of the rural society in the
Middle East.

The Seljukids, who entered Baghdad in 1055,
inherited the Buwayhid iqta‘ system almost as it
was. When Tughril Bek advanced from Nishapur to
Baghdad, he consolidated his authority through iqta‘
assignments to the local rulers and their subordinates.
A. K. S. Lambton observes that the iqta‘ system
in Islamic society was quite different from feudalism
in Europe, in the sense that the element of mutual
obligation inherent to European feudalism was nota-
bly absent in the iqta‘ system. Under the Seljukid rule
the administrative iqta‘s, as opposed to the military
iqta‘s, were granted to amirs who conducted both
rights of administration and tax collection. As dis-
closed in Siyasat nama, Nizam al-Mulk, a Persian
vizier of the Seljukids, intended to clarify the muqta‘s
rights and duties, to change their iqta‘s every 2 to 3
years, and to send, if needed, supervisors to the local
provinces. However, as the sultan’s authority de-
creased after Malik Shah died in 1092, the atabeks
and amirs gained independence by means of inheriting
iqta‘s from their ancestors.

In Syria and Jazira, iqta‘ grants by the Zankid rulers
followed the breakup of the Seljukid empire. ‘Imad
al-Din Zanki (1127-1146), who entered Mosul in
1127, allocated iqta‘s to his amirs and soldiers and
introduced similar allotments into Jazira and north-
ern Syria. 1. Khalil relates that each amir was assigned
a district including local towns, while soldiers were
granted small iqta‘s. The rights of muqta‘ during the
Zankid period, as in the Seljukid period, was legally
restricted to the levying of taxes on their iqta‘s; but
soldiers, who wished to hold stable iqta‘s, insisted
that iqta‘s were privately owned land (milk) to be
inherited from father to son. Accepting this argu-
ment, Nur al-Din al-Zanki (1146-1174) consented to
the inheritance of iqta‘ holdings and ordered that a
guardian be chosen if the heir was still a child (Ibn
al-Athir, al-Ta’rikh al-bahir, 169). This Zankid iqta‘
system was soon introduced into Egypt by Saladin
(Salah al-Din).

In Fatimid Egypt, amirs and high officials held
privately owned lands called qati‘a or iqta‘. Accord-
ing to H. Rabie, the muqta‘s were not required to
provide military service except in a few cases, but
they had to pay the tithe to the government. In this
sense the Fatimid iqta‘ system was still different
from the military iqta‘ system during the Buwayhid
or Seljukid periods. When Salah al-Din was installed
as the Fatimid vizier in March 1169, he began to
confiscate the iqta‘s held by the Fatimid soldiers and
assigned the confiscated lands to his followers in the
form of iqta‘ (Abu Shama, Kitab al-rawdatayn, II,
450). As al-Maqrizi relates, from the reign of Salah
al-Din, all the Egyptian lands have been distributed to
the sultan, amirs, and soldiers as iqta‘s (Khitat, I, 97).
In Ayyubid Syria also, the iqta‘ assignment was the
most crucial factor for maintaining the Ayyubid state
order. However, one of the characteristics peculiar to
the Ayyubid iqta‘ system was that demands to the
sultan were made concerning iqta‘ holdings. This
was due to the fact that the rules and regulations of
granting iqta‘s were not yet established, particularly
at the early stages of the Ayyubid period.

Because iqta‘s in the early Mamluk period were
often granted according to the amir’s requests, iqta‘
assignments had features similar to those of the
Ayyubid period. However, by the end of the thir-
teenth century the power of the royal Mamluks
had eventually emerged. The sultans saw the necessity
of getting rid of the old amirs and strengthening the
basis of their power by means of their own Mamluks.
To achieve this objective they twice carried out
countrywide cadastral surveys, al-Rawk al-Husami
(1298) and al-Rawk al-Nasiri (1313-1325). These
rawks, especially al-Rawk al-Nasiri, resulted in the
iqta‘ revenue ('ibra) of the royal Mamluks being

448

LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE

increased sharply at the expense of the freeborn
(halqa) chivalry (al-Maqrizi, Khitat, I, 88). Amirs
from these Mamluks operated advantageous iqta‘
holdings, which they used as a basis of strengthening
their control over the agricultural communities in
Egypt and Syria. Al-Rawk al-Nasiri has considerable
historical significance in the sense that it brought
about great change in the organization of the iqta‘
system and prescribed the state structure during the
middle of the Mamluk period.

Tsugitaka Sato

Further Reading

Cahen, C. “L’evolution de l’iqta 1 du IX au XIII siecle.”
Annales: ESC 8 (1953): 25-52.

Al-Duri, A. A. "The Origins of Iqta‘ in Islam.” al-Abhath
22 (1969): 3-22; do. Ta’rikh al-'Iraq al-iqtisadi al-'Arabi.
Beirut, 1974.

Humphreys, R. S. Saladin to the Mongols. Albany, NY,
1977.

Johansen, B. The Islamic Law on Land Tax and Rent.
London, 1988.

Khalil, I. 7 mad al-Din Zangi. Beirut, 1967.

Lambton, A. K. S. Landlord and Peasant in Persia. London,
1953; do. “Reflections on the IQTAf” In Arabic and
Islamic Studies in Honor of Hamilton, edited by G.
Maqdisi, 358-376. Leiden: A.R. Gibb, 1965.

Lev, Y. State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. Leiden, 1991.
Rabie, H. The Financial System of Egypt A.H. 564-741/A. D.
1169-1341. London, 1972.

Sato, T. The State and Rural Society in Medieval Islam:
Sultans, Muqta's and Fallahun. Leiden, 1997.

Shimada, J. Studies on the Early Islamic State (in Japanese:
Shoki Isuramu Kokkano Kenkyu). Tokyo, 1996.
Turkhan, I. A. al-Nuzum al-iqta'iyya ft ’l-sharq al-awsat fi
'l-'usur al-wusta. Cairo, 1968.

LAW AND JURISPRUDENCE

Law (fiqh, lit. “understanding”,) and jurisprudence
(usul al-fiqh, lit. “roots of understanding”,). Fiqh
is the technical term for Islamic substantive law.
Developed largely by scholars, Islamic law has been
described as a paradigmatic example of “jurists' law.”
Medieval treatises of Islamic law typically began with
ritual law (purity [tahara], ritual prayer [salat], fasting
[siyam], alms-tax [zakat], and pilgrimage [hajj]) and
then proceeded to various topics of private law, such
as family law, transactional law, and tort law, and
various topics of public law, such as criminal law, the
law of war, and constitutional law. Jurists of the
medieval period also authored specialized treatises
that addressed particular topics in much greater detail
than could be done in the generalized treatises that

were the foundational texts of both legal education
and the administration of the law.

Fiqh should not be confused with Islamic ethical
norms or morality. Legal treatises are principally
concerned with the positive rules of Islamic law
( al-ahkam al-wad’iyya ) , in contrast to rules of obliga-
tion ( al-ahkam al-taklifiyya ) . Whereas the latter cate-
gory of rules speaks to the status of an act (such as
obligatory, forbidden, favored, disfavored, or indif-
ferent), the former speaks to the consequences of an
act (such as valid, invalid, binding, void, voidable).
They are addressed not to the generality of believers
but rather to legal specialists (fuqaha’) for use in
resolving judicial cases (qada’), and the delivery of
formal legal opinions (fatwa).

Usui al-fiqh is, in the first instance, a philosophical
and epistemological discipline that seeks to under-
stand the source of moral obligation (for example,
reason or revelation), how moral judgments may be
reached (legitimate methods of moral reasoning),
and the reliability of moral judgments (for example,
certain or probable).

Revelation, all Muslim scholars agreed, was an
infallible source of moral knowledge and as a general
matter. They also agreed that the divine commands
could be found in three sources: the Qur’an (the
revealed word of God), the teachings and practice of
the Prophet Muhammad (known generically as the
sunna), and consensus (ijma‘). Only the contents of
the Qur’an, however, were universally acknowledged.
Otherwise, significant differences — both doctrinal
and empirical — characterized Muslim approaches to
the sunna and the doctrine of ijma‘.

Usui al-fiqh also included techniques of practical
reason that were to be used to determine the moral
status of an act. The most important such tool was
analogy (qivas). Various utility-related arguments
were also widely discussed (and often used), but
their legitimacy was more controversial.

Finally, because of the primacy of revelation as a
source of ethical knowledge, hermeneutics was a
matter of central concern in usul al-fiqh. As a general
matter, Muslim scholars accorded only presumptive
weight to the apparent meaning of revelation, which
was sufficient, in their moral theory, to give rise to
moral obligation. The apparent meaning of revela-
tion, however, could be overcome if other evidence
existed demonstrating that the apparent sense was not
intended. It is only the rare revelatory text that is
considered, from a hermeneutical perspective, to be
conclusive.

Mohammad H. Fadel

Further Reading

Hallaq, Wael B. Authority, Continuity and Change in
Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001 .

. A History of Islamic Legal Theories. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford:
The Clarendon Press, 1964.

LIBRARIES

Maktaba is the Arabic word normally used to mean
"library,” but in classical Islam, corresponding ap-
pellations were used: “treasure house of books” (khi-
zanat al-kutub ) or “abode of books” ( dar al-kutub, an
expression that is still in favor for a national library,
such as the one in Cairo ) . In Iran, kitab-khana, and in
modern Turkey, kiituphane, are the equivalents. These
institutions were never one and the same in the
Middle Ages as real public libraries, but the most
important were part of institutions of learning created
on the initiative of sovereigns or officials of the ca-
liphal government and the different dynasties. For
that reason they were also often designated by the
name of institutions: House or Abode of Wisdom
( bayt or dar al-hikma ) , Abode of Knowledge ( dar
al-ilm). From the AH fifth/eleventh CE century on-
ward, they were often a part of the higher colleges,
called madrasas. Individual scholars or officials,
sometimes families, had also private libraries.

Since antiquity, small libraries existed in the great
mosques of the most important towns of the empire,
and many a scholar bequeathed his library to the
mosque of his city. With time, however, many mos-
ques also had large libraries. We shall only mention
three of them. In Baghdad, we have considerable in-
formation of the library of the mosque of Abu Hanifa.
Among many other famous people who bequeathed
their private book collections, the grammarian,
M if tazilitc theologian, and exegete al-Zamakhshari
can be mentioned (d. 538/1143).

The library of the mosque of Qayrawan in Tunisia
had its time of glory under the Zirid al-Mu‘izz b. Bads
(r. 406-54/1015-1062), but the tribesmen of Banu
Hilal destroyed most of the book collections.

Built in 245/859, the Qarawiyyin mosque of
Fez had a library founded by the Marinid sultan
al-Mutawakkil Abu ‘Inan, which opened its doors in
750/1349. However, an earlier sultan of the same
dynasty, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub (r. 656-685/1258-1290),
is credited with founding a book collection at the
same mosque, which had also the Mansuriyya
library, established ca. 996/1587 by the scholar-king
of the Sa'di dynasty, Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi.

Three Great Libraries

According to the secretary of the Mamluk chancel-
lery, al-Qalqashandi (d. 82/1418), there were three
great libraries in Islam: the House of Wisdom in
Baghdad, the library of the Fatimids in Egypt, and
the Spanish Umayyad in Cordoba.

Before then the historical data on public or semi-
public libraries are not well supported; for instance,
the establishment of the so-called House of Wisdom
(bayt al-hikma ) in Damascus by the Umayyad caliph
Mu‘awiya (r. 41-60/661-680). This library should
have been herited by his grandson Khalid b. Yazid,
who never became a caliph, and who the legend has
made an alchemist. The Umayyad central administra-
tion in Damascus followed Byzantine practices by and
large, and the language of administration, until the
reform of ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 65-86/685-705), was
Greek. Umayyad employed Christians in their admin-
istration, the most famous of them being St. John of
Damascus, and they could benefit from them in col-
lecting books and translating some of them into Ara-
bic. However, because as in the seventh century the
Byzantine high culture was indifferent to pagan
Greek learning. As hellenism was the defeated
enemy, it was probably impossible in this intellectual
climate to conceive of a translation movement, sup-
ported by Greek-speaking Christians, of secular
Greek works into Arabic, as D. Gutas has shown.
So it is possible to put in doubt the importance of
the so-called House of Wisdom in Damascus, and its
library.

With the ‘Abbasid revolution, the foundation
of Baghdad, and the transfer of the caliphate to
Mesopotamia, the situation of the Arab empire
changed drastically. A new multicultural society de-
veloped in Baghdad: Aramaic speakers, Christians
and Jews, Persian-speakers, and Arabs were concen-
trated in the cities. The ‘Abbasids had to rely on the
local Persians, Christian Arabs, and Arameans for
their administration. The culture of these people in
the employ of the ‘Abbasids was hellenized, but
without the animosity of the Orthodox Christian
Byzantine circles in Damascus against the ethnic
Greek learning. For these reasons, the transfer of
the caliphate form Damascus to Iraq had the para-
doxical consequence of allowing the preservation of
the classical Greek heritage, and this was not without
consequences for matters of the library.

It is said that the institution of the House of
Wisdom underwent its greatest development in
Baghdad in the time of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Ma’mun
(r. 198-208/813-833), who is considered responsible
for it. The library should have come into being in

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LIBRARIES

conjunction with the House of Wisdom, probably on
the model of the Academy of Gundishapur. However,
it is also possible that a library (khizana) could have
already existed during the time of his father, Harun
al-Rashid (r. 170-193/786-809) and his viziers, the
Barmakids, who had begun to have Greek works
translated (see Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic).

In fact, we know nothing about the construction,
the location, and the date of foundation of the House
of Wisdom. For some scholars, such as D. Gutas: “In
reality we have absolutely no mention in our most
reliable sources of any such ‘founding.” In Sasanian
times, the palace library functioned as an idealized
national archive. The term House of Wisdom is a
translation of the Sasanian designation for a library,
as it appears clearly from a statement of Hamza
al-Isfahani (d. after 350/961). It seems that the Islamic
House of Wisdom was a library, most likely estab-
lished as a bureau under al-Mansur (r. 1 36 1 58/754—
175). It may have been a part of the ‘Abbasid admin-
istration, modeled on that of the Sasanians. It was
devoted to the translation of texts from Persian to
Arabic, and to the preservation of the translated
books. Under al-Ma’mun it seems to have gained
another function related to astronomical and math-
ematical activities. For the same scholar, the Greco-
Arabic translation movement does not seem to have
been related to any of the activities of the House
of Wisdom. It was also not an academy for teaching
the ancient sciences. According to al-Qalqashandi, the
greatest lustre shines on the second great library —
the library of the Fatimids in Cairo, a branch of the
Ismailis. The Fatimid rulers aimed to create rivals to
the Baghdad tradition. They founded a completely
new Cairo alongside the old, erecting a magnificent
palace and a mosque, al-Azhar. They fitted out
libraries in the palace and also in the mosque, includ-
ing their own House of Wisdom, called also Abode of
Knowledge (dar al-ilm) in the vast palace covering
half of their new capital city of Cairo. According to a
contemporary writer, al-Musabbihi (d. 420/1030),
caliph al-Hakim (r. 386^-11/996-1021) endowed the
dar al-ilm with books on a range of subjects, from his
palace treasury, and paid for the scholars to teach
there and, crucially, for support staff and furnishings.
The institution was open to all who wished to study
there and included writing materials. The institution
came under the jurisdiction of the government’s head
of propaganda (dal al-du'at), who invited learned
men to meet there twice weekly. A new catalogue
prepared in 435/1045 listed at least six and a half
thousand volumes on astronomy, architecture, and
philosophy. The palace and academy libraries flour-
ished during prosperous years preceding the reign of
caliph al-Muntasir (r. 427-487/1036-1094), but the

library was looted during the civil wars in 461/1068.
It was closed when the Fatimid dynasty came to an
end (567/1171). Salah al-Din sold the palace treasures,
including the books, but fortunately some of them
were repurchased by enlightened men such as Salah
al-Din’s learned counselor and secretary (not his
vizier), the bibliophile al-Qadi al-Fadil al-Baysani
(d. 596/1200). It is said that he gave one hundred
thousand volumes to the school he had established,
al-Madrasa al-Fadiliyya. According to another re-
port, he collected seventy thousand volumes on diverse
subjects. The great Mu'tazilitc exegete and theologian
‘Abd al-Salam al-Qazwini (d. 488/1095), who had
lived for a long time in Cairo, had a collection of
forty thousand volumes, of which some had been
purchased from people who had plundered the
Fatimid palace. As usual, the figures quoted by Ara-
bic authors for the Fatimid library vary widely. Al-
Maqrizi gives three figures: 120,000, 200,000, and
601,000 volumes, but Abu Shama says two million!

The third great library, according to al-
Qalqashandi, was that of the Umayyad in Spain.
When the Fatimids made their entry in Cairo,
al-Hakam (II) al-Mustansir (r. 350-366/961-976),
occupied a prominent place among the scholars and
bibliophile princes of Islam. He created a vast library
at Cordoba on the model of the ‘Abbasid libraries
of Baghdad, with some four hundred thousand
volumes and a catalogue in forty-four registers of
twenty sheets each. The problem in these hyperbolic
figures is in the fact that among these “volumes”
could have been also “fascicles” (juz’s). The library
was in the palace of Cordoba, under the management
of the eunuch Bakiya. The splendor of the library was
dimmed under al-Hakam’s son and successor,
Hisham, in order to please the orthodox Maliki
religious scholars — what was, above all, distasteful
to them was the collection of books pertaining to
the ancient sciences, that is, works of philosophy,
astronomy, and so forth. The all-powerful al-Mansur
allowed them to remove and burn these books. In
1011, when Cordoba was locked in battle with the
Berbers, the minister Wadih sold the major part of
the library to obtain money for the war; the rest of the
books were despoiled.

Other Libraries

Besides the three libraries enhanced by al-
Qalqashandi, other great libraries existed. The
Buyids, a Persian house that nourished Shi‘i sympa-
thies and exercised hegemony over Iraq and Western
Persia (334—447/945-1055), took into their service

451

LIBRARIES

men with an interest in books. Rukn al-Dawla,
who ruled Rayy in Western Persia, had in his service
Abu 1-Fadl Ibn al-'Amid (d. 360/970), a celebrated
scholar with a large library, of which the historian
Misakawayh was the librarian. The disciple, secre-
tary, and then successor of Ibn al-‘Amid, the man of
letters al-Sahib Ibn ‘Abbad (d. 385/995) had a library
in Rayy; the theological works alone amounted to
four hundred camel-loads (or two hundred and six
thousand volumes). When Mahmud (b. Sebiiktigin)
of Ghazna, the defender of the “orthodox” Sunni
faith, invaded Rayy, he had some of these books
burnt as “heretical literature” and some sent to his
capital city in 420/1029. He also plundered all the
treasures of the last Buyid Majd al-Dawla, including
50 loads of books, excluding those that had Mu‘tazi-
lite content or dealt with philosophy and which were
therefore burnt under the corpses of the crucified
“heretics.” A third Buyid vizier, the servant of Baha’
al-Dawla, Zaydit Abu Nasr Sabur b. Ardashir
(d. 416/1025), founded an Abode of Knowledge (ca.
383/993), in the Baghdadi quarter of “Between the
two walls” (quarter of al-Karkh). Its library should
have counted ten thousand volumes (according to
other sources, one hundred thousand to four hundred
thousand), including one hundred exemplars of the
Qur’an in the handwriting of Banu Muqla. After the
death of Sabur, it seems that the Shi‘i poet, grammari-
an, and theologian al-Sharif al-Murtada (d. 436/1044)
was in charge of it. It was used by many scholars, such
as the Syrian man of letters Abu l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri,
during his brief sojourn in Baghdad (399 400/1009
1010). This library was destroyed by fire during
Tughril Beg’s march on Baghdad in 451/1059.
Bahrain b. Mafanna (d. 433), the vizier of Abu
Kalijar, which was the penultimate Buyid Amir in
Baghdad, established at Firuzabad in Fars: a library
consisting of seven thousand volumes, of which four
thousand were folios in the handwriting of Abu ‘Ali
Ibn Muqla and Abu ‘Abd Allah Ibn Muqla.

Almost every college ( madrasa ) in Baghdad had a
small or large library of its own. Those attached to the
Nizamiyya college (inaugurated in 459/1067), founded
by the famous Saljukid vizier Nizam al-Mulk (d.
485/1092), and to the Mustansiriyya college, founded
in 631/1234 by the caliph Mustansir, were particularly
remarkable for their large size, as well as the value
of their books. Other towns such as Nishapur, Samar-
qand, Tus, Bukhara, Shiraz, Isfahan, Herat, Najaf,
Kerbela, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Tunis, Mecca,
Medina, and Oman also had colleges with libraries, or
libraries without colleges. Later, Istanbul also had
libraries (such as Siilemaniye Kxituphanesi, estab-
lished in 1557; Koprulii, 1661; Nurosmaniye, 1755;
Raghib Pasha, 1763; and Murat Molla, 1775). In

India, the first Rohilla chief of Rampur, Nawab
Sayyad Faizullah Khan (r. 1175-1193), was a great
patron of learning. He was at the origin of a library
that was enlarged by his successors. Many private
collections of books are still extant among Khariji
Ibadi families (or now in public libraries) of the Alger-
ian Mzab. The Zaydi imams of Yemen also had
libraries that contained many Mu‘tazili works.

Bibliophiles’ Collections and
Scholars’ Libraries

Despite the high prices of books, many individual
bibliophiles and scholars collected fine libraries.
Of the traditionist and soldier of the Holy War, a
model for pious Muslims — ‘Abd Allah b. Mubarak
(d. 181/797) — it is said that: “the number of his books
from which he transmitted [hadith] was twenty thou-
sand.” Here we cannot speak of a library; the
so-called books were more notebooks written to
help with memory. When the historian al-Waqidi
died in 207/822, he left six hundred bookcases
(qimatr) . Ibn Hanbal’s (d. 241/855) library amounted
to twelve and a half camel loads, whereas that of his
contemporary (who was also a traditionist like Ibn
Hanbal) Yahya b. Ma‘in (d. 233/847) filled one hun-
dred and fourteen or one hundred and thirty book-
cases and four large jars. Of course, for these two
scholars the books or notebooks of their library
consisted of hadith materials or related matters like
statements on the reliability of hadith transmitters.
The library of the son of the Buyid Mu‘izz al-Dawla
(d. 356/957) in Basra comprised some fifteen thousand
volumes, in addition to fascicles and unbound sheets.
Al-Qadi al-Fadil’s brother is reported, with some
hyperbole as usual, to have amassed two hundred
thousand titles, each title in a number of copies.
Al-Qifti (d. 646/1248), too, was a fervent book collec-
tor. His collection is said, again with some hyperbole,
to have been the largest ever amassed. He traveled to
faraway places and paid large sums (he never married
and had no children) for books. He bequeathed his
books (worth some fifty thousand dinars) to the ruler
of Aleppo, the Ayyubid al-Malik al-Nasir. The li-
brary of the physician Sa‘id al-Samiri (executed in
649/1251) contained ten thousand volumes. The Cor-
doban Maliki judge Abu 1-Mutarrif Ibn Futays ‘Abd
al-Rahman (d. 402/1011) was a great collector of
books. He always had six copyists working for him.
He never lent a work but would willingly get it copied
and make a gift of it.

The historian Ghars al-Ni‘ma Muhammad
b. Hilal (d. 480/1088), of the celebrated al-Sabi’ family

452

LIBRARIES

(physicians, and then official and literary men under
the ‘Abbasids and Buyids), collected at Baghdad a
small library of one thousand volumes (with a waqf,
in 452/1060), in various Islamic sciences, to which
admission was granted to a limited number of stu-
dents. He had the hope of replacing the library
founded by Baha’ al-Dawla. After the death of
Ghars al-Ni‘ma, the “vile and avaricious” superinten-
dent of the library sold the books on the excuse that
the installment of the Nizamiyya college in Baghdad
had made Ghars al-Ni'ma’s library superfluous.

The libraries of the Shi‘i scholars were no less
impressive than those of the Sunni. For instance, six
hundred Jarudi Zaydi, author of the Kufan Ibn ‘Uqda
(Ahmad, d. 333/944) wanted to move his books. They
amounted to six hundred loads, and the costs was
accordingly one hundred dinars. We have already
encountered previously the case of al-Sahib Ibn
‘Abbad. Al-Sharif al-Murtada, already mentioned,
left at his death thirty thousand juz’s (fascicles),
whereas others say eighty thousand volumes.

“Traveling in quest of knowledge,” or seeking
knowledge, offered to scholars the opportunity of
visiting many libraries and of collecting books. The
Iranian Avicenna (d. 428/1037), for instance, bene-
fited from the libraries of the Iranian princes. His
first visit to the royal library was in Bukhara on the
invitation of the Samanid King Null (II) b. Mansur.
He describes this personal event in the following
words: “I found there many rooms filled with books
which were arranged in cases row upon row. One
room was alloted to works on Arabic philology and
poetry; another to jurisprudence, and so forth, the
books of each particular science having a room to
themselves. I inspected the catalogue of ancient
Greek authors and looked for the books which I
required: I saw in this collection books of which
few people have heard even the names, and which I
myself have never seen either before or since.” He
also used the libraries of the town of Gurgang in
Khwarizm, of the Buyids in Rayy and in Hamadhan
(Shams al-Dawla), of the Kakuyids (‘Ala’ al-Dawla
Muhammad) in Isfahan, and so forth. The example
of the celebrated man of letters, bookseller and copy-
ist Yaqut al-Rumi is also representative of that. He
had extended visits to the library of Ibn al-Qiti in
Aleppo, the two libraries of the family al-SanTani
in Marw, and so on.

Books in Figures

It must be said that almost all the figures of books
that are provided in this article thus far cannot, as a

rule, be accepted at face value; a lot of them are
hyperbolic. Many of these libraries, both “public”
and private, had catalogues, but none of the six first
centuries of Islam are known to have come to us.
Perhaps the earliest extant known to us is the cata-
logue of the library of the Qayrawan mosque, dated
693/1294. A manuscript dated 694/1295 and entitled
The Selection of [ the books] in the Libraries of Aleppo
was not, as its title indicates, the catalogue of a special
library. One of the methods to ascertain accuracy
consists in the writing of exhaustive monographies
on authors. This was done, for instance, for the
Shi‘i scholar Ibn Tawus (d. 664/1266), who was born
in Hilla and established himself in Baghdad. He wrote
a catalogue of his library, which is now lost. However,
thanks to a precise study, we know that his library
contained some one thousand five hundred titles. It
included works on all major branches of knowledge
of his time. He had a ten volume copy of Koranic
commentary of the Mu‘tazilite Abu ‘Ali al-Jubba’i
(d. 303/915). Apart from the number of volumes,
which is a problem, there is another one that is en-
countered when speaking of figures in Islamic
libraries: the term juz ' (fascicle), which can refer to
several things: a gathering of sheets (often some twen-
ty folios or more), forming a separate volume; a num-
ber of booklets bound together; a volume consisting
of a number of booklets; or a notebook.

Claude Gilliot

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Nadim. The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim: A Tenth-
Century Survey of Muslim culture. 2 vols. Ed. and transl.
Bayard Dodge. New York: Columbia University Press,
1970.

Further Reading

Balty-Guesdon, M.G. “Le Bayt al-Hikma de Baghdad.”
Arabica XXXIX (1992): 131-50.

Bilici, F. "Les bibliotheques vakif-s a Istanbul au XVIe
siecle, premices des grandes bibliotheques publiques.”
REMMM 47-88 (1999): 39-59.

Bloom, Jonathan Max. Paper Before Print: The history and
impact of paper in the Islamic world. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2001.

Busse, Heribert. Chalif und Grosskonig: Die Buyiden im
Irak (945-1055). Wiesbaden: Steiner (in Kommission),
Beirut: Institut der DMG, 1969; reprint Wurzburg:
Ergon Verlag, 2004 (pp. 523-529, for the libraries).

Deroche, Francois, Le livre manuscrit arabe: Prelude d une
histoire. Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 2004.

Eche, Youssef. Les Bibliotheques Arabes Publiques et Semi-
Publiques en Mesopotamie, en Syrie et en Egypte au
Moyen Age. Damas: IFEAD, 1967.

Endress, Gerhard. “Hanschriftenkunde.” In Grundriss
der arabischen Philologie, I. Ed. Wolfdietrich Fischer.
Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1982, 271-296.

453

LIBRARIES

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture'. The
Greco-Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and
early Abbasid society (second-fourth/eighth-tenth
centuries). London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Hamada, Muhammad Mahir. The Libraries in Islam (in
Arabic). Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risala, 1981 (1970) (orig-
inally Hamadeh, M.M. “Islamic Libraries during the
Middle Ages”. Ph.D dissertation. University of Chicago,
1962).

Al-Jawahiri, Khayal M. Mahdi. On the History of Libraries
in the Arabic Countries (in Arabic). Damascus: Ministry
of Education, 1992.

Kohlberg, Etan. A Medieval Muslim at Work : Ibn Tawus
and his library. Leiden: Brill, 1992.

Kraemer, Joel L. Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam'.
The Cultural Revival during the Bouvid Age. 2d revised
edition. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992 (1986 1 ).

Makdisi, George. “Muslim Institutions of Learning in
Eleventh-Century Baghdad.” BSOAS XXIV (1961):
1-56. Reprint in Id., Religion, Law and Learning in
Classical Islam, nr. VIII.

. Religion, Law and Learning in Classical Islam.

London: Variorum, 1991.

Pedersen, Johannes. The Arabic Book. Transl. Geoffrey
French. Princeton, NJ: PUP, 1984 (in Danish, Copenha-
gen, 1946).

. “Some Aspects of the History of the madrasa.”

Islamic Culture III (1929): 525-537.

Pinto, Olga. “The Libraries of the Arabs during the Time
of the Abbasides.” Transl. F. Krenkow. Islamic Culture
III (1929): 210-248.

Sibai, Mohamed Makki. Mosque Libraries'. An historical
study. London and New York: Mansell, 1987 (originally
a Ph.D dissertation, Indiana University, 1984).

Touati, Houari. L’armoire a sagesse: Bibliotlieques et collec-
tions en Islam. Paris: Aubier (Collection historique),
2003.

Walker, Paul. “Fatimid Institutions of Learning.” Journal
of the American Research Center in Egypt 34 (1997):
179-200.

Wasserstein, D.J. “The Library of al-Hakam II al-
Mustansir and the Culture of Islamic Spain.” Manu-
scripts of the Middle East 5 (1990-1991, 1993): 99-105.

LINGUISTICS, ARABIC

“In Arabic — the only Semitic language that has
remained the language of a whole civilization — ideas
spring forth from the matrix of the sentence like sparks
from the flint.” If Louis Massignon finds the Arabic
language inseparable from the civilization it envel-
oped, then Arabic linguistics played an indispensable
role in setting Islamic scholarship ablaze.

Following the advent of the Qur’an in the seventh
century CE, the intellectual fervor spurred by the
direct contact Arabs and non-Arab Muslims alike
had with other civilizations made it impossible for
the learned among them not to reflect on the sacro-
sanct language of the Qur’an. The exchange of knowl-
edge and ideas in the first Islamic centuries between
the Arabs and the Byzantines, Greeks, Indians, and

Persians — initially in the garrison towns of Basra and
Kufa and later in the imperial capitals of Damascus
and Baghdad — occurred alongside the development
of the Arabic linguistic tradition. As other fields
advanced, they borrowed heavily from the logic and
methodology of the linguistic sciences. Certainly
law and jurisprudence, the prose, poetry and polite
learning of the Islamic period (adab), scriptural
exegesis, and theology all have their methodological
roots in Arabic linguistics. In addition, medicine,
mathematics, and the natural and applied sciences
were expounded upon and expanded primarily in the
Arabic language. Thus the Arabic language became
the primary tool for research and a sine qua non to
the development of Islamic civilization.

Pietistic and pragmatic concerns also necessitated
the development of the linguistic sciences. Most, if
not all, Arabic linguists were employed as reciters of
the Qur’an in their official capacities. One motivation
for linguistic analysis of the Arabic language was
to explain the recitational variants of the Qur’an,
which Muslims throughout the world use in their
obligatory salah (prayers). Moreover due to the
rapid expansion of the Arab empire, and with it of
Islam, the need emerged for teaching correct readings
and recitations of the Qur’an to the newest members of
the faith, because mistakes in pronunciation can sig-
nificantly alter the Qur’an’s meanings. Extant manu-
scripts exhibit a native Arabic-speaking laity and their
charges making basic grammatical errors (see Arabic,
Middle Arabic), which suggests that Arabic gram-
mars became necessary for teaching Arabic to the
Arabs and the faithful for practical reasons.

Indeed, by the 800s, little more than one and a half
centuries after the death of Islam’s “unlettered Pro-
phet,” the Arabic linguistic sciences constituted a
paradigm or “normal science” as defined by Thomas
Kuhn, which is an established method that facilitates
problem solving and attracts scholars to the field.
This paradigm is not a single grammarian’s posses-
sion but is rather constitutive of the entire Arabicist
assemblage, and is still accepted as authoritative by
modern scholarship, so much so that when research-
ers today find results that contradict the normal sci-
ence, they ascribe the divergences to their own error
rather than to any shortcomings of the paradigm.

Although paradigms of Arabic phonology, mor-
phology, grammar, and lexicography were first artic-
ulated in the works of al-Khalil ibn Ahmad (d. ca.
786), random data collection, field research, error
analysis, corpus collection, anomaly study, and sym-
bolic generalization had been pursuits of the scientific
community to which Al-Khalil belonged since the
writing of the Qur’an more than one hundred years
earlier and the collection of pre-Islamic poetry a little

454

LOVE POETRY

later. However, before al-Khalil’s systematized
Arabic linguistic paradigm, only facts about Arabic
existed, and all facts were equally relevant. Al-Khalil
condensed and formalized morphological rules into
symbols from which all word patterns derive. Based
on these patterns, he devised the first Arabic dictio-
nary, the Kitab al-Ayn , that served as a comprehen-
sive and systematic accounting for all the Arabic
lexemes. His most famous student, Sibawayh (d. ca.
793), authored Al-Kitab, which is regarded to this day
as the prototypical descriptive grammar for Arabic.
In this way, normal science developed while con-
tinually complementing — but not superseding — what
was inherited from previous generations. Hence
the Arabic linguistic tradition presaged the rise of
the Arabic language as the lingua franca of the
Islamic world, a state of affairs that lasted well into
the medieval period.

AL-Husein N. Madhany

See also Grammar and Grammarians; Poets; Qur’an;
Scholars; Scribes

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Nadim, Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. The Fihrist of
al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture.
Vol. 1, ch. 2 (Grammarians and Scholars of Language).
Ed. and transl. Bayard Dodge. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1970.

Solomn, Sara. “Sibawayhi’s Al-Kitab Chapters 1-6: Trans-
lation & Notes.” Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition

1 (2003): 35-52. Available online atwww.jalt.net/ (2003
2005).

. “Sibawayhi’s Al-Kitab Chapters 7-13: Translation

& Notes.” Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition

2 (2004): 13-27. Available online at www.jalt.net/
(2003-2005).

Further Reading

Bakalla, Muhammad Hasan. Arabic Linguistics: An Intro-
duction and Bibliography. London: Mansell, 1983.

Bohas, Georges, Jean-Patrick Guillaume, and Djamel
Eddin Kouloughli. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition.
London: Routledge, 1990.

Carter, Michael. “Les Origines de la Grammaire Arabe.”
Revue des Etudes Islamiques 40 (1972): 69-97 .

Dilworth B. Parkinson. "Arabic Linguistics Society Bib-
liography of Arabic Linguistics: Supplement to Bakalla
(1983).” Available online at www.lib.umich.edu/area/
Near.East/ ALSLING.html (1994).

Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

Massignon, Louis. “Aspects and Perspectives of Islam." In
Testimonies and Reflections: Essays of Louis Massignon ,
ed. and transl. Herbert Mason. Notre Dame: University
of Notre Dame Press, 1989.

Owens, Jonathon. Early Arabic Grammatical Theory:
Heterogeneity and Standardization. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, 1990.

Ryding, Karin C. “The Search for a Paradigm: Linguistic
Analysis in Medieval Mesopotamia.” The International
Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies, 6 (1989): 31-37.
Versteegh, Kees. The Arabic Language. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1997.

LOVE POETRY

Pre-Islamic poetry knows no independent love
poems, but qasTdas (poems that traverse a sequence
of major themes) commonly open with an elegiac
remembrance of a love affair (nasib). Often the ves-
tiges of an encampment trigger a memory. The
woman, it may be, belonged to another tribe and
left with it. She may have sent the poet packing once
she saw his hair turning gray. The essential motif is
that of a past parting. With fine descriptions of the
desert setting, the nasib is often beautiful in itself, but
its function in the qaslda is to contrast the elegiac with
the poet’s self-possessed brio in other episodes (desert
journeys, war, feasts, and so on), and the personal
with his life as a member of the tribe.

Love poetry proper (ghazal) appeared in the
Umayyad period. It was now possible to write about
love in the present and future. ‘Umar ibn abl RabPa
(d. ca. 103/721) is the foremost representative of the
ijazl school, based in the cities of Mecca and Medina.
Whether he is describing jolly, amorous encounters
occasioned by the pilgrimage, or tears exacted by
caprice, his poetry is usually distinguished by a light-
ness of spirit, an urban atmosphere, and a delicious
diction incomparably simpler than that of pre-Islamic
poetry. Some of the poets of Kufa — not quite a
school, perhaps — wrote with pleasant frivolity about
slave girls and libertinism. Very different is the ‘UdhrT
ghazal. The Banu ‘Udhra were said to be a people
who die when they love. ‘UdhrT poetry (among whose
principal representatives are Jamil ibn Ma'mar and
Qays ibn al-Mulawwa, known as Majnun Layla) is
informed by chaste yearning for an unattainable
woman, often leading to melancholy, madness, or
death. The romancing biographies of these poets
were widely read.

In the early ‘Abbasid period, Bashshar ibn Burd
(d. ca. 167/783), Abu Nuwas (d. ca. 200/815), and the
other “moderns” embraced the diverse strains in-
herited from the Umayyad age, and enriched the
ghazal with wit and rhetorical charm. The classical
ghazal (which was to last through all of premodern
Arabic literature) abounds in conventions of form
and image but can reach great sophistication in its
psychological insight — tender or ironic — into the
lover’s condition.

In the ‘Abbasid age and thereafter, love poetry,
written to boys as often as to women, could be sly

455

LOVE POETRY

or even earthy. More often, however, in an exaltation
of sensibility, the poet would revel in checked desire
and the torments laid on him by a proud or skittish
object of his affections. Ibn Azm of Cordoba (d. 456/
1064), the author of a famous treatise on love, soberly
reminds us that there is no shame in the lover’s
humble submission, for in reality the beloved is his
social inferior. Aspects of Arabic love poetry have
been compared to courtly love, but it has also been
noted that these same aspects could also be found in
Ovid. The troubadours’ emphasis on the joy of love is

on the whole absent from Arabic love poetry, and
while Arabic treatises on love do speak of the virtues
induced in a lover, the ennobling effect of love was
not a major theme for the poets.

Andras Hamori

Further Reading

Bauer, Thomas. Liebe and Liebesdichtung in der arabischen
Welt des 9. und 10. Cambridge History of Arabic Litera-
ture. Wiesbaden: Jahrhunderts, 1998.

456

MADRASA

A madrasa is a college of Islamic law. The madrasa
was an educational institution in which Islamic law
(fiqh) was taught according to one or more Sunni
rites: Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanafi, or Hanbali. It was sup-
ported by an endowment or charitable trust (waqf)
that provided for at least one chair for one professor
of law, income for other faculty or staff, scholarships
for students, and funds for the maintenance of
the building. Madrasas contained lodgings for the
professor and some of his students. Subjects other
than law were frequently taught in madrasas, and
even Sufi seances were held in them, but there
could be no madrasa without law as technically the
major subject. In theory — but not always in prac-
tice — professors held their positions for life. Most
madrasas were endowed by persons of wealth and
power, such as sultans, viziers, amirs (military com-
manders), merchants, and qadis (judges) or their
wives.

There is no consensus on the origin of the madrasa.
Various scholars have tried to show that it was
inspired by Buddhist monasteries in Central Asia,
that it derived from the Turkish muyanliq (a charita-
ble fortified hospice, or ribat in Arabic) in Central
Asia, that it was stimulated by the growth of libraries,
that it was the outgrowth of the function of the
mosque (where law was also taught), or that it arose
from inns (khans) that were built near mosques. In
the latter case, these inns served as residences for the
students. The mosque Ann complex thus represented
the transition to the madrasa.

The first madrasas appeared during the late tenth
century in the eastern Islamic world. By the early
eleventh century, there were several in Nishapur. The
Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk (1064—1092) greatly pro-
moted their spread. He founded the renowned Niza-
miyya Madrasa in Baghdad in 1065 for the Shafi’is and
proceeded to establish similar colleges in other cities of
the Seljuk Empire. His primary objective was to use
this institution to strengthen Sunnism against Shi‘ism
and to gain influence over the religious class. Madrasas
rapidly spread from east to west. By the middle of the
thirteenth century, they were found in profusion in
Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. They reached Andalus by
1349, but they apparently did not take root there.

In addition to being centers of instruction in law,
madrasas could be used to exercise influence over the
religious class, because the founder of a madrasa
could specify in his deed of endowment the subjects
to be taught and the salaries to be paid. The ruling
elite often took advantage of this. However, madrasas
played other roles in Muslim society that often dif-
fered according to time and place. In Anatolia, their
waqfs often came from conquered Christian property;
they thus developed there at the expense of the
Church. In Syria, they probably stiffened Muslim
resistance to the Crusaders by helping to rally the
faithful. In Egypt, they added to the pressure on
Copts to convert to Islam. Altogether, they were
probably the most important Muslim religious insti-
tution after the mosque. There is evidence that the
Western college originated from the madrasa.

Gary Leiser

457

MADRASA

See also Buddhism and Islam; Christians and Chris-
tianity; Law and Jurisprudence; Malikism; Merchants,

Muslim; Schools of Jurisprudence; Seljuks; Sufism and

Sufis; Sultan; Sunni Revival

Further Reading

Esin, Emel. “The Genesis of the Turkish Mosque and Ma-
drasa Complex.” Annali dell'Instituto Orientale di Napoli
32 (1972): 151-85.

Leiser, Gary. “The Madrasah and the Islamization of Ana-
tolia before the Ottomans.” In Law and Education in
Medieval Islam: Studies in Memory of George Makdisi ,
eds. Joseph Lowry et al., 174—91. Cambridge: Gibb
Memorial Trust, 2004.

. “Notes on the Madrasa in Medieval Islamic Socie-
ty.” The Muslim World 67 (1986): 16-23.

Makdisi, George. The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of
Learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1981.

MAHMUD OF GHAZNA

AbuT-Qasim Mahmud (971-1030 CE, r. 998-1030)
was the second ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty in
the eastern Islamic lands. The eldest son of Sebuktigin
(a Turkish commander under the Samanid dynasty
of Transoxiana) and the daughter of a chief of
Zabulistan, Mahmud fought along with his father in
the internecine warfare that characterized the end of
the Samanid empire and was awarded honorifics
and command of the army of Khurasan. In 994,
Mahmud secured direct investiture of Khurasan
from the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Qadir, consolidated
Samanid domains south of the Oxus, including
Ghazna, and brought under control the dynasties of
the upper Oxus that had paid tribute to the Samanids.

Mahmud’s reign saw constant campaigning, an
unbroken string of victories, and the establishment
of the largest empire in the eastern Muslim world
since the 'Abbasids. His massive centralized adminis-
tration, financed by often excessive taxation of
Khurasan and Afghanistan, laid the foundations for
a Persianate state in India and provided a military-
state model for later Muslim rulers. Mahmud’s
empire building combined direct conquest with the
creation of tribute-paying states. He defeated the
Qarakhanids near Balkh (1008), the Khwarazmshahs
in Gurganj (1017), the Ismaili rulers of Multan (1010),
and the Buyids in northern Persia (1029), and he
made vassal states out of the Farighunids in Juzjan
(998), the Shers of Gharchistan (998), the Saffarids in
Sistan (1003), and the rulers of Makran and Kushdar
in Baluchistan (998 and 1011, respectively). The 1008
defeat of a confederacy of Hindushahis, headed by
Anandpal of Waihind, also ensured success in

northern and central India. Mahmud’s signature cam-
paigns against Hindu religious centers, including the
Somnath temple in Gujarat in 1020, brought an influx
of bullion to Ghazna and further financed Mahmud’s
sophisticated bureaucracy and professional army. De-
spite financial success, however, Mahmud established
Muslim dominion in India only up to Lahore, where
he left a governor in 1020 and which remained a
frontier for campaigns for two centuries.

Although it was the subject of controversy, the
religious impetus of Mahmud’s Indian campaigns
was minimal; he fought equally tenaciously against
Muslim rivals and maintained many Hindu troops as
a check on their Turkish counterparts. However,
Mahmud did project himself as a staunch Sunni and
supporter of the ‘Abbasid caliphs. The dynasty as a
whole favored the Hanafi school, but some sources
reveal Mahmud’s sympathy for the Karramiyya sect
as well as his later decision to become a Shafi’i.

Ghazna inherited Samanid administrative and cul-
tural traditions and, under Mahmud, became second
only to Baghdad in importance. Keen to join the
larger Muslim tradition of sponsoring scholarship
and the arts, Mahmud founded an academy and a
royal museum that were enriched by the libraries of
conquered cities. Although Mahmud spoke Turkish,
his court oversaw new developments in Persian, most
notably in lyrical romances and romantic epics as
well as a budding Turkish literature. Well after his
death, Mahmud's Indian campaigns inspired epic and
hagiographical literature, and his relationship with a
slave created the famous poetical pairing of
“Mahmud and Ayaz.” Luminaries of Mahmud’s
court included the poets Firdawsi (of Shahnama
fame), Farrukhi, Manuchihri, and Unsuri, and the
polymath al-Biruni.

Homayra Ziad

See also ‘Abbasids; Abu Hanifa; Al-Biruni; Al-Shafi’i;
Buyids; Epics, Persian; Firdawsi; Ghaznavids; India;
Iran; Ismailis; Khurasan; Lahore; Persian; Poetry,
Indian; Poetry, Persian; Samanids; Shahnama; Sindh;
Turkish and Turkic Languages; Turks

Further Reading

Bosworth, Clifford E. The Ghaznavids. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1963.

. “Mahmud of Ghazna in Contemporary Eyes and in

Later Persian Literature.” Iran 4 (1966): 85-92.

. “Farrukhi’s Elegy on Mahmud of Ghazna.” Iran

29 (1991): 43-9.

Habib, Mohammed. Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznin, 2nd ed.
Delhi: S. Chand, 1967.

Nazim, Muhammad. The Life and Times of Sultan Mahmud
of Ghazna. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1931.

458

MAIMONIDES, RABBI MOSES BEN MAIMON (1135-1204)

MAHMUD-AL-KATI, AFRICAN
SCHOLAR

Mahmud-al-Kati was a scholar of Soninke origin who
died near Timbuktu in 1593. He married one of
the daughters of Akiya Dawud, who reigned in the
Songhay Empire from 1549 until 1582. He wrote a
work about the history of the Songhay Empire that
was later incorporated in the Ta’rikh al-Fattash, a
compilation of texts to which sons and in-laws later
added data or edited the existing text. This compila-
tion is currently one of the most important sources for
the history of the Sudan and for that of the Songhay
Empire in particular. The authorship and interpreta-
tion of some parts of this compilation are still points
of scholarly debate.

Jan Jansen

Further Reading

Hopkins, John F.P., and Nehemiah Levtzion. Corpus
of Early Arabic Sources for West African History.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

MAIMONIDES, RABBI MOSES BEN
MAIMON (1135-1204)

Maimonides is one of the most illustrious and influ-
ential Jewish figures of the medieval period. He was
born in Cordoba, where tolerant and enlightened
Muslim rulers had turned the city into a center of
excellence for Jewish and Muslim knowledge. His
lineage was scholarly — his father, Maimon, was day-
yan (judge of the religious court) of the city — and
Maimonides received the best of Jewish education
and Islamic sciences.

As the result of religious persecution by the Almo-
hads of North Africa, who invaded the caliphate of
Cordoba, Maimon and his family left Cordoba in
1148 and wandered in Spain and North Africa for
eight or nine years, finally settling in Fez in 1160. It
was during this difficult period of wandering that
Maimonides began his halakhic activity. His com-
mentary on the Mishnah, written in Arabic, is an
attempt to explain the meaning of the Mishnah with-
out expecting the reader to have knowledge of the
minutiae of the Talmudic discussions and commen-
taries. Also, it is the beginning of his lifelong efforts to
harmonize Aristotelian philosophy with revelation. In
the book, he discusses his Thirteen Principles of
Faith, the first such creed in Jewish law, which
include the three principles of Unity, Incorporeality,
and Immutability of God.

In Fez, Maimonides continued his general studies
but concentrated specifically on medicine. He also

began his continued and consequential response with
Sephardi Jewish communities, which lasted until his
death. Maimonides’ personal experiences of religious
persecution and wandering had caused him to have an
empathic awareness of human suffering. His consoling
and educating outlook in these matters is well demon-
strated by his famous letters to communities under
religious persecution. In his Iggeret ha-Shemmad
( Letter on Forced Conversion) , also known as Iggeret
Kidush ha-Shem (Letter of the Sanctification of the
Divine Name), while utterly condemning religious
persecution, he did not advocate martyrdom for the
persecuted Jews. His religious decision was that Jews
must leave the country where they are obliged to
negate the divine law; this was certainly the decision
that Maimonides and his family followed. Despite
bitter experiences with religious persecution, Maimo-
nides did not become an anti-Muslim and declined to
classify Muslims as idolaters.

Around 1165, Maimonides and his family were
again put under pressure to convert. They left Moroc-
co and took a hazardous boat journey to Acre, which
was at the time under Christian rule. The family sailed
for Egypt, and, after a short stay in Alexandria, settled
in the Jewish quarter in Fostat near Cairo.

In Fostat, Maimonides took up the honorary posi-
tion of becoming the religious leader of the communi-
ty as well as continuing his intellectual output. His
first wife had died young, so in Egypt he married his
second wife and had his only son, Abraham, to whose
education he devoted himself. He completed his com-
mentary on the Mishnah in 1168. A year later, the
tragic drowning of his beloved brother, David, a mer-
chant who had supported Maimonides in his studies,
dealt him a heavy blow. Maimonides rejected the idea
of earning his living as a paid rabbi. Being a religious
leader was an honor, not a means of employment. He
advised his student that it was better to earn a meager
living as a weaver than as a paid rabbi. Maimonides
chose to practice medicine, and, in 1170, he became
personal physician to the family of Sultan Salladin of
Egypt, a position that he kept until his death.

The two most scholarly and influential books
of Maimonides are Mishneh Torah (Repetition of
the Law) and Dalcilat al-Ha’irin (The Guide of the
Perplexed) .

Mishneh Torah , the only work that Maimonides
wrote in Hebrew, is an authoritative legal code that
revolutionized the study of Jewish law. Written in a
lucid and succinct Hebrew for an educated and be-
lieving Jew, it is the first attempt in Jewish history at
an innovative systemization and categorization of the
Jewish Law based on rational philosophy.

The greatest Jewish Aristotelian and the supreme
rationalist, Maimonides’ magnum opus is The Guide,

459

MAIMONIDES, RABBI MOSES BEN MAIMON (1135-1204)

which was completed in 1200. Written in terse philo-
sophical language, it is a systematic exposition of
Aristotelian philosophy and its synthesis with Jewish
faith. The book addresses a faithful and religious Jew,
who, having studied philosophy, is troubled by the
anthropomorphic biblical references to God. Maimo-
nides demonstrated that all such readings should be
understood allegorically and went on to present God
as an Aristotelian first cause and self-intellectualizing
intellect. Furthermore, Maimonides posits the theory
that the human individual’s share in divine providence
is proportionate to his intellectual perfection.

Mehri Niknam

Further Reading

Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. xi.

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society, vol. v. University of
California Press.

Pines, Shlomo. The Guide of the Perplexed. Chicago, Uni-
versity of Chicago Press.

Twersky, Isadore. A Maimonides Reader. Behrman House,
Inc., Library of Jewish Studies.

MAJLISI, AL-

Al-Majlisi Muhammad Baqir ibn Muhammad Taqi
(1627/28-1699/1700) was one of the most authorita-
tive and prolific hadith (tradition) scholars within
Shi‘ism. During the reign of the last Safavid Shahs,
he was appointed Shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan (1686/
87) and thereby also assumed an unprecedented
political importance. Western judgment of both his
activities and his character has remained extremely
controversial until today, ranging from a cautiously
benevolent assessment (Donaldson) to outright con-
demnations for his fanaticism (Browne, Lockhart,
Turner). Among Shi‘i authors, by contrast,
al-Majlisi’s decisive role in spreading Shi‘ism thought
in Iran is nearly universally acknowledged. Al-Majlisi
managed to popularize his teachings by writing nu-
merous works in an easily understandable Persian
style in which he summarized the essential doctrines
for the common people. At the same time, he used his
power to fight anything that he considered to be a
heresy. Apart from non-Muslims (above all Hindus),
his main enemies came from within Islam, and he
propagated a relentless persecution of Sunni Muslims
as well as of Sufism.

Al-Majlisi’s most important field of interest was
the hadith, which in Shi‘ism is not restricted to the
traditions of the Prophet Muhammad but also com-
prises the sayings of the twelve Imams, most impor-
tant among them being Muhammad al-Baqir and
Ja‘far al-Sadiq. His encyclopedic compilation Bihar

al-anwar ( Oceans of Lights) is the monumental con-
tinuation and perfection of earlier works, such as al-
Kulayni’s al-Kafi. Far more than a mere collection of
legal prescriptions, the 1 10 volumes of this work may
be regarded as the cornerstone of Shi‘i identity. The
scope of topics ranges from epistemology, theology,
and law to cosmography, medicine, social behavior,
ritual purity, and the Qur’an. Most important, how-
ever, is the doctrine of the Imamate: approximately
one-third of the entire work is devoted to the Shi‘i
understanding of history, the virtues of the Imams,
and eschatology as embodied by the hidden twelfth
Imam, the Mahdi. Apart from this compilation,
al-Majlisi composed a number of other works about
the hadith, most notably Hilyat al-Muttaqin (The
Adornment of the God-fearing) , Haqq al-Yaqin
(The Absolute Truth), and Hayat al-Qulub (The Life
of the Hearts ) .

Rainer Brunner

See also Eschatology; Hadith; Isfahan; Safavid;
Shi‘ism; Sufism

Primary Sources

al-Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir. Bihar al-Anwar, 1 10 vols.
Beirut, 1983.

. Hilyat al-Muttaqin. Tehran, 1964.

. Haqq al-Yaqin. Tehran, 1959.

. Ayn al-Hayat. Tehran, 1955.

. Hayat al-Qulub. Qom, 1963.

. The Life and Religion of Mohammed, as Contained

in the Sheeah Traditions of the Hayat-ul-Kuloob. Trans-
lated from the Persian by Rev. James L. Merrick. Boston:
Philips, Sampson, and Company, 1850.

Further Reading

Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden
Imam: Religion, Political Order and Societal Change in
Shi'ite Iran from the Beginnings to 1890. Chicago and
London: The University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Babayan, Kathryn. Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cul-
tural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge,
Mass, and London: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Browne, Edward G. A Literary History of Persia. Volume
IV: Modern Times (1500-1924). Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1959.

Brunner, Rainer. “The Role of Hadith as Cultural Memory
in Shiite History.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
30 (2005): in print.

Cole, Juan. Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Cul-
ture and History of Shi'ite Islam, Chapter 4. London and
New York: LB. Tauris, 2002.

Donaldson, Dwight M. The Shiite Religion: A History of
Islam in Persia and Irak. London: Luzac & Company,
1933.

Hairi, Abdul-Hadi. “Madjlisi, Mulla Muhammad Bakir.”
In Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 5, 1086-88. Leiden: Brill,
1986. '

460

MALAY PENINSULA

Kohlberg, Etan. "Bihar al-Anwar.” In Encyclopedia Ira-
nica, vol. 4, 90-3. London and New York: Routledge
& Kegan Paul, 1990.

Lockhart, Laurence. The Fall of the Safavid Dynasty and the
Afghan Occupation of Persia. Cambridge, UK: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1958.

Pampus, Karl-Heinz. Die Theologische Enzyklopddie Bihar
al-Anwar des Muhammad Baqir al-Madjlisi ( 1037-1110
AH= 1627-1699 A. D. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte
der Safawidenzeit. PhD dissertation. Bonn, 1970.

Turner, Colin. Islam Without Allah? The Rise of Religious
Externalism in Safavid Iran. Richmond, VA: Curzon, 2000.

MAJUSI, AL-, OR HALY ABBAS

‘All ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majusi (fl. AH 364/975 CE)
eminent name in Islamic medicine as the author of a
single known work, al-Kitab al-MalakT: Kamil al-
Oina'a al-OibbTya (The Royal Book: Completion of
Medical Art; the title has often been abridged to just
one of its two components), one of the most renowned
Arabic medical compendia.

Life

Apart from the few data that can be gleaned from his
names and his unique book, no reliable biographical
evidence about al-Majus! is extant; this suggests that
he never made it to the caliphal and (political turmoil
notwithstanding) cultural capital of Baghdad. Rather,
al-Majus! (“the Magian”; his name indicates a Zoro-
astrian family background, as his father’s and his own
fairly nondenominational given names may do also)
appears to have studied and practiced in his native
Iranian province of Fars — or rather its administrative
center Shiraz — at the time the residence of the ambi-
tious and powerful Buyid governor ‘Aud al-Dawla.
Al-Majusrs teacher of medicine, Musa ibn Sayyar,
having operated within the Buyid orbit, he himself
inscribed his work to ‘Aud al-Dawla, indeed present-
ing it to him exclusively; perhaps only after the ded-
icatee’s death did it become accessible to the wider
public. On the basis of ‘Aud al-Dawla’s royal
(malakl) title as extant in al-MajusTs work, its pre-
sentation to him can be dated to the interval 363-367/
974-978, the only approximately precise date in al-
Majusi’s life (the presumed year of his death, 384/994,
cannot be ascertained).

The Royal Book

The Royal Book: Completion of Medical Art ranks as
one of the foremost examples of classical Islamic

Galenism, primarily because of its extensive scholar-
ship, lucid exposition, and dominant rationalism (i.e.,
the near-total absence of occult material) but also
because of its wide reception in subsequent centuries;
despite its being overshadowed by Avicenna’s Canon
Medicinae (Kitcib al-Qaniin ft 1-Oibb, Canon of Medi-
cine ), it continued to be perused not merely within
Islamic civilization but also in Hebrew and Latin
Europe. In Constantine the African’s pioneering ad-
aptation (ca. 1080 CE), it was titled Pantegni, whereas
Stephen of Pisa/ Antioch stayed closer to the original
in his own translation of 1127 and its title, Liber
Regius (and variants). According to a pattern estab-
lished since late antiquity, the author presents the
entire syllabus of medical learning in one book; how-
ever, not merely in his own view, his work surpasses
his predecessors both quantitatively and qualitatively.
It is neatly divided into two sections — theory and
practice — of ten treatises each and that cover the
areas of anatomy, physiology, dietetics and preven-
tive medicine, etiology and symptomatology of loca-
lized and general ailments, diagnosis by the pulse and
uroscopy, medicinal therapy and surgery, and, finally,
pharmacy.

Lutz Richter-Bernburg

Further Reading

Burnett, Charles, and Danielle Jacquart, eds. Constantine
the African and All ibn al- ‘ Abbas al-MaEusI: The Pan-
tegni and Related Texts. Studies in Ancient Medicine, vol.
10. Leiden: Brill, 1994.

Micheau, Francoise, “‘All ibn al-‘Abbas al-MaEusI et son
Milieu.” Ibid., 1-15.

Richter-Bernburg, L. “Observations on al-MajusI, the Au-
thor of Liber Regius.” Journal for the History of Arabic
Science 4 (1980): 341-2, 363-75.

Sezgin, Fuat, ed. The Complete Medical Art — Kamil al- Oinci ‘a
al-OibbTya — by ‘Alt ibn al-' Abbas al-Majusi, 2 vols., Pub-
lications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic
Science; Ser. C, vol. 16, 1-2. Frankfurt am Main: Institute
for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, 1985.

Ullmann, Manfred, Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1978.

. Die Medizin im Islam, 140-6. Leiden and Koln: E.J.

Brill, 1970.

MALAY PENINSULA

Early Knowledge and Trade

From around the second century CE, the Malay Pen-
insula was a major meeting point along the maritime

461

MALAY PENINSULA

counterpart to the Silk Road. During the early tenth
century, Abu Zayd of Siraf even described the narrow
isthmus at Kra as the midpoint between the lands of
the Arabs and China. Although there is evidence of
some overland traffic at Kra — carried between Krabi
on the west coast and Chaiya in the east — the
vast bulk of international shipping, with holds filled
with Chinese ceramics and Middle Eastern glass
and glass products (some of which are thought to
have contained unguents or perfumes), seems to
have passed through the Straits of Malacca to the
south. For this reason, the history of the peninsula
is inextricably linked to the major island Sumatra and
most especially to East Sumatra, which is the site of a
series of kingdoms. Of these, the eighth- and ninth-
century rulers of Srivijaya claimed some authority
over the Straits and as far north as Kra from their
bases in Palembang and Jambi.

At various points in the region, Chinese, Indian,
and Middle Eastern vessels would harbor to take
on supplies and await the appropriate monsoonal
winds to carry them further on their respective
journeys. Indications are that eastward-bound vessels
would have skirted the Sumatran coast, calling at
Lamreh in present-day Aceh before docking at the
major ports in East Sumatra. Then, after gaining the
appropriate shift in winds, they would head north
through the Riau Archipelago and on to Tioman
island, the coast of Champa, and southern China
beyond.

At all of these points, the prestige goods of the
archipelago's seas and forests were exchanged. These
included shells, alluvial gold, ambergris, forest pro-
ducts such as resins and rare birds, camphor wood,
textiles, and — perhaps most famously — spices. Some
spices, such as cloves, were in use in both Rome
and China by the second century. These, like nutmeg
and mace, had already been brought from their
sources farther afield in the Moluccas and the Banda
archipelago by archipelagic shipping.

Muslim knowledge of the straits passage varied in
accordance with the security and prosperity of both
the maritime routes and the mainland Silk Road.
Much of what was known until the time of al-Idrisi
reflected information gathered during the ninth
century, at a time when the 'Abba si ds were actively
pursuing the Indian Ocean trade with China from
the Persian Gulf port of Siraf. It is in these accounts
that there are clear references to peninsular Kra,
the north Sumatran Lamreh (known in the texts
as Ramni or Rami), and echoes of the claims of
the eighth-century rulers of Srivijaya, known to
Abu Zayd as Sribuza or even as Zabaj, a term
long used as a coverall for the lands of the Malay
peoples inhabiting both sides of the Straits.

Although the name Zabaj has clear salience and
importance in the early Arab accounts, its etymology
has been disputed. Some have seen it as a distant
pronunciation of an Indian adjectival form, Javaka,
meaning “peoples of Java,” whereby Java is under-
stood to refer to both Sumatra and Java. However,
comparison with reconstructed forms of the Chinese
gloss for an older archipelagic state based in Sumatra
called Jaba (Jia-ba-dej; i.e., Jabadesh) and the pho-
netic agreement of this form with Greek names for the
same entity (Zabai, Iabadiou) are much closer to
Zabaj.

Even so, by the time al-Idrisi did record informa-
tion relating to the areas once covered by Zabaj
and Kra, Palembang — the former chief entrepot of
Srivijaya — had long been reduced by a raid from
the Tamils of southern India in 1025. In any case, as
Jacq-Hergoualc’h has suggested, various entrepots
on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, such as
Tambralinga, already exercised a degree of indepen-
dence well before the eleventh-century raids, especial-
ly during periods of relative quiet in the China trade.
One might also draw the same conclusions for many
of the Malay and Khmer ports in the region. Certain-
ly various toponyms are emphasized in the geogra-
phies of al-Biruni and al-Idrisi at the expense of Zabaj
and Sribuza, including Malayu (Jambi), Fansur, and
Rami, as well as the more stable mainland entities of
Cambodia (Qmar) and Champa (Sanf).

During the late thirteenth century, the region of
Sumatra and the Malay peninsula came under the
hegemony of the Javanese kingdoms of Singasari
and then Majapahit after a Mongol intervention in
1293. Both dynasties actively sought to monopolize
both intra- and extraregional trade. It is also apparent
that Javanese claims of suzerainty were accepted by
both the southern Song and the later Yuan (Mongol)
dynasties. The view of a Java-dominated world was
also accepted in the Indian Ocean. The geographies
of Yaqut and his successors refer more and more
to Java as a regional construct and relegate Zabaj
and its affiliates to the fields of cosmography and
the bizarre.

Although Arab geographic knowledge vacillated in
accordance with the rumors of shifting patterns of
authority in a distant region, the success and continu-
ity of trade was not tied exclusively to the durability
of the states that sought advantage from it. One
scholar has remarked about the relative durability
of trading guilds — often tied to ethnic and religious
networks, whether Tamil, Arab, or Chinese — as com-
pared with the kingdoms that rose and fell along
the same coasts. Although it seems clear that most
Muslim vessels were bound for China, this was not the
only West Asian trade to touch on insular Southeast

462

MALAY PENINSULA

Asia. Documents from the Geniza trove, found in
Cairo during the late nineteenth century, suggest
that there was also direct contact between Egypt,
Kra, and the west coast of Sumatra at Fansur between
the tenth and thirteenth centuries. This was handled by
Jewish merchants and their Malay partners, and it
facilitated the movement of the all-important spices
from the Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean
through the port of Alexandria.

Java, Spice, and Conversion

Today the area that constitutes the nation-states of
Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia is largely Muslim
and Shafi’i in orientation. Although the presence of
Muslim traders seems certain from at least the ninth
century, there is great uncertainty about how or when
Islam came to prevail in the western reaches of the
archipelago. The first epigraphic evidence of any
Muslim ruler comes from the northern tip of Suma-
tra, the site of the former port kingdom of Samudra
(also known as Pasai). Here is to be found the re-
stored tomb of a sovereign called Malik al-Salih,
conventionally dated to 1297. Even so, Samudra
is not remembered by Malay accounts as the first
Muslim kingdom of the archipelago. Malay literature
speaks instead of the neighboring port of Perlak
as the first Muslim kingdom and the agent of the
conversion of Samudra Pasai. This chronology is
confirmed by the account of Marco Polo, who passed
through the Straits in approximately 1291 and men-
tioned the existence of a major island called Java
Minora that consisted of eight separate kingdoms.
Of these he described Ferlec (Perlak), Basma, Samara,
Dagroian (Indragiri), Lambri (Lamreh), and Fansur
and remarked that, although most were under the rule
of the Great Khan (of Java), Ferlec had been recently
won over by the Muslim merchants who frequented
the place.

Although trade must have played a vital role in the
conversion of Sumatra’s entrepot ports, indigenous
accounts stress the role of saints from the Middle
East who had ventured to the islands via ports in
southern India. The great lag between first contact
and royal conversion — as opposed to the local
instances that must have occurred betwen traders
and locals — has caused some scholars to suggest the
possibility of a new missionary impulse led by Sufis
after the Mongol sack of Baghdad. A. H. Johns once
proposed that these activities were perhaps entwined
with the activities of trade guilds, whereas others have
pointed to the complex nature of conversion in the
archipelago involving merchants of many ethnic

groups (Tamil, Persian, Chinese, and Arab) who
came to play a greater role at courts.

One possible argument for the slow spread of Islam
in the region after the late thirteenth century is that it
was connected to a weakening in previous structures
in the face of the spread of Javanese power and then a
vacuum caused by its decline. According to the
account of Prapanca, which was written during the
mid-fourteenth century, the Javanese sent military
expeditions into the Straits in the 1270s, and the
various statelets of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula
remained loyal vassals. However, it is possible that
the Javanese appointed relatively disinterested outsi-
ders as local governers or tax collectors with ties to
the all-important international trade and most prob-
ably with Ayyubid Yemen and Egypt. The fact that
Malik al-Salih adopted an Ayyubid-style name and
that the first known individual in the Middle East
with a patronymic connection to Southeast Asia was
a mystic active in Aden and the Red Sea Coast linked
to the spice trade, Abu ‘Abd Allah Mas‘ud b. ‘Abd
Allah al-Jawi (fl. ca. 1277-ca. 1315) points to such a
connection. Furthermore, the hagiographic stories
about ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, which were collected
and edited by an adept of al-Jawi, ‘Abd Allah b.
As‘ad al-Yafi‘i (1298-1367), were later reworked as
Malay, Javanese, and Sundanese recensions, and they
appear to have influenced one of the earliest stories of
royal conversion in the archipelago. One legend of al-
Jilani speaks of his gaining the gift of eloquence from
the sputum of the Prophet. The king of Pasai was said
to have been converted in a dream in which the
Prophet also spat in his mouth and gave him the
ability to recite the Qur’an in its entirety.

When Ibn Battuta passed through the region in
around 1345, he, too, commenced his account of the
island of Sumatra by remarking that it was the island
of the Javanese people. He also made sure to note that
it was the source of the famous incense Luban Jawi
(benzoin). Meanwhile, within the area of Java,
which he seems to have located as the lands below the
Peninsula in toto, Ibn Battuta detailed his experiences
in two kingdoms. One of these was Samudra, which
then consisted of a walled settlement upriver under the
authority of a ruler called Malik al-Zahir, a form that
echoes that of his predecessor Malik al-Salih. The next
court he visited — and where he received a much more
cursory welcome — was called Mul Jawa. Although his
slighting description of its non-Muslim king could
have been applied to any number of potentates east
of Samudra and indeed is most often identified with
Java or the Peninsula, this was most likely Jambi given
that Ibn Battuta was following the same well-worn
route that his predecessors had followed for more
than five centuries.

463

MALAY PENINSULA

Whatever the roots and reasons for royal conver-
sion, the spread of Islamic rule and its concomitant
symbolic forms — including dress, Arabic script, and
titles — gathered momentum during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, although this process often
contained clear reference to the previously prevailing
Indianized traditions. For example, the next major
known inscription after the tomb of Malik al-Salih
comes from the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula at
Trengganu. This inscription, datable to either 1303 or
1387, takes the form of a large stone engraved in
Malay written in a modified Arabic script and records
the adoption of new Islamic rules. Even so, although
the rules and script pay tribute to Islamic models,
much of the terminology — including the name of
God — is drawn from Sanskrit and Malay. Certainly
rules and rulings were adopted by local sovereigns.
According to Ibn Battuta, the ruler of Samudra was
an avid discussant on matters of Shafi’i law, the
school that now predominates in the region to the
practical exclusion of all other forms.

The Malacca Sultanate

As Islam spread down the coasts of Sumatra — being
adopted by the courts of Aru and Deli in the 1400s —
it also gained adherents on the peninsula. It may also
have served a useful purpose for escapees from Java-
nese hegemony seeking international support. Accord-
ing to what is often regarded as the preeminent
account of Malay royal lineage, the Sulalat al-Salatin
(Malay Annals ) , the dynasty of Malacca was founded
around 1400 by a refugee prince from Palembang
after an interim period in Temasek, now occupied
by the city of Singapore.

Oliver Wolters has presented the Malaccan story as
an account stressing the continuum of authority from
long-lost Srivijaya, although much interpretation is
required to extract the precise details from the narra-
tive. What is clear, however, is that the city came, in
the fifteenth century, to play the role once performed
by Palembang and Jambi as the key mediator for the
China trade in the Straits, with its rulers continuing
the practice of monopolistic protection, close partner-
ship with the sea peoples who both patrolled the
islands and gathered its hinterland products, and
good harbor facilities with low taxation.

Most relevant to present concerns, however, is
that the ruler of Malacca appears to have adopted
Islam with the encouragement of the lord of
Pasai. The subsequent history of Islam during this
period is often presented by Malaysian national
and colonial historiography as a golden age, with

Malacca playing the dominant role in Straits
shipping.

It is clear that Malacca became an important hub
for trade with the wider region through its ties to
international commerce. Recognition from the Chi-
nese emperor in 1405 combined with statements
of loyalty to both the neighboring powers of Tai
Ayudhya and Java's Majapahit, would also have
served this end. Ultimately, it surpassed Samudra in
influence, although it, Aru, and Kedah on the penin-
sula remained strong rivals. Sultan Muzaffar Shah
(d. ca. 1459) even managed to incorporate much sur-
rounding territory — Dinding, Selangor, Muar, and
Bintan — and secured the allegiance of Pahang on the
east coast of the peninsula. Malaccan influence was
also felt across the strait, in Inderagiri and Kampar,
which had access to the mineral wealth and pepper
plantations of the Minangkabau highlands. The suc-
cessors of Sultan Muzaffar then added Bernam and
Perak on the peninsula, the Riau archipelago, and
Siak. By the time of the last ruler, Mahmud Shah
(r. 1488-1528), the Sultanate took in Pahang on the
east coast, the west coast between Perak and Johor,
large swathes of the east coast of Sumatra, and insular
possessions in the South China Sea and the Riau
archipelago. Even so, it was never in total control of
the passage and always had to contend with the rival-
ry of other Malay states to the north under the influ-
ence of the Thais and the still-active Sumatran entities
of Aru and Samudra-Pasai.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Malacca
was the principal Muslim power that was responsible
for the wider dissemination of the faith to the further
reaches of the archipelago (e.g., in the spice-gathering
zones of the Moluccas) and indeed the propagation of
its form of Malay as the prestige language of intereth-
nic communication. Its ruler was confident enough to
pledge his fealty to China and Ayudya, but he no
longer regarded Java as a threat. Indeed, Malacca
was now the primary magnet for both intra-archipe-
lagic and international trade. Its regional foci were
reflected in the appointment of four different harbor-
masters to deal with the traffic from Gujerat; the
peoples of southern India, Bengal, Pasia, and Pegu;
those from Java, Palembang, Banda, and the Moluc-
cas; and those of China, Champa, and the Ryukyu
archipelago.

Because of the volume of trade and its strategic
location, Malacca was identified by the Portuguese as
the key regional prize after their arrival in the Indies
in 1509. The city was captured by Albuquerque in
1511.

Some have seen this moment as one of galvaniza-
tion for the Muslims of the archipelago against Chris-
tian aggression, but such claims are overstated.

464

MALAY PENINSULA

Significantly, the displaced Sultan Mahmud appealed
to China for aid. By the same token, the taking of
Malacca did not guarantee any Portuguese monopoly
in the region but rather a chance to compete with the
emerging states of importance. Among these, Aceh,
which overwhelmed most of north Sumatra — includ-
ing Samudra — gained in influence in the 1520s. The
Acehnese also seem to have engaged in a degree
of trade with the Portuguese, just as the rulers of
Samudra had done, even allowing a Portuguese fac-
tory to be established there. Peninsular Johor also
maintained trade relations, although only after a
long period of intermittent attacks. It was then forced
into an uneasy alliance with Malacca after 1536. De-
spite Acehnese ambitions of regional hegemony and
trading relations with the Ottoman Empire, it would
appear that it was only in the middle of the century —
and perhaps with encouragement from local Ottoman
spice procurers — that Aceh engaged Malacca in open
warfare. To this end, the Acehnese rulers requested
aid from the Ottomans, and a fleet was even dis-
patched in the 1560s. However, it was forced to deal
with an uprising in Yemen, and what forces did
arrive were primarily in the form of large cannon
and artillery experts.

Aceh remained a regional force well into the seven-
teenth century in the company of the comprador
states of Banten in Java and Johor on the peninsula.
It was also during the seventeenth century that the
Atlantic nations became more actively involved in the
spice trade to the cost of their Portuguese and Spanish
predecessors. Both the Dutch and the English sought
to establish factories in Aceh, but they were refused
and settled instead in ports further to the east at
Batavia and Bencoolen. In the emerging struggle,
Portugal was slowly excluded, even if Portuguese
retained its importance alongside Malay as a language
of regional importance. Malacca itself was finally
taken by the Dutch in 1641.

The Doctrinal Importance of Aceh

Whereas Malacca holds center stage in modern
Malay accounts of Islam and Islamization, it was
Aceh that played the preeminent role in determining
the future course of Malay Islam and indeed the
mystically leaning Islam of many of the courts of the
archipelago, such as Banten and Cirebon on West
Java. Unlike earlier periods, there is a great deal of
textual evidence surviving from the seventeenth cen-
tury showing that north Sumatra was regarded as
the leading site for interpretations of Sufism in the
archipelago, especially as compared with Malacca, for

which there is little evidence of great scholarly con-
cern with Islamic matters outside of those of trade and
legislation. Some of the earliest known Malayo-
Muslim writings were composed by Hamzah al-
Fansuri, whose patronym indicates that he came
from the west Sumatran region of Fansur, which was
long noted as a source of excellent camphor. Indeed,
camphor is often referred to in his poetry, which also
hints at induction into a Sufi order in Ayodhya and
further travels to Mecca and Jerusalem. Although al-
Fansuri was long thought to have died in Aceh during
the late sixteenth century, the evidence — again based
on a headstone — points instead to his passing in
Mecca in 1527.

Whereas al-Fansuri was clearly a member of a
mystical order, he left no known writings of an expos-
itory nature regarding his belief or his scholarly
affiliations. Instead, the first such indigenous writings
come from the pen of a scholar who acknowledged
his intellectual debt to al-Fansuri, Shams al-Din
al-Samutra’i (often spelled al-Samutrani; d. 1630),
who highlighted the place of Malay as the primary
language of exegesis of Arabic and Persian works.

Certainly Southeast Asia remained interlinked
with an Indian Ocean world. The earliest accurately
datable Malay work, the Taj al-Salatin, which was
composed in Johor in 1601, makes repeated references
to events and persons in India and to Arabic and
Persian books read there. Even so, the intellectual
motor of change lay not so much in the historical
links with India itself but with the ongoing interaction
with expatriate communities throughout the entire
Indian Ocean, whether among Malays abroad in the
Yemen and the Hejaz or with peripatetic scholars
linked by trade and patronage of the courts.

One of the most famous such emigres was appar-
ently a Hadrami from India, Nur al-Din al-Raniri (d.
1656), who rose to prominence at the Acehnese court
around 1637 under Sultan Iskandar II (r. 1636-1641)
and who is often remembered for his condemnation
of the works of al-Fansuri and al-Samutra’i as consti-
tuting deviant or heterodox understandings of Sufism.
Under al-Raniri, a form of local inquisition was insti-
gated, which resulted in the public burning of these
works, and, apparently, of some of the followers.
However, al-Raniri is also remembered more widely
for his major contribution to Malayo-Islamic juridical
literature, the Sir at al-Mustaqim, which remains one
of the most important works of Shafi’i jurisprudence
used in Malay-literate religious networks; it is often
regarded as a work that sits in good company with the
works of al-Ghazali. It is also noteworthy that, al-
though the Islamization legends of Kedah (on the
east coast of the Malay Peninsula) backdate Islamiza-
tion to a putative connection with Pasai, the name

465

MALAY PENINSULA

of the primary saint and the works cited in this regard
are clearly linked to al-Raniri and his Sir at.

The contentious ascendancy of al-Raniri was un-
done in 1641, when a local challenger who was remem-
bered as a scholar and mystic from the Minangkabau
highlands gained the favor of the reigning sultana,
Taj al-Alam Safiyat al-Din Shah (1641-1675); this
was not unsual for Southeast Asia, with queens having
ruled over Islamic states such as Pasai and later in
Patani.

Although al-Raniri instituted a campaign against
ostensibly deviant forms of mysticism, he was himself
a Sufi. One Indonesian scholar, Azyumardi Azra, sees
him as a key leader in a centuries-long program of
reform and further Islamization in the archipelago as
a whole. Still, the message of teachers like al-Raniri
appears to have gained greater acceptance over time
but in a more accommodationist local guise. This was
presented by Abd al-Ra’uf al-Sinkili (1615-1693),
who served under Iskandar II’s female successor,
Sultana Safiyat al-Din, and composed the first com-
plete Malay exegesis of the Qur’an. This work, the
Tarjuman al-Mustafid , was based heavily on the tafsir
of “the two Jalals,” al-Mahalli (1389-1459) and al-
Suyuti (1445-1505). Although al-Sinkili’s work is now
increasingly rare, he laid the groundwork for the
lasting importance and popularity of the Jalalayn in
Southeast Asia.

Michael Laffan

See also ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani; Al-Biruni; Ghazali;
Ibn Battuta; Ibn Khurradadhbih; Al-Idrisi; Java; Mer-
chants, Guilds; Merchants, Jewish; Scriptural Exege-
sis, Islamic; al-Shafi’i; Silk Roads; Southeast Asia,
Languages and Literatures: Malay and Javanese;
Sufism and Sufis; Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula;
Sufism and Sufis; al-Suyuti; Yaqut; Yemen, Hadra-
maut; Hejaz; Ayyubids; Rasulids

Further Reading

Andaya, Barbara Watson, and Leonard Andaya. A History
of Malaysia, 2nd ed. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2001.

Azra, Azyumardi. The Origins of Islamic Reformism in
Southeast Asia: Networks of Malay-Indonesian and Mid-
dle Eastern ‘Ulama in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
Coedes, George. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia.

Honolulu: East West Center Press, 1968.

Cortesao, Armando, ed. and transl. The Suma Oriental of
Tome Tires (. . .) and the Book of Fransisco Rodriguez
(...). London: The Hakluyt Society, Second Series no.
89, 1944.

Goitein, S.D. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battuta A.D. 1325-1354,
eds. and transl. H.A.R. Gibb and C.F. Beckingham, vol.
IV, 874-87. London: Hakluyt Society, 1994.

Jacq-Hergoualc’h, Michel. The Malay Peninsula:
Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road. Leiden: Brill,
2002 .

Jones, Russell. “Ten Conversion Myths from Indonesia.”
In Conversion to Islam, ed. Nehemia Levtzion, 129-58.
London, Methuen.

Prapanca, Mpu. DeSawarnana (Nagarakrtagama), ed.
Stuart Robson. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1995.

Reid, Anthony. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce,
2 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988-
1993.

Riddell, Peter G. Islam and the Malay-Indonesian World:
Transmission and Responses. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii, 2001.

Tibbetts, G.R. A Study of the Arabic Texts Containing
Material on South-East Asia. Leiden and London: Brill,
1979.

Wolters, Oliver. Early Indonesian Commerce: A Study of the
Origins of Srivijaya. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1962.

Yule, Henry, and Henri Cordier. The Book of Ser Marco
Polo, 2 vols. Philo Press, Amsterdam, 1975.

MALI EMPIRE

The Mali Empire gained fame from descriptions
of Arab authors such as Ibn Battuta and Ibn Khaldun
as well as from the fact that the founding of the
Empire by Sunjata has been transmitted since the
Middle Ages in the so-called Sunjata epic. As Ghana
collapsed, Mali established itself as the leading power
in the western Sudan, and it was famous for its riches
derived from its gold mines. In the fourteenth century,
the Mali Empire covered large parts of the African
savannah. The heyday of the Mali Empire was either
the period of Sunjata (probably the first half of the
thirteenth century) or the reign of Mansa Musa
(the first half of the fourteenth century). Around
1380, the Mali Empire lost influence to the rapidly
growing Songhay Empire. In the Middle Niger, refer-
ences to the Mali Empire seemed to have faded away
occasioned by the rise of the rulers of Segou in the
seventeenth century. However, it is also possible that
the rulers of Mali never had as strong a hold in this
area as they did in the Upper Niger region. Currently,
the Mali Empire is particularly remembered by the
Maninka (Malinke) who live south of the city of
Bamako (the capital of the present-day republic of
Mali) and in northeastern Guinea.

The history of the Mali Empire has not been well
documented in contemporary written sources. Most
of the few available sources were written either after
the heyday of the empire or/and from the perspective
of a successor state of the Empire. Current scholar-
ship envisions the Upper and Middle Niger area dur-
ing the Middle Ages as going through centuries of a
trend toward the creation of state organizations with

466

MALI EMPIRE

central agencies of redistribution and possessing a
majority or monopoly of power and authority, at
least episodically, for the duration of one or more
regimes. Rulers accomplished centralization by ab-
sorbing — first politically through conquest or client-
ship and then culturally — regions into the Empire.
Whether Mali was an “empire” depends to a large
extent of the definition of the word.

Historiographically, the Mali Empire is the most
illustrious empire of the medieval west Sudan. To
understand the importance of the Mali Empire, a
closer look at scholarly interpretations is necessary.
The French colonial regime, according to the oral
traditions, emphasized Sunjata’s role as the alleged
founder of the dynasty of rulers of Mali. Although
Sunjata’s name is mentioned in the Arab sources,
data about his deeds come from oral accounts that
were written down after 1850. These accounts, known
as the Sunjata epic (Austen, 1999; Johnson, 2003)
narrate Sunjata’s quest for the throne of Mande.
He was said to have been sent in exile by his older
brother Dankaran Tuman, a weak figure who was
subsequently defeated by the sorcerer-king Sumaoro
Kante of Susu (a kingdom that is not related to
the present-day Soso ethnic group, who live in
Guinea). After the occupation of Mande by Sumaoro,
the people of Mande sent a delegation in search
of Sunjata, a delegation that convinced him to return
to Mande. The actual confrontation between Sunjata
and Sumaoro Kante is a wonderful story full of witch-
craft and magic. Sumaoro is said to have transformed
himself into the rocks near Koulikoro, which is one
hundred kilometers east of Bamako. Sunjata thus
liberated the people of Mande and became ruler. He
gave each family a task in society at a meeting at the
plain of Kurukanfugan (five kilometers north of pres-
ent-day Kangaba, along the river Niger), thus estab-
lishing Mande society. Inherent to present-day
Mande society is a tripartite division of its population
into status categories: noblemen, artisans, and ser-
vants: This is a social system that was probably al-
ready in existence during the Middle Ages. In the
village of Kangaba, every seven years, a ceremonial
restoration and reroofing of the Kamabolon sanctu-
ary takes place. During this ceremony, which evokes
the imagination of many people in Mali and beyond,
the authoritative recitation of the Sunjata epic is
performed by the jeliw of the village of Kela. Howev-
er, this recitation is a “secret” family affair; it takes
place inside the sanctuary, and the hundreds of atten-
dees are only allowed to watch the event from a
distance. The Kamabolon ceremony is clear proof of
the importance of the memory of the Mali Empire in
present-day historical imagination.

Inevitably, Arab writers, when writing about the
foundation of Mali, refer to the Sunjata epic. More-
over, this narration has functioned for centuries as
a political charter for the Maninka (Jansen 2001).
Sunjata also has a major appeal to political elites
in West African nation states such as Mali (a name
chosen by the political elite of Soudan Frangais in the
1950s, at the eve of independence), Guinea, and the
Gambia. These countries base national histories on
the Sunjata epic, and each considers the Mali Empire
its historical predecessor, which sometimes leads to
doubtful strategies to appropriate Sunjata into their
own nation’s medieval history (Conrad 1994).

Academic history, which considers the reign of
Mansa Musa as the heyday of the Mali Empire, has
traditionally emphasized information from written
sources. It rejected history reconstructed by the
French colonial regime on the basis of its solely oral
traditions. However, this academic search for external
validity seems to be in the process of falling victim to
decreasing popularity, particularly among scholars of
African origin, who are in search of a paradigm that
may allow for an intensive use of twentieth-century
oral tradition for African medieval history (Diawara,
2003). Hence, a politically inspired struggle regarding
epistemologies is at the moment of this writing central
in the scholarly appreciation of the Mali Empire.

The position of Islam in the Mali Empire is an issue
of academic debate. It is generally accepted that most
of the rulers of Mali adhered to Islam. Moreover, long-
distance traders adhered to Islam; whether the com-
mon people adhered to Islam is not well known. Arab
sources suggest that the rulers of Mali had economic
interests that were achieved by not striving actively
for the conversion to Islam of the local populations;
after conversion, these individuals would work less in
the gold mines.

Jan Jansen

See also Ibn Battuta; Ibn Khaldun; Mansa Musa

Further Reading

Conrad, David C. “A Town Called Dakajalan: The Sunjata
Tradition and the Question of Ancient Mali’s Capital.”
Journal of African History 35 (1994): 355-77.

Diawara, Mamadou. L’Empire du Verbe et L’Eloquence du
Silence. Cologne: Rudiger Koppe Verlag, 2003.

Hopkins, John F.P., and Nehemiah Levtzion. Corpus of
Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Jansen, Jan. Epopee-Histoire-Societe: Le Cas cle Soundjata
(Mali-Guinee). Paris: Karthala, 2001.

Johnson, John W. Son-Jara: The Mande Epic, 3rd ed. Bloo-
mington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2003.

Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali, 2nd ed. New
York: Africana, 1980.

467

MALIK IBN ANAS

Malik ibn Anas was a Medinan jurist whose teachings
laid down the foundations of the Maliki school of
law. He died in AH 179/796 CE in Medina at the
age of eighty-five. He cultivated the study of hadith,
fiqh, and qira’a.

Malik spent most of his life in Medina, where his
scholarly activities appear to have been highly valued.
In 144/761, the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mansur entrusted
him to transmit the Hassanids of Mecca a demand to
hand over the Shi'i pretenders Muhammad and Ibra-
him b. 'Abd Allah. The mission failed, and, in 145/
762, Muhammad seized power in Medina. This rebel-
lion seems to have been supported by Malik, because
he issued a fatwa declaring that the homage paid to
al-Mansur was not binding because it had been given
under compulsion. When the rebellion failed, Malik
was flogged by the ‘Abbasid governor of Medina, an
action that strengthened his religious prestige. Subse-
quently, Malik came to terms with the government.

The most important writing attributed to him is the
Muwatta’, although the authorship and chronology
of this book have been the subject of debate. The
Muwatta ’ consists of a compilation of about two thou-
sand Prophetic reports organized in sixty-one chapters
dealing with questions of ritual ('ibadat) and legal
transactions ( mu 'amalat ) . Its somehow hybrid charac-
ter between hadith and fiqh is reflected in the fact that
the Muwatta’ is considered a legal textbook as well as —
at least according to some scholars — one of the canoni-
cal collections of hadith. As the term Muwatta ' sug-
gests, Malik’s compilation was intended to “level the
path” to the implementation of justice and law. A dis-
tinctive feature of the Muwatta ’ is the role given to the
practice of the people of Medina, which is put forward
as an additional source of law as well as the decisive
criterion in the interpretation of Qur’an and hadith.

Malik had hundreds of disciples who spread his
teachings in all directions. The historian Ibn Jaldun
mentions three geographical lines in this transmission:
(1) Qayrawani; (2) Andalusian; and (3) Eastern
(including Iraqi and Egyptian branches).

Qadi ‘Iyad b. Musa pointed out the existence of
twenty different versions of the Muwatta’, the most
famous and widespread being the riwaya of the
Andalusian Yahya b. Yaya al-Laythi. Worthy of
mention are also the transmissions of al-Shaybani,
Ibn Bukayr, ‘Ali b. Ziyad, al-Qa‘nabi, Abu Mus‘ab
al-Zuhri, Suwayd al-Hadathani, Ibn al-Qasim, and
‘Abd Allah Ibn Wahb. Other relevant names in the
spread and early development of Maliki doctrine are
those of Ashhab, Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam, Asad b. Furat,
Ibn al-Majishun, Mutarrif, Asbagh b. al-Faraj, Ibn
Habib, and al-‘Utbi.

Malik was also venerated as a trustworthy hadith
scholar. The names of al-Awza‘i, al-Layth b. Sa‘d, al-
Shafi’i, and al-Thawri stand out from among the mass
of scholars who are reported to have transmitted
prophetic reports from him.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Further Reading

B. Anas, Malik. Muwatta’ Iman Malik , transl. M. Rahi-
muddin. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Asraj, 1985.

. Al-Muwatta’ of Imam Malik ibn Anas : The First

Formulation of Islamic Law, transl. A. A. Bewley.
London: Kegan Paul, 1989.

Brunschvig, R. “Polemiques Medievales Autour du Rite de
Malik.” Al-Andalus 15 (1950): 377M13.

Calder, N. Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence. Oxford,
UK: Clarendon Press, 1993.

Cottart, N. “Malikiyya.” In El 2 .

Dutton, Y. The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qur’an, the
Muwatta and Medinan Amal. Richmond, Va: Curzon,
1999.

Fierro, M. “El Derecho Maliki en al-Andalus: Ss. II/VIII-
V/XI.” Al-Qantara 12 (1991): 119-32.

Hallaq, W. “On Dating Malik’s Muwatta.” UCLA Jour-
nal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 1 (2001-2002):
47-65.

Lagardere, V. “L’Unificateur du Malikisme Oriental et
Occidental a Alexandrie: Abu Bakr at-Turtusi.” Revue
de T Occident Musulman et de la Mediterranee 31 (1981):
47-61.

Mansour, M.H. The Maliki School of Law: Spread and
Domination in North and West Africa, 8th-14th Centu-
ries. San Francisco: Austin & Winfield, 1994.

Melchert, Ch. The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law,
9th-10th Centuries CE. Leiden, New York, and Cologne:
Brill, 1997.

Motzki, H. “The Prophet and the Cat: On Dating Malik’s
Muwatta and Legal Traditions.” Jerusalem Studies in
Arabic & Islam 22 (1998): 18-83.

Mukhtar, Ahmad, al-‘Umar al-Jabruti az-Zayla’, Ibrahim.
“Maliki Scholars and Technical Terms.” Available at:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ABewley/
malikis.html. Accessed May 24, 2005.

Muranyi, M. Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Haclit- und
Rechtsgelehrsamkeit der Malikiyya in Nordafrika bis
zum 5. Jh. d.H.: Biobibliographische Notizen aus der
Moscheebibliothek von Qairawan. Wiesbaden: Harrasso-
witz, 1997.

Musa ‘Iyad b. Tartib al-Madarik wa-Taqnb al-Masdlik
li-Ma’rifat a’Lam Madhhab Malik, 3 vols., ed. A.B.
Mahmud. Beirut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayat, 1387-1388/
1967-1968.

Saifullah, M.S.M., Hesham Azmy, and Muhammad
Ghoniem. “On The ‘Versions’ of Malik’s Muwatta’.”
Available at: http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/
muwatta.html. Accessed May 24, 2005.

Schacht, J. “Malik b. Anas.” In El 2 .

Turki, A.M. “La Veneration pour Malik et la Physionomie
du Malikisme Andalou.” In Theologiens et Juristes de
VEspagne Musulmane. Aspects Polemiques , 43-67. Paris,
Maisonneuve & Larose, 1982.

468

MALIKSHAH

MALIKISM

Malikism is a juridical-religious school the origins of
which can be traced back to the teachings of Malik
ibn Anas (d. Medina, AH 179/795 CE) as compiled in
the Muwatta ’. The legal arguments of this legal school
are based on the Prophetic traditions ( hadith ) and the
juridical practice ( ‘amal ) of Medina, backed in many
cases by Malik’s personal opinion. As is true of other
legal schools, Malikis base their doctrine on the
Qur’an, Prophetic traditions, and ijma‘ (consensus).
Malik was accused of limiting the concept of ijma‘ to
the practice of the people of Medina, and he was
accused as well of putting this practice on a level
with the Prophetic traditions and with the precedents
of the Righteous Caliphs and the opinions of the
prominent Companions. He was additionally criti-
cized for excessive resort to the ra’y (personal judg-
ment) to restrict the application of certain hadiths or
even to leave them aside. Finally, another criticism
made to him was his application of the analogy
(qiyas) to the ijma‘. Malikis of later generations
faced these criticisms by making an effort to “tradi-
tionalize” jurisprudence, although no significant
changes were made in practice. It has to be said as
well that diverse tendencies within the Maliki school
existed (i.e., Iraqi, Andalusi, and Ifriqi) that were
not reunited until the twelfth century. According to
the historian Ibn Khaldun, this reunification was
possible thanks to the efforts of the jurist Abu Bakr
al-Turtushi (d. 1126).

From Medina, Malik’s doctrines were disseminated
in Egypt, Iraq, Khurasan, Syria, Y emen, the Maghrib,
al-Andalus, and, much later, in Sudan and the Islami-
cized areas of the west of black Africa. Currently this
is the prevalent legal school in Sudan, Morocco,
Mauritania, Nigeria, and all of the Islamicized areas
of sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of the
Indian Ocean coastline. Malikism coexists with Ibadi
and Hanafi centers in Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.
Finally, there are some Maliki groups in the cities of
Hijaz and the United Arab Emirates.

Delfina Serrano Ruano

Further Reading

Brockopp, J.E. Early Maliki Law: Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam and
His Major Compendium of Jurisprudence. Leiden, New
York, and Koln: Brill, 2000.

Brunschvig, R. "Polemiques Medievales Autour du Rite de
Malik.” Al-Andalus 15 (1950): 377-413.

Cottart, N. “Malikiyya.” In El 2 .

Fierro, M. "The Legal Policies of the Almohad Caliphs and
Ibn Rushd's BiclSayat al-Mujtahid.” Journal of Islamic
Studies 10 (1999): 226-48.

. “Proto-Maliki, Malikis and Reformed Malikis in

al-Andalus.” In The Madhhab, Proceedings of the 3rd

International Conference on Islamic Legal Studies.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard, 2000.

Jackson, S.A. Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional
Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi. Leiden, New
York, and Cologne, 1996.

Lagardere, V. “L’Unificateur du Malikisme au XI e et XII e
Siecles, Abu Bakr al-Turtushi.” Revue de /'Occident
Musulman et de la Mediterranee 31 (1981): 47-61.

Mansour, M.H. The Maliki School of Law: Spread and
Domination in North and West Africa, 8th-14th Centu-
ries. San Francisco, Austin, and Winfield, 1994.

Melchert, Ch. The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law,
9th-10th Centuries CE. Leiden, New York, and Cologne:
Brill, 1997.

Muller, Ch. Gerichtspraxis im Stadtstaat Cordoba: Zum
Recht der Gesellschaft in Einer Malikitisch-Islamischen
Rechtstradition des 5./11. Jahrhunderts. Leiden, New
York, and Cologne: Brill, 1999.

Muranyi, M. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Hadit- und
Rechtsgelehrsamkeit der Malikiyya in Nordafrika bis
zum 5. Jh. cl.H.: Biobibliographische Notizen aus der
Moscheebibliothek von Qairawan. Wiesbaden: Harrasso-
witz, 1997.

Powers, D. Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-
1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
2002 .

Scholz, P. Malikitisches Verfahrensrecht: Ein Studie zu
Inhalt und Methodik der Scharia mit Rechtshistorischen
und Rechtsvergleichenden Anmerkungen am Beispiel des
Malikitischen Verfahrensr edits bis zum 12. Jahrhundert
and Frankfurt: Lang, 1997.

Turki, A.M. Polemiques Entre Ibn Hazm e Bagi sur les
Principes de la loi Musulmanes. Argel, 1973.

Urvoy, D. Pensers d' al-Andalus. La Vie Intellectuelle a
Cordoue et a Seville au Temps des Empires Berberes
(Fin XT Siecle-Debut XIIE Siecle) . Toulouse, 1990.

MALIKSHAH

Malikshah was the third sultan (r. 1072-1092 CE) of
the Great Seljuk Empire. Bom in 1055, he was a son
of Sultan Alp Arslan, who named him his successor in
1066. Malikshah was with his father when he was
assassinated in Transoxiana in 1072 and was immedi-
ately proclaimed sultan. Alp Arslan’s grand vizier,
Nizam al-Mulk, facilitated Malikshah’s succession
and retained the vizierate. Nizam was the guiding
force behind Malikshah throughout his rule and man-
aged the empire while the sultan expanded its borders
and brought it to the height of its power and glory.

As soon as Malikshah became sultan, his uncle
Qavurt, the ruler of Kirman, challenged his rule.
Malikshah crushed Qavurt’s revolt in Hamadan in
1074 and executed him. While Malikshah was dealing
with Qavurt, the Qarakhanid ruler Shams al-Mulk
pushed south from Transoxiana into Tukharistan.
The sultan rushed to drive him back in 1073 and
1074, and he then gave his brother Tekish control of
Tukharistan. At the same time, Malikshah shored up
his borders in the same region against Ghaznavid

469

MALIKSHAH

irredentism. Malikshah returned to suppress a rebel-
lion of Tekish in 1080 and 1081 and again in 1084. In
1089, the sultan invaded Qarakhanid territory, taking
Seljuk arms to their farthest point east and forcing the
submission of the Qarakhanid ruler of Kashghar and
Khotan.

In the west, Malikshah had to deal with a hostile
Georgia, independent Kurdish and Arab emirates, and
various Turkmen leaders. He campaigned twice in the
Caucasus, during 1078/1079 and 1085, keeping
Georgia on the defensive and the Kurds under control.
In 1084, he destroyed the Kurdish Marwanid dynasty
in Diyarbakr. Meanwhile, various independent
Turkmen bands had been forcing back the Byzantine
frontier. Malikshah’s cousin Sulayman ibn Qutulmish
was the leader of one such group. He captured Nicaea
in 1075 and took control of much of western and
central Anatolia. Malikshah was suspicious of him
and around 1077 or 1078 sent an army to subdue him
but without success. Sulayman’s descendants later
created the Seljuk Sultanate of Anatolia or Rum,
which survived until 1307. For Malikshah, more im-
portant than Anatolia were Syria and Jazira. There he
strove to ensure that the influence of the Shi‘i Fatimids
in Egypt was neutralized, that the major cities were in
Sunni Muslim hands, and that the local Arab emirates
were obedient. In 1084 and 1085, he campaigned in
Syria and reached the Mediterranean.

Malikshah also devoted some attention to Arabia.
Through diplomacy, he had the Friday sermon
(khutba) in Mecca changed so that it was given in
the name of the ‘Abbasid caliph rather than the Fati-
mid. In 1076/1077, one of his commanders invaded
the eastern coast of Arabia as far as Bahrain, attack-
ing the Shi‘i Qarmathians en route. Around 1091 or
1092, he sent a force to Yemen, which briefly occupied
it and Aden.

Malikshah used Isfahan exclusively as his capital
until his second trip to Baghdad in 1091, when he
decided to make that city his winter capital and
began large-scale building projects there. He generally
excluded the ‘Abbasid caliphs from affairs of state.
Nizam al-Mulk had the task of enforcing Seljuk
policy toward the caliphs. In 1087, he arranged a
marriage between the caliph al-Muqtadi and a daugh-
ter of Malikshah. Relations between the sultan and
caliph cooled, however, and, by 1091, Malikshah was
planning to depose al-Muqtadi. Nothing came of this,
because, in 1092, less than two months after Nizam
al-Mulk was assassinated, the sultan suddenly died of
fever. He was buried in Isfahan. At his death, the
empire plunged into turmoil as his sons struggled for
the throne.

Malikshah managed to unite most of the heartland
of the Middle East, from Transoxiana to Syria, into

one state, although this unity did not survive him.
More important, he gave his full support to a revival
of Sunnism, ensuring its triumph over Shi‘ism. This
revival was carried out on two fronts: one military
and the other ideological. The sultan continuously
campaigned to forcefully crush centers of Shi‘ism;
generally he was successful, but pockets of it persisted
in remote areas. The Isma‘ili propagandist Hasan-i
Sabbah, for example, seized the fortress of Alamut in
the Alburz mountains in Iran in 1090. At the same
time, Nizam al-Mulk promoted Sunnism with the full
financial and political resources of the state. He was
especially renowned for establishing colleges of Sunni
law (the Nizamiyya madrasas) in most of the major
cities of the empire; these colleges flourished and had
a lasting effect on Islam.

Gary Eeiser

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Athir. The Annals of the Saljuq Turks , transl. D.S.
Richards. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.

Din Nishapuri, Zahir, al-. The History of the Seljuq Turks ,
transl. Kenneth Luther. London: Curzon, 2001.

Further Reading

Bosworth, C.E. “The Political and Dynastic History of
the Iranian World (AD 1000-1217).” In The Cambridge
History of Iran, Vol. 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods ,
ed. J.A. Boyle, 1-202. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1968.

MAMLUKS

The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria (1250-
1517 CE) had its origins in the tempestuous middle
decades of the thirteenth-century eastern Mediterra-
nean region: the Ayyubid confederation, founded by
Saladin in 1169, was troubled by intrafamily conflicts
across the lands it controlled in Egypt, Syria, and
upper Mesopotamia; the remnants of the Latin Cru-
sader states were clustered around the Levantine port
cities of Acre, Tripoli, and Antioch; and hostile Mon-
gol armies were advancing from the East. In the face
of challenges from fellow Ayyubids, al-Malik al-Salih
Ayyub, the last major Ayyubid ruler of Egypt
(r. 1240-1249), had recruited a corps of approximate-
ly eight hundred to one thousand military slaves
(. mamluks ; literally “owned”) to serve as a loyal bas-
tion of his military forces (see Slavery, Military).
These mamluks were referred to in the sources as
either the “Bahri” corps (so named because their
barracks were on an island in the river Nile [bahr al-
Nil]) or the “Salihi” mamluks after their king’s royal
title. They subsequently played a key role in defeating

470

MAMLUKS

Fifteenth Century CE. The Dome of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay’s tomb and mosque. Exterior. Late Mamluk dynasty, 1474-75.
Credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Mosque of Sultan Qaytbay, Cairo, Egypt.

; r

MAMLUKS

the Egyptian Crusade of King Louis IX of France in
1248 through 1250. Al-Malik al-Salih Ayyub died
during that campaign, and shortly thereafter his
Mamluks murdered Ayyub’s son and heir, who had
threatened their lives and positions.

During the ensuing turbulent decade, this Mamluk
corps fought with Ayyubid forces and each other.
After they had consolidated their control of Egypt,
they faced a Mongol invasion of Syria mounted after
the latter’s sack of Baghdad in 1258. An army led by
these Salihi Mamluks and the Mamluk Sultan Qutuz
(r. 1259-1260) defeated Mongol forces at "Ayn Jalut
in northern Palestine in 1260. On the return journey
to Egypt, the Salihi Mamluk Baybars I assassinated
Qutuz and became sultan.

Baybars (r. 1260-1277) was the true establisher of
the Mamluk Sultanate, which soon became the major
power in the eastern Mediterranean region. Under
Baybars, the Mamluks established control over the
Ayyubid Syrian provinces and began a concerted ef-
fort to eliminate the Crusaders from the eastern Med-
iterranean littoral; this goal was achieved by 1291.
Until the mid-fourteenth century, the sultanate was
engaged in a protracted struggle on its eastern borders
with the Il-Khanid Mongols. The Mamluks then
survived the campaigns into Syria by Timur at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, and they later
struggled with the Ottomans on their northern bor-
ders. The sultanate was conquered by the Ottomans
in 1517, and, although their Mamluk system of rule
ended, memories of Mamluk ideals and legacies
played a subsequent role in the politics and society
of Ottoman Egypt.

The Salihi Mamluks and their successors estab-
lished a ruling system that was based on militarily
defined ranks. Although actual practice over the
more than two and half centuries of Mamluk history
was often different, ideally the Mamluk sultan was at
the top of a hierarchy of ranks and responsibilities
open only to mamluks. Mamluk society valued loyal-
ty to both the master who purchased, trained, and
supported an individual mamluk and to the group of
fellow mamluks belonging to that master. Because
both the sultan and leading mamluk amirs (holders
of military rank) would purchase mamluks of their
own, the jockeying for power among the resulting
factions was complex and frequently violent. A typi-
cal mamluk career might begin in the cavalry ranks
and then progress through the posts of Amir of ten
(number of mamluks in his retinue), Amir of forty,
and Amir of one hundred. In addition to these pro-
motions, a mamluk might receive positions in the
military-political administration, from offices in the
court to appointments as governors of towns or cities
to commander of the army or even viceroy. As rank

and position increased, a Mamluk would count on
receiving an iqta ' (a right of revenue from agricultural
districts of varying size and wealth). Detailed land
surveys were carried out early during the Mamluk
sultanate to aid in the process of revenue determina-
tion and iqta’ distribution. Although rewards would
increase with higher rank, so to would risk. The
Mamluk chronicles frequently relate the confiscation
of wealth, imprisonment, and/or death of Amirs who
had fallen from favor.

As freeborn Muslims, the sons of Mamluks,
known collectively as awlad al-nas (“sons of the peo-
ple”; i.e., the sons of those who matter), were to be
excluded from this ruling system. It frequently oc-
curred, however, that Mamluk Sultans attempted to
bequeath office to their sons. Although it appears that
there were family dynasties of sultans — the largest
and most famous being the descendents of al-Malik
al-Mansur Qalawun (r. 1280-1290) — most of these
rulers were essentially place holders, controlled by
leading Mamluk amirs who were themselves maneu-
vering to claim the throne. A notable exception to this
was al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun,
whose third reign (1309-1340) is often described as
the zenith of Mamluk power.

The leading cities of the sultanate, Cairo and
Damascus, were centers of learning in the medieval
Islamic world. Both sultans and leading amirs pa-
tronized the construction of mosques, madrasas,
hospitals, convents, dormitories, tombs, and other
structures, many of which still survive. Financial sup-
port for these institutions and those who worked in
them was often detailed in endowment deeds ( waqfs ) .
These legal documents would typically identify
the revenue sources dedicated for the expenses of the
institution. One result of Mamluk patronage of
the religio-educational segment of society was the
composition of large number of works in many gen-
res. Large numbers of texts survive and provide a
wealth of primary source material unparalleled in
other Muslim states of the time.

The revenue needed to cover the expenses of the
Mamluk military system and to provide this high
level of patronage came from many sources. The first
and most important was the income generated by the
tremendous agricultural fertility of Egypt; a second
was the revenue generated from trade. The Mamluk
domains were astride the lucrative trade routes linking
the Mediterranean region to the Indian Ocean and
points east. Mamluk Cairo and the Syrian coastal
cities were thus hubs of commerce attracting goods
and merchants from far beyond the Mamluk borders,
many of whom did their business in commercial build-
ings constructed by the order of Mamluk sultans.

Warren C. Schultz

472

MA’MUN, AL-

See also Maqrizi; Ibn Taghri Birdi; Ibn Battuta; Ibn

Khaldun; Ibn Qadi Shuhba; Ibn Taymiyya; Ibn Wasil

Primary Sources

Holt, P.M. The Memoirs of a Syrian Prince: Abu’l-Fida,
Sultan of Hamah (672-732/1273-1331 ) . Wiesbaden:
Franz Steinder Verlag, 1983.

Lyons, U., and M.C. Ayyubicls, Mamelukes, and Crusaders:
Selections from the Ta ’rikh al-Duwal wa 'l-Muluk of Ibn al-
Furat, vol. 2. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd, 1971.

Ibn Sasra. A Chronicle of Damascus, 1389-1397, vol. 1, ed.
and transl. William M. Brinner. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1963.

Ibn Taghri Birdi. History of Egypt, 1382-1469 AD, Trans-
lated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Mahasin ibn Taghri
Birdi, 8 vols., transl. William Popper. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1954—1963. Uni-
versity of California Publications in Semitic Philology,
vols. 13-14, 17-19, 22-24.

Further Reading

An extensive bibliography of Mamluk History is available
online at: http://www.lib.uchicago.edU/e/su/mideast/

mamluk/. The reader may also consult the journal Mam-
luk Studies Review, which was published annually from
1997 and biannually since 2003.

Ayalon, David. Studies on the Mamluks of Egypt ( 1250-
1517). London: Variorum Reprints, 1977.

. The Mamluk Military Society. London: Variorum

Reprints, 1979.

Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades : The Near East from
Eleventh Century to 1517. London: Longman, 1986.

Irwin, Robert. The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The
Early Mamluk Sultanate 1250-1382. Carbondale, 111:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.

MA’MUN, AL-

‘Abd Allah al-Ma’mun was the seventh ‘Abbasid ca-
liph (r. 813-833 CE). He assumed office after a brutal
civil war against his brother, Muhammad al-Amin,
shortly after the death of their father, Harun al-
Rashid (d. 809). Al-Rashid’s controversial succession
arrangement had designated Muhammad as caliph
and ‘Abd Allah as governor of Khurasan. The ensuing
conflict, informed by a debate about relations between
Baghdad and the provinces and fueled by sibling an-
tagonism and provocative gestures on the part of both
brothers, led to an early rout (811) of al-Amin’s forces
by Tahir ibn al-Husayn (d. 822) and the subsequent
assassination of al-Amin (813) in Baghdad. Years of
fighting in and around the capital followed. This sec-
ond round of upheaval undercut central authority in
nearly every province. It was sparked by opposition
to al-Fadl ibn Sahl (d. 817), al-Ma’mun’s chief advi-
sor, and al-Ma’mun’s nomination of ‘Ali al-Rida
(d. 817) as his successor (Al-Rida, an ‘Alid notable,

became in due course the eighth imam of the Twelver
Shi‘is). The latter decision, which was quickly re-
versed, appears to have been an effort by al-Ma’mun
to mend fences with the ‘Alids and their supporters.

Relative calm in Iraq was established with al-
Ma’mun’s return to Baghdad (818-819). Efforts in
Syria and Egypt by ‘Abd Allah ibn Tahir (d. 844),
followed by further campaigns (including that
in Egypt led by al-Ma’mun’ himself), contributed to
the restoration of central control over most of
the empire. The Tahirids and a mix of new Iranian,
Central Asian, and Turkish forces recruited by al-
Ma’mun and his influential brother, Abu Ishaq, large-
ly replaced the Khurasani forces that had brought the
dynasty to power decades earlier. (Abu Ishaq was to
succeed his brother, adopting the regnal title al-
Mu‘tasim, in 833). These forces took part in cam-
paigns on the Byzantine frontier, an effort to which
al-Ma’mun devoted considerable energy. The period
also witnessed a difficult conflict against the Zutt (a
community of north Indian origin) in southern Iraq
as well as turmoil in Khurasan. It was in relation to
the latter troubles that the Tahirid family consolidated
control over Khurasan.

The eldest of al-Rashid’s sons, al-Ma’mun had
received a classical education in Arabic, literature,
the arts, and the Islamic religious sciences. His long
reign, which was marked by a devotion to culture, is
associated with two specific initiatives. The first was
the Arabic translation of pre-Islamic works from
Greek, Persian, Syriac, and Sanskrit. The effort,
which was begun under the later Umayyads and
then accelerated by the second ‘Abbasid ruler, Abu
Ja‘far al-Mansur, became a hallmark of al-Ma’mun’s
reign. The effort, which provided Arab/Islamic urban
culture with an array of vital works of science, medi-
cine, philosophy, political theory, and literature,
paved the way to a remarkable interplay of Hellenis-
tic, Iranian, and Indian ideas with Arab/Islamic
thought. The second initiative, which occurred very
late in al-Ma’mun’s reign, was closely associated with
the Mu‘tazili chief qadi, Ahmad ibn Abi Du’ad
(d. 854). The Mihnah, a campaign in which leading
Muslim scholars were required to declare support for
the doctrine of the “createdness” of the Qur’an, was
probably rooted in al-Ma’mun’s desire to bring weight
to the religious authority of the caliphate.

Matthew S. Gordon

Further Reading

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates,
2nd ed. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Ltd., 2004.
Rekaya, M. “Al-Ma’mun.” In The Encyclopedia of Islam ,
2nd ed.

473

MANSA MUSA

By the fourteenth century, when the Mali empire
reached its peak under the rule of Mansa Musa (also
called Kankan Musa; r. 1312-1327 CE), Mali’s repu-
tation had spread throughout the Muslim world, not
only because of commerce in gold, slaves, and other
commodities but also because of the ruler’s impressive
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324/1325. There is no direct
eyewitness of this pilgrimage, but most often referred
to is al-‘Umari’s report from 1337, according to which
Mansa Musa was accompanied by an entourage of
thousands. An oft-quoted anecdote reports Mansa
Musa’s generous gifts of gold during his stay in
Cairo, which resulted in the huge inflation of the
local gold price. Writers of later chronicles (e.g., Ibn
Khaldun, Mahmud al-Kati) drew on al-‘Umari, Ibn
Battuta, and oral sources. It is of note that, although
Ottoman reigning Sultans did not go on pilgrimage,
they often made lavish endowments to the Holy
Places, and there is a long tradition of royal pil-
grimages in West Africa. Although Mansa Musa cer-
tainly struck the imagination of many generations
after him, there is no direct evidence of his exploits
in present-day West African oral tradition. However,
it has often been suggested that the tradition of
Nfa Jigin’s pilgrimage to Mecca and his subsequent
return with the amulets that are currently preserved
in Komo secret societies was inspired by Mansa
Musa’s pilgrimage.

Jan Jansen

See also Mali Empire; Ibn Battuta
Further Reading

Hopkins, John F.P., and Nehemiah Levtzion. Corpus of
Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Masonen, Pekka. The Negroland Revisited — Discovery and
Invention of the Sudanese Middle Ages. Helsinki, The
Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2000.

MANUSCRIPTS

Islamic civilization, perhaps like no other, is a civili-
zation of the book. Indeed, books were copied by
hand for more than thirteen centuries in the main
Islamic lands, and there are still places in the Islamic
world where this activity is very much alive. The
number of surviving manuscripts in Arabic, Persian,
and Ottoman Turkish may be estimated at several
million. The manuscript age produced a wealth of
literature that covered the whole spectrum of the
traditional branches of knowledge. The development
of the early Islamic book culture, however, is closely

connected with the Judeo-Christian culture of the
Near East.

The speedy development of many Islamic disci-
plines was due to one major factor: the codifica-
tion of the Qur’an. After the revelation given to
Muhammad was codified in book form, the Qur’an
became a model for the scribe; any innovations
therefore in the way it was transcribed and embel-
lished had repercussions on Arabic book production
as a whole.

Despite the occasional destruction of books by
natural or manmade disaster, early Arab authors
often boasted about the number of books in circula-
tion during their time. There was a tendency in medi-
eval Islam to constantly create new disciplines and
subdisciplines; this fact becomes evident just by look-
ing at the great variety of types of compositions: short
or long, original or abridged, commented on or
glossed, versified or paraphrased.

As the intellectual output grew, it was necessary to
compile lists of books in circulation, catalogs of collec-
tions, and records of study. Much of the output of this
early period is documented in the well-known book
catalog al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim (d. AH 380/990
CE), which lists no fewer than 5,970 titles of books
that were known or circulating during the author’s time.

Medieval Islamic manuscripts were made in two
different forms: the roll and the codex. The type of
roll used was the rotulus (which opens vertically and
in which the writing of the text runs perpendicular to
the length of the roll) as opposed to the volumen
(which opens horizontally).

Although most of the Arabic papyri containing
literary texts survive as leaves or fragments from co-
dices, rotuli were also used as a vehicle for their
copying. A good example here is the work of ‘Abd
Allah ibn Lahi’ah (d. 174/790), which was made in
roll form and preserved in Heidelberg, Germany.
Again, although parchment was used more often for
the codex, there are some early rotuli fragments of the
Qur’an on parchment that have survived. The roll was
also used for pilgrimage certificates, amulets (some-
times containing the complete text of the Qur’an), and
calendars.

The vast majority of medieval manuscripts, how-
ever, were made as codices, consisting of one or a
number of quires and each containing one or usually
several folded sheets (bifolia). A typical medieval
quire was made by nesting the folded sheets, and it
consisted of either ten leaves (quinion) or eight leaves
(quaternion).

Most of the non-Qur’anic codices from the medie-
val period were bound in a traditional binding that
was characterized by a pentagonal flap that rested on
the front of the text block (under the upper cover) and

474

MANUSCRIPTS

that had a dual function: to protect the fore edge and
to serve as a bookmark.

To ensure the correct sequence of gatherings and
leaves, signatures (numbering of quires), foliation
(numbering of leaves), or catchwords were used, al-
though parchment Qur’ans copied in the ancient
scripts never had signatures, and neither did many
non-Qur’anic manuscripts.

Originally the quires were marked using the alpha-
numeric notation (abjad; until the end of the sixth/
twelfth century) or Greco-Coptic numerals. Later
(i.e., the second half of the fifth/eleventh century), the
number of the quire came to be spelled out in full
letters. In medieval and later manuscripts, the word
juz ’ or kurrasah (quire) accompanied by a numeral was
used. The usual position of the signature was the top
left-hand corner of the first folio of each quire.

It appears that the use of catchwords goes back to
the beginning of the third/ninth century (and not, as
previously thought, to the early fifth/eleventh centu-
ry). In some manuscripts, there are no catchwords
(properly speaking) in the form of isolated words at
the bottom of the recto (i.e., page a). Instead, the last
word or words of the bottom line of the verso (i.e.,
page b) are repeated at the beginning of the top line
on the recto of the next leaf. Most codices — and
especially early Arabic ones — were not foliated. The
practice of foliation seems to have been uncommon
until some time after the introduction into the Arab
world of the Indian numeric symbols, around the
fourth/tenth century.

Although various writing surfaces were used by the
early Arabs, papyrus and parchment were the materi-
als most extensively employed during the first centu-
ries of Islam. Furthermore, it seems that most (if not
all) Qur’ans were copied on parchment, perhaps fol-
lowing the Jewish tradition of copying the Torah on
kosher parchment. On the other hand, the majority of
non-Qur’anic medieval manuscripts were written on
paper, originally made locally and later (from the
eighth/fourteenth century) imported from Europe
(mainly Italy).

Most of the non-Qur’anic compositions followed a
more or less standard pattern of presentation of the
text. Almost invariably all texts began on the verso of
the first leaf of the text block with the superscript
basmalah and ended traditionally with a colophon.
To guide the scribe’s hand on the line, a ruling board
(mistarah) was often used. Like many Western medi-
eval manuscripts, Islamic manuscripts feature rubrics
and abbreviations; the latter are often marked with a
tilde. The text on the page is mostly justified and is
often provided with a frame or a rule border. To
justify the left-hand margin, the scribe would use
different devices such as elongation or contraction

of horizontal strokes within words, as well as word
superscription. Rubrics were used extensively for
chapter headings, keywords, text commented on or
glossed, and abbreviations. Significant sections or
elements of the text were also marked by marginal
notabilia (side heads).

Deluxe copies of the Qur’an and commissioned
non-Qur’anic manuscripts were often illuminated
and sometimes — especially in the Turkish and Irani-
an/Indian contexts — illustrated. The painted decora-
tion often consisted of double-page frontispieces and
finispieces (especially in Qur’ans), or title, head, and
tail pieces. The incipit page was a favorite area for
decoration during the later medieval period.

The colophons were usually written in the lan-
guage of the main text. However, Persian and Turkish
manuscripts were often provided with colophons in
the Arabic language (and vice versa). Also, in well-
executed manuscripts, colophons are often written in
a different script and may have been illuminated. For
example, in Iran during the eighth/fourteenth and
ninth/fifteenth centuries, colophons were often writ-
ten in ta’liq script; from the ninth/fifteenth century
onward, they were written in riqa’ or tawqi’/riqa’,
nasta’liq, and shikastah nasta’liq scripts.

Apart from a traditional use of the Muslim date,
manuscripts were also dated by feasts, regnal years
(anno regni), fractions, and various non-Muslim cal-
endar systems, although the dates were sometimes
presented in the form of chronograms or chronosti-
cons (using the alphanumeric values of the alphabet).

Except for deluxe copies of the Qur’an, most medi-
eval manuscripts were copied in informal hands that
are broadly referred to as naskhi (naskh-related)
and maghribi. Also, many that have survived can be
characterized as scholarly hands that were greatly
influenced by various chancery scripts and styles.

Throughout the Middle Ages, knowledge was
passed on from teacher to pupil in the way that was
characteristic of Islamic teaching. The collation of
texts and its importance — well-known in the Greco-
Syriac tradition — came to be recognized as essential
to the accurate transmission of the religious sciences.
Many texts of the medieval period (especially those
involving the religious disciplines) were transmitted
through dictation in front of sometimes very large
audiences. Texts were studied in circles and authenti-
cated by means of granting audition certificates
(sama’at).

Naturally, as a result of the transmission of works
through dictation, holographs, whether drafts or fair
copies (i.e., texts written entirely in the author’s
hand), were extremely rare during the first four Mus-
lim centuries. Drafts, if they existed, did not have the
same academic value as an authorized text; their value

475

MANUSCRIPTS

was more appreciated by bibliophiles than scholars.
However, not all books were collated: Abu Rayhan
al-Biruni, for instance, writing during the middle
of the fifth/eleventh century, complained about the
widespread neglect by scribes of collation and of the
verification of a text’s accuracy.

Most of the errors made in the process of copying
were involuntary omissions. In well-executed manu-
scripts, they were marked by a signe de renvoi (refer-
ence marks), which has its origin in the Greek lambda.
Some texts were heavily glossed using interlinear space
and margins.

With regard to the present knowledge of the extant
corpus of Islamic manuscripts, there is no fragment or
codex with a non-Qur’anic text that can be attributed
to the Umayyad period (41-132/661-750) or earlier.
There are no dated manuscripts from the period
before the third/ninth century, and those that are
datable on paleographic grounds are mainly Qur’anic
fragments in Hijazi and early ‘Abbasid scripts.
There appear to be no more than forty datable manu-
scripts from the third/ninth century; in this figure
are included eleven Christian manuscripts and a
number of Qur’anic fragments. Furthermore, there
are only some 530 dated or datable manuscripts
from the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries.
The overwhelming majority of manuscripts that
have survived span the period from the sixth/twelfth
century to the end of the thirteenth/nineteenth
century, with most of them belonging to the late
Islamic period (tenth/sixteenth-thirteenth/nineteenth
centuries).

Most of the surviving Arabic codices are written on
parchment and paper, although papyrus was also
used for their production during the first centuries
of Islam. The oldest surviving papyrus codex, dated
229/844, contains the work Hadith Dawud by Wahb
ibn Munabbih (d. 110/728). The second oldest, copied
before 276/889, is the Jami’fi al-Hadith by ‘Abd Allah
ibn Wahb (d. 197/812). Most of the surviving manu-
scripts on parchment are Qur’anic fragments. There
are a few large fragments of the Qur’an in codex form
written in Hijazi scripts and therefore datable to
the second half of the first/seventh or early second/
eighth century. Some fourteen parchment fragments
of the Qur’an are safely datable to the third/ninth
century. The earliest non-Qur’anic codex written
on parchment is a portion of Siyar al-Fazari dated
270/883; the oldest dated codex written on paper is
Gharib al-Hadith by ‘Abu ‘Ubayd al-Qasim ibn
Sallam (d. 224/838), which was executed in 252/866
and is preserved in the library of the University of
Leiden.

Adam Gacek

Further Reading

Deroche, Francois, et al. Manuel de Codicologie des Manu-
scrits en Ecriture Arabe. Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de
France, 2000.

Gacek, Adam. The Arabic Manuscript Tradition: A Glossary
of Technical Terms and Bibliography. Leiden and Bos-
ton: E.J. Brill, 2001.

. “Technical Practices and Recommendations

Recorded by Classical and Post-classical Arabic Scho-
lars Concerning the Copying and Correction of Manu-
scripts.” In Manuscrits du Moyen-Orient, 51-60, plates
20-32., ed. F. Deroche. Istanbul and Paris, 1989.

Guesdon, Marie-Genevieve, and Vernay-Nouri, Annie.
L’Art du Livre Arabe: Du Manuscrit ciu Livre D Artiste.
Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 2001.

Pedersen, J. The Arabic Book, 20-53. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1984.

MANZIKERT

Manzikert was a town in eastern Anatolia and the
site of the famous battle in 1071 CE between the
Byzantine emperor Romanus IV Diogenes and the
Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan. Throughout much of its
known history, Manzikert had been a fortified Arme-
nian town on a major trade and invasion route be-
tween central Anatolia and Iran. It was in Byzantine
hands in 1054 when Toghril Beg, the first sultan of
the Great Seljuk Empire, unsuccessfully besieged it.
Alp Arslan, Toghril’s successor, captured it in 1070.
Meanwhile, acting independently, bands of Turkmen
had been raiding Byzantine territory. By 1068, when
General Romanus Diogenes became emperor, these
raiders had reached the Bosphorus. During his third
campaign to put a stop to this growing menace, he set
out in March 1071 to capture Manzikert, Akhlat
(some thirty five miles to the south), and close major
Turkish invasion routes. Alp Arslan learned of this
while in Northern Syria and turned to meet him. The
emperor had divided his forces between Manzikert
and Akhlat; he had just taken the former when Alp
Arslan appeared. Many of the emperor’s foreign mer-
cenaries then deserted (some to the sultan), and the
commander in charge of his read guard plotted
against him. Outnumbered, Alp Arslan proposed a
peace agreement, but Romanus refused to negotiate.
During the ensuing battle (probably on August 26th),
the sultan defeated and captured the emperor but
released him after dictating peace terms. The emperor
was deposed while returning to Constantinople. Byz-
antine defenses collapsed, leaving Anatolia open to
large-scale Turkish invasion. Alp Arslan did not, how-
ever, order a systematic conquest of Byzantium; he
immediately marched east to face a crisis in Transoxa-
nia. Nevertheless, Turkmen tribes began streaming into

476

MAQAMA

Byzantium on their own. Thus began the long process
of the Turkification and Islamization of Anatolia.

Gary Leiser

See also Byzantine Empire; Muslim-Byzantine Rela-
tions; Seljuks; Seljuk Warfare

Further Reading

Vryonis, Speros. "The Greek and Arabic Sources on the
Battle of Mantzikert, 1071 AD,” In Byzantine Studies:
Essays on the Slavic World and the Eleventh Century, ed.
Speros Vryonis. New Rochelle, New York: Aristide
Caratzas, 1992.

. “The Greek and Arabic Sources on the Eight Day

Captivity of the Emperor Romanos IV in the Camp of
the Sultan Alp Arslan after the Battle of Mantzikert.” In
Novum Millennium: Studies on Byzantine History and
Culture Dedicated to Paul Speck, eds. Claudia Sode and
Sarolta Takacs. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000.

. “The Battles of Manzikert (1071) and Myriocepha-

lum (1176): Notes on Food, Water, Archery, Ethnic
Identity of Foe and Ally.” In Mesogeios 22-23 (2004).

MAQAMA

The maqama (pi. maqamat ) is a short narrative writ-
ten in rhymed prose (saj‘) that often consists of a
recasting of any number of well-known literary,
scholarly, or religious discursive styles. Although the
details vary from one author to another, some general
characteristics can be described. The maqama fea-
tures a recurring pair of characters: the narrator and
an eloquent trickster. The trickster often appears in
disguise and usually speaks in a recognizable style or
tone. For example, he may speak as a preacher, an
astrologer, a literary critic, or a poet. The climax
occurs in the recognition scene, during which the
trickster’s identity is revealed and the two protagonists
part ways, although often not before the gullible
crowd, including the narrator, is convinced to hand
over considerable sums of money. Studies of the
maqama largely agree that it emerged out of the larger
field of adab learning, drawing upon the latter’s treat-
ment and use of a wide range of themes, motifs,
cliches, and images from all manner of literary and
intellectual contexts. It has been argued that the orig-
inal intent of composing the maqama was to lighten
the mood of scholarly adab sessions. In its later man-
ifestations, the maqama may have been intended as a
pedagogical tool for the secretarial (katib) class.

The maqama crystallized in 995 or 997 CE, when
Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani (d. 1008) composed
his collection of maqamat. However, it was not until
the maqama collection of al-Hariri (d. 1 122) appeared
that the form reached its peak in sophistication,

assumed its relatively standard structure, and was
accepted into the literary canon as one of Arabic
literature’s first admittedly fictional forms. Al-Hariri
had a number of imitators, the most notable in Arabic
being al-Saraqusti (d. 1143), and in Hebrew, Judah
al-Harizi (d. 1225); both of these writers were Anda-
lusians. In addition to these classical imitations, the
maqama also provided the inspiration for a number
of creative variations. These experiments included the
development of character and plot (e.g., the maqa-
mats of Solomon Ibn Saqbel [first half of the twelfth
century] and Ibn al-Murabi‘ al-Azdi [d. 1350]). Al-
though direct lines of influence are difficult to draw
with any certainty, strong relationships between the
maqama and the Spanish picaresque novel have been
discussed extensively.

Alexander E. Elinson

See also Adab; Andalus; Education; Humanism; al-
Hamadhani, Badi‘ al-Zaman; Judah al-Harizi; Trans-
lation, Arabic to Hebrew

Primary Sources

Al-Hamadhani, Badi 1 al-Zaman. Sharh Maqamat Badi ‘ al-
Zaman al-Hamadhani, ed. Muhammad Muhyi al-Din
‘Abd al-Hamid. Cairo, 1962.

Al-Harizi, Judah. Talikemoni, ed. Y. Toporowsky. Tel
Aviv: Mahberot le-Sifrut, 1952.

Al-Saraqusti, Abu al-Tahir Muhammad b. Yusuf, al-
Maqamat al-Luzumiyya, ed. Hasan al-Waragli. Rabat:
Manshurat ‘Akkaz, 1995.

Al-Sharishi, Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Mu’min.
Sharh Maqamat al-Hariri, 5 vols., ed. Muhammad Abu
al-Fadl Ibrahim. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1992.

Further Reading

Beeston, A.F.L. “Al-Hamadhani, al-Hariri and the Maqa-
mat Genre.” In The Cambridge History of Arabic Litera-
ture: ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, eds. Julia Ashtiany et al.,
125-35. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1990.

Drory, Rina. "The Maqama.” In The Cambridge History of
Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus, eds.
Maria Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, and
Michael Sells, 190-210. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.

De la Granja, Fernando. Maqamas y Risalas Andaluzas
( Traducciones y Estudios). Madrid: Hiperion, 1976.

Hamadhani, Badi 1 al-Zaman, al-. Maqamat, transl. W.J.
Prendergast. London: Curzon Press, 1973.

Hariri, al-. Maqamat, transl. F. Steingass. London: Sampson
Low, Marston & Co., 1897.

Harizi, Judah ben Solomon, al-. The Talikemoni of Judah al-
Harizi, transl. Victor Emanuel Reichert. Jerusalem:
R.H. Cohen’s Press, 1965-1973.

. The Book of Talikemoni: Jewish Tales from Medie-
val Spain, transl. David Simha Segal. Portland, Ore:
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001.

477

MAQAMA

Ibn Saqbel, Solomon. “Asher in the Harem." In Rabbinic
Fantasies, eds. David Stern and Mark Mirsky, transl.
Raymond P. Scheindlin, 253-267. Philadelphia: The
Jewish Publication Society, 1990.

Ibn Shabbetai. “The Misogynist.” In Rabbinic Fantasies,
eds. David Stern and Mark Mirsky, transl. Raymond
P. Scheindlin, 269-294. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publi-
cation Society, 1990.

Kennedy, Philip F. “The Maqamat as a Nexus of Interests.”
To appear in Muslim Horizons, A Volume on Approaches
to Medieval Arabic Literature, eds. Julia Ashtiany Bray,
Robert Irwin, Robert Hoyland, Julie Meisami, and
James E. Montgomery. E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust
Series, forthcoming.

Kilito, Abdelfattah. Les Seances: Recits et Codes Culturels
Chez Hamadhani et Hariri. Paris: Sindbad, 1983.

Monroe, James T. The Art of Badi‘ az-Zaman al-Hamadhani
as Picaresque Narrative. Beirut: American University of
Beirut, 1983.

, ed. and transl. Al-Maqamat al-Luzumiyah by Abu

l-Tahir Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Tamimi al-Saraqusti ibn
al-Astarkuwi (d. 538/1143). Leiden, Boston, and Koln:
Brill, 2002.

Nemah, H. “Andalusian Maqamat.” Journal of Arabic Lit-
erature 5 (1974): 83-92.

Scheindlin, Raymond P. “Fawns of the Palace and Fawns
of the Field.” Prooftexts 6 (1986): 189-203.

MAQQARI, AL-

Al-Maqqari Ahmad b. Muhammad Abu ‘1-Abbas
Shihab al-Din, Algerian scholar and polygraph, was
born in Tlemcen in AH 986/1577 CE from a promi-
nent intellectual family that traced its origin to the
village of Maqqara, near Masila. After an early train-
ing in Tlemcen, the young Ahmad moved to Fez in
Morocco and then to Marrakech, following the court
of the Sacdid sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, to whom
he dedicated his Rawdat al-As (The Garden of Myr-
tle ) about the ulemas of Marrakech and Fez. After al-
Mansur’s death in 1012/1603, al-Maqqari established
himself in Fez, where he was the imam at the Kar-
awiyyin mosque and led the standard life of a reli-
gious scholar. In 1027/1617, he left for the East,
possibly after a quarrel with the local ruler, and
took his residence in Cairo, where he composed his
best-known work, Nafh al-Tib. This work was based
on personal recollections and the consultation of a
wide array of sources. He performed several pil-
grimages to the Holy Sites, and he traveled to other
intellectual centers in the East, most notably to
Damascus, where he made himself a reputation as a
teacher. Al-Maqqari died in Cairo in 1041/1632.

Although he was a prolific writer about various
subjects (at least twenty-four works are ascribed to
him), al-Maqqari’s reputation is consigned to his
two works of Andalusian matter: (1) Azhar al-Riyad
(The Gardens’ Flowers), about a noted Andalusian

twelfth-century judge and scholar, Iyad, which offered,
in addition to his biography, a wealth of information
about Andalusian and Moroccan scholars; and (2) the
monumental Nafh. al-Tib fi Gusn al-Andalus al-Ratib
(The Wind’s Breeze on the Juicy Andalusian Branch),
which consisted of two sections — the first one an
antiquarian compilation of Andalusian geography,
history, and literature and the other a biography of
the Granada writer and court secretary Lisan al-Din
Ibn al-Khatib (fourteenth century), together with a
selection of his administrative and literary writings.
The first and most popular part of the Nafh was
partially translated into English in the nineteenth
century by P. de Gayangos from the manuscripts
owned by the British Museum; it was then edited by
a pool of eminent orientalists led by R. Dozy, thereby
providing a basis for the scholarly research on and the
knowledge of the Iberian peninsula under Islamic
domination until well into the twentieth century. Al-
Maqqari’s importance rests, even today, with his use
of a multiplicity of sources that no longer exist; he
quoted these at length in his two major works.

Bruna Soravia

Further Reading

Azhar al-Riyad fi Akhbar Iyad, ed. S.A. Arab and A.S. al-
Harras, Rabat 1980.

Dozy, R., et al. Analectes stir L’Histoire et la Litterature des
Arabes d’Espagne. Leiden, 1855-1861.

De Gayangos, P., transl. The History of the Mohammedan
Dinasties in Spain. London, 1840-1843.

Nafh al-Tib fi Gusn al-Andalus al-Ratib, ed. I. Abbas.
Bey rut, 1968.

Rawdat al-as. Rabat 1964.

MAQRIZI, AL-

Taqi al-Din Ahmad b. ‘Ali al-Maqrizi (1364—1442
CE) was a noted scholar, author, historian, and occa-
sional civil servant for the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt
and Syria. Born in Cairo and possibly of descent from
the Fatimid dynasty, he spent the majority of his early
life in that city. In his forties and after an evidently
frustrating career in the Mamluk religious administra-
tion in which he held the post of Muhtasib (among
others), he left for an extended teaching sojourn in
Damascus. About this time, al-Maqrizi withdrew
from public life, quite possibly because of his disillu-
sionment with Mamluk rule (although one of his later
works may have been an attempt to gain a new sul-
tan’s attention and influence his policies). Whether
this was an active choice by al-Maqrizi or one forced
upon him by the vicissitudes of his career, the fact
remains that many of his works are noteworthy for

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MARKETS

their pointed criticism of leading Mamluks, their
actions, and their policies.

Al-Maqrizi is best known today for his works of
ta’rikh (history). He may have been inspired to write
history by Ibn Khaldun, whom he knew and studied
under. He wrote annalistic chronicles (most notably
of the Fatimids [Itti’az al-Hunafa’ ] and a longer one
devoted to the Ayyubid and Mamluk sultanates
[Kitab al-Suluk]), biographical works, shorter trea-
tises, works devoted to such topics as criticizing the
economic policies of the Mamluks or detailing the
differences between the Umayyads and the ‘Abbasids,
and a thorough topographical and historical descrip-
tion of Cairo and its environs ( Khitat ) . His relation-
ships with his contemporary historians — most
notably al-‘Ayni (d. 1451), who had replaced him as
Muhtasib of Cairo at one point — seem to have been
strained. Regardless of the opinions of his contempor-
aries, al-Maqrizi’s works have proven to be a major
source of information for scholars of the Mamluk
Sultanate.

Warren C. Schultz

See also ‘Abbasids; Ibn Khaldun; Ibn Taghri Birdi;
Mamluks; Umayyads

Primary Sources

Allouche, Adel, transl. Mamluk Economics: A Study and
Translation of al-Maqrizi’s Igathah. Salt Lake City,
Utah: University of Utah Press, 1994.

Broadhurst, R.J.C., transl. A History of the Ayyubic Sultans
of Egypt. Translated from the Arabic of al-Maqrizi with
Introduction and Notes. Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1980.

Further Reading

Mamluk Studies Review VII (2003), ed. Li Guo.

MARINIDS

The Marinids were the Berber dynasty that ruled
Morocco from around 1250 to 1465 CE. Originally
affiliated with the Almohad empire, the Marinids (or
Banu Marin tribe [Zenata confederation]) began to
assert control over the towns of eastern Morocco
from the early thirteenth century, crushing an Almo-
had army in 1216 and eventually seizing Meknes, Fez,
and, in 1269, the capital Marrakesh. The reign of Abu
Yusuf Ya‘qub (1258-1285) saw the construction of
numerous mosques, madrasas (Islamic schools), and
official buildings, especially in a newly laid-out capital
just to the west of old Fez. During this time, the

Marinids, disposing of a Berber cavalry as well as
Christian mercenaries and a naval fleet, also began
to intervene in Spain in support of the Nasrid emirate
of Granada, but they were decisively beaten by Cas-
tille at Rio Salado in 1340 and played no part in
stemming the reconquista after that. They were more
successful on the African front, where, after numer-
ous tries, Abu ’1-Hasan ‘Ali (r. 1331-1351) conquered
Tlemcen and adjoining regions from the Zayyanids in
1337, ostensibly in support of the Hafsid dynasty of
Tunis, whom the Marinids recognized as caliphs. Se-
curing control of the eastern trans-Saharan caravan
trade was most likely also a reason, because Abu ’1-
Hasan went on to occupy Tunis itself from 1347 to
1 349 before being confronted by an Arab tribal revolt
and returning to Morocco, where he was deposed by
his son Abu ‘Inan Faris (r. 1348-1358). Abu ‘Inan
occupied Algeria and Tunis a second time in 1357
before being turned back by another revolt; after his
reign, the Marinids increasingly fell prey to interne-
cine struggles that saw real power exercised by their
viziers. This factionalism was exploited by the Nasrids
and even more so the Portuguese, who, in 1415,
annexed Ceuta. Continued Portuguese encroachment
saw the rise of a militant Sufism over the next decades
that preceded the reestablishment of Idrisid Sharifian
rule in Morocco. A subsidiary Marinid lineage, the
Wattasids, effectively ruled in regency from 1420
until 1465, when a militant mob killed the last Mar-
inid sultan and the Wattasids began to reign in their
own name. If the Marinids ultimately failed to recre-
ate the Almohad empire, they are remembered fore-
most as great patrons of classical Islamic architecture
in Morocco and of famous literary figures such as Ibn
Battuta (d. ca. 1368) and Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406).

Stefan Winter

See also Almohads; Berbers; Fez; Granada; Hafsids;
Ibn Battuta; Ibn Khaldun; Idrisids; Madrasa; Sufism;
Sunni Revival

Further Reading

Julien, Charles-Andre. Histoire de TAfrique du Nord : Des
origines d 1830. Paris: Payot, 1951.

Kably, Mohammed. Societe, Pouvoir et Religion an Maroc
d la fin du “Moyen-Age”: ( XlVe-XVe Siecle). Paris:
Maisonneuve et Larose, 1986.

MA RKE TS

Muhammad’s profession as a merchant has meant
that markets and commerce have always played a
central role in Muslim life. In particular, Mecca’s
position as a trading center, in combination with its

479

MARKETS

religious significance, ensured that it retained its com-
mercial importance throughout the medieval period.
The link between religion and commerce can be seen
in the plan of many traditional Islamic cities;
the markets are located around the main Friday
mosque, with markets selling more valuable goods
(e.g., gold) located closer to the mosque and stalls
selling less pure or more polluting goods (e.g.,
pottery) located further away. The division of mar-
kets into different commodities is not unique to
the Islamic world and was also found in medieval/
Byzantine Constantinople, although the association
with religion is more marked in the Islamic world.
For example, in many cases, markets were incorpo-
rated into the fabric of the mosque and were used to
subsidize the functioning of the mosque. Famous
examples include the White Mosque in Ramla
(ca. 720 CE), the al-Aqmar Mosque (1125) in Cairo,
and the Suleymaniyya Mosque (1550-1557) in
Constantinople/Istanbul.

The majority of markets were located in urban
centers and it could be argued that markets are a
prerequisite for an Islamic city or town. There were,
however, some exceptions to the urban location of
markets, with annual fairs held in remote rural or
desert locations throughout the premodern period.
These rural markets were often centred on khans or
caravanserais (e.g., Khan al-Tujjar/Suq al-Khan and
Khan al-Minya, both in Galilee). Markets were
usually regulated by an inspector (mutasahib) who
would ensure that correct weights and measures
were used.

Although it is probable that the majority of mar-
kets were semipermanent stalls lining a street, in some
cases elaborate architecture was built to house the
markets. For example, at Baysan/Scythopolis/Baysan,
archaeologists have discovered a market hall with a
polychrome glass mosaic inscription dated 749 CE
and attributed to the Umayyad caliph Walid II. In
Baghdad, there is a rare surviving example of a medi-
eval market hall known as Khan Mirjan, which was
built by the Ilkhanid rulers in 1359. The building is
two stories high and roofed with eight transverse ribs
joined by transverse barrel vaults with windows/vents
at each end.

Andrew Petersen

Further Reading

Cezar, M. Typical Commercial Buildings of the Ottoman
Classical Period. Istanbul.

Hillenbrand, R. “Carvansarais.” In Islamic Architecture:
Form, Function and Meaning, 331-76. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1994.

MARRIAGE, ISLAMIC

Marriage in Islam finds mystical, sociolegal, and cul-
tural expression. The Qur’an states that, although
God generally created everything in pairs (e.g.,
51:49), He created the human being first from a single
soul in His divine Presence and then fashioned it into
a pair (4:1, 75:39, 39:6, passim). In mystical terms, it
becomes the constant quest of the masculine and
feminine aspects of this single soul to reunite so that
they return to the state of completeness of the first
moment of creation, when the soul was in close prox-
imity to the divine and unaware of separate existence.
This quest is facilitated through the mutual attraction
of male and female. According to verse 30:21: “And
of His signs is that He created for you mates from
amongst yourselves, that you might dwell with them
[in comfort and tranquility], and He has placed be-
tween you love and mercy.”

In sociolegal terms, the union of male and female
finds expression in the institution of marriage. A
civil contract in form, marriage differs from the ordi-
nary contract in that its core elements are religiously
determined. Muhammad reformed the pre-Islamic
practice of Arabia with the overall effect of a
strengthened nuclear family and an improved status
of women relative to his time. Some reforms included
a limitation on polygyny and emphasis of women’s
status as full legal persons with accompanying pro-
perty rights. For example, the bride-gift (mahr,
sadaq) became one of several pecuniary rights to
which the woman was entitled upon marriage. Islamic
law regulates the valid conclusion and dissolution of
marriage and specifies broad contours of spousal
rights and duties. For a valid marriage contract,
most Sunni jurists require an offer and acceptance of
marriage in the presence of two witnesses with the
approval or participation of the female’s guardian.
Shi‘i jurists require neither witnesses nor the approval
or participation of a guardian. In accordance with
classical Islamic law, Muslims jurists still formally
permit polygynous marriage, although some Muslim
countries have outlawed the practice (e.g., Turkey,
Tunisia). Likewise, Shi‘i jurists still permit temporary
marriage (mut’a), although Sunni jurists abolished
it during the generations after Muhammad. Islamic
law conceived of divorce as the unilateral right of
the husband, and it specified limited ways for a
woman to dissolve the marriage. Adherence to Islam-
ic family law has become circumscribed or wholly
voluntary, depending on the extent to which a state
incorporates that law. Law in most majority-Muslim
countries today combines an eclectic hybrid mix
of Islamic rules, customary law, and portions of
European codes.

480

MARTYRDOM

Weddings vary widely according to cultural and
local traditions, from the Near East and South Asia
to China and the Americas. A simple wedding can
entail a private, informal meeting during which a
man and woman sign a marriage contract before wit-
nesses. More commonly, weddings are public ceremo-
nies that resemble local traditions and that are
modified to retain core Islamic elements. Typically,
guests assemble in mosques, in halls, or outdoors to
listen to a short sermon (khutba). Then the officiant
asks the man and the woman (or her representative)
whether they accept the other in marriage and whether
the woman accepts the dower offered, which has been
typically negotiated before the ceremony. The couple
may sign the contract; this may be done symbolically if
they have done so before the public ceremony. Finally,
the guests participate in a celebratory reception
( walima), usually with food, drink, and music.

Intisar Rabb

Further Reading

Abu Zahra, Muhammad. “Family Law.” In Law in the
Middle East: Origin and Development of Islamic Law,
eds. M. Khadduri and H. Liebesny, 132-78. Washing-
ton, DC: 1955.

Hodgson, Marshall. “Family Law: Pressure Toward Equal-
ity in Personal Status.” In The Venture of Islam, vol. 1,
34CM-. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press,
1974.

Mallat, Chibli, and J. Connors, eds. Islamic Family Law.
London: Graham and Trotman, 1990.

Murata, Sachiko. The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gen-
der Relationships in Islamic Thought. Albany, NY : State
University of New York Press, 1992.

Stern, Gertrude H. Marriage in Early Islam. London: Royal
Asiatic Society, 1939.

MARRIAGE, JEWISH

In the Hebrew Book of Genesis 2:18, God says: “It is
not good for man to be alone; 1 will make a fitting
helper for him.” Furthermore, Genesis 2:24 says:
“Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings
to his wife, so that they become one flesh.” In later
Israel, Jews had to leave their land and spread
through much of the world, living in many lands:
the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and eventu-
ally across the seas to the Americas. Marriage tradi-
tions were based on the Pentateuch and other fields of
the Bible, such as the prophets of Israel, and they
were later solidified by the many rabbis. Early tradi-
tions of marriage came from rabbinic leaders in areas
such as Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, Yemen, and North
Africa, who accepted polygamy, whereas among the

northern and Eastern European Jews, it became pro-
hibited to have more than one wife. All Jews tended to
marry early, and, although divorce could be obtained,
it was not common, because the family had been
established as the basis of Jewish life.

Traditionally, kiddushin was a sacred relationship
in which the wife was consecrated to her husband and
forbidden to all others throughout the duration
of marriage. This was not merely a legal contract;
although the husband acquired rights over her “wife-
hood,” he undertook duties toward her: supplying
her with food and clothing and denying himself to
provide for his wife and children.

Weddings were often performed out of doors, but
they were often held indoors because of problems
with non-Jews. The following was and is the tradi-
tional format of a Jewish wedding: four family mem-
bers or friends hold up the wedding canopy under
which the bride and groom stand. The rabbi recites
a blessing with a cup of wine from which the groom
and bride drink. The groom then places a ring on the
bride’s finger, and he states the following: “Behold,
you are consecrated to me by this ring, according to
the laws of Moses and Israel.” The ketubah (marriage
contract) is then read, after which the rabbi or
other leaders then recite seven marriage benedictions.
Often, the groom crushes a glass under his right shoe;
this is seen by some as a sign of mourning the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem or as a token of seriousness even in
the happiest moment.

Today, Jewish marriage customs depend on differ-
ent traditions — especially in the United States —
among the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and
Reconstructionist Jews and several newer groups.

William M. Brinner

Further Reading

‘Abd al-Razzaq al-San‘ani. Ai-Musannaf. ed. Habib al-
Rahman al-A‘zami. Beirut: 1970-1972.

Al-Bukhari, Muhammad. Al-Sahih. Bulaq, 1893-1894.
Jeffrey, Arthur. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an. Bar-
oda, 1938.

Malik b. Anas, al-. Al-Muwatta’, ed. ‘Abd al-Baqi. Cairo,
1980.

Wensinck, A.J. ‘‘The Oriental Doctrine of the Martyrs.” In
Semietische Studien uit de Nalatenschap. Leiden, 1941.

MAS‘UDI, AL-

Al-Mas‘udi was an Arab/Muslim historian, geogra-
pher, and belletrist who died in 956 CE. The available
information about his life is limited to brief entries in
later biographical dictionaries and comments on al-
Masu‘di’s part in his two surviving works (see
below). Born at the end of the ninth century to a
respected Baghdadi family of Kufan origins, he prob-
ably died in al-Fustat. The range of his scholarly inter-
ests and his association with a number of prominent
early tenth-century scholars point to a thorough edu-
cation in Arabic, the Islamic sciences, and related dis-
ciplines. His writings evince a lifelong appetite for
reading and extensive travel (to which al-Mas‘udi
makes frequent reference). There is no evidence, how-
ever, of the manner in which he sustained his career (C.
Pellat, a modern biographer, has suggested a personal
fortune). Imami (Twelver) authors to the present day
identify him as one of their own. Sunni sources, most
notably al-Dhahabi, refer to him only as a Mu‘tazili.

A prolific author, al-Mas‘udi contributed perhaps
as many as thirty-six works about an impressive range
of topics, including history, geography, theology,

482

MATHEMATICAL GEOGRAPHY

heresiography, philosophy, and various fields of sci-
ence. Much debated among modern scholars is the
extent to which he is to be considered a historian
given his extensive use of material generally defined
as cultural and literary (i.e., as properly belonging to
adab [belles-lettres]). Al-Mas‘udi appears to have
been largely avoided by later generations of Muslim
scholars; Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), who cites him fre-
quently, was an important exception. This has been
attributed to al-Mas‘udi’s eschewal of the traditionist
style of history writing promoted by, most notably,
al-Tabari (d. 923), the hallmark of which was
contained in narratives supported by isnads (chains
of transmission; see Hadith). Like al-Ya‘qubi (d. 897),
al-Mas‘udi made no use of isnads. More to the point
is that he defined history in far more expansive terms
than did his contemporaries.

His principal surviving work is the ambitious
Muruj al-Dhahab (The Fields of Gold ), which was
written in Egypt around 943 and revised several
times thereafter (the surviving version is early, dating
to the mid-940s). Modern editions of the Muruj run to
some half dozen fat volumes, and it is divided into
two parts. The first part, whihc is encyclopedic,
includes sections about the unfolding of monotheism
(sacred history) during the pre-Islamic period; surveys
of India and China; material about oceans, seas, and
rivers; lists of the kings of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and
other regions; and ethnographic data about Slavs,
Africans, and the Franks. For this reason, the Muruj
is often cited, alongside al-Ya‘qubi’s earlier Ta’rikh
(History), as a notable example of Arab-Islamic
world history. The second and longer part consists
mainly of a detailed account of Islamic history. A
section about the Prophet’s life is followed by
accounts of the reigns of the Rightly Guided Caliphs
and those of the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid houses.
Introductory comments on al-Mas‘udi’s part indicate
that these were excerpted from a far longer work, the
Akhbar al-Zaman, of which no trace survives.

The second surviving work, Kitab al-Tanbih Wa-l-
ishraf brings together, in highly concise fashion,
much of the information contained in the Muruj
and, apparently, other works. It is, in this sense, a
supplementary work. It appears to have been the last
of al-Mas‘udi’s books, completed just before his
death.

Matthew S. Gordon

Further Reading

Ali, Jamil. The Determination of the Coordinates of Cities . . .
by al-Birunu Beirut: American University of Beirut
Press, 1967.

Kennedy, Edward Stewart. “Mathematical Geography.” In
Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science , 3 vols.,
eds. Roshdi Rashed and Regis Morelon, vol. I, 185-201.
London: Routledge, 1996.

. A Commentary Upon Birum’s Kitab Tahdid

[Nihayat] al-Amakin, An 11 th Century Treatise on
Mathematical Geography. Beirut: American University
of Beirut Press, 1973.

Kennedy, Edward Stewart, and Mary Helen Kennedy.
Geographical Coordinates of Localities from Islamic
Sources. Frankfurt am Main: Institut fur Geschichte
der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1987.

King, David A. World-Maps for Finding the Direction and
Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic
Science. Leiden: E.J. Brill and Al-Furqan Islamic Heri-
tage Foundation, 1999.

MATHEMATICS

Mathematics and astronomy were the two most im-
portant exact sciences in Islamic civilization between
700 and 1700 CE. Henceforth, the term Islamic math-
ematics will be used, with the adjective Islamic refer-
ring to civilization. Although a few mathematical
problems were motivated by Islam, most mathematics
had no relation whatsoever to religion. The majority
of the mathematicians were Muslims, but notable
contributions to the Islamic mathematical tradition
were made by Christians, Jews, and followers of

other religions. These mathematicians belong to the
Islamic mathematical tradition because they wrote in
Arabic, which developed into the language of science
during the translation period during the eighth and
ninth centuries CE. After 1000 CE, a few mathematical
texts were written in Persian, but these texts are full of
Arabic mathematical terms. The term Arabic mathe-
matics is sometimes used, but it should be remembered
that many mathematicians of medieval Islamic civili-
zation were not Arabs; Iranian mathematics account
for an estimated one-third of the discoveries.

Most of the current knowledge about Islamic
mathematics is based on Arabic manuscripts that
are found in libraries all over the world. The most
important collections are in Istanbul, Tehran, Cairo,
Paris, London, and Leiden (Netherlands). Almost all
surviving manuscripts are copies made by scribes who
did not have advanced mathematical training. Less
than one-third of these manuscripts have been edited
in Arabic or translated into a Western language or
Russian. Information about Islamic mathematics can
also be found in manuscripts about astronomy and
optics, and, to a much lesser extent, in texts about
astrology, law, and linguistics. A few treatises have
been lost in the Arabic original but survive in a medie-
val Latin or Hebrew translation. Astronomical instru-
ments, sundials, and Islamic mosaics demonstrate the
practical skill of some of the mathematicians.

Islamic mathematics can be schematically subdi-
vided into arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. Many
treatises were written about commercial arithmetic,
with detailed explanations of number systems and
computations involving fractions. Algebra was main-
ly used for recreation and had few practical applica-
tions. For algebraic computations, a certain amount
of training and mathematical talent was necessary.
Geometry was studied at different levels. Some texts
contain practical geometrical rules for surveying and
for measuring figures. Theoretical geometry was a
necessary prerequisite for understanding astronomy
and optics, and it required years of concentrated
work. Many mathematicians and astronomers pro-
duced handbooks of astronomical tables so that the
astrologers, who did not understand the geometrical
background in detail, could predict the positions of
the planets by a few easy additions, subtractions, and
multiplications. Some geometers seem to have pre-
pared manuals explaining the practical construction
of mosaics for craftsmen.

The early history of mathematics in medieval
Islamic civilization is intimately connected with the
history of astronomy. Soon after the establishment of
the ‘Abbasid caliphate and the founding of Baghdad
during the mid-eighth century CE, some mathemati-
cal knowledge must have been assimilated from the

484

MATHEMATICS

pre-Islamic Iranian tradition in astronomy, which
had survived until that time. Astronomers from India
were invited to the court of the caliph during the
late eighth century, and they explained the rudimenta-
ry trigonometrical techniques that were necessary in
Indian astronomy. Around 800 CE, the astronomers
in Baghdad turned to the more sophisticated astrono-
my of the Greeks. The fundamental work of Greek
astronomy was the Almagest of Ptolemy (c. 150 CE),
which was translated into Arabic several times. Be-
cause the Almagest was impossible to understand with-
out an intimate knowledge of the Elements of Euclid
and other Greek geometrical works, these works were
also translated into Arabic during the early decades
of the ninth century. During the second half of the
ninth century, Islamic mathematicians were already
making contributions to the most sophisticated parts
of Greek geometry. Islamic mathematics reached
its apogee in the Eastern part of the Islamic world
between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE.

Little is known about the biographies of most
Islamic mathematicians. It is clear that many mathe-
maticians and astronomers had difficulty finding sup-
port for their work. Some of the best mathematicians
of the Islamic tradition worked at the courts of kings,
such as the Buwayhid dynasty in Iran during the tenth
century CE and Ulugh Beg in Samarkand around
1420 CE.

From the late tenth century on, mathematical
knowledge was transmitted from the Western part of
the Islamic world to Christian Europe. The Romans
had not been interested in science. As a result, the
knowledge of mathematics in Christian Europe was
very limited, and the notion of a mathematical proof
was nonexistent. During the twelfth century, many
Arabic mathematical and astronomical texts (includ-
ing Arabic translations of Greek texts) were translated
into Latin in Spain and, to a lesser extent, in Sicily and
other areas. This was the beginning of the development
of science in Medieval Europe. Many achievements of
Eastern Islamic mathematicians remained unknown in
the West, until the European orientalists of the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries turned their attention to
Arabic scientific manuscripts.

Some important discoveries of Islamic mathemati-
cians are discussed in articles about algebra and ge-
ometry. The mathematicians also worked on the
theory of numbers and magic squares. Thabit
ibn Qurra proved a general formula for finding
amicable numbers, using the example 17296, 18416.
Each of these numbers is the sum of the divisors of
the other number. A magic square of order n is a
square in which the numbers 1, 2,. . ., n 2 are written
in such a way that the sum of the numbers in each
row, in each column, and in each of the two diagonals

is the same. During the ninth through twelfth cen-
turies, several Eastern Islamic mathematicians (in-
cluding Ibn al-Haytham) invented elegant methods
for finding magic squares of arbitrary order. The
name magic square is modern, and the medieval
Islamic mathematicians, who were generally unin-
terested in magic, talked about “harmonious dis-
positions of numbers.”

Three problems in Islamic religion can be solved by
means of advanced mathematics:

1. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar. The

day begins in the evening, at sunset, and a new
month begins when the lunar crescent is
first sighted on the Western horizon. Whether
or not the crescent is visible depends on its
perpendicular distance to the horizon at
sunset, the distance along the horizon
between the sun and the moon, the ripeness
of the crescent, and also on atmospherical
phenomena. From the ninth century onward,
Islamic mathematicians and astronomers
proposed a multitude of visibility criteria,
theories, and tables for the prediction of the
first visibility of the lunar crescent.

2. It is a religious duty of the Muslim to pray five

times a days towards the qibla (i.e., the
direction of Mecca). From the ninth century
onward, Islamic mathematicians began to
interpret this problem mathematically. In
their view, the qibla should be taken along a
great circle on the spherical earth through the
locality of prayer and the Ka’ba in Mecca.
Approximate methods were used in the ninth
century, but, from the tenth century onward,
exact methods became popular among the
mathematicians and astronomers in the
Eastern Islamic world. Exact solutions were
proposed by al-Biruni, Ibn al-Haytham, and
others. The exact determination of the qibla by
crude methods from the early Islamic
tradition. They did not understand the
mathematical methods, and they generally
ignored the results of the exact computations.

3. The times of the five daily prayers are

determined by the height of the sun above the
horizon or its depression under the horizon.
From the ninth and tenth centuries onward,
Islamic astronomers computed prayer tables,
determining the times of prayer in equinoctial
or seasonal hours. For these computations,
one needs difficult spherical trigonometry.
A large amount of material about prayer
tables written by the tenth-century Egyptian
astronomer Ibn Yanus is still in existence.

485

MATHEMATICS

Because most Arabic mathematical manuscripts
have not yet been published and investigated, the
preceding survey is necessarily incomplete, and it
may turn out to be misleading in the light of future
research. Important new discoveries have been made
during the last decades, and there is no evidence that
this process has come to an end.

Jan P. Hogendijk

See also Geometry; Algebra; Numbers; Ibn Al-
Haytham; Al-Biruni

Further Reading

Berggren, Len. Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval
Islam. New York: Springer, 1986.

Hogendijk, Jan P., and A. I. Sabra, eds. The Enterprise of
Islamic Science: New Perspectives , Cambridge, Mass:
M.I.T. Press, 2003.

King, David A. Islamic Mathematical Astronomy. London:
Variorium, 1986.

. Astronomy in the Service of Islam. London: Varior-
ium, 1987.

. In Synchrony with the Heavens: Studies in the As-
tronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval
Islamic Civilization. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

MAWARDI, AL-

Abu ‘1-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Habib al-
Mawardi was a Muslim polymath who was born in
Basra around 975 CE and who died in Baghdad on
May 27, 1058.

Mawardi studied Shafi’i law in Basra and Bagh-
dad. He was appointed to various judgeships but
probably appointed deputies to do the actual work.
He carried out diplomatic missions on behalf of the
Caliph al-Qa’im (r. 1031-1075) to the Buyids, who
actually controlled Iraq and Iran, and also once to
their rivals, the Seljuks.

In modern times, Mawardi has become most fa-
mous for al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya, a treatise describ-
ing the Islamic polity. The ‘Abbasid caliphs of his
own time were in fact fairly weak figures, although
they slowly regained power as part of the Sunni Re-
vival; almost their only means of influencing politics
was refusing to confirm appointments and titles made
or claimed by the warlords and threatening to call in
other warlords from further afield, such as the Ghaz-
navids. Accordingly, Mawardi stresses that all au-
thority flows by delegation from the caliph; he
appointed military commanders to maintain order
and judges to maintain justice. There is a close verbal
parallel to Mawardi’s Ahkam under the same title by
the Hanbali judge Ibn al-Farra’ (d. 1065), probably a

rebuttal of Mawardi’s work. The chief substantial
difference between the two is that Ibn al-Farra’ does
not allow an incompetent caliph to be deposed,
whereas Mawardi does.

During the Middle Ages, Mawardi’s most famous
work was al-Hawi al-Kabir, of which only recently has
a full text been published. Formally a commentary on
the Mukhtasar of al-Muzani, it rehearses and defends
the ordinances of Shafi’i law at great length (see Law
and Jurisprudence). Mawardi systematically adduces
Qur’an, prophetic sunna (precedent), consensus,
and analogy, in that order. He expressly commends
Shafi’i law as the best combination of revelation with
reason.

Mawardi’s style of argument is notably uneven,
and he continually piles flimsy evidence and reasoning
on top of apparently sound arguments. It thus marks
the transition from a tradition of legal writing that
aims to establish the correctness of one school’s doc-
trine to one that aims to establish only its plausibility;
this demonstrates that there will always be multiple
schools. Implicitly, the different Sunni schools of the
eleventh century had become somewhat like modern
Protestant denominations; the adherents of each sect
may think theirs is the best, but they recognize that
theirs is not the only one that is adequate.

Also currently in print is Mawardi’s commentary
on the Qur’an, al-Nukat Wa-l-‘uyun. It goes through
the entire Qur’an in order, quoting a few verses at a
time and then providing short glosses, mainly from
exegetes of the eighth century; occasionally textual
variants are also used, and there are examples of
usage from poetry. It usually presents a range of
possibilities and seldom asserts that any one is the
best interpretation. Mawardi’s views sometimes
agree with those of the Mu‘tazilites (e.g., the rejection
of predestination); however, he does not seem to be a
systematic advocate of Mu’tazilism. Finally, there are
also several shorter works in print about law, politics,
and adab (belles-lettres).

Christopher Melchert

Further Reading

Gibb, H.A.R. “Al-Mawardi’s Theory of the Khilafah.”
Islamic Culture 11 (1937): 291-302.

Laoust, Henri. “La Pensee et L’ Action Politiques D’Al-
Mawardi.” Revue cles Etudes Islamiques, 36 (1968):
11-92.

Mawardi. The Laws of Islamic Governance, transl. Asadul-
lah Yate. London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1996.

. The Ordinances of Government, transl. Wafaa H.

Wahba. Reading, UK: Garnet, 1996.

. The Discipline of Religious and Worldly Matters,

transl. Thoreya Mahdi Allam, rev. Magdi Wahba and
Abderrafi Benhallam. Morocco: ISESCO, 1995.

486

MEDICAL LITERATURE, HEBREW

MECCA

The city of Mecca lies in the western area of the
Arabian peninsula, and it is situated in an infertile
valley of the geographical region traditionally known
as the Hijaz. Muslim sources relate that the Prophet
Muhammad was bom in Mecca in the year 570 CE.
He belonged to one of the clans of the tribe of Qur-
aysh; the Quraysh were the respected elders of this
oasis town, which prospered as a center of commerce
because of its strategic location at the midpoint of an
established trade route. The city also had its markets
and fairs. Quraysh organized caravans that traded in
territories both south and north of the Arabian pen-
insula. Mecca was also home to the sacred shrine
known as the Ka’ba and the ancient spring of Zam-
zam. The Ka’ba was located in an area known as the
masjid al-haram. The precincts of Mecca, which are
defined by a number of miqat (stations), are consid-
ered haram (inviolable). As custodians of the Meccan
shrine, Quraysh provided water for visiting pilgrims,
regulating rituals and practices associated with the
hajj (pilgrimage). Islamic sources record that these
ceremonies had assumed an idolatrous and somewhat
animistic bent. The perversion of the monotheistic
symbolism of the shrine and the pilgrimage provided
the setting for the emergence of Islam.

The first verses of the Qur’an were revealed to
Muhammad at Mecca in 610 CE. The Prophet
preached there for twelve years, encountering deter-
mined opposition. He was compelled to leave the city
in 622 CE, migrating with his companions to Medina.
The Prophet and his followers did return triumphant-
ly in 630 CE, taking the city without bloodshed. The
Ka’ba was purged of its idols, and the monotheistic
motif of the rituals associated with the pilgrimage was
restored. However, the city of Medina became the
political center of the fledgling Islamic state, although
Mecca retained its importance as the spiritual capital
of the Muslim world: it serves as the qibla (direction)
that Muslims face to perform their ritual prayers,
and it is the focus of the annual pilgrimage. It pre-
serves these religious distinctions until this day, with
only Muslims being permitted to enter its sacred
boundaries.

Mustafa Shah

See also Arabia; Arabs; Hajj; Islam; Idolatry; Jazira;
Ka’ba; Markets; Medina; Muhammad the Prophet;
Pagans and Pagan Customs; Pilgrimage; Qur’an; and
Umra

Further Reading

Francis, Peters. Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim
Holy Land. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1994.

Montgomerry, Watt. Muhammad’s Mecca: History in the
Qur’an. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1988.

MEDICAL LITERATURE, HEBREW

Jewish communities, which during the Middle Ages
were largely settled throughout the Mediterranean
area, enjoyed under Islamic rule a cultural expansion
that, paradoxically, was associated with the adoption
of the Arabic language and cultural model. Social
tolerance and the influence of a flourishing Arabic
cultural development resulted in a complex and rich
Jewish intellectual life, the achievements of which
were easily transmitted among the Jewish commu-
nities that shared the same cultural milieu (i.e., those
established within the extensive Islamic territories).

This long chapter of Jewish history is divided into
two main periods in terms of time and location: the
Islamic East and al-Andalus (as the Islamic part of
the Iberian Peninsula was known at the time). During
this extensive interlude, Arabic became for Jews not
only an adopted mother tongue but also a vehicle for
learning and cultural transmission; Hebrew was re-
served during this period for writings of a religious
and literary character.

Arabic medical knowledge, which flourished from
the middle of the eighth century and was available
through Arabic translations from the Greek as well as
from their own original production, was assimilated,
learned, and even taught by Jews. Furthermore, they
participated in the task — performed under the auspic-
es of the Islamic cultural expansion — of preserving,
transmitting, and commenting on classical philosoph-
ical and scientific texts, thereby partaking in the crea-
tion of a distinct corpus of Greco-Arabic medicine.

The art of medicine was learned from books, but it
was also acquired through the relationship estab-
lished between a student and a particular master
(generally a prominent physician) who transmitted
to the student (usually a male, but occasionally a
female) both theoretical and practical knowledge.
Prospective physicians were trained under the super-
vision and guidance of the master and, as far as
is known, Jews and Muslims without distinction
enjoyed the benefits of this system.

According to the sources, medicine seems to have
been a favorite occupation among Jews, because the
number of Jewish medical practitioners providing care
for both the Jewish and the Muslim populations was
considerable. Apparently, this professional choice was
stimulated by the fact that physicians enjoyed an en-
hanced social and economic status, which was obvi-
ously a desirable aim for a religious minority living
under the domination of another people.

487

MEDICAL LITERATURE, HEBREW

Nevertheless, the number of practitioners does not
seem proportional to the number of medical authors
or, more accurately, known medical texts authored by
Jews, whose figures are substantially inferior. This
contrast, however unusual it might seem at first
sight, is not so if the above-mentioned fact that
Jews’ proficiency in Arabic made the rich corpus of
Greco- Arabic medicine available to them is recalled.
The very availability of texts, together with the as-
sumption of the theoretical framework developed by
Islamic medicine, seems to have acted as a deterrent
for original production.

However scant, Jewish textual production was not
unimportant. Some medical authors succeeded in
attracting the general acknowledgment of their con-
temporaries, which secured a place for their works
within the corpus that circulated at the time. Among
them, two outstanding figures deserve special men-
tion. The first is Isaac ben Solomon Israeli, or Isaac
Judaeus (born in Egypt c. 855 CE, died in Kairawan
c. 955 CE), who was a leading Jewish philosopher,
physician, and medical author. The uncontested ac-
knowledgment of his work resulted in its early trans-
lation into Hebrew and Latin, which allowed for its
dissemination in the West. Israeli’s works on fevers,
urine, foods and simple remedies, and medical con-
duct were extensively read and quoted throughout the
Middle Ages and beyond.

Undoubtedly the best-known Jewish figure in the
field of medicine, Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides
(born in Cordoba in 1138, died in Egypt in 1204), was a
highly prestigious philosopher, exegete, and physician.
His medical works were deeply embedded in the Islam-
ic medical tradition, and they shared and transmitted
notions of physiology, etiology, and therapeutics that
were common to that tradition, bearing a strong
influence of what has been called the “Galenization”
of Islamic medicine. Maimonides was a prolific au-
thor, and at least nine medical works were ascribed to
him. He wrote some minor monographs devoted to
asthma, hemorrhoids, sexual hygiene and aphrodi-
siacs, diet, and pharmacology. He also produced three
major medical works: a commentary on the Hippo-
cratic Aphorisms, a book on Extracts from Galen, and
his own Aphorisms, known as [ Medical ] Aphorisms of
Moses. This last work was an extensive synthesis of
contemporary medical knowledge (Galenic for the
most part) that was apparently conceived as a practical
tool for learning or to be carried during practice.

At the end of the twelfth century, there was an
upsurge in Hebrew, and it began to be used as a
vehicle of science. This prompted the translation
into and the original production in this language of
medical texts. However, both in and outside Islamic
lands, Jews continued to write and read medicine in

Arabic up to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In
Christian territories, a learned minority who had emi-
grated from Islamic regions but who still maintained
intimate links with Arabic language and science com-
mitted themselves to the translation into Hebrew
of Arabic medical books, thus contributing to the
dissemination and transmission of the bulk of
Greco-Arabic medical knowledge to the West.

Carmen Caballero-Navas

Further Reading

Ferre, Lola. “The Place of Scientific Knowledge in Some
Spanish Jewish Authors.’’ Micrologus. Natura, Scienze
e Societa Medievali, IX, Gli Ebrei e le Scienze, The Jews
and the Sciences (2001): 21-34.

Friedenwald, Harry. Jewish Luminaries in Medical History.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1946.

Garcla-Ballester, Luis, “A Marginal Learned Medical
World: Jewish, Muslim and Christian Medical Practi-
tioners, and the Use of Arabic Medical Sources in the
Late Medieval Spain.’’ In Practical Medicine from Salerno
to the Black Death, eds. Luis Garcia-Ballester et al., 353-
94. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Goitein, S. D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Com-
munities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents
of the Cairo Geniza , 6 vols., vol. 2, 240-61. Berkeley, Los
Angles, and London, University of California Press.

Jacquart, Danielle, and Franqoise Micheau. La Medecine
Arabe et L 'Occident Medieval, Editions Maissonneuve et
Larose. Paris, 1990.

Meyerhoff, Max. Studies in Medieval Arabic Medicine:
Theory and Practice, ed. Penelope Johnstone. London:
Variorum Reprints, 1984.

. “Medieval Jewish Physicians in the Middle Ages.”

Isis 28 (1938). Reprinted in Sezgin, Fuat, ed. Musa ibn
Maynnin (Maimonides) (d. 601/1204): Texts and Stud-
ies, 140-68. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History
of Arabic-Islamic Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe
University, 1998.

Muntner, S. Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides). Medical
Works, 3 vols. Jerusalem, Mosad ha-Rav Kook, 1 957—
1961.

Rosner, Fred, and Samuel Kottek, eds. Moses Maimonides:
Physician, Scientist and Philosopher. New Jersey, 1993.

Sezgin, Fuat, ed. Ishaq ibn Sulayman al-Isra’TlT (d. c. 325/
935): Texts and Studies. Frankfurt am Main: Institute
for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at Johann
Wolfgang Goethe University, 1996.

, ed. Musa ibn Maymun (Maimonides) (d. 601/

1204): Texts and Studies. Frankfurt am Main: Institute
for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at Johann
Wolfgang Goethe University, 1998.

Sirat, Collete. A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle
Ages. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1985.

MEDICAL LITERATURE, PERSIAN

Given the impact of Arabic as the language of religion
and the paramount vehicle of learning, even in the

488

MEDICAL LITERATURE, PERSIAN

Iranian linguistic area, it may not be amiss to recall
the commonplace fact that Persian medical literature
is at the same time less and much more than the
medical literature of Iran. It is considered less because
Arabic writing about medicine flourished well before
and then alongside (at times overshadowing) its
Persian counterpart in medieval Iran; and it is consid-
ered more because of the expansion of Persian as the
language of learning into non-Iranian — primarily
Turkic and Indie — linguistic regions.

This discussion will neglect vernacular in favor of
academic writing and will be divided into the follow-
ing sections: (1) Background; (2) Formative Period,
c. AH 340-440/950-1050 CE; (3) Consolidation,
Elaboration, and Islamic Naturalization of Persian
Galenism, 440-620/1050-1220; (4) Avicennism,

Literary Differentiation, and Inter-Asian Exchanges,
620-900/1220-1500; and (5) After 900/1500.

Background

Given the literary dominance of Arabic in Iran that
ensued upon the Muslim/ Arab conquest around the
middle of the first/seventh century, the middle-Irani-
an, pre-Islamic tradition of writing survived only
within the ever-decreasing Zoroastrian community.
Thus, Arabic models, naturally by themselves of mul-
tiple derivation (e.g., Arabian, Hellenistic, [Middle]
Iranian), had an obvious impact on the emergence
of (Neo- (Persian as an Islamic literary language dur-
ing the fourth/tenth century. With regard to Persian
medical literature in particular, the question presents
itself of whether, in addition to Arabic Galenism and
the so-called prophetic medicine, it was also informed
by direct scholastic transmission from Middle Irani-
an, without an Aramaic-Arabic intermediary; at the
level of vernacular healing craft, such survivals were
to be expected. Further, the geographic proximity of
India facilitated exchanges that left a more noticeable
imprint in Iran than further west, whether during the
Sasanian period or later, after ca. 300/900.

Formative Period, ca. 340-440/950-1050

Practical utility readily explains the fact that medical
works are to be found among the earliest witnesses to
Persian literature. Although this period saw a verita-
ble outburst of medical writing in Arabic in the very
regions of Persian literary activity, the three incuna-
bula of Persian medicine attest to the diffusion of
superior and diverse learning among a readership

that was unable or unwilling to acquire Arabic.
A student of Abu Bakr al-RazI (d. 313/925) at
one remove from the Bukhara region, Abu Bakr
Akhawaynl, composed a textbook for his son
and other adepts of medicine, the first such compen-
dium in Persian (Hidayat al-Muta‘Allimm ft l-Tibb
[Learners’ Guidance to Medicine] ) . Other genres of
Arabic scholarly writing were similarly adopted, such
as the didactic versification and the alphabetically
arranged materia medica ; the former is represented
by Hakim Maysarl’s Danishndma (Book of Knowl-
edge) of 370/980, and the latter is demonstrated
by Abu Mansur Harawi’s Kitdb al-Abniya ‘an Iaqd’iq
al-Adwiya ( Book of Foundations Concerning the
True Essence of Medicines; ca. 380/990), which also
drew on near-contemporary Indian scholarship. At
the same time, Maysarl’s and Harawi’s works illus-
trate the integration of medicine into general educa-
tion, at least among courtly society and in Samanid
dominions, where Persian letters as such first
developed.

Nevertheless, the privileged position that Arabic
generally maintained in scholarship is, for example,
reflected in Avicenna’s (before 370/980-428/1037)
medical writings; although his magisterial Canon
(Kitab al-Qaniin ft l-Tibb) is in Arabic, he only com-
posed a brief treatise on phlebotomy in Persian
/ Andar Ddnish-i Rag [ On the Knowledge of the
Veins ] ) .

Consolidation, Elaboration, and Islamic
Naturalization of Persian Galenism,
440-620/1050-1220

The lasting impact of Avicenna’s Canon was not lim-
ited to Arabic domains; its Persian — by no means
slavish — reception found monumental and, in turn,
similarly influential expression in the medical encyclo-
pedia Dhakhtra-yi Khwarizmshdht (The Khwdrizm-
shdh’s Treasure) by Isma‘Il JurjanI (ca. 434-535/
ca. 1042-1140), an author of vast erudition and, by
the breadth of his writings, acute attention to the
varied needs of laymen, learners, practitioners, and
complete scholars. Further, he vividly illustrated the
Islamic naturalization of Hellenistic science (i.e., in
the present context, Galenism). As examples of rather
humble and practice-oriented writing, two other
works deserve mention here: a catechetic survey of
ophthalmology, Nur al-‘Uyiin (Light of the Eyes) by
Abu Rawh JurjanI ‘Zarrlndast’ (in 480/1087 inscribed
to the Seljuq Sultan Malikshah) and a practitioner’s
manual of theoretical and curative medicine, Mukhta-
sar Andar ‘ilm-i TabTb (Abridgment on the Physician’s

489

MEDICAL LITERATURE, PERSIAN

Science) by the Jewish physician Abu Sa‘d ‘Zardgillm’
(c. 550/1155).

Both Zarrlndast’s Ophthalmology for a Seljuq sul-
tan and IsmaTl JurjanI’s activity in Khwarizm (on
the frontier to Turkic) during this period illustrate
the afore mentioned expansion of Persian into
non-Iranian linguistic realms.

Avicennism, Literary Differentiation, and
Inter-Asian Exchanges, 620-900/1220-1500

As a result of Cinggis Khan’s and his successors’
invasions of the Islamic Middle East (c. 618-660/
1220-1262) as well as Tamerlane’s (1370-1405) cam-
paigns, the region’s demographic balance further
changed in favor of Turkic and Mongol nomadic
pastoralists. Their eventual Islamic acculturation con-
solidated and territorially expanded the position
of Persian (e.g., the medical author Shihab al-Din
NagawrI from India [790-794/1388-1392]). In medi-
cine, increased communication across Asia under
shared Mongol rule even resulted in Persian adapta-
tions from the Chinese ( Tansuqndma-yi llkhani [The
Ilkhan ’s Book of Precious Knowledge ] by Rashid al-
Din Fadlallah [c. 645-718/1247-1318). Demand for
translations from Arabic also rose, as did generally
the writing of commentaries and abridgments. Apart
from the “medicine of the Prophet” or of the Shi‘i
Imams in academic medicine, Avicennism continued
to hold sway as is witnessed by, for example, Qanunja
(Little Canon) by Mahmud Caghnnnl (d. 745/1344)
and the Persian version of Ibn al-Nafis’s Mujiz
al-Qanun (Abridgment of the Canon) by Qutb
Muhammad (c. 906/1500); it is also seen in ostensibly
independent works such as GhiyathTya (To Ghiyath
ctl-DTn) by Najm al-Din Mahmud Slhrazl (before
720/1320) and Kifaya-yi Mujahidiya (Adequacy for
Mujahid al-Din) by Mansur ibn Muhammad (c.
787/1385). The thematic range of specialized treat-
ments kept increasing, and eventually included repro-
ductive and sexual medicine. Materia medica for
centuries found its authoritative Persian formulation
in Ikhtiyardt-i Badi'i ( Selections for BadV al-JamdV)
by Zayn al-Din ‘All Ansarl (770/1368-1369); in anat-
omy, the just-mentioned Mansur supplemented his
Tashril-i Mansur T ( Mansur ’s Anatomy ) with a series
of five illustrations; Abu Zayn Kahhal included —
even highlighting it in the title — surgery in his other-
wise conventional survey Sharayit-i Jarrahl (Require-
ments of Surgery; mid-ninth/fifteenth century). New
manuals of basic curative medicine continually
appeared as well. In addition, medicine was included
in general encyclopedias of arts and sciences (e.g.,

Danishnama-yi Jahan [ Book of Knowledge of the
World] by ‘Ali ibn ‘All Amiran IsfahanI, c. 880/1475).

After 900/1500

Although no caesura in medical theory marks the
turn of a new period around this date, contemporane-
ous events and processes did eventually effect Persian
medicine. The rise and consolidation, respectively, of
new dynasties — the Turkish Ottomans, the Safavids
of Iran, the Shaybanids of Uzbekistan, and the
Mughals of India — boosted literary activity in Persian
and won it new territory. For example, renewed inter-
est in Hindu medicine resulted in Persian versions of
Sanskrit texts (Ma'din al-Shifa-yi Sikandar-Shahi
[The Healing-Mine of Sikandar-Shah] by Miyan
Bhuwa ibn Khawass Khan, 918/1512); medical hand-
books and monographs met with unceasing demand;
and, more remarkably, diseases and substances of
American, European, and Far Eastern origin called
for discussion. Syphilis (atishak [“firelet”] or abila-yi
farang [Frankish pox]) was instantly noted, at times
correctly diagnosed as transmissible and treated by
the supposed panacea smilax (cub-i clnl [Chinese
wood]) if not by mercury (e.g., Khuldsat al-Tajdrib
[ Choice Experiences ] by Baha’ al-Dawla Nurbakhshi,
907/1501-1502; Risala-yi Atishak [Essay on Firelet];
and Risala-yi Cub-i Cun [ Essay on Chinese Wood ] by
‘Imad al-Din Malmtld ShlrazI, ca. 978/1570). Coffee
(qahwa), tea (cay), and tobacco (tanbaku) were not
ignored, either.

Lutz Richter-Bernburg

Further Reading

De Crussol des Epesse, Thierry, transl. Discours sur L’Oeil
dEsmail Gorgani. Teheran: IFRI & PU d'lran/Louvain:
Peeters, 1998.

Elgood, Cyril. A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern
Caliphate. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1951.

. Safavid Medical Practice. London: Royal Asiatic

Society, 1970.

Keshavarz, Fateme. A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue
of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the Wellcome
Institute for the History of Medicine. London: Wellcome
Institute, 1986.

Klein-Franke, Felix, and Zhu Ming. “Rashid ad-DIn as a
Transmitter of Chinese Medicine to the West.” Le
Museon 109 (1996): 395M04.

Richter-Bernburg, Lutz. “Iran’s Contribution to Medicine
and Veterinary Science in Islam, AH 100-900/AD 700-
1500.” In The Diffusion of Greco-Roman Medicine into
the Middle East and the Caucasus , eds. John A.C.
Greppin, E. Savage-Smith, and P. Gueriguian, 139-68.
Delrnar, NY: Caravan, 1999.

490

MEDICAL LITERATURE, TURKISH

. Persian Medical Manuscripts at the University of

California, Los Angeles. Malibu: Undena, 1978.

Sabra, Abdelhamid I. “The Appropriation and Subsequent
Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam: A
Preliminary Statement.” History of Science 25 (1987):
223-43.

Storey, Cyril A. Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical
Survey, vol. 2, 2. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1971.

MEDICAL LITERATURE, SYRIAC

Syriac Christians first gained notoriety for their med-
ical skills in Gundaishapur in southwest Persia, where
they came into contact with classical Greek medical
thought and began translating the works of Dioscor-
ides, Galen, Hippocrates, and Paul of Aegina into
Syriac. The Alexandrian-educated Sergius of
ReslTaina (d. 536) was one of the earliest Syriac
Christians to distinguish himself both as a translator
and a medical practitioner. The Boktishu' family of
physicians were among the earliest East Syriac Chris-
tians to contribute to the intellectual and scientific
efflorescence of ‘Abbasid Baghdad. Girgis Boktishu 1
(ca. 770), dean of medicine in Gundaishapur, was
personal physician to the Caliph al-Mansur. Gabriel,
the son of Girgis, translated extracts from leading
Greek medical theorists from Syriac to Arabic, and
he compiled them in a work that he titled al-Mujaz
( The Compendium ) . The renowned Hunayn ibn Ishaq
(d. 873), court physician to the Caliph al-Mutawakkil,
revised and expanded the Syriac translations of Ser-
gius of ReslTaina and translated them into Arabic;
medical treatises by his nephew, Hobaysh ibn al-
Hasan, often circulated under the name of Hunayn.

Syriac continued to be used as a medium for schol-
arship, although its scope and impact were much
reduced well after Arabic had established itself as
the language of life and letters throughout dar
al-Islam (the empire of Islam). A particularly well-
executed and lavishly illustrated text (Glasgow
University Library, Sp Coll MS Hunter 40) entitled
Taqwim al-Abdan fi Tcidbir al-Insan (The Arrange-
ment of Bodies for Treatment) by the eleventh-century
scholar Abu 'Ali Yahya ibn ‘Isa ibn Jazla is written in
Syriac, Arabic, and karshuni (Arabic in Syriac char-
acters). The work of translation from Greek, through
Syriac, and into Arabic was carried on most inten-
sively from the eighth through the tenth century, and
it had an immediate as well as a long-term impact on
Arab culture. In the first instance, Syriac translations
of Greek scientific and philosophical works made
available a synthesis of the classical heritage of Greece
to an increasingly literate and intellectually sophisti-
cated Arabic-speaking populace. In a broader sense,
Syriac translations of classical works into Arabic

expanded the vocabulary, level of diction, and intel-
lectual range of the Arabic language and helped it
develop into an adequate medium for intellectual life.

Joseph P. Amar

See also Arabic; Baghdad; Christians and Christianity;
Cultural Exchange; Hunayn ibn Ishaq; Syriac; Linguis-
tics; Medical Literature; Physicians; al-Razi (Rhazes);
Scholars, Science; Translation

Further Reading

Brock, Sebastian. A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature. Kot-
tayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Insti-
tute, 1997.

Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge,
Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1991.

MEDICAL LITERATURE, TURKISH

Turkish medical literature, being spread in a wide
territory and written in various dialects, is still a
field that is not studied sufficiently. According to
research that has been performed so far, examples of
the first written Turkish literature, the Orkhon and
Yenisei engravings, are from the fifth to the ninth
century; however, the earliest Turkish medical litera-
ture that was recorded in forty-five rolls and found in
Turfan, Central Asia, was started during the tenth
century in Uigur Turkish. The medical prescriptions
described in Uigur medical texts, translated from In-
dian and Chinese medical literature, consist mainly of
materia medica, and some are local drugs.

After the conversion to Islam in large groups from
the tenth century on, Turkish peoples favored writing
in Arabic, which was accepted to be the literary lan-
guage of the Islamic world. If Turkish literature in
which medical terminology is used is disregarded
(e.g., the Divan-i Lughati’t Turk of the eleventh centu-
ry; 581 medical terms are used), the start of Turkish
medical literature that came to be continuous was
with Tuhfa-i Mubarizi by Hakim Barakat, dedicated
to Mubaruziddin Khalifat Alp Ghazi, the governor of
Amasya. The first Anatolian Turkish medical work
known so far, this volume was compiled during the
first quarter of the thirteenth century, during the Sel-
juk period. The rapid accumulation of the Turkish
medical literature written during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries was realized through the support
of the rulers of the Anatolian Seljuk states (who
expected books to be written in Turkish) and paid
importance to knowledge and art; hence, this pro-
tected and motivated scholars and physicians. These
books were written in a simple style that the common

491

MEDICAL LITERATURE, TURKISH

The forms of instruments necessary for extracting the
foetus. (Sharaf addin Sabunjuoghlu’s Jarrahiyatu’l-Haniya.
Part 2, Chapter 77, f. 113a, Millet Library.). © Nil Sari.

people were familiar with; therefore, this is the best
literature to be studied as interesting linguistic mate-
rial. The subjects studied in Turkish medical work
were mainly practical applications of the same char-
acter as classical Islamic medicine in theory and prac-
tice. For example, the classification of illnesses (e.g.,
fevers, tumors) and their etiology, signs, and symp-
toms were described in accordance with the humoral
theory. Examinations (e.g., feeling for the pulse,
performing uroscopy) and treatments such as vomit-
ing, bloodletting, purgation, as well as simple and
complex drug therapies were also based on the hu-
moral theory.

The Turkish medical literature of this period was
influenced by the preceding literature: the Al-Qanun
fi’-t Tib of Ibn Sina; the Zahire-i Kharezmshahi of
Jurjani; and the Kitab al-Jami‘i fi-al-Adviyatu al-
Mufrada of Ibn Baytar were the most favored Islamic
sources used, whereas Hippocrates, Galen, and
Dioscorides were the most frequent references. How-
ever, some writers and translators quoted new infor-
mation and described their own practices and
experiences. Such information that was assumed to
be original can be evaluated only by comparing it

with the preceding works. The examples that are
best known for their contributions are the following:
Ishaq ibn Murad’s book that consists of Turkish drug
names ( Adviva-i Mufrada, 1389), which was the first
Turkish medical work of the Ottoman period;
Mehmed ibn Mahmud of Shirvan and his exhaustive
book on eye diseases ( Murshid , 1438); Sharafaddin
Sabunjuoghlu’s illustrated book about surgery
(, Jarrahiyatu’l-Haniya , 1465); a translation of al-
Tasrifs part on surgery by Abu’l-Qasim al-Zahrawi
and his book of medical prescriptions describing his
own experiences (Mujarrabnama, 1468); and Akhi
Chalabi’s (d. 1524) work on kidney and urinary blad-
der stones and their treatment (Risala-i Hasatu’l-
Kilya). The most favored Turkish medical books
that comprised all subjects of classical Islamic medi-
cine were the Muntahab-i Shifa of Hajy Pasha
(d. 1424); the Yadigar of Ibn Sharif (1425); and the
Manafi‘u’n-Nas (1566) of Nidai. Turkish medical
compilations and translations of the known and
anonymous writers from between the fourteenth and
the sixteenth centuries (known so far) comprise about
fifty works, most of which have not yet been studied.

Nil Sari

See also Ibn Sina or Avicenna; Jurjani; Abu’l-Qasim
al-Zahrawi

Further Reading

Adivar, Adnan. Osmanli Turklerinde Ilim , IV. Baski, Remzi
Kitabevi. Istanbul, 1982.

Bayat, Ali Haydar. Tip Tarihi. Izmir, 2003.

Sehsuvaroglu, Bedii. "Anadolu’da Turkce Ilk Tip Eserleri.”
Istanbul Universitesi Tip Falcultesi Mecmuasi 1 (1957):
79-93.

Sesen, Ramazan. “Ortacag Islam Tibbinin Kaynaklari ve
XV Yuzyilda Turkce’ye Tercume Edilen Tip Kitaplari.”
Tip Tarihi A rapirmalari 5 (1993) : 1 1 — 20.

Suveren, Kenan, and liter Uzel. “Ilk Turkce Tip Yazmalar-
tna Genel Bir Bakis.” Tip Tarihi Aragtirmalari 2 (1988):
126-42.

MEDINA

The oasis settlement of Medina, Islam’s second most
holy city, lies in the western region of the Arabian
peninsula. It was originally called Yathrib, and it is
located 385 kilometers northeast of Mecca in the geo-
graphical region known as the Hijaz. Medina
provided the platform from which the Prophet was
able to place the Islamic faith firmly on the landscape
of Arabia and beyond. It is situated on an elevated
plain of predominantly fertile land that is renowned
for its abundant date palms and vineyards. It was close
to the trade routes that passed along the western coast
of the Arabian peninsula. Arab and Jewish tribes had

492

MEDINA

ir r 1,1 T T-TTTI I rTTTTTI

r»o*/

Schematic view of Medina, the center of the cult of Muhammad, whose goal was union with the prophet. Tile. Cairo, Mamluk
period, sixteenth century. Credit: Werner Forman/ Art Resource, NY. Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Egypt.

493

MEDINA

settled there over the centuries that preceded the
emergence of Islam. The Aws and the Khazraj were
the settlement’s two main Arab tribes. The Jews of
Medina, who constituted a sizable element of the
city’s population, were influential landowners and mer-
chants. Members of the Arab clans, who were most-
ly pagans, performed the annual pilgrimage to the
Meccan sanctuary. During one such occasion, several
individuals from Medina were persuaded to convert
to the new faith, paving the way for the promulgation
of the Prophet’s message in the oasis settlement.

When the Prophet was compelled to leave Mecca
in 622 CE, he and his followers were welcomed in
Medina; the Muslims there were known as the
Ansar (Helpers). The Prophet purchased a plot of
land, constructing a modest mosque (masjid) with
adjoining apartments in which he lived. It served as
the seat of government for him and his immediate
successors. The migration (hijra) to Medina marked
a turning point in the religion’s history and develop-
ment. The Prophet assumed greater political and per-
sonal authority in the city, drawing up a constitution
that governed relationships among the city’s commu-
nities. He was also able to challenge Quraysh by
threatening their trade caravans.

Islam as a religious institution evolved decisively.
Quranic revelation in Medina covered themes of a
legislative nature; furthermore, ritual prayers, alms
giving, fasting, and pilgrimage were made obligatory.
When the Prophet passed away, he was buried in the
mosque where he had lived. The mosque serves as an
important shrine for visiting pilgrims.

Mustafa Shah

See also Arabia; Arabs; Battles; Constitution of Medi-
na; Early Islam; Emigration (Hijra); Hajj; Islam; Land
Tenure and Ownership; Markets; Merchants; Mos-
ques; Muhammad the Prophet; Nomadism and Pasto-
ralism; Pacts and Treaties; Pilgrimage; Shari’a

Further Reading

Lecker, M. Muslims, Jews and Pagans: Studies on Early
Islamic Medina. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.

Watt, Montgomery, W. Muhammad Prophet and States-
man. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1961.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Islamic sources refer to the Mediterranean as Bahr al-
Riim (the Sea of the Greeks), Bahr al-Sham or al-Bahr
al-Shami (the Sea of Syria), and/or Bahr al-Maghrib
(the Sea of the West). The Byzantines’ loss of Syria
and Egypt to Muslims during the first half of the
seventh century CE marks the beginning of Islamic

expansion in the Mediterranean arena. Taking advan-
tage of experienced Greek and Coptic sailors, ship-
wrights, and former Byzantine maritime installations
in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, Mu‘awiya, who was
then the wall (governor) of Syria (640-661 CE), com-
mandeered the first Islamic maritime expedition
against Cyprus in AH 28/648 CE. During the
subsequent year, he launched a second attack on
Arwad (Arados), an island located off the Syrian
coast, and he burned the island’s city. Islamic fleets —
the Syrian one in particular — intensified their activities
against Byzantine targets in the eastern basin of the
Mediterranean and Aegean and assaulted Crete, Cos,
Cyprus, and Rhodes in 33/653-654, ultimately scoring
their first naval victory against the Byzantine navy at
Phoenix (Dhat al-Sawari) in 34/655. With the estab-
lishment of the Umayyad Caliphate and the transfer of
the capital from Kufa to Damascus in 40/661, Muslims
intensified their naval activities and targeted Byzantine
strategic positions on the Mediterranean as well as the
Aegean seas. During the spring of 49/669, they laun-
ched an unsuccessful attack against Constantinople.
During their second attempt to capture the Byzantine
capital, they laid an enduring siege to it that lasted for
eight years (53-60/673-80), with no success. The third
fruitless effort was in 99-100/717-718, which ended
with the destruction, capture, and burning of Islamic
ships. In addition to these major attacks, Muslims
carried out annual expeditions to different targets on
the Mediterranean. Although Byzantine supremacy at
sea was shattered, the Islamic naval triumph had no
immediate overarching results because of the domestic
complications in the caliphate itself.

In separate, spontaneous, and uncoordinated expe-
ditions, Muslim sea powers launched attacks against
Sicily and Crete during that same year. Although the
Aghlabid fleet commandeered by Asad Ibn al-Furat
(an old Maliki jurist of Khurasani origin) raided
Sicily, an Andalusian flotilla led by Abu Hafs ‘Umar
al-Balluti landed and held sway over the island of
Crete. The assaults on and conquest of Sicily and
Crete mark a turning point in Islamic naval history
in the Mediterranean. Within a few decades, Islamic
fleets captured the Mediterranean islands of Majorca,
Minorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Pantelleria, Malta, and
Cyprus. Their military expeditions extended to Chris-
tian coastal frontiers and hinterland. A series of more
advanced and permanent military and pirate bases
were established along the northern shores of the
Mediterranean Sea at Fraxinetum in Provence,
Monte Garigliano near Naples, and around Bari
in Apulia. Navigation in the Adriatic Sea became
controlled by independent Islamic flotillas, whereas
Byzantine navigation in the Aegean was threatened
by the Syrian and Cretan Arabs, who sacked and

494

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

captured Thessalonica in 904 CE and invaded and
landed on several other strategic islands. The Islamic
control of the Mediterranean did not, thus, begin
during the seventh or eighth century CE but rather
during the first half of the ninth century CE, when the
Muslim world was fragmented into political entities
governed by dynasties of both Arab and non-Arab
origin.

The Islamic imperium over the Mediterranean Sea
lasted for more than two centuries despite the recap-
ture of Crete by Byzantium in 351/961. The actual
degeneration of Muslim naval power in the Mediterra-
nean began by the late fourth and early AH fifth cen-
turies/eleventh century CE and continued into the
early AH sixth century/twelfth century CE; this
resulted from inter-Islamic military struggles and the
penetration of Bedouin tribes. In 442/1050, the Hilalis
(Banu Hilal) who had ravaged the province of Barqa
(Libya) and left it to the Sulaymis continued their ad-
vance toward Gabes, Beja, Qayrawan, al-Mahdiyya,
Bougie (Bijaya), and the Central Maghrib. This inva-
sion had formidable impact on the socioeconomic and
political life of the region. In addition to destroying
the basis of Tunisian agriculture, industry, and sub-
Saharan trade, the resulting deterioration of the port
cities led to a decline in maritime commerce. Naviga-
tional activity along the coast between Gabes to Buna
(Bone) seems to have been paralyzed, and therefore
the port cities were exposed to hostile attacks by
Sicilian and Italian flotillas. Ibn Khaldun (733-809/
1332-1406) summarizes that decline as follows:

"Then, the naval strength of the Muslims declined once
more, because of the weakness of the ruling dynasties.
Maritime habits were forgotten under the impact of the
strong Bedouin attitude prevailing in the Maghrib and as
a result of the discontinuance of Spanish habits. . . . The
Muslims came to be strangers in the Mediterranean. The
only exceptions are a few inhabitants of the coastal
regions. They ought to have had many assistants and
supporters, or they should have had support from the
dynasties to enable them to recruit help and work to-
ward the goal of [increasing seafaring activities]." (Ibn
Khaldun, Muqaddimah, vol. 1, 268-9. English edition,
212 .)

Hassan Khalileh

See also Trade, Mediterranean
Further Reading

Al-‘Abbadi, Ahmad, and Al-Sayyid Salim. Ta’rikh al-Bah-
riyya al-lslamiyya fi Misr wa-l-Sham. Beirut: Dar al-
Nahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1981.

Ahrweiler, Helene. Byzance et la Mer: La Marine de Guerre,
la Politique et les Institutions Maritimes de Byzance aux
VII e -XV e Siecles. Paris, 1966.

Arslan, Shakib. Ta’rikh Ghazawat al-‘Arah fi Faransa wa-
Swisra wa-Italya wa-Jaza’ir al-Bahr al-Mutawassit. Bei-
rut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1933.

Aziz Ahmad. A History of Islamic Sicily. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1975.

Bury, John B. “The Naval Policy of the Roman Empire in
Relation to the Western Provinces from the 7th to the
9th Century.” Centenario Della Nascita cli Michele
Amari 2 (1910): 21-34.

Christides, Vassilios. “Raid and Trade in the Eastern Med-
iterranean: A Treatise by Muhammad bn. ‘Umar, the
Faqih from Occupied Moslem Crete, and the Rhodian
Sea Law, Two Parallel Texts.” Graeco-Arahica 5 (1993).

. The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs ( CA. 824): A

Turning Point in the Struggle Between Byzantium and
Islam. Athens, 1984.

. “The Raids of the Moslems of Crete in the Aegean

Sea: Piracy and Conquest." Byzantion 51 (1981): 76-111.

Conrad, Lawrence 1. "The Conquest of Arwad: A Source
Critical Study in the Historiography of the Early Medie-
val Near East.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near
East ; Problems in the Literary Source Material , ed.
Averil Cameron & Lawrence Conrad, 317M01. Prince-
ton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1992.

Delgado, Jorge L. El Poder Naval de Al-Andalus en !a Epoca
del Califcito Omeya. Granada: Universidad de Granada,
1993.

Gabrieli, Francesco. “Islam in the Mediterranean World.”
In The Legacy of Islam, eds. Joseph Schacht and Clifford
E. Bosworth, 63-104. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press,
1974.

. “Greeks and Arabs in the Central Mediterranean

Area.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 18 (1964): 59-65.

Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman. Kitab al- ‘Ibar wa-Diwan al-
Mubtada’ wa-l-Khabar fi Ayyam al-'Arab wa-l-'Ajam wa-
l-Barbar, 1 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani, 1992.

. The Muqaddimah, 9th ed., transl. Franz Rosenthal.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Jenkins, Romilly J. “Cyprus Between Byzantium and Islam,
AD 688-965.” In Studies Presented to David Moore
Robinson, eds. G.E. Mylonas and D. Raymond, vol. 2,
1006-14. Saint Louis, Mo: Washington University, 1953.

Kaegi, Walter E. Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Kazhdan, Alexander. “Some Questions Addressed to the
Scholars Who Believe in the Authenticity of Kaminiates’
‘Capture of Thessalonica’.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 71
(1978): 301-14.

Kreutz, Barbara M. Before the Normans: Southern Italy in
the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Kyrris, Costas. "The Nature of the Arab-Byzantine Rela-
tions in Cyprus from the Middle of the 7th to the Middle
of the 10th Century AD” Graeco-Arabica 3 (1984):
149-75.

Lewis, Archibald. Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterra-
nean AD 500 to 1100. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 1951.

Lewis, Archibald, and Timothy Runyan. European Naval
and Maritime History, 300-1500. Bloomington, Ind:
Indiana University Press, 1990.

Moreno, Eduardo M. "Byzantium and al-Andalus in the
Ninth Century.” In Byzantium in the Ninth Century:
Dead or Alive, ed. Leslie Brubaker, 215-27. Aldershot,
1998.

495

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Salim, Al-Sayyid, and Ahmad al-‘Abbadi. Ta’rikh al-
Bahriyya al-Islamiyya fi l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus. Beirut:
Dar al-Nahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1969.

Setton, Kenneth M. “On the Raids of the Moslems in the
Aegean in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries.” American
Journal of Archaeology 58 (1954): 311-9.

MENTAL ILLNESS

Madness and other mental disorders were present in
Islamic societies from the earliest times; however, the
explanation of and reaction to states of the mind that
were defined as deviating from the norm were mani-
fold and variegated in different contexts. For in-
stance, the suitor consumed by ardent and irrational
love for an unobtainable mistress, as exemplified in
Majnun Laila (Laila’s Madman), or the fool who, in
his insanity, speaks words of wisdom — both topics of
some prominence in Arabic literature — illustrate am-
bivalent attitudes toward mental alterity. On the one
hand, madness can lead to doom and destruction; on
the other, it can lead to clarity and artistic creativity.
Although madness appears in a range of positive
and negative guises, the focus in this discussion will
be on mental illness as a medical concept, with a
discussion of the religious and legal ramifications at
the end.

Generally speaking, Islamic physicians viewed
mental illness as a physiological condition that re-
quired treatment. They inherited medical concepts of
mental health and disease to a large extent from their
Greek predecessors, who developed them within the
framework of humoral pathology. Drawing on ideas
first expressed in the Hippocratic corpus, Galen, who
was the most influential Greek medical author, ar-
gued that the “temperaments of the soul follow the
mixtures of the body.” To put it differently, mental
conditions are linked to the state of the body: if one of
the four humors dominates, this has a direct effect on
the mind. An excess of black bile (marar aswad;
Greek melaina chole), for example, was seen to cause
“melancholy” (waswas sawdawi; Greek melancholia ) ,
a severe mental condition characterised by delusions
and extreme mood swings. A typical physiological
explanation for processes that caused this form of
melancholy was the following: black bile that degen-
erated in the spleen ascended via the stomach and
heart in the form of vapors to the brain, where it
corrupted the psychic pneuma, which was necessary
for all intellectual activities. Other forms of mental
disease were similarly explained in terms of humoral
pathology and thought to originate in the brain.
According to ‘Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari in Fir daws
al-Hikma fi l-Tibb (Paradise of Wisdom on Medicine,
ed. M.Z. Siddiqi, 138. Berlin, 1928; cf. Dols, Majnun ,

115), they include epilepsy (sarj, prophetic illness
(mar ad kahini), despair (wahsha), madness (was-
wasa), delirium (hadhayan), corruption of imagina-
tion and intelligence (fasad al-khayal wa-l-‘aql),
forgetfulness (nisyan), open animal-like brutality
(tawahhush fi l-barari), lethargy (subat), roaring in
the head (dawi), vertigo (duwar), inflammation
( war am [harr ]), and headache ( suda j . The challenge
for the practitioner consisted of diagnosing the exact
mental condition and determining which humoral im-
balance was responsible for it. For instance, the hos-
pital physician al-Kaskari used criteria such the
temperament of the patient as indicators to ascertain
the nature of the mental disorder: sluggishness and
forgetfulness point to a cold temperament, which
requires a different treatment from a warm one,
which is revealed through insomnia.

After the physician had diagnosed the exact nature
of the illness, he or she could prescribe the appropri-
ate treatment, which primarily aimed at restoring the
bodily balance by expelling excess humors and replen-
ishing deficient ones, thereby bringing the four cardi-
nal qualities (cold, warm, dry, and moist) into proper
alignment. This was achieved not only through medi-
cation but also through diet, exercise, and other, more
subtle means, such as music therapy. In general,
patients suffering from mental disorders would either
be treated at home or in hospitals. The latter were
associated with mental health care from the ninth
century onward, and the word for hospital (bimari-
stan) later came to mean “insane asylum.” Patients
were sometimes treated for significant amounts of
time in hospitals (there is an example of one person
remaining there for years, first as a patient and later,
on the way to recovery, as an orderly; see al-Tanukhi,
Nishwar al-Muhadara wa-’Akhbar al-Mudhakara, ed.
‘A. Shaliji, 8 vols., vol. VIII, 233. Beirut, 1971-1973.).
Moreover, there are even some cases of famous
patients who suffered from insanity staying in a hos-
pital until death (e.g., al-Baladhuri; see Fihrist, ed.
Fltigel, 113).

Unlike the Bible, which contains numerous stories
of miraculously cured mental illnesses, such as those
about Jesus healing people possessed by demons (e.g.,
Luke 8: 26-33), the Qur’an has very few references to
wondrous cures, and, when they do occur, they chiefly
refer to Jesus and draw on a Christian tradition (e.g.,
3:49; 5:110); moreover, the Prophet Muhammad is
not portrayed as a healer or exorcist. However, in
the later tradition, the Qur’an or certain verses taken
from it are employed to remove jinns that are believed
to be the cause of madness. Such practices are often
closely connected to magic, which is also used in the
form of amulets, talismans, and magical-medicinal
bowls to restore mental health.

496

MERCHANTS, JEWISH

In Islamic law, the problem of insanity is discussed
in a number of contexts, nearly all in connection with
the question of incapacity (hajr). Although the legal
schools (madhahib) vary with regard to their defini-
tion of insanity, there are common traits: the insane
person (majnun) is someone who is unable to make
rational judgments and who lacks intellect (' aql ); his
or her legal status is therefore similar to that of a
child. The insane are assigned guardians (walis) who
can act on their behalf. Likewise, those who are not
compos mentis cannot be responsible for any crimes,
even homicide, because their actions lack intent; how-
ever, criminal damages were payable to the victims
or their family.

Peter E. Pormann

Further Reading

Cloarec, Fran^oise. Bimdristdns, Lieux de Folie et de
Sagesse: La Folie et ses Traitements dans les Hopitaux
Medievaux an Moyen-Orient. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998.
Pormann, Peter E. “Theory and Practice in the Early Hos-
pitals in Baghdad — al-Kaskari on Rabies and Melan-
choly.” Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-
Islamischen Wissenschaften 15 (2003): 197-248.

. “Islamic Hospitals in the Time of al-Muqtadir.” In

Abbasid Studies: Occasional Papers of the School of ‘Ab-
basid Studies, Leuven , 27 June-1 July 2004 , eds. J. Nawas
et al. Leuven and Dudley, Mass: Peeters, 2006, forth-
coming.

MERCHANTS, JEWISH

The Muslim conquests brought the majority of world
Jewry under Arab rule. During the first two centuries
of the caliphate, large numbers of Jews went over from
the agrarian life depicted in the Talmud to a cosmo-
politan one. Unlike feudal Latin Christendom, Islamic
society held commerce in high esteem and placed
no occupational restrictions upon non-believers.
Although the shari‘a imposed upon the goods of
dhimmi merchants a tariff of five percent (double
that paid by Muslims who thus enjoyed a favored
trading status), this was only half of what was levied
upon traders from outside the domain of Islam. By
the ninth century, Jews were benefitting from the
general prosperity, entering the growing bourgeoisie,
and actively participating in the Islamic Commercial
Revolution. Under the ‘Abbasids, Jewish merchants
from the district of Radhan around Baghdad became

prominent in the burgeoning international trade.
According to the geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih,
who was the head of caliphal posts and intelligence,
the Radhanites (al-Radhaniyya) operated as far east
as China and as far west as Spain, trading in precious
commodities such as aromatics, spices, textiles, furs,
and slaves. Who exactly they were and whether they
formed a league or association has been hotly debated
by scholars, and no definitive resolution is possible
without further data.

A concomitant of the Commercial Revolution
under the ‘Abbasids was the development of mer-
chant banking. Although Christians were most prom-
inent in the profession, Jews were well represented.
Their activities included money changing and assay-
ing, granting loans, and issuing instruments of credit
such as the hawala (bill of exchange), ruq‘a (order of
payment), sakka (payment note), and suftaja (bill of
exchange comparable to a modern cashier’s check).
During the ninth and tenth centuries, several Jewish
bankers (e.g., the Sons of Netira and the Sons of
Aaron) made it to the rank of government bankers
(jahabidha) . In addition to extending credit to the
caliphal court, men like Netira and his sons played a
prominent role in Jewish communal affairs. Even
before the rise of Islam, there had been intimate
bonds connecting the rabbinical and mercantile elites.
Members of the mercantile class studied at the great
gaonic academies (yeshivot) of Sura and Pumbeditha,
which by this period were located in Baghdad. Mer-
chant alumni who spread throughout the Islamic
world fostered ties between the diaspora communities
and the academies and helped further the dissemina-
tion of the talmudic form of Judaism. Men like Jacob
ibn ‘Awkal, his son Joseph in Fustat, and the Berekhya
brothers in Qayrawan served as intermediaries and
representatives of the academies and facilitated the
flow of correspondence and funds, issuing suftajas
that were drawn on their banking correspondents in
Baghdad.

The heyday of the Jewish mercantile class came
during the Fatimid caliphate (909-1161 CE). Shortly
after their rise to power in Ifriqiyya (Tunisia), the
country became the nexus for land and sea trade
and thus the hub of the Mediterranean world. The
heterodox Fatimids did not impose the discriminatory
tariffs on their non-Muslim subjects, and Jewish mer-
chants, both indigenous Maghrebis and immigrants
from the East, prospered in the laissez-faire atmos-
phere. When the Fatimids transferred their seat of
power to Egypt in 973, many merchants reestablished
themselves in Fustat, Cairo, and Alexandria. One
Jewish merchant, Abu Sa‘d al-Tustari, who had
been a purveyor to the Fatimid court, rose to the
heights of political influence until his assassination

497

MERCHANTS, JEWISH

in 1047 as advisor to the queen mother and regent for
the boy caliph al-Mustansir.

The Cairo Geniza documents, which constitute one
of the greatest sources not just for Jewish history but
for medieval economic and social history as well,
attest to the active role played by Jewish merchants
in the flourishing trade that extended from Spain to
India. Diversification was one of the hallmarks of
medieval merchants. The Jewish merchants, both
great and small, who were represented in the Geniza
handled a tremendous variety of commodities, rang-
ing from textiles to spices and aromatics, medicinals,
foodstuffs, gemstones, and precious metals. The great
House of Ibn ‘Awkal (990s-ca. 1040) handled no less
than eighty-three commodities and their varieties.
Textile production was probably the most important
industry in the medieval Muslim world, and Jewish
merchants were heavily involved in all stages. Busi-
nessmen sometimes formed a temporary partnership
for very large shipments, purchases, or other transac-
tions. These could be outright partnerships of pooled
capital (shirka or khulta) or commenda (qirad) in
which one partner provided capital and the other
labor and know-how. Most joint ventures, however,
were conducted on the basis of informal cooperation
(mu'amala or suhba) whereby merchants provided
reciprocal services for each other.

Although most Jews throughout the Islamic world
were craftsmen and laborers, there were always Jew-
ish merchants involved in commerce at every level.

Norman A. Stillman

See also Ibn Khurradadhbih; Interfaith Relations;
Money Chargers; Spices; Textiles; Trade

Further Reading

Fischel, Walter J. Jews in the Economic and Political Life of
Mediaeval Islam , 2nd ed. New York: Ktav Publishing
House, 1969.

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Com-
munities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Docu-
ments of the Cairo Geniza. Vol. I: Economic Foundations.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: 1967.

. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1973.

Stillman, Norman A. "The Eleventh Century Merchant
House of Ibn ‘Awkal (A Geniza Study).” Journal of
the Economic and Social History of the Orient 16
(1973): 15-88.

MERCHANTS, MUSLIM

Merchants played a vital role in the economic life of
the urban societies from pre-Islamic Arabia through
the late classical era of Islam; the Prophet Muhammad
himself acted as a merchant during the earlier part of

his life, and so were some of his Companions, namely
Abu Bakr, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn
‘Awf, and ‘Amr ibn al-‘As. The Qur’an refers nine
times to the term tijara (merchandise and/or traffick-
ing) in seven suras (chapters), although no mention
is made of the term tajir (merchant).

In addition to the Qur’an, Muslim jurists and theo-
logians set forth a series of works — like those of al-
Ghazali, al-Dimashqi, and Ibn Khaldun — pertaining
to the ethical theory of trade. In his Ihycf ‘Ulum al-
Din , al-Ghazali (vol. 2, 79-1 1 1 ) lays down seven fun-
damental principles for a Muslim merchant in his
pursuit of profit: a merchant should (1) begin his
transactions with good faith and intention; (2) con-
ceive of trade as a social duty; (3) not be the first to
enter and the last to leave the market; (4) avoid for-
bidden and all doubtful and suspicious business; (5)
carefully watch his words and deeds in business; (6)
not be distracted from fulfilling his religious duties
and rituals; and (7) not travel by sea. In addition, al-
Ghazali ordains a seller to give emphasis to the quali-
ty and quantity of the commodities and must quote
the correct price of the day. As a result, al-Ghazali
considers the tijara as a form of jihad.

The AH sixth-century al-Dimashqi’s composition
al-Ishara ila Mahasin al-Tijara (Beauties of Com-
merce) is a pioneering and more practical manual
for merchants that consists of two parts, one dealing
with the merchant and the other with his goods.
Concerning the first part, he classifies merchants
into three categories: (1) the wholesaler ( khazzan ;
literally, “hoarder”), who stores the goods and sells
them when there is a scarcity of them and the prices
are high; (2) the traveling merchant (rakkad; literally,
“peregrinator”), who transports goods from one
country to another; and (3) the exporting merchant
or shipper (mujahhiz) who is himself stationary but
who sends the shipments abroad to a reliable agent to
whom the commodities are exported, provided that
both parties share the profits. The part about goods
concerns the essence of wealth, the way to test the
gold, various commodities and their prices, ways of
distinguishing bad merchandise from good, crafts and
industries, advice to merchants, warnings against
tricksters, the administration of wealth, and so on.
Like al-Ghazali, al-Dimashqi pictures the ideal mer-
chant as a person who fears God and observes equity
in his dealings, buys and sells on easy terms, carries
goods for the needs of people, and is satisfied with a
small profit.

The occupation of trade as viewed by Ibn Khaldun
requires people to acquire skills, to have the ability to
praise their commodities, and to deal cunningly and
stubbornly with their customers. However, unlike the
foregoing two figures, he adopts the principle of

498

MERCHANTS, MUSLIM

“buying cheap and selling dear (ishtira’ al-rakhis wa-
bay‘ al-ghali).” Furthermore, where al-Ghazali
advises merchants not to risk their properties and
lives for the sake of deriving profits, Ibn Khaldun
clearly states in his Muqaddima (310 3) that it is
more advantageous and more profitable for the mer-
chant's enterprise if he brings goods from a country
that is far away where there is danger on the road.
With the exception of religious prohibitions, mer-
chants are entitled to practice all methods and to
transport goods from remote countries and sell them
for high prices.

The expansion of Islamic trade in the East and
West could not have developed without adopting the
trading patterns that prevailed in the former Persian
and Byzantine territories and providing a congenial
legal environment for its promotion. Investment in
commercial enterprises took many forms; among
them were the commenda (mudaraba, qirad, and
muqarada) and the partnership (sharika). The rules
governing a commenda in which the muqarids offer
capital to the master and crew of a ship can be epito-
mized as follows. The agents collect the amount of
investment before actually commencing transactions
in their capacity as trustees. They maintain it as a
trust and thus must take care with it and return it
when demanded by the muqarids. However, they will
be absolved of liability in the event that the capital is
lost unintentionally. The agents of the muqarids are
legally responsible for their acts and for the contrac-
tual obligations that they carried out within the
bounds of their authority. Likewise, they must have
a fixed share in the profit, because profit sharing is the
purpose of this partnership. However, they can be
held liable if they disrespect contract terms. After
the contract becomes void, they will receive a compa-
rable wage for their labor, whereas the capital inves-
tor exclusively bears the profit or loss. If the entire
profit is earmarked for the capital investors, the
agents will be entitled to a certain portion of goods
in exchange for their labor but will not be eligible for
remuneration. Conversely, if the entire profit is attrib-
uted to the agents, then the transaction will be
regarded as a loan, and they will have the right to
the entire profit; however, they will also bear any loss
and will still be liable for repayment of the loan to the
investor. Partnership, however, varies from com-
menda in that the parties share the losses and profits
proportionately to each one’s share, although the
partners fix the duration of the transaction, the
types of commodities, and the geographic scope. In
both situations (qirad and sharika), the investment
could be made on credit using either transfer of debt
( hawwala ) or letter of credit ( saftaja) .

In addition to investment in trade, governmental
institutions levied various types of canonical and non-
canonical taxes on merchants, whereas jurists promul-
gated rules pertaining to on-land transport and
carriage by sea for dealing with sharing losses and
profits, jettison, salvage of goods, and so on.

Hassan Khalileh

Further Reading

Bosworth, C.E., W. Heffening, and M. Shatzmiller.
“Tidjara.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000.

Chaudhuri, K.N. Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean:
An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Constable, Olivia R. Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain :
The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula
900-1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1994.

Crone, Patricia. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Prin-
ceton, UK: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Dimashqi, Abu 1-Fadl Ja‘far ibn ‘Ali. CE Al-Ishara ila
Mahasin al-Tijara wa-Ghushush al-Mudallisin Film. Bei-
rut: Dar Sadir, 1999.

Fischel, Walter. Jews in the Economic and Political Life of
Mediaeval Islam. New York: Ktav Publishing House,
1969.

Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad.
Ihya ’ ‘Ulum al-Din , 5 vols. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 2000.

Goitein, Shelomo D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish
Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the
Documents of the Cairo Geniza: Economic Foundations.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Ibn Khaldun, ‘Abd al-Rahman. The Muqaddimah, 9th ed.,
transl. Franz Rosenthal. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1989.

Khalilieh, Hassan S. Islamic Maritime Law: An Introduc-
tion. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998.

Lambton, A.K.S. “The Merchant in Medieval Islam." In
A Locust’s Leg: Studies in Honour S.H. Taqizadeh,
eds. W.B. Henning and E. Yarshater, 121-30. London,
1962.

Risso, Patricia. Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce
and Culture in the Indian Ocean. Boulder, Colo: West-
view Press, 1995.

Udovitch, Abraham L. “An Eleventh Century Islamic
Treatise on the Law of the Sea.” Annales Islamologiques
27 (1993): 37-54.

. “Merchants and Amirs.” Asian and African Studies

22 (1988): 53-72.

. Partnership and Profit in Medieval Islam. Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970.

. “Commercial Techniques in Early Medieval Islam-
ic Trade.” In Islam and the Trade of Asia, ed. D.S.
Richards, 37-62. Oxford, UK: Bruno Cassirer, 1970.

. “The ‘Law Merchant’ of the Medieval Islamic

World.” In Logic in Classical Islamic Culture, ed. G.E.
von Grunebaum, 113-30. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrasso-
witz, 1970.

. “At the Origins of the Western Commenda'. Islam,

Israel, Byzantium?” Speculum 37 (1962): 198-207.

499

MESS1ANISM

MESSIANISM

The term messianism is derived from messiah, a trans-
literation of the Hebrew word for “the anointed one,”
which denotes a future consecrated king who will
restore the kingdom of Israel and save people from
evil. It has become a generic term used to describe the
expectation of a deliverer, often associated with a
particular sacred family, who will destroy the forces
of evil, eradicate injustice, and establish the true faith
at the end of times. As such, messianism is often
associated with a theory of salvation, a soteriology,
in which the messianic figure is also a spiritual re-
deemer as well as a political authority, and a theory
about the end of times, an eschatology, whereby the
advent of the messiah ushers in a final apocalyptic
struggle against evil before the cosmos comes to an
end by divine decree.

In the pre-Islamic Near East, messianism was prev-
alent. In Judaism, sporadic expectation led to a com-
mon process of the flourishing of “false messiahs,”
who were charismatic figures who failed to fulfill the
hope of the community and were seen as inadequate
heirs of David. Such movements culminated in apoc-
alyptic and chiliastic conflict and violence and, in
some cases, in an esoteric withdrawal and acquies-
cence with the status quo, most notably with Sabbatai
Zevi during the seventeenth century CE and in forms
of Hassidism. A clear tension between an apocalyptic
and a rational, routinized messianism is visible in
Jewish history, as it is in other traditions. Among
Christians, the messiah had come in the form of
Jesus and provided redemption; however, hope, jus-
tice, and the kingdom of heaven were postponed until
his second coming at the end of time, to which messi-
anic hope was pinned. Zoroastrians pinned their hope
on the future advent of the Saoshyant, “one who will
bring benefit,” who was to be born of a virgin from
the seed of Zoroaster; this human world savior would
bring forth righteousness and initiate the cosmic
struggle to rid the world of evil. As with other tradi-
tions, Zoroastrian expectation was most heightened
during times of oppression, hardship, and suffering.

Messianism in Islam is focused on the future ap-
pearance of the mahdi, “the rightly guided one” who
is believed to be a descendent of the Prophet who will
vanquish evil and injustice and restore justice and
Islam during the corrupt last days. During the earliest
period, it was a concomitant of the eschatological
expectation expressed in the Qur’an and in the Pro-
phetic narrations of an impending end of time. The
Prophet himself was called the mahdi, and some of his
Companions refused to believe that he had truly
passed from this world because they believed that
they were living during the last days. Revisionists

have argued that early Islam was in fact a messianic,
Judaic movement with the goal of uniting the mono-
theists and recapturing the holy land. The movement
fixed its expectations not on the Prophet but on the
deliverer: al-Faruq, the title associated with ‘Umar
ibn al-Khattab, the caliph responsible for the con-
quest of Jerusalem. Be that as it may, the history of
messianism in Islam was closely associated with those
groups who suffered political defeat and whose char-
ismatic notions of religious authority residing in the
holy family of the Prophet were marginalized: the
Shi‘is.

The defeat of the radical Shi‘is who denied legiti-
macy to the caliphate and fought for the rights of the
family of the Prophet led to apocalyptic forms of
messianism, first encountered among the Kaysaniyya,
who believed in the rightful authority of Muhammad
ibn al-Hanafiyya, the son of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib. The
failure of the revolt in his name in 686 led by Mukhtar
ibn Abi ‘Ubayd al-Thaqafi introduced two key
notions of Shi‘i messianism: the occultation (ghayba)
and return (raj ‘a) of the Imam. Ibn al-Hanafiyya was
believed to have disappeared into the mountains
north of Mecca, where he was divinely protected,
and it was thought that he would return at the end
of time to reclaim his right and establish justice. Vari-
ous ‘Alids and even ‘Abbasids adopted the title mahdi
to draw the loyalty and aspirations of the disaffected,
but the revolts against caliphal authority failed. Con-
flicts and splits among the nascent Imami Shi‘is were
often directly related to the expectation that a partic-
ular claimant was the mahdi. Eventually, from among
the radical Shi‘is who insisted on the infallible author-
ity and charisma of the family of the Prophet, two
groups emerged: the Isma‘ilis, whose Imams went into
hiding in the face of persecution only to emerge as
victorious caliphs in North Africa from 909, and the
Imamiyya, who were later known as the Ithna‘ashar-
iyya (Twelvers) who settled on a divinely established
line of twelve imams, the last of whom was Abu’l-
Qasim Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, who was born in
secrecy in 868 and, after the death of his father, went
into occultation. The divine promise of deliverance
was postponed both because of the lack of faith of
the believers and the paucity of their strength in the
face of secular authority. Islamic messianism hence-
forth was associated with the Twelver Shi‘is (although
one branch of the Isma‘ilis, the Tayyibis, still believed
in a line of protected, occulted imams who went into
concealment [satr] during the twelfth century).

The Twelver Shi‘is divided the period of occulta-
tion into a lesser one, during which the imam
remained in contact with the community through his
agents and that ended in 941, and a greater one, which

500

METALWORK

covers the expanse of time until his appearance
(zuhur) at the end of time. Later traditional authori-
ties such as al-Tusi developed a theory of hierarchical
access to the imam in the lesser occultation, placing at
its head a gate (bab) to the Imam in the form of four
individuals, one after the other: (1) ‘Uthman al-‘Amri;
(2) his son Muhammad; (3) al-Husayn ibn Rawh
(a member of the powerful Nawbakhti family); and
(4) ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarra’i. It was at the
death of the latter that the period of the greater occul-
tation began with a letter of the Imam preserved in
Shi‘i collections announcing that, from that time on,
contact with the Imam was severed until his advent.

In this state, the Twelvers dealt with the loss of
contact in a series of ways: jurists began to articulate
notions of their authority as the true representatives
of the Imam, mystics insisted on the spiritual experi-
ence of the Imam and established their leaders as the
true gate to the Imam, and popular legends accrued
about the location of the Imam. The hope and need to
keep the link with the Imam, who in Shi‘i theology
became known as a rational necessity for the knowl-
edge of God, could lead to chiliastic outbreaks. A
number of millennarian revolts occurred during the
medieval period in the name of a mahdi, often in
association with the Twelfth Imam in the face of social
oppression and as an expression of dissent. Particular
times were seen as ripe for the advent: one thousand
years from the advent of Islam expectation accounts
partly for the Nuqtavi and Mahdavi uprisings in
Safavid Iran and Mughal India, and one thousand
years from the occultation of the Imam may explain
the heightened expectation of the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury that led to the Shaykhi, Babi, and Bahai move-
ments in Iran. However, there is one example of a
successful messianic, millenarian movement that
established a viable and lasting state: the Safavids.
However, the shift there from the divine Isma‘il who
established dynastic power in Iran in 1501 (venerated
by his followers as the mahdi and as ‘Ali incarnate) to
Shah Sultan Husayn at the end of the seventeenth
century (a routinized king surrounded by jurists and
theologians of the Twelver tradition) is striking.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Afterlife; ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib; Apocalypticism;
Imam; Shi‘ism; ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab

Primary Sources

Amir-Moezzi, Mohammed Ali. The Divine Guide in Early
Shi'ism. Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press, 1994.

Arjomand, Said Amir. “The Crisis of the Imamate and the
Institution of the Occultation in Twelver Shi’ism.”
IJMES 28 ( 1996): 491-515.

. “The Consolation of Theology: Absence of the

Imam and the Transition from Chiliasm to Law.” Jour-
nal of Religions 76 (1996): 548-71.

Bashear, Suliman. “The Title al-Faruq and Its association
with ‘Umar I’” Studia Islamica 92 (1990): 47-70.

Blichfeldt, Jan-Olaf. Early Mahdism: Politics and Religion
in the Formative Period of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1985.

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians. London: Routledge, Kegan &
Paul, 1979.

Cohn, Norman. Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come.
New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2001.

Cook, Michael, and Patricia Crone. Hagarism: The Making
of the Islamic World. London: Oxford University Press,
1977.

Daftary, Farhad. The Ismailis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.

Hussain, Jassim. The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam.
London: The Muhammadi Trust, 1982.

Madelung, Wilferd. “Abdullah b. al-Zubayr and the
Mahdi.” JNES 40 (1981): 291-306.

. “The Sufyani Between History and Legend.” Stu-
dia Islamica 63 (1986): 5M8.

al-Murtada, Sayyid. Risalat al-Ghavba , transl. A. A. Sache-
dina in “A Treatise on the Occultation of the Twelfth
Imam.” Studia Islamica 68 (1978): 109-24.

Sachedina, Abdulaziz. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the
Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press, 1981.

Scholem, Gershom. The Messianic Idea in Judaism and
Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. New York:
Schocken Books, 1995.

al-Shaykh al-Mufid. Kitah al-Irshad: The Book of Guidance,
transl. l.K.A. Howard, 524-55. London: The Muham-
madi Trust, 1981.

METALWORK

Metalworkers across the Islamic world produced a
wide range of vessels and objects: from base metal
pans to be used in a kitchen to gem-encrusted gold
bottles destined for a palace, from precision-forged
steel swords to delicate filigree gold earrings. Howev-
er, statuary — the category of metalwork that was
most esteemed in other cultures — is missing, because
figural sculpture is prohibited by Islam.

The recyclability of metalwork makes it more sus-
ceptible to total destruction than almost any other
category of art, and, without a tradition of burying
precious or household items with the dead, the sur-
vival rate of Islamic metalwork has suffered.
Throughout the Islamic period, gold and silver
wares were the most expensive and highly esteemed
of all metalwork, but most of these have been melted
down for their monetary value or to be remade in a
more contemporary style. A rare glimpse of the ex-
travagance and technical skill of the finest court gold-
smith’s work is conveyed by objects displayed in the
treasury of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, many
of them decorated in repousse and encrusted with
emeralds, rubies, jade, or rock crystal plaques.

501

METALWORK

Most surviving metalwork of the Islamic period
consists of brass vessels. The earliest examples were
produced by casting, which enabled them to be man-
ufactured in batches. The majority of them are plain
and functional, although some are engraved with sim-
ple geometric, floral, or animal ornament or Arabic
inscriptions with good wishes for the owner.

The most important contribution of the Islamic
metalworker was the inlay technique. Between the
twelfth and sixteenth centuries, base metal vessels
were often transformed into luxury objects by inlay-
ing the engraved brass surface with gold, silver, and
copper. The inlay technique was not invented by the
Islamic metalworkers, but its decorative potential
had never been exploited as fully before. The result
was that inlaid brass vessels became immensely pres-
tigious and fashionable, and more time, skill, and
money were expended for their manufacture and
decoration.

The inlay technique was developed in the work-
shops of Afghanistan and eastern Iran during the
twelfth century. Ewers, buckets, pen boxes, inkwells,
and other vessels were made, often in sheet brass in
imitation of the shapes of precious metal, and they
were finely inlaid with silver and copper sheet and
wire. They were decorated with a combination of
benedictory inscriptions, arabesque scrolls, and figur-
al scenes; personifications of the zodiac and the pla-
nets were especially popular. Historians claim that
these wares were highly valued locally and abroad
and were even given as diplomatic gifts to foreign
rulers. The technique soon spread westward, and a
series of inlay centers sprang up in western Iran,
Anatolia, and northern Iraq, boosted by the Mongol
invasion in the 1220s, which encouraged more metal-
workers to travel west in search of patrons.

The most important of these new inlaid brass cen-
ters was Mosul in Northern Iraq, where inlays were
used to decorate traditionally shaped vessels with
scenes of court life such as enthronements, hunting
scenes, and musicians, which appealed to the wealthy
inhabitants of Mosul. The destruction of Mosul by
the Mongols in 1259 forced the metalworkers to move
to neighboring countries, most notably Syria, which
was already producing fine vessels in a similar style
for the courts of the Ayyubid sultans.

After the establishment of the Mamluk regime in
Egypt and Syria, these metalworkers and their succes-
sors were encouraged to produce vessels inlaid with
bold inscription friezes containing the names, titles,
and blazons of the elite. However, the increasingly
active trade with Europe gave the metalworkers an
alternative market that appreciated figural and ani-
mal designs and exotic “Saracenic” ornament such as
pseudo-Arabic inscriptions and complex arabesques.

Meanwhile, the Mongols injected a range of chi-
noiserie ornament into the decorative repertoire of the
metalwork produced for their courts in Iran as well as
an appreciation of poetic inscriptions. A series of
inlaid brass wine jugs produced at the court of
Timur (Tamerlane) and his successors in Herat,
Afghanistan, during the fifteenth century feature
verses from contemporary poets such as Hafez,
often in praise of the wine that they would have
contained.

By the end of the fifteenth century, the fashion for
these highly decorated vessels was waning and was
replaced by a passion for Chinese porcelain. Brass or
copper vessels continued to be produced, sometimes
engraved and tinned to resemble silver or gilded
to look like gold; however, these base metal wares
never regained the kudos of the inlaid brasses of the
medieval period.

Rachel Ward

Further Reading

Daiber, H. “The Meteorology of Theophrastus in Syriac
and Arabic Translation.’’ In Theophrastus ; His Psycho-
logical, Doxographical and Scienitfic Writings, eds. W.W.
Fortenbaugh and D. Gutas, 166-293. New Brunswick
and London, Transaction Publishers, 1992.

Lettinck, P. Aristotle’s Meteorology and its Reception in the
Arab World; With an Edition and Translation of Ibn
Suwar ’s Treatise on Meteorological Phenomena and
Ibn Bajja’ s Commentary on the Meteorology. Leiden:
Brill, 1999.

MINERALS

Taking his cue from the Quranic verse “God sent
iron down to earth, wherein is mighty power and
many uses for mankind” (LVII, “Iron,” 25), the
great scientist al-Biruni (973-1048 CE) in his Miner-
alogy praises divine providence for humankind, for
gold and silver, and for raw materials to serve as
currency and thus to facilitate trade and commerce.
Sura 9:34, “Repentance,” speaks about “those who
treasure up gold and silver and do not expend them in
the way of God” and threatens them with severe
punishment. According to tradition, Muhammad
condemned the use of gold and silver for drinking
vessels or similar purposes. Therefore, the manufac-
ture of luxury articles was largely confined to sump-
tuous pottery (e.g., with luster or other polychrome
overglaze decoration) and to copper, bronze, and
brass objects with inlays of gold and silver only. Al-
though silver was found in many regions of the Mus-
lim world, gold came mainly from sub-Saharan
Africa. As a result of the Italian export of luxury
goods, some African gold was diverted to Europe, as
the historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) testifies. Pre-
cious stones (e.g., rubies, emeralds) and pearls were
highly valued; pieces of fantastic size were reported to
have been in possession of the ruling families. Rock
crystal was worked in specialized shops in Basra and
Cairo; of about 165 preserved objects, most were
found in European ecclesiastical treasuries. Sura
15:19, “The Rock,” speaks of “things that are
weighed” and that God makes grow in the interior

503

MINERALS

of mountains. Commentators who would not attri-
bute to the Qur’an the popular idea of metals growing
like plants interpreted this as referring to fruits to be
found on the surface of the mountains. From the
fourth book of Aristotle’s Meteorology, which was
translated during the ninth century into Arabic, intel-
lectuals derived the notion that metals were generated
out of exhalations from the depths of the earth; later
all metals were taken to be compounds of sulfur and
mercury. The pseudo-Aristotelian Book of Stones
explores the occult properties of various substances,
among which it includes the — actually observed —
magnetic stone. The author also reports how Alexan-
der the Great (introduced as his disciple) succeeded in
extracting diamonds from the lair of poisonous
snakes. In Arabic literature, there are many such
stories about stones with miraculous properties. Al-
Biruni, who viewed them as nonsense, approached the
matter in a different way. Fie constructed a device by
which he measured the specific gravity of metals and
stones with remarkably good results. In alchemical
and magical literature, much of which was translated
into Latin, the seven Ptolemaic planets are assigned
corresponding metals: Saturn, lead; Jupiter, tin;
Mars, iron; the Sun, gold; Venus, copper; Mercury,
mercury (i.e., “quicksilver,” the only such name still
in use); and the Moon, silver.

Gotthard Strohmaier

See also Alchemy; Aristotle and Aristotelianism; As-
trology; al-Biruni; Jewelry; Magic; Metalwork;
Mining; Precious Metals; Weights and Measurements

Further Reading

Ashtor, Eliyahu, et al. “ Ma'din .” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 5, 963-93. Leiden: Brill, 1984.
Ruska, Julius, ed. and transl. Das Steinhuch des Aristoteles.

Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1912.

Ullmann, Manfred. Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften
im Islam. Leiden and Cologne: Brill, 1972.

Wulff, Hans E. The Traditional Crafts of Persia: Their
Development, Technology, and Influence on Eastern and
Western Civilizations. Cambridge, Mass, and London:
MIT Press, 1966.

MINING

The Late Antique and early Islamic mining boom,
which followed an earlier decrease in mining activity,
began during the sixth century CE, continued during
the seventh century, peaked by the ninth century, and
tailed off during the late ninth and tenth centuries.
Thus, a marked increase in the exploitation of Central
Asian silver mines occurred at the end of the sixth
and during the seventh centuries and peaked during

the ninth and tenth centuries. During the sixth and
early seventh centuries, the mining of gold and copper
was revived in central and western Arabia, of silver in
Yemen, and of copper in Oman; this lasted until the
ninth and tenth centuries. Silver mining was revived in
North Africa during the late eighth century; there was
a dramatic expansion of iron mining in North Africa
during the eighth and ninth centuries; and gold
mining had been revived in Upper Egypt by the
ninth century. Mining and metallurgical activity in
gold, silver, copper, and iron resumed at centralized
sites in Visigothic Iberia from the fifth or sixth centu-
ry onward. Iron mining peaked in the Guadix region
during the ninth century and then retracted during the
tenth and eleventh centuries.

Mining during the Islamic period included gold,
silver, copper, iron, lead, mercury, arsenic, sulfur,
zinc, tin, precious and semi-precious gemstones
(emeralds, topaz, lapis lazuli), ochres, natron, naptha,
asbestos, sal ammoniac, alum, borax, and salt. Stea-
tite, marble, basalt, and granite were quarried. Miner-
als continued to be mined in the Islamic world after
the eleventh century but with reduced output.

Important changes in technology are associated
with the new mining. Except for iron, oxidized ores
near the surface had been exhausted by ancient
miners. Older sites continued to be worked during
the Islamic period, but it was now necessary to dig
deeper for sulfide ores and quartz veins. Although
mining technology varied according to mineral and
region, could range from primitive to highly devel-
oped in any particular region, and different forms of
organization coexisted, early Islamic mining is distin-
guished by a more extensive use of sloping and
horizontal adits, shafts with galleries, mercury amal-
gamation to extract gold from crushed quartz, cupel-
lation to extract silver from lead ores (galena) and to
separate gold from copper and lead ores, cementation
to separate gold from silver, and the use of bellows
inserted into ceramic tubes built into the furnace wall
to maximize the heat. Except for the use of nitric acid
to separate gold from silver (parting), none of these
methods were new.

The centers of mining activity were in the Caucasus,
Armenia, northern Iran, Fars, central Asia, central
and western Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the Sofala region
in East Africa, the upper Nile region, the oases in
Egypt’s western desert, central North Africa, Ghana
in West Africa, and Iberia. In some places, multiple
mineral resources were mined. Gold, silver, copper,
iron, and steatite were mined in western Arabia.
Armenia was a source of silver, iron, copper, lead,
borax, arsenic, mercury, and salt. Tenth-century Fars
was self-sufficient in minerals and did not need to
import them, although there was little silver. The

504

MIR DAMAD (d. 1631)

gold, silver, and mercury mines of Central Asia were
among the richest in the Islamic world, whereas miner-
al-rich Iberia probably had the most diverse resources.

As compared with Late Antiquity, there was more
involvement by independent prospectors and by mer-
chants in mining during the Islamic period. Invest-
ment and exploitation by private miners, merchants,
and government agents were usually mixed at partic-
ular mines, and the government normally took a
share of the production. Both individual local miners
and merchants were active in the silver mines at
Panjhir in Central Asia and at the gold mines of
Wadi al-‘Allaqi in Upper Egypt. There was private
ownership of mines at Panjhir, where a new vein of
silver belonged to whomever found it, and in Oman,
where the owners of copper mines leased them to
tenants for 10% of the profit. There were also mining
partnerships in Oman, and the risks and profits were
shared. In Yemen, the agents of the ruler and private
miners jointly exploited the silver mines at Radrad.
By the ninth century, an iron mine in Sicily was
owned by the Muslim ruler, and the gold mines at
Wadi al-‘Allaqi in Upper Egypt were run by Fatimid
government agents from the tenth century onward.
The labor force in early Islamic mining was relatively
free and mobile. There are no references to slave labor
until the ninth century at Wadi al-‘Allaqi and in
central Arabia.

Michael G. Morony

Further Reading

Dunlop, D.M. “Sources of Gold and Silver in Islam
According to al-Hamdani.” Studia Islamica 8 (1957):
29-49.

Al-Hasan, Ahmad, and Donald Hill. “Ma‘din.” In Ency-
clopaedia Islamica, 2nd ed., vol. V, 963-73.

Heck, Gene W. “Gold Mining in Arabia and the Rise of the
Islamic State.” Journal of the Economic and Social His-
tory of the Orient 42 (1999): 364-95.

Lombard, Maurice. Les Metaux dans I’Ancien Mond du Ve
an Xie Siecle. Paris: Mouton, 1974.

Lowick, N. “Silver from the Panjhir Mines.” Metallurgy in
Numismatics 2 (1988): 65-74.

Toll, Christopher. Die Beiden Edelmetalle Gold und Silber.
Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells, 1968.

Weisgerber, G. “Patterns of Early Islamic Mining.” Semi-
nar for Arabian Studies 10 (1980): 115-26.

MIR DAMAD (d. 1631)

Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Ibn Shams al-Din
Muhammad al-Husayni al-Astarabadi, known as
Mir Damad, was one of the most subtle Slii'i thinkers
of the Safavid period. An illuminationist philosopher

known for his novel solution to the problem of time
and creation, he also contributed to the study of Shi‘i
tradition and had an important role in popularizing
the collection of supplications known as al-Sahifa al-
Sajjadiyya, which was attributed to the fourth Shi‘i
Imam ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin (d. 714).
Born in Astarabad in 1 562 but raised in the holy city
of Mashhad, little is known about Mir Damad’s early
life except that he studied philosophy with Fakhr
al-Din Sammaki, an illuminationist philosopher of
Shiraz, and jurisprudence and the science of tradition
with Shaykh al-Husayn ibn 'Abd al-Samad (d. 1576),
Sayyid al-Husayn al-Karaki (d. 1593), and his own
uncle ‘Abd al-‘Ali al-Karaki (d. 1585). Popularly
known as Mu‘allim-i Thalith (Third Teacher) after
Aristotle and al-Farabi, Mir Damad was a close con-
fidant of Shah ‘Abbas I. He progressed to Qazvin, the
Safavid capital under Shah Tahmasp (d. 1576), where
he met Shaykh Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili (d. 1621), the
jurist and architect who became a great friend, and
Mulla Sadra (d. 1641), perhaps his most famous stu-
dent. He moved with the court to Isfahan and was a
renowned figure among the intellectuals of his time.
He became Shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan, conducting
the coronation of Shah Safi in 1629. He died in Najaf
in 1 63 1 while accompanying the Shah on a pilgrimage
to the Shi‘i holy sites in Iraq.

Mir Damad wrote more than sixty works in noto-
riously cryptic Arabic about the scriptural and intel-
lectual sciences, and he also wrote commentaries
about the works of Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi. Popular
anecdotes in the biographical literature contain jokes
suggesting that even God has difficulty understanding
him. He authored al-Rawashih al-Samawiyya (Heav-
enly Percolations) about the main Twelver Shi‘i
collection of tradition, al-Kafi, laying out his herme-
neutics, juristic method, and commentary on the text.
Nihras al-Diya ’ ( Lamp of Illumination ) , about the
Shi‘i doctrine of bada’ (the notion that God seems
to change His mind to accommodate historical con-
tingency), was an attempt at defending the doctrine
against Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s rejection. He argued
that bada’ lexically meant the appearance of a view
that did not exist previously and that such a notion
cannot arise with respect to divine knowledge, voli-
tion, or determination. However, it may come about
in the current perception of the divine will. He
explained the notion by drawing the analogy with
the divine law, which changes and is abrogated during
each successive dispensation. Similarly, there is an
ontological dispensation that changes but that
makes it appear as if God has changed his mind.

Mir Damad’s major philosophical treatise was al-
Qabasat (Burning Embers). In his introduction, he
stated that he was asked by one of his students to

505

MIR DAMAD (d. 1631)

pen a treatise establishing a philosophical proof for
God's singularity as an eternal being and the process
by which he brings the cosmos into being through
ibda’ (creating something from nothing) and takwin
(engendering in the world of generation and corrup-
tion). The purpose of the text was to explain the
nature of the incipience of the cosmos (huduth al-
‘alam). The work was divided into ten embers or
chapters. The first set the “Avicennan scene” by de-
scribing the nature of the cosmos’ logical posteriority
to God (huduth dhati) and Avicenna’s three modal-
ities of time: (1) zaman (time), which describes the
relationship between mutable entities; (2) dahr (per-
petuity), which locates the relationship between mu-
table and immutable entities; and (3) sarmad
(eternity), the sole ontological plane of the divine
and the relationship of immutability. The remaining
chapters demonstrated that all relationships of prior
and posterior, between existents and essences, entail
the priority of the divine. The central doctrine of the
work was perpetual incipience (huduth dahri). The
traditional debate between theologians and philoso-
phers had pitted temporal incipience (huduth zamani;
the idea that God had created the world in time)
against the notion of essential incipience (huduth
dhati; the idea that reduced the world’s posteriority
of God to a logical consequence of contingency fol-
lowing necessity). Mir Damad argued that both posi-
tions are inadequate. Temporal incipience begs the
question of the world being created in a time after a
time (the lapse between God’s time and the world’s
time). Essential incipience is reductionist and seems to
rob God of the agency to create volitionally. He felt
that the best solution was to locate creation outside of
both time and eternity in the intermediate ontological
plane of perpetuity (dahr) that described the relation-
ship between an immutable and timeless God and a
mutable and timed world.

Because of the difficulty of his thought and the
popularity of Mulla Sadra, Mir Damad’s contributions
were soon forgotten.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Ibn Sina or Avicenna; Isfahan; Mulla Sadra;
Safavids; Shah ‘Abbas; Suhrawardi

Further Reading

Corbin, Henry. En Islam Iranien, vol. IV, 9-53. Paris: Gal-
limard, 1972.

Dabashi, Hamid. “Mir Damad.” In History of Islamic Phi-
losophy, eds. Nasr and Leaman, vol. I, 597-634. London:
Routledge, 1996.

Rahman, F. "Mir Damad’s Concept of Huduth Dahri : A
Contribution to the Study of God-World Relationship
in Safavid Iran.” JNES 39 (1980): 139-51.

MIRRORS FOR PRINCES

An English translation of the German term fursten-
spiegel, Mirrors for Princes refers to a particular genre
of prose composition in which those in authority are
invited to reflect on the nature of efficient and ethical
rule, most especially in the light of their own behav-
ior. As such, it belongs to a substantial corpus of
homiletic and aphoristic literature that is found in
many world cultures and that incorporates, among
other categories of composition, tales of prophets
and religious teachers, collections of proverbs, animal
fables, and more practical manuals of advice about
conduct and policy.

Within the Arab/Islamic context, one of the earliest
examples of the genre takes the form of an epistle
written by a pioneer in the development of an Arabic
prose style, ’Abd al-Hamid, known as al-Katib (“The
Secretary”; d. 750). His risalah to ’Abdallah, son of
the Umayyad Caliph Marwan (d. 750), begins by
reminding the young prince of his dependence on
God before directing his attention toward more prac-
tical matters of behavior, protocol, administrative
and military organization, and so on.

This particular period (the first half of the eighth
century CE) was one during which the interests of
secretarial staff in the increasingly elaborate caliphal
chancellery were focused on the translation of works
from other contiguous cultures as a means of devel-
oping and refining new modes of writing. ’Abd al-
Hamid’s epistles have often been seen as reflections
of an interest in the works from the Hellenistic tradi-
tion, and the Epistle to the Prince in particular is
regarded as a natural successor to a translation that
may have been undertaken earlier by one of ’Abd al-
Hamid’s own teachers, Abu al-’Ala’ Salim, rendering
into Arabic the famous exchange of correspondence
on the topic of wise rulership between Aristotle and
Alexander. The literary tradition of India and Persia
was the source of another translated work of this
type, in this case in the form of a collection of animal
tales. The Persian scholar Ruzbih, one of the more
renowned translators of the time who adopted the
Arabic name Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (d. 757), translated the
Panjatantra into Arabic; he also translated Kalilah
wa-Dimnah, a group of fables in which two jackals
provide a series of exemplary stories to illustrate
to the king the consequences of wise and foolish
decisions.

From an initial phase in the relatively short epistle
form (including other works by Ibn al-Muqaffa’, such
as Risalah fi al-Sahabah [Epistle on Companions]), the
Mirrors for Princes genre developed at the hands of
later writers into a series of much larger and more
detailed works. Many of the most illustrious names in

506

MONASTICISM, ARAB

Islamic intellectual history wrote examples and in a
variety of languages: the Kitab al-Taj (Book of the
Crown), a discussion of Persian court procedures,
may have been falsely attributed to the great poly-
math of Arabic writing, al-Jahiz (d. 868), but the
renowned Shafl’i jurist al-Mawardi (d. 1058) wrote
both a study of the principles of Islamic rulership
under the title Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah ( Rules for
Authority) and an advice manual entitled Nasihat al-
Muluk (Advice for Kings). Islam’s most renowned
theologian, al-Ghazzali (d. 1 1 1 1), also wrote a Mirrors
for Princes work under the latter title.

Within an entirely different frame of reference —
that of popular forms of expression — it can be ob-
served that the original Asian version of A Thousand
and One Nights, a collection of some 258 tales of
Indo-Persian provenance that reached Baghdad at
some point during the ninth and tenth centuries and
that was later translated into French by Antoine
Galland beginning in 1704 (as opposed to the “Euro-
pean” “complete” version compiled thereafter), can
be regarded as a further contribution to the Mirrors
for Princes genre. Although the tales included in this
world-famous collection can be (and have been) ana-
lyzed from numerous points of view, it remains the
case that the framing story of the two kings,
Shah-Zaman and Shahrayar, and the situation of
Shahrazad, the collection’s narrator, are centrally
concerned with the behavior of kings and the process
of making decisions. Indeed, the framing story itself
and the tales whereby Shahrazad manages to post-
pone her imminent death not only reflect on the ethics
of violence — particularly that directed at women —
but also contain within them exemplary tales of
considerable variety.

Roger Allen

Further Reading

Bosworth, C. Edmund. “Administrative Literature.” In Re-
ligion, Learning and Science in the Abbasid Period. Cam-
bridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1990.

. “Mirrors for Princes.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic

Literature. London: Routledge, 1998.

Latham, Derek, "The Beginnings of Arabic Prose: The
Epistolary Genre.” In Arabic Literature to the End of
the Umayyad Period. Cambridge History of Arabic Liter-
ature, 154-79. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.

MONASTICISM, ARAB

Monasticism is the Christian institution of a “soli-
tary” life in the service of God, practiced either in
community or alone. By the sixth century, male and

female monastic communities, both within and out-
side of cities, existed in Abyssinia, Egypt, greater
Syria, and Mesopotamia and had penetrated the Ara-
bian peninsula (Shahid; Byzantium). It is likely this
eastern Christian monasticism that, according to the
majority reading, the Qur’an considers an innovation
(57:27), although it praises monks (5:82; but 9:31, 34)
and in numerous passages commends practices
that are common to monastic communities (night
vigils, fasting; see 3:1 13f.; 32:16; 33:35; 51:1 5f.). This
Qur’anic ambivalence toward monasticism mirrors
Late Antiquity Christian episcopal reservations about
the institution (see, for example, Rabbula [“Rules”]).

Although sometimes parodied as places of drunken
revelry, monasteries were considered to be safe, sa-
cred, and protected places by both Christians and
Muslims (see Ibn Taymiyya’s reference to Muslims
who sought blessings from Christian priests and
monks [Meri, 132]). Although the monasteries along
the Persian Gulf and in South Arabia did not survive,
those in Egypt, Palestine, the Levant, and Mesopota-
mia persisted, eventually adopting the language of
their new overlords. It was in the monasteries of
Palestine that Christians first adopted Arabic as
their ecclesiastical, theological, and vernacular lan-
guage (Griffith). Many apocalyptic accounts of Islam-
ic rule originated in monasteries that came to be
Arabic speaking, and, although they lament the prev-
alence of Arabic (particularly in the liturgies), many
are themselves written in Arabic (Suermann).

Like the Qur’an, Islamic tradition praises indi-
vidual monks but questions the monastic institution:
a Christian monk is said to have recognized
Muhammad as a prophet (Ibn Ishaq, 79-81), but the
proclamation of the absence of monasticism in Islam
is attributed to Muhammad (as is the saying that
jihad is the monasticism of Islam; for the locations
of these traditions, see Wensinck, 312; the monastic
struggle with personal demons has similarities with
greater jihad, see Aphrahat and Landau-Tasseron).
Critiques of monastic practices (e.g., lifelong celibacy)
appear in anti-Christian polemics and in debates
about aspects of Sufism (Islamic mysticism).

Clare E. Wilde

See also Ascetics and Asceticism; Christians and Chris-
tianity; Churches; Education, Christian; Sufism and
Sufis; Women: Ascetics and Mystics

Primary Sources

Aphrahat. "Demonstratio VI. Tahwitha d-Bnai Qyama.”
In A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of
the Christian Church. Second Series, eds. Ph. Schaff and
H. Wace, 14 vols., vol. XIII, part 2, 362-75. Grand
Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans, 1952-1957.

507

MONASTICISM, ARAB

Ibn Ishaq. "Sirat Rasul Allah.” In The Life of the Muham-
mad ', transl. A. Guillaume. London: Oxford University
Press, 1955.

Rabbula. “Rules and Zohre for the Priests and the Bnai
Qyama.” In Syriac and Arabic Documents Regarding
Legislation Relative to Syrian Asceticism , ed. and transl.
A. Voobus, 36-50. Stockholm: Etse, 1960.
al-Tabari, Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir. Tafsir [=Jami’
al-Bayan 'an Ta’wil al-Qur’an] , 2nd ed., eds. M. and A.
Shakir, 24 vols. Cairo, Dar al-Ma’arif.

Further Reading

Calvet, Y. “Monuments Paleo-Chretiens a Koweit et dans
la Region du Golfe.” In Symposium Syriacum VII
[Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 256], ed. R. Lavenant,
671-85. Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1998.

Griffith, S.H. "Monasticism and Monks.” In Encyclopaedia
of the Qur'an , 5 vols., ed. J.D. McAuliffe, vol. Ill, 405-8.
Leiden: Brill, 2001-2005.

Landau-Tasseron, Ella. “Jihad.” In Encyclopaedia of the
Qur’an, 5 vols., ed. J.D. McAuliffe., vol. Ill, 35 — 43.
Leiden: Brill, 2001-2005.

Meri, J.W. The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in
Medieval Syria. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,
2002 .

Shahid, I. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century,
vol. 2, part 1. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2002.

Suermann, H. “Koptische Arabische Apokalypsen.” In
Studies on the Christian Arabic Heritage in Honour of
Fr. Prof. Dr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.I., eds. R. Ebied and
H. Teule, 25-44. Leuven: Peeters, 2004.

Troupeau, G. “Les Couvents Chretiens dans la Litterature
Arabe Musulmane.” La Nouvelle Revue de Caire 1
(1975): 265-79.

Wensinck, A.J. Concordance et Indices de la Tradition
Musulmane, 8 vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992.

MONEY CHANGERS

The money changer ( savrafi ) played a crucial role in
medieval Islamic marketplaces. One of his primary
duties was the determination of value of the many
different coins used in economic transactions. Al-
though coins of local origin and relatively recent age
undoubtedly dominated marketplaces, there can be
little doubt that coins of older ages and foreign ori-
gins were also in circulation, because the intrinsic
value of their gold and silver content would never
disappear. Thus, it would seem probable that a sayrafi
would have an extensive knowledge of the many
coinages in circulation as well as the means of weigh-
ing and testing hitherto unfamiliar coins. Such a con-
clusion, although of deductive sense, must remain
probable, because there is no known moneychanger’s
handbook, if such a genre ever existed; nor is it known
exactly the mechanisms by which sayrafis profited
from their knowledge. Anecdotal evidence of the
actions of sayrafis is to be found in contemporary

chronicles, and there is extensive mention in the Gen-
iza materials. This material also states that sayrafis
played a role in the creation of sealed bags (or purses)
containing a certified and known value of coinage.
With this, sayrafis were also assisting economic trans-
actions, because the weighing and testing of large
numbers of individual coins were undoubtedly time-
consuming activities. Warnings about the possible un-
Islamic nature of sayrafi practices are common in the
normative Hisba manuals of the age; thus the central
irony exists that these moneychangers — ubiquitous as
they were and whom Goitein labeled the bankers of
their time — are known only through the records of
those who used their services or suspected them.

Warren C. Schultz

Primary Sources

Buckley, R.P., transl. “The Book of the Islamic Market
Inspector. Nihayat al-Rutba fi Talab al-Hisba (The Ut-
most Authority in the Pursuit of Hisba).” Journal of
Semitic Studies, Supplement 9. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1999.

Further Reading

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society. Vol. 1, Economic
Foundations. Berkeley, Calif: University of California
Press, 1967.

MONGOL WARFARE

One of the main reasons behind the phenomenal suc-
cess of the expansion of the Mongols in the thirteenth
century was the large, well-organized, and effective
war machine erected by Genghis (Chinggis) Khan.
This army, drawing on earlier Inner Asian Steppe
models, combined large numbers, mobility, firepower
(i.e., archery), loyalty, endurance, and excellent com-
mand to achieve these results. For more than two
generations, it was virtually unstoppable. Even after
the breakdown of the united Mongol Empire in ap-
proximately 1260, the Mongols continued to expand
into southern China. In other areas in which the
frontier of Mongol control more or less stabilized,
the Mongol armies were still a source of fear to their
subjects and neighbors for generations to come. In the
Islamic world, no ruler was capable of seriously chal-
lenging Mongol forces (despite some local successes
of the Khwarazm-shah Jalal al-Din) after the first
incursion of the Mongols under Genghis Khan in
1219 until the Mongol defeat at the hands of the
Mamluks at ‘Ayn Jalut in 1260. Even after this victo-
ry, the Mamluks took the threat of another invasion
by the Ilkhanid Mongols very seriously, leading to a

508

MONGOL WARFARE

sixty-year war in Syria and along the Euphrates
border.

Like their Steppe predecessors, the Mongol army
was based on disciplined masses of light-mounted
archers. This type of soldier was a direct result of
the lifestyle of the majority of inhabitants on the
Steppe: pastorial nomadism, which necessitated mo-
bility based on horsemanship. First, the harsh condi-
tions of the Steppe made for physical robustness and
inured its inhabitants to hardships of various kinds.
(The fourteenth-century historian and philosopher
Ibn Khaldun noted that inhabitants of steppes,
deserts, and mountain regions enjoyed these advan-
tages because of the climate and geography of their
homelands.) Second, all pastoralists were hence po-
tential cavalry fighters. To this was added the long-
standing use of the composite bow, built from wood,
horn, sinews, and other materials. This relatively
small bow could be wielded effectively from the
back of the horse, even allowing the user to shoot
backward while the horse galloped ahead (the famous
“Parthian shot,” which the Romans and others en-
countered). The development and spread of the stir-
rup around 500 CE gave the nomads even more
control over their horses and shooting. However, suc-
cess of the Eurasian nomads was not just a matter of

the individual soldier. For centuries before the
Mongols, the Eurasian Steppe was home to a military
tradition of masses of disciplined mounted archers
who attacked in wave after wave, each withdrawing
to permit the next to advance while shooting. Only
when the other side was weakened or fleeing would
the nomads engage them in hand-to-hand combat.
Another tactic of choice among the nomads was the
feigned retreat, either to draw the enemy into an
ambush or to disrupt their formation, thereby making
them more susceptible to a sudden attack. The armies
of the Eurasian nomads were often organized using
a decimal system, with units of as large as one thou-
sand members and, on occasion, even ten thousand.

Genghis Khan’s genius was to take this superb raw
material and already famous (or infamous, depending
on one’s perspective) military tradition and to turn it
into an efficient and virtually unbeatable military ma-
chine. This was first achieved by inculcating loyalty
with both commanders and common soldiers. Loyal-
ty was awarded, whereas treachery was severely pun-
ished. Genghis Khan cultivated a group of fiercely
loyal and capable commanders, perhaps the most
famous being Jebe and Subetei. Gradually an imperial
(or perhaps imperialist) ideology was developed,
claiming that the sky-god (Tengri) had given a

509

MONGOL WARFARE

mandate to Genghis Khan and his family (and, by
extension, the Mongols in general), thereby welding
the Mongol nobles and commoners to the royal fami-
ly. The training of large-scale formations was encour-
aged by the use of a hunting circle (jerge). A personal
guard for the Khan was established, which soon
turned into a royal guard corp (keshig) whose soldiers
were known as ba ’atud (heroes; sing, ba ’ atur ; rendered
bahadur in Muslim languages). Regiments of one
thousand and divisions of ten thousand (sing, tiimen)
were established, although it is probably justified to
doubt how often these were up to full strength given
the wear and tear of campaigning. Of great impor-
tance was the sheer number of troops. As the Mongol
state expanded, so did its manpower base. Theoreti-
cally, all adult males (i.e., between the ages of fifteen to
sixty years) were eligible for service and could disap-
pear for years on campaign, leaving the women, the
elderly, and the children to manage the pastoral home-
stead. Eventually the Mongol armies were compri-
sed of almost all of the nomadic manpower of the
Eurasian Steppe. The figures of hundreds of thousands
for the size of Mongol armies do not necessarily have
to be rejected out of hand. In addition to mobility,
firepower, tactics, discipline, and leadership, the size of
Mongol armies also played an important role in the
series of Mongol victories and the resulting expansion.

The most important weapon of the individual
Mongol (as well as of the Turkish) trooper was the
composite bow, with a bundle of several types of
arrows. Additional weapons would have included a
knife, a sword, an axe, a club, perhaps a lance, and
also a lasso. Personal armor was probably a haphaz-
ard affair, particularly during the early stages of the
Mongol empire, and was probably mostly composed
of leather and cloth, although nobles, commanders,
and guardsmen may have been better equipped. As
conquest progressed into the sedentary countries (first
China, then the Islamic world, and also Rus'), equip-
ment — both weapons and armor — surely improved.
This would have been a result of booty and tribute
as well as harnessing the manufacturing capabilities
of these countries for equipping the army. How far
this percolated down the ranks is hard to ascertain.
One gets the impression that the portrayal of Mongol
troops in the paintings by artists of sedentary prove-
nance, even working under Mongol patronage, may
at times reflect artistic and military conventions of the
sedentary society and not necessarily current Mongol
military reality. The Mongols rode small steppe
ponies that were known for their endurance but that
soon tired if they galloped quickly or carried large
loads. This necessitated each trooper to set out on
campaign with a string of several horses, usually
around five. These would be rotated both during the

march and in battle itself, although how this actually
took place during the fighting is not really clear. In
any event, such a large train of mounts necessitated
careful logistical planning for water and pasturage. It
has been suggested that reasons for the withdrawal of
the Mongols from Hungary and Syria were due to the
lack of pasturage in these countries.

As soon as raids into sedentary areas turned into
campaigns of conquest, it became clear that even the
most motivated and organized armies of cavalrymen
could not deal with sieges of forts and fortified cities.
This called for the employment of engineers to engage
in mining operations, to build siege engines and artil-
lery, and to concoct and use incendiary and explosive
devices. For instance, Hiilegii, who led Mongol forces
into the Middle East during the second wave of the
invasions in 1250, had with him a thousand squads
of engineers, evidently of north Chinese (or perhaps
Khitan) provenance. There is some discussion among
scholars regarding whether the Mongols employed
gunpowder both as an explosive device and to shoot
projectiles. Be that as it may, there is no indication
whatsoever that the Ilkhanid Mongols, during their
sixty-year war with the Mamluks, ever employed
any type of gunpowder weapon either against fortifi-
cations or on the open field.

Although it may be expected that, after several
generations in sedentary areas, the Mongol armies
underwent some transformation (not least in the qual-
ity and type of weapons and armor), there are clear
indications that, at least in the Middle East, the Mon-
gol armies were similar in broad lines in tactics and
character of troops to the earlier Mongol armies.
Thus, at the battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar fought
near Homs between the Mamluks and Mongols
under Ghazan in 1299, the mainstay of the Mongol
army still appears to be light-mounted archers. Mon-
gol field armies also included contingents from local
troops. In China, this could be quite significant, but,
in the Middle East, these auxiliary units — be they
from subjugated Muslim rulers or Armenian and
Georgian “allies” — appear to have been of secondary
importance.

Mention should be made of the Mongol use of
espionage and reconnaissance as well as subterfuge
and psychological warfare. Thus, the Mongols suc-
ceeded in establishing contact with the wazirs in both
the ‘Abbasid and Syrian Ayyubid courts, convincing
them to work for their interests and thus planting
discord and defeatist attitudes among their opponents
long before their troops showed up. Mamluk sources
recount the capture of Ilkhanid operatives, although
they would not have known of successful Mongol
activities. The Mamluks, on the other hand, had a
most successful, long-term, secret operation against

510

MONGOLS

the Mongols, often giving them advance notice of
Mongol aggressive plans and even occasionally
wreaking havoc at the Mongol ordu (the Ilkhan’s
moving camp).

Until the encounter with the Mamluks at 'Ayn
Jalut, the Mongols were virtually unbeatable on all
fronts in which they were active. What probably
stopped the Mongols more than any other factor
was their own disagreements and infighting. Even
the Mamluks, who continued to best the Ilkhanid
Mongols in both the border war and most of the
major battles until 1323, when peace was concluded
between them, greatly profited from the Ilkhans’ wars
with their Mongol neighbors. Early Mongol success
was brought about by unity within the Mongol tribes
(often achieved through war); later Mongol failure
was brought about and compounded by the break-
down of this unity.

Reuven Amitai

See also ‘Ayn Jalut; Ilkhanids; Mamluks; Mongols;
Tamerlane

Further Reading

Allsen, Thomas T. Mongol Imperialism: The Policies of the
Grand Qan Mongke in China, Russia and the Islamic
Lands. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif: University of
California Press, 1987.

. “The Circulation of Military Technology in the

Mongolian Empire.’’ In Warfare in Inner Asian History,
ed. Nicola Di Cosmo, 265-93. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The

Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 126-1281. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.

. “Whither the Ilkhanid Army? Ghazan’s First Cam-
paign into Syria (1299-1300).” In Warfare in Inner Asian
History, ed. Nicola Di Cosmo, 221-64. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
2002 . '

Biran, Michal. “The Battle of Herat (1270): A Case of Inter-
Mongol Warfare.” In Warfare in Inner Asian History,
ed. Nicola Di Cosmo, 175-219. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002.

Di Cosmo, Nicola. “Inner Asian Ways of Warfare in His-
torical Perspective.” In Warfare in Inner Asian History,
ed. Nicola Di Cosmo, 1-29. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002.

Martin, H. Desmond. Chingis Khan and his Conquest of
North China. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1950.

Martinez, A.P. "Some Notes on the Il-Xanid Army.” Archi-
vum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 6 (1986-1988): 129-242.

Morgan, David O. “The Mongol Armies in Persia.” Der
Islam 56 (1979): 81-96.

. “The Mongols in Syria, 1260-1300.” In Crusade

and Settlement, ed. Peter Edbury. Cardiff, UK: Univer-
sity College Cardiff Press, 1985.

. The Mongols. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1986.

. “Mongols.” Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition,

vol. 7, 230-5.

Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, ed.
and transl. Thomas N. Haining. Oxford, UK: Blackwell,
1991.

Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times.
Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif: University of California
Press, 1988.

Saunders, John J. The History of the Mongol Conquests.

London: Routledge & Kegan, 1971.

Smith, John M., Jr. ‘“Ayn Jalut: Mamluk or Mongol
Success.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44 (1984):
307M5.

. “Nomads on Ponies vs. Slaves on Horses.” Journal

of the American Oriental Society 118 (1998): 54—62.

MONGOLS

The Mongols were a tribe in the steppe area north of
China that gave its name to a larger group of related
tribes that were united by Genghis (Chinggis) Khan
(ca. 1162-1227 CE) at the end of the twelfth century
and the beginning of the thirteenth century. This tribal
state rapidly expanded, and, by the middle of the
thirteenth century, it controlled most of China (sub-
sequently conquering all of it), the entire Eurasian
Steppe (including the southern part of modern-day
Ukraine), Iran, and much of the surrounding
countries. The Mongols had a profound influence on
much of the Islamic world, and West and Central
Asia eventually converted to Islam.

By 1206, Genghis Khan, who had been born with
the name Temuchin, had succeeded in uniting the
Mongol and some Turkish-speaking tribes in the
area today known as Mongolia. Most notable of
these were the Tatars, hitherto the most prominent
tribe in the area, who evidently spoke a language that
was similar to Mongolian. The Tatars were the tradi-
tional enemies of the Mongols; after their defeat, they
were broken up and integrated into the emerging
Mongol nation. Ironically, the name Tatar became a
synonym for Mongol in both eastern and western
languages, and these are often used interchangeably.
(Later, Tatar was used in a more restricted sense for
the Turkish-speaking peoples of southern Russia.) In
1206, a quriltai (tribal council) was convened in which
the title Genghis Khan (perhaps meaning “universal
khan”) was officially bestowed on Temuchin, who
according to the Secret History of the Mongols, the
main source of information about this period, had
already subjugated those who lived in tents of felt —
that is, the nomads of the entire region. It is on this
basis that institutions were created that would pro-
vide the infrastructure for future conquest and rule:
the adoption of an alphabet (from the Uighur Turks),
a rudimentary legal system (although whether this is
the famous Yasa at this stage is perhaps doubtful), the
systematic division of the army (see Mongol Warfare
for a further discussion of the army), and perhaps the
beginnings of an imperial ideology that may have set

511

MONGOLS

its sights on the conquest of sedentary areas. The
idea of world conquest, which was subsequently clear-
ly articulated in Mongol imperialist ideology, was
probably explicitly expressed only later. Scholars are
divided as to whether this was already in the
period of Genghis Khan or only under his immediate
successors.

Regardless, in 1205, raids had commenced against
the Hsi-Hsia (of Tibetan origin) in northwest China.
By 1209, this state was subjected, and soon afterward
raids began against the Jin, who controlled northern
China. By 1215, the Mongols had conquered the ter-
ritory north of the Yellow River. Their campaign
against the Jin was to continue until 1234, some
seven years after Genghis Khan’s death. Over time,
the Mongol conquest was to continue, and, by 1278,
under the Great Khan Qubilai, the subjugation of the
rest of China ruled by the southern Sung was com-
pleted. Mongol rule in China, known as the Yuan
dynasty in Chinese historiography, lasted until 1366.

While they expanded into China, Mongol forces
had also been expanding to the west. By around 1218,
the area later known as Kazakhstan was subjugated,
bringing the Mongols into direct contact with the
realm of the Khwarazm-Shah, the most powerful
ruler in the eastern Islamic world. Relations between
Genghis Khan and the Khwarazm-Shah soon dete-
riorated, and, in 1219, Genghis ordered the full-scale
invasion of his territory. Together with his sons,
Genghis led his armies from Mongolia into Transoxi-
ana and then Khurasan (Turkmenistan, northern
Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran of today). The
power of the Khwarazm-Shah was broken, and most
of the cities of these hitherto prosperous areas, long
known as centers of Islamic culture, were left in ruins.
Mongol cruelty in this area appears to have resulted
from a combination of factors: a lack of acquaintance
with and appreciation of Islamic culture; retribution
against the Khwarazm-Shah for his killing of Mongol
envoys; punishment against the local population for
resisting (and thereby contravening the heaven-given
mandate to Genghis Khan to conquer the world);
and, perhaps, a desire to establish in this area a
cordon sanitaire to prevent future problems while the
Mongols continued their expansion on other fronts.

In 1223, Genghis Khan withdrew with the majority
of his army to Mongolia. A small force was left to
garrison the newly conquered territority, and soon
a rudimentary administration was established.
Augmented by reinforcements from the Steppe, this
garrison gradually expanded the area of Mongol con-
trol. By 1250, most of Iran, the southern Caucasus
region (Georgia, Armenia, and northern Azerbaijan),
and much of Anatolia was under at least ostensible
Mongol rule. In 1255, Hulegii, the brother of the

Great Khan Mongke and grandson of Genghis
Khan, arrived at the edge of the Islamic world to
organize areas already conquered and to expand the
territory under Mongol control. Within a year, he had
consolidated Mongol rule in areas hitherto ruled by
the Mongols and had subjugated most of the Isma’ili
(the so-called Assassins) forts in eastern and northern
Iran. At the beginning of 1258, Hulegii took Baghdad,
putting to death the Caliph al-Musta’sim, thereby
ending five hundred years of ’Abbasid rule there. The
Mongol advance in the Middle East was stopped
in September 1260 by the Mamluks at the battle of
’Ayn Jalut in northern Palestine, and the Mongols
withdrew beyond the Euphrates. Hiilegii and his suc-
cessors were known as the Ilkhanids, and they ruled an
area comprising modern-day Iran, northern Afghani-
stan, Turkmanistan, Iraq, most of the Caucasus,
and Anatolia until 1335. By about 1300, the Ilkhans,
the Mongol elite, and evidently many of the Mongol
tribesmen had converted to Islam. In the long run,
the majority of Mongols in the Middle East appear
to have assimilated into the larger population of
Turkish speakers who surrounded and served them.

By around 1260, in the aftermath of the death of
the Great Khan Mongke (r. 1251-1259), the great
Mongol empire began to fragment into four successor
states. The realm of the Ilkhanids has just been de-
scribed. The Great Khan, who still enjoyed titular
authority over the other princes (which did not pre-
vent some of them from going to war with him on
occasion), ruled China and the Mongolian homeland
and, as said above, was known also as the Yuan
emperor by the Chinese. In the steppe region of mod-
ern-day Ukraine and European Russia, there emerged
the state known in the West as the Golden Horde
(from the word ordu; “royal camp” in Turkish and
Mongolian). Mongol armies had consolidated their
control over this area by 1237, and they had subju-
gated the cities of Rus’ (most importantly Kiev). This
was a springboard for an amazing campaign into
Eastern Europe in 1241, culminating in the double
victories at Liegnitz and Pest in April of that year.
These smashing victories did not lead, however, to the
permanent occupation of Central or Eastern Europe.
News had arrived of the death of the Great Khan
Ogodei (1229-1241), which necessitated a return of
the princes to Mongolia; logistical problems (i.e., the
lack of pasturage for the Mongol mounts) perhaps
also played a role in this action. Mongol rule solidi-
fied in the steppe areas of southern Russia and the
Ukraine of today under the leadership of the descen-
dents of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan. The
Golden Horde unequivocally ruled European Russia
until the end of the fourteenth century. Even in de-
cline, when the Golden Horde had fragmented, its

512

MONGOLS

successor states — whose people were known as
Tatars — still played important roles in the history of
the region, and it was a matter of centuries until they
were finally brought under the control of the expand-
ing Russian empire. Already during the early four-
teenth century is seen the double process of
Islamization and Turkification in the Golden Horde,
which has been noted above for the Mongols in the
Middle East.

Central Asia (the area more or less subsequent-
ly covered by modern Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Kirgizstan, and the Xinjiang province in China) was
in the hands of the descendents of Chaghatai, the
second son of Genghis Khan. Further east in the
steppe was the stomping grounds of Qaidu (d. 1301),
a grandson of the second Great Khan Ogodei, who
controlled the Chaghataids and also fought the Great
Khan Qubilai (1264-1294) to establish his inde-
pendence and legitimacy. During the early fourteenth
century, the Ogodeids were eliminated as an inde-
pendent force, but the Chaghataids were unable to
provide this area with political stability. This was the
background for the emergence of Tamerlane (also
Timur-lang and Timur the Lame), who, around
1370, unified Transoxiana and used it as a spring-
board for further campaigns in the Steppe as well as
in Iran and beyond. Tamerlane occupied Damascus
in 1400 and defeated the Ottomans at the battle of
Ankara in 1402. Unlike Genghis Khan, Tamerlane,
upon his death in 1405, did not leave his descendents
an institutionalized state. Despite the subsequent po-
litical confusion, the Timurids achieved well-earned
fame for their patronage of the arts. Tamerlane was
known as a Mongol, but he was actually a Turkish-
speaking Muslim of Mongol descent. In Transoxiana
and later in the steppe region to the north and north-
east, again is seen the double process of Islamization
and Turkification found elsewhere in Mongol-
controlled areas in Western Asia.

The Mongols achieved a well-deserved reputation
for the destructiveness of their conquests, and at times
their rule could be characterized by a rapaciousness
toward the local population. At the same time, they
were patrons of arts and sciences, established relative-
ly stable administrations, and offered a degree of
religious toleration that was previously unknown in
either the Islamic world or the Christian West. The
unification of most of Asia brought about the widen-
ing of horizons. Some of this came in the form of
detailed knowledge of East Asia that was brought to
Europe; this had some influence on the desire of
Europeans to reach these fabled areas, leading indi-
rectly to the “Age of Discovery” and the resulting
colonialism and other related developments.

Reuven Amitai

See also Assassins; ’Ayn Jalut; Central Asia; Genghis
Khan; Ilkhanids; Juvayni; Mamluks; Oljeitii; Rashid
al-Din; Tamerlane; Timurids; Tusi, Nasir al-Din

Primary Sources

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University Press, 1932.

Dawson, Christopher, ed. The Mission to Asia: Narratives
and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia
and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,
transl. by a Nun of Stanbrook Abbey. London: Sheed
and Ward, 1980.

al-Din, Rashid. Rashiduddin Fazlullah’s Jami’u’t-tawarikh:
Compendium of Chronicles. A History of the Mongols, 3
vols., transl. W.T. Thackston. Cambridge, Mass: Har-
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Juvayni, AOa Malik. The History of the World Con-
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Spuler, Bertold. History of the Mongols: Based on Eastern
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transl. Klaus Lech. Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz, 1968.

Further Reading

Allsen, Thomas T. Mongol Imperialism: The Policies of the
Grand Qan Mongke in China, Russia and the Islamic
Lands. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif: University of
California Press, 1987.

. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A

Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1997.

. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge,

UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mciniluk-
Ilkhanid War, 126-1281. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1995.

Barthold, W. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, 4th
ed. London: Luzac and Company, 1977.

Biran, Michal. Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongol
State in Central Asia. London: Curzon, 1997.

Boyle, John Andrew. “Cingiz-Khan.” Encyclopaedia of
Islam, New Edition, vol. 2, 41-4.

513

MONGOLS

, ed. Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 5: The Saljuq

and Mongol Periods. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1968.

Fennell, John L.I. The Crisis of Medieval Russia, 1200-
1304. London: Longman, 1983.

Fletcher, Joseph. “The Mongols: Ecological and Social
Perspectives.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 46
(1986): 11-50.

Franke, Herbert, and Denis Twitchett, eds. The Cambridge
History of China , Vol. 6, Alien Regimes and Border
States, 907-1368.

Halperin, Charles J. Russia and the Golden Horde: The
Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. Blooming-
ton, Ind: Indiana University Press, 1985.

Jackson, Peter. “The Dissolution of the Mongol Empire.”
Central Asiatic Journal 95 (1980): 481-513.

. “The Mongols and Europe.” In The New Cam-
bridge Medieval History. Vol. 5, c. 1198-1300, ed. D.
Abulafia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.

Komaroff, Linda, and Stefano Carboni. The Legacy of
Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia,
1256-1353. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art/New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2002.

Lane, George. Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century
Iran: A Persian Renaissance. London: Curzon Press,
2003.

Martin, H. Desmond. Chingis Khan and his Conquest
of North China. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press,
1950.

Melville, Charles. “The Fall of Amir Chupan and the De-
cline of the Ilkhanate, 1327-37: A Decade of Discord in
Mongol Iran. ” Papers on Inner Asia, no. 30. Bloomington,
Ind: Indiana University Research Institute for Inner
Asian Studies, 1999.

Morgan, David O. The Mongols. Oxford, UK: Blackwell,
1986.

. “Mongols.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edi-
tion, vol. 7, 230-5.

Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy,
ed. and transl. by Thomas N. Haining. Oxford, UK:
Blackwell, 1991.

Rossabi, Morris. Khubilcii Khan: His Life and Times. Berkeley
and Los Angeles, Calif: University of California Press,
1988.

Spuler, Bertold. “Cingizids.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition, vol. 2, 44-7.

Saunders, John J. The History of the Mongol Conquests.
London: Routledge & Kegan, 1971.

MOSAICS

The use of both wall mosaics and floor mosaics is
known from the Islamic world between the seventh
and fourteenth centuries CE, but whether one can
trace a continuous tradition after the ‘Abbasid period
is doubtful. Instead, it appears that contacts with
Byzantium led to occasional uses of mosaics, whereas
the Umayyad monuments of Syria also acted as a
reservoir (literal and conceptual) for periodic and
fleeting revivals of the art that were often linked to
campaigns of restoration.

The first mention of mosaics occurs in 684/685 CE,
when the interior walls of the Ka’ba were covered
with marble and glass mosaics brought from the
walls of the Ethiopian cathedral at San'a in Yemen.
The same media were employed subsequently in the
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (692 CE), built by the
caliph ‘Abd al-Malik. The interior mosaics depict a
range of fantastic and naturalistic vegetation, includ-
ing vines and fruit-bearing trees, stems of acanthus
tied with gold jewelry, hybrid plants bearing winged
motifs emerging from jeweled vases, and an inscrip-
tion executed in gold on a dark blue ground. Mosaic
trees and winged motifs were also prominent on the
exterior of the building, before they were replaced
during the sixteenth century.

The mosques built or rebuilt by al-Walid I (r. 705-
715 CE) in Damascus, Medina, and Fustat were also
decorated with nonfigural mosaics. Surviving frag-
ments of the mosaics in the Umayyad Mosque of
Damascus attest to their high quality and iconograph-
ic virtuosity. These include a thirty-meter long panel
in the courtyard depicting monumental trees, pavi-
lions, and multistoried structures set on a riverbank
executed against a shimmering gold background sim-
ilar to that found in Byzantine mosaics; descriptions
of the lost Umayyad mosaics in Medina suggest that
they were similar. In both cases, it is evident that
assistance was obtained from the Byzantine emperor,
but the involvement of local Syrian mosaicists is also
probable. The Umayyad mosaics make use of small
glass tesserae (usually ten cubic meters or less) and
mother of pearl set into a bed of plaster marked to
indicate the required distribution of colored tesserae,
which were angled to maximize the visual effects of
the brilliant vitreous medium.

The Umayyads of Cordoba followed Syrian prece-
dent, and extensive use was made of glass mosaics in
al-Hakam II’s extension to the Friday Mosque of that
city in 965 CE. Technical examination of the Cordoba
mosaics tends to confirm textual accounts of some
Byzantine involvement in their execution. The
remains of contemporary wall mosaics were also
found at the nearby Umayyad palace of Madinat
al-Zahra.

Evidence for wall mosaics in Umayyad secular
structures in Syria (ca. 700-750 CE) is limited but
includes the Umayyad palace at Khirbat al-Minya
and the bathhouse at Hammam al-Sarakh. More
common are the polychrome stone (and occasionally
glass) floor mosaics found at ‘Amman, Khirbat
al-Minya, Qasr al-Hallabat, Qastal, Qusayr ‘Amra,
al-Muwaqqar, and al-Ramla. The floors made use of
interlocking geometric patterns, fruit-bearing trees
and plants, and more complex figural scenes closely
related to those found in the churches of the region.

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MOSAICS

Prayer niche from the Beyhekim Mosque, Konya, Anatolia. Third quarter, thirteenth century CE. Above the niche runs a
verse from the Koranic Sura 29. Around the three sides in stylized ornamental Kufic the Throne Verse (Sura 2,555). Faience
mosaic, 395 x 280 cm. Inv. I 7193. Photo: Georg Niedermeiser. Credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource,
NY. Museum fuer Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

515

MOSAICS

The most spectacular examples are found in the bath-
house at Khirbat al-Mafjar in Palestine, where the
entire floor surface, some nine hundred square meters,
is covered with thirty-nine different panels, making it
the largest expanse of floor mosaic surviving from
antiquity. An adjoining private audience chamber
contained a particularly fine mosaic showing a tree
flanked on one side by two grazing gazelles and on the
other by a lion attacking a gazelle.

The use of glass mosaics continued under the
‘Abbasids of Iraq. In 783 CE, the caliph al-Mahdi
had the sanctuary at Mecca decorated by mosaicists;
al-Mutawwakil (r. 847-861 CE) embellished the
Mosque of the Prophet at Medina with mosaics and
adorned the Friday Mosque of Samarra in Iraq with
the medium along its qibla wall. The ninth-century
‘Abbasid palaces at Raqqa and Samarra witnessed a
number of striking and apparently unique experi-
ments in the use of vitreous wall cladding, including
three-dimensional glass mosaics and translucent glass
floor tiles. Scrolling mosaic grapevines bearing pen-
dant mother-of-pearl grapes set against a gold ground
ornamented the facades of the Balkuwara Palace at
Samarra, suggesting a dependence on Umayyad mod-
els when it came to more orthodox forms of glass
ornament.

Aside from Norman Sicily, between the ninth and
the thirteenth centuries CE, the surviving evidence for
the use of wall mosaics in Islamic monuments comes
from Jerusalem. The Fatimid Caliph al-Zahir
(r. 1021-1036 CE) embellished the mihrab dome of
the Aqsa mosque with vegetal mosaics inspired by
Umayyad prototypes as part of an extensive restora-
tion of the mosque. After the Ayyubid reconquest of
the city in 1187 CE, the main mihrab was provided
with inscriptions executed in white, green, black, and
gold mosaics and set against a pearl-studded scrolling
acanthus. The interior of the mihrab was filled with a
network of interlocking circles filled with vines and
pendant bunches of grapes comprised of mother
of pearl.

The pearl vine (often issuing from a vase) was
later employed in the hoods of mihrabs in Cairo,
Damascus, Hims, and Jerusalem during a minor re-
naissance of the art under the Bahri Mamluks of
Egypt and Syria (1250-1382 CE). The theme is
found as early as 1250 in the tomb of Shajarat al-
Durr (Tree of Pearls) in Cairo, although it has been
argued that the mosaics are a later addition dating to
the period from the reign of Sultan al-Zahir Baybars
(r. 1260-1276 CE), when the use of glass mosaic
became popular. Mosaics were also used to decorate
Mamluk fountains (a usage witnessed slightly earlier
in the Artuqid palace at Diyarbakr) and wall surfaces.
Extensive interior panels of gold-ground mosaics

featuring architectural and landscape scenes appeared
in the tomb of Baybars in Damascus (1281 CE),
inspired by the mosaics in the nearby Umayyad
Mosque. Syrian mosaicists also worked on Mamluk
palaces in Damascus and Cairo, where fragmentary
wall mosaics found in a Mamluk palace on the citadel
of Cairo recall those of Baybars’s tomb while also
drawing perhaps on contemporary painting.

Mamluk interest in this archaic art can be directly
linked to the impact of the Umayyad monuments of
Syria, which were repeatedly restored and renovated
during this period. Glass mosaics were among a range
of features that were integrated into Bahri Mamluk
monuments with the intention of appropriating some
of the kudos of the early Islamic structures for their
medieval successors. Mamluk mosaics are technically
cruder than their Umayyad prototypes; however,
this fact is recognized even by contemporaries, who
note the practice of combining tesserae gleaned
from Umayyad monuments with those of more
recent manufacture. This florescence of the art
comes to an end around 1340 CE, which effectively
marks the last occurrence of mosaics in Islamic
architecture.

Finbarr Barry Flood

See also Dome of the Rock, Umayyad Mosque (Da-
mascus)

Further Reading

van Berchem, Marguerite. “The Mosaics of the Dome
of the Rock at Jerusalem and the Great Mosque in
Damascus.” In Early Muslim Architecture, Volume 1,
Part 1: Umayyads A.D. 622-750, ed. K.A.C. Creswell,
213-372. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1969.

Bonfioli, M. "Syriac-Palestinian Mosaics in Connection
With the Decorations of the Mosques at Jerusalem and
Damascus.” East & West 10 (1959): 57-76.

Finster, Barbara. "Die Mosaiken der Umayyaden-Moschee
von Damaskus.” Kunst des Orients 7 (1970-1971):
83-141.

Flood, Finbarr Barry. “Umayyad Survivals and Mamluk
Revivals: Qalawunid Architecture and the Great

Mosque of Damascus.” Muqarnas 14 (1997): 57-79.
Hamilton, R.W. Khirbat al-Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in
the Jordan Valley. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1959.
King, G.R.D. “Some Christian Wall-mosaics in Pre-Islamic
Arabia.” Proceedings of the 13th Seminar for Arabian
Studies held at the Middle East Centre, Cambridge,
25-27th July 1979, 37M3. London, 1980.

Piccirillo, Michele. The Mosaics of Jordan, 343-53. Amman:
American Center of Oriental Research, 1993.

Rabbat, Nasser. “The Mosaics of the Qubba al-Zahiriyya
in Damascus: A Classical Syrian Medium Acquires a
Mamluk Signature.” Aram 9-10 (1997-1998): 227-39.
Rosen-Ayalon, Myriam. “A Neglected Group of Mihrabs
in Palestine.” In Studies in Islamic History and Civiliza-
tion in Honour of Professor David Ayalon, ed.
M. Sharon, 553-63. Jerusalem and Leiden: Brill, 1986.

516

MOSQUE OF IBN TULUN, CAIRO

Stern, Henri. “Notes sur les Mosaiques du Dome du
Rocher et de la Mosquee de Damas, a Propos d’un
Livre de Mme Gautier van Berchem.” Cahiers Archeo-
logiques 22 (1972): 201-25.

. Les Mosaiques de la Grande Mosquee de Cordoue.

Berlin: de Gruyter, 1976.

MOSES

The biblical figure of Moses and his interactions with
the Israelites dominate the narrative of the Qur’an
and occupy much of medieval Muslim exegesis as a
model with which the Prophet Muhammad is com-
pared.

The Qur’an contains roughly the same narrative
about the life of Moses as does the Bible, including his
birth (20:38-40, 28:7-14), Midian (28:22-8), call
(19:51-3, 20:9-56, 27:7-14, 28:29-35), dealings with
Pharaoh (7:103-37, 10:75-92, 11:96-9, 17:101-3,
20:42-79, 23:45-9, 25:35-6, 26:10-69, 28:31-42,
40:23^16, 43:45-56, 51:38-40, 79:15-26), the theoph-
any (7:142-5), the episode of the golden calf (7:1 38—
56, 20:86-98), and the story of Korah (28:76—82,
29:39). Moses’ encounter with Khidr (who is not
named) in verse 18:60-82 is associated by Muslim
exegetes with the encounter between Moses and his
father-in-law Jethro in Exodus 18. Muslim exegetes
also conflate the account of Moses in Midian (28:21—
8) with the biblical story of Jacob (Genesis 28-2),
recounting that Moses lifted a rock off the well in
Midian, worked for the marriage of Zipporah, and
left only after causing Jethro’s flocks to produce
speckled sheep.

Moses is called the “Speaker of God” (kalim
Allah) in Muslim exegesis, although in Qur’an verse
28:34 he appears to have a speech impediment. His
education in the Pharaoh’s palace and claim to be
most knowledgeable is contrasted by Muslim exegetes
with the image of the Prophet Muhammad as an
unlettered servant of God.

The contest between Moses and Pharaoh is por-
trayed in the Qur’an as a contest between the Pharaoh
who claimed to be God (79:24) and the true God
working through Moses. Only five plagues are men-
tioned by the Qur’an, which adds that Pharaoh com-
manded Haman to build a tower like the Tower of
Babel and that there was an Egyptian who believed
Moses (40:23-46).

Muslim exegesis of the accounts of Moses’ wander-
ing with the Israelites in the wilderness focuses on the
disobedience of Moses and the Israelites (2:47-61).
Echoing Christian exegetical themes, Muslim exegetes
explain that the Torah — specifically the laws pertain-
ing to the eating of animals — was revealed as a pun-
ishment for the Israelites. Ibn Ishaq reports that God

took back part of the Torah because the Israelites
worshipped the Golden Calf.

According to traditions preserved in Tabari and
other exegetes, Moses was responsible for defeating
the giant Og who had survived the Flood of Noah and
lived in the land God had commanded the Israelites to
take. In contrast with the biblical image of Moses
(e.g., Exodus 32:30-5), the Qur’an and Muslim exege-
sis do not consistently portray Moses as interceding
on behalf of the Israelites. Moses’ refusal to intercede
in Qur’an verse 5:25 is interpreted to mean that
Moses asked God to send his people to Hell and is
compared directly with the promised intercession of
the Prophet Muhammad for all people on the Day of
Judgment.

The revelation of certain passages from the Qur’an
is interpreted as being directed at the Jews of Medina,
reminding them of the Israelites’ rebellion against
Moses and God. Qur’an verse 2:48 states that the
Israelites are to be punished on the Day of Judgment
without the allowance of receiving intercession.
Despite his prophetic status, Moses is also sometimes
portrayed by Muslim tradition as still waiting in
his grave for resurrection rather than enjoying
Paradise.

Brannon Wheeler

Further Reading

Bienaime, Germain. Moi'se et le Don de L’Eau dans la
Tradition Juive Ancienne: Targum et Midrash, Analecta
Bihlica 98. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1984.

Coats, George W. “Moses: Heroic Man, Man of God.”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement
Series, 57. Sheffield: Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament Press, 1985.

Gressmann, H. Mose unci Seine Zeit: Ein Kommentar zu den
Mose-Sagen. Gottingen: Dandenhoed and Ruprecht,
1913.

Meeks, Wayne. The Prophet-king: Moses Traditions and the
Johannine Christology. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967.

Wheeler, Brannon. Moses in the Quran and Islamic Exgesis.
Curzon Studies in the Quran. London: Curzon, 2002.

MOSQUE OF IBN TULUN, CAIRO

The mosque built by Ahmad ibn Tulun (835-884), the
semi-autonomous governor of Egypt from 868 until
his death, is the sole remaining element of al-QataT
(The Allotments), a new district that he established
northeast of Fustat (the original Muslim settlement)
that also included a palace, a maydan, and an ad-
ministrative center. Built of brick rendered with
plaster, the mosque includes a square courtyard
(approximately 300 feet/92 meters to a side) sur-
rounded by hypostyle halls with rows of arcaded

517

MOSQUE OF 1BN TULUN, CAIRO

General view. Abbasid caliphate, ninth century. Credit:
Vanni/Art Resource, NY. Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo,
Egypt.

piers supporting flat wooden roofs. The prayer hall on
the southeast is much deeper than the other halls and
contains several mihrabs, a minbar (pulpit), and a
dikka (tribune) that were added in later periods. The
mosque, measuring approximately 400 x 460 feet/122
x 140 meters, is enclosed by high (33 feet/ 10 meters)
walls crowned with elaborate cresting; this in turn is
enclosed on three sides by a lower outer wall that
creates an outer court ( ziyada ) that serves to separate
the mosque from the city. In this space, opposite the
mihrab, stands the mosque’s most notable feature: a
stone minaret with a cubical base, a cylindrical shaft,
and an elaborate finial reached by an external spiral
staircase. The mosque is relatively plain except for
bands of nonrepresentational designs carved in the
plaster and long wooden planks placed below the ceil-
ing and carved with texts from the Qur’an. The building
is the best surviving example of the architectural style
developed at the ‘Abbasid court at Samarra in Iraq
and brought to Egypt by Ibn Tulun and his retinue.

Jonathan M. Bloom

Further Reading

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Islamic Architecture in Cairo : An
Introduction. Leiden: Brill, 1989.

Creswell, K.A.C. Early Muslim Architecture. Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1940. Reprinted New York: Hacker,
1979.

MOSQUES

Origins, Features, and Functions

The mosque is the most ubiquitous building type in
Islamic architecture and serves not only as a focal
point of prayer and worship but also often functions
as a neighborhood center and communal gathering
place. The enormous structural and decorative diver-
sity in medieval mosques is suggested in part by the
two Arabic terms most often used to define a mosque.
Masjid simply implies a place of prostration, a neces-
sary requirement for the prayer ritual ( salat ) , and thus
any location can technically serve as a masjid (locus
for private or individual prayer). The word jamV,
however, carries with it a suggestion of communal
prayer, particularly participation in the Friday noon
prayer at which the khutba (a combination of prayer
and sermon) is delivered by the imam (religious leader
to the congregation). Although masjid and jami’ were
not always clearly distinguished during early Islam,
by the ninth century the two types of mosques had
distinct functions and features.

According to Islamic tradition, the basic form of
the mosque derives from the Prophet Muhammad’s
house in Medina in Saudi Arabia, built in 622, al-
though this house seems from the start to have been
something more than just a domestic residence for the
Prophet and his wives. The evidence for this structure
is literary rather than archaeological and describes a
large walled courtyard with entrances on three sides
and two covered porticos, the larger of which func-
tioned as a sanctuary for the faithful where they might
find shelter from the sun during prayer. The wall of
this portico, referred to as the qibla wall, was oriented
first toward Jerusalem and then later toward Mecca
and reinforced the importance of a directional indica-
tor in the mosque, because prayer must be carried out
while facing Mecca. The smaller portico at the back of
the house provided shelter for Muhammad’s poorer
followers and in essence divided the congregation, a
practice that would be maintained (although for dif-
ferent reasons) in later mosques. Although mosque
structure and form would not be standardized until

518

MOSQUES

after Muhammad’s death in 632, there are clear pre-
cedents in the Prophet’s Medina dwelling for the most
important components of later mosques, namely a
courtyard in which the faithful could gather (and
perform ritual ablutions), a roofed enclosure or sanc-
tuary where prayer was carried out, and a qibla wall
oriented toward Mecca.

Various other components of mosque architecture
developed during the early Islamic period and as-
sumed a more defined identity and appearance in
medieval mosques. Many of these components are
thought to derive from the rich heritage of Roman,
Byzantine, and Sasanian architecture in the eastern
Mediterranean world, particularly that of palaces.
One of the most visible features in the covered sanc-
tuary of a mosque is the mihrab, a niche-like structure
(and in some cases an entire separate room) usually
found in the center of the qibla wall. The mihrab has
no specific liturgical function beyond acting as a point
of orientation in the mosque (again indicating the
direction of Mecca), although because the qibla itself
performs this same task in a sense the mihrab is
functionally redundant. The mihrab may have
derived from the apse of Byzantine churches or
Roman palaces, and it came to be a focal point of
lavish adornment in the mosque. Mihrabs were often
decorated with elaborate carved stucco, mosaics, ce-
ramic tiles, and colored stone inlays and were some-
times made even more visually prominent by the
addition of a dome over the area in front of the
mihrab.

Another important component of a mosque was
the minbar, or pulpit, which essentially is a piece of
liturgical furniture found in a jami’ rather than a
masjid, because it is from the minbar that the khutba
would be delivered at the Friday noon prayer. The
minbar usually took the form of a small raised plat-
form or seat that was accessible by a few narrow stairs
and frequently surmounted by a conical or polyhedral
canopy. Its function was simply to elevate the imam
(or in some cases caliph or ruler) above the assembled
congregation so that his voice could more easily
carry. The origins of the minbar are uncertain but
perhaps derive from either the throne or pulpit re-
served for the bishop’s use in the Byzantine church or
the raised throne used in pre-Islamic Sasanian Iran.
Minbars were most often constructed of wood or
stone, and intricately carved wooden examples sur-
vive from the ninth-century Great Mosque in Qaira-
wan in Tunisia and from the twelfth-century
Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco.

A somewhat less ubiquitous structure found in
some mosques is the maqsura or royal enclosure.
This is usually located near the mihrab and takes the
form of a square space with latticed walls, separating

the ruler from the congregation but simultaneously
maintaining at least partial visibility to the faithful
and vice versa. Perhaps not surprisingly, the maqsura
is often more elaborately decorated than any other
area in the sanctuary of a mosque save the mihrab
itself. The origin of the maqsura is unclear but can be
traced both to Byzantine church ceremonies (in which
the emperor participated in the mass while housed
in a separate enclosure) and perhaps to the more
pragmatic fear of assassination and the need to
at least partially screen a Muslim ruler from the
congregation.

On the exterior of the mosque, easily the most
visible feature is the minaret (from the Arabic
manor), the tower from which the call to prayer
(adhan) is made. There is more variation in the form
and appearance of the minaret than in any other
mosque feature, and surviving minarets are square,
round, polygonal, conical, and even spiral in shape.
There is again uncertainty about the origin of the
form and whether the minaret was initially even
connected with the activity most often associated
with it. It is possible that early minarets were devised
as highly visible symbols of a young faith and that
they were meant to mark that faith’s ascendance and
monumentality. Indeed, even today the skyline of any
predominantly Muslim town or city is punctuated by
the vertical forms of minarets. Outstanding surviving
examples from the medieval period include the spiral
minaret outside the walls of the ninth-century Great
Mosque at Samarra in Iraq; the square minarets of
the Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh and the Hassan
Mosque in Rabat, both in Morocco and both built
during the twelfth century; the cylindrical minaret of
the twelfth-century Masjid-i Kalyan in Bukhara,
Uzbekistan; and the square Giralda minaret of the
Great Mosque in Seville, Spain, built during the
twelfth century but later used as the bell tower of
that city’s cathedral.

Regional and Dynastic Diversity

The enormous geographical range of the medieval
Islamic world, which stretched from Morocco and
Spain in the west to northern India in the east, pre-
cludes anything but a summary treatment of the mul-
tifarious forms that mosques took, although three
general types of plans can be discerned. Those that
descended in form from the Prophet’s house in Medi-
na are termed hypostyle or Arab-style mosques and
differ markedly from subsequent Iranian and Turkish
examples, which will be examined in turn. In addition
to variations in plan and structure, the raw materials

519

MOSQUES

of these three types also differed, although this tended
to be a byproduct of geography rather than ethnic or
national identity. In areas rich in natural deposits of
stone (e.g., Egypt, Syria, Anatolia), mosques tended
to be built in stone, whereas, in stone-poor regions
(e.g., Iraq, Iran) baked brick was by necessity the
preferred material. Mosque decoration also varied
enormously and was a product of both location and
dynastic preference for certain forms of adornment.

Most early mosques in the central Islamic lands
(Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Iraq) were hypostyle in
plan with large enclosed courtyards and covered sanc-
tuaries composed of parallel aisles that could easily be
enlarged if the population of an urban center
increased. Early eighth- and ninth-century mosques
at Kufa and Basra in Iraq, Qairawan in Tunisia, and
Fustat in Egypt all followed this plan, although all
were also largely rebuilt at later dates. Three of the
most typical early hypostyle mosques were erected
under the patronage of the Umayyad Caliph al-
Walid (r. 705-715) during the early eighth century in
Damascus, Jerusalem, and Medina. The historical
importance of each site reflects the conscious effort
of the Umayyad dynasty to formulate and situate a
new style of monumental architecture. The Mosque
of the Prophet in Medina, which was built on the
remains of Muhammad’s house (see above), included
the Prophet’s tomb and was enlarged by al-Walid in
707 and adorned with mosaics (now lost). The Aqsa
Mosque in Jerusalem was built on the Haram
al-Sharif (Sacred Enclosure), also called the Temple
Mount, and was completely reconstructed by al-
Walid in 709, although only fragments of the
Umayyad mosque remain intact in the present struc-
ture. The Great Mosque in Damascus, built by al-
Walid from 709 to 715, also occupies a site of great
pre-Islamic importance: here had stood the Jewish
temple of Hadad, a Roman temple dedicated to
Jupiter and the Christian church of St. John the
Baptist. Al-Walid’s mosque has a typical hypostyle
plan with a raised and domed aisle perpendicular to
the mihrab on the qibla wall. The mosaics on the
outer face of the courtyard and its surrounding
arcades — along with those in the Dome of the Rock
in Jerusalem — provide evidence of a rich decorative
tradition in Umayyad buildings, probably carried out
by Byzantine craftsmen.

Large hypostyle mosques were also built by the
‘Abbasid rulers of Iraq (r. 749-1258), most notably
the Great Mosque at Samarra north of Baghdad with
its aforementioned spiral minaret; this was completed
by the Caliph al-Mutawakkil in 847. This remains one
of the largest mosques in the Islamic world, although
today only the baked brick walls and minaret survive
intact. Similarly, large hypostyle mosques were

constructed in North Africa under the Almoravid
(1056-1147) and Almohad (1130-1269) dynasties in
Fez (the Qarawiyyin Mosque, begun at an earlier
date and subsequently enlarged several times) and
Marrakesh (the twelfth-century Kutubiyya Mosque).
In these latter examples, the proportions of earlier
hypostyle mosques were reversed, and the sanctuary
was much larger than the courtyard.

A similar reversal is evident in the Great Mosque
at Cordoba, Spain, which was begun in 784 by the
westernmost branch of the Umayyad dynasty and
enlarged twice during the tenth century to accommo-
date the needs of a growing population. The mosque
in Cordoba is notable for the use of doubled columns
(one on top of the other) in the arcades of the sanctu-
ary, extremely complex arch and vault forms in the
area in front of the qibla wall, and a mihrab in the
form of a separate polygonal chamber. The mosque
also serves as a lesson in the reuse of materials; not
only were the interior columns taken from pre-Islamic
buildings in the region, but the mosque was later
converted to a cathedral during the fifteenth century
during the Christian Reconquista of Spain.

The hypostyle plan was also used in early mosques
in Iran (e.g., in the eighth-century ‘Abbasid mosque at
Damghan and the tenth-century mosque at Nayin
built by the local Buyid dynasty rulers), but there
soon appeared a more specifically Iranian form, some-
times referred to as the kiosk mosque or, more accu-
rately, the ey van (Arabic, iwan ) mosque. An eyvan is a
vaulted open hall with an arched rectangular fagade,
the origins of which are derived either from Sasanian
palaces or the Sasanian fire temple known as the
chahar taq. The eyvan was also a prominent feature
in Iranian madrasas (theological colleges), where it
served as a meeting place and classroom for students.

The complex history of medieval Iran, which expe-
rienced invasions by Turkic peoples in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries (resulting in the establishment
of the Saljuq dynasty in Iran and, later, in Anatolia),
by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and by the
Timurids in the fourteenth century, is aptly seen in the
aggregate nature of the Great Mosque at Isfahan.
This mosque dates from the ‘Abbasid period during
the eighth century, with additions and renovations
during the tenth century by the Buyids, during the
eleventh and twelfth centuries by the Saljuqs, and
at still later dates by the Mongols (Ilkhanids;
r. 1256-1353), Muzaffarids (r. 1314-1393), Timurids
(r. 1370-1506), and Safavids (r. 1501-1732). Each
successive dynasty left its mark on the mosque, be
it a new mihrab, portal, vaulting system, or glazed
tilework decoration.

Large domed chambers were also prominent in
Iranian mosques, often placed in front of the mihrab

520

MU’AYYAD FI AL-DIN, AL-

(e.g., in the fourteenth-century Mongol mosque at
Varamin) or providing a massive open space in the
sanctuary (as in many Safavid mosques of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries). This is perhaps
best seen in the seventeenth century eyvan-style
Masjid-i Shah (Royal or Ruler’s Mosque), which
was built by Shah ‘Abbas (r. 1588-1629) in the Safa-
vid capital of Isfahan. The mosque is situated just off
the great square (maydan), which formed the heart of
Shah ‘Abbas’ reconstruction of the city. A portal
leads the visitor from the maydan to the off-axis
form of the mosque (which was oriented, as usual,
toward Mecca, whereas the maydan was not). The
Masjid-i Shah also features not only twin minarets
on either side of the maydan portal but an additional
pair flanking the portal that leads into the mosque
proper. The portals and both the exterior and interior
of the dome are lavishly decorated with tilework.

Turkish mosques differ from Arab and Iranian
models in several ways. The conquest of Anatolia in
1071 by the Saljuqs exposed Turkish architects to
Byzantine church architecture and inspired further
experiments with domed spaces and, particularly dur-
ing the Ottoman dynasty (r. date), the use of alternat-
ing brick and stone on a building’s exterior. Saljuq
mosques were often built on the Iranian four-eyvan
model, although the harsher Anatolian climate some-
times necessitated closing over the central courtyard
with a dome. A clear turning point for Turkish
architecture arrived with the Ottoman conquest of
Constantinople (later Istanbul) in 1453 and, with it,
possession of that city’s famous domed church, Hagia
Sophia, which Sultan Mehmed I (the Conqueror;
r. 1444—1445 and 1451-1481) converted immediately
into a mosque. In subsequent imperial mosques
throughout the new capital and indeed throughout
the Ottoman empire, Hagia Sophia provided a
template, with its succession of domed spaces culmi-
nating in an enormous central dome. The height of
Hagia Sophia’s dome (180 feet) would not be eclipsed
until the sixteenth-century works of the master ar-
chitect Sinan, who served several sultans, most nota-
bly Kanuni Suleyman (Suleyman the Lawgiver or
Suleyman the Magnificent as he was known in Eur-
ope). Sinan’s experiments with balanced forms and a
more sober decorative aesthetic than was seen in the
eastern Islamic world culminated in his masterwork,
the Selimiye Mosque, which was built for Sultan
Selim II (r. 1566-1574) in Edirne in Thrace.

Richard Turnbull

See also ‘Abbasids; Almohads; Almoravids; Aqsa
Mosque; Architecture, Religious; Aya Sophia; Badsha-
hi Mosque (Lahore); Basra; Buyids; Byzantine Empire;
Ceramics; Cairo; Cordoba; Damascus; Dome of the

Rock; Egypt; Fez; Furniture and Furnishings; Fustat;
llkhanids; Isfahan; Istanbul; Jerusalem; Kufa; Medina;
Mehmet II, the Conqueror; Mongols; Mosaics; Mosque
of Ibn Tulun (Cairo); North Africa; Ottoman Empire;
Ottoman Turks; Qayrawan; Safavids; Sasanians: Is-
lamic Traditions; Samarra; Selimiye Mosque (Edirne);
Seljuks; Seville; Shah ‘Abbas; Sinan; Siileymaniye
Mosque (Istanbul); Timurids; Umayyad Mosque
(Damascus); Umayyads

Further Reading

Blair, Sheila S., and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and
Architecture of Islam 1250-1800. New Haven and Lon-
don: Yale University Press, 1994.

Bllom, Jonathan. Minaret, Symbol of Islam. Oxford Studies
in Islamic Art 7. Oxford, UK, 1989.

Creswell, K.A.C. Early Muslim Architecture , 2 vols.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1932-1940.
Reprinted New York, 1979.

. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt , 2 vols. Oxford,

UK: Oxford University Press, 1952-1959. Reprinted
New York, 1979.

Dickie, James (Yaqub Zaki). “Allah and Eternity: Mos-
ques, Madrasas and Tombs.” In Architecture of the Is-
lamic World, ed. George Michell. New York: Thames
and Hudson, 1984.

Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Marilyn Jenkins-
Madina. Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250. New
Haven, Conn, and London: Yale University Press, 2001.
Goodwin, Godfrey. A History of Ottoman Architecture.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.

Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusa-
lem. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

. The Great Mosque of Isfahan. New York: New

York University Press, 1990.

Hill, Derek, and Oleg Grabar. Islamic Architecture and its
Decoration. London: Thames and Hudson, 1964.
Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture. Form, Function
and Meaning. New York: Columbia University Press,
1994.

Kuran, Aptullah. The Mosque in Early Ottoman Architec-
ture. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press,
1968.

MU’AYYAD FI AL-DIN, AL-

Al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi (999/1000-1087 CE)
was a distinguished and multitalented personality of
the Ismaili religious and political mission (the da'wa),
which reached from Transoxiana to North Africa and
from Northern Iran to Yemen. In the heyday of
Fatimid power during the eleventh century, he spent
most of his life in the service of the Caliph-Imam al-
Mustansir bi ’llah (r. 1036-1094). Al-Mu’ayyad ex-
celled as missionary agent ( da‘i) and scholar, bringing
the Ismaili spiritual heritage to its pinnacle. As prose
author and poet, he showed a masterful command of
Arabic literary style and rhetoric.

521

MU’AYYAD FI AL-DIN, AL-

Al-Mu’ayyad was born into an Ismaili family in
Shiraz, the capital of the Buyid province of Fars in
southwestern Iran. His full name is Abu Nasr Hibat
Allah Ibn Musa Ibn Abi ‘Imran b. Da’ud al-Shirazi.
His honorific name, al-Mu’ayyad h ’1-Din (“The one
aided” — by God — “in religion”), was probably
bestowed upon him when he was appointed head of
the Fatimid mission in the province.

Al-Mu’ayyad is the author of a unique work of
memoirs, the Sir at al-Mu ’ayyad fi al-Din, that covers
more than twenty years of his career (1038-1060). The
Sira is a personal and thrilling work of history that
mirrors, in the life and destiny of a da‘i, the mutual
relationship between Fatimids, ‘Abbasids, and Buyids
under the growing pressure of the Turcoman invasion
from Central Asia into the heartlands of the Islamic
world. Furthermore, the Sira is a rich source for the
organization and the norms of the clandestine net-
work of the Ismaili da‘wa.

As al-Mu’ayyad tells in his Sira, he was attempting
to convince the Buyid prince of Fars, Abu Kalijar,
that a shift to the Fatimid cause would generate
political and religious advantages for him. This high-
ly demanding and dangerous task was skillfully
undertaken by the Ismaili missionary in a hostile
environment during the days of the Sunni revival.
Al-Mu’ayyad initially evaluated his mission as a suc-
cess, but he soon fell out of favor with Abu Kalijar
and was forced to flee to the court of al-Mustansir.
The second part of the Sira deals with al-Mu’ayyad‘s
experiences after his arrival in Cairo (ca. 1045), where
high-handed officials tried to foil the continuation
of his religiopolitical career. He thereby used an au-
thentic and courageous critical perspective on the
political situation at court and the apparent inability
of the young caliph-imam to deal with it. Despite
many setbacks, the ambitious refugee gradually
worked his way up the hierarchy at court. He was
given the post of director of the Fatimid chancery.
Next, he was dispatched as head of a diplomatic
delegation to northern Syria from 1056 through
1058; this was a very difficult political adventure
that al-Mu’ayyad deals with in the third part of his
Sira. There, at the fringes of the Fatimid empire, he
was to build up an alliance under Fatimid command
between the rebellious ‘Abbasid general Abu’l-Harith
al-Basasiri and local Bedouin chiefs against the
Turcoman Seljuks, who already had made an end to
Buyid rule and taken over power in the ‘Abbasid
capital in 1055. In the Sira’s epilogue, al-Mu’ayyad
celebrates the triumph of al-Basasiri who — without
further support of the Fatimids — occupied Baghdad,
exiled the caliph, and established the Friday prayer
for al-Mustansir for more than a year (1058-1060).

After his return to Cairo in 1058, al-Mu’ayyad was
granted what he had been striving for ever since his
dramatic flight from Fars: he was appointed the high-
est rank of chief missionary (da‘i al-du‘at) in the
central administration of the Fatimid da‘wa. From
that point on, he devoted his life to administering
the affairs of the da‘wa, teaching missionaries from
both inside and outside of the Fatimid empire, such as
the philosopher-poet Nasir-i Khusraw of Badakh-
shan and Lamak ibn Malik al-Hammadi, a high
representative of the loyal Sulayhid state in Yemen.
After receiving instruction from al-Mu’ayyad for five
years, Lamak organized the introduction of the
Ismaili da‘wa in the Indian subcontinent, where it
has continued to the present day among the Bohra
communities in Gujarat and other urban centers in
India and Pakistan.

As chief da‘i, al-Mu’ayyad was also the author of
eight hundred lectures ( majalis al-hikma; “sessions of
wisdom”) that he held in front of the community of
believers every Thursday in Cairo. These sermons,
which make up the largest collection of this genre in
the literary heritage of the Ismailis, contain the es-
sence of al-Mu’ayyad’s religious and philosophical
thinking; he likely stood in the tradition of the Ismaili
Neoplatonist philosopher and theologian Abu Ya’qub
al-Sijistani (d. ca. 971). Among the (partly) edited
majalis are the correspondence with the blind Syrian
philosopher-poet Abu VAla’ al-Ma‘arri on the sub-
ject of vegetarianism as well as al-Mu’ayyad’s refuta-
tion of the Kitab al-Zumurrud of Ibn al-Rawandi.

In addition to the majalis, al-Mu’ayyad is the
author of religious-philosophical treatises, prayers,
and more than sixty Arabic qasidas that contain a
wide range of Fatimid theological and ideological
motifs. As recent research shows, he was the founder
of a new literary tradition of “da‘wa poetry,” which
was intended to function as a medium of the procla-
mation of the Fatimid cause and to educate its fol-
lowers. Al-Mu’ayyad’s poems still play a prominent
role in ritual liturgy of the Bohras in India today.
Among them, he is still praised and respected as a
spiritual guide and leader.

Verena Klemm

See also Arabic poetry; ‘Abbasids; Arwa; Autobio-
graphical Writings; Buyids; Cairo, Egypt; Plato and
(Neo)Platonism; Sunna

Primary Sources

Al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi, Abu Nasr Hibat Allah:

Diwan al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din da'i al-Du'at , ed. M. Kamil

Husayn. Cairo, 1949.

522

MUHAMMAD AL-BAQIR (D. CA. AH 117/735 CE)

. al-Majalis al-Mu’ayyadiyya, vols. 1 and 3, ed.

Mustafa Ghalib. Beirut, 1974—1984; vols. 1 and 2, ed.
Hatim Hamid al-Din. Oxford and Bombay, 1975-1986.

. Sir at al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din da‘i al-Du'at, ed. M.

Kamil Husayn. Cairo, 1949.

Further Reading

Klemm, Verena. Memoirs of a Mission: The Ismaili Scholar,
Statesman and Poet al-Mu ’ayyadfi ’l-Din al-Shirazi. Lon-
don: Tauris, 2003.

Qutbuddin, Bazat-Tahera. “Al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-Shir-
azi: Founder of a New Tradition of Fatimid Da‘wa
Poetry.” PhD dissertation. Harvard University, 1999.

MUHAMMAD AL-BAQIR
(D. CA. AH 117/735 CE)

Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. ’Ali was one of the most
learned Muslims of his age. He played a pivotal role
in the history of early Islam as an authority on the
exegesis of the Qur’an, the Traditions of the Prophet,
and on all matters relating to the rites, rituals, and
practices of the faith. Born in 57/677 in Medina, al-
Baqir had an especially prestigious genealogy as the
maternal and paternal grandchild of al-Hasan and
al-Husayn, the Prophet’s grandsons. He was popular-
ly known as al-Baqir, which is short for baqir al- ‘ilm,
meaning “one who splits knowledge open”; this sig-
nifies his erudition in bringing knowledge to light, a
function that he did indeed perform. There are con-
siderable variations regarding his death, and esti-
mates range from 114/732 to 126/744. However, the
dates given by al-Waqidi (117/735) and Ibn al-
Khayyat (118/736) appear to be more realistic, con-
sidering reports about his death in al-Tabari during
the rising of his half-brother, Zayd b. Ali.

Sunni and Shi‘i sources describe al-Baqir as an
eminent scholar. He is well known among the early
fuqaha (jurists). His traditions appear in major works
of tradition, and he is an authority for al-Tabari’s
historical and exegetical works. In Sufi circles, too,
al-Baqir’s sayings are quoted. In Shi‘i tradition (both
Ithna’ashari and Ismaili), al-Baqir is seen as the inau-
gurator of the legal and religious teachings that were
further developed under his son and successor,
Ja’far al-Sadiq. Zaydi tradition, too, relied heavily
on al-Baqir through his disciple, Abu’l Jarrud.

Al-Baqir lived at a time in history when religious
doctrine was at the center of both the intellectual and
political life of the community. The late first and early
second centuries of Islam were crucial times for the
foundation of the studies connected with the Qur’an;
this involved interpretation of the Qur’an that relied,
in turn, on the recollected actions and sayings of the
Prophet Muhammad. Medina, where al-Baqir resided,

continued to be the center of religious learning after
the time of the Prophet, and it was in this cusp of
history that al-Baqir played a remarkably significant
role.

Only a few decades before the birth of al-Baqir, his
grandfather al-Husayn b. Ali, together with his en-
tourage, were afflicted by the tragedy of Karbala.
However, by the end of his lifetime, al-Baqir had
given his Shi’is not only a distinct identity with a
coherent theory of imamate, but he had also founded
a separate legal school, the madhhab ahl al-bayt, that
had well-defined views on several aspects of fiqh (ju-
risprudence). This was the time when the early discus-
sions and differences in the community surrounded
the question of who has the right to rule. There were
serious theological discussions about aspects of
leadership and the imamate, such as imam, Islam,
’ilm, ‘amal, and qada wa qadar; many had political
undertones. The religious-philosophical movements
and communities of the Khawarij, the Murji’a, the
Qadariyya, the Kaysaniyya, and the Zaydiyya sought
their own answers to problematic questions. The
Shi’is, under al-Baqir, did not shy away from these
issues but rather proposed their own solutions. They
not only entered the arena with confidence but also
had their solutions accepted by others.

Contending with several competing groups, al-
Baqir put forward a coherent theory of the imamate
based on the Qur’an and hadith (tradition). His em-
phasis on hereditary imamate proved to be timely,
because many regarded the imamate as an exclusively
political matter that was based either on the ijma (con-
sensus) of the people or on the rising of the imam. A
stronger argument in favor of al-Baqir’s school was its
conviction that the Prophet had expressly designated
and appointed ’Ali as his successor by nass al-jali
(explicit designation); this meant that the Imam’s au-
thority did not depend on either human electors or the
allegiance (bay ’a) of the people. The hereditary char-
acter of the nass was thus the crucial point in al-Baqir’s
doctrine; it served as a restriction for many who
considered claiming the nass a license to leadership.

In addition, in al-Baqir’s view, the imam was
endowed with the hereditary ’ilm as a result of the
nass bestowed on him. Therefore, true knowledge was
ultimately confined only to the imam in the Prophet’s
family and not to every member of the Prophet’s
family and certainly not to the whole community.
The whole tradition of the community was thus not
valid as a proper source for law; only traditions of the
Imams or those of the Prophet confirmed by the
Imams were allowed. This approach of al-Baqir’s
school toward the majority of the Prophet’s compa-
nions changed the legal pattern of the Shi’is, and, in
so doing, laid the foundation of a distinct school of

523

MUHAMMAD AL-BAQIR (D. CA. AH 117/735 CE)

jurisprudence: the madhhab ahl al-bayt. The basis of
Shi‘i law and theology emerged and developed itself
within the circle of al-Baqir’s adherents. A distinctive
ruling, for example, that goes back to him is that of
wiping one’s footwear (al-mash ’ala’l khuffayn) be-
fore praying as being unacceptable as a substitute for
washing the feet. In addition to transmitting this for-
mal kind of knowledge, al-Baqir also played the role
of a spiritual guide initiating his followers in experi-
ential knowledge. This is represented in the concept of
light in his theory of the imamate, embodying the
numinous aspect of the imam’s knowledge that sets
the inner wisdom in motion.

Therefore, strictly in terms of the scholarly litera-
ture that expresses Shi’i doctrines, al-Baqir assumed a
dignified position for his century. From the promi-
nence of his traditions and the profound contribu-
tions they represent, a truly remarkable personality
is perceived — one that deserves recognition as an out-
standing figure in the history of the Shi’is and a major
force of Islamic thought in general.

Arzina R. Lalani

Further Reading

Al-Amln, Muhsin b. ’Abd al- Karim. A'yan al-Shi'a.
Damascus, 1935-1961.

Al-Kulaynl, Muhammad b. Ya’qub. Al-Usul min al-Kafi.
Teheran, 1388/1968.

Abu Nu’aym, Ahmad al-Isfahani. Hilyat al-Awliya’, vol. 3.
Cairo, 1932-1938.

Amir-Moezzi, M.A. The Divine Guide in Early Shi'ism ,
transl. David Streight. Albany, NY, 1994.
van Arendonk, C. Les Debuts de L’lmamat Zaidite au
Yemen. Leiden, 1960.

Al-Ya’qubl, Ahmad b. Ibn Wadih. Tarikh, vol. 2. Beirut.
Hodgson, M.G.S. “How Did the Early Shi’a become
Sectarian?’’ JAOS 75 (1955): 1-13.

Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Ahmad b. Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol.

9. Hyderabad, 1325-1327/1907-1909.

Ibn Sa‘d, Muhammad. Kitab al-Tabaqat, eds. E. Sachau et
al. Leiden, 1905-1940.

Jafri, S., and M. Husain. Origins and Early Development of
Shi'a Islam. Beirut, 1979.

Kohlberg, Etan. Belief and Law in Imami Shi'ism. Great
Britain, 1991.

. “Muhammad b. Ali” In EI2, 397-400.

Lalani, Arzina R. Early Shi'i Thought: The Teachings of
Imam Muhammad al-Baqir. London, 2000.

Madelung, Wilferd. Der Imam al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim und die
Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen. Berlin, 1965.

. “al-Baqer, Ab'i Ja’far Mohammad.” EIR 3: 725-6.

al-Muradi. Amali Ahmad b. ‘Isa. Arabo-Biblioteca,
Ambrosiana, Milan, H. 135.

al-Qadi al-Nu‘man, Abu Hanifa. Da' aim al-Islam , 2 vols.,
ed. A.A.A. Fyzee. Cairo, 1950 and 1960. (See also Ismail
K. Poonawala’s revised translation, The Pillars of Islam.
Oxford, UK, 2002.)

. Shahr al-Akhbar fi Fada’il al-a’Imma al-Athar, 3

vols., ed. Muhammad al-Husayni al-Jalali. Qumm,
1409-1412/1988-1992.

al-Qummi, ‘Ali b. Ibrahim. al-Tafslr, 2 vols. Najaf, 1386/
1966.

al-Tabari, Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir. Ta’rikh al-Rusul
wa al-Muluk. Annales, ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden,
1879-1901.

. Jami al-Bayan ‘an Ta'wil ay a l- Our ’an.

MUHAMMAD IBN AL-QASIM

Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, one of the most famous
Arab generals of the eighth century, was born around
695 CE in Taif, Arabia, to Habibat al-Uzma and al-
Qasim. Because his family belonged to the tribe of
Banu Thaqif, he was also called Muhammad ibn
al-Qasim al-Thaqafiyya. Not much is known about
his early childhood, most of which he probably spent
in Taif. As a young boy, Muhammad was very fond
of a fragrant wild plant called al-Bahar; hence, he
came to be affectionately known as Abu al-Bahar.
When his father, al-Qasim (who was a cousin of
al-Hajjaj, the powerful Arab viceroy of Iraq), was
appointed governor of al-Basrah, the family moved
there. It was in this important center of the rapidly
growing Arab empire that Muhammad was exposed
to a cosmopolitan, intellectual, and cultural envir-
onment. Because al-Hajjaj was particularly fond of
his cousin’s young son, Muhammad spent some time
with him in Wasit, the capital of the Iraqi province.
Presumably the viceroy educated Muhammad in
military and administrative affairs, a training that
would be prove invaluable for his short but brilliant
career.

Around 709 or 710, when Muhammad was fifteen
or sixteen years old, al-Hajjaj entrusted his protege
with his first military mission: the subjugation of a
group of Kurds in the province of Fars who had
become a serious threat to law and order in the re-
gion. After his victory over the Kurds, he was made
governor of Fars, and he was responsible for develop-
ing its administrative structure. Muhammad pro-
ceeded to plan and build at Shiraz, a strategically
situated new city that would serve as the provincial
capital and as an important military base for com-
manders. He was also responsible for subjugating the
area around to the south of Shiraz, called Sabur, and
the distant area of Jurjan, near the southeastern
shores of the Caspian.

In 71 1, on the basis of his achievements in Fars, al-
Hajjaj appointed the seventeen-year-old Muhammad
as the commander of the army that was to be sent to
Sind (now in southern Pakistan) to punish and sub-
due local pirates who had been harassing Arab trad-
ing ships and who had taken Arab women and
children hostage. Because two previous naval mis-
sions had failed, al-Hajjaj entrusted Muhammad

524

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (571 632 CE)

with the command of an invasion by land that would
result in the annexation of Sind. During a period
of approximately three years, Muhammad con-
quered the coast of Makran, took control over the
important seaport of al-Daibul, and began extending
his authority inland over the lower Indus valley.
By 712, he had defeated Dahar (the ruler of Sind)
and taken over the city of Aror, and he began pro-
ceeding northward to capture Multan. During
subsequent months, he signed treaties with surround-
ing states in Rajasthan, Kathiawar, and Gujarat.
Muhammad was not only a brilliant military com-
mander and strategist but he was also an excellent
administrator; he reorganized the civil administration
of the region.

Notwithstanding the superior military power at his
disposal, Muhammad was an enlightened ruler, seek-
ing to win over the confidence of the local population.
By employing local administrators and forgiving the
inhabitants of conquered cities, he garnered a great
deal of local support, especially from those who were
seeking relief from their autocratic rulers. He was also
tolerant of local religious beliefs, declaring at Aror
that the local Indian temples were equivalent to
churches, synagogues, and the fire temples of the
Magians. Not surprisingly, in Multan, he did not
destroy the famous temple dedicated to the Sun
God. In effect, Muhammad recognized the Hindus
and Buddhists as equivalent to the ahl al-kitab (the
people of the Book), who, like Christians and Jews,
had the right to practice their faith in return for the
payment of jizya (tax). He exempted Brahmins from
the tax, a custom that was followed by subsequent
Muslim rulers in India.

In 715, the new Ununayad Caliph Suleiman came
to power determined to seek revenge for the support
that al-Hajjaj had given to his brother al-Walid in a
dispute about succession to the caliphate. Because al-
Hajjaj was already dead, the Caliph’s wrath des-
cended on al-Hajjaj’s family, the most prominent
among them being Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. The
new Caliph dismissed Muhammad from his post in
Sind, ordering his immediate arrest and repatriation
to Iraq. Muhammad was imprisoned at al-Wasit,
where he and other members of his clan were tortured
and killed. Today, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim is mem-
orialized as a great hero in contemporary Pakistan,
especially in religious nationalist circles who see Islam
as having been first introduced into the region as a
result of his conquest of Sind and the establishment
of the first Muslim state that would endure for
nearly three centuries. A new international seaport,
Port Al-Qasim, near Karachi, has been named in his
honor.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Baloch, Nabi Bakhsh. “Muhammad ibn al-Qasim: A Study
of His Family Background and Personality.” Islamic
Culture Oct (1953): 242-71.

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET
(571-632 CE)

The last in the line of Abrahamic prophets — or the Seal
of Prophets, as the Qur’an calls him — Muhammad
was a descendant of Ishmael, son of Abraham. He
fought against polytheism and revived monotheism, a
legacy that quickly spread around the world after his
demise. In the Qur’an, he is named a mercy to the
worlds, a bringer of glad tidings, a warner, a lamp
spreading light, a universal messenger, and a witness.
He is described as compassionate, having a tender
heart, and embodying an exalted standard of charac-
ter, neither seeking reward from the people nor
speaking according to his own desires.

The Qur’an explains that Muhammad’s mission is
not to bring a doctrine that is new among the Mes-
sengers of God but whose sole duty instead is to
proclaim the divine message, to confirm that which
was brought by the Messengers before him, and,
through this, to confront religious hypocrisy. The
Qur’an stresses that Muslims must obey him as the
Messenger of God and greet him each time his name
is mentioned by saying, “God’s blessings and peace be
upon him.” Bearing witness that Muhammad is a
servant and Messenger of God is a major pillar of
faith in Islam, second only to faith in the oneness
of God.

Muhammad was born in Mecca in the Year of the
Elephant, 571 CE, when Abraha, the Abyssinian gov-
ernor of Yemen, unsuccessfully attempted to destroy
the Ka’ba with an army mounted on huge elephants,
intending to divert pilgrims to the magnificent cathe-
dral he built in Sana. Muhammad was born to his
mother Amina six months after the death of his father
Abdullah, who passed away at a young age. Follow-
ing the Arab custom, he was sent as a small baby to
the desert for four years to grow in good health, away
from the epidemics that iteratively afflicted Mecca,
and to learn the best and purest usage of the Arabic
language from the desert Bedouins. During this time,
a woman named Halima from the tribe of Bani Sa’d
looked after him and served as his wet nurse. At the
age of four, he was returned to his mother in Mecca.
At the age of six, Muhammad’s mother passed away,
and he grew up first in the custody of his grandfather,
Abdu 1-Muttalib, for two years, and later in the home
of his uncle, Abu Talib, with whom he stayed until his
marriage.

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MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (571-632 CE)

Muhammad was by ancestry a member of a highly
esteemed family, the Sons of Hashim, and a tribe, the
Quraysh, in a sacred city, Mecca, in which was found
a holy sanctuary, the Ka’ba, which was symbolically
the House of God. The Arabs had revered the Ka’ba
as a pilgrimage site since Abraham, the Father of
Prophets, and his first son Ishmael first built it in
compliance with God’s command. The economy of
Mecca was based on caravan trade, because Mecca
was a station on the trade route between Syria and
Yemen. The Meccans also raised animals, but for
their own need alone, which they pastured on the
mountains nearby. The barren landscape of Mecca
did not allow farming. Accordingly, the children of
Mecca were raised to become merchants, as too was
Muhammad.

As a young child, Muhammad’s education in-
cluded training in refined speech, care of animals,
travel, martial arts, and trade. The cosmopolitan
environment of Mecca, which was constantly visited
by pilgrims and tradesmen, exposed him to varying
economic, cultural, and religious practices. He
learned the best usage of the Arabic language during
the time he spent in the desert among the Bedouins,
who were renowned for their excellence in poetry. He
also spent time as a shepherd, and he later said that
all Prophets had the experience in their lives of serving
as shepherds.

At the age of nine (or perhaps twelve), Muhammad
accompanied his uncle Abu Talib with a caravan to
Syria as part of his training as a merchant and trader
(such treacherous trips across the desert and the con-
stant threat of armed conflict among neighboring
tribes necessitated training in the martial arts; this
was held to be another crucial part of the upbringing
of the children of Mecca). During the course of this
journey, the caravan passed the cell of a Christian
monk named Bahira, who observed that Muhammad
was continually shaded by a cloud that accompanied
him and that the tree beneath which Muhammad
took shelter lowered its branches to him. Recognizing
in his appearance a description from a manuscript in
his possession, Bahira asked to examine the boy’s
back, where he saw a birthmark confirming that the
prophet so long awaited was indeed Muhammad.

This range of experiences in such a cosmopolitan
environment fostered an informed perspective from
which Muhammad was able to appraise the custom-
ary religious practices prevalent among his tribe and
fellow citizens of Mecca. The people of Mecca were
proud to be descendants of Abraham and servants of
the House of God, although by the time Muhammad
was born very little of Abraham’s legacy remained
intact. In particular, monotheism no longer stood
unchallenged by polytheism and paganism. The

Arabs honored the Ka’ba as the House of God, but
they filled it with idols that they expected to serve as
intercessors between them and God. Even the place of
the holy well, Zamzam, near the Ka’ba, had been
long forgotten. The pristine monotheism of Abraham
had been almost completely forgotten, although
Muhammad was able to join the ranks of those few
adherents who remained. These followers of Abraham
refrained from worshiping idols, moral corruption,
and injustice, but they had no power to reinstitutiona-
lize monotheism. Among them, as among the Meccan
community generally, Muhammad acquired a reputa-
tion for being singularly trustworthy and therefore
became known by the Arabic epithet al-Amin.

At the age of twenty-five, Muhammad was
approached for marriage by a wealthy widow, Kha-
dija, who entrusted him with her trade caravans; at
that time she was forty years old. This led to a mar-
riage that lasted for twenty-five years, until Khadija’s
death in 619 CE at the age of sixty-five years. The
bridegroom moved from the house of his uncle, Abu
Talib, to the house of Khadija; she bore two sons and
four daughters. Because their first child was Qasim, a
son who died in infancy, Muhammad came to be
known as Abu 1-Qasim, the father of Qasim. The
next child was a daughter, Zaynab, who was followed
by three other daughters, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum,
and Fatima, and finally by another short-lived son,
Abdullah.

When Muhammad reached the age of thirty-five,
the tribes of Mecca decided to jointly undertake the
physical restoration of the Ka’ba. They cooperated
fully in its construction until it came to placing the
sacred Black Stone, al-Hajar al-Aswad, back in its
original place in one of the Ka’ba’s walls: each tribe
wanted the honor of this final task exclusively for
itself. Tension rose, reaching the point at which out-
right warfare seemed inevitable. However, because his
fairness was well known to all, the leaders of the tribes
at length agreed to ask Muhammad to resolve the
conflict. Muhammad placed the Black Stone on his
cloak and asked a representative of each tribe to join
together in raising the stone and carrying it to its
place. This ingenious solution pleased all of the tribes
and forestalled a civil war; furthermore, it was a
significant test of Muhammad’s capacity for leader-
ship and peacemaking, which he successfully passed.
Because of his commitment to resolving conflict
peacefully and promoting justice, Muhammad also
participated in an order of chivalry that was meant
to aid the oppressed and promote social order and
equality for all in Mecca, irrespective of their being
dwellers of the city or aliens.

Disturbed by corruption in the city, Muhammad
made it his practice to enter spiritual retreat in

526

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (571 632 CE)

isolated caves in the mountains surrounding Mecca.
At the age of forty, he received the first revelation in a
cave he frequented on the mountain of Hira, also
known as the Mountain of Eight. God sent him the
Archangel Gabriel, who gave the following com-
mand: “Read: In the name of your Lord Who creat-
ed, created the human being from a clot. Read: And
your Lord is Most Generous, Who taught by the pen,
taught the human being what he knew not” (Qur’an,
Surat al-’Alaq, 96:1-5).

Receiving direct revelation from God left Muham-
mad in great anguish, astonishment, and awe. He left
his place of retreat, hastening home in the most pro-
found consternation. Khadija tried to comfort her
husband and sought consultation with Waraqa, a
blind, elderly Christian sage with profound knowl-
edge of the Bible. Waraqa had (like the monk Bahira)
long anticipated the coming of a new prophet, even
suspecting that he might already be in the Arabs’
midst. After listening to Muhammad’s experience,
Waraqa said: “Holy! Holy! By him in whose hand is
the soul of Waraqa, the Angel of Revelation who
came to Moses has come to Muhammad. Truly,
Muhammad is the Prophet of this people. Bid him
rest assured.” Waraqa later told Muhammad: “You
will be called a liar, and ill-treated, and they will cast
you out and make war upon you; and if 1 live to see
that day, God knows I will help His cause.” The
reassurances of Khadija and Waraqa were followed
by reassurances from Heaven in the form of
subsequent revelations, which arrived intermittently
for twenty-three years until his death. The fact that
the first person to embrace Islam was a woman and a
merchant has left an enduring impression on the
thought of Muslims, who continue to revere Khadija
as the Mother of Believers.

The rise of a Prophet among the Arabs of Mecca
came as a complete shock to the pagans and polythe-
ists, who first ignored him, later tried to silence him by
force, and at last tried to completely eradicate his
message. However, Christians and Jews were more
familiar with divine Revelation; some had been await-
ing the arrival of the last Prophet in the form of the
Messiah. Believers in the new revelation came from
various ranks of society. Abu Bakr, a businessman
and longtime friend, was the next person to embrace
it, after Khadija. He was followed by Bilal, an
Abyssinian slave, and Ali, the cousin of Muhammad,
who was then a young child. Some of the notables of
Mecca saw a threat to their power in the steady
growth of the Muslim community. In response, they
placed the nascent community under an economic
boycott, and they also initiated a campaign of propa-
ganda and torture; this led some Muslims to seek
refuge in Abyssinia. At length the pagan Meccans

established an alliance among themselves to defini-
tively sever all ties with the Muslims, placing them
under siege in a section of the city with no contact
with the outside world and no access to food. Despite
unbearable pressure and a growing number of deaths
under torture, none of the believers reverted back to
polytheism.

As despair escalated among the believers, the
Archangel Gabriel one night awakened the Prophet
Muhammad from his sleep and led him on a Night
Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. Together they
rode on a beast with white wings named Buraq,
whose every stride reached as far as the eye could
see. From the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, they
ascended together to the Seven Heavens, where the
Prophet of Islam conversed in the spiritual realm with
the Prophets who brought the earlier revelations. Fi-
nally, he was accepted to the Divine Presence, where
he spoke with God. On this occasion, God gave him a
number of commandments that are comparable
with the Ten Commandments of Moses, including
the following:

“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none save
Him, and that you treat your parents with goodness. If
one of them, or both of them, reach old age with you, do
not say 'oof' to them, and do not reject them, but speak
honorable words to them. And lower to them the wing of
humility, out of compassion, and say, 'My Lord, have
mercy upon them as they brought me up when I was
small.' Your Lord is best aware of what is in your souls. If
you are righteous [He will forgive you], for surely, He is
Ever-Forgiving to those who frequently return in repen-
tance. And give the one near to you his right, and the
poor, and the wayfarer, and do not squander your
wealth in frivolous squandering. Truly, those who
squander are brothers of the devils, and the devil was
always ungrateful to his Lord. But if you must turn away
from them, seeking the mercy you hope for from your
Lord, then speak to them a gentle word. And neither let
your hand be tied to your neck [in avarice] nor expand it
so wide [in extravagance] that you sit there blamed or
destitute. Surely your Lord expands the provision to
whomever He wishes or cuts it. Surely He is Fully
Aware, All-Seeing. And do not kill your children from
fear of poverty. We provide for them and We provide for
you. Truly killing them is a great sin. And do not come
near to illicit sexual intercourse; surely it is a monstrous
obscenity and an evil way. And do not kill any human
being whose life Allah has willed to be sacred — save by
the right of law. And whoever is killed unjustly, We have
given authority to his heir, but let him not exceed the
limits [set by law] in taking life. Surely he shall be helped
[by God]. And do not come near to the wealth of the
orphan save with that which is better, until he comes to
strength, and keep the contract. Surely you will be asked
about the contract. And give full measure when you
measure, and weigh with a straight balance. That is

527

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (571-632 CE)

better and more excellent in the end. And do not pursue
that of which you have no knowledge. Surely the
hearing and the sight and the heart — all of these will
be questioned. And do not walk arrogantly upon the
earth. Surely you cannot tear the earth apart, and you
will never be taller than the mountains. All of that
is distasteful in the sight of your Lord."

(Qur'an, Surat al-'lsra 1 7:23-38)

These verses from the Qur’an summarize the basic
teachings given to the Prophet Muhammad during
the Meccan period of revelation, which are also
reflected in his numerous non-Qur’anic sayings,
which are known as hadith (tradition). The significant
overlap with the Ten Commandments is striking.
During the Night Journey and Ascension, God also
commanded Muslims to pray five times a day (salat),
a ritual that embodies the ascension of the believer to
the Divine Presence.

As the number of Muslims grew, the efforts of the
notables of Mecca to suppress their movement
increased. The escalating tension between these
groups and the deteriorating conditions under which
the Muslims lived forced the Prophet to search for a
place of refuge for his community away from his
birthplace. The small yet also rapidly expanding com-
munity of Muslim believers in the city of Yathrib,
today known as Medina, invited the Prophet and his
followers to join them. Finally, in 622 CE, the com-
munity of believers undertook the emigration from
Mecca to Medina. This is known as the hijra, and it
was accepted during the time of Caliph Umar as the
beginning of the Islamic (hijri) lunar calendar.

However, this was only the outer hijra, as the
Prophet reminded his followers; the inner hijra takes
place in the heart of the person who moves from evil
to goodness. Without the inner hijra, the outer one
would be meaningless, he instructed, thereby making
hijra obligatory for his followers. At length, the entire
Muslim community relocated to Medina physically,
just as every believer since that time is to make hijra in
the heart.

The economy of Medina depended on farming.
Initially it was not easy for the Immigrants, who
were merchants by profession, to adjust themselves
to their new setting. However, their brothers and
sisters in Medina, known as the Helpers, made great
sacrifices to support them.

The Immigrants and the Helpers constituted the
two branches of the Muslim community in Medina.
The Prophet Muhammad was not only their leader
but also, as the duly appointed ruler of Medina, the
leader of the Jews, the pagan polytheists, and the
Christians who lived there. These communities joined
him in signing the newly drafted constitution of the

city-state. The fact that Islam numbered merchants
and farmers among its early adherents contributed to
its future spread to communities elsewhere that exhib-
ited a range of types of social and economic organiza-
tion. Likewise, the peaceful experience of the Muslim
community in joining with other religious commu-
nities as citizens of a single state united under one
leadership made a lasting impact on Islamic political
philosophy and state structure. The Constitution of
Medina, which was concluded jointly among the
Prophet and the leaders of other religious commu-
nities in Medina, is still available today for study,
and it is commonly regarded as the first written
constitution for a pluralist society.

The hijra from Mecca to Medina entailed for Mus-
lims not only a change of location but also a change in
political and social organization. Whereas they had
lived as a violently oppressed minority in Mecca, they
became the ruling element in Medina, charged with
the protection of other minority groups. This also
meant that the Prophet Muhammad joined in his
person both religious and political leadership. Like
Jesus, he was a supreme spiritual leader; like Moses,
David, and Solomon, he was equally a ruler and a
law-giving Prophet. In Mecca, he prohibited fighting
even in self-defense by his followers, although in
Medina the revelation authorized him to permit it.
However, all the while — and despite the growing
resources under his control as the head of an ever-
expanding state — he led the same devout and ascetic
life that he always had.

In Medina, the Prophet Muhammad placed the
different areas of social life under laws and moral
norms, from family to commerce, inheritance to war-
fare. His Mosque served not only as a place of worship
but also as a school, court, and parliament. He devoted
special attention to consultation when making deci-
sions: unless there was a clear divine command trans-
mitted to the Prophet through revelation, choices of
crucial importance to the community (e.g., whether to
wage war) were reached in the Mosque only after a
public consultation and debate. He adjudicated cases
brought before him in the Mosque not only between
Muslims but also occasionally between non-Muslims
as well. He even accepted foreign ambassadors in the
Mosque, which was, to their astonishment, an ex-
tremely humble place. Because the floor had no carpet,
worshippers prostrated on the sand; it was roofed over
in palm fronds, and no sculpture or picture adorned
the walls. The Prophet Muhammad sat on the ground;
he never possessed a chair, a throne, or a crown.

His home was also extremely humble, consisting of
small rooms attached to the Mosque and entirely
without the luxury so commonly thought to befit
leaders of such stature. In his home, the Prophet

528

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (571-632 CE)

always slept on the floor on a simple mat, as he
refused to sleep in a comfortable bed. He frequently
fasted and usually ate only one meal a day without
completely filling his stomach. He did not wear silk or
gold, and he allowed them only for the women in his
community. His custom was to carry a silver ring. He
helped his wives with the housework, assisting in such
matters as milking the goats, sweeping the floor, and
sewing his own clothes. He spent at least one-third of
the night in solitary prayer. In addition to the congre-
gational prayers mandated for five specific times each
day, he constantly offered voluntary players. For the
Prophet, the highest level of worship of God was “to
worship Him as if you see Him; for even if you do not
see Him, He sees you.” He preached that Muslims
must live in constant awareness of the Divine Presence
and act accordingly in daily life.

This high degree of piety did not prevent him from
active involvement in family and community affairs
and leadership by example in even the most mundane
aspects of life. The first Muslims in Mecca were most-
ly merchants. The Prophet’s early career as an inter-
national tradesman provided him the experience he
needed when legislating about commercial relations.
Later, this was coupled with laws governing agrarian
economy as befit the new environment of Medina
with its traditionally agrarian economy.

At the beginning of his mission, the Prophet
Muhammad practiced and preached a steadfast com-
mitment to pacifism. This continued for fourteen
years, until in the second year of the hijra polytheists
from Mecca attacked Medina in a violent campaign
to uproot Islam from its new sanctuary. Only then
were the Muslims permitted by divine command to
defend themselves and join the aggressors in battle.
For the first time, a small Muslim army engaged in
armed struggle with the disproportionately larger and
more experienced army of polytheists at a location
near Medina, known as Badr. This encounter became
the first military victory in Islamic history as Muslims
triumphed over the polytheists. The defeated army
in turn reorganized and attacked Medina for the sec-
ond time the following year, this time defeating the
Muslims at Uhud.

Despite this victory, the polytheists were not happy
with the result, because their goal was not just mili-
tary victory but total eradication of the new religion
from the face of the earth. Accordingly, they attacked
Medina again with a still greater army. Upon receiv-
ing the news of the approaching army, the Prophet
Muhammad gathered his Companions in the Mosque
for consultation. Eventually, they adopted the pro-
posal of Salman Farisi, a Persian convert who advised
the community to dig trenches around Medina and
defend the city instead of directly confronting the

polytheist army that was approaching with over-
whelming numbers. This strategy succeeded, as the
polytheist army, attacking in the expectation of a
quick victory, stalled in the trenches and grew increas-
ingly impatient. Finally, they ended the siege and
returned to Mecca.

The following year, during the time of the pilgrim-
age, the Prophet Muhammad and his followers went
to Mecca for pilgrimage. Customarily, all Arab tribes
agreed that, during the period of pilgrimage, fighting
was prohibited, and the Ka’ba would be open to
anyone who wished to visit it. However, the rulers
of Mecca broke this rule for the first time and did not
allow Muslims to enter Mecca and perform pilgrim-
age to the Ka’ba. As an alternative, they proposed a
peace treaty with the Muslims; according to the terms
of the treaty, the Muslims agreed to return to Medina
with the understanding that, during the following
year, they would be able to perform pilgrimage in
Mecca. The Prophet Muhammad accepted this seem-
ingly humiliating concession, later known as the Trea-
ty of Hudaybiyya. Paradoxically, the treaty worked to
the advantage of the Muslims by enabling them to
spread Islam more easily among Arab tribes in the
newly peaceful environment. It also fostered the con-
solidation of the Muslim community in Medina. Dur-
ing the following year, Muslims made their first
pilgrimage to the Ka’ba under the leadership of Abu
Bakr. However, the truce did not last for long,
because the polytheists nullified it by violating its
conditions.

In response to the termination of the truce, the
Prophet decided to enter Mecca, by force if necessary.
After lengthy negotiations, the Muslims were able to
conquer Mecca peacefully and purge the Ka’ba of its
many idols. The House of God and enduring symbols
of true monotheism were restored once again accord-
ing to the Prophet Abraham’s initial vision. The
Prophet Muhammad and his Companions did not
retaliate against those long-time enemies who had
tortured them, boycotted their livelihood, harmed
their families, expelled them from their homeland,
and even pursued and attacked them after they had
immigrated to another city. In other words, the final
conquest of Mecca was bloodless.

During the following year, the Prophet made his
last pilgrimage to the Ka’ba, which was known as the
Farewell Pilgrimage. On this occasion, he delivered
the so-called Farewell Sermon from the back of his
camel to about a hundred thousand Muslims. The
message of this sermon has made it one of the most
highly esteemed texts of the Islamic tradition to this
very day. In this sermon, the Prophet summarized
basic tenets of Islamic law, particularly the rights
and duties of men and women. For generations, the

529

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (571-632 CE)

Arabs had considered the property and person of the
pilgrims inviolable and the time and place of pilgrim-
age sacred. The Prophet generalized this sanctity as a
fundamental rule applicable to all persons, times, and
places: “O People, just as you regard this month, this
day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property
of every Muslim as a sacred trust.”

He also reminded the community of the prohibi-
tion of usury and interest, women's rights, the five
daily prayers, fasting during Ramadan, pilgrimage to
the Ka’ba, and payment of zakat (an annual charity).
He emphasized to them their accountability on the
Day of Judgment: “Remember, one day you will
appear before God and answer your deeds. So be-
ware, do not stray from the path of righteousness
after I am gone.”

And he ended his sermon as follows:

"O People, no prophet or apostle will come after me
and no new religion will be born. Reason well, there-
fore, O People, and understand the words that I convey
to you. I leave behind me two things, the Qur'an and my
example, the Sunna, and if you follow these you will
never go astray. All those who listen to me shall pass on
my words to others and those to others again; and may
the last ones understand my words better than those who
listen to me directly. Be my witness, O God, that I have
conveyed your message to your people."

In the following year, 632 CE, the Prophet passed
away. His death caused a short-lived state of confu-
sion and deep consternation among his Companions,
who did not want to face the necessity of assuming
stewardship of the community in his place. Finally,
the Companions decided to appoint Abu Bakr as his
successor, the Caliph.

The Qur’an, the Book of God, which contains
verbatim revelations from God revealed piecemeal
to Muhammad over twenty-three years, was
Muhammad’s legacy to humanity. His own sayings
and the stories about him, known as hadith, have
been collected in a separate literature and passed
down through generations.

The Prophet Muhammad was husband, father,
tradesman, teacher, founder and president of a
state, judge, and commander — but he was first and
foremost the servant and Messenger of God, who
called for monotheism and the restoration of the
universal and primordial principles of morality and
justice.

Recep Senturk

Further Reading

Adil, Hajjah Amina. Muhammad the Messenger of Islam.
Washington, DC: Islamic Supreme Council of North
America, 2002.

Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Proph-
et. San Francisco: Harper, 1993.

al-Busiri, Imam Sharaf al-Din. The Burda: The Poem of the
Cloak , transl. Hamza Yusuf. Essex, UK: Sandala, 2002.

Cleary, Thomas, ed. and transl. The Wisdom of the Prophet:
The Sayings of Muhammad. Boston: Shambhala, 2001.

Cragg, Kenneth. The Event of the Qur’an. London: One-
world, 1994.

Guillaume, A., ed. and transl. The Life of Muhammad: A
Translation of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. London: Oxford
University Press, 1955 (reissued 2003).

Ibn Kathir. The Life of the Prophet Muhammad ( Al-Sira al-
Nahawiyva), 2 vols., transl. Trevor Le Gassick. Reading,
UK: Garnet, 1998.

Imam Jazuli. Guide to Goodness: Dala’il al-Khayrat, transl.
Hassan Rosowsky. Chicago: Kazi.

Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest
Sources. London: Inner Traditions, 1983.

Malik ibn Anas. Al-Muwatta: The First Formulation of
Islamic Law, transl. Aisha Bewley. Granada, Spain:
Medinah Press, 1989.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Muhammad: Man of God. Chicago:
Kazi, 1995.

Rodinson, Maxime. Mohammed , transl. Anne Carter. Lon-
don: Pantheon, 1971.

Schimmel, Annemarie. And Muhammad is His Messenger:
The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety. Chapel
Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.

ash-Shaybani, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan. The Muwatta of
Imam Muhammad. London: Turath, 2004.

Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca. Chicago:
Kazi, 1993.

. Muhammad at Medina. Oxford, UK: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1981.

. Muhammad’s Mecca: History in the Quran. Edin-
burgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 1988.

al-Yahsubi, Qadi ‘Iyad ibn Musa. Muhammad Messenger of
Allah: Ash-Shifa of Qadi ‘Iycid, transl. Aisha Bewley.
Inverness, UK: Madinah Press, 1991.

MULLA SADRA (d. 1641 CE)

Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Shirazi, also
known as Mulla Sadra, is the most significant Islamic
philosopher after Avicenna. Born into a courtly fami-
ly in Shiraz in 1571, his interest in intellectual pursuits
was indulged by his father. He moved first to Qazvin
and then to Isfahan, the successive capitals of the
Safavids, to pursue his studies with the two preemi-
nent teachers of his age, Mir Damad (d. 1621) and
Shaykh Baha al-Din al-’Amili (d. 1621), who was
Shaykh al-Islam in Isfahan during the reign of Shah
’Abbas I. After completing his training, Mulla Sadra
returned to Shiraz to work and teach, but, failing to
find an adequate patron, he retreated to Kahak near
Qum to meditate and initiate the composition of his
works. He acquired the patronage of Imamquli Khan
(d. 1612), a notable Georgian ghulam who was in
charge of the Safavid military administration and
the governor of Sadra’s home province of Fars, and

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MUSIC

he moved to Shiraz, where he taught at the Madrasa-yi
Khan, which was founded by Imamquli. There, he
trained a generation of philosophers; the most signifi-
cant were Muhsin Fayd Kashani (d. 1680) and ’Abd
al-Razzaq Lahiji (d. 1661), both of whom became his
sons-in-law. After an illustrious and prolific career,
he died in Basra on the return from his seventh
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1641.

Mulla Sadra’s magnum opus is a large compendium
of philosophy and theology that maps intellectual in-
quiry upon a mystical metaphor of the soul’s journey
in this world. Hence, it is popularly known as the Four
Journeys (al-Asfar al-Arba’a). The first journey from
this world to God provides the seeker with the intellec-
tual principles for understanding philosophy, such as
the basic definition of philosophy and the significance
of the question of being. In this journey, the seeker
moves away from multiplicity and phenomenal decep-
tion toward unity and an awareness of the underlying
nature of reality. The second journey in God with God
is a discourse on the nature of God and the divine
attributes, and it significantly includes Mulla Sadra’s
famous proof for the existence of God. It is the stage
of the mystic’s absorption in the divine essence and
his effacement of the self. The third journey from God
to this world explains the God-world relationship,
nature, time, creation, and ontological categories in
this world. For the mystic, this is the return to sobri-
ety and a realization of the duties of moral agency in
this world. The final journey in this world with God is
a description of human psychology that focuses on
soteriology and eschatology and reveals most clearly
the significance of Twelver Shi'ism to his thought.
This is the final stage of the mystic’s journey, a recog-
nition that everything as a unified whole reflects the
ontological unity of the divine.

Mulla Sadra is often described as a metaphysical
revolutionary because of his doctrine of existence.
Any attempt to conceptualize existence falsifies it
through reification. A reified, fixed concept cannot
capture the nature of existence, which is dynamic
and in flux. One can discern three distinct doctrines
of existence that draw upon Mulla Sadra’s intellectual
influences, which include Avicennan philosophy, the
intuitive philosophy of Suhrawardi, and the Sufi
metaphysics of Ibn 'Arabi. The first doctrine is the
ontological primacy of existence (asalat al-wujud).
Essences are not entities waiting for a divine agent
to actualize and individuate them through the bestow-
al of existence, an essentialist doctrine that posits a
rather paradoxical existence of an essence before it
comes to exist. Rather, the divine agent produces
existences in this world that take on the garb of some
particular essence. Existence must be ontologically
prior not only because of the absurdity of an existence

before existence but also because God is devoid of
essence, and his causal link to the world can only be
existential if one wishes to avoid the problem of a
composite god.

The second doctrine is the modulation of existence
( tashkik al-wujud ) . Existence is a singular reality, of
which the phenomenal experience as multiple is illu-
sory. Different existences in this world are different
intense degrees of a single whole. The particular
degrees of existence are not stable substances in the
Aristotelian sense and rather are structures of events
in flux. This leads to the third doctrine that all indi-
viduals in existence undergo motion and flux ( haraka
jawhariyya). An existing entity is not a stable sub-
stance constant in time to which change occurs as an
accident, such as a young Zayd becoming old and
graying; rather, it is a structure of unfolding, dynamic
events of existence.

Mulla Sadra became the philosopher of the Islamic
East. His commentary on al-Hidaya (The Guidance)
of Athir al-Din al-Abhari was the cornerstone of the
rationalist curriculum of the Indian madrasa (Islamic
school) from the eighteenth century. In Iran, his phil-
osophical school has dominated since the nineteenth
century.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Ibn ‘Arabi; Ibn Sina; Iluminationism; Isfahan;
Mir Damad; Plato and Neoplatonism; Safavids; Shah
‘Abbas; Shi‘ism; Suhrawardi

Further Reading

Chittick, William, transl. The Elixir of the Gnostics. Provo:
Brigham Young University Press, 2003.

Corbin, Henry. En Islam Iranien, vol. IV, 54—122. Paris:
Gallimard, 1972.

Jambet, C. L’Acte d’Etre. Paris: Fayard, 2002.

Kh~maneh, M. Zindag~n,-yi 'adr al-Muta\allihn. Tehran:
Siprin, 2000

Morris, James, transl. The Wisdom of the Throne. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Rahman, F. The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra. Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press, 1975.

Rizvi, S. Mulla Sadra: Philosopher of Mystics. Cambridge,
UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 2005.

MURALS

See Painting, Monumental and Frescoes

MUSIC

The importance of music across medieval Islamic
civilization is widely documented. Although often

531

MUSIC

contested by Islamic law, vocal and instrumental
traditions were significant in both scholarship and
public life, and these early sounds still flavor
the music of the present-day Middle East. Qur’anic
recitation and the adhan (call to prayer) are never
considered music in Islamic tradition.

General Principles and Issues

Sources

Music in the medieval Islamic empire was largely
based in oral practice and oral transmission, with
little or no emphasis on written music notation before
the Ottoman period. Other types of information,
however, exist in such sources as religious texts; phil-
osophical, scientific, and legal treatises; collections of
song texts; narratives and biographies; and pictorial
evidence, such as engravings and miniatures. These
documents and images allow a glimpse into the world
of music and musicians, often showing or describing
music theory, music-making contexts, musicians,
instruments, and performance practice. Although
the music likely had at least some basis in pre-Islamic
or folk forms, music theory was usually the domain
of the educated, literate elite. As such, the use of
these texts and treatises tends to limit current
knowledge to court traditions and musical practices
in urban centers rather than nomadic or rural
communities.

In the absence of written scores, it is difficult to
determine or describe what this music actually
sounded like. It is known that vocal music, singing,
and poetry/verse were and are extremely central to
Middle Eastern music. Early writings such as the
tenth-century Kitab al-Aghani describe instrumental
ensembles “playing as one,” a likely reference to a
monophonic (unison) playing style, although there is
discussion of the use of za ’ida (glosses) such as trills,
turns, and other more individual ornamentations
of melody. Such improvisatory practices are still
common in Middle Eastern music today.

Sources also point to the use of an underlying
drone (a low sustained or repeated pitch) as well as
an emphasis on compound musical forms such as
suites (cycles or sequences of vocal and instrumental
composed pieces and improvisations). For example,
the four-movement chamber music genre of nuba is
first discussed in the mid-ninth century; writings over
the next two centuries suggest the addition of a fifth
movement, particularly in the regions of al-Andalus
and North Africa. The Turkish fasil suite, described
in the fifteenth century, consists of improvisation,

a prelude, a group of composed songs, and an
instrumental closing.

Modal Systems

An important feature of Middle Eastern music, from
the pre-Islamic period to the present day, is the use of
rhythmic and melodic modes as the bases for musical
theory and practice. Modes are complex, conceptual
frameworks around which all Middle Eastern music
is organized. The principles of rhythmic modes
( iqa’at) have strong links to poetic meter and involve
phrases of varying lengths and patterns of beats
and rests, whereas melodic modes involve sets of
notes, scales, and intervals as well as particular notes
of emphasis and emblematic patterns of melodic
movement. Both rhythmic and melodic modal sys-
tems also have particular emotional correspondences
(pleasure, courage, sadness) and expressive, affective
properties.

Modal theory is considered in numerous treatises
throughout the medieval period, with early writings
referring to melodic modes as asabi’ and only later
with the present-day term maqamat. These treatises
discuss the various classification schemes for modal
organization as well as the changes over time and
region in the number of modes and their names. For
instance, early Arabic writing speaks of eight melodic
modes, whereas later Persian theory is organized on
the basis of twelve modes; some thirteenth-century
writings even add six secondary modes ( awazat ) .

Religious Controversy

Despite flourishing musical traditions and courtly pa-
tronage of music across Islamic civilization, the prac-
tice of music in Islam was and is not without
significant controversy on religious and legal levels.
There does not appear to have been a ban on music
during the earliest days of Islam, and, indeed, the
conquerors found it difficult to suppress the pre-
Islamic musical customs of the areas they dominated.
However, stricter injunctions against music in general
began to appear under the orthodox caliphs who
ruled after the death of the Prophet; from that time
on, music fell variously in and out of favor through-
out the medieval period and beyond.

The root of the controversy lies in differing percep-
tions of music’s effect on the listener: the idea that
music brings a devotee closer to God (a position
prominent in Sufism) versus the fear that music —
especially secular entertainment genres — provides
a distraction from spiritual endeavors and tempts

532

MUSIC

the listener into sin. Vocal traditions, especially
unaccompanied singing, are generally less contentious
than instrumental music, and treatises from the
medieval period support a range of positions that
frequently have their bases in passages or anecdotes
from the Qur'an or hadith. These positions range
from strict opposition to any secular or instrumental
music — such as Ibn Abi’l Dunya’s (d. 894 CE)
Dhamm al-Malahi ( Disapprobation of Musical Instru-
ments) — to more liberal interpretations that only
seek to ban instruments that cause “pleasure.”
The deep controversy over the permissibility of
music in Islam is also reflected in the terminology
used to refer to music and instruments, including
the term malahi, which can refer either to musical
instruments in general or to instruments that are
forbidden.

Historical and Geographical Perspectives

Overview

During the early years of Islam in such centers as
Mecca and Medina, many musicians could be found
among the large populations arriving from newly
conquered areas. Both slaves and non-Arab Muslims
of the free malwa (client) class, often Persians, parti-
cipated in a system of patronage that included madjlis
(salons) hosted at private homes. Women, who were
not yet sequestered, participated widely in music-
making both as patrons (see Women Patrons) and
performers, especially in the qayna (singing girl) tra-
dition, which involved both singing and accompani-
ment on stringed instruments such as the 'ud or
tunbur (short-necked and long-necked lutes, respec-
tively). Although the ‘ud would continue to rise in
prominence in Arabic music theory, these earlier
instruments were probably carried over from pre-
Islamic Sasanian court lute traditions, and they went
by several other names: mizhar (a skin-backed lute),
muwattar (probably played with the thumb), and
barbat (a wood-backed lute). Other instruments men-
tioned during this period included the mizmar (a con-
ical double-reed wind instrument), daff (frame drum,
with or without metal discs), and dufuf (tambourine).
There are also references to the use of music at
feasts and in festive contexts such as weddings or
celebrations.

Although music, especially instrumental music, fell
out of favor under the orthodox caliphs, the fourth
caliph ‘Ali (r. 656-661 CE) provided considerably
more protection for the arts and set the stage for the
rise of court patronage during the Umayyad period

and the development of a courtly art/music-tradition.
The mid-seventh century also saw the rise of the male
professional musician, who typically came from a
more educated background and enjoyed a higher so-
cial status than the slave qaynat. There are even
accounts of rulers with acknowledged performing
skills, such as Caliph al-Walid II, who was accom-
plished as a singer, composer, and performer on the
‘ud and the drum.

With the dawn of the ‘Abbasid caliphate came the
start of what is often considered the “Golden Age” of
intellectual and artistic life. A considerable foreign
influence began to pervade the Arab domination of
the previous century, and there is early musical evi-
dence of this shift in the eighth- and early ninth-
century adoptions of new ‘ud tunings and string
names according to Persian methods. The primary
sites of music-making were still the courts and the
houses of wealthy or noble patrons, and the stage
for a flowering of the musical arts was set by such
rulers as Caliph Al-Mahdi (r. 775-785), who was
known to be particularly partial to the musical arts
and who was himself a singer.

The ‘Abbasid period also marked the start of an
extremely fertile era for Arabic music theory, includ-
ing writings on notes, scales, acoustics, intervals,
rhythm, modes, and composition. Although the foun-
dation had been laid by such earlier writers as Yunus
al-Katib and al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, some of the most
enduring contributions to music theory started with
the ninth-century exposure of Islamic scholars to an-
cient Greek treatises on subjects including mathemat-
ics, philosophy, astronomy, and music. Beginning
with the establishment of the Bayt al-Hikmal ( House
of Wisdom) by the Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833)
for the purpose of translating these sources into
Arabic, these theoretical treatises would constitute
the basis for music scholarship and art/music tradi-
tions over the next seven centuries and beyond in both
the Middle East and Europe.

Music Theory and Theorists

The ‘ud, which was considered the “instrument of
philosophers,” figures prominently in medieval
music theory, especially in discussions of modal sys-
tems that are often oriented toward particular frets
and fingerings. Most treatises deal with the ‘ud al
shabbut (perfect lute) that was introduced during the
early ‘Abbasid period: a wood-backed short-necked
lute with four strings and played with a plectrum
(probably also of wood). Rich in symbolism, ninth-
century writings tell of the biblical figure Lamech
creating the first ‘ud by arranging pieces of wood

533

MUSIC

that corresponded to the size and shape of his
dead son’s bones; treatises also point to cosmological
correspondences between the four strings and the four
elements, seasons, or humors of the body. The 'ud
was also considered to be one of the most perfect
imitators of the human voice, a characteristic that
gave it and other stringed instruments primacy in
most instrument classification systems of the period.
Other instruments described in medieval treatises in-
clude the tunbur; bowed strings such as the rabab
(spike fiddle) and kamanja (fiddle); the double-reed
mizmar, surna, and zammara; flutes and pipes such as
the nay, yara‘a, and armuniqi (pan-pipes); and zithers
called qanun and shahrud. There are also descriptions
of long, cylindrical, or hourglass-shaped tubul
(drums).

Although there are important treatises dating from
the mid to late-ninth century, such as the writings of
Al-Kindi (d. 873 CE), two very significant writers
appear in the tenth century: Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani
(897-967) and Abu Nasr al-Farabi (870-950). Al-
Isbahani’s Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs) is a vast
compendium of information about history, social
life, and music from the dawn of Islam to the tenth
century, including a number of song texts and infor-
mation on modal theory. Al-Farabi, who was born in
Turkey, is often considered one of the greatest Arab
philosophers. His major work, Kitab al-Musiqi al-
Kabir ( Grand Book on Music ) , marks a fundamental
intellectual shift from theory based on Greek philoso-
phy to theory based on actual, local practice.
Al-Farabi’s work formed the basis for a body of
theory shared across the Islamic empire, and his lega-
cy can be found in treatises throughout the rest of the
medieval period.

Writers who bear the mark of al-Farabi’s influence
include Ibn Sina (d. 1037), one of the most prominent
theorists of the next generation, and Safi al-Din
(d. 1294), who wrote the Kitab al-Adwar (Book of
Musical Modes). Safi al-Din’s work, which was
drawn from the contemporary music of his day, was
translated primarily into Persian and Turkish and is
considered to have its greatest effect on styles in those
regions. Kitab al-Adwar represents the first record of
the twelve-mode Persian system, which began to rise
in the eleventh century and upon which post-'Abbasid
Persian and Ottoman Turkish music theory is largely
based. Safi al-Din was also one of the first writers
to use the term maqam in reference to modes; this
term persists to the present day. Another writer
with a great influence on Persian-speaking areas was
‘Abd al-Qadir ibn Ghaybi al-Maraghi (d. 1435), an
‘ud player and music theorist who wrote in Persian
and made frequent reference to the work of Safi
al-Din.

Sufism and Music

The spread of Sufism was an important force in the
preservation and development of music in the medie-
val Middle East, with a particularly strong effect on
the evolution of Ottoman Turkish art music. In con-
trast with the swirl of debate surrounding the practice
of music in Islam, Sufi mysticism embraced the use of
both vocal and instrumental music and the principles
of sama‘ as a primary means for spiritual engagement.
A fundamental concept in Islam, sama‘ can literally
indicate "listening” or “audition,” but it also has a
range of more subtle meanings that relate to intent,
spiritual posture, and inward practice on the part of
the listener. Particularly in Sufi religious doctrine, this
concept incorporates, for example, the ideas of listen-
ing as an art form; a state of interior attentiveness;
contemplation; and the Qur’anic notion of hearing as
a mode of knowledge and as one that is more trust-
worthy than vision.

Sufi sama‘ (in Turkish, sema ) ceremonies incorpo-
rate melody, rhythm, poetry, movement, dress, and
other sensory and symbolic components. Among the
most well-known practitioners are the Mevlevi broth-
erhood, which was founded in thirteenth-century
Seljuk Turkey and rooted in the teachings of Celaled-
din-i Rumi (d. 1273). Sources suggest that the first
Mevlevi ensembles were comprised of the nay (a ver-
tical seven-holed reed flute) and the kudum (a small,
metal, double kettledrum), with the later addition of
the tunbur, rabab, and halile (cymbals). The nay,
which is found throughout the Middle East, is central
to Sufi practice and features prominently in Sufi sym-
bolism and poetry. Common metaphors include man
as a flute played by Allah or the plaintive sounds of
the nay as the flute crying for its reed bed, just as man
cries to be rejoined with God.

Other Regions and Styles

Music was also being cultivated and documented in
other parts of the empire. In al-Andalus and the
Iberian Peninsula, nearly eight centuries of Muslim
rule gave rise to a number of musical developments,
and a great deal is written about the influence of ‘Ali
ibn Nafi (also known as Ziryab), who arrived at the
Cordovan court from Baghdad in 822. Ziryab is wide-
ly acknowledged for his role in blending Christian
and Eastern musical forms, and, although accounts
differ, he is often credited with creating or improving
compound suite forms such as the nuba and making
changes to the ‘ud that include the addition of a fifth
string and the introduction of the eagle-feather plec-
trum. In addition to Andalusian court settings, music

534

MUSLIM COMMUNITY AND POLITY, OR UMMAH

also took place in evening entertainment sessions
called zambra, which are described in eleventh century
writings. These sessions took place in either palaces or
private homes and involved instrumental music, song,
and dance. Accounts of zambra tell of the use of
instruments including the ‘ud, tunbur, mi’zaf (zither),
and double-reed wind instruments such as the mizmar
and buq.

In the Tunisian Fatimid caliphate, which later had
its capital in Cairo, sources describe court art/music-
traditions as well as a particular emphasis on military
bands known as tabl-khanah (this term could refer to
either the ensemble or its repertoire). These ensembles
included trumpets, drums such as the naqqarat and
kusat , and cymbals or castanets (sunudj) and whistles
(safafir). There are also descriptions of military
Mehter and Janissary bands in Turkey as early as the
1550s, although these ensembles did not gain real
prominence until the Ottoman period. Scholars con-
tinue to debate the extent to which Crusaders’ expo-
sure to Islamic military bands may have influenced the
adoptions of such medieval European instruments as
the anafil trumpet and certain types of kettledrum.
Similar debates surround the origins of the European
lute and rebec, with suggestions that they may have
been derived from the ‘ud and rabab, respectively.

Sunni M. Fass

See also Singing; Poetry; Al-Farabi; Ziryab; Sufism;
Rumi

Further Reading

Browning, Robert H., et. al, eds. Maqcim: Music of the
Islamic World and its Influences. New York: Alternative
Museum, 1984.

Danielson, Virginia, Scott Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds,
eds. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume
6: The Middle East. New York: Routledge, 2002. Chap-
ters by Blum, Danielson, Neubauer, Sawa, Reinhard.
Farmer, Henry George. A History of Arabian Music to the
Xlllth Century. London: Luzac, 1929. Reprints 1967,
1996.

. The Sources of Arabian Music: An Annotated Bibli-
ography of Arabic Manuscripts Which Deal With the
Theory, Practice, and History of Arabian Music from
the Eighth to the Seventeenth Century. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1965.

Shiloah, Amnon. Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-
Cultural Study. Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University
Press, 1995.

MUSLIM COMMUNITY AND POLITY,
OR UMMAH

Ummah literally means community at varying scales,
ranging from the followers of a particular Prophet to

humanity as a whole. Even the different species of
animals form an ummah similar to human commu-
nities, according to the Qur’an, because they also
exhibit communal organization (6:38). Similar to the
millah (the religious community), the ummah is a
community that derives its identity from a commonly
shared religion, transcending regional, ethnic, and
racial allegiances. Each Prophet had an ummah
made up of people whom he was charged by God to
invite to the divine message, whether they accepted
him as a Messenger of God or not.

In the Qur’an, it was said that God would not hold
a community accountable without first sending them
a Messenger. This Messenger will testify about their
deeds on the Day of Judgment, with the Prophet
Muhammad testifying for the other Prophets as a
whole (4:41). Therefore, each community received its
Prophet (10:47). God sent some Prophets only to a
particular region, tribe, or nation, whereas some
Prophets were sent to humanity in general. The
Qur’an also states that, if God had so willed. He
could have made all of humanity a single ummah
without distinctions, divisions, or conflicts. By grant-
ing human beings the free will to reject divine guid-
ance as well as giving them accountability for their
own choices, God permits a diversity of faith among
human beings and the rise of religious communities
committed to different types of faith (2:213; 10:19).
God is the only one who knows exactly when a given
community will rise and when it will perish.

Because the Prophet Muhammad was sent to hu-
manity as a whole, all of humankind constitutes his
ummah, regardless of whether individual persons
have accepted his invitation to Islam or are still
being invited. Thus, the Constitution of Medina refers
to Jewish and pagan citizens of Medina as members
of the Prophet’s ummah. However, the term ummah is
more commonly used to refer to the global Muslim
community — the polity united around brotherhood in
Islamic faith. This conception signals a revolutionary
change from the allegiance to the tribal organization
that was then prevalent in Arabia to an allegiance
grounded in shared religion. It introduces a faith-
based identity and social organization that aims to
supersede conventional identities and organizations
on the basis of region, language, race, or nation.
The global Muslim ummah has been united around
the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad and has thus
shared a common moral and religious culture.
The unity of the ummah around a single point is
symbolized by turning toward the Ka’ba in the live
daily prayers from everywhere in the world. The
annual pilgrimage to the Ka’ba, the hajj, is another
manifestation of the unity of the ummah at the global
level.

535

MUSLIM COMMUNITY AND POLITY, OR UMMAH

Islamic theology and law require that the unity of
the ummah be reflected not only at the level of ritual
but also at the level of social and political organiza-
tion. The global Muslim community should be under
the leadership of a single caliph in both religious and
political affairs. However, the vast geographic span
of the Islamic world has not permitted such a
global unity as a single polity since the first century
of Islamic history.

The Qur’an draws parallels between an ummah
and an individual human being, particularly regard-
ing the time of their birth and death, which are set by
divine decree and beyond the reach of human beings
to change (7:34). As in the case of each individual,
each ummah is accountable for its own deeds (2:141).

In the Qur’an, the ummah of the Prophet
Muhammad is praised as the best community as a
result of enjoining what is right and forbidding what
is wrong (3:110, 104). It was only for the want of
this quality that previous communities had been cor-
rupted and destroyed. The Qur’an also describes the
Muslim ummah as a moderate or justly balanced
community that follows the middle path, away from
extremes, such that it can stand as witness over hu-
manity, while the Prophet Muhammad will in turn be a
witness over the ummah (2:143).

Consequently, the consensus of the ummah, which
is called ijma is a source of legitimacy in law and
policy making. Unlike the church organization in
Christianity or parliament in representative democra-
cies, there is no individual or organization that can
officially voice the will of the ummah. Instead, over-
lap in the opinions of independent and loosely affili-
ated scholars reflects the consensus of the ummah. In
cases of disagreement, the majority view does not
have the power to automatically rule out or override
the minority view. This is based on the principle of
free ijtihad, which stipulates that one informed opin-
ion cannot annul another informed opinion. Political
authorities, policy makers, and individuals are free to
choose among these scholarly opinions regardless of
whether the majority of the ummah subscribes to
them or not. However, if there is consensus on an
issue among the scholars, the state and the ummah
as a whole are bound by it.

Admission to the ummah is open, with the single
requirement of continual allegiance to Islamic faith,
law, and community. New members of the ummah are
automatically accepted as full citizens of the Islamic
state, regardless of where they live, and they are qual-
ified for the civil rights provided by it. From this
perspective, citizenship is defined as belonging to an
inclusive political community without territorial bor-
ders. While protecting the rights of the members of
the ummah, the Hanafi jurists limited law enforcement

by Muslim authority only within the territories of the
Islamic state (dar al-Islam). However, the rest of the
schools of law (maliki, shafii, and hanbali) refused
such a territorial limitation to the enforcement of
law in instances of protecting the rights of Muslims.
Excommunication from the ummah is not a known
practice in Islamic history. Although the renunciation
of faith privately out of personal conviction was
tolerated in Islamic history, public denouncement,
sacrilege, and blasphemy against Islam and thus
membership in the ummah, with a perceived attempt
to undermine Muslim community, was considered an
offense. Membership in the ummah is seen as an
interminable commitment and allegiance to the com-
munity and faith, thereby permanently excluding the
possibility of resignation.

Recep Senturk

Further Reading

al-Dihlawi, Shah Wali Allah. Difference of Opinion in Fiqh
(Al-Insaf). London: Ta Ha, 2003.

Johansen, Baber. Contingency in a Sacred Law: Legal and
Ethical Norms in the Muslim Fiqh , 238-62. Leiden: Brill,
1999.

Kandhlawi, Muhammad Zakariyya. The Differences of the
Imams (Iktilaf al-A ’imma). Santa Barbara, Calif: White
Thread, 2004.

al-Mawardi, Abu’l-Hasan. Al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah: The
Laws of Islamic Governance. London: Ta Ha, 2000.

MUSLIM IBN AL-HAJJAJ

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri was the author of
Sahih Muslim. After al-Bukhari’s al-JamV al-Sahih,
Muslim’s al-JamV al-Sahih is the most respected col-
lection of the hadith (the accounts of the words,
deeds, and opinions of the Prophet Muhammad) in
Islam.

In many ways, Muslim’s Sahih resembles that of al-
Bukhari, which has led to comparisons through the
ages. Both are roughly the same size; the traditional
figures given are that Muslim’s work contains twelve
thousand hadith with repetitions and three thousand
thirty three individual hadith without. Like al-
Bukhari, Muslim grouped his hadith according to the
legal, theological, or historical issue that they address.
In some quarters, his classification and presentation
have been regarded as preferable to al-Bukhari’s.

Both men were contemporaries and indeed shared
many of the same teachers. For reasons that are by no
means clear, it is unanimously asserted that al-
Bukhari’s collection predates that of Muslim. This
may well be based on nothing more than a general
impression created by the fact that Muslim took

536

MUSLIM BYZANTINE RELATIONS

some hadith from al-Bukhari, whereas there is no
evidence that the reverse ever occurred. Al-Bukhari’s
collection is also commonly regarded as superior
to Muslim’s as a repository of authentic hadith,
although the highly regarded Abu ‘Ali al-Hafiz
al-Nisaburi (AH 277/890 CE-349/960) and at least
some scholars in North Africa held the opposite
opinion.

Muslim’s introduction to his collection is a very
perplexing document. Among other things (including
what was later interpreted as an attack against al-
Bukhari), Muslim states that he included hadith
from transmitters of varying degrees of reliability in
his Sahih. For later scholars, reason seemed to neces-
sitate that there exclusively be transmitters of the
highest standard of reliability in a collection of au-
thentic hadith. It has been argued Muslim meant to
extend his work to cover less-authentic hadith but
never had a chance to do so. Others felt that the
less-reliable transmitters were only found in the isnads
of certain non-core hadith, which were included mere-
ly to clarify the authentic hadith. Still others have
argued that, although Muslim does include hadith
from unreliable transmitters, he also knew the same
texts from unimpeachable transmitters and chose to
include the former because they happened to have
shorter lines of transmission.

Muslim also left behind a number of monographs
about subjects that were associated with the study
of hadith. Of these, his Kitab al-Tamyiz, an
account of the actual methods the early authorities
used to authenticate hadith, is by far the most signifi-
cant. There can be no doubt that, when this book
receives adequate attention, a number of questions
about the great hadith collections will be answered.

Very little is known about Muslim’s life. He was
born in Nishapur shortly after 200/816. As was the
custom of the day, he traveled extensively throughout
the Islamic world to collect his hadith, and it is
claimed that he knew three hundred thousand. He
died in 261/875 in Nasrabadh, outside of Nishapur,
pehaps from eating too many dried dates at one sitting.

Eerik Dickinson

Primary Sources

al-Baghdadi, Al-Khatib. Ta’rikh Baghdad, 14 vols., vol. 13,

100-4. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1349/1931.

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri. Sahih Muslim, transl. A.

H. Siddiqui, 4 vols. Lahore, 1971.

. Kitab al-Tamyiz, ed. M.M. Azami. Riyadh.

Further Reading

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 6, 691-2. Leiden: E.J.

Brill, 1953.

Juynboll, G.H.A., transl. “Muslim’s Introduction to his
Sahih.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 5 (1984):
263-311.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 1,
136-43. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967.

MUSLIM-BYZANTINE RELATIONS

Byzantium was the prime target of Muslim attack by
virtue of its geographical position on the northwest-
ern edge of the caliphate. More important, though,
was the ideological challenge it presented. Not only
was Byzantium a political rival that remembered its
imperial past and believed in an imperial future (if
only on the eve of the End of Time), but it continued
to ascribe to itself a central role in God’s providential
scheme as the sole authorized managing agent
in earthly affairs. Worse still, it clung tenaciously
to a version of the true faith — over-intellectualized,
it could be argued, and with a polytheistic encrusta-
tion — that had been superseded by the Prophet’s
revelation.

There was much more to relations between Byzan-
tium and the Muslim world than open warfare. Reli-
gious polemic could be temporarily set aside.
Diplomatic and other conventions grew up that miti-
gated conflict. After the caliphate dissolved into a
number of regional powers, Byzantium could set its
Muslim neighbors against each other. There was
much commercial and cultural exchange. ‘Abbasid
magnates sponsored translations of Greek philosoph-
ical and scientific texts. The Byzantine court
responded by sending intellectuals as ambassadors
to Baghdad. Muslim fashions in dress and Muslim
decorative motifs were picked up in Byzantium. Mo-
narchical power in Islam as well as Byzantium man-
ifested itself in sumptuously decorated palaces and
carefully choreographed ceremonies in which auto-
mata as well as living beings played their part. Luxury
artifacts with intricate workmanship moved in both
directions in the course of diplomatic exchanges.
Nonetheless, war was the norm. Byzantium may be
characterized above all as a highly militarized society
in which the collective life was dominated by war
against Islam. That war had six distinct phases.

Warfare, 634-969 CE

(1) 634-718

After the conquest of Iran (642-652 CE), the prime
foreign policy aim of the caliphate was the destruction
of Byzantium. Hence, there were three concerted

537

MUSLIM BYZANTINE RELATIONS

attempts to take Constantinople, in 654, the 670s, and
717-718. Apart from a fleeting failure of nerve in 654,
when the whole population of Anatolia (the inhabi-
tants of the plateau, the mountains, and the coasts)
formally submitted, Byzantium fought back, trading
blow for blow, building a powerful fleet, and investing
in fixed defenses by land. However, the cost was high;
there was serious damage to the urban infrastructure
of Asia Minor during the course of forty years of
fighting before and after the second fitna.

(2) 718-ca. 840

Byzantium finally acknowledged its de facto loss of
imperial status (its self-image was now that of a latter-
day Chosen People, belabored from without but
guaranteed survival from above), and it abandoned
conventional warfare in favor of guerrilla methods.
These can be documented from 779, but they were
probably developed during preceding decades. They
involved the evacuation of civilians and livestock to
designated fortresses and refuge zones, the systematic
harassing of raiding forays and foraging parties, and
the concentration of effort on ambushing the Muslims
as they withdrew through the frontier passes. Such
tactics succeeded in preserving Byzantium’s dimin-
ished resource base over several generations. The ca-
liphate still directed major attacks against Byzantium,
but there were now longer intervals of relative calm.
The aim was now either incremental conquest or the
harvesting of booty and prestige, as in 781, when a
huge army, numbering just under ninety-six thousand
men and under the nominal command of the young
Harun al-Rashid, overran Asia Minor and entered
Bithynia, where only a resort to hostage-taking secured
the army’s escape from a Byzantine trap. A system of
forward bases ( thughur) that were well fortified and
permanently garrisoned was elaborated along the
frontier from Tarsus in Cilicia to Malatya (Melitene)
on the Euphrates, flanked to the north by Kalikala
(Theodosiopolis) in western Armenia. Twice the
Arabs came tantalizingly close to establishing a per-
manent presence inside Anatolia’s mountain rim: in
806, when Harun al-Rashid briefly gained control of
the whole length of the Cilician Gates, and in 833,
when al-Ma’mun secured a fortified bridgehead at
Tyana.

(3) ca. 840-969

During this phase, the task of prosecuting the war
against Byzantium increasingly devolved upon the
thughur and the volunteers who gathered there,

especially in the well-endowed charitable foundations
of Tarsus, a system that aroused Byzantine admira-
tion and envy. The war stabilized into one of Muslim
raid, by sea as well as land, and Byzantine counter-
raid. Conventions were established to facilitate the
exchange and ransoming of prisoners. A cross-cultur-
al sense of affinity and a shared heroic ethos grew up
in the borderlands, which, on occasion, led borderers
to frustrate the policies of the central authorities by
surreptitiously resupplying beleaguered enemy towns.
The Digenes Akrites, a hybrid epic romance rooted in
ninth- and tenth-century reality (although only writ-
ten down around 1100), captures the attitudes of the
frontier milieux. The balance of power and initiative
shifted steadily in Byzantium’s favor, but this change
was attributable more to Arab divisions than Byzan-
tine strength. A first orthodox counteroffensive (871-
883) ended in defeat outside Tarsus. After an inter-
lude during which Byzantium was preoccupied with
Bulgaria and Armenia (the latter a vital buffer against
Islam), a second offensive of unconventional charac-
ter was launched in the 920s. Precision diplomacy and
carefully targeted military action were directed into
the thughur. A succession of strategic cities capitu-
lated as each in turn was isolated and suffered a
steady erosion of its resources, both physical and
moral, through constant raiding. Malatya was the
first to be annexed in 934; Tarsus (evacuated by
jihad fighters carrying their small arms) and Antioch
were the last, in 965 and 969, respectively. These
successes, together with the reconquest of Crete
(961) and the extrusion of Muslims from joint rule
of Cyprus (965), reestablished Byzantium as a great
Near Eastern power.

Warfare, 969-1453 CE

(4) 969-1081

The Fatimid conquest of Egypt and much of Syria
transformed the geopolitical situation. Whereas
Egypt under the Ikhshidids had been neutralized
from 937, its massive resources were now in the
hands of a hostile, ideologically active power. Byzan-
tium responded first with shows of force in the Jazira
and Syria (972-975) and then pursued a cautious
policy of expansion in Transcaucasia, mainly through
diplomacy; it succeeded in annexing a large swath
of land (western Iberia, the kingdoms of Ani and
Vaspurakan) between 1000 and 1045. Access was
thus secured to a large supplementary reservoir of
Christian manpower. Byzantium’s eastern advance
was abruptly halted and reversed upon encountering

538

MUSLIM CRUSADER RELATIONS

the swifter-moving drive to the west of the Turks, the
third great power of the eleventh-century Near East.
First Armenia and then Anatolia came under attack
from Seljukid armies and Turkoman bands. The deci-
sive victory of the Sultan Alp Arslan at Manzikert in
1071 opened Anatolia to unrestricted raiding and
settlement over the following decade.

(5) 1081-1204

Pressing problems in the Balkans and involvements
further afield in Italy and Hungary may often have
distracted Komnenian emperors, but they did not
abandon hope of recovering Anatolia. Circumstantial
evidence suggests that the conception of launching a
Christian jihad (holy war) targeted at Jerusalem and
of using the Pope as its principal propagandist origi-
nated in Byzantium. Latin Christendom formed much
of the largest reservoir of Christian manpower on
which Byzantium would have to draw if it were to
confront the Turks on equal terms. Byzantine hopes
of recovering Anatolia while their western allies se-
cured the Holy Land found retrospective expression
in the Treaty of Devol (1108). The gains in Anatolia
were limited to the coastlands, and Byzantium had to
rely on its own diplomatic and military resources to
contain, subvert, and confront Turkish power. The
defeat of a full expeditionary army at Myriokephalon
in 1176 marked the end of this policy. Byzantium
itself, weakened by political intrigue and civil war,
soon fell prey to its erstwhile Western allies.

(6) 1204-1453

Both rump Byzantine states in Anatolia, the
“empires” of Nikaia and Trebizond, had to maneuver
for advantage in a Turkish-dominated world. The
Nikaian rulers proved to be more successful, and
they reconstituted a simulacrum of the Komnenian
state, which was first the plaything and then the prey
of the Ghazi-driven Ottoman Sultanate. While Byzan-
tines increasingly stressed their Hellenism, the Otto-
mans laid claim to Rome’s Trojan ancestry and finally
absorbed Constantinople, the New Rome, in 1453.

James Howard-Johnston

Further Reading

Ahrweiler, Helene. Byzance et la Mer: La Marine de Guerre,
la Politique et les Institutions Maritimes de Byzance aux
Vlle-XVe Siecles. Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1966.

Beaton, Roderick, and David Ricks, eds. Digenes Akrites:
New Approaches to Byzantine Heroic Poetry. Aldershot:
Variorum, 1993.

Bonner, Michael. Aristocratic Violence and Holy War: Stud-
ies in Jihad and the Arab-Byzantine Frontier. New Haven,
Conn: American Oriental Society, 1996.

Bryer, Anthony, and Michael Ursinus, eds. Manzikert to
Lepanto: The Byzantine World and the Turks, 1071-1571 .
Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1991.

Dagron, Gilbert. "Byzance et le Modele Islamique au Xe
Siecle: A Propos des Constitutions Tactiques de
L’Empereur Leon VI.” Comptes Rendus de VAcademie
des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1983): 219-42.

Dagron, Gilbert, and Haralambie Mihaescu. Le Traite sur
la Guerilla (De Velitatione) de L’Empereur Nicephore
Pliocas (963-969). Paris: Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique, 1986.

Eastmond, Antony, ed. Eastern Approaches to Byzantium.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.

El Cheikh, Nadia M. Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs. Cam-
bridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Grabar, Oleg. “The Shared Culture of Objects.” In Byzan-
tine Court Culture from 829 to 1204, ed. Henry Maguire,
115-29. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997.

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The
Graeco-Arabic. Translation Movement in Baghdad and
Early Abbasid Society (2nd—4th/8th-10th Centuries) .
London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1481. Istanbul:
Isis Press, 1990.

Lilie, Ralph-Johannes. Die Byzantinische Reaktion auf die
Ausbreitung der Araber: Studien zur Strukturwandlung
des Byzantinischen Staates im 7. und 8. Jhd. Munich:
Institut fiir Byzantinistik und Neugriechische Philologie
der Universitat, 1976.

. Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096-1204.

Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1993.

McGeer, Eric. Sowing the Dragon ’s Teeth: Byzantine War-
fare in the Tenth Century. Washington, DC: Dumbarton
Oaks, 1995.

Magdalino, Paul. “The Road to Baghdad in the Thought-
World of Ninth-Century Byzantium.” In Byzantium in
the Ninth Century: Dead or Alive?, ed. Leslie Brubaker,
195-213. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.

Mango, Cyril. "Discontinuity with the Classical Past in
Byzantium.” In Byzantium and the Classical Tradition,
eds. Margaret Mullett and Roger Scott, 48-57. Birming-
ham, Ala: Centre for Byzantine Studies, 1981.

Mango, Marlia. Byzantine Trade (4th-12th Centuries): Re-
cent Archaeological Work. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Runciman, Steven. The Fall of Constantinople 1453. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1965.

Shepard, Jonathan, and Simon Franklin, eds. Byzantine
Diplomacy. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1992.

Vasiliev, A. A. Byzance et les Arabes, 3 vols. Brussels: Insti-
tut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales/Fondation
Byzantine, 1935-1968.

MUSLIM-CRUSADER RELATIONS

Politically, Muslim-Crusader relations during the two
centuries of encounter in the Near East can be divided
into three principal phases. The first lasted from the
Frankish capture of Turcoman-held Antioch in AH
491/1098 CE until Tmad al-Din Zanki’s recovery of
Edessa (modern Urfa in southern Turkey) from the

539

MUSLIM-CRUSADER RELATIONS

Crusaders in AH 539/1144 CE. The period is charac-
terized by frequent accommodation between the two
camps. Local Muslim rulers often resorted to arms
against the western invaders, whose territory reached
its maximum extent during the period. However, they
feared co-religionist outsiders more than they did the
Franks, with whom they tended to make political and
military accords.

The second period, which lasted until the death of
Saladin in AH 589/1193 CE, is marked by a rise in
Muslim ideological fervor against the invaders. The
success of Muslim arms under Zanki and his son Nur
al-Din encouraged unity under the banner of jihad
(holy war). Uncompromising opposition to the Cru-
saders reached its peak with the capture of Jerusalem
by Saladin in AH 583/1187 CE.

The third and final period, which ended with the
capture of Frankish Acre by the Mamluks in AH 690/
1291 CE, sees a return to the detente of the first phase.
After the death of Saladin, competing Ayyubid inter-
ests often meant that expediency was put before jihad,
most notably when the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, al-
Malik al-Kamil, gave Jerusalem to Frederick II of
Sicily in AH 626/1229 CE.

Social relations between the two cultures were
marked in the beginning by mutual incomprehension
and hostility. Over time, however, second and suc-
ceeding generations of Franks were born (sometimes
of mixed marriages) who would live all their lives
in the East. Compromises began to be made in the
matter of customs and personal habit, mostly by the
newcomers, and a modus vivendi was achieved.

David Morray

See also Ibn Jubayr; Jihad; Pacts and Treaties; Peace
and Peacemaking; Syria: Greater Syria; Usama ibn
Munqidh; Zankids

Further Reading

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

Ibn Munqidh, Usama. Kitah al-Ttibar , transl. P.K. Hitti as

Memoirs of an Arab-Syrian Gentleman. Beirut, 1964.

MUSLIM-MONGOL DIPLOMACY

Almost immediately from the time that they shared a
border with the Muslim lands, the Mongols employed
diplomacy to further their strategy of expansion.
Having conquered Muslim territory, Mongol khans
and commanders continued to send out missives and
envoys to Muslim rulers who had yet to submit. Even
after the Mongol efforts at conquest in the Middle
East were stalled, after the battle of ‘Ayn Jalut, when

they were defeated by the Mamluks in 1260 CE, the
Ilkhanid Mongols based in Iran continued to dispatch
embassies to this enemy calling for their submission as
part of the war that lasted for some sixty years. Other
Mongol states, especially the Golden Horde, main-
tained contact with the Mamluks. Around 1320, the
Ilkhanate launched a diplomatic demarche that led to
the conclusion of the war against the Mamluks and
inaugurated a period of peace with them. A full dis-
cussion of Muslim-Mongol diplomacy should be
placed in a wider examination of Mongol diplomacy
vis-a-vis other sedentary states, especially those in
Europe. Such a discussion is impossible in the present
context; please see the bibliography below.

Genghis Khan initiated contacts with the Khwar-
azm-Shah ’Ala’ al-Din Muhammad, the ruler of the
eastern Muslim countries, after the latter captured
and put to death more than four hundred merchants
that arrived at his frontier from Mongol territory.
The Khan demanded restitution and punishment for
those responsible. The Khwarazm-Shah’s answer was
to execute the envoys with the exception of one, who
was sent back shaven. As is well known, the Khwar-
azm-Shah was to rue this action; other rulers were to
learn that they tampered with the safety of Mongol
envoys at their own risk. Genghis Khan, of course,
was unable to accept this humiliation, and he laun-
ched the campaign (1219-1223) that first brought the
Mongols to the Middle East.

As Mongol forces gradually expanded the territory
under their control, they came into contact with other
Muslim rulers. It appears that, on the whole, diplo-
matic contact was established by the local Mongol
commanders working under the general auspices of
the Great Khan in Mongolia. Many Muslim rulers
gradually had come to recognize the power of the
Mongols, and they saw no alternative to finding an
accommodation with them. Thus, in the mid- 1240s,
contacts were already established between the Mon-
gols and the Caliph al-Musta’sim (1242-1258), who,
in 1246, sent envoys to the Great Khan, and it seems
already that some type of submission was expressed.
Likewise, relations were established around this time
or a bit later between the Mongols and some of the
princes of Syria, Anatolia, and the Jazira. Thus, in
1254 CE, when the Franciscan William of Rubruck
reached the capital of the Great Khan Mongke, he
found an envoy of the Ayyubid ruler of Karak, “who
wanted to become a tributary and ally of the Tatars”
(Jackson and Morgan, 1990). The most important
Ayyubid ruler in Syria on the eve of the Mongol inva-
sion of the country, al-Nasir Yusuf (r. 1236-1260 in
Aleppo and after 1250 in Damascus), had sent an
envoy to the Mongol governor Arghun Aqa as early
as 1243 or 1244; the subsequent year, he was paying

540

MUSLIM MONGOL DIPLOMACY

tribute to the Mongols (and he may have been doing
so as early as 1241). In 1245 or 1246, this sultan sent a
relative to the Great Khan Giiytik (1246-1248), who
returned with an order defining the sultan’s
obligations to the Mongols. In 1250, yet another
envoy was dispatched to the Great Khan’s court.
The Ayyubid ruler of Mayyafariqin, al-Kamil
Muhammad, arrived at Mongke’s court in 1253,
made his submission, and found there Muslim princes
from Mosul and Mardin. It is clear, then, that years
before Hiilegii’s arrival in the area the majority of
Muslim princes in Iraq, Jazira, and Syria had made
some type of submission to the Mongols and that at
least some were paying tribute.

This is not the place to examine why many of these
rulers, including the caliph, responded belligerently to
Hiilegii upon his arrival in the area in the mid- 1250s,
despite their previous expression of submission. Prior
to his attacks on Baghdad and Syria, the Ilkhan cor-
responded with the Caliph al-Musta’sim and al-Nasir
Yusuf, and he called on them to submit or face the
consequences of attack and destruction. It should be
noted that, generally, the Mongols sent such calls for
surrender before they attacked; this was in parallel
with similar usage in Islamic law. In both cases, the
Muslim rulers remained defiant and suffered Mongol
attacks and conquests, and both were eventually
executed.

In the spring of 1260, Hiilegii sent a beautifully
crafted missive in Arabic (composed by the savant
Nasir al-Din Tusi and based on an earlier letter sent
to al-Nasir Yusuf ) to Qutuz, the new ruler of Mamluk
Egypt. The latter had the envoys cut in half, and he
had their heads prominently displayed in Cairo. This
was a clear message of defiance to the Mongols, to the
army, and to the local population; he made it obvious
that he meant business and that there was to be no
compromise with the Mongols. Qutuz soon set off on
the campaign that led to the victory at ‘Ayn Jalut.
Qutuz’s successor, Baybars (1260-1277), exchanged
several letters conveyed by envoys with Abagha
Ilkhan (1265-1282). These letters were generally tru-
culent, and it is clear that the intent was more in the
realm of psychological warfare than in real attempts
at diplomatic relations, let alone ending the war.

The Ilkhan Tegiider (1282-1284) initiated an ex-
change of letters with Sultan Qalawun (1279-1290).
The first impression from these letters is that the new
Ilkhan, a convert to Islam, was interested in ending
the state of war between the two states. A deeper
examination, however, shows that these letters are
really a more subtle demand for submission to the
Mongols, despite their Islamic style. The Mamluks, it
would seem, understood their true tenor, and they
were far from enthusiastic about the supposed calls

for peace. In any event, Tegiider’s short reign ended
any chance of a transformation of the essence of
Mamluk-Ilkhanid relations. During the reign of
Arghun Ilkhan (1284—1291), there was no evidence
of any diplomatic contact between the two states.
Overtly belligerent letters were exchanged by the Sul-
tan al-Ashraf Khalil (1290-1293) and Geikhatu
(1291-1295). The former, fresh from his victories at
Acre and Qal’at al-Rum in eastern Anatolia,
threatened to invade Iraq. His assassination, howev-
er, nipped this plan in the bud. The Ilkhan Ghazan
(1295-1304) launched a series of invasions against
Syria, even enjoying some success, although he was
unable to hold the country after his victory in Wadi
al-Khaznadar in central Syria in 1299. Interspersed
with these campaigns, he exchanged letters with the
young Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (second reign,
1299-1309). Again, the Ilkhan called on the Mamluks
to submit, although his claims are couched largely in
Islamic terms. The Mamluks, for their part, rejected
all of Ghazan’s claims out of hand, disparaging the
Islam of the newly converted Mongols in the process.
Oljeitii Ilkhan (1304-1316) sent the Mamluks a letter
soon after gaining the throne, calling for peace. Here,
too, the Mamluk leadership realized that these were
hollow claims and responded in kind. Only several
years after Abu Sa’id (1316-1335) ascended the Ilkha-
nid throne did the Mongols of Iran open up with a
real peace offensive that recognized the status quo.
Initial contacts were carried out by the international
slave trader al-Majd al-Sallami, and soon official
envoys were bringing letters. A treaty was ratified in
1323, and this led to a period of peaceful coexistence
until the demise of the Ilkhanate in 1335.

Under Baybars, diplomatic relations were main-
tained with the Mongol Golden Horde, which ruled
the steppe region north of the Black and Caspian
Seas. The Jochid Khans of the Golden Horde were
engaged in a war with their Ilkhanid cousins, and
both the Jochids and the Mamluk sultans were inter-
ested in cooperation, perhaps even in a joint offensive
against their common enemy. Islam played a part in
these relations, because some of the Jochid Khans
were Muslims; however, even those who were pagans
maintained warm relations with the Sultans. Evident-
ly, other, more practical matters of state were behind
these relations. Given the great distance between the
Golden Horde and the Mamluk Sultanate, no joint
campaign was ever organized, but the importance of
the second front, where the Ilkhans had to fight on
occasion and thus could not always devote themselves
to the war against the Mamluks, was of great impor-
tance to the latter. In addition, diplomatic relations
with the Golden Horde guaranteed the continual
supply of young mamluks (military slaves) to the

541

MUSLIM-MONGOL DIPLOMACY

sultanate from among the Turkish and even the
Mongol tribesmen of this steppe area. The impor-
tance of these relations declined somewhat with the
improvement of relations between the Mamluks and
the Ilkhanate. There were also occasional relations
with the Mongol rulers of Central Asia, and these
were often at odds with their Ilkhanid relations;
however, this was of minor importance in the long run.

Reuven Amitai

See also Genghis Khan; Miamluks; Mongols

Further Reading

Allouche, Adel. “Tegtider’s Ultimatum to Qalawun.” Inter-
national Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 22 (1990):
437M6.

Amitai, Reuven. “The Resolution of the Mongol-Mamluk
War.” In Mongols, Turks and Others: Eurasian Nomads
and the Sedentary World, eds. Reuven Amitai and
Michal Biran. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. “An Exchange of Letters in Arabic
between Abaya Ilkhan and Sultan Baybars (A.H. 667 /
A.D. 1268-9).” Central Asiatic Journal. 38 (1994): 11-33.

. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-lkhanid War

1260-1281. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1995.

Boyle, John A. “The Il-Khans of Persia and the Princes of
Europe.” Central Asiatic Journal 2Q (1976): 25-40.

Holt, Peter M. “The Ilkhan Almad’s Embassies to
Qalawun: Two Contemporary Accounts.” Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 49 (1986): 128-32.

. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the

Eleventh Century to 1517. Chapter 18. Diplomatic
and Commercial Relations of the Mamluk Sultanate.
London: Longman, 1986.

Horst, Heribert. “Eine Gesandschaft des Mamluken al-
Malik al-NaOir im Illanhof in Persien.” In Der Orient
in der Forschung: Festschrift fur Otto Spies, ed. Wilhelm
Hoenerbach. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1967.

Humphreys, R.S. From Saladin to the Mongols:The Ayyu-
bids of Damascus 1192-1260. Albany, NY: State Univer-
sity of New York Press, 1977.

Jackson, P., and D. Morgan. The Mission of Friar William
of Rubruck, 184. London, 1990.

de Rachewiltz, Igor. Papcd Envoys to the Great Khans.
London: Faber and Faber, 1971.

Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy, ed.
and transl. Thomas N. Haining. Oxford, UK: Blackwell,
1991.

AL-MUTANABBI, ABU’L-T A YYIB
AHMAD IBN AL-HUSAYN AL-JUTI

Arabic poetry during the tenth century remained
bound by conventions originating in pre-Islamic Ara-
bia, with poets of the period still expected to employ
the traditional qasida (ode) form. Abu’l-Tayyib
Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Ju‘fi al-Mutanabbi, whose
name for succeeding generations became synonymous

with the accolade “great poet,” was born in the Iraqi
city of Kufa in 915 CE. Despite the apparent poverty
of his origins — his father was a water-carrier — al-
Mutanabbi was educated at one of the best schools
in Kufa (one with decidedly Shi‘i leanings). In late
924, in accordance with the custom among poets and
philologists of the period who viewed the Bedouin as
the true repository of pure Arabic speech and elo-
quence (and probably also escaping the turmoil in
Kufa after the Qarmatian invasion), al-Mutanabbi
went to live for a period of two years among the
south Arabian Bedouin of the Samawa in the Syrian
desert, a sojourn that left its mark on both his psyche
and his poetry.

During the early stages of his career, al-Mutanabbi
worked in Baghdad and throughout Syria as the in-
termittent panegyrist of a number of rich bourgeois
and Bedouin tribal chiefs. Even at this point, his
masterful engaging of the Arab poetic tradition
inspired the charge of plagiarism, which would plague
him throughout his career. At the same time, several
of the hallmarks of his style, including frequent use of
antithesis, an emphasis on conciseness of expression,
and careful attention to the musical quality of his
verses, were already discernible in his poetry. Arro-
gant by nature and frustrated by the world's indiffer-
ence, al-Mutanabbi eventually turned to violence as a
means to attain the power and wealth that he saw as
his due. It is from the insurrection he led in the
Samawa region of Syria (ca. 933) that his name al-
Mutanabbi (“the would-be prophet”) derives. This
rebellion, perhaps Qarmatian in origin, resulted in a
two-year imprisonment for al-Mutanabbi. The poet
himself later stated that he had never claimed to be a
prophet and that his sobriquet, initiated by others,
stemmed from a verse in which he likened himself to
the pre-Islamic Arabian prophet, Salih, mentioned in
the Qur’an.

The various patrons that al-Mutanabbi eulogized
during the early part of his career were but a prelude
to his nine-year relationship (middle of 948-middle
of 957) with the Hamdanid prince Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali
ibn Abi’l-Hayja’ Sayf al-Dawla, which must be con-
sidered the heyday of al-Mutanabbi’s career. Bask-
ing in the luxury of an opulent and intellectually
vibrant court and indulged by a dynamic patron, al-
Mutanabbi produced some of his most celebrated
poetry. His panegyrics to Sayf al-Dawla bespeak
the poet’s pleasure at singing the praises of one he
deemed a true Arab leader and a champion of Islam
against the Byzantines; these demonstrated a measure
of real affection mixed with the conventional praise
of premodern Arabic poetry. At the same time, al-
Mutanabbi’s ability to capitalize on small details
or events to diversify his odes helped minimize the

542

AL-MUTANABBI, ABU’L-TAYYIB AHMAD IBN AL-HUSAYN AL-JU‘FI

monotony that the all-important panegyric form
sometimes experienced at the hands of a less-talented
artist. The poet’s affection for his patron also ren-
dered more emotionally resonant the many elegies
that al-Mutanabbi wrote about members of Sayf al-
Dawla’s family. In addition, al-Mutanabbi directly
participated in almost all of his patron’s military
campaigns, and he recorded these events in poems
such as his famous ode about the recapture of the
fortress town of Hadath from the Byzantines. This
poem conveys an epic quality that is reminiscent of
the Amorium poem of Abu Tammam (ca. 805-845),
whom al-Mutanabbi admired both for his poetry and
for the Yemenite origins that they shared.

The poetry from this period illustrates al-Muta-
nabbi’s ability to stretch the limitations placed on
the poet by convention through manipulation — and
sometimes omission — of the traditional amatory pre-
lude, which he often replaced with lyrical and philo-
sophical versifying about life and its paradoxes as well
as his own feelings of pessimism and frustration. It is
perhaps this irrepressible insertion in his poems of a
measure of personal feeling and individual presence at
a time when conventional taste least encouraged it
that is al-Mutanabbi’s greatest gift to Arabic poetry,
and it at least in part explains the great admiration
he inspired in subsequent generations. Many of al-
Mutanabbi’s gnomic lines have entered popular Arab
culture as a result of their concision and the acoustical
and semantic symmetry of their construction, which
render them easy to remember.

In 957, al-Mutanabbi fled the Hamdanid court, a
victim of both the plotting of enemies at court and
his own insensitivity and arrogance. He made his way
to the court of the Ikhshidid regent of Egypt, Abu’l-
Misk Kafur, who represented, in the poet’s eyes, the
antithesis of the ideal patron. The opulence and intel-
lectual fertility of his new environment were not
enough to extinguish al-Mutanabbi’s shame at having
to eulogize a former slave, whom he considered inher-
ently inferior. Al-Mutanabbi’s live years in Egypt
yielded not only biting satire focusing on the race,
ugliness, and slave origins of the patron he so pro-
foundly resented but also praise poetry that barely
disguised a dangerously satirical subtext. By this
point in his career, al-Mutanabbi was the recognized
master of a school of poetry, and he continued to be
the center of enthusiastic circles of admirers and
students who discussed, annotated, and preserved
his work under the poet’s direct guidance. Among
his most devoted students was the philologist Abu’l-
Fath ‘Uthman Ibn Jinni (d. 1002). Eventually, even
some of his archenemies — including the literary theo-
rist Abu ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Hatimi (d. 998), who
had excoriated al-Mutanabbi for his so-called

plagiarisms and borrowings from Hellenistic philoso-
phy — came to acknowledge, albeit grudgingly, his
excellence as a poet. Although panegyric was the
main focus of al-Mutanabbi’s poetry, as the econom-
ics of the contemporary poetic culture demanded, he
had the distinction of having produced several hunt-
ing poems and even lyrical descriptions of nature.
Leaving Persia in 965, probably to return to Sayf al-
Dawla’s court, al-Mutanabbi was attacked outside
Wasit in Iraq and killed, along with his son, by a
Bedouin chief who was the uncle of the Qarmatian
rebel whom al-Mutanabbi had satirized a year earlier.
Perhaps no other premodern Arab poet has had
such a profound and sustained influence over the evo-
lution of Arabic poetry, even into the modern era. Al-
Mutanabbi’s poetry provided one of the primary mod-
els for the neoclassical poets of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, who were bent on revitaliz-
ing Arabic poetry by reconnecting it to its glorious
poetic heritage. His influence extended across the
Arab East and North Africa and even into Persia.

Margaret Larkin

See also Abu Tammam; Elegy; Epic Poetry; Hamda-
nids; Ikhshidids

Primary Sources

Barquqi, ‘Abd al-Rahman. Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi ( Ex-
planation of the Collected Poetry of al-Mutanabbi) ,
2 vols., 4 parts. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1980.
al-Ma‘arri, Abu’l-‘Ala’. Sharh Diwan Abi’l-Tayyib al-
Mutanabbi: Mu'jiz Ahmad (Explanation of the Collected
Poetry of Abu’l-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi: Ahmad’s Mira-
cle), 4 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1988.
al-‘Ukbari, Abu’l-Baqa’. Sharh Diwan Abi’l-Tayyib al-
Mutanabbi (Explanation of the Collected Poetry of
Abu’l-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi), 2 vols., 4 parts. Beirut:
Dar al-Ma‘rifa, 1978.

al-Wahidi al-Nisaburi, Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Ahmad. Diwan
al-Mutanabbi: Sharh Abi’l-Hasan ’Ali ibn Ahmad al-
Wahidi al-Nisaburi (The Collected Poetry of Abu’l-
Tayyib al-Mutanabbi'. Commentary by Abi’l-Hasan ’Ali
ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi al-Nisaburi) . Berlin, 1821.
al-Yaziji, Nazif. al-’Arf al-Tayyib fi Sharh Diwan Abi’l-
Tayyib (The Sweet Fragrance in Explaining the Diwan
of Abu’l-Tayyib ), 2 vols. Beirut: Dar Sadir.

The diwan (collected poetry) of al-Mutanabbi with com-
mentary, listed by commentator:

Further Reading

Blachere, Regis. Un Poete Arabe du IV* Siecle de L'Hegire
(Jf Siecle de J.-C.): Abou t-Tayyib al-Motanabbi (Essai
D ’Histoire Litteraire) ( An Arab Poet of the Fourth Century
A H. (Tenth Century A. D.): Abu’l-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi
(An Essay in Literary History). Paris: Librairie

d’Amerique et d’Orient, Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1935.

Hamori, Andras. The Composition of Mutanabbi’s Panegy-
rics to Sayf al-Dawla. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992.

543

AL-MUTANABBI, ABU’L-TAYYIB AHMAD IBN AL-HUSAYN AL-JUTI

Heinrichs, Wolfhart. “The Meaning of Mutanabbi In Po-
etry and Prophecy: The Beginnings of a Literary Tradi-
tion, ed. James L. Kugel. Ithaca, NY, 1990.

Husayn, Taha. Ma’a al-Mutanabbi (With al-Mutanabbi),
12th ed. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1980.

Latham, J.D. “Towards a Better Understanding of al-
Mutanabbi’s Poem on the Battle of al-Hadath.” Journal
of Arabic Literature X (1979): 1-22.

Shakir, Mahmud Muhammad. al-Mutanabbi, 2 vols. Cairo:
Matba‘at al-Madani, 1976.

MU‘T AZILITES

The MiTtazilites were a group of Muslim theologians
that first appeared during the early eighth century and
dominated Muslim theology during the ninth and
tenth centuries. They emerged from the earlier group
of Qadarites, who engaged in the theological dispute
about human free will versus divine predestination.
Qadarites, who were active in Basra, argued that
humans have power (qadar) over their actions and
are therefore morally responsible for them. They ar-
gued against a conservative group of scholars who held
that the power to act lies with God, whose omnipo-
tence determines human actions. Later Mu‘tazilites
claimed that, around the year 740 CE, the Basrian
scholar Wasil ibn Ata’ (699-749) disputed with his
colleague ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd (699-761) and convinced
him that the teaching of the prominent Qadarite
Hasan al-Basri (642-728), namely that the grave sin-
ner is an “unbeliever”, is wrong. Wasil ibn Ata’,
together with ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd, is credited with hav-
ing formed a new group that called itself “those who
set themselves apart” ( al-mufitazila) . The name
A7 u ‘taz Hites, however, referred to a number of theo-
logians and their students, and not all saw themselves
as connected to Wasil and ‘Amr; what brought them
together was their rationalist approach toward Mus-
lim theology. Various positions of this group devel-
oped into a school of thought that centered around
five principles: (1) God's unity (tawhid); (2) God’s
justice (fiadl); (3) God’s sincerity regarding the prom-
ised rewards and punishments for human deeds; (4)
grave sinners should not be subject to legal sanctions
as long they have committed no crime, although they
should still be morally shunned (“the state between
the two states”); and (5) the obligation to call for
morally good deeds and forbid bad ones.

After the ‘Abbasid revolution in 750, the Mu‘tazi-
lites became the leading theological direction in Basra
and the new capital, Baghdad. Mu‘tazilite theologians
were favored by the early ‘Abbasid caliphs, particu-
larly by al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833) and his successors
during the mihna (test). Although he himself was
not committed to Mu‘tazilite theology, al-Ma’mun

unsuccessfully tried to force Muslim scholars to ac-
cept the Mu‘tazilite position that the Qur’an had been
created in time as opposed to being eternal. During
the first half of the ninth century, leading proponents
of the Mu‘tazilites in Baghdad — most prominently
Abu 1-Hudhayl (d. 842) and al-Nazzam (d. ca. 840) —
developed Mu‘tazilite theology into a system that
included explanations of physical processes, God’s
nature, His relationship with creation, and ethics. A
second intellectual peak was reached during the turn
from the tenth to the eleventh century, when a circle
around the Qadi Abd al-Jabbar (d. 1025) in Rayy
(modern Tehran, Iran) formulated the most compre-
hensive treatment of the school’s theology. Although
Mu‘tazilites continued to be influential in regions on
the edge of the Islamic world (in Yemen or in Khwar-
ezm, modern north Uzbekistan), their influence on
theological debates in the center diminished during
the eleventh century. One of their last proponents
was al-Zamakhshari (d. 1144), whose commentary
on the Qur’an, The Reconnoiterer ( al-Kashshaf) , had
a great influence on all later books of this genre.

Mu‘tazilite theology was part of Kalam, the ratio-
nalist technique of defending articles of faith. Al-
though it stood under the influences of concepts in
Greek philosophy, it developed quite independently
thereof. The systematic character of Mu‘tazilite the-
ology focuses on the two principles of God’s unity
and God’s justice. Mu‘tazilites rejected all suggestions
of anthropomorphism ( tashbih ) in the divine, and
they taught that the relationship between God and
his attributes (sifat) is totally unlike, for instance,
that of humans and the attributes they have. God is
believed to be the perfect mode of attributes like
“knowing” or “just” that he ascribes to himself in
the Qur’an. Al-Nazzam taught that “God is by him-
self continuously knowing, living, powerful, hearing,
seeing, and eternal, not through a (separate) knowl-
edge, power etc. (that he has).” God is perfect unity,
and none of his attributes can be distinct from him.
His attributes are not entities, like knowledge, that are
inherent in Him as they are in the case of humans. The
way in which God is “knowing,” “powerful,” or
“just” is, according to the Mu‘tazilites, different
from what humans know as knowledge, power, and
justice only through their deficiencies. Mu‘tazilites
maintained that divine justice, for instance, is the
perfection of the kind of justice that is innately
known to humans. They had to admit that destruc-
tion through natural disasters must be just punish-
ment for immoral acts that could have been avoided.
Acting according to the morals of the one justice that
is both divine and human would, in turn, force God
to grant salvation. Although this point led to the
heavily moralistic outlook of the Mu‘tazilite school,

544

MYSTICISM, JEWISH

it also made it vulnerable to the attacks of Sunni
theologians, mostly of the Ashfiarite school, who
argue that humans can have no full knowledge of
divine justice, or, more generally, no full knowledge
of God’s attributes as such.

Frank Griffel

Further Reading

Dhanani, Alnoor. The Physical Theory of Kalam: Atoms,
Space, and Void in Basrian Mufitazi Cosmology. Leiden:
Brill, 1994.

van Ess, Josef. Theologie unci Gesellschaft im 2. und 3.
Jahrhundert Hidschra. Eine Geschichte des Religiosen
Denkens im Friihen Islam , 6 vols. Berlin and New York:
De Gruyter, 1991-1997.

. "Mu'tazilah.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mir-

cea Elieade, vol. 10, 220-9. New York: Macmillian,
1987.

Gimaret, Daniel. “Miftazila.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
2nd ed., vol. 7, 783-93. Leiden: Brill, 1993.

Hourani, George F. Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of Abd
al-Jabbar. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Martin, Richard C., Mark R. Woodward, and Dwi S.
Atmaja. Defenders of Reason in Islam. Mu’tazilism from
Medieval School to Modern Symbol. Oxford, UK: One-
world, 1997.

Watt, William M. The Formative Period of Islamic Thought.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973.

Wolfson, Harry. The Philosophy of the Kalam. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard University Press, 1976.

MYSTICISM, JEWISH

Jewish mysticism, which is rooted in ancient biblical
and rabbinic literature, is not exclusively limited to
Qabbalah, which is the best known of its expressions.
There existed pre-Qabbalistic forms of Jewish esoteri-
cism, some of which, like many of the later major
developments of Qabbalah itself, flourished in an
Islamic environment.

Beginnings in the East

Chronologically, it was Jewish mysticism that initially
influenced Sufism. Although they recognize Neopla-
tonic and Christian influence on the evolution of early
Sufi practice and doctrine, scholars have neglected the
considerable impact of Jewish spirituality and piety
on its formative period in Baghdad, the contemporary
seat of great centers of Talmudic learning. Sufi hagi-
ography has preserved many isra’iliyyat, edifying
tales involving “the pious men from among the Chil-
dren of Israel,” which are traceable to rabbinic
sources. These were supposedly transmitted through

interreligious contacts or Jewish conversions to Islam,
some of which took place precisely in Sufi circles in
Baghdad, where Jews would attend lectures. Some
scholars have dated to the post-Islamic era of the
Ge’onim (ninth century CE) the composition of the
enigmatic essay of Hebrew cosmogony, known as
the Sefer yezirah or Book of Creation, which became
the speculative framework of numerous systems of
Jewish philosophy and mysticism. L. Massignon
linked its cosmic semiotics and mystical phonetics to
Arabic grammar and Shi‘i gnosticism, a view that was
recently defended by S. Wasserstrom. Its first recor-
ded commentaries were composed in Judeo-Arabic
between the ninth and thirteenth centuries and were
of a philosophical and theological approach.

The Golden Age of Spain

Andalusia was a fertile terrain of intercultural
exchange where Sufism flowered early during the
tenth century, notably through the teachings of Ibn
Masarrah (886-931), whose system involved the “sci-
ence of letters.” These arithmological speculations,
known as gematriyah, were also a central part of
Jewish exegesis and esotericism since Talmudic times
(third to fourth centuries). Similarities between these
two approaches suggest mutual interaction, probably
in Muslim Spain, where this discipline was highly
developed by Mulyi al-Din ibn Arab! (d. 1240), who
reports that he discussed this subject with a Jewish
rabbi. Sufi traces are perceptible in the religious
poetry of the great Hispano-Hebrew bards, such as
Solomon ibn Gabirol (d. ca. 1057) and Judah Halevi
(1075-1141). The first Jewish medieval work to
betray clear Sufi influence was, however, Balya ibn
Paqudah’s Fara’i al-Qulub (Duties of the Hearts), a
treatise about ascetic theology that was composed in
Arabic around 1080. It indicates the availability of
Sufi sources in Muslim Spain, where it was the first
fully fledged Sufi manual to have been composed. To
revitalize Jewish ritual formalism, Balya devised a
spiritual itinerary that follows the stages of the Sufi
Path, although it rejects the possibility of union with
God and eschews extreme forms of Sufi asceticism.
One of the first classics of Judaeo-Arabic literature to
be translated into Hebrew, it became an important
channel for the percolation of Sufi notions in Jewish
spirituality, remaining popular among Qabbalists and
mystics right down to the eighteenth century. Draw-
ing on al-Qushayri’s Risalah (Epistle), one of Suf-
ism’s basic textbooks, Joseph ibn ‘Aqnin’s allegoric
Arabic commentary (twelfth century) about the Song
of Songs resembles a Sufi treatise about divine love.

545

MYSTICISM, JEWISH

His Tibb al-Nufus (Hygiene of the Souls) quotes
al-Junayd (d. 910) and Ibn Adham, referring to
them by their Sufi epithets: Shaykh at-Ta’ifah (“the
elder of the community”) and al-RuIani al-Akmal
(“the perfect spirit”).

The Jewish Pietist Movement in Egypt

Through Ayyubid and Mamluk protectors, Sufism
prospered in Egypt, attracting a host of charismatic
figures, such as Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili (d. 1258),
Muhammad al-Badawi (d. 1276), Abu’ 1-Abbas
al-Mursi (d. 1287), and Ibn Ata’ Allah (d. 1309).
Progressively institutionalized in the form of brother-
hoods and monasteries (khanqahs) in the urban cen-
ters, its infectious religious fervor had repercussions
on the local Jewish populations, whose mystical re-
ceptivity had been heightened by the contemporary
social and intellectual unrest. By the time of the great
scholar Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), many Jews,
who were referred to in contemporary documents as
hasidim (“pious ones”), had already begun to adopt
the Sufi way of life. This attraction is reflected in the
numerous Sufi writings discovered in the Cairo Geni-
zah, which include pages from the principal masters
copied into Hebrew letters. The same source also
yielded Sufi-inspired Jewish ethical manuals, theolog-
ical treatises, definitions of mystical states, and
exegetical works that reinterpreted scriptural narra-
tive in harmony with Sufi doctrine, often portraying
biblical figures as masters of the Sufi path. They are
not, however, simple Judaized adaptations of Muslim
texts but rather original compositions that were
dexterously transposed in the biblical and rabbinic
texture.

This pietistic tendency gained momentum with the
appointment in 1213 of Abraham (1186-1237), the
son of Moses Maimonides, as the spiritual leader
(nagid) of Egyptian Jewry. An ardent protagonist of
Judeo-Sufi pietism, in his commentary on the Penta-
teuch, Abraham Maimonides depicted the ancient
biblical characters as pietists in the same way as Sufi
literature portrays the Prophet and his companions as
Sufis. His Kifdyat a l- Abidin ( Compendium for the Ser-
vants of God), a monumental legal and ethical trea-
tise, displays a strong propensity for mysticism of a
non-Qabbalistic and manifestly Muslim type. He
overtly expresses admiration for Sufis in whom he
sees the heirs of ancient Israelite traditions. He wist-
fully acknowledges that the Sufi initiation ritual,
which consists of the investiture of the master’s
cloak (khirqah) and the Sufi ascetic discipline as
well as the necessity of spiritual guidance under an

accomplished master, were originally practiced by the
prophets of Israel. Like al-Ghazali, Abraham Mai-
monides emphasized the spiritual significance of the
precepts and their “mysteries,” which were partly
rediscovered in the traditions preserved by the Sufis.
Calling themselves “the disciples of the prophets,” the
pietists adopted manifestly Muslim customs, believing
that they were an integral part of an original “pro-
phetic discipline,” the restoration of which would
hasten the promised return of prophecy. Clearly
inspired by Muslim models, Abraham enacted several
ritual “reforms” with the purpose of enhancing the
decorum and purport of synagogue worship. Consid-
ered especially meritorious by Sufi authors, the ablu-
tion of hands and feet, although not strictly required
by Jewish law, became a prerequisite to prayer.

Following Muslim custom, worshippers were
arranged in rows and faced Jerusalem at all times
during the synagogue service. He prescribed various
postures during prayer, such as standing, kneeling,
frequent bowing, the spreading of the hands, and
weeping in supplication. In addition to canonical
prayers, nightly vigils and daily fasts were instituted,
as was solitary worship (khalwah), a practice that was
characteristic of Sufism and that required retirement
from society for protracted periods in an isolated and
dark place. Although contrary to the Jewish tradition
of communal prayer, Abraham Maimonides consid-
ered it to be of Hebrew origin. The hasidim also refer
to dhikr, or “spiritual recollection,” which is a typi-
cally Sufi ritual; so far, however, no details have been
discovered describing how it was performed in Jewish
circles. Because of their protracted devotions, the
pietists established special prayer halls; Abraham
Maimonides himself possessed his own private syna-
gogue. Other pietist innovations included ascetic
aspects. In contrast with traditional Jewish ethics,
they advocated celibacy like certain Sufis, and they
considered marriage and family responsibilities to be
an impediment to spiritual fulfilment. The association
of the Maimonides family with Sufi-type pietism en-
dured for nearly two centuries. Abraham’s own son,
Obadyah Maimonides (1228-1265), showed strong
leanings toward Sufism in his al-Maqala al-hawdiyyah
(The Treatise of the Pool), an ethico-mystical manual
based on the typically Sufi comparison of the heart to
a pool that must be cleansed before it can be filled
with the vivifying waters of gnosis.

David ben Joshua (ca. 1335-1415), last known of
the Maimonideans, was also interested in Sufism. The
progressive, spiritual program presented in his
Judeo-Arabic work al-Murshid ila t-Tafarrud (The
Guide to Detachment ) embodies the most far-reaching
synthesis of traditional rabbinical and Sufi ethics.
For example, since the first step on the path to

546

MYSTICISM, JEWISH

perfection is motivated by the quest for light, he
derives the initial stage, zehirut, originally signifying
in Hebrew “precaution,” from the root zhr (“to
shine”), following the Illuminationist notion of ish-
raq. Certain Judeo-Sufi personalities were associated
with the Maimonidean dynasty. Rabbi Hanan’el ben
Samuel al-Amshati, not only a member of Abraham
Maimonides’ rabbinical court but also his father-in-
law, authored exegetical works that resound with
philosophical and Sufi notions. A committed pietist
(several Genizah documents refer to him as he-Idsid
[the pietist]), he actively defended the movement, al-
though its novel practices and doctrines had come
under attack. In his mystical commentary on the
Song of Songs, Abraham Abu Rabi‘a he-Iasid
(d. 1223) interpreted the book as an allegorical
dialogue between the mystic intoxicated with divine
love and the object of his desire, the beatific vision.
Despite Abraham Maimonides’ political and reli-
gious prestige, the pietist movement, like many reviv-
alist trends in religious history, met with virulent
opposition.

The pietists were accused of introducing “false
ideas,” “unlawful changes,” and “gentile (Sufi) cus-
toms,” and they were even denounced to the Muslim
authorities. Although Abraham excommunicated his
opponents, opposition continued during the office as
nagid of Abraham’s son, David Maimonides (1222-
1300), who, after the closure of his synagogue, was
compelled to leave Egypt, seeking refuge in Akko. As
a result of its elitist character, together with this op-
position, the movement gradually disappeared with
the general decline of Oriental Jewry.

Later Influences

Sufism continued sporadically to fascinate individual
Jews. According to the biographer al-Kutubi, the
thirteenth-century Sufi al-Hasan Ibn Hud would
study Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed with the
Jews of Damascus. The sixteenth-century Egyptian
mystic al-Sha’arani relates in his autobiography that
Jews would attend his lectures and ask him to write
amulets to protect their children. Qaraite Jews, per-
haps through a kinship between Sufi asceticism and
their own rather austere brand of ethics, showed an
interest in Sufi writings, which they were still copying
during the seventeenth century. Jews also maintained
contact with Sufis in other localities. Fifteenth-centu-
ry Yemenite Jews freely used Sufi concepts in their
writings and quoted verses from the mystical poetry
of the Sufi martyr al-Hallaj. Sufi concepts percolated
into Jewish literature through Hebrew translations

made in Spain and Provence, especially those of the
works of al-Ghazali.

There were contacts between Sufis and Qabbalists
in Morocco as related by the great Moroccan six-
teenth-century Qabbalist David ha-Levi. Hebrew
transcriptions of the poetry of Rumi and Sa’di
contributed to the diffusion of Sufi ideas among
Persian Jews, foreshadowing the exquisite rub’ayyat
of Sarmad (d. 1661), a Persian Jew who became a
wandering dervish in India.

The Early Kabbalists

Thirteenth-century disciples of the Qabbalist Abra-
ham Abu’l-’Afiyah (d. ca. 1291) in the Holy Land
show familiarity with Sufi practices that they directly
observed. Isaac of Akko (ca. 1270-1340) in particular
had knowledge of Sufi techniques, including solitary
meditation ( khahvah ; Hebrew, hitbodedut) and the
visualization of letters. He is an important link in
the transmission of these methods to the later Qabb-
alists of Safed. Abu’l-’Afiyah may himself have en-
countered Sufis during his brief visit to Akko (Acre)
around 1260 or elsewhere during the course of his
wide travels. The focal point of his meditative disci-
pline, which led to prophetic inspiration, is the prac-
tice of hazkdrdh, a term that is itself strikingly
reminiscent of the Arabic dliikr.

The Kabbalists of Safed

Evliya Chelebi testifies that sixteenth-century Safed
was a vibrant Sufi center. Islamic influence has insuf-
ficiently been taken into account in the study of the
Safed Qabbalistic school, which flourished under
Rabbi Isaac Lurya (1534-1572), himself a native of
Egypt. Among the most significant Sufi models that
may he behind some of the mystical rituals initiated
by the Qabbalists are saint worship and the visitation
of tombs, the formation of spiritual brotherhoods
(haburot) around saints, and spiritual concerts
(baqashshdt) consisting of the singing of paraliturgi-
cal poems (similar to the Sufi sama’ ceremony). Soli-
tary meditation resurges in the Sullam ha-‘Aliyydh
( Ladder of Ascension, a title that smacks of Sufism)
by Judah al-Butini (d. 1519) and the Pardes Rimmo-
nim ( Orchard of Pomegranates) by Moses Cordovero
(d. 1570). In his meditative method, which is practiced
in dark places, the latter advocates Sufi-like techniques
such as breathing control. Other techniques, which
were subsequently transmitted to East European

547

MYSTICISM, JEWISH

Hasidim, include ritual purity, silence, fasting, restric-
tion of sleep, and the ecstatic repetition of divine
names.

The Shabbatians

Significant contact between mystics took place in
Turkey and its provinces during the Ottoman era.
These were intensified during the messianic turmoil
roused by Shabbatay Zevi (d. 1675). During his con-
finement in Adrianople and after his outward conver-
sion to Islam, Zevi would attend dhikr seances in the
Bektashi convent at Hizirlik, and it seems that he esta-
blished contact with the khalwati mystic Muhammad
al-Niyazi (d. 1694). His apostate followers, known as
the Doenme, continued to maintain close relations
with the mystical brotherhoods in Turkey and in
particular with the syncretistic Bektashis, from
whom they borrowed certain rituals, Turkish liturgi-
cal poems, and melodies. As late as the nineteenth
century, Doenme descendants such as the Mevlevi
Ezzet Effendi were prominent in Sufi orders.

Paul B. Fenton

Further Reading

Cohen, G. "The Soteriology of Abraham Maimuni.” Pro-
ceedings of the American Academy Jor Jewish Research
35 (1967):' 75-98; 36 (1968): 33-56.

Fenton, P.B. “Some Judaeo-Arabic Fragments by Rabbi
Abraham he-Hasid, the Jewish Sufi’.” Journal of Semitic
Studies 26 (1981): 47-72.

. The Treatise of the Pool, al-Maqala al-Iawdiyya by

‘Obadyah Maimonides. London, 1981.

. "The Literary Legacy of David II Maimuni.” Jew-
ish Quarterly Review 74 (1984): 1-56.

. Deux Traites de Mystique Juive. Lagrasse, 1987.

. “La Hitbodedut Chez les Premiers Qabbalistes

d’Orient et Chez les Soufis.” In Priere, Mystique et
Judaisme , ed. R. Goetschel, 133-58. Paris, 1987.

, ed. al-Murshid ila t-Tafarrud by David Maimonides.

Jerusalem, 1987.

. “Shabbatay Sebi and the Muslim Mystic

Muhammad an-Niyazi.” Approaches to Judaism in
Medieval Times 3 (1988): 81-8.

Goitein, S.D. “A Jewish Addict to Sufism in the Time of
Nagid David II Maimonides.” Jewish Quarterly Review
44 D953-1954): 37M9.

. “A Treatise in Defence of the Pietists.” Journal of

Jewish Studies 16 (1965): 105-14.

. “Abraham Maimonides and his Pietist Circle.”

In Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, ed.
A. Altmann, 145-64. Cambridge, Mass, 1967.

Goldziher, I. “Ibn Hud, the Muhammadan Mystic, and the
Jews of Damascus.” Jewish Quarterly Review 6 (1893):
218-20.

Idel, M. Abraham Abulafia and the Mystical Experience.
New York, 1988.

Rosenblatt, S., ed. The High Ways to Perfection of Abraham
Maimonides. New York and Baltimore, 1927-1938.

MYTHICAL PLACES

Medieval Islamic culture abounded with stories,
legends, and beliefs about mythical and imaginary
places. Almost all such places were described as the
result of travel, whether real or imagined. This helps
to explain why most were to be found at the edges of
the (then) known world: in the direction of China and
Japan to the far east (e.g.. Roc Island); in the colder
climes of the Nordic lands (e.g., the Sea of Karkar);
and especially in the Indian Ocean (viewed by Ptol-
emy as an “encompassing sea”), both to the south
(e.g.. Camphor Island) and in Southeast Asia (e.g.,
Zabaj). Desert and mountain locations include Hush,
the land of the jinn, and Mount Qaf, respectively.

The principal medieval Islamic sources for infor-
mation about mythical places include travel accounts,
such as Akhbar al-Sin wal-Hind (Accounts of China
and India) by Sulayman the Merchant (ca. ninth cen-
tury), written in 850; mariners’ tales and works about
navigation, such as ‘Aja’ib al-Hind (Book of the Won-
ders of India) by Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (d. 1009),
written in 953; works of regional and world geogra-
phy, such as Kitab al-Buldan ( Book of Regions ) , writ-
ten around 903 by Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani (ca.
early tenth century), and the anonymous Persian
Hudud al-Alam (The Regions of the World), written
around 982; cosmographical works — more often than
not in the marvels and wonders genre (‘aja’ib; Latin,
mirabilia) — such as ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat (Wonders of
Regions) by al-Qazwini (d. 1283) and the Ottoman
Turkish Diirr-i Meknun (The Well-Preserved Pearl)
by Yazidi-oghlu Ahmed Bijan (d. ca. 1456); and, final-
ly, popular and folk literature, such as A If Layla
w a- Layla (The Thousand and One Nights).

The mythical places of the medieval Islamic imagi-
nation may be classified into three broad categories:

( 1 ) places that are liminal, typically at the ends of the
earth or at the edge of the known world (e.g., the City
of Brass); (2) places where things are topsy-turvy and
normative rules are suspended (e.g., the Island of
Connubial Sacrifice); and (3) places that are habitats
for unusual creatures or inhabitants (e.g., the land of
Gog and Magog). These categories are by no means
mutually exclusive. The islands of Waqwaq typify the
mythical place and occur, moreover, in all types of
sources, which place them everywhere, from the
southwest Indian ocean to the Indonesia archipelago
and even as far as Japan. In most cases, dark or

548

MYTHICAL PLACES

dangerous waters surround the islands. Descriptions
of Waqwaq range from a land inhabited by ingenious
and treacherous inhabitants to the home of the Waq-
waq tree, whose fruit is women. Waqwaq is not,
however, to be found in the North, unlike Artha (or
Arthaniya), a city described in the Risala ( Epistle), an
account of a journey up the Volga by the diplomatic
envoy Ibn Fadlan (c. early tenth century). In Artha,
the sun never sets, and the inhabitants are said to eat
strangers, a story that may have circulated to protect
valuable trade routes.

Artha and Waqwaq, like so many of the mythical
locations described in medieval Islamic sources, prob-
ably had their origin in real places but were then
transformed into mythical ones with a hold on the
imagination that has been both enduring and, from
the perspective of medieval literature and art, also
richly rewarding.

Shawkat M. Toorawa

See also Folklore and Ethnology; Heaven; Hell; Stories
and Storytelling; Trade

Primary Sources

Anonymous. Hudud al-‘Alam (The Regions of the World):
A Persian Geography, 372 A.H.-982 A.D. , transl. V.
Minorsky. Oxford: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust; Lon-
don: Luzac, 1937. Reprinted Karachi: Indus Publica-
tions, 1980.

. Alf Layla wa-Layla (The Arabian Nights), transl.

Husain Haddawy (based on the text of the fourteenth-
century Syrian manuscript edited by Muhsin Mahdi).
New York: Norton, 1990.

. Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan ( The Adventures of Sayf

Ben Dhi Yazan, an Arab Folk Epic), transl. Lena Jayyusi.
Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Bijan, Yazidi-oghlu Ahmed. Diirr-i Meknun (The Well-pre-
served Pearl), ed. Necdet Sakaoghlu. Istanbul: Tarih
Vakfi Yurt Yayinlan, 1999.

Ibn Fadlan. “al-Risala - ‘La Relation du Voyage d’lbn
Fadlan chez les Bulgares de la Volga’,” transl. Marius
Canard. Annales de Tlnstitut d’ Etudes Orientates de
I’Universite d’Alger (1958): 41-116.

Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani. Kitab al-Buldan (Book of
Regions), ed. M. de Goeje. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1885.

Ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini, Zakariya. Aja’ib al-Makhlu-
qat (The Wonders of Creation). Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi
al-Halabi and Sons, 1956.

Ibn Shahriyar, Buzurg. Kitab Aja’ib al-Hind (The Book of
the Wonders of India: Mainland, Sea, and Islands), ed.
and transl. G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville. London: East-
West Publications, 1981.

“Sulayman al-Tajir, Akhbar al-Sin wal-Hind.” In
Arabic Classical Accounts of India and China, transl. S.
Maqbul Ahmad. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced,
1989.

Further Reading

Allibert, Claude, “L’lle des Femmes dans les Recits
Arabes.” Etudes Ocean Indien 15 (1997): 261-67.

Deluz, Christiane. Le Livre de Jehan de MandeviUe. Une
"Geographic” du XlVe Siecle, 75-86. Louvain-la-
Neuve: Institut d’Etudes Medievales de l’Universite
Catholique de Louvain, 1988.

Ferrand, Gabriel. Relation de Voyages et Textes Geograhpi-
ques Arabes, Persons et Turcs Relatifs d T Extreme-Orient
du Vllle au XVIIIe Siecles, 2 vols. Paris: E. Leroux,
1913-1914.

Manguel, Albert, and Gianni Guadalupi. The Dictionary of
Imaginary Places, 2nd ed. San Diego, Calif: Harcourt
Brace, 1999.

Maqbul Ahmed, S., and Fr. Taeschner. “Djughrafiya,
Geography.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., eds.
H.aTr. Gibb et al., vol. 2: 575-90. Leiden: Brill, 1957.

Miquel, Andre. La Geographic Humaine du Monde
Musulman Jusqu’au Milieu du lie Siecle, 4 vols.,
vol. 2, 482-513. Paris, The Hague: Mouton & Co.,
1973-1988.

Toorawa, Shawkat M. “Waq al-Waq: Fabulous, Fabular,
Indian Ocean (?) Islands. . . .” Emergences 10 (2000):
387-402.

549

NAFS AL-ZAKIYYA

Muhammad b. Abdallah b. al-Hasan b. al-Hasan
b. ‘Ali b. Abi Kalib is believed to have been bom in
the year AH 92/710-711 CE. Shi‘i sources, however —
as well as many Sunni sources — give the year as AH
100, which is dubious because of its messianic
connotations.

Abdallah b. al-Hasan, his father, was the head of
the Hasanid family and a figure who was respected by
the entire Hashimid family. His mother was Hind bnt.
Abi ‘Ubayda b. Abdallah b. Zam’a b. al-Aswad b. al-
Muyyalib b. Asad b. ‘Abd al-’Uzza b. Qusayy. Her
father, Abu ‘Ubayda, was one of the leading figures of
Quraysh.

Muhammad had nine brothers and five sisters
from three different mothers. Abdallah b. al-Hasan’s
family had a house in al-Madina, although evidently
the family’s main place of residence was a large estate
near al-Madina called Suwayqa or Farsh Suwayqa.
Muhammad had two wives and three concubines,
who bore him seven sons and two daughters. The
best known among his children was ‘Abdallah, called
al-Ashtar.

Little is known about Muhammad’s education.
It seems that his father sought to give his sons
Muhammad and Ibrahim a formal knowledge of
hadith (tradition) and fiqh. However, Muhammad
was not known for any kind of scholarship; in
the books of rijal (transmitters) of Hadith he is
mentioned as a minor transmitter.

Muhammad is described as having a large
body, great strength, and a very dark complexion.

On his face he had the scars of smallpox (al-judari).
In the middle of his shoulders, he had a black mole
that was the size of an egg, and he stuttered when
he talked. Some of the physical traits attributed
to Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah were similar to those
of the Prophet Muhammad, and the resemblance
to Moses is also apparent (e.g., stuttering). Tradit-
ions depicting his physical as well as spiritual-
religious traits were disseminated, circulated, and
transmitted by pro-Shi‘i scholars, family members
of the Hasanids (some of them belonging to the
most inner and close circle of Muhammad
b. Abdallah’s supporters), and other sections of the
‘Alid family.

The accepted tradition is that Muhammad
b. ‘Abdallah was already called al-Mahdi (“The
Messiah”) and al-Nafs al-Zakiyya (“The Pure
Soul”) during the Umayyad period. Clearly, at the
time of his death, both names were in current use.

There is little information about Muhammad from
the Umayyad period. What there is deals for the most
part with one subject: the political aspirations that
Abdallah b. al-Hasan had for his son, Muhammad
(or Muhammad and his brother Ibrahim), which in-
cluded fostering a recognition of Muhammad among
Banu Hashim as the most deserving candidate for the
caliphate.

It is highly plausible that these traditions were
created and disseminated after the rebellion of
Muhammad b. Abdallah against the ‘Abbasids in
145/762 and possibly already for a short period before
the rebellion.

551

NAFS AL-ZAKIYYA

The ‘Abbasid Period

In several traditions, it is said that Muhammad never
ceased promoting himself as a candidate for the ca-
liphate, even during the rule of Abu ‘l-’Abbas
al-Saffah (r. 132/750-136/754). He and his brother
Ibrahim remained in hiding and did not appear before
the caliph, despite the caliph’s request for them to do
so and despite his most generous attitude toward their
father, Abdallah b. al-Hasan, the Hasanid family, and
the ‘Alids in general.

After the year 136/754, when allegiance was sworn
to al-Mansour until the breaking of the revolt in
Rajab in 145/762, Muhammad and his brother Ibra-
him refrained from appearing before al-Mansour.
They remained in hiding and did not swear allegiance
to the caliph. At the end of the year 140/758, al-
Mansour ordered that Muhammad’s father be put
under house arrest in al-Madina, along with some of
his family members. They remained under arrest in al-
Madina until the end of 144/762. Between the years
140 and 144 — and especially between 143/760-761
and 145/762, during the governorship of Riyah b.
‘Uthman — pursuit of the two brothers intensified.
At the end of 144, Abdallah b. al-Hasan, his brothers,
and their children were taken to al-Hashimiyya near
al-Kufa and put in prison. This brought Muhammad
out in open rebellion.

Muhammad strove to give the rebellion as broad a
character as possible and to extend it to other regions
beyond the borders of the Arab Peninsula. Actual
attempts were made in Egypt, Syria (to a small ex-
tent), and apparently also in al-Basra and al-Kufa.
However, other than those of several individuals, no
missions of aid are known to have been sent to
Muhammad from these cities.

Muhammad b. Abdallah entered al-Madina, open-
ly proclaiming rebellion, on the twenty-eighth of Ju-
mada II, 145 (23 September 762). His takeover of the
city did not meet with any significant resistance. Im-
mediately upon entering the city, he freed the prison-
ers from jail, arrested the ‘Abbasid governor and the
mawali of the ‘Abbasid family, confiscated the prop-
erties of the ‘Abbasids in the city, and took over bayt
al-mal. Another important source of finance for the
rebellion was the money given to Muhammad by
one of the dignitaries of al-Madina: the total sadaqa
of the Oayyi’ and Asad tribes, which he had collected
for the ‘Abbasids. Muhammad wanted to administer
the city as the capital of the caliphate and, to that
end, he established a series of administrative and
judiciary posts. He sent his brother Ibrahim to
al-Basra, where he raised the banner of rebellion
on Ramadan 1, 145 (November 762). At the same

time, Muhammad sent governors to all parts of the
Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Mansour’s letter to Muhammad b. Abdallah,
suggesting that he accept an aman, evoked a strong
reply from Muhammad. These letters may very well
be authentic, but even if they are not, they are very
early and of great importance in that they reflect the
early arguments of the ‘Abbasids and the Hasanids
with regard to who had the legitimate right to rule.

Al-Mansour sent his nephew, ‘Isa b. Musa, to head
a strong army that was composed mainly of Ahl
Khurasan units against Muhammad. At the begin-
ning of the rebellion, most of the inhabitants of
al-Madina supported Muhammad. However, this
support was not uniform; there were those who op-
posed the rebellion, even among his close family,
among the rest of the ‘Alid families, and among the
important families of Quraysh. In the Zubayrid and
‘Umari (the descendants of ‘Umar b. al-Khassab)
families, however, there was general homogeneity
with respect to supporting Muhammad, with just
a small opposition. The Zubayrids constituted the
main military and administrative backbone of the
rebellion. Also noted among Muhammad’s suppor-
ters are families and individuals from Arab tribes: the
Juhayna, Sulaym, Bakr, Aslant, Ghifar, Nuntayr
(mawali), and Bahila (mawali).

Several of the important religious scholars ( ‘ulama )
of this period from al-Madina as well as from other
cities supported and joined the rebellion. Some of
them had Shi‘i tendencies, although a large number
were not pro-Shi‘i. Noted among them are Malik b.
Anas, Sufyan al-Thawri, Abu Hanifa, Hishant b.
‘Urwa b. al-Zubayr, and others. When this list of
scholars is examined, it becomes clear that, for at
least some of them, their leanings toward the rebellion
and their support of Muhammad is not at all unequiv-
ocal. It is noteworthy that Ja’far al-Sadiq did not
support Muhammad and his rebellion, although de-
spite this there are a number of people belonging to
Ja’far’s immediate family who took an active part in
the uprising. First and foremost, his sons Musa and
Abdallah and his brother’s son Hamza b. Abdallah
should be mentioned, but there were also other
Husaynids, all uncles and cousins of Ja’far al-Sadiq,
who participated in the rebellion.

After their rise to power, tense relations and hos-
tility prevailed between the ‘Abbasids and Ja’far al-
Sadiq. Their fear no doubt greatly increased seeing
that the Husaynid family was neither united in their
attitude toward the rebellion nor, evidently, in back-
ing Ja’far al-Sadiq’s leadership. They were displeased
with Ja’far’s quietism during the rebellion. His refrain-
ing to appear openly before ‘Isa b. Musa as a sign of
loyalty to the ‘Abbasids led to the confiscation of

552

NAFS AL-ZAKIYYA

Ja’far’s estate, ‘Ayn Abi Ziyad, with the approval of
al-Mansour, who also ordered his house in Medina to
be burned down.

Muhammad b. Abdallah was considered the sixth
or seventh imam of the Zaydis. During this period,
there was a body in al-Kufa that was noted in the
sources as Zaydiyya, the nucleus of which was made
up of supporters of Zayd b. ‘Ali b. al-Husayn b. ‘Ali
b. Abi Talib. This group constituted the important
nucleus of Ibrahim b. Abdallah’s army, although no
mention is made of it in connection with Muham-
mad’s rebellion. Evaluating the rebellion as a Zaydi-
Hasani rebellion fully supported by the Mu’tazila is
too general and inaccurate.

With the arrival of ‘Isa b. Musa’s army at the
approaches of al-Madina, most of Muhammad's sup-
porters abandoned him. At various stages of the bat-
tle, particularly at the end, several senior commanders
and many soldiers ran away. The final battle took
place at Ahjar al-Zayt, to the south of Thaniyyat
al-Wada’, on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of
Ramadan 145 (sixth or seventh of December 762).
Because of their numeric and qualitative inferiority,
the battle quickly ended in the defeat of Muhammad’s
men. His head was sent to Caliph al-Mansour; his
dead warriors were crucified in two rows in the city
and left there for three days. Throughout his entire
rule, al-Mansour never stopped persecuting members
of the Hasanid family and Muhammad b. Abdallah’s
supporters. He ordered the confiscation of all of
the estates of Banu Hasan and an estate of Ja’far
al-Sadiq, who only had it returned to him by Caliph
al-Mahdi.

Throughout the Umayyad Caliphate and particu-
larly during the reign of Hisham b. ‘Abd al-Malik
(105/724-125/743), there was a slow decline in the
economic and geopolitical status of Medina. With
the ‘Abbasids’ rise to power, this process was acceler-
ated by the deliberate policy of the first two ‘Abbasid
caliphs.

Despite the limited strategic importance of
Medina for the ‘Abbasids, they took the rebellion
very seriously, because, to a certain extent, Muham-
mad b. Abdallah succeeded in extending it past
the borders of the Arabian Peninsula and thus
constituted a real danger to the ‘Abbasid regime.
Above all, the rebellion was a challenge to their
right to rule. Participation of the Quraysh families
in al-Madina (particularly the Zubayrids, who had
a history of hostility towards the ‘Alids), the
‘Umaris, the Ansar, and some of the tribes in al-
Madina and its environs in the rebellion — as well as
the support of scholars who were not known to be
pro-Shi‘i — all speak against an exclusive Shi‘i tinge to
the rebellion.

Nevertheless, the fact that the rebellion was headed
by Muhammad b. Abdallah was of great importance.
His lineage and claim to the right to rule competed
successfully with the arguments for the legitimacy of
the ‘Abbasids, which at that time were in a stage of
transition from the legitimacy of the ‘Alid-Hashi-
miyya to that of al-’Abbas, the Prophet’s uncle.
Muhammad b. Abdallah’s rebellion accelerated the
development of the ‘Abbasid ideology of legitimacy
relating to al-’Abbas and was an important turning
point in the relationship between the ‘Abbasids and
the branches of the ‘Alid family, particularly the
Zaydis and the Hasanids. It is also very likely that it
hastened the development of the qu’ud doctrine of the
Husaynids.

Amikam Elad

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Al-Mas’udi, Abu al-Hasan, ‘Ali b. al-Hasan b. ‘Ali al-
Mas’udi. Muruj al-Dhahab wa-ma’Adin al-Jawhar, ed.
C. Pellat, vol. IV, 2401-13. Beirut, 1973.

Al-Isfahani, ‘Ali b. Husayn Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani. Kitab
al-Aghani, Index. Bulaq, 1284-1285 H.; Cairo, Dar al-
Kutub al-Misriyya, 1345/1927.

Al-Tanukhi, Abu ‘Ali al-Muhsin b. ‘Ali, Kitab al-Faraj
ba’da al-Shidda, ed. ‘Abbud al-Shaliji, Index. Beirut,
Dar Nadir, 1978.

Ibn ‘Abd Rabbihi, Ahmad b. Muhammad. Kitab al- ’Iqd al-
Farid, Index, vol. 5, 74—89. Cairo, 1940-1953.

Abu al-’Arab, Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Tamim. Kitab al-
Mihan, ed. Yahya Wuhayb al-Jabburi, Index. Dar al-
Gharb al-Islaai, 1983.

Ibn al-Athir, ‘Ali b. Muhammad b. al-Athir, ‘Izz al-Din. Al-
Kamil fi al-Taqrikh, ed. C.J. Tornberg, vol. V, 390-425,
428-37. Leiden, 1863-1871.

. Al-Kamil fi al-Taqrikh, vol. V, 513-27, 529-55, 560-

71. Beirut, Dar Sadir-Dar Beirut, 1402/1982.

Sibt b. al-Jawzi, Yusuf b. Kizolghlu. Mirqat al-Zaman.
Manuscript of the British Library. Add. 23, 277, fols.
274b-7b, 280a-5a.

Ibn Kathir, Abu al-Fidaq Isma’il b. ‘Umar. al-Bidaya wa-
al-Nihava fi al-Taqrikh , vol. X, 80-7. Cairo, MaOba’at
al-Sa’ada, 1351-1358 H.

Al-Maqrizi, Ahmad b. ‘Ali. Kitab al-Niza' wa-al-Takhasum
Fima Bayna Bani Umayya wa-Bani Hashim, 56-9.
Leiden, 1888.

Ibn Taghribirdi, Jamal al-Din, Abu ’1-Masasin, Yusuf b.
Taghribirdi. al-Nujwn al-Uahira fi Muluk Misr wa-al-
Qahira, vol. I, 349, 352-3; vol. II, 1-4. Cairo, 1929-1930.

Ibn Sa’d, Muhammad b. Sa'd. al-Oabaqat al-Kubra (al-
Qism al-Mutammim li-Tabi’iyy Aid al-Madina wa-man
ba’Dahum min rub’ al-Oabaqa al-Thalitha ila Muntasaf
al-Oabaqa al-Sadisa 2 ) , ed. Ziyad Muhammad Mansour,
250-9, 372-81. al-Madina, Maktabat al-'Ulum wa-al-
Hikam, 1408/1987.

Ibn Abi Hatim, Abu Muhammad ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Abi
Hatim al-Razi. Kitab al-Jari wa-al-Ta’dil. Hyderabad,
1371-1373 H.; Beirut. Dar IlyaP al-Turath al-’Arabi,
1271/1952.

Ibn ‘Asakir, Abu al-Qasim, ‘Ali b. al-Hasan [known as] Ibn
‘Asakir. Taqrikh Madinat Dimashq, ed. ‘Umar b. Ghar-
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298-348. Beirut, Dar al-Fikr, li-al-Siba’a wa-al-Nashr
wa-al-Tawzi’, 1415/1995-2002; Ms. ‘Atif Ef„ 1817.

Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani, Ahmad b. ‘Ali Shihab al-Din, Abu
al-FaAl, Ibn Hajar al-’Asqalani. Tahdhib al-Tahdhib.
Hyderabad, 1325-1327 H.; Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1404/
1984.

Al-Mizzi, Jamal al-Din, Abu al-Hajjaj, Yusuf al-Mizzi. Tahd-
hib al-Kamal fi AsmaP al-Rijal, ed. Bashshar ‘Awwad
Ma’ruf. Beirut, MuPassasat al-Risala, 1985-1992.

Al-Dhahabi, Muhammad b. Ahmad, Shams al-Din al-Dha-
hAbi. Mizan al-i’Tidal, ed. ‘Ali Muhammad Mu’awwaA
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. Siyar a’lAm al-nubalAP. vol. VI, 210-24. Beirut,

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Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-’Arabi, 1408/1988.

Further Reading

el-’Ali, Nalii. “Mulkiyyat al-AraAi fi al-Hijaz fi al-Qarn al-
Awwal al-Hijri.” Majallat al-’Arab III (1969): 961-1005.

Arazi, A. "Materiaux pour L’Etude du Conllit de Preseance
Entre la Mekke et Medine.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic
and Islam V (1984): 177-235.

Crone, P. “On the Meaning of the Abbasid Call to al-
RiAa.” In The Islamic World from Classical to Modern
Times, Essays in Honor of Bernard Lewis, eds. CE Bos-
worth et al., 95-111, 99-100, 108. Princeton, NJ, 1989.

Hasan, Sa’d Muhammad. al-Mahdi fi al-Islam..., 112-28.
Cairo, 1373/1953.

Jafri, Husain M. Origins and Early Development of Shi’a
Islam, Index, 259-83. London and New York, 1979.

Kennedy, H. The Early Abbasid Caliphate, 66-70. London,
Croom Helm, 1981.

Lassner, J. “Provincial Administration Under the Early
Abbasids: Abu Ja’far al-Mansour and the Governors
of the Haramayn.” Studia Islamica XLIX (1979): 39-54.

. The Shaping of Abbasid Rule, 69-87. Princeton, NJ,

1980.

al-Laythi, Samira Mukhtar. Jihad al-Shi’a fi al-’Asr al-
’Abbasi al-Awwal, Chapter II. Beirut: Dar al-Jil, 1396/
1976.

Madelung, W. Der Imam al-Qasim Ibn Ibrahim und die
Glaubenslehre Zaiditen, Index. Berlin, 1965.

. “al-Mahdi.” In El 2 .

Momen, M. An Introduction to Shi’i Islam: The History and
Doctrine of Twelver Shi’ism, Index. New Haven and
London, Yale University Press, 1985.

Nagel, T. “Ein Friiher Bricht fiber den Aufstand von
Muhammad b. Abdallah im Jahre 145 h.” Der Islam
XL VI (1970): 227-62.

Noldeke, T. “Der Chalif Mansour.” In Orientalische Skiz-
zen, 126-34. Berlin, 1892. (English translation: Sketches
from Eastern History, 120-9. London, 1892.)

Omar, F. The Abbasid Caliphate 132/750-170/786, 223-39,
240-8. Baghdad, 1969.

. “al-Rasa’il al-Mutabadila Bayna al-Mansour wa-

Muhammad Dhi al-Nafs al-Zakiyya.” In Majallat al-
’Arab, vol. V, 17-36. 1970.

. “al-Rasa’il al-Mutabadila Bayna al-Mansour wa-

Muhammad Dhi al-Nafs al-Zakiyya.” In Buluth fi al-
Taqrlkh al-’Abbasi, 92-110. Beirut and Baghdad, 1977.

Sharon, M. Black Banners from the East: The Establishment
of the Abbasid State, Incubation of a Revolt, 87, 90-3, 96-9.
Jerusalem, The Magnes Press; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983.

. Revolt: The Social and Military Aspects of the Ab-
basid Revolution, 225-6, 238-9. Jerusalem, The Max
Schloessinger Memorial Fund, The Hebrew University,
1990.

Tucker, W. “Rebels and Gnostics, al-Mughira Ibn Sa’id
and the Mughlriyya” Arabica XXII (1975): 33-47.

. “Abu Mansour al-’Ijli and the Mansouriyya: A

Study in Medieval Terrorism.” Der Islam LIV (1977):
66-76.

Traini, R. “La Corrispondenza tra al-Mansour
e Muhammad an-Nafs az-Zakiyya.” In Annali del Insti-
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1964.

Van Arendonk, C. Les Debut de I’lmamat Zaidite au Yemen,
transl. J. Ryckmans, 45-57. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960.

van Vloten, G. Zur Abbasidengeschichte, ZDMG, vol. LII,
213-22. 1898.

554

NAVIGATION

Zaki Nafwat, A. Jamharat RasaPil al-'Arab fi Pl-’Usur al-
’ArAbiyya al-Zahira, vol. Ill, 84-96. 1356/1937.

NAMES

The parts of a medieval Arabic name are best demon-
strated by an example. The great mystical writer Ibn
‘Arabi had the proper name ( ism ‘alam ) Muhammad,
the kunya Abu ‘Abd Allah (“the father of ‘Abd
Allah”; “paedonymic” would be the normal English
word for this, if one existed), the nasab ibn ‘Ali ibn
Muhammad (“the son of ‘Ali the son of Muham-
mad”), the nickname (laqab) Muhyi ‘1-Din (“the
reviver of the faith”), and the nisbas al-Hatimi and
al-Ta’i, since his family claimed descent from a man
of pre-Islamic Arabia named Hatim of the Tayy tribe.
Most biographical dictionaries arrange their subjects
in alphabetical order by proper name, then father’s
name, and so on, but the ’urf by which someone is
best known may happen to be any part of the name:
Abu Hanifa (kunya), Fatima bint Muhammad (name
with nasab), Ibn Sa’d (nasab to the father), Ibn Khal-
dun (nasab to a remote ancestor), Shajar al-Durr
(laqab), al-Mas’udi (nisba to a remote ancestor), al-
Qazwini (nisba to a city), and al-Mawardi (nisba to a
trade). It was normally most polite to address some-
one by kunya, and women are often known only by
kunya.

Hadith (tradition) recommends the names ‘Abd
Allah and ‘Abd al-Rahman as those God likes best,
and it is also advised to name one’s children after
prophets. Although not otherwise encouraged by Is-
lamic law, Arabic personal names have always been
most popular among Muslims, followed by Persian
and Turkish personal names (many of which are now
common in the Arab world as well).

Christopher Melchert

Further Reading

Caetani, Leone, and Giuseppe Gabrieli. Onomasticon

Arabicum, 2 vols. Rome: Casa Editrice Italiana, 1915.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Islamic Names. Islamic Surveys.

Edinburgh: University Press, 1989.

Sublet, Jacqueline. Le Voile du Norn. Paris: Presses Univer-

sitaires de France, 1991.

NAVIGATION

The Arabic term that denotes navigation is milaha,
which signifies in a broader sense seafaring or in a
narrower connotation the sailor’s act of determining
the vessel’s position, location, and course to the desti-
nation. The sunna of the Prophet (his sayings and

doings) and the Qur’an do not prohibit Muslims
from sailing the seas. The Qur’an urges Muslims to
consider navigating as well as exploiting the rich
resources of the sea. Likewise, the sunna comprises
hundreds of hadiths that exhort Muslims to organize
maritime expeditions, to sail to Mecca on pilgrimage,
to exploit marine resources, and to expand overseas
trade. Regarding military operations at sea, Prophetic
traditions give more credit to Muslim naval warriors
and amphibious troops than to holy warriors who
fight on land. One hadith says that “a maritime expe-
dition is better than ten campaigns of conquest on
land.” The Prophet also said that “a day at sea is
equivalent to one month on land, and a martyr at sea
is like two martyrs on land” and that “those who
perish while fighting at sea will receive double the com-
pensation of those fighting on land.” Al-Shaybani
added that “any Muslim who takes part in a sea
expedition would be doubly compensated (rewarded)
and that once the soldier puts his foot on ship all his
sins are forgiven as if he were born anew.” This
emphasis on the double reward might reflect the
legacy of a traditional fear of the sea and the necessity
for encouraging recruitment for a religious war
(jihad) at sea. Maritime expeditions were regarded
as very risky owing to unreliable weather and the
naval power and maneuvers of the enemy, but these
factors did not allow a soldier to flee the scene of the
battle unless the Muslim admiral commanded his
flotilla to withdraw collectively.

Although the Arabs had long been acquainted with
the sea and had sailed for centuries through the Red
Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean using
different types of ships and nautical techniques, it
seems that they emerged as a global sea power after
the Islamic military advents on the eastern and west-
ern fronts. Within less than a century of the emer-
gence of Islam in Arabia, the Prophet’s followers
dominated more than half of the maritime posses-
sions of their former neighbors. The eastern, western,
and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea were
entirely under Islamic dominion, as were the Red Sea,
the Persian Gulf, and parts of the coast of the Indian
Ocean. The Islamic expansions in the east and west
united the former Persian and Byzantine territories
that had been split by the successors of Alexander the
Great (356-323 BCE). Owing to this new political
unity, commercial activity between the Far East and
the Mediterranean greatly expanded. As evidence,
al-Biruni reports the following:

"... the power of the Muslim state and its extension from
the al-Andalus in the west to the outermost reaches of
China and Central India in the east, and from Abyssinia
and Bilad al-Zinj (East Africa) in the south to the Slav and

555

NAVIGATION

Turkish land in the north enabled many nations to live
together in intimacy, without allowing outsiders to both-
er them or to interrupt traffic. Other peoples who were
non-Muslims and still pagans came to regard the Muslim
state and its people with respect."

(Nazmi, Commercial Relations, p. 54)

Muslim caliphs, especially the Umayyads, main-
tained all dockyards and naval bases and the former
administrative system of Rome and Byzantium in
the southern shores of the Mediterranean as well as
the marine system in the former Persian provinces;
they also established new maritime installations. In
AH 18/640 CE, when a severe famine spread in Ara-
bia, Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered a cleaning
of Trajan’s canal, which connected Babylon with
Clysma (sixty-nine miles in length), for the transport
of sixty thousand irdabbs of corn from Egypt to Jar,
the port of Medina. The real age of Islamic navigation
began from the reign of ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan. During
the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, many port cities
on the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Arab,
Red, and Mediterranean Seas flourished. Among
these cities were Basra, Siraf, Aden, Suhar, Shihr,
Qais, Bahrain, Hurmuz, Jedda, Jar, Qulzum,
‘Aydhab, Tarsus, Ladhiqiyya, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre
(Sur), Acre, Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Tinnis,
Babylon, Barqa, and Tunis.

Over the course of time, Islamic societies contrib-
uted to the art of navigation. Their contributions are
reflected in manuals of seafaring, nautical instru-
ments, and the introduction of the lateen sail (a trian-
gular sail suspended from a long yardarm at an angle
to the mast) to Mediterranean navigation. Among the
oldest Islamic manuals of navigational science that
have come down to us are Kitob al-Fawa’id fi Usui
‘ilm al-Bcihr wa-l-Qawa‘id, which was composed by
Ahmad ibn Majid in 895/1490, and the works of
Sulayman ibn Muhammad al-Mahri (d. 917/1511).
This should not be interpreted to mean that Muslim
navigators did not produce and use portolan charts
(sing., qunbas ) before the days of Ibn Majid. By con-
trast, Ibn Majid names two Persian navigators,
Ahmad ibn Tabruya and Khawsshir Ibn Yusuf
al-Ariki, who sailed during the early years of the
eleventh century and who wrote navigational works.
Another major instrument that Muslim astronomers
and mathematicians developed as early as the seventh
century was the astrolabe, an instrument for observ-
ing or showing the positions of the stars. On the
astrolabe, latitude was determined by the height of
the sun or the pole star, which was measured by the
qis figure system (science of taking latitude measure-
ments). A third nautical instrument that Muslim sai-
lors transferred from China was the compass. This

magnetic instrument was known to Muslim seafarers
before the tenth century and probably was not consid-
ered very important in the East, because the skies over
the Indian Ocean were usually very clear, especially
during the times that Muslim mariners sailed with mon-
soons. The earliest documented Arab use of the com-
pass in the Mediterranean dates to the 1240s. In brief,
Muslim navigators mastered astrology; the science
of latitude and longitude; the nature and directions of
winds; the seasons; the knowledge and locations of
coasts, ports, islands, dangerous shoals, and the narrow
maritime lanes; the use of various terrestrial instru-
ments; and the art of calculating solar months and
days. Most of the Islamic literature about the science
of navigation was translated into Latin. For instance,
the population of the Balearic Islands — especially the
Mallorcan Jewish cartographers — played a vital role in
translating Arabic nautical charts, instruments, and
books into Latin. By doing so, Western European com-
mercial ships could sail toward the Canary Islands
and other destinations along western African coasts.

Islamic ships sailed to every part of the known
world, including the major ports on the Mediterra-
nean, Adriatic, Aegean, Marmara, Black, and Cas-
pian Seas, in addition to the western African coasts
on the Atlantic Ocean; their ships also sailed as far
north as Denmark in 844. In the East, Muslim sea-
farers navigated the Red and Arab Seas, the Persian
Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. Their merchant ships
sailed from Near Eastern ports to India and Sri
Lanka, Malay, the Philippines, Indonesia, and
China in the Far East as well as Zanzibar, Mozambi-
que, and even Madagascar in east and southeast
Africa. Certainly the seasons and art of navigation
differ for each one of the seas and oceans mentioned
above. For instance, the sailing season in the Medi-
terranean had been observed from the Classical Hel-
lenic period to the late medieval period. Ships
habitually set out from the eastern basin of the Medi-
terranean during the early spring and returned from
the west during the Feast of the Cross (‘id al-salib),
which was celebrated on the 26th or 27th of Septem-
ber, whereas the return journey of ships heading east-
ward took place between the end of July and the
beginning of September. However, sailing during in-
appropriate times was probably limited to military
expeditions and instant transport of food supplies.
As for the seasons of navigation in the Indian
Ocean, navigators took advantage of the seasonal
winds (monsoons) that blow in one direction for
about six months and in the opposite direction for
the rest of the year. With regard to the art of naviga-
tion on these waters, Muslim geographers (e.g., al-
Mas‘udi [d. 346/956]; author of Muruj al-Dhahab)
point out that navigating on each one of these seas

556

NAVIGATION

required the previous personal knowledge and exper-
tise of sailors.

The duration of maritime voyages depended on the
seaworthiness of the vessel, the professional behavior
of the sailors, the distances between ports of origin
and destinations, cargo’s volume and weight, weather
conditions, and the human hostilities that the ship
could encounter. After the embarkation and debarka-
tion ports were specified, captains and shipmasters
could fix the ship’s course, whether it had to cross
the high sea, hug the coast, or sail on inland waters
(e.g., rivers, artificial canals).

This discussion cannot be concluded without
saying a few words about navigation for military
purposes. One of the few — but most important —
sources about the subject that still survives is
Al-Ahkam al-Mulukiyya ft Fann al-Qital fi l-Bahr
wa-l-Dawabit al-Namusiyya, by Muhammad Ibn
Mankali (d. 784/1382). His treatise, which contains
explicit references to and fragments of an Arabic
translation of Leo Vi’s Tactica, is a mine of informa-
tion about the technology of Islamic warships and
“Greek fire”; rights and duties of sailors, marines,
and commanders; navigation under various climatic
conditions; and, most importantly, how to plan,
manage, and coordinate the battle at sea.

Hassan Khalileh

Further Reading

‘Abd al-Dayim, al-‘Aziz M. “ Al-Ahkam al-Mulukiyya fi
Fann al-Qital fi l-Bahr wa-l-Dawabit al-Namusiyya .”
PhD dissertation. Cairo: Cairo University, 1974.
Abulafia, David. A Mediterranean Emperium : The Catalan
Kingdom of Majorca. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1994.

Barakat, Wafiq. Fann al-Harb al-Bahriyya fi l-Ta’rikh
al-'Arabi al-Islami. Aleppo: Ma‘had al-Turath al-Tlmi
al-‘Arabi, 1995.

Brice, William C. “Compasses, Compassi and Kanabis.”
Journal of Semitic Studies 29 (1984): 169-78.

Castello, Francesc. “Arab Cartography.” In Aspects
of Arab Seafaring : An Attempt to Fill in the Gaps of
Maritime History, eds. Yacoub Yousef and Vassilios
Christides. Athens, 2002.

Christides, Vassilios. “Milaha.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, vol. 7, 40-6. 1993.

. “Two Parallel Naval Guides of the Tenth Centu-
ry — Qudama’s Document and Leo Vi’s Naumachica : A
Study on Byzantine and Moslem Naval Preparedness.”
Graeco-Arabica 1 (1982): 51-103.

Clark, Alfred. “Medieval Arab Navigation on the Indian
Ocean: Latitude Determinations.” American Oriental
Society 113 (1993): 360-73.

Hassan, Ahmad Y., and Donald R. Hill. Islamic Technolo-
gy: An Illustrated History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1992.

Hourani, George F. Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in
Ancient and Early Medieval Times. Princeton, UK: Prin-
ceton University Press, 1995.

Khalilieh, Hassan S. “The Ribat System and Its Role in
Coastal Navigation.” Journal of the Economic and Social
History of the Orient 42 (1999): 212-25.

. Islamic Maritime Law: An Introduction. Leiden:

E.J. Brill, 1998.

Khoury, Ibrahim. Al-‘Ulum al-Bahriyya ‘ind al-‘Arab.
Damascus: Majma‘ al-Lugha al-‘Arabiyya, 1972.

Kreutz, Barbara M. “Mediterranean Contributions to the
Medieval Mariner’s Compass.” Technology and Culture
14 (1973): 367-83.

Lewis, Archibald. “Maritime Skills in the Indian Ocean.”
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
16 (1973): 238-64.

Lichtenstadter, Ilse. “Origin and Interpretation of some
Quranic Symbols.” In Studi Orientaliststici in Onore di
Giorgio Levi Della Vida, vol. 2, 58-80. Roma: Instituto
per l’Orient, 1956.

Lombard, Maurice. “Une Carte du Bois la Mediterranee
Musulmane ( Vlle-Xie Siecle).” Annales Economies Soci-
eties Civilisations 14 (1959): 234-54.

Nadavi, Sayyed Sulaiman. “Arab Navigation.” Islamic Cul-
ture 15 (1941): 435M8; 16 (1942): 72-86, 182-98, 404-22.

Nazmi, Ahmad. Commercial Relations between Arabs and
Slavs. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Akademickie, 1998.

Picard, Christophe. La Mer et les Musulmans d’Occident au
Moyen Age. Paris: Presses Iniversitaires de France, 1997

. L’Ocean Atlantique Musulman de la Conquete Arabe

a TEpoque Almohaed: Navigation et Mise en Valeur de
Cotes d’al-Andalus et du Maghreb Occidental. Paris, 1997.

Prinsep, James. “Note on the Nautical Instruments of the
Arabs.” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 5 (1836):
784-94.

Pryor, John H. Geography, Technology, and War: Studies in
the Maritime History of the Mediterranean 649-1571.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Renaud, H.P.J. “Sur une Tablette d’ Astrolabe Apparlenant
a M.H. Terrasse.” Hesperis 26 (1939): 157-69.

Salem, Elsayyed. Al-Bahr al-Ahmar fi l-Ta’rikh al-Islami.
Alexandria, 1993.

Savage-Smith, Emilie. “Celestial Mapping.” In Cartogra-
phy in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies,
eds. J.B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Tibbetts, Gerald R. “Milaha.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, vol. 7, 50-3. 1993.

. “The Beginning of a Cartographic Tradition.” In

Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian
Societies, eds. J.B. Harley and David Woodward.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

. Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the

Coming of the Portuguese. London: The Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1971.

. “Arab Navigation in the Red Sea.” Geographical

Journal 127/3 (1961): 322-34.

Tolmacheva, Marina. “On the Arab System of Nautical
Orientation.” Arabica 27 (1980): 181-92.

Udovitch, Abraham L. “Time, the Sea and Society: Duration
of Commercial Voyages on the Southern Shores of the
Mediterranean during the High Middle Ages.” In La Navi-
gazione Mediterranea nell’Alto Meclioevo, 503-63. Spoleto:
Centro Italiano di Studi sulFAlto Medioevo, 1978.

Yusuf, S.M. “Al-Ranaj: The Route of Arab Mariners
across the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Siam in the
3rd and 4th Centuries AH — 9th and 10th centuries AD”
Islamic Culture 39 (1955): 77-103.

557

NAVY

It is commonly believed that Mu'awiva Ibn Abi
Sufyan was the first planner and establisher of the
Islamic navy. A careful examination of primary
sources reveals that the first Islamic naval expedition
in history took place in AH 17/638 CE during the
caliphate of ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab and was led by
al-‘Ala Ibn al-Hadrami, governor of Bahrain, against
Persia; it ended with a trapped Islamic army nearby
Istakhr. Three years later, in 20/641, with the permis-
sion of ‘Umar, ‘Alqama Ibn Mujazziz crossed the Red
Sea toward Abyssinia. The expedition was disastrous,
and only a few ships returned safely to their home
port. In view of these facts, one may justifiably feel
that the reluctance of ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab to permit
his generals to embark on naval adventures did not
result from religious considerations but from his un-
successful and disastrous attempt against Abyssinia.
However, the establishment of the Islamic navy in the
Mediterranean Sea occurred during the reign of
Uthman Ibn ‘Affan. It was through the joint efforts
of ‘Abd Allah Ibn Abi Sarh, governor of Egypt, and
Mu‘awiya of Syria that the first maritime expedition
on Cyprus in 28/648-649 was launched.

The Islamic expansions in the East and the West
were not destructive. Muslim authorities not only
preserved all dockyards, naval bases, and systems in
the former Byzantine and Persian provinces, but they
also founded new maritime installations — arsenals
and naval centers — along their maritime possessions.
Along the Syro-Palestinian coast were Tarsus, Laodi-
cea, Tripoli, Beirut, Tyre, ‘Asqalan, and, most impor-
tantly, ‘Akka (Acre), from which the first Islamic
naval expedition was launched against Cyprus;
Egypt had Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Tinnis,
Babylon, and Clysma on the Red Sea. As for North
Africa and Spain, their most important naval centers
were Barqa, al-Mahdiyya, Tunis, Bougie, Tenes,
Badis, Ceuta, Cadiz, Algeciras, Seville, Malaga,
Almunecar, Pechina/Almeria, Cartagena, Alicante,
Denia, Valancia, and Tortosa. Likewise, they main-
tained and developed several naval centers in strategic
Mediterranean islands, such as the Balearic Islands,
Sicily, Crete, and Pantelleria. As a protective measure
and until Muslims had acquired supremacy over the
sea, the headquarters of their fleets were located in
inland waters; the Egyptian navy was in Babylon,
whereas the Andalusian one was in Seville.

Amir al-bahr (admiral) was the supreme command-
er of the maritime frontiers and naval forces. The
duties of the construction of warships and the selection
of appropriate materials — timber for keels, planking,
masts, yards, oars, oakum, metals, skins, cables, pitch
and tar, and other fittings — were laid upon him and a

team of inspectors, who had to ensure that shipwrights
observed technical standards and did not use inferior
or inadequate raw materials. Every ship passed a com-
prehensive technical inspection while it was still in the
yard and during the journey to avoid unpleasant con-
sequences. Among the types of warships built in the
arsenals for the fighting fleets in the eastern and west-
ern basins of the Islamic Mediterranean were dromon,
fattash, ghurab, harraqa, jafn, jariya, qarib, qarqur,
qishr, shalandi, shini, tarida, and zawraq.

The responsibility of recruiting highly skilled sai-
lors, patient artisans, brave warriors, alert spies, and
physicians rested with the admiral and his chief com-
manders. Papyri from early Islamic Egypt show that
the method of recruitment of sailors for the raiding
fleets was compulsory; sailors were drawn from all
provinces and included various classes of the popula-
tion. In case of reluctance or fugitiveness, the local
authorities had to pay the wages of men hired from
another place. As for the fighting men, they were
Arab emigrants and mawalis who settled in the
Levantine, Egyptian, and North African frontiers.
Only experienced crews and warriors with high mor-
als who were faithful, professional, and fearless in the
face of the enemy were taken onboard. Supplies for
the ships' human element included bread, butter,
wine, oil, and salt.

Only a few Arabic manuals dealing with Islamic
naval warfare have survived. Ibn Mankali’s hand-
books, Al-Ahkam al-Mulukiyya wal-Dawabit al-
Namusiyya fi Fann al-Qital fi al-Bahr and Al-Adilla
al-Rasmiyya fi al-Ta‘abi al-Harbiyya, give great detail
about naval preparedness and tactics. Because Islamic
warships could be attacked with all kinds of weapons,
their commanders were instructed to carry a large
supply of spears, swords, crossbows and arrows,
stones and catapults, venomous creatures sealed up
in earthenware jars, and combustibles and Greek fire.
Ibn Mankali describes how to be prepared against
enemies, addressing such things as the following: exer-
cises; prayers offered and speeches delivered before
the actual combat; time, place, and disposition of
enemy; strategic tactics and arrangement of warships;
disposition of the flagship; and the flags to be used
during the maritime battle for signaling purposes.

Hassan Khalileh

Further Reading

‘Abbady, Ahmad, and Elsayyed Salem. Tarikh al-Bahriyya
al-Islamiyya fi Misr wal-Sham. Beirut: Dar al-Nahda
al-‘Arabiyya, 1969.

Adawi, Ibrahim A. Ouwwat al-Bariyya al-‘Arabiyya fi
Miyah al-Bahr al-Mutawassit. Cairo: Maktabat al-
Nahda, 1963.

558

NAWRUZ

Ahmad, Ramadan A. Tarikh Farm al-Oital al-Bcihri fi
al-Bahr al-Mutawassit 35-978/655-1571. Cairo: Wizarat
al-Thaqafa, 1986.

Christides, Vassilios. “Byzantine Dromon and Arab Shini:
The Development of the Average Byzantine and Arab
Warships and the Problem of the Number and Function
of the Oarsmen.” Tropis 3 (1995): 111-22.

. “Naval Flistory and Naval Technology in Medieval

Times: The Need for Interdisciplinary Studies.” Byzan-
tion 58 (1988): 309-32.

. The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs CA. 824: A

Turning Point in the Struggle Between Byzantium and
Islam. Athens, 1984.

. “Naval Warfare in the Eastern Mediterranean

(6th 14th Centuries): An Arabic Translation of Leo
Vi’s Naumachica.” Graeco-Arabica 3 (1984): 137M8.

. “Two Parallel Naval Guides of the Tenth Centu-
ry — Qudama’s Document and Leo Vi’s Naumachica: A
Study on Byzantine and Moslem Naval Preparedness.”
Graeco-Arabica 1 (1982): 51-103.

Delgado, Jorge L. El Poder Naval cle Al-Andalus en la Epoca
del Califcito Omeva. Granada: Universidad de Granada,
1993.

Fahmy, Aly M. Muslim Sea-Power in the Eastern Mediter-
ranean from the Seventh to the Tenth Century AD. Cairo:
National Publication & Printing House, 1966.

. Muslim Naval Organisation in the Eastern Mediter-
ranean from the Seventh to the Tenth Century AD. Cairo:
National Publication & Printing House, 1966.

Nukhayli, Darwish. Al-Sufun al-Islamiyya ‘ala Huruf al-
Mujam. Alexandria: Alexandria University Press, 1974.

Picard, Christophe. La Mer et les Musulmans d'Occident au
Moyaen Age. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1997.

Salem, Elsayyed, and Ahmad ‘Abbady. Tarikh al-Bahriyya
al-Islamiyya fi al-Maghrib wal-Andalus. Beirut: Dar al-
Nahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1969.

Ziade, Nicole. “Al-Ustul al-‘Arabi fi Ayyam al-
Amawiyyin.” In Studies on the History of Bilad
al-Sham during the Umayyacl Period, eds. M. Bakhit
and M. Abbadi, 37-86. Amman, 1990.

NAWRUZ

Of Persian origin, Nawruz (No Roz; new day), the
ancient Iranian festival of the New Year, survived the
Arab conquest and continued to be celebrated in
Islamic lands many centuries thereafter. Originally
the first day of the Persian solar year, it corresponded
with the spring vernal equinox, and the duration of its
celebration was six days. Medieval Islamic sources
give various (folkloric) explanations for the origins
of Nawruz, which involve the mythical Persian
Jamshid or the biblical patriarchs Abraham and
King Solomon. No Roz was the day to wear new
clothes and serve food of the new season. People
used to rise early in the morning, go to wells and
streams, draw water in vases, and pour it over them-
selves or sprinkle it on each other. Explanations for
these customs varied, from considering them a good
omen and a means to ward off harm to the cleansing

of the smoke off of those attending the rituals of the
fire of the preceding winter nights. Shi‘i explanation of
the significance of Nawruz, which is ascribed to the
Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq, sees in it the day of God's primal
covenant with mankind, the day of the first rising of
the sun, the day of the defeat of the Antichrist, and the
day of a number of other important events.

During 'Abbasid time, and especially during the
reign of al-Mutawakkil (847-861 CE), Nawruz was
celebrated with great pomp and rejoicing. Perfor-
mances of masked actors took place at the caliphal
court in Baghdad, a variety of sweet dishes were
cooked, and caliphs received gifts from their subjects
and exchanged gifts with high officials. In addition,
the common people exchanged gifts. They used to
illuminate their homes with cotton pods and clay
censers. Enthusiasm could reach such a degree that
Caliph al-Mutadid’s attempt in 284/897 to prevent the
unrestrained rejoicing in the streets failed. Other cus-
toms reported are the dyeing of eggs and the sprin-
kling of perfume on a man and treading seven times
on him as a means of driving away the evil eye,
laziness, and fever. A report from around 900 tells
that the Baghdadi people even dared to sprinkle water
on policemen. There is a report about Muslims drink-
ing wine in public and eating lentils “like the non-
Muslims ( dhimmis ).”

Nawruz was celebrated not only in previously
Sasanian territories but also in Islamic Egypt. The
circumstances of its arrival there are unknown, how-
ever; it could be an effect of the Persian rule of ancient
Egypt or, alternatively, an adaptation of the Saturna-
lia of the Roman era. Be that as it may, in Egypt,
unlike in the eastern provinces, although it did mark
the beginning of the year, Nawruz was an autumn
festival that was celebrated on the first day of the
Coptic month of Tut (September), when the Nile
was expected to reach its highest level. Celebrations
are first reported in Egypt in the year 912, and some
of the reported customs remind one of those that have
been related for ancient Iran: the exchange of gifts,
the eating of special food, and the wearing of new
clothes. Under the Fatimids, Nawruz was expressed
in an official celebration in which gifts were bestowed
on officials and their families. It appears, however,
that a carnival increasingly became its main function.
The people drank wine and beer; there were those
who ambushed travelers and sprayed them with filthy
water or wine, and others threw eggs on one another.
Even emirs and dignitaries were exposed to this sort
of ridicule, and, to rescue themselves, they had to pay
“ransom.” Slapping one another with boots or leath-
er mats in public places was possibly a remnant of a
pagan ritual. Sexual overtones were expressed in the
play of water games, causing men and women to

559

NAWRUZ

become wet so that naked bodies could be seen
through clothes. In 1188, the public gathering of
transvestites and prostitutes is reported. Masquerades
are reported during the celebration of 975. Puritan
scholars of the Mamluk period lamented the adverse
effect of the festival on both the common people and
the learned. They reported that schools were shut
down and turned into playgrounds and that teachers
were insulted and sprayed with water. These writers
found it detestable that the participants were able “to
commit all kinds of evil,” that “there was no interdic-
tion [to any sort of behavior] and no authority
imposed.”

The high mark of Nawruz in medieval Cairo was
the procession of the Emir of Nawruz, usually a wan-
ton who was either naked or dressed in colorful
clothes, his face besmeared with lime or flour and a
beard of fur attached to his face, on his head a special
cap made of palm leaves, riding a donkey in the
streets. He held a sort of register in his hand, “visited”
homes of dignitaries to collect “debts,” and punished
those who refused to pay. Manifest in this procession
is the carnivalesque element of status reversal and
riotous revelry a la medieval Christian festivals such
as the King of Fools.

Egyptian rulers occasionally outlawed certain ele-
ments of the Nawruz festival, such as the spraying of
water. The Mamluk Sultan Barquq banned the cele-
brations in 1385 altogether, and those disobeying
were severely punished. Although reports are contra-
dictory regarding what the situation was afterward, it
is most likely that the festival vanished from Cairo
after approximately 1400. Still, there are indications
that it survived in one form or another in Egyptian
provinces until modern times.

Boaz Shoshan

See also Festivals and Celebrations
Further Reading

Ahsan, Muhammad Manazir. Social Life under the
Ahbasids. London: Longman, 1979.

Cuypers, Michel. “Le Nowruz en Egypte.” Luqman 10
(1993-1994): 9-36.

von Grunebaum, G.E. Muhammadan Festivals. London:
Curzon Press, 1976.

Shoshan, Boaz. Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo, Chapter 3,
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

NEZAMI

Nezami was born in Ganjeh (Kirovabad under the
Soviets, now Gyandzhe) in Azerbaijan in 1 141, and he
died in the same town in 1209. He is reputed to have
left the town only once in his life, at the behest of a

local ruler who wished to meet him. The exordia and
conclusions to his poems tell us that he was monoga-
mous but married three times due to his wives’ deaths;
that he was particularly enamored of his first wife,
Afaq; that he had a son named Mohammad; and that
he was never a court poet, although all of his poems
were written with aristocratic patrons in mind, and all
of them were apparently well received by their ded-
icatees.

His fame rests with his Khamseh (Quintet), also
known as the Panj Ganj (Five Treasures) , which con-
sists of five long poems in the masnavi (couplet) form,
using different meters. Three of the five are romances,
and they are considered to be the greatest examples of
the form in Persian. The first of the five — and the only
one that does not consist of a single narrative — is the
Makhzan al-Asrar (Treasury of Secrets), which is a
compendium of mystical tales; the second poem,
Khosrow o Shirin, tells the story of the love of the
Sasanian King Khosrow for the Armenian Princess
Shirin; the third, Leili o Majnun , deals with two leg-
endary lovers from different Arab tribes; the fourth,
Haft Paykar (The Seven Portraits), is concerned
with the loves of the Sasanian King Bahrain Gur;
and the fifth, Sekandarnameh, deals with Alexander
the Great.

The sources for three of the four narratives are to
be found in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (the exception,
Leili o Majnun, is an Arab tale with no known Persian
source before Nezami). The eleventh-century ro-
mance Vis o Ramin by Gorgani provided the basis
for Nezami’s rhetoric, but, in the same way that
Nezami considerably elaborates on Ferdowsi’s rela-
tively brief anecdotes, he develops Gorgani’s rhetoric
in complex and sophisticated ways. In particular, de-
spite his evident delight in his skill at writing highly
evocative sensuous descriptions, he turns the empha-
sis of the romance away from carnal love as an end in
itself to a concern with spiritual identity and ethical
growth. His last poem, which treats Alexander as a
seeker of spiritual wisdom, returns to the mystical
emphasis of his first work and makes explicit the
theme of personal ethical development that is implicit
in his love stories.

Nezami is both a learned poet and a humanly
endearing one. He is not afraid to deploy his thor-
ough knowledge of the traditional learning of his time
(e.g., his extensive use of arcane astrological lore), but
his poems are never overwhelmed with such matter,
and they have remained enormously popular for their
human portraits (particularly of women), their sus-
penseful (if leisurely) plots, and their sumptuous de-
scriptive passages. Nezami’s elegant and highly
effective allegorical integration of sensuous and mun-
dane elements on the one hand and mystical and

560

NILE

ethical elements on the other is unequaled by any

other Persian narrative poet.

Richard Davis

See also Alexander; Astrology; Ferdowsi; Sasanians;

Traditions, Islamic

Further Reading

Burgel, J.C. “The Romance.” In Persian Literature, ed.
E. Yarshater. New York, 1988.

Meisami, Julie Scott. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Prin-
ceton, NJ, 1987.

Safa, Zabihollah. Tarikh-e Adabiyat dar Iran ( The History
of Literature in Iran), 5 vols. Tehran, 1366/1987.

Zarrinkub, Abdolhosayn. Pir-e Ganjeh dar Jostoju-ye
Nakojabad (The Sage of Ganjeh in Search of Never-
Never Land). Tehran, 1372/1993.

NILE

Suffering an almost total lack of rain, Egypt, which
has always been a primarily agricultural society, has
been uniquely dependent on the flood of the Nile for
its survival. This role of the river overshadowed its
secondary importance as a means of transportation,
especially of goods, as it was in Mamluk time, when
boats with a usual capacity of seventy tons (and up to
350 tons) were used for carrying grain.

Knowledge of the Nile among Medieval Muslim
geographers was based mostly on legendary or pseu-
doscientific traditions adopted from Ptolemy’s ideas
about the sources of the Nile in the legendary “Moun-
tain of the Moon”; they believed it was south of the
equator, as reflected in al-Khwarizmi’s ninth-century
Surat al-Ard. A map in an eleventh-century manu-
script of this work indicates that the Nile’s sinuous
course was by then known. Later geographers,
gathering pieces of information from traders and tra-
velers, assumed the existence of a few “Niles”; alter-
natively, they believed there was one long one made
out of a few.

The Nile habitually was at its lowest level in Lower
Egypt around the beginning of June and would then
rise and reach its maximum level in the Coptic month
of Tut (29 August to 27 September), coinciding with
the ancient New Year. If the level was sixteen to
eighteen cubits (dhira’) (about 9.3-10.4 meters), crop
growth should have been sufficient. However, the
whimsical nature of the Nile’s inundation impelled
most political regimes to measure its rise, and, for
this, the ancients invented the Nilometer. Al-Maqrizi,
the renowned chronicler of Mamluk Egypt, quotes a
popular saying to the effect that God should save
from a level of twenty cubits, because it would result
in flooding and the destruction of crops. It now

appears, though, that, by the Mamluk period, this
level no longer posed a threat of overflooding; over
the course of time, the minimum and maximum
increased at a steady rate as a result of the sediment
on the bed of the river.

Until the nineteenth century, a maintenance-
intensive irrigation system remained almost un-
changed. When the flood began, the water was har-
nessed by an extensive network of local irrigation
canals of various sizes to draw it into basins along
the Nile Valley and in the Delta. Dikes were used to
trap the water and to allow moisture to sink into the
basins. The alluvium washed down from Ethiopian
topsoil settled on the fields and provided rich fertili-
zation. Constant dredging of the canals and the
shoring up of dikes were required. Some innovations,
like the saqiya (an ox-driven water wheel), the Archi-
medes screw, and the shaduf (a simple water hoist),
appeared already during the late Pharaonic and Ptol-
emaic eras, and they persisted into the Islamic period.

A too-slow rise of the water between July and
September or its sudden recession frequently aroused
anxiety among the populace. This was the point when
merchants and brokers would consider it in their
interest to withhold supplies and push prices of
grain up. There are numerous descriptions of crowds
at the Nile docks or in front of mills and bakeries,
struggling to obtain grain, dough, or bread. Small
wonder, then, that medieval rulers attempted to con-
ceal information about the river level; one sultan even
contemplated destroying the Nilometer.

The attainment of a level of at least sixteen cubits
was the occasion for celebrating the “Plenitude of the
Nile”; this has been so since at least the Fatimid time.
Announcing to the people the attainment of the de-
sired level, the official in charge of the Nilometer went
in procession from the palace along the road of Bayn
al-Qasrayn, dressed in a special golden robe, to the
sound of trumpets and drums. The preparations for
the ceremonies required the relocation of the Fatimid
caliph and court officials from the palace to the plea-
sure pavilions erected along the Canal from Cairo to
Fustat. The ceremonies themselves consisted of two
parts. The first was the perfuming with saffron of the
Nilometer at Rawda Island, which was presided over
by the Fatimid caliph and later by Ayyubid and
Mamluk sultans, who were sailing in decorated
boats. The second part was the “breaking of the
dam,” which was annually constructed across the
Canal (khalij) near its mouth to prevent too early a
flooding. The ruler throwing a spear at the dam was a
signal for the workmen to rush forward and destroy
it. During that ceremony, the Qur’an was recited, and
singers performed into the night; the ruler then pre-
sided over a banquet. In Fatimid times, there were

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public observatories near the dam, where seats were
rented; at some point during the twelfth century CE,
they were destroyed by either overcrowding or tire.
Occasionally Mamluk troops performed lancing
drills, and merrymaking, wine drinking, and sexual
promiscuity were part of the Nile celebrations. At the
beginning of the sixteenth century, the traveler Leo
Africanus reported in some detail about family trips
in decorated boats. There were occasional attempts to
ban popular celebrations, and scholars considered the
people’s “abominations” the reason for the Nile’s low
level.

Islamic regimes tried to abolish Coptic festivals
associated with the Nile. Already, ‘Umar ibn al-
Khattab, the second caliph, forbade the sacrificial
rites and, instead of a virgin known as the “Nile
Bride,” a piece of paper was thrown to the river.
Later, the Fatimids and Mamluks in particular sub-
jected Coptic festivals of the Nile to occasional cen-
sorship, especially during droughts, but this met only
limited success. Among these festivals, one should
mention the Feast of Submersion (‘Id al-Ghitas).
This occurred on the eve of the Epiphany, which
commemorated Christ’s baptism and coincided with
a seasonal transition shortly after the winter solstice
around the middle of January. During the ‘Abbasid
period, thousands of torches were lit, and large
crowds of Copts and Muslims thronged the river
banks. Another Coptic Nile festival, the Festival of
the Martyr (‘Id al-Shahid), was celebrated in May to
mark the beginning of the spring. Its focal point was a
sacrificial object — a finger of a martyr that was kept
during the year in the Shubra church in Cairo — being
immersed in the river. The priests of the church orche-
strated the ritual that was believed to bring about the
Nile’s inundation. Large crowds are reported to have
been spectators. A description from the height of
the Mamluk period reports about the riding of horses,
the pitching of tents, the performing of singers and
entertainers, and the consuming of much wine (so
much, in fact, that the local peasants could pay their
land tax from the revenues procured from its sale).
Even prostitutes, effeminate males, and reprobates of
all types participated, to the point that “numerous
sins are performed in excess.” This festival persisted
to the mid-fourteenth century, a time when the
Mamluk regime moved against a perceived threat of
increasing Coptic influence.

Boaz Shoshan

Further Reading

Borsch, Stuart J. “Nile Floods and the Irrigation System in

Fifteenth-Century Egypt.” Mamluk Studies Review 4

(2000): 131-45.

Halm, H. “Die Zeremonien der Salbung des Nilometers
und der Knaloffnung in Fatimidischer Zeit.” In Egypt
and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras,
eds. U. Vermeulen and D. de Smet, 111-23. Leuven:
Uitgeverij Peeters, 1995.

Levtzion, Nehemia. “Arab Geographers, the Nile, and the
History of Bilad al-Sudan.” In The Nile: Histories, Cul-
tures, Myths, eds. Haggai Erlich and Israel Gershoni,
71-6. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000.

Lutfi, Huda. “Coptic Festivals of the Nile: Aberrations of
the Past?” In The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and
Society, eds. Thomas Philipp and Ulrich Haarmann,
254-82. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1998.

Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid
Cairo. Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press, 1994.

Shoshan, Boaz. Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

NISHAPUR

Nishapur is a city in northeastern Iran. During its
heyday (ca. 950-1050) it was the largest city in the
Muslim world (one to two hundred thousand people)
that was not situated on navigable water. Although
the semiautonomous Tahirid dynasty ruled from
Nishapur in the ninth century, its prominence
stemmed from trade, manufacturing, and religious
learning rather than from being a military garrison
or imperial capital. Growing largely through religious
conversion, Nishapur supplanted nearby Tus (mod-
ern Mashhad), a Sasanid governing center, as the
administrative hub of the province of Khurasan.
Trade from eastern lands passing south of the Kopet
Dagh mountains funneled through Nishapur, and the
city became a major producer of cotton cloth and high-
quality ceramics. The Ash‘ari school of Islamic theol-
ogy, which featured such noted scholars as Imam al-
Haramain al-Juvaini and al-Ghazali, came to be based
in Nishapur during the eleventh century. It was simul-
taneously the home of such noted Sufis as Abu al-
Qasim al-Qushairi. Nishapur’s great size required
high productivity in the surrounding farmlands. The
advent of the Seljuq dynasty with its pastoralist fol-
lowers in 1037 unsettled the agricultural economy and
triggered the city’s slow decline. A decade of fighting
among religious factions (primarily the Hanafis and
the Shaffis), nomadic raids, and earthquakes caused
most of the shrunken city to be abandoned in 1 162. A
smaller walled city rebuilt on the western border of the
metropolis was destroyed by the Mongols during the
thirteenth century; Nishapur was then relocated two
kilometers further west. With the growing pilgrimage
city of Mashhad, the new regional metropolis, Nisha-
pur never again attained more than local importance.

Richard W. Bulliet

562

NIZAM AL-DIN

Further Reading

Bulliet, Richard W. The Patricians of Nishapur. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard University Press, 1972.

NIZAM AL-DIN

Nizam al-Din Awliya’ (1244-1325 CE) was the most
renowned Sufi saint of medieval South Asia (India,
Pakistan, and Bangladesh). He was a scholar of hadith
(tradition) and an exponent of juridical independence
(ijtihad). He systematized the core practices of the
Chishti Sufi community and spread its institutions,
making the Chishti community the most characteristi-
cally South Asian Sufi group. His contribution to Per-
sianate Islamic culture in Hindustan is vast. His given
name was Muhammad Nizam al-Din, and a nickname,
Awliya’ (Saints), evolved from his early titles: Sultan-i
Masha’ikh (Ruler of Spiritual Masters) and Mahbub-i
Ilahi (God’s Beloved).

Life

Nizam al-Din was born in Badaun, north of Delhi.
Mongol invasions exiled his parents’ families from
Bukhara; his father died during his childhood. Raised
by his mother, Bibi Zulaykha, he held her as an exem-
plar of ascetic and mystical women. She supported
him while he studied Qur’an, hadith, and jurispru-
dence (usul al-fiqh). At sixteen, he migrated to Delhi
and studied hadith with Mawlana Kamal al-Din
Zahid.

While in Delhi, he heard of a Sufi master named
Shaykh Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakar. The Shaykh’s
brother commented on his aim to become a judge
(qadi), to which he replied, “Don’t become a
judge — become something else.” Listening to Qur’an
57:16, “Has not the time arrived for true believers
that their hearts should humbly engage in remem-
brance of God?,” he abandoned his ambition to in-
stead “become something else.”

Shaykh Farid al-Din greeted him with a poem:
“Burning of separation from you has singed so many
hearts/Flooding of desire for you has ravaged so many
souls.” He initiated Nizam al-Din into the Chishti Sufi
practices of rapturous love, disciplined poverty, and
poetic sensitivity. Nizam al-Din became his spiritual
successor (khalifa) at age twenty-three, and he settled
in Ghiyathptir, outside Delhi. He built a popular devo-
tional center (jama ‘at-khana or khanaqah), con-
fronted the rulers, and trained disciples. He refused to
marry or raise children (see Lawrence, 1994).

Teachings

Mu‘in al-Din Hasan Chishti (d. 1236) brought the
Chishti order from Afghanistan. Teaching that a
Sufi cultivates “generosity like a river, magnanimity
like the sun, and humility like the earth,” he distilled
universal teachings from Islam, attracting Hindu
devotees while extolling Muhammad as the perfect
human being and Imam ‘Ali as the exemplary Sufi.
He adapted Hindu devotional hymns to create the
Chishti institution of sama‘. Musical devotion has
roots in Persianate Sufism, but Chishti masters elevat-
ed it to a central practice.

Nizam al-Din’ s teachings can be summarized in
three statements. First, service to the needy is better
than ritual worship; the way to knowledge of God
(marifa) is bringing happiness to others. Arguing
that this was the best way to imitate the Prophet
Muhammad, Nizam al-Din made a pun that equated
Prophethood (payghambari) with “bearing the sor-
rows of others” ( pay-i ghamm bari ) . Second, the pres-
ence of God is found among the destitute. To this end,
Nizam al-Din emphasized a hadith: “All people are
God’s family, and the most beloved of people are
those who do most good for God’s family.” Third,
egoism is idolatry. The following anecdote reveals his
compassion and tolerance with regard to interfaith
relationships. Walking with Amir Khusraw, wearing
his cap tilted, Nizam al-Din observed Hindus praying
to the sun; he approved of their worship, paraphrasing
Qur’an 22:66: “To every community there is a religious
way and a direction for prayer” (bar qawm ra-st rahi
dini o qiblah gahi). Amir Khusraw spontaneously
added, “Every community has a right way and a direc-
tion to pray/and I turn in prayer to face the captivating
one whose cap’s awry” ( man qiblah vast kardam janib-i
kaj-kulahi) . This conversation makes for a rhyming
couplet that is sung in Qawwali performances.

Nizam al-Din advocated three practical means to
realize these teachings. First, find a spiritual master
and serve him ( pir-muridi) . Second, embrace poverty
and renounce hoarding ( tark-i dunya). Third, nourish
the heart through devotional music (sama‘). Sultan
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (r. 1320-1325 CE) enter-
tained criticism from legalistic scholars that Islamic
law forbade such music. The Shaykh debated in court
and defended the practice with hadith reports.

Community

Nizam al-Din was a skilled organizer who brought
into his devotional center disciples of all classes. He

563

NIZAM AL-DIN

codified the rules of living at devotional centers; in
finance, he relied on voluntary gifts (futuh) rather
than royal land grants (jagirdari). Members daily
gave away everything beyond basic needs and main-
tained a communal kitchen ( langar-khanah ) that fed
the needy by the thousands. Nizam al-Din refused to
meet Sultans face to face, which was in contrast with
their Suhrawardi peers in South Asia. Nizam al-Din
oversaw the expansion of the Chishti community
by sending delegates across the Delhi Sultanate,
which expanded to Bengal, Rajastan, and Gujarat
and which, by 1310 CE, encompassed the Deccan.
Delegates set up devotional centers based on Nizam
al-Din’s model.

Nizam al-Din attracted followers of high quality.
He insisted that his inner circle study Islamic
sciences ( usul aJ-din) before he granted successorship
(khilafat). His chief successor, Shaykh Nasir al-Din
(d. 1356), was a scholar of Qur’an and Arabic gram-
mar whose Sufi discourses (see Khayr al-Majalis) are
interwoven with hadith reports. Other disciples were
more musical, like Burhan al-Din Gharib (d. 1337),
who oversaw the spread of the Chishti community in
Gujarat through his rapturous dance (see Ernst,
1992).

Nizam al-Din’s disciples included courtier poets.
Amir Khusraw (d. 1325) created Persian love poems
(ghazal), Hindawi poems in praise of Nizam al-Din
based on Krishna-devotion imagery, and musical set-
tings of Islamic prayers and praise that defined the
tradition of Qawwali singing. Amir Hasan Sijzi
(1254-1336) wrote down Nizam al-Din’s oral Sufi
discourses in a unique record, Fawa’id al-Fu’ad (see
Lawrence, 1992), spawning a genre of Sufi literature
(malfuzat) that was adopted by other South Asian
Sufi communities.

Legacy

Although Nizam al-Din wrote no books, the historian
Barani left a record of his personality. His followers
enriched South Asian literature and music. Their Per-
sian prose formed a unique genre at the interface
between oral discourses and written records, and
their Persian poetry set the standard for ghazals
throughout the early modern period. Their sung po-
etry sparked the use of vernacular South Asian lan-
guages in Sufi communities (Hindawi, Punjabi, and
Gujarati, and, later, Deccani Urdu).

Nizam al-Din’s legacy includes his tomb complex
(dargah), built by rulers of the Tughluq dynasty
(1320-1451) and the Lodi dynasty (1451-1526), who
chose to be buried near it although they ruled from

Agra. Mughal rulers (1535-1865) patronized his
tomb. In later Mughal times, it became a centerpiece
of spiritual life in Delhi through The Procession of the
Flower-Sellers (see Lewis, 2002), a parade from the
Red Fort to the tomb of Nizam al-Din and on to
Mehrauli, near the Qutb Minar. Nizam al-Din’s
tomb remains one of the most popular Islamic sites
in independent India, and the Chishti community he
formalized continues to be the most active Sufi com-
munity in South Asia.

Scott A. Kugle

See also Chishti; Dancing; Music; Muslims; Singing;
South Asia; Saints and Sainthood; South Asia; Sufism
and Sufis

Primary Sources

Hussayni, Sayyid Muhammad Akbar. Jawami ‘ al-Kalim:
Malfuzat-i Muhammad Gisu Daraz. Kanpur: Intizami
Press, 1936.

Khurd, Amir. Siyar al-Awliya’. Delhi: Chirangi Lai
Muhibb-i Hind Press, 1320 A.H.

Qalandar, Hamid. Khayr al-Majalis: Malfuaat-i Nasir al-
Din Chishti. Aligarh Muslim University, 1959.

Further Reading

Digby, Simon. “Tabarrukat and Succession Among the
Great Chishti Shaykhs.” In Delhi through the Ages:
Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society, ed. R.E.
Frykenberg. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Ernst, Carl. Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Poli-
tics at a South Asian Sufi Center. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1992.

Ernst, Carl, and Bruce Lawrence. Sufi Martyrs of Love: The
Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Habib, Muhammad. Life and Works of Hazrat Amir Khusro
of Delhi. Aligarh Muslim University, 1927.

Lawrence, Bruce. Notes From a Distant Flute: The Existent
Literature of Pre-Mughal Indian Sufism. Tehran: Imperi-
al Academy of Philosophy, 1978.

. “The Early Chishti Approach to Sama‘.” In Islamic

Society and Culture: Essays in Honor of Aziz Ahmad, eds.
Milton Israel and N.K. Wagle. Delhi: Manohar, 1983.

, transl. Nizam al-Din Awliya: Morals for the Heart.

Mawa, NJ: Paulist Press, 1992.

. “Honoring Women through Sexual Abstinence:

Lessons From the Spiritual Practice of a Pre-modern
South Asian Sufi Master, Nizam al-Din Awliya.” Jour-
nal of Turkish Studies 18 (1994): 149-61.

Lewis, Charles. Mehrauli: A View From the Qutb. Delhi:
Harper Collins India, 2002.

Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad. The Life and Times of Shaikh
Nizamuddin Auliya. Delhi: Idarah-i Adabyat-i Delli,
1991.

Qureishi, Regula Burkhardt. Sufi Music in India and
Pakistan: Sound, Context and Meaning in Qawwali.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Safi, Omid. “The Sufi Path of Love in Iran and India.” In A
Pearl in Wine: Essays on the Life, Music and Sufism of

564

NOMADISM AND PASTORALISM

Hazrat Inayat Khan, ed. Zia Inayat Khan. New Leba-
non: Omega Press, 2001.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Sub-Continent.
Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1980.

Zarcone, Thierry. “Central Asian Influence on the Early
Development of the Chishtiyya Sufi Order in India.” In
The Making of Indo-Persian Culture, eds. Muzaffar
Alam, Frangoise Delvoye, and Marc Garborieau. New
Delhi: Manohar, 2000.

NIZAM AL-MULK, ABU ‘ALI B.

‘ALI AL-TUSI,

Abu ‘Ali b. ‘Ali al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk was an influ-
ential Seljuk vizier and educational patron. He was
born in Tus in Khurasan (eastern Iran) in AH 408/
1018 CE, the son of a Ghaznavid tax collector; little is
known of his early life. By 445/1054, he was in the
service of Alp Arslan, who was then a lieutenant in
eastern Khurasan for his father, the Seljuk Sultan
Chaghri Beg. Soon after Alp Arslan’s accession to
the sultanate after the death of his uncle Tughril
Beg, Nizam al-Mulk was appointed vizier after he
had contrived the execution of his rival al-Kunduri,
formerly Tughril Beg’s vizier.

The period of Nizam al-Mulk’ s greatest influence
upon the affairs of the Seljuk empire began after the
death of Alp Arslan in 465/1072. The early years of
the reign of Alp Arslan’s successor, the eighteen-year-
old Malikshah, were completely dominated by his
vizier. Eventually, however, rival interests at court
and Malikshah’s own desire to be rid of the man
who for twenty years was the real ruler of the empire
led to Nizam al-Mulk’s downfall. He was murdered in
485/1092, apparently by an agent of the assassin lead-
er Hassan-i Sabbah at the instigation of the vizier’s
enemies at court.

Nizam al-Mulk founded a chain of madrasas (Is-
lamic schools) in the main cities of Persia, Iraq, and
the Jazira. His motive was perhaps to assert Seljuk
Sunnism against Fatimid and other Shi’i interests by
training a cadre of reliable, Sunni-oriented officials to
run the Seljuk empire. His political desiderata and
the means of achieving them were articulated in the
Siyasat-nama (Treatise on Government), which was
made up of fifty chapters of advice illustrated by
historical anecdotes.

David Morray

See also Bureaucrats; Madrasa; Mirrors for Princes;
Viziers

Further Reading

Bosworth, C.E. “The Political and Dynastic History of the

Iranian World (AD 1000-1217).” In The Cambridge

History of the Iranian World, vol. 5, ed. J.A. Boyle.
Cambridge, 1968.

Nizam al-Mulk. Siyafisat-Naftna ( The Book of Government,
or Rules for Kings), transl. H. Darke. London, 1960.

NOMADISM AND PASTORALISM

Through the early middle ages, nomads in the Middle
East exploited the dry, inarable steppe and desert
inside the Fertile Crescent and below into the Arabian
peninsula; they focused on subsistence. The region’s
arable lands at oases, near rivers, or in rainy zones
that enabled irrigated or “dry” farming supported
settled communities. The inarable areas provided veg-
etation (technically, a desert may have vegetation on
up to 49% of its surface) for sustaining domestic
animals and their human managers, which were
Arab Bedouins for the most part and able to move
about to reach enough of it. Sheep and cattle that can
only move short distances and that require water
daily were raised on the better pastures and water
sources fringing the settled lands. Camels subsisted
on poorer range: they can eat a variety of vegetation
(e.g., “camel thorn”), bear infrequent watering, and
move at a good pace between widely separated
patches of vegetation, wells, oases, and markets. The
nomads traded animals and their products for agri-
cultural and manufactured goods from settled com-
munities.

This nomadism entailed (and still does, where it
survives) an attenuated society. Communities con-
sisted of camps of a few households of somewhat
extended families. Beyond this, clans and tribes —
genealogical constructs differing only in size —
established personal identity and rights to pasture
and water. Tribes descended (in the male line) from
a remote ancestor (usually male); a clan’s founding
ancestor lived more recently; membership in both
is by birth (although “clients” may be assimilated).
Genealogy gave these units form, although their ap-
parently fixed shape depended on memory that
was usually softened by forgetfulness and often al-
tered by falsification enabled by fogginess. Pastoral
dispersion discouraged gatherings of the clans and
tribes, and genealogical structure provided no obvi-
ous political center: apical ancestors were long dead,
and living clansmen were only collateral relatives.
Leadership involved persuasion and cajolery rather
than authority.

Limitations of pasture and water restricted the
keeping of horses. Horses require regular and plenti-
ful watering and quality grazing (i.e., no camel thorn);
at times they had to be fed the nomads’ own food,
dates, and camel milk. In addition, horses are
endangered by high temperatures and would at

565

NOMADISM AND PASTORALISM

times have to share the nomads’ tents; these nomads
kept few of them.

The small size, isolation, and insecurity of their
communities made for the compensatory cultivation
of a warrior culture, but shortages of weaponry and
horses impaired their military capabilities. The best
arms were expensive. Spears and daggers were com-
mon; swords and armor were coveted but rarer. With-
out trees, archery was of little importance. The
warriors mostly fought on foot: camels make awk-
ward fighting platforms (Lawrence of Arabia shot his
own camel in the head during a camel charge). Nev-
ertheless, the camel was the main military asset,
providing mobility and logistics that were superior
to their better-armed and better-mounted settled
neighbors. Military commanders were chosen ad hoc
by consensus, and they had to maintain the voluntary
and revocable participation of their followers by
persuasion. Raiding was the most common military
undertaking.

During the early years of Islam, nomads made up
the bulk of the manpower of the Muslim armies,
although men from Mecca and Medina led them
and worked to settle them in garrison towns.
Although these settlements were subdivided by tribe,
the army in the field was arrayed in decimal units, and
the troops were supported by state stipends rather
than pastoralism. As these armies became profession-
al, nomads were relegated to occasional voluntary
service in caliphal campaigns.

Beginning in the eleventh century, nomads from
Inner Asia — mostly Turks, who were reinforced by
Mongols during the thirteenth century — occupied the
fine and largely arable grasslands of Anatolia, north-
ern Iran, and Afghanistan. Their nomadism was
geared not to try to make use of useless land but to
the maintenance of military capabilities enabling sei-
zure and defense of valuable resources. In these
regions, the nomads moved up to cool highland mea-
dows in the summer and down to snow-free but rainy
and grassy lowlands in winter; this was done to obtain
good grazing all year round for their sheep, goats,
cattle, camels, and especially horses — lots of horses
(actually ponies, because they grazed instead of
requiring feeding).

Horses opened the Middle East to these nomads
and enabled them to stay. They could raise horses
easily, mount all of their warriors, and provide plen-
tiful remounts (five per Mongol soldier) to outnumber
and outpace low-horsepower sedentary cavalries. Pas-
toralism eased logistics: the horses grazed; the soldiers
ate horse meat. The sedentaries’ armies required food
and fodder to be bought and transported. In addition,
horses enhanced the nomads’ basic weaponry —
homemade bows made by compounding bits of

wood, bone, and sinew into a light, compact, strong
tool to project heavy arrows — enabling the archers to
hit hard and then run fast. Finally, these nomads had
an advantage in “manpower availability.” Subsis-
tence chores could be managed by women and chil-
dren; in peacetime, men basically had nothing to do
(Bedouin pastoralism seems to be somewhat more
labor intensive). In war, most men could participate,
particularly as cavalrymen. As with the Bedouin, the
warrior way of life pervaded these nomads’ culture
and inspired their actions, but to greater effect.

The social and political arrangements of these orig-
inally Inner Asian nomads differed from the Bedouins’.
A nuclear family — a man, his wife, and their chil-
dren — constituted a household. By the nomads’ cal-
culation, a hundred milking sheep or their equivalent
(one horse or cow was considered to be equal to five
sheep or goats) could decently support a household.
The community in times of security was a camp of up
to ten households, depending on the size of their herds
(if there were more animals, there were fewer house-
holds). In dangerous times, households might camp
together by the thousands within a protective circle
of wagons; a large camp’s many animals required
frequent moves to new pastures.

Clans were like the Arabs’: based on genealogy and
providing identity and certain rights. Tribes were
quite different. Leading and managing large camps
and large cavalry forces produced chiefs with powers
that were unknown to the indigenous Middle Eastern
nomads: absolute and arbitrary authority. The tribe
in Inner Asia and its related Middle Eastern regions
was not just a large clan that was kin to the chief, but
it could include any persons obedient to him of any
lineage, religion, economy (non-nomad), language,
or culture. These tribes had no membership or
size limitations. Mongol tribalism during the thir-
teenth century produced cavalry armies that num-
bered in the tens and sometimes hundreds of
thousands.

John Masson Smith

Further Reading

Barfield, Thomas. The Nomadic Alternative. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.

Barth, Fredrik. Nomads of South Persia: The Bcisseri Tribe
of the Khamseh Confederacy. Prospect Heights, 111:
Waveland, 1986.

Cole, Donald P. Nomads of the Nomads: The Al Murrah
Bedouin of the Empty Quarter. Arlington Heights, 111:
Harlan Davidson, 1975.

Khazanov, Anatoli M. Nomads and the Outside World, 2nd
ed., transl. Julia Crookenden. Madison, Wise: Universi-
ty of Wisconsin Press, 1994.

566

NUMBERS

Smith, John Masson, Jr. “Mongol Nomadism and Middle
Eastern Geography: Qishlaqs and Turnens.” In The
Mongol Empire and Its Legacy, eds. Reuven Amitai-
Preiss and David O. Morgan, 39-56. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

. “Mongol Society and Military in the Middle East:

Antecedents and Adaptations.’’ In War and Society
in the Eastern Mediterranean, 7th-15th Centuries, ed.
Yaakov Lev. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

NUMBERS

A variety of number systems were used in medieval
Islamic civilization:

1. The Hindu- Arabic system is the modern
decimal position system for writing integer
numbers by means of ten symbols: the
modern forms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.
The system was developed in India around 500
CE and probably transmitted by Indian
scholars to Baghdad around 775 CE. The
numbers were described in a small treatise
about arithmetic by Muhammad ibn Musa
al-Khwarizmi around 830 in Baghdad. The
name al-Khwarizmi indicates that he was
from Khwarizm, now Khiwa in modern
Uzbekistan. He also authored an influential
work about algebra. His treatise about
arithmetic is lost in Arabic, but it was
transmitted into Latin in the twelfth century.
His name was Latinized as Algorismi, hence
the modern word algorism or algorithm for
methods of computation in general.

In or after the tenth century, two varieties of the
symbols emerged: the Eastern forms, which
are still used in Egypt, the Middle East, Iran,
and Pakistan; and the Western forms, which
were used in North Africa and Spain and
which are the immediate precursors of the
modern shapes.

The words cipher and zero are both derived (via
Latin cipherum and zephirum ) from the Arabic
word sifr, meaning “empty place,” which was
used for the zero. This Arabic word sifr is,
in turn, a translation from the Sanskrit term
shunya, which the Indian mathematicians used
for zero. Contrary to what is sometimes be-
lieved, the zero was not invented by Islamic
mathematicians but rather adopted by them
from India.

The decimal position system never became
very popular in medieval Islamic civilization;
it was used mainly for the writing of very large
numbers. Al-Khwarizmi and later mathe-
maticians illustrated the system by means of

the famous chessboard problem: if we put one
grain on the first cell of the chessboard, two
grains on the second, four grains on the third,
eight grains on the fourth, and so on, what is
the total number of grains on the chessboard?
The total number can be written in the
“Indian” system as 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.

The decimal position system was transmitted to
Christian Europe by the Latin translation of
al-Khwarizmi’s work and also by the Italian
mathematician Leonardi Fibonacci. During
the late twelfth century, Fibonacci learned
the system in the city of Bougie (Algeria) and
then on his return wrote an explanation of
the system in his Liber Abaci, which became
influential in Europe. It took until the
Renaissance for the system to be firmly estab-
lished in Europe. The modern forms of the
symbols were fixed after the development
of printing.

2. The abjad system can be used to write integer

numbers between 1 and 1999. In the Arabic
alphabet (and also in the Greek alphabet and
the alphabets of the other Semitic languages),
each letter has a numeric value between 1 and
1000. The name abjad is a combination of the
letters with values between 1 and 4: alif = 1,
ba ’ = 2, Jim = 3, and dal = 4. The numeric
values of the letters are the integers from 1 to
9, the tens from 10 to 90, the hundreds from
100 to 900, and 1000 for the letter ghayn.
Numbers between 1 and 1999 are formed
from a combination of these letters, thus
1024 = ghayn-kaf-dal ( kaf = 20).

3. The medieval Islamic astronomers used the

sexagesimal system that had been invented in
ancient Babylonia and that is still used today
for writing angles in degrees, minutes, and
seconds. The system was also used by the
later Greek astronomers, including Ptolemy.
The Greeks indicated the individual numbers
by a system similar to the Arabic abjad
system. Each letter of the Greek alphabet
has a numeric value, thus alpha = 1 , beta = 2,
theta = 9, and so on. The Islamic astronomers
applied the same system to the Arabic alphabet
according to the abjad system, which has
been explained above. This system was called
the “numbers of the astronomers,” and it
was very popular. For numbers larger than
1000, the astronomers in the Eastern Islamic
world occasionally used the Hindu-Arabic
numbers.

4. Examples of other, less-popular systems are the

Coptic numbers used in Egypt and the siyaq

567

NUMBERS

numbers used in bookkeeping. In many Arabic
texts, numbers are written out in words: for
example, “twenty- three.” Computation and
trading were often done without number
symbols; the traders possessed an elaborate
system of finger reckoning.

Jan P. Hogendijk

See also Mathematics; Geometry; Astronomy;

Algebra

Further Reading

Folkerts, M., ed. Die Alteste Lateinische Schrift ber das
Indische Rechnen Nach al-Hwarizmi. Munchen: Verlag
der Bayerischen Academie der Wissenschaften, 1997.

Ifrah, G. From One to Zero: A Universal History of Num-
bers. New York: Viking Press, 1985.

Kunitzsch, Paul. “The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic
Numerals Reconsidered.” In The Enterprise of Science
in Islanr. New Perspectives, eds. J.P. Hogendijk and
A.I. Sabra, 3-21. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2003.

Saidan, A.S. The Arithmetic of al-Uqlidisi. Dordrecht:
Kluwer, 1978.

NUR AL-DIN IBN ZANGI

Nur al-Din Mahmud (d. 1174 CE) was the second son
of the Turkish warlord Zangi and, like his father, a
leading figure in the Muslim opposition to the Cru-
sader states established in the Syrian littoral as a
result of the First Crusade (1097-1099). Zangi had
been murdered shortly after he had taken Edessa
from the Crusaders in 1144, and Nur al-Din, initially
operating from his base in Aleppo, made permanent
the Muslim reconquest of Edessa in 1146 and then
expanded his campaigns against the remaining Latin
states. Shortly after the failed Second Crusade, Nur
al-Din inflicted a serious defeat on the Principality of
Antioch. By 1154, Nur al-Din took over control of
Damascus from the Muslim Burid dynasty. From this
base, he took several steps to support the ulama and
their clarion calls for jihad (holy war) against the
Franks. He constructed and endowed centers of
learning and worship.

Within a decade after establishing Damascus as the
capital of lands under his control, Nur al-Din’s atten-
tion was drawn to the succession struggles within
Fatimid Egypt, which were in turn complicated by
Crusader invasions from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In 1164, 1167, and 1168, Nur al-Din sent armies to
Egypt led by his Kurdish General Shirkuh. Shirkuh
died on this last campaign, and he was succeeded
in command by his nephew Salah al-Din Yusuf
ibn Ayyub (subsequently known to the Crusaders as
Saladin), who quickly took control of Egypt, ruling it

but recognizing Nur al-Din as his overlord. When
Nur al-Din died in 1174, Saladin quickly moved
against Nur al-Din’s heirs and subordinated their
holdings to his growing realm.

Warren C. Schultz

See also Crusades; Damascus; Jerusalem; Saladin

Further Reading

Eliseeff, Nikita. Nur al-Din. Un Grand Prince Musulman cle
Syrie au Temps des Croisacles, 3 vols. Damascus: Institut
Frangais de Damas, 1967.

Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the
Eleventh Century to 1517. Longman, 1986.

NUR JAHAN

Nur Jahan (born Mihrunnisa) was one of the most
powerful figures in seventeenth-century Mughal gov-
ernment, literature, and art. She was born in 1577 CE
in Kandahar to a noble and ambitious Persian family,
fleeing Persia for better prospects at Akbar’s court in
Fatehpur-Sikri. In 1594, she was married to ‘Ali Quli
Khan Istajlu, a Persian soldier likewise seeking his
fortune in India, with whom she produced a daughter,
Ladli Begam. She was widowed in 1607 at the age of
thirty and was invited to the Mughal court to be
a lady-in-waiting to one of the stepmothers of the
Emperor Jahangir.

She met Jahangir in the palace bazaar at the Agra
Fort in 1611 and married him two months later. In
1614, he named her Nur Jahan (Light of the World), a
sign of her central role in his life and at court. Indeed,
he became so incapacitated by addictions that she
gained enormous influence over him and de facto
power over the empire. One sign of this was her
minting gold and silver coins, an act that was tradi-
tionally reserved for the sovereign alone. A contem-
porary European observer wrote that Jahangir “hath
one Wife, or Queen, whom he esteems and favours
above all other Women; and his whole Empire is
govern’d at this day by her counsel.” Nur Jahan’s
success was due equally to an astute sense of politics
and diplomacy and to her family’s support and paral-
lel rise to power. Her father held the title of Vtmad al-
Dawla (Pillar of the Government), and her brother
similarly held high office in the court of Jahangir and
later Shah Jahan. Although Nur Jahan never bore a
child for Jahangir, her family was nonetheless
enmeshed with the Mughal line: Ladli Begam married
one of Jahangir’s sons and produced a daughter, and
Shah Jahan married Nur Jahan’s niece, for whom he
built the Taj Mahal.

568

NUSAYRIS

As a result of gifts, court stipends, and her own
business acumen, Nur Jahan became extremely
wealthy and could patronize literature, art, architec-
ture, and fashion with taste that extended to imported
European luxury goods. Her innovations in these
areas included new weaves and prints for textiles,
clothing designs, and gourmet recipes with artistic
presentation. In addition, she was a connoisseur of
painting and an accomplished poet in both Arabic
and Persian. She seems to have played a role in almost
all imperial architectural commissions during the
period of her marriage to Jahangir. Not only was
she the principal patron of the Nur Mahal Serai
(Jalandhar) on the Agra-Lahore Road, the renovated
Ram Bagh (Agra), the Nur Manzil Garden (Agra),
the Tomb of I’tmad al-Dawla (Agra), the Pattar
Mosque (Srinagar), and her own tomb near Jahangir’s
in Shahdara (Lahore), but she also clearly played an
important role in the design of the many imperial
gardens built along the shores of Lake Dal in Kashmir.

Even before the death of her husband in 1627, Nur
Jahan schemed against the future emperor, Shah
Jahan, and on his accession she was sent to live her
last years in Lahore with her daughter. Her house
stood in the same garden enclosure where she built
her tomb, and she was buried there upon her death in
1645.

D. Fairchild Ruggles

See also Mughals; Women Patrons; Women Rulers
Further Reading

Findly, Ellison Banks. Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India.

New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Pant, Chandra. Nur Jahan and Her Family. Allahabad: Dan

Dewal Publishing, 1978.

NUSAYRIS

Nusayrism is a syncretistic religion with a close affini-
ty to Shiism. Most of its adherents live in Syria and
the southeastern regions of present Turkey. In Syria,
the Nusayris constitute more than one million (about
twelve percent of the population). They live chiefly in
the mountainous areas of Latakia, known as Jabal al-
‘Alawiyyin, on the country’s northwest coast, where
they represent close to two-thirds of the populace.

The original name of the sect is Nusayriyva, after
Muhammad ibn Nusayr, a disciple of the Imams
‘Ali al-Hadi (d. 868 CE) and al-Hasan al-’Askari
(d. 873-4), the tenth and eleventh imams of Twelver
Shiism. The modern name of the sect is ‘Alawis; this
name was adopted at the beginning of the twentieth
century to underscore the sect’s links with ‘Ali ibn Abi

Talib, the common ancestor of all of the Shil
factions.

Despite the important role played by Ibn Nusayr
during the formative phase of Nusayrism, the real
founder and promulgator of the Nusayri faith seems
to have been al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi
(d. ca. 957).

During the early years of the twelfth century, the
Crusaders conquered part of the mountainous region
of Latakia. During the Mamluk period, unsuccessful
attempts were made to convert the Nusayris to Sunni
Islam.

For most of the Ottoman period, the Nusayris
were recognized as a distinctive group with the right
to maintain an autonomous judicial apparatus. Mod-
ern Western interest in the Nusayri religion began
during the mid-nineteenth century. A pioneering
monograph about the Nusayris, Histoire et Religion
des Nosairis, was published by the noted French
scholar Rene Dussaud in Paris in 1900. An important
source for the study of Nusayrism in modern times is
al-Bakura al-Sulaymaniyya fi Kashf Asrar al-Diyana
al-Nusayriyya, a description and refutation of the
Nusayri religion that was written by Sulayman al-
Adhani, a Nusayri convert to Christianity from the
town of Adhana in southern Turkey.

The Nusayris again came to the fore during the
period of the French mandate over Syria and Leba-
non (from 1920). France promoted their integration
into the ranks of the French army and even granted
them autonomy in the Jabal al-‘Alawiyyin region.
Their presence in the French army prepared the
ground for their later inclusion in the army of an
independent Syria. The Nusayris are the only minori-
ty to have succeeded in assuming power in their own
country.

Like the rival Druze religion, Nusayrism is
shrouded in mystery, its secrets being the exclusive
prerogative of the initiated (khassa), whereas the un-
initiated ( ‘amma) are kept strictly separate. In essence,
Nusayrism is an antinomian religion, and the religious
obligations are limited to moral prescriptions.

The Nusayris believe that the deity manifested it-
self in history in the form of a trinity. This trinitarian
revelation is believed to be a theophany that has
recurred in seven eras (called akwar, adwar, or
qubab) throughout the course of history. According
to the Nusayri trinitarian doctrine, two entities or
persons ( aqanim ) emanated from the supreme aspect
of the deity. This supreme aspect, called ma ‘na (mean-
ing, essence), is sometimes identified with God Him-
self. The second is the ism (Name) or hijab (Veil). The
third entity is the bab (Gate), which is the gate through
which the believer may contemplate the mystery of
divinity. This trinity has been incarnated in historical

569

NUSAYRIS

or mythical persons. During the seventh and last
cycle, the “Muhammadan cycle” that opens the Mus-
lim era, the trinity was incarnated in three central
figures of early Islam: ‘Ali as the ma'na, Muhammad
as the ism, and Salman the Persian as the bab, from
whence comes the acrostic sirr ‘A[yn] M[im] S[in] (i.e.,
the mystery of ‘Ali, Muhammad, and Salman).

The syncretistic nature of the Nusayri religion is
also evident in its calendar, which is replete with
festivals from diverse origins: Christian, Persian, and
Muslim (both Sunni and Shi‘i). However, being
regarded by the Muslim world as heretics has not
prevented the Nusayris from seeing themselves as
monotheists (muwahhida or muwahhidun).

Among the Nusayris in Syria, there are currently
two distinct trends. The more conservative members
of the community, living mainly in the Jabal al-
‘Alawiyyin region, adhere steadfastly to the tradition-
al creeds and rituals of the sect. Alternatively, others
are becoming assimilated into Twelver Shi‘ism and in
fact identify themselves as Shi‘is. This is taking place
mainly in cities, where these individuals have come
under the influence of Shi‘i communities.

Meir M. Bar- Asher

Further Reading

Al-Adhani, Sulayman. al-Bakura al-Sulyamaniyya. Beirut.
(Partial English translation in Salisbury, E. “‘The Book
of Sulaiman’s First Ripe Fruit Disclosing the Mysteries
of the Nusairian Religion’ by Sulaiman Effendi of
Adhanah.” Journal of the American Oriental Society
8 (1864): 227-308.)

Bar-Asher, M.M. “Sur Les Elements Chretiens de la Reli-
gion Nusayrite-‘Alawite.” Journal Asiatique 289 (2001):
185-216.

. “The Iranian Component of the Nusayri Religion.”

Iran 41 (2003): 217-27.

Bar-Asher, M.M., and A. Kofsky. The Nusayri-' Alawi Reli-
gion: An Enquiry into Its Theology and Liturgy. Leiden,
2002 .

Dussaud, R. Histoire et Religion des Nosairis. Paris, 1900.

Lyde, S. The Asian Mystery: The Ansaireeh or Nusairis of
Syria. London, 1860.

Moosa, M. Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects. New York,
1988.

Al-Tabarani, Abu Sa‘id Maymun ibn Qasim. Kit ah Sabil
Rabat al-Arwah wa-Dalil al-Surur wa-l-Afrah ila Faliq al-
Asbah al-Ma‘rufbi-Majmu‘al-A‘yad, ed. R. Strothmann.
Der Islam 27 (1944—1946).

Al-Tawil, Muhammad Amin Ghalib. Ta’rikh al-‘AIawiyyin.
Beirut.

570

OATHS

Known variously as qasam, half and yamin, the oath
was ubiquitous in medieval Islam. Apart from its
formal use in judicial contexts, the oath — and its
close relative, the vow (nadhr ) — was a common
means by which individuals affirmed commitments
to one another in all areas of life, from high politics
to business negotiation to relationships within the
family. The treatment of oaths in the medieval law
books attests to not only the ubiquity of this social
practice but also the ongoing efforts of religious scho-
lars to shape and control it.

In the most basic sense, oaths can be described
as commitments made to another party in which
God serves as witness and guarantor (“By God, I
shall never set foot in this house again,” “By God,
I shall not sell this item for less than one dinar”). As
such, the legal scholars normally distinguish them
from vows in which the commitment is made directly
to God (“If God should restore my health, I pledge to
make the pilgrimage to Mecca on foot”), although the
boundaries between them are easily obscured: vows,
for example, might assume the shape of oaths, partic-
ularly if they are uttered not for straightforwardly
pious purposes but rather to achieve something in a
negotiation (for example, “If what I say is not true, I
will sacrifice a sheep and distribute its meat as alms,”
known to the lawyers as a “Vow of Incitement and
Anger” and not always considered binding by them).
In principle, vows are sworn to God, whereas oaths
are sworn by God. In practice, the latter were also
sworn by things other than God, as is suggested by

the repeated strictures of the lawyers against such
practices and the number of hadith, which insist that
valid oaths are sworn only “by God,” He alone being
worthy of such magnification. People swore “by my
father’s life” and “by the beard of the Prophet” — and
by any number of other things as well — but normative
practice insisted that God is the only true guarantor of
commitments, and we even read of a teaching ascribed
to various Companions that it is preferable to swear
falsely by God than truthfully by anything else.

Oaths “by God” contain within themselves no
specific penalty for nonfulfillment (h.inth), and in
most cases such oaths were not judicially enforceable.
There were, of course, informal social sanctions that
regulated the use of swearing and would have discour-
aged the habitual swearing of false oaths, but in the
immediate sense violation of an oath “by God” was
strictly a matter between the individual and God. To
swear falsely, or to break an oath-bound commit-
ment, was to make oneself vulnerable to divine pun-
ishment. Believers might turn to any of several
Qur’anic passages that underscore the importance of
fulfilling one’s covenants (for example, Q 16:91) and
promise a painful doom to those who knowingly
swear false oaths (for example, Q 58: 14f ). Similarly,
there is no shortage of hadith reminding those who
would swear falsely or otherwise sinfully that they will
be barred from Paradise and given a seat in the Fire.
It was because of the otherworldly nature of the
sanction that the practice of swearing at a mosque
or a saint’s tomb was often adopted. At the same
time, some oaths did spell out specific temporal

571

OATHS

consequences in their very language; for example, “If
I do not repay this debt in full by the end of the
month, one of my slaves is free,” or “If you [that is,
my wife] leave this house without my permission,
you are divorced.” These are essentially conditional
statements of manumission and divorce: Once the
condition is met, the penalty takes immediate effect
and would at least in theory be enforceable by a court.

Unlike such conditional statements, oaths “by
God” uttered with deliberation could, when not ful-
filled, be expiated along the lines set out in Qur’an
5:89 (feeding or clothing ten paupers, freeing a slave,
or, for those who lack such means, a three-day fast).
It was even possible, in the eyes of some scholars, to
set aside an oath, make no effort to fulfill it, and
replace it with an act of atonement (kaffara), a prac-
tice reflected in a prophetic hadith in which Muham-
mad states that “I never swear an oath unless, upon
seeing something better, I expiate it and do the better
thing.” What is reflected here is the practical acknowl-
edgment that believers needed ways to escape their
oath-bound commitments without irreparably dam-
aging their status in the afterlife. This concern is
attested to at several places in the Qur’an; for exam-
ple, 66:1-2 (dissolution of oaths of sexual abstention)
and 2:224 (oaths ought not become an obstacle to
righteous behavior). In the legal discussions as a
whole, it is clear that the scholars were concerned to
provide escape routes and otherwise limit the oath’s
binding power when to insist on it would place the
afterlife of believers in jeopardy or undermine ritual
practices favored by the law. (Examples of the latter
problem would include vows of extreme asceticism or
commitments to make pilgrimage to sites not part of
the recognized sacred topography of Mecca.) These
escape routes include, in addition to expiation, the
practice of istithna (adding the phrase “If God
wills” to the oath) and the recognition of a category
of “unintended” (laghw) oaths that are considered
neither binding nor — by most jurists — in need of ex-
piation. Finally, the well-known literature of juristic
expedients (hiyal) is filled with clever evasions by
which one escapes the consequences of an oath while
formally respecting it, as well as examples of recourse
to misleading language that seem to undermine the
very idea of an oath.

Keith Lewinstein

Further Reading

Abu Faris, M. Kitcib al-Ayman wa- 'l-Nudhur. Amman,
1988.

Brunschvig, R. “Voeu ou serment? Droit compare du
Judai'sme et de l’Islam.” Hommage a Georges Vajda.
Louvain, 1980, 125-134.

Calder, N. “Hinth, birr, tabarrur, tah.annuth: an Inquiry
into the Arabic Vocabulary of Vows.” BSOAS 51
(1988): 214-239.

Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. s.v. kasam.

Gottschalk, W. Das Geliihde nach alterer arabischer Auffas-
sung. Berlin, 1919.

Hawting, G. “An Ascetic Vow and an Unseemly Oath?: Ila
and z ihar in Muslim Law.” Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies 57 (1994): 113-125.

Mottahedeh, R. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic
Society. Princeton, i 980, 40-72.

Pedersen, J. Der Eid bei den Semiten. Strassburg, 1914.

OLJEITU (ULJAYTU)

Oljeitu (Ar. Uljaytu) was the eighth Mongol Ilkhanid
ruler of Persia and Iraq. Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad
Khudabandah Uljaytu was born in AH 680/1282 CE
and succeeded his brother Ghazan as ilkhan on Dhu
’1-Hijja 703/July-August 1304 and reigned until 716/
1316. Ghazan, Uljaytu’s predecessor, had converted
to Islam in 694/1295. Uljaytu continued the practice,
begun under his brother, of rebuilding and reestab-
lishing the schools and mosques that had been
destroyed by previous Mongol rulers. Shortly after
he succeeded his brother as ilkhan in 703/1304,
Uljaytu declared Islam as the official religion of all
areas within his realm. During his reign, Uljaytu en-
gaged in extensive patronage of religious institutions
and scholarship. He was aided in the central adminis-
tration of the dynasty by three primary officials: the
wazirs, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani, Su'd al-
Din Muhammad Sawaj, and Taj al-Din ‘Ali Shah
Gilani, who replaced Sa‘d al-Din after his fall from
favor and execution in 711/1312. Uljaytu also relied
extensively on Qutlughshah as senior commander of
his armies ( amir) .

Uljaytu’s reign as ilkhan was characterized by
both the ongoing external effort to win success over
the Mamluks by subjugating Syria and Egypt, and the
internal struggle to consolidate his kingdom in the
face of challenges from several independent Mongol
chiefs. Uljaytu’s acceptance of Islam did not prevent
him from reaching out to European kings and

572

Christian authorities in Europe for support in his
struggle against the Mamluks. He sent letters to
Edward I of England, King Philip the Fair of France,
and Pope Clement V expressing his desire for a con-
certed action against the Mamluks. Internally, one of
the first steps undertaken by Uljaytu to gain control
over independent Mongol provinces came in 705/1306
when he launched an attack on Fakhr al-Din, the
ruler (malik) of the Kart dynasty that controlled
Harat. The expedition was unsuccessful and Uljaytu’s
commander, Danishmand Bahadur, was killed in
a conspiracy organized by one of his officers, Jamal
al-Din Muhammad Sam.

In the following year, Uljaytu set out on a cam-
paign against the province of Gilan on the Caspian
Sea, not far from his newly established dynastic capi-
tal of Sultaniyah. It is likely that Uljaytu saw the
conquest of Gilan as necessary for generating revenue
for financing his long-term goal of challenging
Mamluk dominance of Syria and Egypt. In part due
to its harsh climate and difficult-to-navigate geogra-
phy, the small kingdom of Gilan was able to resist
Mongol conquest during the period of Uljaytu’s pre-
decessors. In 706/1307, Uljaytu mounted an elaborate
invasion of Gilan, ordering his commanders to lead
armies into the province from four different points:
Chupan entered Gilan from the Northwest, Tughan
and Mu'min were sent to the eastern province of
Gurjiyan, his senior amir, Qutlughshah, descended
on the city from Khalkhal, and Uljaytu himself ad-
vanced on Gilan through Kurandasht, Lawshan on
the Shahrud, Daylaman, and finally entering Lahijan.
There is considerable debate concerning the outcome
of Uljaytu’s expedition to Gilan. Persian contempo-
rary sources have largely described the attempt to
subjugate Gilan as successful. In addition, Arabic
sources, particularly Mamluk chroniclers, appear to
confirm this view, with variation in the time and
sequence of events between the two historiographical
traditions. It appears that the Mongol armies suffered
a number of significant losses during the campaign,
including the death of Uljaytu’s senior amir, Qutlugh-
shah. The ilkhan was ultimately successful in estab-
lishing Mongol sovereignty over the province and its
resources.

In 712/1312-1313, Uljaytu launched what was to
be the last Mongol offensive against Mamluk territo-
ry. The Ilkhanid army marched from Mawsil and
reached the walls of Rahbat al-Sham on the
Euphrates in Ramadan/December of that year. The
inhabitants of the city defended the invasion fiercely
and after almost three weeks of fighting, lacking the
provisions, Uljaytu ordered his troops to withdraw.
Following the unsuccessful invasion, Uljaytu began to
engage in conciliatory diplomacy with the Mamluks,

OLJEITU (ULJAYTU)

and in 723/1323, al-Nasir Muhammad concluded a
peace treaty with his son and successor, Abu Sa'id.

Contemporary biographical sources on Uljaytu re-
veal a high degree of ambiguity concerning the details
of his conversion to Islam. His conversion to Islam
was preceded by a series of religious affiliations, from
being baptized as a Christian, to later becoming Bud-
dhist, before finally accepting Shi’ism. At the time of
his conversion to Islam, Uljaytu initially became an
adherent to the Hanafi madhhab. This is perhaps a
result of the early Hanafi influence during his time
as governor of Khurasan. Uljaytu later adopted the
Shafi’i madhhab under the influence of the Shafi’i
scholar, Nizam al-Din ‘Abd al-Malik al-Maraghi,
and his wazir, Rashid al-Din. However, Uljaytu
continued to encourage religious debates and
exchanges at his court and surrounded himself with
scholars of all legal schools and theological persua-
sions. Uljaytu invited the erudite Shi’i scholar al-
‘Allama al-Hilli to join his court for the purpose of
furthering religious debate. In Rajab 709/December
1309, al-’Allama al-Hilli accompanied Uljaytu on a
visit to the tomb of Salman al-Farisi at Mada’in.
Though the issue of which of the Shi‘i scholars in
the court of Uljaytu was responsible for the conver-
sion of the ilkhan to Shi’ism is contested in the con-
temporary sources from the period, Uljaytu publicly
converted to Shi’ ism in Sha'ban 709/January 1310.

The existent documentary and literary sources
from the period after Uljaytu’s conversion are replete
with accounts of his efforts to propagate Islam more
generally and Shi 4 ism in particular. The ilkhan spon-
sored several legal and theological debates between
al-’Allamah al-Hilli and Sunni scholars in the court
from the years 710/1311 to 716/1316. Shortly thereaf-
ter, Uljaytu established the madrasah sayyarah, which
was a mobile school founded to accompany the ilkhan
whenever he traveled. Positions in the madrasah
sayyarah were apparently reserved for scholars with a
close relationship with the ilkhan. The famous eighth-
fourteenth-century traveler, Ibn Battuta, although
generally displeased with the degree of what he
deemed to be Shi’i heresy on his visit to Iraq and
Iran, provides extensive details concerning the
endowed religious institutions he observed in Mongol
domains during the reigns of Uljaytu and his son, Abu
Sa’id. Furthermore, Ibn Battuta and other contempo-
rary observers provided important numismatic evi-
dence related to Uljaytu’s efforts to promote Shi’ism.
Uljaytu eliminated the names of the Sunni khulafa’ al-
rashidun from coins and ordered coins minted honor-
ing the Twelve Shi’i Imams. He also ordered that the
names of the Twelve Imams be in the Friday prayer.

Furthermore, Uljaytu transferred the Ilkhanate
capital from Tabriz to Sultaniyah, where he sought

573

OLJEITU (ULJAYTU)

to establish a large religious institution in the city to
rival the size of the one established by Rashid al-Din
in the Rab'-i Rashidi. Uljaytu also completed work
on his large and intricately decorated tomb prior to
his death, and his magnificent tomb is one of the
greatest examples of Mongol architecture that still
survives. The funerary complex built by Uljaytu
includes several prayer halls, spaces for reciting the
Qur’an, and residence halls. The largest copy of the
Qur’an made in the period, an enormous (seventy-two
by fifty centimeters) thirty-part manuscript tran-
scribed in Baghdad between 706/1306 and 710/1313,
was also endowed to Uljaytu’s funerary complex at
Sultaniya. Although the other contemporary build-
ings surrounding the tomb did not survive, there was
a large congregational mosque with a monumental
portal leading to a large central courtyard with four
iwans, a domed sanctuary, and an adjacent khanaqah.

In addition to the lavish building that Uljaytu
engaged in at Sultaniyah and the endowment of for-
mal institutions, he also served as patron for individ-
ual scholars. Uljaytu continued to support the
renowned observatory and school for the study of
philosophy and mathematics at Maragha, endowed
first by Hulagu in 657/1258 under the direction of
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and completed during the reign
of Hulagu’s successor, Abaqa (663-683/1265-1284).

Uljaytu died in his bed at Sultaniyah 17 December
1316/1 Shawwal 716. He was thirty-six years old.
Quite extraordinary for a reigning Mongol ilkhan,
he is believed to have died of natural causes, related
to a protracted struggle with a stomach ailment.

Tariq al-Jamil

Further Reading

al-Abru, ‘Abd Allah ibn Lutf Allah Hafiz. Dhayl-i jcimi' al-
tawarikh-i Rashidi. Edited by Khan Baba Bayani. Teh-
ran: Intisharat-I Danishgah-i Tehran, 1350/1971.

Abu’l-Fida’, Isma'il ibn ‘Ali ibn Mahmud ibn Muhammad
ibn Taqi al-Din ‘Umar ibn Shahanshah ibn ‘Ayyub. al-
Mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar. Edited by Muhammad
Zaynahum, Muhammad ‘Azab, and Yahya Sayyid
Husayn. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1998-1999.

(Mukhtasar ta’rikh al-bashar) The Memoirs of a Syrian
Prince Abu’l-Ficla’, Sultan of Hamah ( 672-732/1273 -
1331). Translated by P.M. Holt. Freiburger Islamstu-
dien, vol. 9. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1983.

al-Amin, Hasan. Mustadrakat a'yan al-shi‘a. 10 vols. Beirut:
Dar al-Ta‘aruf lil-Matbu‘at, 1419/1999.

al-Amin, Muhsin. A’yan al-shi'a. 15 vols. Beirut: Dar al-
Ta‘aruf lil-Matbu‘at, 1420/2000.

Amitai-Preiss, Reuven. "Mongol Imperial Ideology and the
Ilkhanid War Against the Mamluks.” In The Mongol
Empire & Its Legacy, edited by Reuven Amitai-Preiss
and David O. Morgan. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Amuli, Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud. Nafa 'is al-
funun fi ara’is al-‘uyun. Tehran: 1309/1891-1892.

Bausani, Alessandro. "Religion under the Mongols.”
In The Cambridge History of Iran, edited by J. A.
Boyle, 397-406. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1968.

Blair, Sheila. "The Mongol Capital of Sultaniyya ‘The Im-
perial’.” Iran, Journal of the Britishlnstitute of Persian
Studies 24 (1986): 139-151.

"Sultaniyya.” £7(2): 9:859b.

Ibn Battutah, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah. Rihlat Ibn Bat-
tuta: al-musammat tuhfat al-nuzzar fi ghara ’ib al-amsar.
Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, no date given.

Ibn al-Dawadari, Abu Bakr ibn ‘Abd Allah. Kan: al-durar
wa jamV al-ghurar: masadir ta’rikh misr al-islamiyyci.
Cairo: Qism al-Dirasat al-Islamiyya, al-Ma‘had al-
Almani lil-Athar bi-l-Qahira, 1960-1982.

Ibn al-Fuwati, Kamal al-Din ‘Abd al-Razzaq. Kitab al-
hawadith li-mu’allif min al-qarn al-thamin. Edited by
Bashshar ‘Awwad Ma‘ruf and ‘Imad ‘Abd al-Salam
Ra’uf. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1997.
al-Hawadith al-jami'a wa-l-tajarib al-nafi‘a fi l-mi’a al-
sabi'a. Baghdad: Matba‘at al-Furat, 1351/1932.

Majma' al-aclab fi mu’jam al-alqab. Edited by Muham-
mad Kazim. Tehran: Mu'assasat al-Tiba‘a wa-l-Nashr
Wizara al-Thaqafa wa-l-Irshad al-Islami, 1995/1416.

Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Shihab al-Din. al-Durar al-kamina fi
a’yan al-mi’a al-thamina. 5 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-
Haditha, 1966-1967.

Ibn Kathir, ‘Imad al-Din Isma‘il ibn ‘Umar. al-Bidaya wa-l-
nihaya fi l-ta’rikh. 14 vols. Edited by Ahmad Abu Mus-
lim. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1997.
al-Khwansari, Muhammad Baqir. Rawdcit cd-jannat fi
ahwal al-'ulama’ wa-l-sadat. 8 vols. Beirut: al-Dar al-
Islamiyya, 1991.

al-Isbahani, Mirza ‘Abd Allah Afandi. Riyad al-'ulama'
wa hiyad al-fudala’ . 6 vols. Edited by Ahmad al-Husayni.
Qum: Matba‘at al-Khayyam, 1980.

Riyad al-’ulama’ wa hiyad al-fudala’. 1 vols. Edited by
al-Sayyid Mahmud al-Mar‘ashi and al-Sayyid Ahmad
al-Husayni. Qum: Maktabat Ayat Allah al-Mar‘ashi
al-'Amma, 1401/1980-81.

Ibn Taghri Birdi, Abu’l-Mahasin Yusuf. al-Nujum al-
zahirah fi muluk Misr wa-l-Qahira. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub
al-Misriyya, 1 348-1392/1929-1972.

Melville, Charles. “The Ilkhan Oljeitii’s Conquest of Gilan
(1307): Rumour or Reality.” In The Mongol Empire &
Its Legacy, edited by Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David
O. Morgan. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Qashani, Abu’l-Qasim ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Ali. Ta’rikh-i
Uljaytu. Tehran: Bangah-i Tarjumah va Nashr-i Kitab,
1348/1969.

al-Rashid al-Din, Fadl Allah. Jami' al-Tawarikh: Ta’rikh al-
Maghul. Translated into Arabic by Muhammad Sadiq
Nashat, Muhammad Musa Hindawi, and Fu’ad ‘Abd al-
Mu‘ti al-Sayyad. 2 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ara-
biyya, 1960.

al-Safadi, Salah al-Din Khalil ibn Aybak. al-Wafi bi-1-
wafayat. 29 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ihya’ lil-Turath al-
‘Arabi lil-Tiba‘a wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi‘, 1420/2000.

Spuler, Bertold. Die Mongolen in Iran: Politik, Verwaltung
and Kultur der Ilchanzeit. Berlin: Academie-Verlag, 1968,
1220-1350.

al-Tihrani, Agha Buzurg. al-Dhari’a ila tasanif al-shi’a. 26
vols. Beirut: Dar al-Adwa’, 1983.

Tabaqat a'lam al-shi'a. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi,
1971-1975.

574

ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

Wassaf, ‘Abd Allah ibn Fadl Allah. Ta’rikh-i Wasscif al-
hadra clar ahwal-i salatin mughul [Tajziyat al-amsar wa
tazjiyat al-a‘sar\. Tehran: Bunyad-i Farhang-i Iran, 1967.

OMAN

The name ‘Oman’ has been used since classical times
to describe southeastern Arabia. It was referred to
thus by early Arab accounts, and the name continued
in use throughout the medieval and later periods.

After the death of Muhammad the Prophet (632
CE), Oman became part of the Islamic caliphate.
Many of its people, primarily from the Azd tribes,
migrated to Basra during the early Islamic period and
formed an important part of the Umayyad army. Led
by al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra, they also played an
important role in domestic affairs in Iraq.

During the Umayyad period, the Omani emigrants
in Iraq maintained close contact with Oman itself,
and many of them returned home after the failure of
the Yazid ibn al-Muhallab uprising in 723 CE. In
Basra, many Omanis supported the nascent Ibadi
movement, named after ‘Abdallah ibn Ibad, an early
Khariji leader who rejected the use of violence against
an unjust ruler. Thus they formed the nucleus of the
Ibadi sect.

The Imamate in Oman

After the downfall of the Umayyads in 749-750 CE,
the history of Oman can be divided into two geo-
graphical areas. The coast was dominated for much
of the time by external powers and was heavily influ-
enced by political and military vicissitudes until the
arrival of the Portuguese at the beginning of the
sixteenth century.

In the interior, the Ibadi Imamate was established
in 750 CE, eventually emerging as a separate reli-
gious sect adopted by the majority of Omanis. In
time, Ibadism became both a sect and a political
system, which has profoundly affected the structure
of Omani society and history. For Ibadis, spiritual
and political authority meets in the body of one per-
son, the Imam of the community and its legal jurist in
secular and religious matters. He has full freedom in
practice, limited only by the constraints of jurispru-
dence as interpreted or seen by the Imam.

Despite many attacks, the Ibadi Imamate devel-
oped into an institution that was defended strongly
by Omanis for centuries. Political conditions and ex-
ternal dangers obliged its adherents to coalesce into
an integrated community in order to guarantee their
survival.

Oman’s history has been greatly influenced by
Ibadi thought. Also of importance was the Nabhani
period (twelfth to seventeenth centuries CE), when
there was a flowering of local literature and culture,
which can be seen in the rich literature of the
Nabhanis, especially their poetry.

Making use of the monsoon winds, Omani ships
sailed to Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, selling
local produce such as dates, and pearls, frankincense,
and imported goods. On the return voyages they
brought items such as perfumes, ivory, silk, sandal-
wood, spices, and rice.

Because of this active trade, many Omanis settled in
East Africa and Southeast Asia, spreading both Ara-
bic culture and Islam. Oman’s rising power and eco-
nomic strength led in due course to the emergence of
the Ya‘ariba dynasty in 1624 CE. This became a re-
gional power, dominating much of the East African
coast and initiating a new era in Oman’s modern
history.

Hasan M. al-Naboodah

See also ‘Abbasids; Trade, African; Trade, Indian
Ocean; Tribes and Tribal Customs

Further Reading

al-Rawas, I. Oman in Early Islamic History. Reading, UK:
Ithaca Press, 2000.

Ennami, A. K. “Studies in Ibadism.” Ph.D. dissertation.

Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1971.

Ibn Ruzayq. History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman.
Translated by George P. Badger. London: Hakluyt
Society, 1871.

Miles, S. B. The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf
London: Frank Cass, 1966.

Naboodah, H. “Eastern Arabia in the Sixth and Seventh
Centuries A.D.” Ph.D. dissertation. United Kingdom:
University of Exeter, 1989.

. “Banu Nabhan in the Omani Sources.” New Arabi-
an Studies 4 (1997): 181-195.

. “The Ibadi Movement: A Study of Its Early Devel-
opment and Ideas.” Digest of Middle East Studies, 12
(Fall 2003): 1-18.

Potts, D. T. The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. 2 vols. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1990 (reprinted 1992).
Sirhan Ibn Sa‘id. Annals of Oman. Translated by E. C.

Ross. Cambridge: The Oleander Press, 1984.

Wilkinson, John C. The Imamate Tradition of Oman. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

One Thousand and One Nights is an anonymous col-
lection of Arabic tales. In Baghdad, by the AH sec-
ond/eighth CE century, a Persian book titled Hazar
Afsaneh (The Thousand Tales) had been translated
into Arabic. It then circulated under a new Arabic

575

ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

Portrait of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (785-809), hero of the Arabian Nights, shown as a young man. Indian miniature, signed
Behzad. Seventeenth century CE. Ms.arabe, 6075, f.9r. Credit: Snark/Art Resource, NY. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
France.

576

ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

title, A If Layla wa Layla ( A Thousand and One
Nights).

However, this version no longer exists. The oldest
extant manuscripts date from the fifteenth century,
and further different versions from the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. In these, some elements
have changed completely (the tales told by Shahra-
zad) and others slightly (the opening story of the two
kings), while the formal organization of the book has
not changed. We know this because its overall struc-
ture still corresponds to the description given by Ibn
al-Nadim in his fourth-/tenth-century bibliography,
al-Fihrist. It consists of an opening story inside
which, each night, other stories are told. The use of
embedded stories is a narrative technique that proba-
bly comes from India. From a theoretical viewpoint,
it raises important questions about the purposes of
storytelling.

The frame story, which introduces Shahrazad, con-
tinues to fulfill its original function, although the
events which it reports are slightly different from
those described by Ibn al-Nadim. (More significantly,
a comparison of the framework of the Thousand and
One Nights, as we now know it, with that of the
Hundred and One Nights, an abridged North African
version, shows that the latter is an older version;
this is clearly important to an understanding of the
development of the Nights.)

Entirely new are the tales told by Shahrazad, which
immediately follow the opening of the frame (The
Merchant and the Genie, The Fisherman and the
Genie). They constitute a new corpus, which went
through two phases.

The first phase was one of literary conceptualiza-
tion. In terms of Arabic literary theory, the stories in
Thousand and One Nights were fictitious (khurafat,
sing, khurafa). When they were adopted into Arabic,
the story that was placed at the beginning of the book
was the one which, to Arabic thinking, represented
the khurafa par excellence, that of The Merchant and
the Genie. All versions of the Nights begin with this
story, and from the functional, thematic, and ideolog-
ical points of view, it conditions the choice of stories
that form the core of the work in all its extant forms
(for example, The Fisherman and the Genie, The Por-
ter and the Three Ladies, The Story of the Three
Apples, The Story of the Hunchback, and the tales
included therein). From the functional viewpoint,
the story of didactic intent (mathal) yields place to
the marvelous tale (ajab), with the added feature,
characteristic of the khurafa, that each successive
tale must be more astonishing. The Nights as a
whole bear the imprint of this new function; their
aim is to surprise and astound, and only incidentally
to teach a lesson. From the thematic viewpoint, the

notions of justice and injustice provide a continuous
link, with the drama of the tales arising from the fact
that the punishment is always incredibly dispropor-
tionate to the crime. Lastly, from an ideological view-
point, the process of embedding is used specifically to
express what may be termed a Near Eastern (that is,
Islamo-Judeo-Christian) outlook, in which a story is
told in irrevocable exchange for a human life, as if it
were a righteous deed.

The second phase was one of compilation. As the
collection grew in size it came to include various
registers of Arabic literature, from historical anec-
dotes only a few lines long and derived from high
literature (see Adab) to folk tales (see Folk Literature)
and tales of chivalry (see Sira) stretching over
hundreds of pages. The resulting mixture was a mid-
dling literature comprising hundreds of story cycles in
a diction lying somewhere between classical and col-
loquial Arabic. It is anonymous and above all freely
creative, in the sense that any redactor could make his
own changes to it. Consequently, most manuscripts,
editions, and even translations of the Nights include
new stories, in addition to the common core previous-
ly mentioned, and sometimes the same story will be
found with considerable variations. The most striking
instance of this is the translation of Antoine Galland
(1704-1715), which includes numerous Arab folk-
tales, such as those of Aladdin and Ali Baba, which
had never belonged to the Nights. Thus a translation
such as that of Richard Burton (1885-1888, online
at www.geocities.com/jcbyers2000/toc.htm#burtonl )
may be considered as representative in its way of the
varied Nights corpus as the Bulaq edition of 1835 with
1001 nights and Muhsin Mahdi’s 1984 edition with
only 282.

Aboubakr Chraibi

Further Reading

Abbott, Nabia. “A Ninth-Century Fragment of the Thou-
sand Nights, New Lighton the Early History of the
Arabian Nights.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies VIII
no 3 (July 1949): 129-164, 132-133.

Chraibi, Aboubakr. Contes nouveaux des Mille et une nuits.
Paris: Librairie d’Amerique et d'Orient Jean Maison-
neuve Successeur, 1996.

. “Situation, Motivation, and Action in The Arabian

Nights.” In The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia, edited by
Ulrich Marzolph and Richard van Leeuwen, with the
collaboration of Hassan Wassouf. Denver: ABC-Clio
2004.

Dodge, Bayard (Ed and Trans). The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A
Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. 2 vols. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Maurice (Trans). Les Cent et
Une Nuits. Paris: Sindbad, 1982 (1911).

Gerhardt, Mia. The Art of Story-Telling. Leyde: Brill, 1963.

577

ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

Ghazoul, Ferial. The Arabian Nights: A Structural Analysis.
Cairo: Cairo Associated Institution, 1980.

Haddawy, Husain (Trans). The Arabian Nights. London:
W. W. Norton, 1990.

(Trans). The Arabian Nights II : Sindbad and Other

Popular Stories. London: W. W. Norton, 1995.

Irwin, Robert. The Arabian Nights: A Companion. London:
Allen Lane (The Penguin) Press, 1994.

Mottahedeh, Roy P. “’Aja’ib in The Thousand and One
Nights.” In The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic
Literature and Society , edited by Richard C. Hovanni-
sian and Georges Sabagh. Cambridge University Press,
1997.

OPHTHALMOLOGY

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine devoted to
the study of diseases of the eye and their cures. Phy-
sicians from all religious groups within the medieval
Islamic world, where eye diseases were common, av-
idly studied this branch of medicine. From many
sources, they compiled in Arabic considerable infor-
mation on this topic and added new observations of
their own. All this information served as the common
body of knowledge on ophthalmology in the Muslim
world until the nineteenth century. The earliest trea-
tise on this subject — the Greek, Syriac, and other
special textbooks being lost — was written by the
Christian court physician in Baghdad, Yuhanna ibn
Masawaih (777-857). This book, Daghal al-‘ayn (The
Alteration of the Eye ) , which provided the first known
description of pannus, was a mixture of information
that was soon superceded by the work of Ibn Masa-
waih’s student and coreligionist, Hunayn ibn Ishaq
(809-877). Hunayn’s al-Ashr maqalat fi T'ayn (The
Ten Treatises on the Eye) was the first systematic
textbook on ophthalmology. He wrote it over many
years, completing it while at the height of his glory as
a translator and medical practitioner in Baghdad,
under the caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861). Based
primarily on Galen, it described the structure of the
eye and its relationship to the brain, vision, health,
and disease, the causes of eye diseases, remedies for
eye diseases, the treatment of eye diseases, and com-
pound remedies for eye diseases. This book also
contained the earliest known anatomy of the eye.

Ophthalmology reached its height of under-
standing in the works of two other Christians, ‘Ali
b. ‘Isa (d. in the first half of the eleventh century) and
his contemporary, 'Aniniar al-Mawsili. ‘Ali, who
practiced in Baghdad, wrote Tadhkirat al-kahhalin
(The Promptuary for Ophthalmologists), the most
comprehensive book on ophthalmology in Arabic to
survive in the original format. Based on Hunayn,
Galen, and other authors of antiquity, it described
at length the anatomy of the eye, external and internal

diseases of the eye and their treatment (including
conjunctivitis, cataracts, and trachoma), and numer-
ous remedies and their effect on the eye. The work
Tadhkira became the standard resource on the sub-
ject. More original, however, was ‘Ammar, who was
born in Mosul but eventually practiced in Egypt dur-
ing the reign of al-Hakim (996-1020). His Muntakhab
fi ‘ilaj al-‘ayn (The Select Work on the Treatment of
the Eye ) combined a succinct account of ophthalmol-
ogy with noteworthy descriptions of cataract surgery.
Subsequent work on ophthalmology was overwhelm-
ingly derived from Hunayn, ‘Ali, and ‘Ammar. It was
epitomized, with some notable discussion of tracho-
ma and its sequelae, by the Muslim Ibn al-Nafis
(d. 1288), who was born in Damascus and went on
to become the personal physician of Sultan Baybars
in Egypt (r. 1260-1277), in his Kitab al-Muhadhdhab fi
‘l-kuhl (The Perfected Book on Ophthalmology). The
works of Hunayn, ‘Ali, and probably ‘Ammar were
translated into Latin in the Middle Ages and formed
the basis of ophthalmology in Europe until the first
half of the eighteenth century.

Gary Leiser

See also Materia Medica; Medical Literature, Arabic;
Optics; Physicians; Surgery and Surgical Techniques;
Translation, Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic

Primary Sources

‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Sulami. Questions and Answers for Physi-
cians. Translated and edited by Gary Leiser and Noury
Al-Khaledy. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

‘Ali ibn ‘Isa. Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist
(His Tadhkira). Translated by C. A. Wood from the
German translation. Chicago: Northwestern University
Press, 1936.

‘Ammar al-Mawsili. The Cataract Operations of 'Ammar ibn
‘Ali al-Mawsili. Translated by Max Meyerhof. Barce-
lona: Masnou, 1937.

Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The Book of the Ten Treatises on the
Eye. Translated and edited by Max Meyerhof. Cairo:
Government Press, 1928.

Further Reading

Savage-Smith, Emilie. “Ibn NafTs’s Perfected Book on Oph-
thalmology and His Treatment of Trachoma and Its
Sequelae.” Journal for the History of Arab Science , 4
(1980): 147-187.

OPTICS

Optics, as a scientific discipline that explores the na-
ture and comportment of vision and light, finds its
earliest methodic roots in Euclid’s elementary treatise
the Optika (ca. 300 BCE), which eventually was

578

OPTICS

geometrically systematized by Ptolemy (d. ca. 165
CE). According to those polymaths, vision results
from the emission of actual light rays from the eye,
which take the shape of a cone whose vertex is at the
center of the eye and its base on the surfaces of visible
objects. This optical theory reconfirmed Plato's ac-
count in the Timaeus, wherein it was stated that vision
is attributed to the soul’s nonconsuming lire, which
provides the eye with a light that gets emitted into the
surrounding air to meet lit objects. This picture was
also affirmed in Galen’s (d. ca. 200 CE) anatomy of
the eye, whereby he argued that vision occurs due
to the eye’s spirit, which passes through the luminous
channels of the optical nerve and is radiated unto the
external environment as a light ray that travels at an
infinite velocity. A similar observation regarding the
speed of light was also made by Heron of Alexandria
(d. 75 CE) in his work Catoptrics. These mathematical
“emission” theories of vision contrasted the physical
“intromission” accounts of sight, like what is encoun-
tered in Aristotle’s De anima (Tract on the Soul),
wherein it was ambivalently stated that visual percep-
tion results from the introduction of the form of the
visible object without its matter into the eye. Al-
though the channels of the transmission of Euclid’s
Greek Optika were indeterminate, its Arabic version
was preserved under the title Kitab Uqlidus fi ikhtilaf
al-manazir. As for Ptolemy’s text, it is known from its
Greek source, whereas its Arabic rendition is only
recoverable from fragments of Latin translations.
One of the earliest engagements with optics in Islam
may be traced back to Hunayn ibn Ishaq’s (d. ca. 873)
Galenic studies and al-Kindi’s (d. ca. 870 CE) com-
mentaries on Euclid’s Optika ; the latter surviving in
Latin under the title De aspectibus and were directed
by philosophical speculations more than geometric
demonstrations. The most remarkable accomplish-
ment in the science of optics is ultimately achieved
in Ibn al-Haytham’s (Alhazen; d. ca. 1039) monumen-
tal Kitab al-manazir (The Optics', ca. 1027), which was
translated into Latin as De aspectibus (ca. 1270 CE)
and had a focal impact on the unfolding of the per-
spective tradition in the history of medieval science
and Renaissance art. Gathering the findings of the
Ancients, Ibn al-Haytham was able to overcome the
main dispute over the nature of vision between
the Greek mathematicians and physicists. Rejecting
the claim that vision occurs by way of the emission of
a light ray from the eye, Ibn al-Haytham systematized
the intromission account of vision by demonstrating
that seeing results from the introduction of the rays of
light into the eye in the shape of a virtual conical
model. He moreover supplemented his Optics with a
Treatise on Light (Risala fi l-Daw’) that studied the
radiating dispersion of light across transparent media

in a rectilinear propagation. His optical writings did
also incorporate catoptrical explorations of reflection
on planar, spherical, cylindrical, parabolic, and coni-
cal mirrors. He also integrated the study of lenses and
magnification within the science of optics, as well as
verify his theoretical hypotheses with controlled tests
and experimental installations. The refraction of light
also constituted a central subject in his Optics that
assisted him in his explorations in astronomy
and meteorology. Although his optical tradition was
comprehensively studied and integrated within the
European Latin scientific impetus, it, unfortunately,
confronted a period of long interruption in trans-
mission within the medieval Islamic civilization. A
parallel engagement in ocular investigations is noted
in Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna, d. 1037 CE) critical espousal
of the Aristotelian theory of vision, which classified
optics as a branch of physics rather than mathemat-
ics. However, in diverging from Aristotle’s Meteorol-
ogy, Ibn Sina ultimately advanced an alternate
explanation of the phenomenon of the rainbow. Fol-
lowing his tradition, Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1274 CE)
wrote a commentary on Euclid’s Optika that did not
show signs of being aware of the optical writings of
Ibn al-Haytham. However, the most notable progress
in optics, which built on Ibn al-Haytham’s results and
disseminated them, is creditably attributed to Tanqih
al-manazir ( The Revision of the Optics ) by Kamal al-
Din al-Farisi (d. 1320 CE). Informed by Ibn Sina’s
writings, Kamal al-Din revised Ibn al-Haytham’s elu-
cidation of the nature of the rainbow and the halo.
Using geometrical constructs to demonstrate how the
rainbow results from the refraction of light falling on
individual raindrops, Kamal al-Din further substan-
tiated his hypothesis by experimentally modeling this
process on the passage of light through a spherical
vessel filled with water. Following this latest advance-
ment in classical optics, the study of vision in the
Muslim world did not progress beyond synoptic sum-
marizations of earlier sources.

Nader El-Bizri

See also Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Astronomy;
Geometry; Hunayn ibn Ishaq; Ibn al-Haytham, or
Alhazen; Ibn Sina, or Avicenna; Kindi, al-, Historian;
Mathematics; Meteorology; Plato and (Neoplatonism;
Ptolemy; Tusi, Nasir al-Din

Primary Sources

Euclid. The Arabic Version of Euclid’s Optics: Kitab Uqlidus
fi Ikhtilaf al-Manazir . Edited and translated by Elaheh
Kheirandish. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1999.

Ibn al-Haytham. Kitab al-manazir. Edited by Abdelhamid I.
Sabra. Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts and
Letters, 1983.

579

OPTICS

. The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books I-III, On

Direct Vision. Translated by Abdelhamid I. Sabra. Lon-
don: The Warburg Institute, University of London,
1989.

Ibn Sina. Kitab al-shifa’, Kitab ai-nafs. Edited by Fazlur
Rahman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Further Reading

Beshara, Saleh O. Ibn al-Haytham 's Optics: A Study of the
Origins of Experimental Science. Minneapolis: Bibliothe-
ca Islamica, 1977.

Gill, Russell. “The Emergence of Physiological Optics.” In
Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. II.
Edited by Roshdi Rashed and Regis Morelon. London
and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Lindberg, David C. Theories of Vision from al-Kincli to
Kepler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

. “The Western Reception of Arabic Optics.” In

Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. II.
Edited by Roshdi Rashed and Regis Morelon. London
and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Rashed, Roshdi. “Geometrical Optics.” In Encyclopedia of
the History of Arabic Science. Vol. II. Edited by Roshdi
Rashed and Regis Morelon. London and New York:
Routledge, 1996.

. Optique et mathematiques, recherches sur la pensee

sceintifique en arabe. Aldershot: Variorum Reprints,
1992.'

Sabra, Abdelhamid I. “The Physical and the Mathematical
in Ibn al-Haytham's Theory of Light and Vision.” In
The Commemoration Volume of Biruni International Con-
gress in Tehran. Vol. 38. Tehran: High Council of Cul-
ture and Arts, 1976.

. “Sensation and Inference in Alhazen’s Theory of

Visual Perception.” In Studies in Perception: Interrela-
tions in the History of Philosophy and Science, Edited by
Peter K. Machamer and Robert G. Turnbull. Ohio:
Ohio State University Press, 1978.

. “Optics, Islamic.” In Dictionary of the Middle Ages.

Vol. 9. Edited by Joseph R. Strayer. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1987.

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and
longest-lived Islamic empires. It emerged around
1300 CE as a small principality on former Byzantine
territory, to the west of Constantinople. It ceased to
exist after defeat in the World War I and the estab-
lishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The term
Ottoman, or Osmanli, in Turkish derives from the
ruling dynasty, named after Osman (c. 1300-1324),
the first ruler of the line.

At the time of its foundation the emirate — not
yet an empire — of Osman was one of a large number
of Turkish principalities that emerged in western
Anatolia following the collapse of Byzantine rule
in the late thirteenth century. Several factors favored
its rapid expansion. In the second half of the

thirteenth century, central and eastern Anatolia had
come under the rule of the Ilkhanids, the Mongol
dynasty of Iran. The collapse of this dynasty in
the early fourteenth century resulted in a political
fragmentation. The Balkan Peninsula underwent
a similar disintegration. The Latin victors of the
Fourth Crusade in 1204 had divided Byzantine
Greece among themselves, and for more than a
century most of Greece remained a mosaic of
Latin principalities. Much of the northern Balkan
Peninsula was briefly united in the fourteenth
century under the Serbian Tsar Stephen Dushan,
but this political unity did not survive his death in
1355. This lack of a major opposing power was a
factor that facilitated Ottoman expansion, as was
the ability of the Ottoman rulers to exploit rivalries
between their neighbors. Most notably, it was as
the ally of the Byzantine pretender John VI Kanta-
kouzenos that the second Ottoman ruler, Orhan
(c. 1324-1362), occupied territory on the Gallipoli
Peninsula, marking the first stage of the Ottoman
conquest of the Balkans. By the end of his reign,
Orhan’s successor, Murad I (1362-1389), had,
through conquest, marriage, and alliances, become
the dominant power in much of the Balkans and
western Anatolia. By 1402, his son, Bayezid I
(r. 1389-1402), had annexed all of western and central
Anatolia. In the Balkans he established the Danube
as the Empire’s northern frontier, provoking hostili-
ties with the kingdom of Hungary. The rout of a
Hungarian-led crusading army at Nicopolis in 1396
confirmed Bayezid as the dominant ruler south of the
Danube.

In 1402, Timur-i Leng (Tamerlane) defeated Baye-
zid at Ankara, dismembering his empire in Anatolia
and unleashing an eleven-year civil war between his
sons. The disaster might have led to the end of the
Ottomans. Instead, a hundred years later, the Otto-
man Empire was on the verge of becoming a world
power, while Timur’s empire had disappeared. Three
factors probably favored the Ottoman recovery. First,
the Ottomans had adopted the principle that Otto-
man territory was indivisible. Bayezid’s sons fought
to the death until a single ruler, Mehmed I (r. 1413—
1421), prevailed rather than divide the territory.
Second, by the end of the fourteenth century the
Ottomans had established, probably on Byzantine
and Ilkhanid precedent, a system of registering
fiscal and military obligations that allowed admini-
strative continuity in times of political crisis. Third,
rivalries among the enemies of the Ottomans pre-
vented a major threat to the warring princes. Mehmed
I and his son, Murad II (r. 1421-1451), recovered
much of the territory that had been lost in 1402.
In central Anatolia, only the emirate of Karaman,

580

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

reestablished after 1402, escaped reannexation. In the
West, the Ottoman annexation of Serbia in 1435
threatened Hungary, triggering Hungarian invasions
in 1443 and 1444. It was the Hungarian defeat at
Varna in 1444 that ensured that the Balkans would
come under Muslim Ottoman rather than Catholic
Hungarian rule.

Murad II’s successors Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481)
and Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) gave the empire a
shape familiar from later centuries. Mehmed IPs con-
quest of Constantinople in 1453 provided the empire
with its enduring capital. In thirty years of continuous
warfare, he conquered most of the Balkan Peninsula,
including Bosnia in 1463, annexed Karaman and other
non-Ottoman principalities in Anatolia, and estab-
lished in these territories direct Ottoman rule rather
than rule through vassal dynasties. The work of Meh-
rned’s son, Bayezid, in sponsoring the codification of
Ottoman law gave Mehmed’s conquests an adminis-
trative/legal identity. The strongly Sunni identity of
the empire was a product of the following reign.

In 1514, Selim I (r. 1512-1520), after defeating and
killing his brothers, routed the Safavid Shah of Iran,
Ismahl I, at Chaldiran and, in the following two
years, conquered Safavid territory in southeastern
Anatolia. The Safavids did not present so much a
military as an ideological threat. They were both
Shi‘i and, more important, heads of a religious order
that claimed many Ottoman subjects among its
adherents. These religious claims led the Ottoman
sultans to emphasize their Sunni orthodoxy as against
Safavid heresy. Selim I’s conquest (1516-1517) of the
Mamluk domains in Syria, Egypt, and the Hejaz
reinforced this tendency. Not only did he double the
empire’s size but he also acquired the holy cities of
Mecca and Medina, giving him a claim to leadership
of the Islamic world. These were claims that his son,
Suleyman I (r. 1520-1566), reinforced. Suleyman
opened his reign with the conquest of Rhodes and of
Belgrade, on the southern border of Hungary. In
1526, he defeated the Hungarians at Mohacs, and
from 1526 until 1541, Hungary was a vassal kingdom.
The conquest brought Suleyman into conflict
with the Habsburg, Ferdinand of Austria, who
claimed the Hungarian crown, and his brother, the
Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V.
To counter Habsburg claims, Suleyman, in 1541,
converted central Hungary to an Ottoman province,
leaving Transylvania as a vassal kingdom. Nonethe-
less, continuing Habsburg claims led to intermittent
warfare in Hungary until the end of the reign. At
the same time, Ottoman and Spanish rivalries in
North Africa — Algiers had accepted Ottoman suzer-
ainty in 1519 — led to intermittent warfare with the
Spanish Habsburgs in the Mediterranean. The third

area of conflict was with the Safavids. From 1533 to
1536, a campaign brought Baghdad, much of Iraq,
and eastern Anatolia under Ottoman control;
later campaigns between 1548 and 1555 brought no
Ottoman gains.

The sixteenth-century wars against the Safavids,
and the Habsburgs, brought the Ottomans into
conflict with powerful dynastic empires, and it was
as a competitive response to these rivals that Suley-
man I stressed his Islamic orthodoxy against Safavid
heresy and his equivalence to Charles V’s status
as Holy Roman Emperor, by assuming the title of
“Caliph.” After a favorable treaty with the Habs-
burgs of 1547, he adopted the title of “Emperor.”
The Ottoman dynasty was to use the title Caliph
intermittently until 1924.

It was once customary to designate the period from
the death of Suleyman in 1566 as the period of the
“decline” of the Ottoman empire. Although this des-
ignation is an oversimplification — the Ottomans con-
quered Cyprus from Venice in 1572 and much of the
Caucasus and Azerbaijan from the Safavids between
1578 and 1590 — the period saw a setback in Ottoman
fortunes. The inconclusive war in Hungary from 1593
to 1606 revealed Ottoman military weakness; by 1606,
the Ottomans had lost all territory gained from the
Safavids after 1578. An eventual peace with Iran in
1639 confirmed the border as fixed in the treaty of
1555. The last major Ottoman conquest, Crete in
1669, came only at the end of a war that lasted nearly
twenty-five years. After the failed siege of Vienna in
1683, the Ottomans began to lose territory, the Treaty
of Carlowitz in 1699 confirming the loss of Hungary
and other possessions. By the outbreak of World War
I, almost nothing remained of Ottoman territory in
Europe.

To explain these losses, it is more accurate to think
in terms of the “rise” of Europe rather than the
“decline” of the Ottomans. The changes in European
ways of thinking bearing the labels (of convenience)
“the Renaissance” and “the Scientific Revolution”
led, from the sixteenth century, to developments in
military and naval weapons, tactics, and organiza-
tion, which the Ottomans had difficulty in emulating.
The same developments in European thinking created
“the Industrial Revolution” of the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, which together with the earlier
development of mercantile capitalism, led to Euro-
pean domination of the Ottoman economy and the
undermining of indigenous industries. Furthermore,
after an unsuccessful confrontation with the Portu-
guese in the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth century, the
Ottomans abandoned attempts to control maritime
trade westward from India and Southeast Asia, allow-
ing the Atlantic powers to dominate this lucrative

581

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

field of commerce. Perhaps most significant of all, the
import in the nineteenth century of the European
concept of nationalism undermined the political
unity of an empire based on dynastic and religious
identities. The attempts by nineteenth-century refor-
mers to create an Ottoman national identity, and the
attempt of Abdulhamid II (r. 1876-1909) to encour-
age a shared identity among all Muslim subjects, with
a loyalty to the sultan/caliph, could not stem the
growth of nationalism in the Empire. Even without
the defeat in World War I, nationalist separatism

would probably by itself have destroyed the Ottoman
empire.

Colin Imber

Further Reading

Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Struc-
ture of Power. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Mantran, Robert (Ed). Histoire de I’Empire Ottoman. Paris:
Fayard, 1989.

Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

582

PAINTING, MINIATURE

Although there remains a persistent belief that the
religion of Islam, in its myriad expressions, opposed
images and the creation of paintings, painting was
consistently practiced in the historical Islamic lands,
especially in books. The size of the book, and compar-
isons to Western medieval manuscripts, led scholars
to reference painting in Islamic codices as “minia-
tures.” For Islamic material, however, the term is
restricted to painting — generally in polychrome —
alone and not to the illuminations in gold and opaque
pigments that accompany books.

Islamic painting is an art form of widely different
visual expressions and rich in its formal and aesthetic
developments, whether one looks at books composed
in Arabic, Persian, or Ottoman Turkish. Stimulated
by new purposes and needs, the practice of painting
had developed outside of the codex by the late 1400s.
Artists made single-page paintings, for example, for
exchange within the contexts of royal courts. By the
late 1 500s, artists produced paintings speculatively for
sale to a broader sector of the population whose loose
collections were often assembled into albums.

Early historical evidence of paintings for books, or
even as single sheets, is fragmentary, with few extant
examples and only occasional references in written
sources. In his preface to Kalila wa Dimna , for exam-
ple, Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d. ca. 758-760 CE) mentions
that the function of paintings in his text was to pro-
vide pleasure to the reader and also to make the
reader more mindful of the book’s value. Illustrated
copies of Kalila wa Dimna do not survive from this

early period, though they are attested to, along with
other illustrated texts, in primary sources. The extant
historical record grows after 1000 CE, becoming
steadily more complete with each passing century.

The earliest known books containing paintings are
all in Arabic and are principally works of science (for
example, astronomy/astrology and specific applica-
tions of medicine and mechanics) and belles-lettres
(such as wisdom literature, mirrors for princes, and
the Maqamat of al-Hariri). The earliest dated illu-
strated codex is al-Sufi’s Book on the Fixed Stars
(1009), which contains line drawings of the constella-
tions. Like other manuscripts of its general type, the
images draw from pre-Islamic artistic tradition or
contemporary non-Muslim societies (for example,
Byzantium) and recast them by subtle adaptations.
Prototypes were also selected for paintings that served
nonillustrative functions, including the author por-
traits used as visual frontispieces in copies of Dioscur-
ides’s De Materia Media of the early 1200s. A number
of functions are evident in manuscript paintings be-
tween ca. 1000 and 1300. Some paintings were
designed to clarify points in the text and thus served
a didactic illustrative function. Others went beyond
this role to develop visual subjects not strictly re-
quired by the text (such as the genre scenes in the
Pseudo-Galen Book of Antidotes, early 1200s, that
show figures working in fields and pharmacists pre-
paring remedies). Others, like the frontispieces to the
De Materia Medica, visually expressed such cultural
practices as the method of learning or the transmis-
sion of knowledge and the foundation of its authority.

583

PAINTING, MINIATURE

The Secret Rose Garden, by Mahmud Shabistari (mystic author, thirteenth century CE). Persian miniature. Inv. 994/1586.
Photo: Ruth Schacht. Oriental Division. Credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY. Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

584

PAINTING, MINIATURE

Paintings in these Arabic manuscripts are charac-
terized by direct compositions that arrange starkly
silhouetted figures against unpainted paper on a
single ground line tufted with plants and flowers.
The dramatic contrast between painted compositi-
onal elements (and their general shape) and the un-
painted paper in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
copies of al-Hariri’s Maqamat (Assemblies) inspired
formal comparisons to the shadow puppetry of the
medieval Islamic period. Other paintings arrange fig-
ures in schematic depictions of architecture. In both
compositional types the image appears as a visual
interruption to the text, directly inserted into it.

This painting idiom held sway in the Central
Islamic lands only until the late 1200s but continued
in Syria and Egypt. Little is known about manuscript
painting on the medieval Iberian Peninsula, because
books are rare. After 1200, in the aftermath of the
Seljuks, painting took on a more prominent role in
books.

The permanent presence of the Mongols in Iran
after 1258 resulted in numerous changes in paint-
ing. The pictorial idiom current in centers such as
Baghdad and Maragha was steadily altered, presum-
ably through artists’ exposure to Chinese models.
These changes are reflected in isolated adoptions of
iconography (such as Buddhist types used to repre-
sent Gabriel in a copy of al-Biruni’s Chronology of
Ancient Nations , dated 1307); the handling of paint as
a wash; and a calligraphic line to render landscape
elements and drapery. Compositions of marked hori-
zontal emphasis and the habit of cutting off figures at
the frame (suggesting they continue beyond its edge),
moreover, indicate a conceptual link to Chinese scroll
painting. Geographically remote artistic traditions
were absorbed into Mongol Ilkhanid painting, exem-
plified in the illustrated sections from the world histo-
ry composed by Rashid al-Din (d. 1318). Experiments
with composition and spatial representation, and the
development of painting that covered the paper, cul-
minated with the Great Mongol Book of Kings (before
1336) and the Shahnama composed by Firdawsi (ca.
1010). In addition to these new formal developments,
painting under the Ilkhanids occurred in a milieu that
witnessed a broad shift toward the Persian language
and an understanding that programs of paintings in
books could enhance the ideological message of its
text. It was also a time when painting joined the
canon of artistic forms sponsored by imperial patron-
age. The importance of painting as a courtly art is
attested to by the multiplication of centers after 1350
where painting flourished, though painting continued
to be practiced in noncourtly settings.

The next critical development took place in
Baghdad under the Jalayirid dynasty. A manuscript

composed of three mathnawis, by Khwaju Kirmani in
1396, contains a small number of highly developed
compositions that have grown to fill the vertically
oriented page format, closely keyed to the relevant
text, and which are executed in an exacting technique
at a small scale. One painting carries the signature of
Junayd amid the architectural decoration; although
not the first artist’s signature, its prominence signals
the artist’s growing status. All of these features of the
Khwaju Kirmani manuscript constitute a watershed
in the practice of painting and were embraced by the
Timurids. They became ardent patrons of painting
and further perfected earlier traditions.

By the early 1400s, paintings illustrated books
of diverse subject matters — history, science, and
poetry (epic, lyrical, and romantic) — in Iran and
Central Asia. Pictorial idioms were codified for each
literary genre, where textual genres were also reflected
through differing rates of illustration. Timurid
achievements in the art of painting — principally in
Herat and Shiraz — manifest in sheer aesthetic power
and high technical development were such that con-
temporary and later dynasties followed their example.
One major development that took place in the late
1400s has been attributed to the artist Kamal al-Din
Bihzad (d. 1535-1536). Working under Mir ‘Ali Shir
(d. 1501) and Sultan Husayn (d. 1506), paintings
signed by or attributed to Bihzad evidence an
increased naturalism in palette, diverse facial expres-
sion and gesture (which suggest direct observation),
and complex compositions with multiple focal points
of activity. Paintings of his design, and those of his
contemporaries, came the closest to evoking an image
of what the eye might see, though its specific pictorial
variety was short lived.

Under the Safavids, successors to the Timurids,
painting continued to constitute a principal artistic
medium of the court, and it was sponsored through
the royal workshops of such patrons as Shah Ismafil
(d. 1524) and Shah Tahmasp (d. 1576): Members of
the royal house also practiced painting and elevated
some artists to the status of intimate. Safavid painting
fused the idioms of the Timurids and the Turkmen
dynasties of western Iran and Iraq to create a fresh
aesthetic distinct from its sources. The same develop-
ments later took place in India under the Mughals.
Eager to assert their Timurid ancestry, Mughal
patrons sought out Timurid manuscripts, which they
collected, as well as artists from Iran and Central
Asia. In India, imported styles were fused with local
Rajput Hindu traditions and later combined with
European sources in the form of prints or paintings
under Akbar (d. 1605).

Similar processes occurred in Ottoman painting,
a tradition that responded equally to Persian and

585

PAINTING, MINIATURE

European idioms. By the early 1500s, Ottoman paint-
ing had developed its unique character, one often
described as “realistic” or “documentary” in concep-
tion and nature. It may well be that these visual
aspects result from the principal texts favored by the
Ottomans as much as by the particular resources to
which artists were exposed or the artists’ objectives.
Unlike the contemporary Safavids, the Ottomans
developed the illustrated history (to unprecedented
levels) while they also composed shorter historical
narratives describing campaigns, especially during
the reigns of Suleyman (d. 1566) and Murad III
(d. 1595).

Another unprecedented Ottoman development
occurred in the subject matter of topographical paint-
ing, images representing cities encountered on various
military campaigns. Such images drew from multiple
pictorial sources, from works of cartography — both
European and Islamic — to pilgrimage guidebooks
and scrolls of the Islamic tradition.

David J. Roxburgh

See also Arabic; Ceramics; Cultural Exchange; Kalila
wa Dimna; Ilkhanids; Libraries; Manuscripts; Maqa-
ma; Materia Medica; Mughals; Ottoman Turks; Paper
Manufacture; Persian; Safavids; Seljuks; Shadow
Plays; Shahnama; Timurids; Turkish and Turkic
Languages

Primary Sources

Ahmad b. Mir Munshi, al-Husayni. Calligraphers and Pain-
ters: A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad, Sort of Mir Munshi,
circa AH 1015/AD 1606. Translated by V. Minorsky.
Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1959.
Thackston, Wheeler M. Album Prefaces and Other Docu-
ments on the History of Calligraphers and Painters.
Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Further Reading

Arnold, Thomas W. Painting in Islam. A Study of the Place
of Pictorial Art in Muslim Culture. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1928.

Atasoy, Nurhan, and Filiz Cagman. Turkish Miniature
Painting. Istanbul: R. C. D. Cultural Institute, 1974.
Atil, Esin. Kalila wa Dimna: Fables from a Fourteenth-
Century Arabic Manuscript. Washington, D.C.: Freer
Gallery of Art, 1981.

Beach, Milo Cleveland. Early Mughal Painting. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.

Blair, Sheila S. A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid al-
Din’s Illustrated History of the World. London: Nour
Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and
Oxford University Press, 1995.

Canby, Sheila R. Persian Painting. New York: Thames and
Hudson, 1993.

. The Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paint-
ings of Riza-vi Abbasi of Isfahan. London: Azimuth
Editions, 1996.

(Ed). Persian Masters: Five Centuries of Painting.

Bombay: Marg, 1990.

Ettinghausen, Richard. Arab Painting. Geneva: Skira, 1962.

Grabar, Oleg. The Illustrations of the Maqamat. Chicago
and London: Chicago University Press, 1984.

. Mostly Miniatures: An Introduction to Persian Paint-
ing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Grabar, Oleg, and Sheila S. Blair. Epic Images and Contem-
porary History: The Illustrations of the Great Mongol
Shahnama. Chicago and London: Chicago University
Press, 1980.

Gray, Basil (Ed). The Arts of the Book in Centred Asia, 14th-
16th Centuries. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Press, 1979.

Grube, Ernst J. Persian Painting in the Fourteenth Century:
A Research Report. Naples: Istituto Orientale di Napoli,
1978.

Haldane, Duncan. Mamluk Painting. Warminster: Aris and
Phillips, 1978.

Jazari, Isma‘il b. al-Jazari. The Book of Knowledge of Inge-
nious Mechanical Devices. Translated and annotated by
Donald R. Hill. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1974.

Milstein, Rachel, Karin Riihrdanz, and Barbara Schmitz.
Stories of the Prophets: Illustrated Manuscripts of Qisas
al-Anbiya’. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 1999.

O’Kane, Bernard. Early Persian Painting: Kalila and Dimna
Manuscripts of the Late Fourteenth Century. London and
New York: 1. B. Tauris, 2003.

Robinson, B. W. Fifteenth-Century Persian Painting: Pro-
blems and Issues. New York and London: New York
University Press, 1991.

Rogers, J. M. Mughal Miniatures. New York and London:
Thames and Hudson, 1993.

Roxburgh, David J. The Persian Album, 1400-1600: From
Dispersal to Collection. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 2005.

Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Sultan Ibrahim Mirza’s Haft
Awrang: A Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-Century
Iran. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Sims, Eleanor. Peerless Images: Persian Painting and Its
Sources. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 2002.

Welch, Anthony. Artists for the Shah. Late Sixteenth-
Century Painting at the Imperial Court of Iran. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976.

Welch, S. C., and Martin Dickson. The Houghton Shahna-
meh. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.

PAINTING, MONUMENTAL AND
FRESCOES

A major problem in assessing the role of monumental
painting in Islamic art is the uneven distribution of
the evidence. We have a number of frescoes surviving
in whole or in part from the first two centuries of
Islam, and again from the seventeenth century on-
ward. However, for the intervening centuries we are
largely dependent on fragmentary finds and literary
evidence. There are also anomalies in the geographi-
cal distribution of the evidence, with most of the early
paintings coming from Syria and Iraq, the later mate-
rial concentrated in the eastern Islamic world, and the
Maghrib poorly represented.

586

PAINTING, MON UMENTAL AND FRESCOES

Detail of a Persian archer, from Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) leading the Battle against the Ishbeks. Persian fresco from the
Great Hall of the Pavilion of the Forty Columns. Credit: SEF/Art Resource, NY. Chihil Sutun (Pavilion of the Forty
Columns), Isfahan, Iran.

At the time of the Muslim conquest of Mecca (630
CE), the interior of the Ka’ba was painted with
images of Christ and Mary, Old Testament Prophets,
trees, and angels. Remains of classically inspired wall
paintings recovered from Qaryat al-Faw in Central
Arabia also attest the presence of frescoes in a pre-
Islamic Arabian secular milieu that may have in-
formed the decoration of the Umayyad palaces in
Syria (ca. 700-750 CE), many of which were provided
with wall paintings. In some cases (for example, Qasr
al-Hayr al-Gharbi and Rusafa) painted dadoes imi-
tate the quarter-sawn marble panels used in Umayyad
mosques. In others, more elaborate figural schemes
were used. In Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi a pair of
painted plaster floors were painted with a hunting
scene of Sasanian inspiration juxtaposed with a
remarkably Classical personification of Earth.

Such eclecticism reaches a crescendo in the interior
of the small bathhouse at Qusayr ‘Amra, where the
walls, vaults, and domes are covered with a spectacular
array of painted images whose iconography is poorly
understood. These include a royal enthronement scene

with Solomonic overtones, the six major kings of the
earth, hunting scenes, images of the three ages of
man, flying victories, scenes of everyday life (includ-
ing musicians and carpenters), acrobatic scenes, and
an enormous seminaked woman standing beside a
pool. The painting of an extraordinary zodiacal
dome on the interior of the caldarium dome continues
a late antique tradition known from accounts of a
bathhouse in Gaza.

Evidence from the ninth-century ‘Abbasid palaces
at Samarra in Iraq suggests a continuing eclecticism
and the use of wall painting to emulate more costly
modes of ornament. Frescoes in the Balkuwara Pal-
ace were gilded, perhaps in imitation of gold-ground
mosaics. In the Jausaq al-Khaqani, scrolling acanthus
designs were painted with white dots to imitate the
mother-of-pearl discs used in glass mosaics, the scrolls
of the acanthus peopled with human and animal fig-
ures like the inhabited scrolls of Classical pavements.
The so-called Harem in the same palace was exten-
sively decorated with figural paintings, including an
enigmatic female figure wrestling a bull, and female

587

PAINTING, MONUMENTAL AND FRESCOES

attendants. Continual repaintings make it difficult to
date these images with any precision.

Fragmentary ninth- or tenth-century wall paint-
ings recovered from Nishapur range from simple red
and white geometrical dadoes to inhabited vegetal
scrolls, to male and female figures with the severe
fringes and dark scalloped curls found in the Samar-
ran frescoes. The paintings included a falconer wear-
ing a coat patterned with large rosettes, a sword, and
a belt with lappets similar to those worn by Central
Asians and Turks. The component units of a muqar-
nas vault bore flowering plants with eyes at their base.
This anthropomorphism also characterized a series of
dadoes painted with a bizarre ensemble of feathery
wings, vegetation, or cornucopia sprouting hands and
eyes, which may have had an apotropaic function.

A penchant for striking visual effects is suggested
by textual accounts of illusionistic wall paintings exe-
cuted in Fatimid Egypt (969-1171 CE), including a
pair of dancing girls who, through a skillful use of
color, were seen to merge into or emerge from the wall
of a palace. A dancing girl is among the images
painted in concave muqarnas elements recovered
from a Fustat bathhouse, which also include a seated
figure with a cup. The dancer is comparable to those
found on Fatimid lustre ceramics and on the Capella
Palatina ceiling (ca. 1142 CE) in Norman Palermo,
which may have been decorated by Fatimid artists.
The evidence from Nishapur and Fustat highlights
the common practice of painting frescoes (sometimes
of an erotic character) in medieval bathhouses. The
fourteenth-century writer al-Ghuzuli explains that
hunting, war, lovers, and gardens are the types of
scenes appropriate to a bathhouse, possessing a thera-
peutic value capable of restoring the animal, spiritu-
al, and natural aspects of man and overcoming the
physical debilitation caused by the bath.

Further to the West, evidence for wall painting
comes chiefly from the palace of the Alhambra in
Granada, much of which was built by the Nasrid
sultans (1232-1492 CE) in the course of the four-
teenth century CE. The Torre de las Damas was
painted with mounted hunting or military scenes,
some in superimposed registers, that included a repre-
sentation of a group seated within an open tent. In the
Court of the Lions, three extraordinary concave
wooden ceilings were covered with leather and gesso,
on which images of the Nasrid sultans were painted,
along with themes of courtly love and chivalry
derived from contemporary French and Castilian
paintings.

The continued development of wall painting in
eastern Iran was facilitated by the rise of regional
dynasties and courts from the tenth century onward,
and descriptions of Ghaznavid architecture include

mention of a palace at Balkh whose walls were deco-
rated with scenes of Sultan Mahmud (r. 998-1030
CE) in battle and also feasting, staples of Islamic
courtly art inherited from Sasanian tradition.
Mahmud’s son is said to have had a palace at Herat
decorated with erotic paintings. Frescoes of forty-
four life-size Turkish guards clad in rich robes were
found in the South Palace at Lashkari Bazaar, con-
firming the existence of elaborate wall paintings at
the Ghaznavid court.

Fragmentary wall paintings reportedly from Rayy
depict registers of small-scale figural scenes less than
twenty centimeters high, which raise interesting ques-
tions about the relationship between wall painting and
other arts in Seljuk Iran (1040-1 194 CE). In both their
style (black outline with bold reds, greens, and blues)
and the use of superimposed registers, these fragments
recall contemporary Minai (enamel) ceramics, which
may themselves imitate a lost tradition of late twelfth-
and early thirteenth-century Persian book illustra-
tion. In the neighboring Seljuk sultanate of Anatolia,
wall paintings ranged from the utilitarian (painting
faux masonry over heterogeneous construction mate-
rials) to the visual marking of buildings associated
with the sultan with prominent red checkerboard
and zigzag patterns. The remains of wall paintings
depicting seated figures were found at the thirteenth-
century Seljuk kiosk at Alara near Alanya.

Combinations of painted and tile decoration were
used in monuments erected in the wake of the Mongol
conquest such as the palace of Takht-i Sulayman (ca.
1280 CE) in Azerbayjan, and there are reports that
the Ilkhanid sultan Abu Said (r. 1316-1335 CE) had a
palace near Herat decorated with scenes of his mili-
tary victories. The painted decoration of the Mauso-
leum of Uljaytu at Sultaniyya (1313 CE) suggests a
relationship with contemporary manuscript illumina-
tion, which is also witnessed later in surviving
Timurid wall paintings, such as the lapis and gold
interior of the Gur-i Amir in Samarqand (1405 CE).
Wall paintings represented in Ilkhanid, Jalayirid, and
Timurid book painting are executed in a fine calli-
graphic blue and white style that is quite unlike that
of the images in which they appear. Their style and
preference for elements of chinoiserie betray the im-
pact of Chinese blue and white ceramics. That they
are reliable guides to contemporary wall painting is
suggested by frescoes preserved in the Timurid tombs
of the Shah-i Zinda complex in Samarqand (late four-
teenth century CE), which depict naturalistic land-
scapes, trees, and ewers or vases containing flowers,
executed in dark blue pigment on a white ground.

Literary references indicate the parallel existence of
a tradition of Timurid historical wall painting. These
include Ibn Arabshah’s description of Timur’s

588

PAINTING, MONUMENTAL AND FRESCOES

(r. 1370-1405 CE) garden palaces at Samarqand, in
which he was depicted engaged in hunting or specific
military campaigns, receiving homage, and feasting
and at leisure, so “that those who knew not his affairs,
should see them as though present.” Timurid cartoons
preserved in later albums contain large-scale figures
(some more than forty centimeters tall) pounced for
transfer, perhaps to wall surfaces. Conversely, it has
been suggested that some historical scenes in Timurid
historical manuscripts, such as the Zafarnama, may
have been modeled after lost wall paintings.

Evidence for wall painting in fifteenth- and six-
teenth-century Ottoman architecture comes mainly
from mosques such as the Muradiye at Edirne (1434
CE) and the tombs of Ottoman sultans in Bursa,
decorated with trees, and vegetal motifs including
vases of flowers. Although there are literary references
to the Italian artist Gentile Bellini being commissioned
to paint frescoes for Sultan Mehmet II (r. 1444-1481
CE) in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, no such paint-
ings survive and most extant Ottoman frescoes date
from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Further East, in the Delhi sultanate, a prohibition
on figural art imposed by the Tughluqid sultan Firuz
Shah (1351-1388 CE) offers incidental evidence for
the decoration of palace walls and doors with figural
paintings, which were considered especially appropri-
ate to royal places of rest. Textual evidence for wall
painting is more plentiful in the Mughal period
(1526-1858 CE), especially during the reigns of
Akbar (1556-1605) and Jahangir (1605-1627),
whose interest in world religions explains a penchant
for Christological imagery, which appeared alongside
hunting, battle, and garden scenes in the palace at
Fatehpur Sikri (1579 CE). Miniature paintings of
this period show wall paintings inspired by European
prints and Christian imagery decorating the Mughal
throne. Remains of paintings executed during the
reign of Jahangir were found in the tower of Lahore
fort, where a vault was painted with scenes of Euro-
pean inspiration, including angels, birds, and stars.
The vault has been interpreted as a Solomonic balda-
chin, a reminder of the role that monumental painting
could play in creating a suitable ambience for the
projection of royal authority.

In Turkey, Iran, and India, wall paintings were
commonly employed in funerary monuments. The
earliest intact funerary frescoes are those in a polygo-
nal tomb-tower at Kharragan in northwestern Iran
(1067-1068 CE), depicting peacocks, trees, and hang-
ing lamps. Among the most spectacular Indian exam-
ples is the tomb of the Bahmanid ruler Ahmad Shah,
which was built near Bidar in the Deccan in 1436 CE,
and offers important evidence for pre-Mughal Indian
wall painting. The interior surfaces are covered with

vibrant paintings of inscriptions, medallions, and car-
touches filled with geometrical and vegetal ornament,
in which red predominates, with blue, yellow, and
white used as subsidiary colors. The paintings derive
inspiration from tile dadoes, Indian stone carving,
textiles, and even Ottoman carpets, a reminder of
the role of textiles in transmitting architectural
designs. They are broadly comparable to paintings
found in Rasulid and Tahirid mosques and madrasas
in the Yemen, a region that has preserved particularly
fine examples of medieval painted ceilings. Among
these are the Jami‘ al-Muzaffar (before 1295 CE)
and the Madrasa al-Mutabiyya‘ (1392 CE) in Taizz.
In the paintings of the ‘Amiriya Madrasa at Rada'
(1504 CE) red predominates as in the Deccani tomb.

A number of extant wall paintings in Isfahan and
elsewhere indicate the importance of the medium in
the architecture of the Safavids (1501-1765 CE). The
‘Ali Qapu Palace in Isfahan was originally provided
with paintings of tall willowy youths in the style of
the famous painter Riza-yi ‘Abbasi (d. 1635 CE). The
vague eroticism of such paintings is mirrored in the
contemporary vogue for epic love stories such as
Yusuf and Zulakha, or Farhad and Shrin, which were
included in the carved and painted decoration of a
Safavid palace at Nai‘in (ca. 1560 CE).

The ancient themes of bazm va razm (feasting and
fighting) known from reports of Ghaznavid, Timurid,
and Turkmen frescoes were also popular at the Safavid
court. Examples include the paintings of the Qaysariyya
(1620 CE), the entrance to the bazaar in the maidan
of Isfahan where Shah ‘Abbas I (1587-1629 CE) is
depicted battling his Uzbek enemies. Four large paint-
ings (ca. 1660s) in the interior of the Chihil Sutun depict
historical scenes involving Safavid engagement with
their neighbors, including the Mughals and Uzbeks.

Some of the Safavid wall paintings are said to have
been commissioned from European artists, and Eur-
opeans (primarily the Dutch and English) feature
frequently in wall paintings of the period. They are
often associated with small dogs (such as those on the
exterior of the Chihil Sutun), a theme also found in
single-page paintings of the period. The popularity of
such subjects reflects the increasing importance of
European powers in the Middle East and India,
where contemporary images of Europeans were also
painted on the walls of Mughal palaces.

Finbarr Barry Flood

See also Baths and Bathing; Ceramics; Mosaics;
Painting, Miniature

Further Reading

Almagro, Martin, Luis Caballero, Juan Zozaya, and

Antonio Almagro. Qusayr ‘Amra: Residencia y Banos

589

PAINTING, MONUMENTAL AND FRESCOES

Omeyas en el clesierto cle Jordania. Madrid: Instituto
Hispano-Arabe de Cultura, 1975.

Babaie, Susan. "Shah ‘Abbas II, the Conquest of Qanda-
har, the Chihil Sutun and Its Wall Paintings.” Muqarnas
11 (1994):125-142.

Digby, Simon. “The Literary Evidence for Painting in the
Delhi Sultanate.” Bulletin of the American Academy of
Benares 1 (1967): 47-58.

Dodds, Jerilynn D. “The Paintings in the Sala de Justicia of
the Alhambra: Iconography and Iconology.” The Art
Bulletin 61 (1979): 186-197.

Ettinghausen, Richard. “Painting in the Fatimid Period: A
Reconstruction.” Ars Islamica 9 (1942): 112-124.
Gasparini, Elisabetta. Le pitture murali della Muradiye di
Edirne. Padua: Sargon, 1985.

Gray, Basil. “The Tradition of Wall Painting in Iran.” In
Highlights of Persian Art, Persian Art Series No. 1 , edi-
ted by Richard Ettinghausen and E. Yarshater, 313-329.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979.

Grube, Ernst. “Wall Paintings in the Seventeenth Century
Monuments of Isfahan.” Iranian Studies 1 (1974):
511-542.

Herzfeld, Ernst. Die Malereien von Samarra. Berlin: D.
Reimer, 1927.

Lentz, Thomas W. “Dynastic Imagery in Early Timurid
Wall Painting.” Muqarnas 10 (1993): 253-265.
Morgenstern, Laure. “Mural Painting.” In A Survey of
Persian Art, Volume 3, edited by Arthur Upham Pope
and Phyllis Ackerman, 1365-1390. Ashiya, 1981.

Oney, Gonul. “The Interpretation of the Frescoes in the I.
Kharragan Mausoleum near Qazwin.” Akten des VII.
Internationalen Kongresses Fiir Iranische Kunst und Arch-
aologie, Miinchen 1976. Berlin: 1979, 400M08.

Philon, Helen. “The Murals in the Tomb of Ahmad Shah
near Bidar.” Apollo 152, no. 465 (2000): 3-10.

Al-Radi, Selma. "The ‘Amiriya in Rada‘ the History and
Restoration of a Sixteenth-Century Madrasa in the
Yemen.” Oxford Studies in Islamic Art 13, 1997.
Wilkinson, Charles, K. Nishapur: Some Early Islamic Build-
ings and their Decoration. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1986.

Zayadine, F. “The Umayyad Frescoes of Quseir ‘Amra.”
Archaeology 31, no. 3 (1978): 19-29.

PALERMO

See Sicily

PALESTINE

The Roman province of Palestine (Palaestina) was
created following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba
Jewish rebellion of 132-135 CE. It replaced the prov-
ince of Judea (ludaea) that existed since 63 BCE,
following the conquest of Pompey. Around 400 CE,
the province of Palestine was subdivided into three
provinces: Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia.
According to Irfan Shahid, the Muslim administrative
division of Syria into four provinces ( ajnad , sing.
jund) was inspired by the Byzantine theme system

that Heraclius created between 628 and 636 CE. The
Muslim ajnad system included four provinces known
as Jund Filastin, Urdunn, Dimashq, and Hims. Jund
Filastin consisted of Palaestina Prima, while Palaes-
tina Secunda became Jund Urdunn. Jund Filastin
included within its borders the coastal towns of Case-
area (Qaysariyya) in the North and Rafah in the
South and internal territories, including Jerusalem.

The impact of the Arab-Muslim conquest of the
Middle East was manifold, but two issues — Arabiza-
tion and Islamization — stand out. The main question
is: Was Islamization driven by the sedentarization of
Arab-Muslim tribes from Arabia in the Middle East,
or by mass conversion of the local populations? The
evidence for Palestine, irrespective of the Arab-
Muslim administrative division of the area, is that
Arabization preceded Islamization, and the Christian
and Jewish populations adopted Arabic while resisting
Islamization. Flowever, in some places the two pro-
cesses went hand in hand. During the eight and ninth
centuries, the town of Ayla (modern-day ‘Aqaba)
became renowned for its scholarship and families of
scholars engaged in the transmission of traditions.
Local circumstances must always be taken into ac-
count. In Samaria (administratively divided between
the ajnad of Urdunn and Filastin), for example, mass
conversion driven by economic hardship and per-
secutions took place from the ninth century onward.
However, the conversion of the Samaritan population
reflected local conditions and says little about other
populations. The Muslim conquest of Palestine also
had repercussions on the agriculture of the region,
with cotton replacing flax as the main cash crop.
The spread of cotton facilitated the development of
the papermaking industry in Syria and Palestine.

Ramla, the capital of Jund Filastin, was founded
by the Umayyad caliph Sulayman ibn ‘Abd al-Malik
in 715. The caliph is credited with the construction of
a palace, a mosque, an extensive water supply and
storage system, and the House of the Dyers. The town
proved to be a successful urban creation important
enough to attract the attention of the caliph Harun al-
Rashid, who built there a large underground water
reservoir. Two pious endowments (awqaf sing, waqf)
set up in AH 300/912-913 CE and 301/913-914
revealed the town’s prosperity. The first pious endow-
ment was established by the Egyptian administrator
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Madhara’i and con-
sisted of water installations for the benefit of the pub-
lic. The second waqf was set up by Fa’iq, a Saqlabi
eunuch who was freed of the caliph al-Mu’tamid
(870-982). Although the exact nature of this founda-
tion remains elusive, the endowed property consisted
of an urban commercial building (funduq), which
functioned as a place of commerce and an inn.

590

PALESTINE

Several Fatimid officials resided in Ramla during
the Fatimid period (early eleventh century), including
the governor, who is referred to as wali, meaning ap-
parently the governor of Jund Filastin. The governor,
through his military slave (ghulam), controlled the
police force and kept contact with Cairo through the
postal service, or the bar kl. The town was also the seat
of the secret policy (ashab al-akhbar) and the local
Fatimid propagandist (da'i). Two other officials
whose presence is attested to in the town were the fiscal
administrator (‘amil) and auditor (zimmam), both of
whom were nominated by the government in Cairo.
The social composition of the population of Ramla
remains enigmatic, but there was a local Muslim elite
made up of notables, judges, and court witnesses.

Much of our information about Ramla, Jund
Filastin, and the other ajnad is derived from the
chronicle of Musabbihi (977-1029) and concerns the
governorship of Anushtakin al-Dizbiri and the Bed-
ouin rebellion of 1024-1029. In Muharram 414/
March-April 1023, Anushtakin was appointed as
the governor of Jund Filastin, bearing the title of a
military governor (mutawalli harb Filastin). The
beginnings of his governorship were peaceful and, in
April 1024, a large caravan of Khurasani pilgrims
from Mecca traveled through Ayla via Ramla and
Damascus to Baghdad. The Fatimid regime was
quick to take advantage of the need of the Khurasani
pilgrims to use the Fatimid territories, due to unsafe
roads between Mecca and Baghdad, for propagandis-
tic purposes. The military governors ( wula al-harb)
were ordered to assist the pilgrims. Khurasan was a
staunch Sunni region, and Musabbihi testifies that the
Fatimids hoped to demonstrate that the hostile pro-
paganda that depicted them as heretics was unfound-
ed. The pilgrims visited Jerusalem, and the regime in
Cairo hoped that they would be impressed by the
prosperity of the region under Fatimid rule. However,
the situation in Jund Filastin quickly changed for the
worst. In September 1024, hostilities erupted between
Anushtakin and Hassa ibn al-Jarrah, the leader of the
Banu Tayy Bedouins, who was authorized to collect
taxes (under the terms of an iqta’ grant) from Bayt
Jubrin, in the South of Jund Filastin. This round of
hostilities ended with the looting of Tiberias (Tabar-
iyya), the capital of Jund Urdunn, and the occupation
of Ramla. The Bedouin conquest of Ramal was a
bleak chapter in the history of the town. Hassan
executed the soldiers of the Fatimid garrison in the
town and confiscated the property and money of
several well-to-do people. The town was looted and
women and children enslaved. Eventually, after tak-
ing vast plunder, Hassan set fire to Ramla. The soap
industry suffered ruin, and large quantities of olive oil
and soap were destroyed. In spite of the destruction

inflicted on Ramla, Hassan tried to win formal con-
cession from the Fatimids, asking for Nablus and
Jerusalem to be recognized as his iqta'. Nablus was
practically Hassan’s stronghold and was officially
added to his territories, but the Fatimids refused to
cede Jerusalem. Eventually, Anushtakin, with the co-
operation of the governors of Tiberias and Jerusalem,
was able to defeat Hassan and by the end of 1025, the
high tide of the Bedouin uprising was over. However,
in 1029, Anushtakin fought and defeated the Bedouin
coalition that challenged the Fatimid rule in Palestine
and Syria.

The impact of the Bedouin rebellion on Palestine
(or more precisely the ajnad of Filastin and Urdunn)
and Bilad al-Shamm (meaning Damascus and
Aleppo) was short-lived. In 1047, the Persian traveler
Nasiri Khusrau visited these regions and, on the
whole, his impression was very favorable. The towns
of the Eastern Mediterranean (that is, those of the
Syria-Palestine littoral) prospered under the Fatimid
rule. By the mid-eleventh century the Mediterranean
trade of the Fatimid state was in its full swing, and
Nasiri Khusrau’s description of Tripoli, Beirut,
Sidon, Tyre, and Acre mirrors this booming com-
merce. As a person coming from the inland territories
of the Muslim world he was much impressed by port
facilities (mina) that, for his Persian readers, he
describes as “a stable for ships.” In Tripoli, anchored
ships from Byzantium, Sicily, Maghreb, Muslim
Spain, and Europe, and the ten percent tax collected
from them, financed the Fatimid garrison in the town.
The chain in the entry of the port of Acre (‘Akka)
attracted Nasiri Khusrau’s attention, but he is vague
about Acre’s commerce. The port of Acre had been
built during the rule of Ahmad ibn Tulun (868-884),
the semi-independent ruler of Egypt, but only during
the Fatimid period did the Mediterranean trade make
its full impact on the coastal towns Syria and
Palestine. It also had significant internal consequences
and facilitated the emergence of local commercial
elites. Nasiri Khusrau, for example, refers to the
Sunni cadi of Tyre Ibn Abi ‘Aqil as a rich and in-
fluential person. During the second half of the elev-
enth century and the first decades of the twelfth
century, Banu ‘Aqil emerged as the local ruler of
Tyre and navigated skillfully between the Fatimids,
Seljuks, and Franks. Then, in 1124, the town was
conquered by the Crusaders.

Nasiri Khusrau’s description indicates that the
eleventh-century Mediterranean trade had greater sig-
nificance for the coastal towns of Syria (modern
Febanon) than for those of Urdunn and Filastin.
With the exception of Jerusalem, Nasiri Khusrau
has little to say about the inland towns of these
two ajnad. The Jasmine Mosque of Tiberias is fully

591

PALESTINE

described, but he has nothing to say about the town
itself. Ramla is described as a fortified town with an
elaborate system of rainwater collection and storage.
An inscription commemorated the 425/1033 earth-
quake that destroyed many buildings but spared the
people. If the soap industry of Ramla recovered from
the 1025 destruction remains unknown, but the culti-
vation of olives continued to prosper and the agricul-
ture of the region abundantly supplied the two stable
foods of its population: bread and olives. In 1068,
Ramla was hit by an especially destructive earth-
quake, which destroyed the town and killed fifteen
thousand people.

Nasiri Khusrau estimated the population of Jeru-
salem at twenty thousand and referred to its endowed
hospital, which is not alluded to by other sources.
He fully describes the holy places of Jerusalem and
Hebron, including measurements, and he also pro-
vides a detailed description of the Hebron soup kitch-
en. This charitable institution was financed by an
extensive pious endowment and offered meals to the
pilgrims. Little escaped Nasiri Khusrau’s attention:
The international dimension of the holy places of
Jerusalem is also noted. He mentions the destruction
of the Holy Sepulchre by al-Hakim (1008) and the
restoration of the place, following Byzantine diplo-
matic efforts. Another testimony about the life in
Jerusalem and Palestine is supplied by the Andalusi
scholar Ibn al-‘Arabi, who stayed in Jerusalem be-
tween 1092 and 1095. He describes Jerusalem and its
Muslim intellectual life, as well as his encounters with
scholars in Ascalon and Acre. However, the patterns
of life in Syria and Palestine, as described by Nasiri
Khusrau and Ibn al-‘Arabi, were completely shattered
by the Seljukid invasion of the region and the Fatimid
attempts of reconquest (1060-1090) and the wars of
the Crusades.

Yaacov Lev

See also Syria; Greater Syria
Primary Sources

Ibn al-Qalanisi. Dhayl Ta’rikh Dimashq. Edited by H. F.
Amedroz. Leiden, 1908.

Muqaddasi. Kitab Ahsan al-Taqasim (The Best Division for
Knowledge of the Regions). Translated into English by
B. A. Collins. Reading, 1994.

Musabbihi. Akhbar Misr. Edited by A. F. Sayyid. Cairo,
1978.

Naser-e Khosraw. Book of Travels ( Safarnama) . Translated
into English by W. M. Thackston Jr. New York, 1986.

Further Reading

Amar, Zohar. “The History of the Paper Industry in
al-Sham in the Middle Ages.” In Towns and Material

Culture in the Medieval Middle East, edited by Y. Lev,
119-135. Leiden, 2002.

Bacharach, Jere L. “Palestine in the Policies of Tulunid and
Ikhshidid Governors of Egypt (AH 254—358/868-969
AD)” In Egypt and Palestine. A Millennium of Associa-
tion (868-1948), edited by A. Cohen and G. Baer,
51-66. New York, 1984.

Cobb, Paul M. “Scholars and Society in Early Islamic
Ayla.” J ESI ID XXXVIII (1995): 417 428.

Drory, Joseph. "Some Observations During a Visit
to Palestine by Ibn al-‘Arabi of Seville in 1092-1095.”
Crusades 3 (2004): 101-124.

El’ad, Amikam. “The Coastal Cities of Palestine During the
Early Middle Ages.” In The Juraselam Cathedra. Jeru-
salem: Detroit, 1982.

Gil, Moshe. A History of Palestine 634-1099. Translated
into English by Ethel Broido. Cambridge, 1992.

Le Strange, G. Palestine Under the Moslem. London, 1 890.

Levy-Rubin, Milka. “New Evidence Relating to the Process
of Islamization in Palestine in the Early Muslim
Period — the Case of Samaria.” JESHO XLIII (2000):
257-276.

Luz, Nimrod. “The Construction of an Islamic City in
Palestine: The Case of Umayyad al-Ramla.” JRAS 1
(1997): 27-54.

Shahid, Irfan. “Heraclius and the Theme System: New
Light from the Arabic.” Byzantion LVII (1987): 391-
406.; “Heraclius and the Theme System. Further Obser-
vations.” Byzantion LIX (1989): 208-243; “Heraclius
and the Unfinished Themes of Oriens. Some Final
Observations.” Byzantion LXIV (1994): 352-376.

Sharon, Moshe, “A Waqf Inscription from Ramlah.” Arab-
ica 13 (1966): 77-84; "Waqf Inscription from Ramla
c. 300/912-13.” BSOAS (1997): 98-108.

PAPER MANUFACTURE

Paper was unknown before the coming of Islam in the
600s CE to Southwest Asia and North Africa, where
papyrus and parchment were used for writing docu-
ments and books. Muslims learned the technique of
papermaking in the eighth century after they con-
quered Transoxiana, where Buddhist missionaries
and merchants along the Silk Road had introduced
paper from China. The Chinese had invented paper in
the second or first century BCE; it was made from
cellulose fibers suspended in water and then collected
on a screen and dried. Chinese paper was normally
made from bast fibers extracted from such semitropi-
cal plants as bamboo and paper mulberry, whereas
new sources of cellulose were needed in arid Central
Asia. Therefore papermakers there, as well as in the
Muslim lands, used such fibers as flax and hemp, as
well as waste fibers from rags and old ropes.

Paper mills were established in Baghdad soon after
its founding in 762 CE, for the 'Abbasid bureaucracy
centered there had an insatiable demand for materials
on which to write innumerable documents and
records. By the middle of the ninth century the
ready availability of relatively inexpensive paper had

592

PARTY KINGDOMS, IBERIAN PENINSULA

sparked a cultural revolution throughout ‘Abbasid
society, as writers on every subject — from theology
to cookery — committed their thoughts to paper and
began thinking about things in ways they had not
done before. Nevertheless, manuscripts of the Koran
were copied on parchment codices until the end of the
tenth century. Baghdad remained an important center
of paper manufacture until the fourteenth century,
and the finest papers continued to be manufactured
in Iran and India (where it had been introduced in the
fourteenth century) into the 1600s.

By ca. 800, paper was available in Damascus, and
Syria quickly became known for its quality product.
Although papyrus was used in Egypt into the tenth
century, it was steadily replaced by paper, either
imported from Syria or manufactured locally, and
by the end of the century the papyrus industry was
dead. Although parchment remained popular for lon-
ger than elsewhere in North Africa and the Iberian
Peninsula, paper was already used in al-Andalus in
the tenth century, and several hundred paper mills are
reported in twelfth-century Fez. In the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, Andalusi papermakers were respon-
sible for the transfer of the technology to regions
under Christian rule, whence it eventually spread to
other regions of Europe. The Byzantines used but did
not manufacture it, although Istanbul became a cen-
ter of paper manufacture after the Ottoman conquest
of Constantinople in 1453. Early Italian papermakers
seem to have also learned their craft in Syria or Egypt,
and by the fifteenth century, Europeans were selling
cheap but low-quality papers in Southwest Asian and
North African markets, initiating the decline and
eventual demise of the local paper industry.

Jonathan M. Bloom

Further Reading

Bloom, Jonathan M. Paper before Print: The History and
Impact of Paper in the Islamic Lands. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 2001.

Le Leannec-Bavaveas, Marie-Therese. Les papiers non fili-
granes medievaux de la Perse d VEspagne. Bibliographic
1950-1995. Paris: CNRS Editions, 1998.

PARTY KINGDOMS, IBERIAN
PENINSULA

The Party Kingdoms, or Taifa Kingdoms, emerged
out of the anarchy that followed the collapse of the
Umayyad caliphate of Cordoba in 1009 CE and the
ensuing period of civil war (fitna) that lasted until
1031. The Arabic term muluk al-tawa’if (factional
kings) was applied to the rulers of these petty states,
because their existence defied the Islamic ideal of

political unity under the authority of a single caliph.
The era of the Party Kingdoms, which lasted until
1110 CE, was one of great cultural florescence in al-
Andalus, particularly among Muslims and Jews. It
was also the period in which native Iberian Muslims
lost control of their political destiny; from this time
forward they would dominated by Iberian Christian
and North African Muslim powers.

The Umayyad caliphate had been run, in fact, if
not in name, by the ‘Arnirid dynasty of “chamber-
lains” (hajib) since Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir al-
Mansur (976-1002) seized power during the reign of
Hisharn II (976-1009/1010-1113). On his death, al-
Mansur was succeeded by two sons, ‘Abd al-Malik
(r. 1002-1008), and ‘Abd al-Rahman (or “Sanjul”),
who took power in 1008. Unable to maintain the
delicate and volatile balance of factions within the
government and Andalusi society, or to counter pop-
ular resentment of the growing prestige of Berber
groups who had been invited to al-Andalus as part
of caliphal military policy, Sanjul provoked the out-
rage of the Umayyad aristocracy, the religious elite
(‘ulama’), and the populace by pressuring the aging
and childless Hisharn to name him as successor in
1008. Sanjul was deposed by elements of the military,
and the people of Cordoba rampaged against local
Berbers. As civil war erupted in the capital, power was
seized in the various provincial cities by local gover-
nors, members of the palace slave ( saqaliba ) contin-
gent, the ‘ulama’, and Berber clans, which had come to
dominate the army. The variety of political leadership
reflected the divisions that had emerged in Andalusi
politics and society since the time of ‘Abd al-Rahman
III (r. 912-961). Until the death of Hisharn III in
1031, each of the rulers maintained a patina of legiti-
macy by styling himself as the hajib ruling in the name
of the Umayyad caliph, while struggling against
neighboring Party Kingdoms both for survival and a
greater share of Andalusi territory.

By the 1040s, most of the smaller states had been
swallowed up, leaving several major players, which
included: Badajoz, ruled by the Aftasids, an Andalusi
dynasty; Toledo, ruled by the Dhi’l-Nun, of Berber
origin; Zaragoza, ruled by the Banu Hud, of Arab
origin; Seville, ruled by the Andalusi ‘Abbasids;
Granada, ruled by the Berber Zirid clan; Valencia,
ruled by ‘Amirids; and Almeria, ruled by a succession
of factions. By this point the slave regimes were no
more; lacking a broader constituency they fell victim
to Andalusi and Berber cliques who had a wider
popular base or a more cohesive military core.
Among the great rivalries that emerged were those
of Seville and Granada (which also faced the hostility
of Almeria), and Toledo and Zaragoza. Zaragoza was
further plagued by internal divisions thanks to the

593

PARTY KINGDOMS, IBERIAN PENINSULA

custom of Hudid rulers of dividing their patrimony
among their heirs.

These rivalries were capitalized on by the Christian
kingdoms of the peninsula, particularly Castile and
Leon, which were united under the strong leadership
of Fernando I of Castile (r. 1035-1065) and his suc-
cessor Alfonso VI (r. 1065-1109). Fernando, who
exploited Andalusi weakness by pushing far south of
the Duero and taking Coimbra in 1064, initiated a
policy in which military pressure was used to convert
the Party Kingdoms into tributary states. As a conse-
quence, Badajoz, Seville, Toledo, Zaragoza, and
Granada were forced to pay large indemnities
(parias) of gold and silver in exchange for military
support and protection from attack. Other Christian
principalities, notably Aragon and Barcelona, quickly
imitated this. As a result, Christian powers became
increasingly embroiled in Andalusi affairs, supporting
their taifa clients against rival kingdoms and using
them in their own internecine struggles. Hence,
Castile-supported Toledo fought Aragon-supported
Zaragoza, and Zaragoza faced a rebellious Lerida
aided by Barcelona. It was in this context that the
famous Rodrigo Diaz del Vivar, “El Cid,” an exile
from Castile, found himself commanding the military
forces of Zaragoza against the troops of Aragon and
Barcelona. Indeed, “El Cid” had earned his moniker
from Sevillan troops in 1064 after he led them to
victory against the forces of taifa Granada, when
they referred to him gratefully as “my lord" (sidi).
Such interventions were symptomatic of a general
dependence of the taifa kingdoms on Christian
military strength, which further undermined their
autonomy.

The taifa kingdoms were able to support the paria
regime because of the fact that their economic infra-
structure had remained largely undamaged by the
unrest of the fitna. These were economies based on
intensive agriculture and market gardening, manufac-
ture and craft and, particularly in the case of the
Mediterranean coast, trade. The trans-Saharan gold
trade that had fueled the incredible prosperity of the
caliphate also continued, providing the taifa kings
with the funds they needed to meet their tributary
obligations. The vibrant Andalusi economy also sus-
tained a cultural renaissance, encouraged by the new
political plurality in which rival courts vied as patrons
of Arabic letters, science, and theology; the great poet
Ibn Hazm (b. Cordoba, 993) is the best-known figure
of this age. Jewish culture and letters, including both
Arabic- and Hebrew-language literature, also throve,
producing remarkable figures such as the poet Isma’il
ibn Naghrilla (b. Cordoba, 991), who exercised power
as effective head of state of the taifa of Granada from
1027 to 1056. This cultural diversity reflected the

ethnoreligious composition of the kingdoms, most
of which had significant Jewish and Mozarab Chris-
tian minorities, members of which not infrequently
enjoyed great prestige and wielded considerable polit-
ical power. For example, Isma’il ibn Naghrilla, wazir
and military commander of Granada, was succeeded
by his son Yusuf. Sisnando Davidez, a Mozarab
who later served as Alfonso Vi’s envoy, had been
an administrator in Muslim Badajoz, and a number
of dhimmis (non-Muslim subjects) served in the
government of Zaragoza.

For the most part this diversity was tolerated by
the Muslim majority, including the ‘ulama’, although
some of the latter were outraged by the prospect that
dhimmis should hold formal office under a Muslim
regime. Their ire, however, came to be directed in-
creasingly at the taifa kings themselves, many of
whom were Berbers who shared no ethnocultural af-
filiation with the Andalusi population and who ruled
as a foreign military elite. Popular dissatisfaction was
aggravated by the increasing burden of taxation,
which the ‘ulama’ (who tended to come from the
commercial class) and the common people were
expected to bear as a result of the paria system. The
taifa kings’ imposition of uncanonical taxes and their
submission as tributaries to Christian powers served
as an ideological rallying point for popular revolt.
The situation of the ‘ulama ’ was further exacerbated
by the disruption of long-distance trade networks,
thanks to incursions of the Normans in the Mediter-
ranean and the Banu Hilal in Tunisia, and by the
growing unrest in the Andalusi countryside, where
the inter- taifa warfare and banditry led to general
disorder. In 1085, the populace of Toledo led by the
religious elite ejected the taifa king al-Qadir from the
city. Turning to his patron, Alfonso VI, al-Qadir
agreed that if reinstated he would hand the city over
to the Castilian king, on the promise of later being
installed as king in Valencia. Thus, in that same year,
after negotiating a treaty with the local ‘ulama’,
Alfonso entered Toledo as king.

This event made evident the corruption and debili-
ty of the taifa kings, who were derided in learned and
pious Andalusi circles as decadent and effete. A well-
known contemporary satirical verse mocked them:
“They give themselves grandiose names like ‘The
Powerful,’ and ‘The Invincible,’ but these are empty
titles; they are like little pussycats who, puffing them-
selves up, imagine they can roar like lions.” It also
demonstrated to the taifa kings that Alfonso’s aim
was conquest; indeed, following up his seizure of
Toledo, Alfonso laid siege to the other powerful
northern taifa , Zaragoza (as a means of blocking the
expansion on his Christian rival, the Kingdom of
Aragon). By now both the ‘ulama’ and the taifa rulers

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PEACE AND PEACEMAKING

agreed outside help was desperately required. The
only group to which they could turn was the Almor-
avids, a dynamic Berber faction that had coalesced on
the southern reaches of the African gold routes and
had managed to impose their political will on the
region of Morocco, having taken Marrakech in 1061
and Fez in 1069. Self-styled champions of a Sunni
Islam revival (which resonated with that of the
Seljuks in the East), they saw their mission not only
as halting the Christian advance in al-Andalus but
also of deposing the illegitimate taifa rulers.

In 1086, the Almoravid Yusuf ibn Tashfin led a
sizeable army to al-Andalus at the invitation of al-
Mu‘tamid of Seville. With the half-hearted help of the
Andalusi troops the Almoravid faced Alfonso VI and
his loyal Muslim clients in battle at Zallaqa (or Sagra-
jas) and issued them a major defeat. He did not follow
this up, returning instead to Morocco. For the next
two years the taifa kings were confident enough to
defy Alfonso VI, but when he began to attack them
again, they were forced to call on the Almoravids for
help once more. Ibn Tashfin waited until 1089 when,
having obtained juridical opinions from the ‘ulama ’ of
the East authorizing him to take power in al-Andalus,
he returned and set about deposing the remaining
taifa rulers one by one. By 1094, virtually all of the
kingdoms had fallen, their rulers having been either
killed or shipped off as prisoners to Almoravid
Morocco.

Valencia did not fall until 1002. By 1087, “El Cid,”
against the opposition of Zaragoza and the various
Christian kings, had determined to take the city for
himself and was provided with a pretext when an
‘ulama’- led uprising deposed and executed al-Qadir
in 1092. Rodrigo besieged the city, which, forsaken
by the Almoravids, surrendered in 1093. Having
negotiated a treaty with the Muslim population,
Rodrigo ruled the city and surrounding territory
until his death in 1099 — a Christian taifa king.
Three years later, unable to resist the growing pres-
sure of the Almoravids, Rodrigo’s wife and successor,
Jimena, and her troops abandoned the city to its
inhabitants, setting it ablaze as they left. The remain-
ing Party Kingdom, Zaragoza, remained independent
partly because the Almoravids were content to use it as
a buffer state and partly because its rulers became so
adept at playing off their Christian rivals against each
other. As in the case of Toledo, however, the populace
and the religious elite became increasingly frustrated
by a leadership that was so deeply embroiled with the
very Christian powers who seemed determined to
defeat them. In 1110, a popular uprising banished
the last Hudid king from power, and the city submit-
ted to Almoravid rule. Zaragoza would ultimately fall
to Alfonso I of Aragon in 1118, surrendering after a

lengthy siege, after the surviving members of the Banu
Hud struggled vainly with Alfonso Vi’s help to regain
their patrimony.

The period of the Party Kingdoms marks a turning
point in the history of medieval Iberia, when the
balance of political and economic initiative shifted
from the Muslim-dominated South to the Christian-
dominated North. Whether as a consequence of a
crisis of ‘asabiyva (group identity) on the part of the
Andalusis, or as the result of larger political and
economic trends, the destiny of the Muslims of
Spain would henceforth be in the hands of foreigners.
The politics of the taifa period, however, defy the
notion that this process or the so-called Christian
Reconquest that looms so largely in it was the result
of an epic civilizational struggle between Islam and
Christendom; the most striking aspect of taifa era al-
Andalus was the relative absence of religious sectari-
anism and the profound enmeshment of Christian,
Muslim, and Jewish individuals and political factions.

Brian A. Catlos

Further Reading

Benaboud, M’hammad. “ ‘Asabiyya and Social Relations in
Al-Andalus During the Period of the Taifa States.”
Hesperis-Tamuda 19 (1980-1981): 5M5.

Clement, Francois. Pouvoir et Legitimite en Espagne Musul-
mane d VEpoque des Taifas (Ve-XIe siecle): L’lmam
Fictif. Paris, 1997.

Wasserstein, David. The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings:
Politics and Society in Islamic Spain 1002-1086 . Prince-
ton, NJ, 1985.

PEACE AND PEACEM AKI NG

The relations between Islam and the non-Muslims are
dealt with in several literary genres. The earliest
arrangements are recorded in the biographies of the
Prophet Muhammad (al-sira al-nabawiyya) and in
chronicles that narrate the stories of the Islamic con-
quests (futuhat). In these sources two terms attract
the reader’s attention: aman and sulk. In the jurispru-
dence manuals the international law of Islam is
condensed in chapters dealing with holy war (jihad).
The points of departure of these legal traditions are
several Qur’anic verses, sayings by the Prophet
Muhammad (hadith), and episodes from his sir a.
Two other terms that frequently occur are hudna
and fay.

Muslim scholars adopted a dualistic vision of earth
that seems to be associated with a dualistic division of
mankind. Already the Qur’an contrasts the party of
God (hizb Allah) with the party of Satan (hizb al-
shaytan), and the opening chapter (al-Fatiha) of the

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PEACE AND PEACEMAKING

holy book contrasts those who follow the straight
path and those who go astray.

With the codification of Islamic holy law (sharia)
Muslim jurists assumed a world vision that divided
the earth into two realms: the Abode of Islam (dar
al-Islam) and the land of the non-Muslim enemy
(dar al-harb : lit., abode of war). Use of the term dar
al-Islam is pervasive in the writings of Muslim jurists
and theologians to delimit an idealistic entity. It is
used to point to an abstract entity rather than to
outline a political or administrative system.

Muslim jurists perceived the Abode of Islam as
divided into three parts: the holy cities of Arabia
(haram) , the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula
(Hijaz), and the rest of the Muslim territory. All
agreed that non-Muslims are forbidden from entering
the holy cities (haram) of Mecca and Medina. Others
deduced from the deeds of ‘Umar (r. 634-644) that
the exclusion extends to the rest of Arabia, even
though Jews were living in Yemen. However, they
did not agree on the ultimate conditions for the resi-
dence of nonbelievers (kafir, kuffar) within the
boundaries of the caliphate. Some Tabari, for exam-
ple, maintained that the residence of the protected
people ( ahl al-dhimma) is dictated by necessity
(darura ) . As long as the Muslims rely on the partici-
pation of the people of the book (ahl al-kitab ) , their
stay is tolerated. Whenever the conditions change it is
permissible to deport them.

The jurists delineated the relationships between dar
al-Islam and dar al-harb, including the conditions for
border crossing, either during a military expedition by
armies of Islam (jihad) or by Muslims and non-Mus-
lims for civil purposes such as commerce. They also
outlined the conditions regulating the entry of non-
Muslims into the Abode of Islam (isti’man). The
sources of their approach derived from pre-Islamic
practices and the procedures that resulted from the
reality at the frontiers of the caliphate.

According to the common vision prevailing among
the Shafi‘i jurists and theologians, the Abode of Islam
is land governed by shark a, where Muslims can open-
ly and freely exercise their beliefs, practices, and com-
munal deeds. Most salient are the public prayers on
Fridays, the observance of Islamic festivals, the nom-
ination of Muslim judges, and the collection of land
tax (kharaj). Consequently, the adherent of the
ShafTi school of law will not define a territory as
an Islamic country unless it is ruled by a Muslim
governor.

Hanafi jurists used a less restricting definition.
They designated as an Islamic land any territory
where a Muslim judge (qadi) could impose the sha-
rk a, even if this land was under alien rule and a non-
Muslim governor nominated the qadi. Yet even these

jurists distinguished between dar al-Islam proper and
Islamic enclaves within dar al-harb. According to
them, a Muslim dwelling under a non-Muslim gov-
ernment should not be punished in accordance with
shark a regulations, because proper implementation of
a qadi’s judgment requires authorization by a Muslim
ruler.

War and peace being a common phenomenon in
Arabia, the Constitution of Medina (‘ahd al-umma)
includes clauses concerning hostilities and collabora-
tion between the Believers and their enemies. This was
in line with tribal practices. To shelter a person sepa-
rated from his kin, pre-Islamic (jahiliyya) Arab tribes
employed the jiwar institution: They integrated the
refugee ( tarid; khalij into a clan and provided him
with new bonds and security. Tribes concluded agree-
ments and constituted confederations (khilf; ‘ilaf).

The Prophet implemented these institutions in the
new reality that emerged in Arabia. Several verses in
the Qur’an address the issue of war and peace, and
together with the Prophetic traditions (hadith) they
served as a model for innovative institutions that
emerged throughout the rising caliphate in order to
cope with the extensive social and political changes
that ensued.

With the elaboration of Islamic law, a new term
was introduced to regulate the relationships between
the powerful and the vulnerable. Islamic law distin-
guishes between two types of peace and reconciliation
arrangements. The first addresses the relations among
Muslims and is concerned with stopping conflict
and violence among believers. The second category
deals with halting hostilities between Muslims and
non-Muslims.

Such arrangements are of two sorts: One, which is
permanent, is with communities dwelling within the
boundaries of dar al-Islam. On the basis of the divine
orders, which were briefly mentioned earlier in this
entry, jurists established the policy that the caliphate
should execute regarding the non-Muslims: They
should pay a head tax (jizya). The chronicles of the
Islamic conquest record the so-called peace arrange-
ments (sulh ) between the victorious Muslims and the
populations of the conquered towns and cities that
had surrendered without a fight. In these arrange-
ments the Muslims promised to save the life of
the conquered people and protect their property
(aman) against the payment of taxes. The aman/
jizya stipulations outlined one type of peace cove-
nants. This payment by the People of the Book should
guarantee them peace, as long as they stuck to the
letter of the covenant of ‘Umar and paid this yearly
taxation.

The second type of arrangement was contracted
with those residing outside the Abode of Islam. This

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PEACE AND PEACEMAKING

type of peace accord concerns inhabitants of dar
al-harb ; the accord with those who are beyond the
reach of Islam is considered to be of a temporary
nature.

The jurists regarded both types of settlements as a
legal contract (‘aqd). As such, the treaty had to be
agreed in a legal session (majlis) and bear the signa-
tures of witnesses. It should specify the minute details,
including its duration and undertakings by the
parties.

The creation of frontiers did not mean that the
caliphate’s relationship with the powers of the other
side on the separation lines was hostile. Political and
economic needs drove sultans and Muslim jurists to
develop legal mechanisms for concluding a truce
(salm; ‘ahd) with the enemy.

Muslim jurists (fuqaha’) used the term thughur for
the frontier zone that separated dar al-Islam and dar
al-harb. Control of territory, they maintained, was
not a necessary precondition of territoriality. More
important was the hegemony of Islam. This was
their fundamental expression of identity; ownership
of territories became secondary.

The regulations for lighting against dar al-harb are
collected in the chapter about holy war ( bob al-jihad ) .
In addition to regulations concerning such matters as
payment, property, spoils of war (ghanima), plunder
(khums), and booty (fay), these chapters in the legal
compendia deal with ideas about sovereignty, territo-
ry, borders, and just war. Such is the scope of these
chapters they might well be considered as guidelines
for Islamic international law.

Islam strictly condemns bloodshed and murder, yet
the fuqaha’ do not exclude the use of force as a
coercive measure. Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) argues
that just war or lawful war is a tool of coercion ( al-
qital al-mashru' huwa al-jihad) that should be waged
against unbelievers and apostates. Being considered
lawful violence, the jihad should not stop before
reaching its goal; namely, conversion of the polythe-
ists, the surrender of the monotheists, and the final
victory of Islam. Other fuqaha ' hold a less compre-
hensive view of jihad, viewing it as merely a defensive
instrument to protect the territory of Islam.

Jihad by no means implies a permanent state of
war. Muslim scholars (ulamaj extended the noun
jihad to cover questions concerning contracts with
others. In the jihad chapters slutri’a treatises outline
pacts that the Muslim state has made with foreign
states, because political and military needs required
Muslim rulers to operate also outside the realm
of Islam. Caliphs and sultans corresponded with
Christian, Indian, and other rulers and dispatched
and received ambassadors and delegations. These
negotiations resulted in peace agreements.

The fuqaha’ considered a provisional truce with
these non-Muslim (mainly Christian) adversaries to
be a reflection of Islamic weakness; the caliphate
lacked the power to impose its terms and the enemy
was strong enough to bargain the conditions. In con-
trast, the aman/jizya arrangements reflected the
strength of the victorious Muslims: They had the
authority to dictate conditions to the vanquished
non-Muslim tributaries; the latter were weak and
had to accept the terms dictated by the Muslims.

An early example of an arrangement between dar
al-Islam and dar al-Harb is a letter sent by Egypt’s
governor (in AEI 141/758 CE) to the ruler of Nubia
encouraging him to act in accordance with the
Qur’anic verse “Fulfil the compact (‘ahd) of God
when you make a compact and do not break the oath
(ayman).” The letter includes references to an agree-
ment signed (suliha) between the parties and to duties
(baqt, or pactum) that the ruler has undertaken.

A variety of this pact is the settlement between the
caliphate and “the land of the covenant” ( dar al-‘ahd)
adjacent to some frontier zone — that is, tributary
states that submit ( taslim ) to the Muslims and con-
clude a truce (yusalihu) but are not included within
the boundaries of the caliphate. The population of
these districts would pay land tax (kharaj) but not
poll tax (jizya). They would not come under the
jurisdiction of the imam (caliph), but they would
remain governed by their indigenous rulers. They
became treaty people and warfare against them was
prohibited.

The truce with an enemy that is perceived as strong
and powerful is called a hudna. Basically it is formu-
lated as a contract that ensures the cessation of fight-
ing between the parties during an agreed upon period,
but its duration should not exceed ten years and ten
months. The pact negotiated at Hudaybiyya (in
6/628) is a model of this type of assumed of contract.
Here the Muslims signed a truce with the people of
Mecca; the Qurayshites accepted the offer by the
Prophet Muhammad to postpone ( wadj fighting
and to sign a peace accord ( salah ) .

Islamic states have concluded several hudna truces
and signed trade and other bilateral agreements
( ta 'ahhud; u ‘ahada ) with Christian governments and
non-Muslim states. The clerks who drew up these
treaties could lean on the Qur’anic verse: “Those
of the polytheists with you the Muslims have a
covenant.” The jurists considered these pacts to be
symbolic acts reflecting power relationships between
the parties to the contract. In addition to its limited
duration, a truce must be advantageous to the
Muslims. Finally, the parties to the truce must accept
the grandeur of Islam and acknowledge this in the
written accord.

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PEACE AND PEACEMAKING

The hudna contract has to do with hegemony and
income rather than with control and exclusivity. Just
as the Muslims agreed to sign temporary truces, so
they accepted the idea of condominium (munasafa) .
This sort of arrangement between the Crusaders and
the rulers of Syria is recorded throughout the years of
the Latin presence in the East.

Documents from the Mamluk chancellery reveal
the language and structure of treaties that the sultans
concluded with the Crusaders and with Byzantium
and other Mediterranean states. The sources shed
light on the negotiations that led to the truce. The
parties should assemble in contractual meeting.
Although the truces were recorded in line with the
Islamic tradition, the Arab clerks did not hesitate, in
several provisions, to use friendly language. The
hudna was an instrument used to regulate the arrange-
ments between the Islamic state and non-Muslim
territories (dar al-harb ) .

In conjunct with the hudna, Muslim lawyers fur-
ther developed the idea of safe conduct ( aman ) . The
musta’min is a non-Muslim (mostly Christian) who
enters the Abode of Islam for a brief fixed period to
carry out precisely defined deeds. The Muslim autho-
rities pledge to ensure the safety of the visitor that
came from dar al-harb (predominantly from southern
Europe). The hudna permitted foreign (harbi) mer-
chants and ambassadors to obtain safe conduct while
in Islamic territory. Abu Hanifa, for example, argued
that if a non-Muslim ( ah l al-harb ) merchant crosses
the border to trade within the Abode of Islam he
has immunity, even if he transgresses the Islamic
law (hadd) because he is not of the same status
as the protected people (kitabiyyun) that are perma-
nent residents of dar al-Islam. His student, Abu
Yusuf, supports this position by asking: “Could you
imagine that an ambassador would be punished for
committing adultery?”

During the early Ottoman era the commercial
treaties between Muslim rulers and Christian trading
partners in the Mediterranean developed to the
capitulations treaties (imtiyaz).

Yehoshua Frenkel

Further Reading

Abu '1-Hasan ‘Ali al-Mawardi. al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya wa-l-
wilayat al-diniyya. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub adlmiyya,
1416/1996. English translation by W. H. Wahba. The
Ordinances of Government . London, 1996.

P. Kh. Hitti (Trans.) The Origins of the Islamic State: Being
a Translation from the Arabic, Accompanied with Anno-
tations, Geographic and Historic Notes of the Kitab futuh
al-buldan of al-Imam Abu-1 ‘Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya ibn-
Jabir al-Baladhuri (d. ca. 279/892) reprint. Beirut:
Khayats, 1966.

Hinds, Martin. “A Letter from the Governor of Egypt.”
Studia Arabica et Islamica (1981): 209-229 [reprinted in
his Studies in Early Islamic History, edited by J.
Bachrach, L. I. Conrad, and P. Crone. Princeton: The
Darwin Press, 1996],

Hunwick, J. O. “al-Maghiliand the Jews of Tuwat: the
Demise of a Community.” Studia Islamica 61 (1985):
155-183.

Khadduri, M. War and Peace in the Law of Islam. Balti-
more, 1955.

Petry, Carl F. “Holy War, Unholy Peace? Relations be-
tween the Mamluk Sultanate and European States
prior to the Ottoman Conquest.” In The Jihad and Its
Times: Dedicated to Andrew Stefan Ehrenkreutz, edited
by Hadia Dajani-Shakeel and Ronald A. Messier, 95-
112. Ann Arbor: Center for Near Eastern and North
African Studies, The University of Michigan, 1991.

Sartain, Elizabeth M. “Medieval Muslim-European Rela-
tions: Islamic Juristic Theory and Chancery Practice.” In
Images of the Other: Europe and the Muslim World be-
fore 1700, edited by David Blanks (ed.), 81-95. Cairo:
The American University in Cairo Press, 1996.

Weigert, G. “A Note on hudna: Peacemaking in Islam.”
In War and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean,
7th-15th Centuries, edited by Y. Lev, 399-405. Leiden:
Brill, 1997.

Taeko, Nakamura. “Territorial Disputes between Syrian
Cities and the Early Crusaders.” In The Concept of
Territory in Islamic Law and Thought, edited by Yanagi-
hashi Hiroyuki, 101-124 London: Kegan Paul Interna-
tional, 2000.

PEASANTS

Peasants in Muslim societies were called fallah in
Arabic, ra’iyat in Persian, and reaya in Turkish. The
fallahun (sing., fallah) in the Arab society were widely
used, designating both landed farmers and tenants
without land and seed. Particularly, the cultivators
who made sharecropping (muzara‘) contracts with
the government or landlords were called muzari‘un.
The fallahun, in the historical sources, were often
called muzari'un and formed the majority of the
villagers.

In the Arab-Muslim state formed in the seventh
century, the government consented the former land
holdings of the indigenous peasants who had to pay
both land tax (kharaj) and poll tax (jizya). The ‘ushr
was levied on the Arab-Muslims who had acquired
lands from the prior peasants, but in some cases the
kharaj was also levied on them. Based on the Islamic
principle of law, even the newly converted Muslims of
the non-Arabs (mawali) could have enjoyed the same
rights as the Arab Muslims. However, the mawali had
to bear the discrimination of state policy in favor of
the Arab Muslims, which eventually led to the fall of
the Umayyad dynasty. During the following ‘Abbasid
period, the legal theory of fay’ (conquered land be-
longing to the Muslim community) was established to

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PERFORMING ARTISTS

regulate that both Arab and non-Arab cultivators
had to pay the kharaj as rent to the government,
which held landownership. However, during this pe-
riod there developed the privileged land ownerships
(qati‘a and day‘a) by merchants, high officials, and
Turkish commanders. They enjoyed the right to pay
‘ushr only, while the cultivators in qati‘a or day‘a had
to pay their landowners high rent other than the
amount for ‘ushr.

When the Buyid dynasty was established in the
middle of the tenth century, the iqta‘ system was
implemented in Iraq, which expanded to Iran, Syria,
and Egypt by around the middle of the twelfth centu-
ry. Under the new regime, the situation of peasants in
rural society has changed considerably. According
to Miskawayh (d. 1030), tunna‘ (sing., tani) in Iraq,
who owned the small amounts of land (day‘a), had
to either leave the village, endure injustice, or take
the means of surrendering their landed property to
the muqta‘ (iqta‘ holder) to escape ill treatment
(Tajarib al-umam, II, 97). In Iran also, dihqans
(village chiefs), who had converted to Islam promptly
to retain their status in rural society, were ruined,
leaving their landed property under the rule of muq-
ta‘s. Consequently, dihqans in the Seljukid Iran came
to designate not village chiefs, but only peasants
or tenants. When Saladin (Salah al-Din) introduced
the iqta‘ system into Egypt, the Egyptian peasants,
who had paid the kharaj to the government and the
rent to landowners, came to pay these levies collec-
tively to their muqta‘s. B. Johansen explains that
under the iqta‘ system the difference between tax
and rent ceased to exist, and the Egyptian peasants
were transformed into tenants of the muqta s
(Johansen 1988).

According to al-Nuwayri (d. 1333), the peasants
called fallahun or muzari‘un were, after irrigation by
the annual flood of the Nile, customarily allocated
land to be cultivated according to qabala contracts
made not with the government but with their muqta‘
(Nihayat al-arab, VIII, 247-250). The muqta‘s
employed their private agents (mubashir) to collect
tax revenues, as well as lend seed to peasants for
cultivation. After the establishment of the iqta‘ sys-
tem, the muqta‘s became responsible for the mainte-
nance of the irrigation system, using corvee (sukhra)
levied on their peasants in iqta‘ every winter. Other
than these levies the peasants under the iqta‘ system,
when the muqata‘s visited their village, were obliged
to provide them with tribute goods (diyafa) such as
grains, fowl, goats, clover, dough, cakes, and other
items. Through the conduct of the Nasiri cadastral
surveys (al-Rawk al-Nasiri) in Egypt and Syria during
the years 1313-1325, to the annual revenue of the
iqta‘, which had hitherto been calculated on the

basis of the kharaj, were added the diyafa and jawali
(poll tax).

Al-Maqrizi relates that muqta‘s thus strengthened
their rule over the peasantry through their iqta‘ hold-
ings and brought about an important change in which
the village-based peasants (fallah qarrar) came to be
regarded as “serfs” (‘abd qinn) subordinate to their
muqta‘s (Khitat, I, 85). ‘Abd qinn is legally a slave for
life who cannot expect to be sold or emancipated.
Egyptian peasants under the iqta‘ system, however,
were not the slaves by law but were likened to ‘abd
qinn based on their actual situation. Such a situation
of Egyptian peasants continued to be unchanged until
the advent of the Ottoman rule at the beginning of the
sixteenth century.

Tsugitaka Sato

Further Reading

‘Abd al-‘Aziz. al-Duri, Ta’rikh al-‘Iraq al-iqtisadifi l-qarn al-
rabi' al-hijri. Beirut, 1974.

Bahr, M. A. al-Oarva al-Misrivya fi ‘asr salatin al-mamalik.
Cairo, 1999.

Frantz-Murphy, G. The Agrarian Administration of Egypt
from the Arabs to the Ottomans. Cairo, 1986.

Johansen, B. The Islamic Law on Land Tax and Rent.
London, 1988.

Lokkegaard, F. Islamic Taxation in the Classic Period.
Copenhagen, 1950.

Lambton, K. S. Landlord and Peasant in Persia. London,
1953.

Morimoto, K. The Fiscal Administration of Egypt in the
Early Islamic Period. Kyoto, 1981.

Sato, T. State and Rural Society in Medieval Islam: Sultans,
Muqta's and Fallahun. Leiden, 1997.

PERFORMING ARTISTS

Jesting and mockery were forbidden in Islam, as in
the case of Judaism and Christianity, yet during the
long history of Arabic theater since the rise of Islam,
it is possible to detect various types of performing
artists. These artists were given different names and
terms in different regions and centuries.

During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, there
were male and female singers (mughannun, maghani),
musicians ( arbab al-malahi ) , dancers ( raqqasun ) ,
jokers and comedians (mudhikun, muharrijun, masa-
khira), performers of hobbyhorse (kurraj) plays,
slapstick actors (safa'ina), and pantomimes and
imitators of gestures, voices of people, and animals
( muhaki, hakiya ) .

During the ‘Abbasid period influenced by Persian
culture, performing arts flourished not only in caliphs'
courts but also among common people. Caliphs and

599

PERFORMING ARTISTS

grandees looked for boon companions (nudama’),
male and female singers, dancers, musicians, jesters,
and buffoons who would entertain them with
songs, jocks, anecdotes, verses, and stories of admoni-
tion. Masked actors ( samaja), live actors, jokers, story-
tellers ( hakawati ) , and ram-holders were given wages
in the royal and grandees’ courts. They were given
different collective terms, mainly mukhannathun
(lit. effeminate men, that is, entertainers or actors),
la'ibun, la“abun (entertainer, musician, and actor), and
khayali or mukhayil (live actor or performer of shadow
plays). From the thirteenth century CE onward, the
terms muhabbaz (itinerant or strolling actor), musakhir
(masquerade, formerly samaja), muharrij (buffoon),
and Ibn Rabiya, were coined. In the Eastern parts of
the Arabic-speaking world, these new terms replaced
the former terms given for performing artists.

In the hadith there are traditions relating that the
Prophet Muhammad allowed his young wife 'A’isha
to play with her dolls, and later on allowed her to
watch with him the plays of the Abyssinians with
spears and shields. It is also told that ‘A’isha was
entertained by a woman comedian who would perform
pantomime dances to entertain her. In the Prophet’s
camp, hobbyhorse players performed games and
plays. In Madina such players were considered effemi-
nate men (mukhannthun) who dyed their feet and
palms red with hinna and dressed and toyed like
women. Al-Hakam b. Abi ’l-‘As was called al-haki
(imitator) because he used to imitate Muhammad’s
manner of walk.

During the Umayyad period, singers and buffoons
used to play not only with hobbyhorses but also with
animal skins and masks. Many ‘Abbasid caliphs
encouraged performing artists, especially comedians,
musicians, singers, and even fart makers (darratun)
to refresh, enliven, and comfort them in their hard
times. Some comedians used to perform in hospitals
(maristan), giving lunatics “psychological treatment”
(Moreh 1992:70).

In the Book of Songs ( Kitab al-Aghani) , a twenty-
one-volume work by Abu ’1-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 967),
there is valuable information on poets, singers, and
other types of performing artists. Al-Isfahani tells a
story of a singer who recorded, during the reign of al-
Amin (809-813), a satirical play mocking a haughty
and arrogant judge called al-Khalanji and handed it
to actors and dancers to perform. Consequently, the
“judge” has to leave Baghdad out of disgrace
(Aghani, XI, 338 f.).

The ‘Abbasid and the Fatimid caliphs, mainly al-
Mutawkkil (r. 847-862), celebrated the Nawruz with
masquerading actors (samaja). A gallery was built
for al-Mutawakkil to protect him from his enemies.
Among his famous performing artists were four

comedians. The first was the singer Husayn b. Sha‘ra,
who was also his jester. The second artist was the poet
Abu ’l-‘Ibar (d. ca. 865), who is called mimase (actor) in
Syriac by Bar Hebreaus in his Laughable Stories. The
third artist was his successor, the jester al-Kutanji, who
authored many books on follies and fools. The fourth
was al-Mutawakkil’s boon-companion and comedian,
‘Abbada ‘1-Mukhannath. The latter used to ridicule
‘Ali b. Abi Talib, who was hated by al-Mutawakkil.
To please his patron, ‘Abbada used to tie a pillow
around his belly (under his clothes), take off his head-
gear to expose his bald head, and dance in the presence
of his patron while the singers sang: “The bald one
with the paunch is coming, the caliph of the Muslims!”
This performance was among the reasons which
al-Muntasir, the son of al-Mutawakkil, regarded the
killing of his father as lawful (Ibn al-Athir, Kamil , VII,
p. 55fV).

The comedian, Abu al-Ibar, a descendant of the
‘Abbasid dynasty, related about himself that when he
was a boy he used to frequent professional master
comedians to learn with other novice comedians the
art of hazl (comedy). Their profession was based on
dialogue of contraries and absurdity. They act by
doing the opposite of what they were told to do, a
kind of jest that was used also in shadow plays.

Ibn al-Haj, in his Madkhal (compiled in 1331),
enumerates various types of entertainment during
the Nile Festivals, such as the processions of Amir
al-Nawruz, which were pre-Islamic festivals and cele-
brations by live actors ( mukhayilin) that were consid-
ered bida‘ (heresy). These actors used to perform
“The Play of the Judge” wearing his attire and utter-
ing many rude remarks which they directed to the
attire itself.

In Muslim Spain, the Umayyad terms for perform-
ing artists continued to be used, as it is possible to
understand from Pedro de Alcala’s Vocabulista ara-
vigo en lietra castillana (Granada 1505). Umayyad
theatrical terms such as la“ab, la“ab al-khiyal,
mumathil (actors), and maVab (theater), where the
props of the actors, such as sacks, gowns, trousers,
head cloths, and veils, were hung on a rope. Hobby-
horses, plays by live actors, marionettes, and shadow
plays were performed until the expulsion of Muslims
and Jews from Spain in 1492.

In the late medieval Muslim civilization, perform-
ing artists were among the lowest stratum of Muslim
society; they were classified with monkey holders,
prostitutes, dancers, and acrobats. They performed
indecent farces mainly in colloquial dialects to enter-
tain common people. This was an oral popular art
and rarely recorded due to the sanctity of the classical
written Arabic in which the Qur’an was revealed.
Performing art was a revolt against the serious

600

PERFUME

religious and sophisticated adab literature written in
classical Arabic. It was an outlet for the depressed
populace against oppressive rulers, exploiting reli-
gious and military officials, heavy taxes, corruption,
and bribery. Humor was the best outlet against strict
morals and customs, gender separations, and sexual
suppression in despotic governments who ruled a de-
pressed and deprived poor society that was exploited
by a cruel ruling class whose main aim was collecting
taxes and acquiring wealth. Modern education and
close contact with European theater changed the sta-
tus of the performing artists to a respectable artistic
profession of high income.

Shmuel Moreh

See also Festivals and Celebrations; Humor; Music;
Shadow Plays; Singing; Storytellers and Storytelling;
Theater

Further Reading

And, Metin. Culture, Performance and Communication in
Turkey. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages
and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of
Foreign Studies, 1987.

. Drama at the Crossroads: Turkish Performing Arts

Lind Past and Present. East and West. Istanbul, 1991.
Bosworth, C. E. The Medival Islamic Underworld: Banu
Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature. Leiden: 1976.
Lane, W. E. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians.
London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1954 (Everyman’s
Library, 315, Travel & Topography).

Moreh, S. Live Theatre and Dramatic Literature in the
Medieval Arab World. New York: New York University
Press, 1992.

. “Acting and Actors, Medieval.” and “Abu ’1-

‘Ibar”. In Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, edited by
J. Scott Meisami and P. Starkey. 2 vols. London and
New York: Routledge, 1998.

. “Masks in Medieval Arabic Theater.” Assaph C 9

(1993): pp. 89-94.

Neubauer, E. Musiker am Hof der frulien ‘Abbasiden. Fran-
kurt, 1965.

Rowson, E. K. ‘The Effeminates of Early Median’.” LAOS
111 no. 4 (1991): 671-693.

Sadan, J. Al-Aclab al-Arabi al-Hazil wa-Nawadir al-Thu-
qala’. (Humour in Classical Arabic Literature and the
“Anecdotes on Boring Persons ” - A Literary Genre).
Tel-Aviv: Tel-Aviv University, 1983.

. “Kings and Craftsmen, a Pattern of Contrasts.”

Studia Islamica, Pt. I, LVI (1982): 5-49; Pt. 2, LXII
(1985): 89-120.

Shiloah, A. Music in the World of Islam. Hants, 1995, 13.

PERFUME

Perfumes (scent, Arabic ‘itr, pi. ‘utur) as a group
constituted an important medieval commodity,
used especially in personal hygiene, cuisine, and
pharmacology.

The costliest perfumes originated in regions east of
the Central Islamic lands; medieval authors identify
China and the region around the Indian Ocean as
sources of some of the most valuable perfumes —
musk and ambergris, for example. Such perfumes
had to be transported across great distances, whether
on sea or on the land-based “silk routes” that
connected China and India to Central Asia, Mesopo-
tamia, the Mediterranean, and Europe, and were con-
sidered luxury goods associated with the highest levels
of society. More common perfumes, like those
derived from flower essences, might be produced
locally, and thus be more readily obtainable and less
costly.

Judging from references in texts (geographies and
medical works, for example), in which the varieties
and commercial values of fragrant substances were
discussed, musk (misk), ambergris (‘anbar), and
camphor (kanfur) were among the most valuable of
the variety of perfumes available to medieval consu-
mers. According to a saying attributed to Muham-
mad, musk was the best of the perfumes. Musk is a
sweet-smelling gland secretion of the male musk deer
(Moschus moschiferus L., Cervidae). Along with am-
bergris, musk was most often associated with rulers
and elites. Ambergris, a secretion found in the intes-
tines of the sperm whale, was similar to musk in odor,
burned easily and with a bright flame, and was valued
similarly to musk. Camphor derived from the resin of
East Asian and Indonesian trees ( Cinnamomum cam-
phora and Dryobalanops aromatica). Marco Polo’s
observation that Indonesian camphor was worth
its weight in gold suggests perfume’s importance to
medieval economies.

Literature produced for and about medieval Islam-
ic courts reflects perfume’s status as a gift fit for
royalty. Likewise, a tenth-century handbook for ‘Ab-
basid courtiers reflects the attention paid by court
elites to the fragrances with which they perfumed
their bodies, as well as their surroundings (through
the use of incense). Some fragrances were preferred
over others because of their association with specific
genders and/or social classes. For example, the author
of the handbook notes that the perfume made from
the musk of civet cats (Arabic zabad or ghaliya) was
generally associated with children and female slaves.

Perfumes also played important roles in medieval
Islamic culinary culture: to cleanse cooking vessels
before food preparation; as spices; or to scent or
color finished dishes and drinks. Musk and other,
less costly substances were used to cleanse the hands
and mouth before and after eating, and to anoint
guests at feasts.

Perfumes played a key role in medieval medicine,
so much so that perfume or spice merchants (‘attar)

601

PERFUME

came to be synonymous with druggists and chemists.
Pharmacological texts describe the effects of particu-
lar fragrances on the various parts of the body, and
their efficacy in treating particular ailments. To give a
few examples, ambergris and musk were believed to
stimulate and strengthen the brain, the heart, and the
senses, whereas camphor was used to treat the liver,
oral inflammations, fevers, and headache.

Glaire D. Anderson

See also Cosmetics; Health and Hygiene; Medical Lit-
erature; Medicine, Diet and Dietetics; Personal Hy-
giene; Pharmacology; Rosewater

Further Reading

Encyclopedia of Islam , 2d ed. Leiden: Brill, 1960. (See
‘"Anbar,” “Attar,” “Ttr,” “Misk,” “Kafur.”)

Van Gelder, G. J. H. “Four Perfumes of Arabia: A Trans-
lation of al-Suyui’s al-maqama al-miskiyya.” In Parfums
d' Orient. Textes reimis par R. Gyselen. Bures-sur-Yvette:
Groupe pour l’etude de la civilisation du Moyen-Orient,
1998. 203-212.

PERSIAN

Persian belongs to the Southwest Iranian branch of
the Indo-European language family. Sir William
Jones, who wrote the first Persian grammar in a Eu-
ropean language (1771), and who proposed the exis-
tence of this linguistic family, claimed it was his
realization that Persian had lexical cognates in both
Sanskrit and Greek, which first led him to his discov-
ery. Medieval Persian is continuous with, and both
morphologically and lexically very similar to, modern
Persian: The two are known collectively as New Per-
sian, to distinguish them from Old Persian (also called
Avestan) and Middle Persian (Pahlavi).

The first texts in Old Persian are the cuneiform
rock inscriptions of the Achaemenid emperors,
which date from the late sixth and early fifth centuries
BCE. Even though extant manuscripts of the Avesta
date only to the thirteenth century CE, the most
ancient parts of the Avesta (the hymns, or Gathas),
indicate a more archaic stage of the language than
these inscriptions and must therefore be dated
to before this period (although there is considerable
scholarly dispute as to just how long before). Archae-
ological and textual evidence indicates that Old
Persian was current in an area roughly coterminous
with modern Iran and much of Afghanistan, as
well as in southern Central Asia, extending as far
as the steppes of southern Russia and eastward to
Sinkiang.

Middle Persian, or Pahlavi, a term that derives
from “Parthava” meaning Parthian — the name of the

dynasty that ruled Iran from the fall of the Seleucids
(247 BCE) to the rise of the Sasanians (225 CE) — is
mainly represented by Sasanian examples; these in-
clude rock inscriptions, inscriptions on coins, and
secular and religious texts, including a considerable
number of Manichean texts from Central Asia. The
Middle Persian script derives from a Parthian script;
the northeastern Parthian form of the language dif-
fered somewhat from the southern Sasanian form
that replaced it. Documents in a related language,
Sogdian, have also survived from the same period.

Up to the period of the Arab invasion of Iran in
the mid-seventh century CE, Persian had developed
within a virtually closed Indo-European linguistic en-
vironment, and shows no significant influence from
languages outside this family. This situation changed
radically with the Arab conquest of the country. As
the language of its conquerors, Arabic became the
dominant political and administrative language of
Iran throughout the Umayyad period (651-750 CE)
and during the early ‘Abbasid period (750-1258 CE):
As the vehicle of the religion of Islam, to which a
majority of Iranians had probably converted within
two or three hundred years of the conquest, it also
occupied a privileged position in any discourse involv-
ing theological or philosophical topics. Persian sur-
vived as a folk/oral language, and when it reemerged
as a written language in the ninth century CE, it had
absorbed considerable influence from Arabic. The
script was now a modified form of the Arabic script
(though the earliest surviving written examples of
New Persian are in Hebrew characters and date
from the mid-eighth century), and much of the vocab-
ulary, especially as it relates to abstract or “sophis-
ticated” matters, is also Arabic. An analogous
situation, familiar to English speakers, is the develop-
ment of English after the eleventh-century Norman
French conquest. Although English retained a core
Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) vocabulary, this was over-
laid with a predominantly French-derived vocabu-
lary, and the more sophisticated the speaker, and the
topic being treated, the more this vocabulary becomes
evident. Similarly, the core vocabulary of Persian
continued to be derived from Pahlavi, but Arabic
lexical items predominated for more abstract or ab-
struse subjects and often replaced their Persian
equivalents in polite discourse. Just as English has
been modified to the extent that an untutored English
speaker cannot read an Anglo-Saxon text with com-
prehension, an untutored Persian speaker cannot read
Pahlavi with comprehension. This is compounded for
Persian because of the change of script from Pahlavi
to Arabic, but it would still be the case if the script
were readily legible to a modern Persian speaker.
However, the parallel breaks down at a certain

602

PERSIAN

point: French and English are both Indo-European
languages and share many cognates and much of
their semantic structure, whereas Arabic and Persian
belong to quite separate linguistic families (Semitic
and Indo-European, respectively), have virtually
no cognates except through loan words from one
to the other, and have wholly differing semantic
structures. Persian has, in general, confined its bor-
rowings from Arabic to lexical items, and its mor-
phology is relatively unaffected by the influence
of Arabic, being confined to a few conventions
such as the (usually optional) use of Arabic plurals
for Arabic-derived words (as an English speaker
may use Latin plurals for Latin loan words in
English).

The grammar of New Persian is similar to that of
many contemporary European languages: The case
system has virtually disappeared and has been
replaced largely by a system of prepositions and post-
positions; normal sentence word order is subject-
object-verb; gender markers are generally absent;
and plurals and other modifications to words are
generally made by the addition of suffixes, prefixes,
or, in the case of Arabic-derived vocabulary, infixes.
The theoretical availability of the whole of Arabic to
Persian speakers means that the language has a very
large vocabulary and is rich in synonyms, near syno-
nyms, and fine shades of distinct meaning in a given
semantic area; some Arabic loan words are used in
Persian with meanings quite distinct from their mean-
ings in Arabic. Persian is also a highly idiomatic
language, and a comprehension of the literal meaning
of each word in a phrase by no means guarantees
comprehension of the import of the phrase as a
whole. For the nonnative speaker, Persian’s immense
vocabulary, and the prevalence of idioms, are the
chief obstacles to achieving fluency.

In the same way that the emergence of New Persian
can be seen as a linguistic result of political circum-
stances, new political conditions ensured the lan-
guage’s literary survival. In the ninth and tenth
centuries CE, areas of eastern Iran, under local dynas-
ties, began to achieve de facto independence from the
‘Abbasid caliphate centered on Baghdad. The conse-
quent loosening of Arabic cultural ties signaled a
reemergence of Persian, and the first recorded poem
in New Persian is a panegyric written on the occasion
of the conquest of Plerat by the Saffarid ruler Ya’qub
Lais, in 867 CE. The main impetus for Persian’s liter-
ary revival was provided by the vigorous patronage of
the Samanids, who ruled Khorasan from c. 875 CE to
1005 CE, and who instigated an extensive program of
translation from Arabic into Persian, as well as assid-
uously promoting the writing of Persian poetry.
Samanid literary production in Persian clearly looks

to Arabic for many of its models, both as regards its
chief forms and its rhetoric but is also distinctively
Persian in its idiomatic vocabulary and often more or
less nationalist preoccupations. Epic poetry, drawing
on pre-Islamic native tradition and revived under the
Samanids, is particularly Persian in its cultural orien-
tation and owes little or nothing to Arabic models.
The success and prestige of Khorasanian New Persian
literature meant that subsequent dynasties also
encouraged literary production in Persian, and within
two centuries or so Persian had become the major
literary language of Southwest Asia. The twelfth-
century CE author Ibn al-Balkhi claimed that Persian
was current “from the Oxus to the Euphrates,” and
by this period it had also been carried into Northern
India by (mainly Turkish) conquerors. By the thir-
teenth century the acclaim given to the Persian poetry
of both Amir Khosrow in India, and Jalal addin
Rumi in Asia Minor, indicates that Persian now
had a significant literary presence well beyond the
confines of Iran. Indeed, in Asia, from ca. the twelfth
century CE to the sixteenth century CE, Persian was
considered as the Islamic language of belles lettres par
excellence, and it became a cliche that just as Arabic
was the language of theology and law, and Turkish
the language of the administration and the army, so
Persian was the language of literate polite society.
In the sixteenth century, and subsequently, Persian,
especially Persian poetry, was cultivated at both
the Ottoman courts in Turkey, and at the Moghul
courts in India; in the latter environment especially,
it produced a significant local literature. The diffu-
sion of Persian beyond its heartland of Iran and
western Afghanistan meant that dialectal differences
gradually emerged, and this was particularly true of
both the Persian spoken in Northern India and that in
Central Asia, where its speakers gradually became an
enclave surrounded by Turkish-speaking commu-
nities and where the local dialect began, in time, to
show considerable Turkish influence. However, the
canonical status of Persian literary classics as models,
especially works by Ferdowsi, Sa’di, and (later)
Hafez, also meant that written Persian during the
middle ages differed little from one dialectal area to
another.

Richard Davis

Further Reading

Lazard, Gilbert. La Langne Des Plus Anciens Monuments de
la Prose Perse. Paris, 1963.

. The Origins of Literary Persian. Bethesda, 1993.

Levy, Reuben; The Persian Language. New York, 1951.
Windfuhr, Gernot L. “Persian.” In The World’s Major
Languages , edited by Bernard Comrie, 523-546. Oxford,
1990.

603

PERSIANS

Pre-Islamic Period

The Persians were part of the Indo-Iranian Aryan
migrations of the second millennium BCE, and As-
syrian inscriptions talk of a “people of Parsua” based
in the region of Hamadan as early as the ninth centu-
ry BCE. By the seventh century BCE, the Persians
had emerged as a distinct ethnolinguistic and political
group based in the arid, southern climes of the Irani-
an Plateau among many competing Iranian and Se-
mitic groups (Bactrian, Soghdian, Babylonian,
Assyrian). Under the leadership of Cyrus the Great
(580-530 BCE), the Achaemenian empire emerged
from its home province of Pars — from which “Persia”
is derived thanks to the Greek sources — and was
extended to comprise the Iranian Plateau, the Meso-
potamian river-valleys, and western Khurasan. The
Persians incorporated preexisting Median notions of
divine rule and various administrative practices, and
there is evidence to suggest that they were henceforth
exposed to early Avestan texts and Magian traditions.
The internationality of the Achaemenian empire is
readily apparent in their provincial satrapy system
whereby regions such as Phoenicia, Lydia, Cilicia,
Babylon, and Egypt remitted regular tribute to the
Persians. This far-flung empire was maintained from
administrative centers in Ectabana and Susa, and
Darius built a majestic ceremonial capital near Perse-
polis in the early fifth century BCE to formally receive
envoys and tribute bearers during the Persian New
Year (Nawruz) celebrations. It was also during the
Achaemenian period that the earlier teachings and
prescriptions of Zarathustra (Greek, Zoroaster)
contained in the Avestan scriptures gained great cur-
rency in western Asia.

A revolt of Greek colonists in Ionia against the
Persian-installed governor ushered in a new era of
Irano-Mediterranean geopolitics whereby the Athe-
nian and Persian empires fought a series of devastat-
ing wars in the fifth century BCE under Darius and
Xerxes. The Persian invasions of Greece, culminating
with the battles of Marathon (490 BCE) and Salamis
(480 BCE), were in turn followed by a lengthy phase
of Greek brinkmanship in the Achaemenian empire,
as it stagnated under the rule of Artaxerxes (465-425
BCE) and Artaxerxes II (404-359 BCE). This set the
stage for the devastating invasions of Alexander the
Great in 334-331 BCE, and the formal termination of
the Achaemenian Persian empire. For the next five
centuries, Hellenistic culture enjoyed considerable

prominence in the Iranian world under the successor
Greco-Iranian dynasties of the Seleucids and
Parthians. The Persians would be able to reclaim
political primacy in the third century CE, when a
local notable named Ardashir, from the town of
Istakhr (near Shiraz), overthrew Parthian rule in 224
and revived many of the existing Achaemenian politi-
cal, religious, and cultural traditions under the new
dynastic banner of the Sasanians. In addition to carv-
ing out a formidable empire that included Central
Iran, Iraq, and parts of Transoxiana, this dynasty
(224-642 CE) is acknowledged for its intense dedica-
tion to the notion of divine kingship and its vigorous
sponsorship of Zoroastrianism as a state religion. The
peak of Sasanian rule came during the reign of
Anushirvan (531-579 CE), who among other things
instituted a series of wide-ranging reforms designed to
promote social stability, responsible administration,
and efficient tax collection. A wide array of treatises
on political theory and princely advice literature was
produced in Middle Persian in the sixth century, a
practice that would reemerge during the Persian liter-
ary renaissance of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Indeed, the legacy of the Sasanian administrative
infrastructure and the continuity of Persian bureau-
cratic culture in Islamic times would be key to
the later success of the Islamic ‘Abbasid caliphate
(750-1258 CE).

Islamic Period

The Sasanian empire, with its centralized capital city-
complex of Mada’in on the Euphrates and Tigris
rivers, was one of the two great land-based empires
(the other being Byzantium) capable of opposing the
Arab Islamic invasions of the seventh century. How-
ever, paralyzing rivalries and strife within the royal
Sasanian household and decades of exhausting wars
with the Byzantines conspired to undermine any co-
hesive Persian resistance to the revolutionary move-
ment of Islam. More telling perhaps were the
somewhat bigoted policies of the Sasanians toward
non-Zoroastrian groups (Christians, Jews, Sabeans,
Mazdakites), which no doubt contributed to the so-
cial anarchy surrounding the Islamic invasions. Al-
though a series of skirmishes and clashes had taken
place, it was the pitched battle at al-Qadisiyya where
the Sasanian main host under Yazdgird III was routed
by the general of Caliph ‘Umar, Sa’d b. Abi Waqqas
in 637. Military encampments at Basra and Kufa
facilitated further incursions into Iran, and Muslim
Arab armies pushed resistance farther north along the

604

PERSIANS

Zagros Mountains into Azarbaijan. Persian com-
munities of Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews were
by and large content to negotiate treaties of surrender
with these newly arrived Arab tribal armies, and
there is no reason to accept popularly held views
that Iran was Islamicized at these early dates.
Conversion to Islam for reasons of political expediency
was not uncommon, however, and we read of promi-
nent individual Sasanian bureaucrats and various
prominent landholders (dihqans) who accepted
Islam to either ingratiate themselves with the new
political order or to escape certain canonical taxes
levied on non-Muslims. By the end of the Umayyad
caliphate (661-750 CE), the Persian-speaking
world of the Iranian Plateau, Azarbaijan, Sistan,
Khvarazm, Khurasan, and Transoxiana had been
conquered.

During the seventh and eighth centuries, large
numbers of Arab tribespeople began settling in these
newly conquered regions, particularly in the prosper-
ous province of Khurasan, and converted Persian
elite and nobility became “clients” ( mawali) of vari-
ous Arab tribal networks. A collaborative taxation
system emerged whereby mawali Persian administra-
tors established and maintained registers of taxation
( diwan ) on behalf of the Arab governors and military
elite in urban settlements and rural garrisons. How-
ever, the Umayyad caliphate — based in Damascus —
was unsympathetic to complaints from classes of
Persian mawali who found themselves not only shut
out of elite Arab political circles but were also being
forced to levy both Muslim and non-Muslim canoni-
cal taxes on the Persian population. This regional
resentment made Iran, particularly Khurasan, fertile
propagandistic terrain for the panoply of Muslim
groups who openly challenged and berated the Umay-
yad rulers on the basis of venality, corruption, and
irreligiousness. The most successful of these were led
by Abu Muslim in the mid-eighth century, who cham-
pioned a revolution against the Arab/Syrian-centric
Umayyad dynasty and the establishment of a ruling
household whose provenance was ideologically and
genealogically more palatable. This was a revolution
supported by a coalition of groups: disgruntled Arab
tribesmen in the East, proto-Shi‘i groups, mawali Per-
sian administrators, Persian dihqans, and Khurasani
peasants and troops. The subsequent establishment
of the ‘Abbasids in 750, and their relocation of the
capital to Baghdad — built near the former Persian
Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon — was a profound
development for Persian political and administrative
culture during the medieval period.

The epicenter of Arabo-Islamic civilization in the
ninth and tenth centuries was undoubtedly Baghdad.
The greatest claim to fame of early medieval Baghdad

was its sponsorship and promotion of extensive
translations into Arabic of Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi,
and Sanskrit treatises on philosophy, logic, astrono-
my, mathematics, medicine, and political philosophy.
This transmission was to some extent influenced by a
number of Persian scholar-bureaucrats who were able
to combine their extensive training in Arabic with
their Pahlavi roots to translate a number of Sasanian
works that were, in fact, translations of much older
Greek sources that had made their way to Iran during
the sixth-century reign of Anushirvan. Concurrent
with this was the rise of courtly shu’ubiya literature,
whereby non-Arab Muslims, including many Persian
literati, used formal Arabic rhetorical poetry to lion-
ize and praise non- Arab traditions in the face of Arab
cultural domination. This sense of independence often
took militaristic manifestations, and we find a num-
ber of hybrid Shi‘i/Zoroastrian revolts, such as those
by Sunpad in Nishapur, Babak in Azarbaijan, and
Ustad Sis in Baghdis, plaguing the ‘Abbasid caliphate
in the eighth to tenth centuries.

The rise of New Persian and renaissance of Persian
literature in the medieval period took place well east
of the original home province of Fars. A number of
semiautonomous Eastern dynasties (Tahirids, Sama-
nids, Ghaznavids) based in the Iranian-speaking
oasis-settlements of Bactria, Herat, Bukhara, and
Samarqand were influenced by longstanding Persian
mythical and literary traditions. Thanks to the efforts
of historians such as al-Bal’ami — who translated al-
Tabari’s monumental historical chronicle from Ara-
bic into Persian — and poets such as Rudaki and
Daqiqi, New Persian had emerged as the administra-
tive and creative language of choice for the Samanid
dynasty based in Samarqand. However, the Ghazna-
vid patronage of men like Abu al-Fazl Baihaqi and
Abu al-Qasim Ferdowsi in the city of Ghazna would
prove to be pivotal. Ferdowsi’s production of the
monumental Shahnam (Shahnameh), an epic poem
recounting the deeds and glories of Iranian kings
and heroes in legend and history, accomplished
much for the revival and preservation of Persian lan-
guage and culture. This Iranicizing of the Eastern
Islamic lands was further complemented by the Shi‘i
Buyid dynasty, originally from Daylam, who had
assumed custodianship of Baghdad and the ‘Abbasid
caliphate in the tenth century. Although Arabic was
still the dominant administrative language, Buyid
rulers such as Azud al-Daula resuscitated a number
of pre-Islamic Iranian practices, most notably the titu-
lature of shahanshah (king of kings) and the celebra-
tion of the Persian New Year. Thus, the conveyance of
the Persian revival from east to west by the Seljuk
Turks after their conquest of Baghdad in 1055 was
well received by networks of Iranian administrators,

605

PERSIANS

poets, and literateurs who had been serving for
generations under Arab rule.

The increased use of New Persian for administra-
tive and poetic purposes during the Seljuk period
reinforced the importance of Iranian bureaucracy
and scholarship in the eleventh through thirteenth
centuries. It would also be during the medieval period
that rivalry between Persian city dwellers and Turkic
nomads would intensify as a result of the large-scale
arrival of Turkic tribes in the Iranian Plateau since
the ninth century. Iran would undergo considerable
Turkilication with the arrival of the Seljuks, and the
uneasy relationship between the Turkic military, trib-
al elite ( arbab-i saif, or “men of the sword”) and the
Persian administrative/religious classes ( arbab-i
qalam, or “men of the pen”) would often turn rancor-
ous. Charged by their Seljuk Turkic overlords with
the financial welfare of the state, Persian chief admin-
istrators (vazirs) used their status to secure power
and patronize religious and cultural projects. A case
in point is Nizam al-Mulk, who acted as vizier to the
Seljuk rulers Arp Aslan and Malikshah during the
eleventh century. In addition to promoting the spread
of the madrasa collegial system, Nizam al-Mulk
penned one of the most authoritative political advice
manuals of the medieval period, the Siyasat nama
(Book of Government). Indeed, this celebrated text
constituted a revival of Sasanian political culture that
demanded leadership from a “just ruler” ( al-sultan al-
’adil) akin to Anushirvan, who in turn guaranteed
religious conformity and responsible taxation.

The most harrowing development for medieval
Persians was the Mongol shockwave of the mid-
thirteenth century. While Eastern Iranian cities such
as Herat, Nishapur, and Balkh were ruthlessly sacked
by Chingiz Khan in the 1220s, the remainder of Iran
would be conquered thirty years later by the Great
Khan’s nephew, Hulegu. Approximating the demo-
graphic and economic impact of the Mongols would
be challenging, but it is clear that the urban and
agricultural prosperity of Iran regressed considerably
after the thirteenth century. Descendants of Hulegu
Khan established their own dynasty in Iran, the
Il-Khans (1265-1365), and later rulers such as Oljeitu
and Ghazan Khan were known for their attempts to
implement a number of social and economic reforms
in the hopes of rehabilitating the Iranian economy.
The Persian bureaucratic elite once again stepped in
to serve as intermediaries between the subject popula-
tion and the Mongol overlords, and the continued
adoption of New Persian as the courtly lingua franca
saw the rise of a strong Persian historiographical
school thanks to administrators like al-Juvaini and
Rashid al-Din. The Mongol and post-Mongol eras

witnessed a flourishing of Persian poetry in the prov-
ince of Fars under Sa’di and Hafez, while the Timurid
rulers of Transoxiana and Khurasan actively spon-
sored scholars producing works on poetry, philoso-
phy, and mysticism in Persian. It was also during the
post-Mongol age that we see a dilution of centralized
Sunni orthodoxy and the corresponding proliferation
of Shi‘i and mystical Sufi activity across the Iranian
world. Arguably the best example of these syncretist
trends was the Persian Safavid millennarian mystical
order in Azarbaijan of the fifteenth century. When
Shaikh Isma’il conquered Tabriz in 1501, he assumed
the ancient Persian Achaemenian title of shah (king)
while at the same time proclaiming that Twelver
Shi‘ism was henceforth the state religion. From the
sixteenth century onward, Turco-Mongol dominance
in Iran would be increasingly repressed by trans-
planted Caucasus ghulam slave troops and an ascend-
ing Persian administrative and clerical elite.

Colin Paul Mitchell

See also Bureaucrats; Buyids; Epics, Persian; Ethics;
Ghaznavids; Ilkhanids; Interfaith Relations; Mirrors
for Princes; Nawruz; Persian; Poetry, Persian; Politi-
cal Theory; Safavids; Samanids; Shahnama; Shi‘ism;
Sufism and Sufis; Timurids; Translation, Arabic to
Persian; Viziers; Zoroastrianism

Further Reading

Bailey, H. (Ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. 8 vols.
Cambridge, 1968-1993.

Barthold, W. An Historical Geography of Iran. Edited and
translated by S. Soucek. Princeton, 1984.

Bausani, Allesandro. The Persians. London, 1971.

. Religion in Iran: From Zoroaster to Baha‘u‘llah.

New York, 2000.

Bosworth, C. E. The Medieval History of Iran, Afghanistan,
and Central Asia. London, 1977.

Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the
Persian Empire. Eisenbraun, 2002.

Browne, E. G. A Literary History of Persia. 4 vols. Cam-
bridge, 1958.

Corbin, Henri. Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From
Mazdean Iran to Shi’ite Iran. Translated by N. Pearson.
Princeton, 1977.

Frye, Richard. Bukhara: The Medieval Achievment. Nor-
man, 1965.

. The Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in the East.

London, 1975.

. The Heritage of Persia. London, 1962.

Lambton, Anne K. S. Continuity and Change in Medieval
Persia: Aspects of Administrative, Economic and Social
History, ll ,h -ir Century. Albany, 1988.

. “Justice in the Medieval Persian Theory of King-

ship.” Studio Islamica 17 (1962): 91-119.

. Landlord and Peasant in Persia. London, 1953.

. Theory and Practice in Medieval Persian Govern-
ment. London, 1980.

606

PHARMACOLOGY

Lentz, Thomas W., and Lowry, Glenn D. Timur and the
Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth
Century. Washington, 1989.

Lewisohn, L., and Morgan, D. The Heritage of Sufism. 3
vols. Oxford, 1999.

. The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism. London,

1992.

Madelung, Wilferd. Religious and Ethnic Movements in
Medieval Islam. Aldershot, 1992.

Meisami, Julie Scott. Medieval Persian Court Poetry.
Princeton, 1987.

Minorsky, Vladimir. Medieval Iran and Its Neighbours.
London, 1982.

. The Turks, Iran and the Caucasus in the Middle

Ages. London, 1978.

Morgan, David. Medieval Persia, 1040-1797. London, 1988.

Paul, Jurgen. Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ost Iran
und Transoxanian in vormongolischer Zeit. Stuttgart,
1996.

Rypka, Jan. History of Iranian Literature. Edited by
K. Jahn. Dordrecht, 1968.

Savory, Roger. Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge, 1980.

Spuler, B. Iran in der fruh-islamischer Zeit: Politik, Kultur,
Verwaltung und offentliches Leben 633-1055. Wiesbaden,
1952.

PHARMACOLOGY

In contemporary medical sciences, pharmacology des-
ignates the clinical analysis of the action of medicines
on the human body; in historical sciences, it desig-
nates the discipline of medicines ( o peri pharmakon
logos [ the Discourse on Medicines ] ) , according to
Dioscorides, De materia medica (praef., 5). As in
antiquity and Byzantium, medicines in the Arabic
world were products made of one or more natural
substances (materia medica) coming from the three
natural realms (vegetal, mineral, and animal).

Origins

Arabic pharmacology arose from the assimilation of
previous knowledge, particularly Greek. Assimilation
proceeded in a cumulative way: The first translators
did not necessarily render all plant names by their
exact translation, but transliterated them. Due to the
possible misidentification and, consequently, the in-
correct therapeutic uses of plants this process could
provoke, previous translations were revised or new
ones were made to replace transliterated terms with
exact translations. Translation proceeded in three
main phases:

1. Translations were first made into Syriac. They
continued the work of Sergios of Res’ayna
(sixth century CE), who translated from

Greek books VI-XI from De simplicium
medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus
( On the Mixtures and Properties of Simple
Medicines, in 11 books) by Galen (129 to
after ca. 216 CE) devoted to materia medica.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (800-873 CE) revised
Sergios’ translation of books VI-XI and
translated himself books I-V from Greek into
Syriac. Hunayn also translated from Greek
into Syriac Galen’s other pharmacological
treatises: De compositione medicamentorum per
genera ( On the Composition of Medicines by
Types), De compositione medicamentorum
secundum locos {On the Composition of Medi-
cines by [Affected] Places of [the Human]
Body), and De antidotis (On Antidotes) . He
completed this corpus with the most important
treatise on materia medica of antiquity, De
materia medica by Dioscoride (first century
CE) (five books, with two inauthentic treatises
on venoms and poisons), and the medical
encyclopedia by Oribasius (fourth century
CE), which includes pharmacology.

2. Hunayn, first working alone and later on in

collaboration with Istifan ibn Basil and his
nephew Hubaish, translated from Greek into
Arabic the works previously translated into
Syriac by Sergios of Res’ayna or himself:
Dioscorides, De materia medica (including the
two inauthentic treatises on toxicology); Galen,
De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis
et facultatibus, books VI-XI, De compositione
medicamentorum per genera, and De
compositione medicamentorum secundum locos',
and the medical encyclopedia of Oribasius. For
De materia medica by Dioscorides, he
translated it twice: In the first version, Istifan
translated the seven books and Hunayn revised
his work; in the second, Hunayn translated De
materia medica I-IV, and Istifan the rest,
including the two spurious works on poisons
and venoms, and Hunayn revised the
whole. Hunayn also translated the medical
encyclopedia of the Byzantine physician Paul
of Egina (seventh century CE).

3. Previous translations of Dioscorides were

revised, or new ones were made. In the East,
al-Natili (tenth century CE), supposed to be
Avicenna’s teacher, revised Hunayn’s and
Istifan’s second translation. During the twelfth
century CE, two new translations were made
from Hunayn’s Syriac version. The first was
commissioned by the Ortukid king of Kayfa,
Fakhr ad-Din Kara Arslan (1148-1174 CE).

607

PHARMACOLOGY

Since it was not considered good enough,
another one was commissioned to another
translator, who did it for Kara Arslan’s
cousin, Najm al-Din Alpi (r. 1152-1176 CE),
at the court of Maridin. In the West, Hunayn
and Istifan’s first translation was known prior
to mid-tenth century CE. ‘Abd ar-Rahman III
(912-961 CE), the Emir and, further on (929),
Caliph of Cordova, received in 948 CE an
illustrated copy of Dioscorides’ Greek text
from a Byzantine emperor called Romanos,
who is not exactly identified because of a
contradiction in the report of the story. Local
Arabic scientists working with a Byzantine
monk sent to Cordova by the emperor upon
the Caliph’s request identified the plants of the
Greek text to local species and revised
Hunayn’s and Istifan’s Arabic text on this
basis, without translating afresh the Greek
text into Arabic, as has often been affirmed.
This work is considered to be at the origin
of the so-called Andalusian school of
pharmacology.

In many manuscripts of Dioscorides’ Arabic trans-
lation, the text is illustrated with color plant repre-
sentations not made from direct observation of
nature, but from Greek sources, which they gradually
transformed, however, in three major ways, as
follows:

a. Drawings of plants were stylized over time by

stressing the main characteristics of the plants.
Such essentialism led to a simplification that
sometimes made drawings unrealistic.

b. Materia medica were represented in a context,

be it their natural biota (with such elements
as water, rocks, and animals) or a scene with
representations of personages (harvesting
of plants, preparation of medicines, and
pharmacological treatment of sick patients).

c. The layout of such representations evolved from

a full-page picture (with some lines of text in
the upper or lower part of the page) to only a
portion of the page width (on the outer side),
as happened in Greek manuscripts also. This
new layout did not eliminate the previous one,
however, at least in deluxe Arabic manuscripts
produced in Baghdad in the thirteenth
century CE.

New Works, New Problems, New Medicines

Dioscorides’ treatise was widely diffused in the Arabic
world, as the high number of preserved manuscript

copies indicates, and it deeply influenced pharmacol-
ogy. As early as the late ninth century CE, scientists
of different provenances wrote new and original
works in Arabic. The dynamic of their production
should not necessarily be attributed to the desire of
their authors to be original, as has been suggested, but
can result at least in part from the problems the
assimilation of Dioscorides’ De materia medica creat-
ed: Its plants, typical of the Eastern Mediterranean,
which were not necessarily well known by Arabic
scientists, were tentatively equated with local species;
their representations, which originally reproduced
those of the Greek manuscripts, did not necessarily
correspond to species in the Arabic world; plant clas-
sification, which relied in part on the names of the
plants in Dioscorides’ Greek text, became less percep-
tible after such names had been fully Arabized. The
solution of such problems was all the more urgent
because knowledge of medicinal plants coming from
other cultures (Mesopotamia, Persia, India) was
agglutinated in De materia medica.

The new syntheses on pharmacology associated
data from Dioscorides (descriptions of the plants,
animal and mineral products) and Galen (therapeutic
properties), as did Byzantine works. The most sign-
ificant contributions were by Rhazes (865-925), al-
Biruni (943-1078), Ibn Sina (980-1037), al-Gafiqi
(twelfth century CE) and Ibn al-Baitar (ca. 1 190
1248), who wrote specific works on pharmacology or
devoted significant parts of larger medical encyclope-
dias to pharmacology. The works by al-Gafiqi and
Ibn al-Baitar, both from the so-called Andalusian
school of pharmacology, are usually considered as
the most complete and achieved of the Arabic world
in matters of pharmacology.

Even after such new works were produced, lexicol-
ogy of materia medica remained a field of particular
importance. The Andalusian, Ibn Gulgul (944-post
994), and Ibn al-Baitar commented on Dioscorides’
Arabic version in order to clarify untranslated or
incorrectly translated plant names, and to accurately
identify botanical species.

Medicines made of more than one ingredient (com-
pound medicines), which started to be particularly
developed in antiquity in the first century CE and
reached their most achieved form with the so-called
theriac (made of up to 60+ ingredients), were also
used in the Arabic world where their recipes cir-
culated in the form of collections of recipes (the
so-called aqrabadm from the Greek grafidion [note-
book]). They raised a specific question, which was left
unanswered by classical physicians, particularly
Galen in his treatises De antidot is and De theriaca ad
Pisonem ( On the Theriac, to Piso ) : What is their actual
therapeutic property? Is it greater than or equal to the

608

PHARMACOLOGY

sum of the individual components? The question was
all the more complicated because Galen introduced
the notion that every property of a drug results from
the association of two opposite properties (hot and
cold; dry and wet). Several answers were given to that
fundamental question: al-Kindi (ca. 800-870) pro-
ceeded in a mathematical way, proposing a formula
aimed at calculating the final property of compound
medicines. Ibn Sina distinguished a primary property
(that is, the excess of one quality over the other in a
couple of opposites) and the specific property (that is,
the property of the specific substance of a medicine).
On the other hand, he estimated that the properties
of medicines should be determined empirically by
administering the medicines to the patients. Such em-
piricism was radical: Properties were considered to
vary not only from one patient to another but also
for the same patient from one moment to another
according to possible individual physiological modifi-
cations. Ibn Rushd (1126-1298) (Averroes) criticized
the Galenic concept of two opposite properties being
associated in one and the same materia medica. Such
reflection on the properties of medicines was further
used as a paradigm for a philosophical analysis of the
transformation of matter. In this way, pharmacology
got the status of a heuristic tool in philosophical
enquiry, as had already been the case in classical an-
tiquity (first century CE). Such status was transmitted
to the Latin Middle Ages, particularly with Robert
Grosseteste (d. 1253 CE) and Roger Bacon (d. 1294).

Presentation of data, which first reproduced the
discursive way of Greek pharmacological handbooks
(including plant representations), was modified by
Ibn Butlan (d. 1068) in the Taqwin as-sihha. Data are
presented in tables (one for each materium medica)
and reduced to single words or short phrases. This
layout was largely diffused in the Late Middle Ages
with the Latin translation and adaptation of Taqwin
as-sihha known as Tacuinum sanitatis.

The development of new alimentary products and
new technologies had a deep impact on pharmacolo-
gy. The production of sugar and alcohol made it
possible to develop new forms of medicines: syrups
and the gums for sugar; extracts obtained by distilla-
tion with alcohol. The major novelty of such forms
was that they guaranteed a better stability of the
products and avoided rapid alteration. New Arabic
treatises on pharmacology classified medicines by
their pharmaceutical form. Such a prolonged life
cycle of medicines might be among the causes that
contributed to the development of the pharmaceutical
profession in the Arabic world, which, in previous
cultures, was mainly concerned with providing fresh
drugs and preparing medicines, in a more limited way.
Complementarily, the development of glazed ceramic

transformed the technique of medicine conservation,
particularly for the liquid and semiliquid ones. Earth
wares with a porous surface did not guarantee a good
conservation of medicines: The substance in contact
with the internal wall of containers saturated it and it
became oxidized when reaching the external wall by a
constant process of evaporation. As a consequence,
medicines contained in such pots were quickly altered.
Glazed medicine containers had a special oblong
shape, better known under its Italian name albarello,
and allowed a much better conservation of their con-
tent by reducing the process of oxidation resulting
from absorption of the content in the wall of the
container. This kind of ceramic was transmitted
from the Arabic world to the West through Sicily
and Spain, and, from there, to Italy, where it was
particularly developed during the Renaissance.

Alain Touwaide

Further Reading

Dietrich, A. Dioscurides Triumphans. Ein anonyme ara-
hischer Kommentar (E. 12. Jh. n. Chr.) zur Materia
medica. 2 vols, 1988.

. Die Dioskurides-Erkldrungen des Ibn al-Baitar. Ein

Beitrag zur arabischen Planzensynonymik des MA, 1991.

. Die Ergdnzungen Ibn Gulgul’s zur Materia medica

des Dioskurides, 1993.

Dubler, C. E. La “ Materia medica” de Dioscorides. Trans-
mision medieval y renacentista. 6 vols, 1953-1959.

Elkhadem, H. Le taqwim al-Sihha (Tacuini Sanitatis) d’Ibn
Butlan: un traite medical du Xle siecle. Histoire clu texte,
edition critique, traduction, commentaire, 1990.

Grube, E. J. "Materialen zum Dioskurides Arabicus.” In
A us cler Welt des Islamischen Kunst, 1959, 163-194.

Hamarneh, S. Bibliography on Medicine and Pharmacy in
Medieval Islam, 1964.

. Origins of Pharmacy and Therapy in the Near East ,

1973.

Hamarneh, S., and G. Sonnedecker. A Pharmaceutical View
of Albucasis Al-Zahrawi in Moorish Spain, 1963.

Kahl, O. Sabur ibn Sahl. The Small Dispensatory. Translat-
ed from the Arabic together with a study and glossaries,
2003.

Leclerc, L. Traite des simples par Ibn El-Beithar. 3 vols,
1877-1883 (repr. 1996).

Levey, M. Early Arabic Pharmacology, 1973.

. The Medical Formulary or Aqrabddhin of Al-Kindi.

Translated with a study of its materia medica, 1966.

Sadek, M. M. The Arabic Materia Medica of Dioscorides,
1983.

Samso, J. Las ciencias de los antiguos en Al-Andalus, 1992.

Sezgin, F. Geschichte des arabischen Schriftums, vol. 3, 1970.

Strohmaier, G., and Sadek. "The Arabic Materia Medica of
Dioscorides.” Gnomon 57 (1985): 743-745.

Touwaide, A. “L’integration de la pharmacologie grecque
dans le monde arabe. Une vue d’ensemble.” Medicina nei
Secoli 7 (1995): 159-189.

. “La traduction arabe du Traite de matiere medicate

de Dioscoride. Etat de la recherche.” Ethnopharmacolo-
gia 18 (1996): 16—41.

609

PHARMACOLOGY

. Farmacopea araba medievale. 4 vols, 1992-1993.

. “Tradition and Innovation in Mediaeval Arabic

Medicine. The Translations and the Heuristic role of
the Word.” Forum 5 (1995): 203-213.

. “Le paradigme culturel et epistemologique dans la

science arabe a la lumiere de l’histoire de la matiere
medicale.” Revue du Monde Musubnan et de la Mediter-
ranee 77-78 (1995): 247-273.

. “Theoretical Concepts and Problems of Greek

Pharmacology in Arabic Medicine.” Forum 6 (1996):
21-30.

Ullmann, M. Die Medizin im Islam , 1970.

Vernet, J. Ce que la culture doit aux arabes d’Espagne, 1985.

PHILOSOPHY (FALSAFA)

Falsafa is an Arabic term that renders the Greek
philosophia and is used to describe the Greco-Arabic
tradition of philosophy and the wider classical Islamic
tradition. The impetus for philosophical speculation
in Islam is a much debated issue. Whether one wishes
to see solely Hellenic roots for philosophy in the
‘Abbasid period or whether one searches as a confes-
sional statement for philosophical inspiration in the
Qur’an and the tradition of the Prophet is largely
a matter of ideology. The origins of philosophy are
far too complex to be reduced to a singular causality.
What is clear is that in the ‘Abbasid period the specu-
lative desire to understand the nature of the Qur’an,
and the relationship between believer and cosmos, was
increasingly articulated in arguments of a systematic
nature. The standards of argumentation, partly as a
result of the need to find a neutral set of rules that
could apply in disputation with non-Muslims who
did not accept the validity of the Quranic revelation,
was Aristotelian logic, especially the Topics (trans-
lated into Arabic in this period as the Book of Dia-
lectic, or al-jadal ). It has also been suggested that
the ‘Abbasids encouraged philosophical and scien-
tific speculation, complemented by translations from
Greek works as an expression of their imperial ideol-
ogy. A translation movement developed in the capi-
tal of Baghdad, fueled by money from the court
and produced mainly by Arab Christian theologians
familiar with Greek and with the Syriac tradition
of translating the works of Aristotle, Plato, and
other Hellenic thinkers into scholarly Near Eastern
vernaculars. The works were kept in the library of
the chancellery in Baghdad and named Bayt al-Hikma
(House of Wisdom). This movement intersected with
a key intellectual circle associated with arguably
the first Muslim philosopher, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub
al-Kindi (d. 870 CE). Thus translations and argu-
ments that joined Hellenic debates and took them
into fresh avenues of inquiry were largely coeval.

Translation Movement

Important translators such as Hunayn b. Ishaq (d.
873) and Yahya b. ‘Adi (d. 974) coordinated transla-
tions firstly of the Aristotelian organon to establish
rules of disputation and standards of rational dis-
course, and later the metaphysical, natural philo-
sophical, and psychological works of the Stagirite.
Aristotle was the philosopher par excellence, and the
Neoplatonic curriculum that Islam inherited began
the study of philosophy with Aristotle. What they
also inherited was the desire to harmonize the work
of Plato and Aristotle. Yahya is supposed to have
translated Plato’s Timaeus, the key cosmological text
of the Neoplatonic curriculum, and Porphyry’s Iso-
goge or introduction to Aristotelian logic was
incorporated into the study of logic. Harmonization
led to the proliferation of pseudo-Aristotelian works
attributed to the Stagirite that were actually of Neo-
platonic provenance. Foremost among them were
the Theology of Aristotle, a paraphrastic epitome of
Plotinus’ Enneads IV-VI and Kitab fi Mahd al-Khayr
(Liber de Causis), a work that draws upon Proclus’
Stoikeiosis Theologike (Elements of Theology). Both
works were at the forefront of the second translation
movement beginning in twelfth-century Spain, when
Arabic philosophical works were translated into Latin
and influenced the development of the scholastic
philosophy of the universities.

The Theology of Aristotle was produced by the
Nestorian translator ‘Abd al-Masih b. ‘Abdallah b.
Na‘ima al-Himsi (d. 835) for the circle of al-Kindi
(d. 870) in Baghdad. The Theology is also part of a
larger corpus of Plotiniana Arabica, drawing upon the
Enneads that includes fragmentary sayings attributed
to the “Greek Sage” (al-Shaykh al-Yunani) and an
Epistle on Divine Science (Risala ji-l-Tlm al-Ilahi).
The text purports to be a translation of a theological
text of Aristotle, with the commentary of Porphyry
(d. 270), and certainly is a valuable expression of the
Neoplatonic heritage of classical Islamic philosophy.
The misattribution appealed to the taste of early Is-
lamic philosophy that perpetuated the late antique
Neoplatonic reconciliation of the philosophies of
Plato and Aristotle and filled a perceived lacuna in
the system of Aristotle that the Arabs inherited,
providing doctrines about the nature of God and
eschatology. Nevertheless, the text was adapted to
suit the needs of its audience and was always more
than a translation, incorporating material akin to
Aristotelianism and even drawing upon pseud o-
Dionysian doctrines on the “profession of igno-
rance.” The Theology is divided into ten may amir

610

PHILOSOPHY (FALSAFA)

(sing., mimar ), the Syriac Christian word for a chapter
of a theological treatise. It is prefaced by a prologue
that mentions the author, the translator, the editor
(al-Kindi), and the patron (Ahmad, the son of the
caliph al-Mu‘tasim). It may have been modeled on a
text of Porphyry that sets out some of the key issues
to be tackled in the text concerning the nature of the
soul, its descent into the world of matter, and its
reversion to its principle. The Theology became the
impetus for philosophical speculation and established
some of the key features of Islamic Neoplatonism.
Commentaries and glosses upon the text were written
by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim philosophers, in-
cluding Ibn Sina and ‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (d.
1231) in the classical period and Qadi Sa‘id Qummi
(d. 1696) in the later Safavid period.

The doctrines of the Theology mainly concern the
nature of the soul. The soul descends, like all other
beings, from a causal chain of emanation that is
produced by a purely good and loving principle, the
One or the Creator (al-BarV). It descends from a
higher intelligible world to reside within a material
body that is part of the sensible world. The cosmos is
thus a natural and logical consequence of the One and
not a volitional result of a theistic creator. Unlike the
Aristotelian doctrine, the soul is not a perfection or
entelechy of the body (although in at least one in-
stance this view is approved) but is independent of
the body as an eternal, immaterial substance capable
of separating itself and ascending momentarily to
experience the beatitude of its intelligible origin.
This possibility is expressed in the famous “doffing
metaphor” of Theology mimar I (see Etmeads IV. 8.1).
The soul alienated in this world desires to taste the
freedom of its origins, transcending the material cage
of this world, and wishes to revert to its principle.
Philosophers such as Suhrawardi and Sufis such as
Ibn ‘Arabi later cited this metaphor. Other doctrines
and issues broached include time and creation, the
nature of God and His agency, the nature of knowl-
edge, and the end of the soul. Because of the coverage
of central issues and its ascription to Aristotle, the
Theology became the seminal text in the classical
period of Islamic philosophy.

Indian and Persian Influences

The push eastward brought Muslims in contact with
Persian and Indian thought and science, and early
on astronomical and medical works were translated
from Pahlavi and Sanskrit. The scientist and philoso-
pher al-Biruni (d. 1048) also had the Yogasutra of

PatanjalD translated from Sanskrit, the only major
work of Indian philosophy available in the classical
period. Persian texts on moralia were transformed
into a work such as Javidan Khirad ( Eternal Wisdom )
of Miskawayh (d. 1030). But the most enduring and
striking legacy of the East was the physics of atomism
that became a central feature of theological specu-
lation about the nature of the cosmos, and the sign-
ificance and influences of the celestial bodies upon
the earth.

Theology and Philosophy

If rational discourse is a standard for judging falsafa,
then much of the kalam tradition ought to be consid-
ered to be philosophical. Although the philosophical
nature of much of the debate among theologians
(mutakallimun) is indubitable (such as arguments
about occasionalism, atomism, free will, and deter-
minism), there was a tension from an early period
between them and philosophers. Theology remained
an apologetic defense of dogma as discerned in the
Qur’an and the Prophetic tradition, whereas falsafa
was an attempt at a rational speculation about some
more abstract notions about reality. Although it did
not fail to serve as the handmaiden of theology when
the need arose, the Neoplatonic Aristotelianism of
the philosophers (falasifa) was considered to be in
contravention with sound belief. Ibn Sina (d. 1037)
was the central figure in the formation of the new
Islamic philosophy. He established key philosophical
doctrines about the nature of God as a Necessary
Being, described the nature of the human soul and
its end in the afterlife, and provided engaging philo-
sophical analyses of the nature of prophecy and reve-
lation. He produced a successful and influential
synthesis of theology and philosophy and it was pre-
cisely for this reason that he had been subjected to
attack. The famous theologian al-Ghazali (d. 1111)
in his Tahafut al-Falasifa (Incoherence of the Phi-
losophers) revealed the ambivalence of theology to-
ward philosophy. He was quite willing to co-opt
Aristotelian logic as a standard for argumentation
and use philosophical styles of discourse, but quite
averse to the metaphysics to which they committed
the practitioner. In this work, al-Ghazali condemned
twenty doctrines expressed by philosophers such as
Ibn Sina and held them to be incompatible with Mus-
lim dogma, while providing rather philosophical refu-
tations of those positions. On three specific issues, he
regarded the philosophers as being guilty of heresy
since belief in those doctrines was unbelief. These were
the notions that the world was coeternal with God

611

PHILOSOPHY (FALSAFA)

because it was only a logical and not a temporal
consequent of him, that God did not know particulars
but only knew universals, and that that there was
no bodily resurrection. That al-Ghazali was willing
to use philosophical arguments to refute philosophy
and that he wrote other works that seemed to
acknowledge Avicennan cosmology did contribute
to his losing the case. One must not accept condemna-
tions of the philosophical as a universal distaste for
rational discourse in Islam. The cultural history of
the classical period actually suggests that philosophy
was far from being a pursuit marginal to intellectual
Muslim society.

Islamic Philosophy

The philosophical tradition survived al-Ghazali’s as-
sault. Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) wrote a successful refuta-
tion of it. He led a revival of an orthodox
Aristotelianism in Islam and also penned a famous
legal defense justifying rational speculation. How-
ever, medieval Islam had no taste for orthodox Aris-
totelianism. Thinkers were more concerned with
perpetuating the late antique process of harmoniz-
ing metaphysics with theism and thus forms of Neo-
platonism were more in vogue. Philosophy after the
polemics culminating in al-Ghazali survived in a num-
ber of guises, all revealing the central role of Ibn Sina
and acting as reactions to his thought. First, the real
success of falsafa led to its naturalization within the
theological tradition of kalam. The rise of philosophi-
cal theology meant that discourse not only com-
menced with philosophical logic but also with its
epistemological foundations concerning the nature
of knowledge and its metaphysical foundations
concerning existence and its divisions. Second, follow-
ing Ibn Sina, works of falsafa included extensive dis-
cussions about the nature of God, his attributes, and
his relationship with the world and included both the
kalam cosmological proof for his existence and the
Avicennan proof of God as the Necessary Being. Avi-
cennan falsafa won the day. Third, followers of Ibn
‘Arabi engaged with philosophy and produced a far
more systematic metaphysical account of Sufi
thought. Fourth, various traditions arose in critique
of Ibn Sina, beginning with Suhrawardi (d. 1191)
and his school of “illumination,” and later in the
Safavid period Mulla Sadra (d. 1641) attempted to
reconcile Ibn Sina, Suhrawardi, and Ibn ‘Arabi. The
scope of philosophy and its cultural influence has
thus extended far beyond its beginnings in ‘Abbasid
Baghdad.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

Primary Sources

Adamson, P. The Arabic Plotinus. London: Duckworth,
2002 .

Adamson, P., and R. Taylor, eds. The Cambridge Compan-
ion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2005.

Corbin, H. A History of Islamic Philosophy. London:
Routledge, 1993.

Daiber, H. A Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy. 2 vols.
Leiden: Brill, 1999.

Fakhry, M. A History of Islamic Philosophy. 3rd ed. New
York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
al-Ghazali. The Incoherence of the Philosophers, transl.
M. Marmura. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University
Press, 1998.

Gutas, D. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. London: Routle-
dge, 1998.

Ibn Rushd. The Incoherence of the Incoherence, transl.
S. van den Bergh. London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial
Trust, 1954.

Ibn Sina. The Metaphysics, transl. M. Marmura. Provo,
UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2006.

Kraye, J. et al., eds. Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages.

London: Warburg Institute, 1986.

Leaman, O. A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy.
Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998.

. Classical Islamic Philosophy . Cambridge University

Press, 2001.

Nasr, S. H., and M. Aminrazavi, eds. An Anthology of
Philosophy in Persia. 5 vols. New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press/London: 1. B. Tauris, 1998-2005.

Nasr, S. H., and O. Leaman, eds. History of Islamic Philos-
ophy. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1996.

Peters, F.E. Aristoteles Arabus. Leiden: Brill, 1968.
Rosenthal, F. The Classical Heritage in Islam. London:
Routledge, 1975.

Sharif, M.M. ed. History of Muslim Philosophy. 2 vols.

Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1966.

Suhrawardi. The Philosophy of Illumination , transl.
J. Walbridge and H. Ziai. Provo, UT: Brigham Young
University Press, 1998.

Walzer, Richard. Greek into Arabic. Oxford: Bruno
Cassirer, 1962.

PIGEONS

Pigeons had a presence in the everyday life of medie-
val Muslims. As pets they were more universal and
popular than game birds, such as the falcon, whose
keeping was mostly reserved to the upper classes. It is
apparent from Jahiz that they were reasonably priced
during his time and easily attainable from the city
markets, although well-trained zejil (those that were
trained to fly to a destination and come back) could
be costly. For example, one that had come back to
Baghdad from as far as Sham could cost up to a
thousand dinars. When reading passages regarding
the pigeon from his Kitab al-Hayawan, one sees very
clearly how Jahiz’s zoology is really about humans.
Pigeons are scrutinized in such a way as to deduce

612

PILGRIMAGE

facts about marriage, coupling, love, passion, monog-
amy, polygamy, homosexuality, loyalty, sacrifice, jeal-
ousy, and the like. They are a mirror of male-female
relations in all possible forms.

It is known that pigeons were part of an intricate
postal system established by the ‘Abbasids and devel-
oped to its highest efficiency during the Mamluk peri-
od. The Mamluk historian Qalqashandi details how
pigeons were dispatched to the towers that were
erected for this purpose.

Pigeons have a presence in the imagination of me-
dieval Muslims, not just as an item of conspicuous
consumption in the Souq, and as part of the postal
system, but also as a strong image of sanctity and
courier of wisdom. It is mentioned that the inhabi-
tants of Mecca were witness to the fact that no pigeon
has ever landed on the Ka’ba. This alone has con-
vinced many that pigeons are superior to all birds and
animals. It is well known that the conqueror of Egypt,
Amr b. al-As, changed his plans of constructing the
barrack town of Fustat lest he disturb the dove and its
chicks that had nested in his tent.

Medieval Muslim authors frequently allude to
Noah’s pigeon, which is viewed as a guide figure
that carries good tidings. The pigeon is awarded by
God for his loyalty and services, with the collar on his
neck, making him stand out till the dawn of time. It is
the pigeon’s collar (tawq) that Ibn Hazm of Andalus
has named his treatise on love. The most prevalent
aspect of the image of the pigeon is that it carries
God’s words (ta’wil). This is similar to the imagery
in the prologue of the gospel according to John,
where the dove symbolizes the Holy Ghost, carrier
of divine logos. Similarly, in Genesis 1:2, a dove
hovering over the waters refers to the spirit of God
at the time of creation. Abu Firas’s highly acclaimed
poem, which epitomizes the pigeon as a bird that
reminds the poet of his freedom lost also partakes
from this imagery of the messenger of wisdom. The
poet, who was taken captive by the Hamadanis in
Mousul, sees a pigeon through the bars of his prison,
a pigeon that is praying. He calls out to the bird and
asks it if he understands his predicament, as if wishing
the pigeon to carry away words of his agony.

Zumrut Alp

Further Reading

Abu Zayd. ‘Ali Ibrahim, al-Hamam fi al-shi’r al-'arabi.
Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif, 1996.

Al-Mas’udi. Kitab al-Tanbih wa’l-Ishraf Edited by Michael
Jan de Goeje. Leigen: E. J. Brill, 1894.

Al-Qazwini. ‘Ajaib al-Makhluat wa Gharaib al-Mawjudat.
Edited by Ferdinand Wustenfeld. Gottingen: Druck
und Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung,
1848-1849.

Ibn Hazm, ‘Ali ibn Ahmad. Tawq al-Hamama fi al-ulfa wa
al-ullaj. Edited by al-Tab’ah 1. Dar al-Maktaba al-Hilal,
Beirut, 2000.

Jahiz, Abi ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz (Ed). al-Tab’ah
1. Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiya, Beirut, 1998.

Moulton, Richard, G. (Ed). Modern Reader’s Bible. Lon-
don: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1916.

Qalqashandi, Ahmad ibn ‘Ali. Subh al-A ’sha fi Sina ’at al-
ansha. ’ Cairo: al-Mu’arrasah al-Misriyah al-Ammah li’l-
Ta’lif wa’l-Tarjumah wa’l-Tiba’ah wa’l-Nahr, 1964.

PILGRIMAGE

No single word exists for pilgrimage to holy places.
Unlike the canonical Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj),
which is incumbent upon Muslims once in their life-
times (Qur’an 3:97), the commendable ‘Umra, or less-
er pilgrimage, the ziyara (Arab. lit. a visit, visiting), or
pious visitation to tombs, shrines, and other sacred
places and devotional objects, is not prescribed in the
Qur’an or in the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad.

Devotees from all walks of life, including rulers,
theologians, scholars, and common people, visited
tombs and shrines of holy persons, including the
prophets and patriarchs, saints, Sufi shaykhs, and
rulers — usually individuals who possessed exemplary
learning and piety — and other holy places for a varie-
ty of reasons, including to obtain blessings, cures, and
relief from adversity; to acquire knowledge about the
burial places of the prophets and the earliest genera-
tions of Muslims, especially the Companions and
Followers of the Prophet; and for the fulfilment of
supplication.

In pre-Islamic times, pilgrimage to the tombs and
shrines of the prophets and patriarchs and to Chris-
tian saints was widespread among Christians and
Jews. In Islamic times, Jews and Christians visited
their respective shrines, common shrines, and those
of Muslims. Particularly from the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, when the ziyara and the construc-
tion of shrines proliferated across the Islamic world
due in no small part to the spread of Sufism, the
ziyara assumed, at least outwardly, peculiar Islamic
characteristics. Jews and Christians invoked supplica-
tions not only in such liturgical languages as Hebrew
and Syriac but also in Arabic and Persian. Jews re-
moved their shoes as they entered holy places. More-
over, cupolas like on Muslim shrines surmounted
Jewish and Christian shrines.

Among the most venerated pilgrimage sites by
region were: (Cairo): Husayn ibn ‘Ali (d. 680), the
Prophet’s granddaughter Zaynab, the Egyptian
theologian Al-Shafi‘i (d. 820); (Damascus): John
the Baptist (Yahya ibn Zakariyya’), the Prophet’s
granddaughter Zaynab; (Iraq): ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib

613

PILGRIMAGE

(d. 661) at Kufa and Husayn ibn ‘Ali at Karbala. In
Damascus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Zoroas-
trians venerated the eleventh-century Muslim patron
saint Shaykh Arslan, while Christians and Muslims
venerated the Virgin Mary at the Christian shrine
outside the city. In Iraq and Persia, Jews, Muslims,
and Christians made ziyara to the regional shrines of
the Prophets Daniel, Ezekiel, and Ezra.

Medieval Muslims composed guides for various
regions of the Middle East, including Egypt, Syria,
and Iraq, which mention those places that are espe-
cially efficacious for attaining cures from ailments
and for obtaining baraka, or blessing. Most pilgrim-
age guides do not mention a prescribed order for
visiting shrines, but rather highlight those shrines
that are especially efficacious or blessed. The most
important works by region include: ‘Ali ibn Abi
Bakr al-Harawi’s (d. 1215) Kitab al-Isharat ila
Ma’rifat al- Ziyarat (Guide to Knowledge of Pilgrim-
age Places ) , which is the only known guide that men-
tions pilgrimage places throughout the Islamic world
from North Africa and the Mediterranean to the
borders of India, including those of Jews and Chris-
tians. Al-Harawi’s guide also mentions the antiquities
of ancient civilizations, talismanic objects, wells, riv-
ers, and sacred substances such as water and soil.
Egyptian guides, such as Ibn ‘Uthman’s (d. 1218)
Murshid al-Zuwwar (The Pilgrims’ Guide) stress the
etiquette of ziyara as do later pilgrimage guides like
Ibn al-Hawrani’s Al-Isharat ila Amakin al-Ziyarat
( Guide to Pilgrimage Places ) . By contrast, Iraqi Shi‘i
pilgrimage guides such as Ibn Qawlawayh’s (d. 978/9)
Kamil al-Ziyarat (The Complete Pilgrimage Guide),
which emphasize ziyara to the tombs and shrines of
the Prophet, his Family, and the Shi‘i imams, are more
precise in that they instruct pilgrims in the rites
prescribed by the fifth and sixth imams Muhammad
al-Baqir and Ja‘far al-Sadiq which they are to under-
take, including purification rituals, prayers, and
supplications. Common to all guides is the surrender
of the devotee’s self to God and reflecting on the
hereafter and on the tomb or shrine’s inmate.

Ziyara for the purpose of acquiring baraka and
knowledge was also made to living saints, ascetics,
and more generally, individuals renowned for their
exemplary piety and learning and was a widespread
practice.

Unlike the veneration of saints in the Christian
context, the ziyara became controversial. The Hanbali
(see Schools of Jurisprudence) theologian Ibn
Taymiyya (d. 1328) and his disciples regarded the
ziyara to tombs and shrines and to living individuals
as heretical innovation and polytheism, views to
which the majority of Muslim theologians did not
subscribe.

Ziyara was also made to copies of the Qur’an in
Damascus and elsewhere, particularly those asso-
ciated with the third and fourth Rightly Guided
Caliphs ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan and ‘Ali b. Abi Talib.

Josef W. Meri

See also Hajj; Saints and Sainthood; Christian; Umra

Primary Sources

Harawi, ‘Ali ibn Abi Bakr. A Lonely Wayfarer’s Guide to
Pilgrimage: ‘Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi’s Kitab al-
isharat ila ma'rifat al-ziyarat. Translated by Josef
W. Meri. Prineton: Darwin Press, 2004.

Ibn al-Hawrani, “A Late Medieval Syrian Pilgrimage
Guide: Ibn al-Hawrani’s Al-Isharat ila Amakin al-
Ziyarat (Guide to Pilgrimage Places).'” Medieval
Encounters: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in
Confluence and Dialogue 1 (2001): 3-78.

Further Reading

Meri, Josef W. The Cult of Saints Among Muslims and Jews
in Medieval Syria. Oxford and New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2002.

Meri, J. “Ziyara.” EI(2), 11:524-529.

. “The Etiquette of Devotion in the Islamic Cult of

Saints.” In The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the
Middle Ages: Essays on the Contribution of Peter Brown ,
edited by J. Howard-Johnston and P. A. Hayward,
263-286. Oxford, 1999.

Taylor, Christopher S. In the Vicinity of the Righteous:
Ziyara and the Veneration of Saints in Late Medieval
Egypt. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1999.

PLATO, PLATONISM, AND
NEOPLATONISM

Neoplatonism was a philosophical movement that
primarily belonged to the Hellenist Alexandrian and
Syriac schools of thought. Its founder, Plotinus (ca.
205-270 CE), an Egyptian of Greek culture, was pro-
foundly influenced by Plato’s Republic , Phaedo, and
Symposium , as well as being inspired by Aristotelian,
Stoic, and neo-Pythagorean doctrines. Plotinus’ own
monumental corpus, the Enneads, was partly drafted
in response to the objections raised by Aristotle
against Plato’s theory of ideas. Therein, Plotinus ar-
gued that the Platonic forms subsist in what Aristotle
referred to as Nous (intellect). Giving a metaphysical
primacy to abstract ideas, the realm of the intelligible
was construed as being the ground of the ultimate
reality, which was radically independent from sensible
beings. This ontology led to a belief in the existence of
absolute values rooted in eternity. Further elabora-
tions of Plotinus’s teachings were undertaken by his
disciple, Porphyry of Tyre (ca. 232-305 CE), and were

614

PLATO, PLATONISM, AND NEOPLATONISM

supplemented by the work of the latter’s pupil,
the Syrian lamblichus (ca. 250-330 CE). However,
Proclus (ca. 411-485 CE) introduced the most rigor-
ous systematization of this tradition. The impetus of
Neoplatonism in philosophy confronted many chal-
lenges following the closing of the Athenian Academy
(ca. 526 CE) by the Roman Emperor Justinian. The
momentum of this tradition was renewed with the
philosophers of the medieval Islamic civilization
who imbued it with monotheistic directives. Follow-
ing Socrates, in a critique of the Sophists, Platonists
believed that knowledge cannot be derived from
appearances alone, and that it can only be properly
attained through universal ideas. Heeding the medita-
tions of Parmenides, they held that the realm of being
was unchanging, eternal, and indestructible; while
following Heraclitus, they took the sensible realm as
being subject to a constant flux of transformational
becoming. Establishing a distinction between truth
and belief, they asserted that the intelligible was
apprehended by reason and the sensible by mere
opinion. With this Platonist heritage, the ethical
code of goodness became a cosmological principle.
Eventually, Neoplatonists held that The One, as the
indeterminate perfection of absolute unity, simplicity,
and goodness, imparts existence from itself due to its
superabundance. This event was grasped as being a
process of emanation that accentuated the primacy of
Divine transcendence over creation and represented
an alternate explication of generation that challenged
the creatio ex nihilo doctrine. Endowed with vision,
the One, as the First undiminished Source of exis-
tence, imparts Nous, the immanent changeless Intel-
lect, as its own Image. From this effused Nous issues
forth the World Soul, which acts as a transition be-
tween the realm of ideas and that of the senses.
Refracting itself in materiality, the Soul generates
all sensible composite beings, while matter represents
the last station in the hierarchy of existence as
the unreal substratum of the phenomenal universe.
Emanation, as a processional descent, was itself
to be followed by an ascent that expressed the longing
of the rational soul to return to its Source and a
yearning to inhabit the realm of ideas. This reversible
movement acted as the basis of the moral code of the
Neoplatonist system, which advocated a dualist sepa-
ration of mind and body, as well as affirmed the
immortality of the soul. Philosophers in medieval
Islam came to know Plato through the Arabic trans-
lations of his Laws, Sophist, Timaeus, and Republic.
His influence on the history of ideas in Islam is most
felt in the domains of ethics and political philosophy,
whereby his views offered possibilities for reconciling
pagan philosophy with monotheistic religion in
the quest for truth and the unveiling of the ultimate

principles of reality. His Republic and Laws presented
an appealing legislative model that inspired political
thought in Islam, particularly the line in thinking that
is attested in al-Farabi’s (ca. 870-950 CE) treatise al-
Madina al-Fadila (The Virtuous City), which gave
prominence to the role played by philosophy in
setting the legal arrangements and mores of the ideal
Islamic polity. The Corpus Platonicum also impressed
humanists like Ibn Miskawayh (ca. 940-1030 CE),
who, in his Tahdhib al-akhlaq (The Cultivation of
Morals) espoused the Platonic tripartite conception
of the soul, along with its ethical-political ramifica-
tions. As for the Neoplatonist doctrines, these found
their way into the intellectual history of Islam
through Plato’s dialogues, as well as being channeled
via the tracts known as Aristotle’s Theology and Liber
de causis (Kitab al-Khayr al-Mahd). Although both
texts were erroneously attributed to Aristotle, the
former reproduced fragments from Plotinus’s
Enneads, and the latter rested on Proclus’ Elements
of Theology. This misguiding textual transmission led
to imbuing Aritotelianism with Neoplatonist leitmo-
tifs, which impacted the thinking of authorities such
as al-Kindi (d. ca. 873 CE), Ikhwan al-Safa’ (tenth
century CE), al-Farabi (d. ca. 950 CE), and Ibn
Sina (d. 1037 CE), who in their turn influenced
the onto-theological systems of al-Sijistani (fl. 971
CE), al-Kirmani (d. 1020 CE), Suhrawardi (d. 1191
CE), Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240 CE), and Mulla Sadra
(d. 1640 CE).

Nader El-Bizri

See also Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Brethren of
Purity; al-Farabi (Alfarabius or Avennasar); Ibn ‘Ara-
bi; Ibn Sina (Avicenna); Illuminationism; al-Kindi (Phi-
losopher); al-Kirmani, Hamid al-Din; Mulla Sadra;
Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din ‘Umar; Tusi, Nasir al-Din

Primary Sources

al-Farabi (Alfarabius). De Platonis Philosophic. Edited by
Franz Rosenthal and Richard Walzer. London: The
Warburg Institute, University of London, 1943.

Galenus, Claudius. Compendium Timaei Platonis. Edited by
Paul Krauss and Richard Walzer. London: The War-
burg Institute, University of London, 1951.

Plato. Plato Ambus. Edited by Paul Krauss and Richard
Walzer. London: The Warburg Institute, University of
London, 1943.

Further Reading

Krauss, Paul. “Plotin chez les arabes.” Bulletin de Vlnstitut
d’Egypte 23 (1941): 236-295.

Netton, Ian Richard. Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduc-
tion to the Thought of the Brethren of Purity. London:
G. Allen and Unwin, 1982.

615

PLATO, PLATONISM, AND NEOPLATONISM

Rosenthal, Franz. “On the Knowledge of Plato’s Philoso-
phy in the Islamic World.” Islamic Culture 14 (1940):
398M02.

Walzer, Richard. “Aflatun.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam.
Vol I. Leiden: Brill, 1960.

. Greek into Arabic: Essays in Islamic Philosophy.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.

POETRY, ARABIC

Arabic poetry was originally an evocation of heroic
aspects of pre-Islamic Bedouinity, such as fighting,
hunting, tribal loyalty, and contending with the harsh-
ness of nomadic life (women poets were more or less
restricted to one theme, elegy). It was composed in a
cross-dialectal poetic koine, with a rich and difficult
vocabulary, abounding with nature descriptions and
extended similes, which, though concrete, are charged
with ethical symbolism and are often enigmatic or
riddling. The earliest pieces date from perhaps the
sixth century CE, and the pre-Islamic corpus is now
accepted as authentic, though probably retouched by
the 'Abbasid scholars who first put it in writing. It uses
a common stock of motifs and compositional devices,
which recur in most of the poetry written in Arabic
throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, and laid
down a system of thought and allusion that permeated
Arabic literary sensibility. The form in which the great
pre-Islamic set pieces were composed was the polythe-
matic qasida; its preeminence continued into the Islam-
ic period. Typically, it could include two or more of the
following: an opening description of the deserted en-
campment — an image of transience — and/or the de-
scription of a lost beloved, played against the
arduous journey by which the poet asserts his manli-
ness, his self-praise and/or praise of the patron, the
whole being held in tension by the poem’s function as
an affirmation of shared values, of which the poet, who
speaks in the first person, is the inspired mouthpiece.
The prosodic features of the qasida are monorhythm
and monorhyme, which limit its length to around a
hundred lines on average. Transmuted into the cere-
monial court panegyric celebrating the divine right of
caliphs or a patron’s victories, the Islamic qasida found
its most dramatic exponents in Abu Tammam (d. ca.
AH 232/845 CE) and al-Mutanabbi (d. 354/965). The
former liked to dress as a Bedouin and the latter con-
sidered himself a man of action; but the genuine tribal
warrior poet was now largely a figure of the past, and
many poets writing in Arabic were not Arabs; notable
exceptions were the Hamdanid prince Abu Firas (320
357/932-968), captured in battle by the Byzantines,
and Usama ibn Munqidh (d. 584/1188).

Islam and empire, and above all the growth of
a highly literate, urban culture centered on elite

patronage, brought changes in the role of poetry
and a proliferation of new genres, such as the love
poem {ghazal; see Umar ibn Abi Rabi'a). wine poem
(khamriyya) and verse homily (zuhdiyya), and the
didactic poem in rhymed couplets. Formulaic but
fluid macrostructures and microstructures, together
with brevity and narrative minimalism, nevertheless
continued to characterize most Arabic poetry. How-
ever tightly fashioned, Arabic poems were essentially
open textured because they were constructed on mul-
tiple allusion. Classical Bedouin models and the bril-
liant conceits of “modern” poets could be evoked —
indeed, to do so was inescapable — by a motif, phrase,
rhythm, or a single word; so, too, could the Qur’an
and hadith. Contemporary realities — concrete, topi-
cal, ideological, or intellectual — often clearly dictate
the argument or frame of reference ( see Ibn Hamdis),
but the specific is not always easy to distinguish from
the generic (for example, in the case of wine poems or
homoerotic love poems: such poems are not necessar-
ily autobiographical). The poet’s stylistic persona
might be consistent and genre-based or split into
multiple facets distributed across a range of genres,
and here patronage played a crucial role; for an ex-
ample of how poets could shape their talents to their
market, see the entry on Abu Nuwas.

Not all poets were dependent on patrons; neverthe-
less, there were few genres that were not geared to the
elite, its ideology, and pastimes (mystical poetry is one
exception; see Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya and Ibn ‘Arabi),
and it was rare to refuse to adapt one’s poetry to
social requirements, as did al-Ma’arri (d. 449/1058),
for poetry was part of social life. There could be no
adab without poetry, in the form both of the ability
to versify elegantly and of knowledge of the classical
and modern poets and of the scholarly and critical
controversies surrounding them. Poetry was closely
associated with music and singing; women slave
entertainers were often composers and poets. Poets
might be princes, such as Abu Firas, or have risen
from humble origins, like Abu Tammam, and vernac-
ular folk poetry seems to have had many themes in
common with the learned poetry written in classical
Arabic. In Andalus, the combined charm of music
and of the vernacular gave rise to new poetic forms,
the muwashshah and the zajal, which were imitated in
the Islamic East. Both are strophic, with complex
multiple rhythms and rhymes; the muwashshah culmi-
nates in an envoi (kharja) in a vernacular (Ar.,
Romance); the zajal is entirely in colloquial Arabic
(see Ibn Quzman).

Poetry also held a central place in intellectual life.
Grammarians, lexicographers, and commentators of
the Qur’an combed the early Arabic corpus for exam-
ples and parallels. Poetic criticism (see Rhetoric) was

616

POETRY, HEBREW

a discipline in its own right but could be slanted to
dogmatic ends to demonstrate the inimitable expres-
sivity of the Qur’an (see al-Jurjani). Commentaries
and supercommentaries (shark, pi. shuruh ) on poetry
collections ( diwans ) or proof- verses were an opportu-
nity to draw together all the learning associated with
poetry (see Adab, al-Baghdadi). Together with tribal
genealogies, poetry and the stories attached to it
provided historians with almost their sole materials
for reconstructing the pre-Islamic Arab past; as the
only monument surviving from that past, ancient
poetry was — and “modern” poetry continued to
be — the supreme Arabic art form. Yet its status was
ambiguous, for its ethos was non-Islamic and some-
times counter to Islam. Uclaha ’ such as al-Jahiz (d. ca.
255/869), Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889), and Abu al-Faraj
al-Isfahani (d. ca. 363/972; see Adab), argued or
demonstrated that the virtues embodied in Arab po-
etic eloquence not only could not be jettisoned but
also must be cherished by good Muslims, while some
theorists sidestepped the issue by pleading that poet-
ry, ancient and modern, belonged to the sphere of
make-believe, not to that of truth or morality.

Arabic poetry remained largely impervious to out-
side influences but exerted a decisive influence on
Hebrew poetry.

Julia Bray

See also Abu Firas; Abu Nuwas; Abu Tammam; Adab;
Hebrew Poetry; Ibn Hamdis; Ibn Qutayba; Ibn Quz-
man; al-Jahiz; al-Jurjani; Love Poetry; al-Mutanabbi;
Mystical Poetry; Rabi’a al-Ma’arri; Rhetoric; Umar
ibn Abi Rabi’a; Usama ibn Munqidh

Further Reading

Alvarez, L. “Muwashshah’ and ‘Zajal, medieval.”, In Ency-
clopedia of Arabic Literature, II, edited by Julie Scott
Meisami and Paul Starkey, 563-566 snf 818-819. Lon-
don and New York: Routledge, 1998 (comprehensive
coverage of form, history, and scholarly debate).
Ashtiany, Julia et al (Eds). ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres. 1990.
Bauer, Thomas. Liebe und Liebesdichtung in der arabischen
Welt des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts: eine literatur- und
mentalitdtsgeschichtliche Studie der arabischen Gh azal.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998.

Bencheikh, J. E. ‘Les secretaires poetes et animateurs de
cenacles au He et Hie siecles de l'Hegire.’ Journal Asia-
tique 263 (1975): 265-315.

Frolov, D. Classical Arabic Verse. History and Theory of
‘Arud. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2000 (prosody: metrics),
van Gelder, G. J. H. “The Abstracted Self in Arabic Poet-
ry.” Journal of Arabic Literature 14 (1983): 22-30.

. Beyond the Line. Classical Arabic Literary Critics on

the Coherence and Unity of the Poem. Leiden: Brill, 1982.
Heijkoop, Henk, and Otto Zwartjes. Muwashah, Zajal,
Kharja. Bibliography of Strophic Poetry and Music from
al-Andalus and Their Influence in East and West. Leiden
and Boston: Brill, 2004.

Jacobi, Renate. “The Camel-Section of the Panegyrical
Ode.” Journal of Arabic Literature 13 (1982): 1-22.

Kilpatrick, Hilary. “Women as Poets and Chattels: Abu
1-Faraj al-Isbahani’s “al-Ima’ al-Shawa’ir.”’ Quaderni
di Studi Arabi (Venice) 9 (1991): 161-176.

Montgomery, James E. The Vagaries of the Qasida: The
Tradition and Practice of Early Arabic Poetry. Cam-
bridge: Gibb Memorial Trust, 1997.

. “Of Models and Amanuenses: The Remarks on the

Qasida in Ibn Qutayba’s Kitab al-Shi‘r wa-l-Shu‘ara.”’
In Islamic Reflections Arabic Musings. Studies in Honour
of Alan Jones, edited by Robert G. Hoyland and Philip
F. Kennedy, 1-47. Oxford: Gibb Memorial Trust, 2004.

. The Era of al-Mutanabbi — Proceedings of the

Eighth Symposium on Classical Arabic Poetry (1995),
Arabic and Middle Eastern Literatures 2 (i) (1999).

Motoyoshi Sumi, Akiko. Description in Classical Arabic
Poetry. Wasf Ekphrasis, and Interacts Theory. Leiden
and Boston: Brill, 2004.

Najjar, Ibrahim. La Memoire rassemblee. Poetes arabes
“mineurs” des Ile/VIIIe et Ille/IXe siecles. Paris: La
Franpaise d’Edition et d’Imprimerie, 1987 (the social
matrix of poetry).

Ouyang, Wen-Chin. Literary Criticism in Medieval Arabic-
Islamic Culture: The Making of a Tradition. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1997.

Peres, Henri. La Poesie andalouse en arabe classique au Xle
siecle. Ses aspects generaux et sa valeur documentaire.
Paris: Adiren Mainsonneuve, 1937.

Rikabi, Jawdat. La Poesie profane sous les Ayyubides, et ses
principaux representants. Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve,
1949.

Rosa Menocal, Maria et al. The Literature of al-Andalus.
2000 .

Sperl, Stefan. “Islamic Kingship and Arabic Panegyric Po-
etry in the Early Ninth Century.” Journal of Arabic
Literature 8 (1977): 20-35.

. Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis

of Selected Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989.

Sperl, Stefan, and Christopher Shackle (Eds). Qasida Poetry
in Islamic Asia and Africa. I: Classical Traditions and
Modern Meanings', II: Eulogy’s Bounty, Meaning’s Abun-
dance. An Anthology. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

Stetkevych, Jaroslav. The Zephyrs of Najcl. The Poetics
of Nostalgia in the Classical Arabic Nasib. Chicago:
Chicago University Press, 1993.

Vadet, Jean-Claude. L’ Esprit courtois en Orient dans les
cinq premiers siecles de l’Hegire. Paris: Maisonneuve et
Larose, 1968.

“The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.” In Arabic
Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period, edited by
A. F. L. Beeston et al. Cambridge: Cambridge Universi-
ty Press, 1983).

POETRY, HEBREW

Hebrew liturgical poetry, known as the piyyut, which
used foreign vocabulary, complex grammatical forms,
and an opaque style, flourished in Byzantine Palestine
prior to the Islamic conquest. By the ninth century,
the center of literary activity moved from Palestine to
Iraq, where a number of poets continued the piyyut

617

POETRY, HEBREW

tradition. Some literary characteristics of the early
piyyut persisted through the Islamic Middle Ages,
although later poets such as Abraham Ibn Ezra
(1092-1167) lampooned the lexicographic and gram-
matical irregularities of the classical style. Sa‘adyah
Gaon (882-942), dean of the academy of Jewish
learning in Baghdad, initiated a trend toward Hebrew
purity based on biblical vocabulary and grammatical
forms, although he did not abandon post-biblical
vocabulary entirely. Although he tried to limit the
amount of poetry recited in prayer, he included origi-
nal poems in the prayer book he composed. Sa‘adyah
authored poems for didactic and polemical (that
is, nonliturgical) purposes, a point that reflects the
impact of his Arabic milieu (he was preceded in this
by some Karaite poets). The Arabic environment is
also sensed in the philosophical content of some
poems and in the cosmopolitan values espoused in
his essay for poets, Kitab usul al-ahi'r al-‘ibrani
( Book of Principles of Hebrew Poetry ) .

Because of intensified study of the Bible and
Hebrew grammar in al-Andalus (following Muslim
engagement with the Qur’an and Arabic grammar),
Jews came to value composition using the biblical
lexicon only and to regard the Hebrew Bible as a
standard of eloquence and style. This near obsession
with biblical Hebrew reflects an assertion of Jewish
cultural nationalism even as it testifies to deeply
ingrained Arabized values.

Menahem Ben Saruq, a mid-tenth-century
Andalusian poet patronized by the courtier Hasdai
Ibn Shaprut, wrote secular poems, including panegy-
rics and a famous greeting, written on Hasdai’s be-
half, to the Jewish king of Khazaria. Menahem was
displaced by the rival poet Dunash Ben Labrat
(d. c. 990), who revolutionized Hebrew poetry by
adopting the prosodic features of Arabic verse (quan-
titative meter and monorhyme). Dunash thus allowed
Jews to participate in one of the hallmark traditions
of the age through the medium of their own historic
language.

The use of Arabic meter was a subject of ambiva-
lence among Andalusian Jews. Moses Ibn Ezra
extolled Arabized Hebrew poetry in his Kitcib
al-muhadara wa-l-mudhakara ( Book of Conversation
and Discussion ), a Judeo- Arabic treatise on Hebrew
poetics, while Judah Halevi demurred in the Kuzari
that foreign meters sullied the purity of Hebrew verse
(even though he often used Arabic meter in his own
poetry). Hebrew poems also imitate the structural
principles of Arabic forms such as the qasida and
the muwashshah. The Hebrew qasida links disparate
themes (such as nature and panegyric) using standard
constructions of the “escape verse” (takhallus). The
Hebrew muwashshah follows the strophic pattern of

its Arabic counterpart and frequently concludes with
a kharja, either in Arabic or Hispano-Romance.

Many Hebrew poems fit neatly into Arabic the-
matic genres (wine poems, garden poems, poems of
desire, panegyrics, invective, and so on). Recasting
these themes in the language of the Bible allows for
ironic and humorous effects through intertextual al-
lusion. Arabic themes and meters also penetrate He-
brew devotional verse in al-Andalus. The pre-Islamic
motif of al-buka’ ‘ala cd-atlal (Weeping over the
Ruins), wherein the poet laments the effacement of
the tribe’s encampment, is evoked by Jewish poets
lamenting the decay of the Jewish encampment par
excellence, the Temple in Jerusalem. Although Anda-
lusian Hebrew poetry is highly conventional, occa-
sional poems reveal poetic individuality: Samuel Ibn
Naghrela (993-1056) recounted battles of the Taifa
kings; Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1021 to ca. 1055) wrote
about his frustrated pursuit of philosophical wisdom;
Moses Ibn Ezra (c. 1055 to after 1135) lamented his
exile from al-Andalus; and Judah Halevi composed
devotional poems during his pilgrimage to Palestine.

Another Arabized literary form that emerged in al-
Andalus was the Hebrew rhymed prose narrative,
which followed conventions of the Arabic maqama.
In Solomon Ibn Saqbel’s Asher Son of Judah Spoke
(first half of twelfth century), the protagonist is
rushed into marriage, only to have his veiled intended
replaced with a bearded man. The story shares the
maqama’s penchants for trickery and denouement
through recognition. This narrative was followed in
Christian Iberia and in the Islamic world with a vari-
ety of rhymed prose narratives that adhere to the
classical maqama to varying degrees. The most classi-
cal Hebrew example is Judah al-Harizi’s Tahkemoni,
which borrows plot materials from al-Hamadhani, al-
Hariri, and other Arabic authors. Jews continued to
compose poetry and prose in the Arabic style
in North Africa, the Islamic East, and in Christian
Europe for centuries to come.

Jonathan P. Decter

See also Judah Halevi; Judah al-Harizi; Ibn Ezra;
Solomon Ibn Gabirol; Samuel Ibn Naghrela; Maqama;
Poetry, Arabic; Sa'adyah Gaon

Further Reading

Brann, Ross. The Compunctious Poet : Cultural Ambiguity
and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain. Baltimore and
London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

Pagis, Dan. “Variety in Medieval Rhymed Narratives.”
Scripta Hierosolymitana 27 (1978): 79-98.

Scheindlin, Raymond P. The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew
Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul. Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 1991.

618

POETRY, INDIAN

. Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems

on the Good Life. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soci-
ety, 1986.

Schirmann, Jefim. Toledot ha-shirah ha- ‘ivrit bi-Sefarad ha-
muslemit. Edited, supplemented, and annotated by Ezra
Fleischer. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1995.

POETRY, INDIAN

Muslims in medieval India composed poetry either in
Persian or in the various Indie vernaculars, depending
on their socioeconomic class and the literary tradi-
tions with which they identified.

Poetry in Persian was principally associated with
the ashraf the ruling class and aristocracy of Central
Asian or Iranian origin, who governed many regions
of the subcontinent from the tenth century onward.
Although the ashraf occasionally used Turkish and
Arabic, they espoused Persian as their principal liter-
ary language to maintain a distinct cultural and ethnic
identity from the local population. Their use of Per-
sian enabled them to participate in a wider interna-
tional Turko-Persian culture that, at least until the
eighteenth century, provided a shared cultural ethos
between the ruling elites of a vast region that now
comprises modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Iran, Central Asia, and even Turkey. The cosmopoli-
tan nature of this culture meant that literati in Indian
cities such as Delhi, Lahore, and Bijapur shared the
same literary traditions as their counterparts in Heart,
Bukhara, and Isfahan. It also meant that poets and
artists could move freely in search of royal patronage
in any part of this cultural nexus. Beginning in the
sixteenth century, the Mughals enhanced the status of
Persian when they declared it as the official language
of their empire and used it to create a common liter-
ary ethos between heterogeneous religious and social
groups. Thus, members of the Hindu administrative
and ruling elite became enthusiastic participants
in Persian literary culture, many of them becoming
significant poets in the language.

As a result of this official patronage, during certain
historical periods the total quantity of Persian litera-
ture produced in India greatly exceeded that pro-
duced in Iran proper. The vast corpus includes every
major and minor Persian literary genre. Poetry was by
far the most popular form of literary composition in
Persian. Poets in medieval India utilized all major
poetic forms, including the qasida (the panegyric ex-
tolling the virtues of a ruler or patron), the ghazal (the
mystically tinged love lyric) and the masnawi (a “dou-
ble-rhymed” epic form used particularly for narrating
epics). The vast majority of Persian poets in India
adhered strictly to poetic conventions as they relate
to symbols and imagery as developed in Iran and

Central Asia. They composed naziras, poems imitat-
ing the classical models of renowned Persian authors,
as a way of demonstrating their literary skills.
From very early on, however, there developed a
unique style of Indian Persian called sabk-i hindi
(the Indian style), which incorporated Indian ele-
ments into the world of Persian literary culture. The
Indian style began modestly with early poets such as
Mas’ud Sa’d Salman (d. ca. 1131) and Amir Khusrau
(d. 1325), reaching maturity in the seventeenth
century.

The influence of Persian extended far beyond its
use as a literary medium among the elite. Persian
became such an important cultural element in medie-
val India that Persian vocabulary features prominent-
ly in all major North Indian languages. It also
strongly influenced the poetic forms, idioms, and
even the writing systems of several Indie languages,
such as Urdu, Sindhi, Baluchi, Pashtu, and Panjabi.
Indeed, the poetic symbolism of Urdu poetry and its
nuances cannot be appreciated without a background
in Persian.

Pioneering the use of Indian vernaculars for com-
posing poetry were various Sufis, or mystics. While it
may be too simplistic to conceive of them as mission-
aries who converted substantial portions of the local
population to Islam, the evidence strongly suggests
that it was Sufis, composing poetry in local languages,
who were responsible for the widespread dissemina-
tion of ideas among the masses. The most significant
characteristic of this poetry was its folk character,
drawing on indigenous traditions of folk songs, as a
way of communicating with audiences who did not
understand Persian or Arabic. Poets freely adopted
indigenous literary structures and forms from folk
poetic traditions that were predominantly oral in
character and meant to be sung or recited with musi-
cal accompaniment. Often, these folk poems were
incorporated in popular Sufi rituals such as the
sama and qawwali (concerts of mystical music). As
this folk poetic tradition was closely tied to women’s
traditions, Sufi poetry in the vernaculars extensively
adopts forms and symbols of songs sung by women as
they performed their daily household chores such as
spinning, weaving, grinding grain, and singing lulla-
bies. As Richard Eaton illustrates in his book Sufis of
Bijapur, Sufi poets incorporated in these songs basic
teachings of Islam by drawing parallels between vari-
ous household activities and Islamic practice or doc-
trine. The constant humming of the spinning wheel
was compared to the Sufi dhikr, or ritual repetition of
the names of God, while the upright handle of the
grindstone ( chakki) reminded one of the letter alif for
Allah; the axle recalls the importance of Prophet
Muhammad as a pivot of faith and the grain that is

619

POETRY, INDIAN

being ground resembles the ego self which must be
transformed.

Perhaps the most interesting Indian literary con-
vention that Sufi poets incorporated into their poetry
is representing the soul as the virahini, a woman
who is longing for her beloved, who is symbolically
God. Though the woman-soul symbol is rare in
Persian and Arabic poetry, it is quite common in
Indian literature. Its most renowned use is in Hindu
devotional poetry addressed to Krishna to whom
the gopis, or milkmaids, in particular Radha, express
their longing for union. Muslim poets adapted
this symbol to various Islamic theological frame-
works, varying the identity of the Muslim virahini'' s
beloved according to the context. In some cases the
beloved could be God, or the Prophet Muhammad,
or even the Sufi shaykh. In the ginans, the devotional
poems of the subcontinent’s Khoja Ismaili commu-
nities, the virahini s beloved could even be the Shi‘i
Imam. Naturally, the genre of folk poetry would vary
not only from one Muslim theological context to
another but also from region to region. Thus, in the
South Indian region of Tamilnadu, the pillaitamil
(baby poem) which was usually addressed to a
Hindu deity such as Krishna in his form as a baby,
was adapted for singing the praises of the baby
Prophet Muhammad.

Muslim writers in the vernaculars could also ex-
press their ideas through other literary devices. In
areas of northern India, especially where Hindi dia-
lects such as Awadhi, Braj, and Bhojpuri were spo-
ken, they used the romantic epic as a vehicle to
transmit mystical ideas. In this, they were probably
inspired by the well-established Persian tradition in
which romances such as Yusuf-Zulaykha are retold
within a mystical framework. The use of Indian
romances can be dated to 1379, when the Hindi poet
Maulana Daud, disciple of a Chishti Sufi master,
composed the Chandayan, in which he retells the ro-
mance between Lurak and Chanda as a mystical alle-
gory. This epic was so famous that Badauni, the
author of Muntakhab al-Tawarikh, records that a
Muslim preacher used excerpts from Maulana
Daud’s epic during his sermon in the mosque because
of its great impact on listeners. A pioneering literary
work, the Chandayan initiated a centuries-long tradi-
tion of Islamic mystical romances in various dialects
of Hindi, including masterpieces such as Kutuban’s
Mrigavati (composed in 1503), Malik Muhammad
Jaisi’s Padmavat (composed in 1540), and Manjhan’s
Madhumalati (composed in 1545).

Use of popular romances in communicating mysti-
cal ideas is also found outside the Hindi-speaking
belt. In the late fourteenth century, Shah Muhammad
Saghir composed in Bengali the epic of Yusuf and

Zulaykha, which was based partly on the Persian
tradition. This was the first of many such Islamic
poetic epics in Bengali. In the Punjab, poets not only
composed such epics in Punjabi, but they also regu-
larly alluded to legendary Punjabi lovers in other
poetic genres. Such was also the case in Sind, where
we find Qazi Qadan (d. 1551), an early poet, alluding
to Sindhi romances in his compositions. This trend
was continued by later poets, the technique being
perfected in the eighteenth century in the poetry of
the Shah Abdul Latif in whose skillful hands the
heroines of the romances are transformed into sym-
bols for the soul longing for union with God through
suffering and death.

Aside from the major thematic emphasis on por-
traying the human-divine relationship as one of
yearning love, Muslim poetry in the vernaculars is
characterized by other overarching themes: the con-
demnation of intellectualism and bookish learning as
a means of approaching God, the main targets of
criticism being the religious scholars and jurists who
claimed exclusive authority to interpret matters of
faith; the uselessness of blindly performed rituals;
the centrality of the Prophet Muhammad as a guide,
friend, and intercessor for the faithful; and the impor-
tance of the pir as a source of mystical guidance and
instruction. On account of his special relationship as a
wall (friend of God), and as a representative of the
Prophet Muhammad, the pir also possesses a special
numinous power (barakah) that can help the devotee
through all sorts of difficulties, worldly or spiritual.
The most controversial aspect of this poetry, at least
in the eyes of the conservatives, was its expression of
ideas associated with the wahdat al-wujud (unity of
existence) mystical philosophy, traditionally asso-
ciated with the school of Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240), the
Arabo-Hispanic mystic. This mystical philosophy,
which had far-reaching influence in many different
Muslim literary traditions, was used in India by Sufi
poets to stress the fundamental unity of all that may
outwardly appear multiple or different. As a conse-
quence, Muslim poets composed verses indicating that
there was no difference between Hindu and Muslim, or
Ram and Rahim, or Nimrud and Abraham. Naturally,
conservatives were alarmed by these expressions,
which they felt blurred the distinction between Creator
and creation.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Alam, Muzaffar. “The Culture and Politics of Persian in
Pre-colonial Hindustan.” In Literary Cultures in Histo-
ry: Reconstructions from South Asia , edited by Sheldon
Pollock, 131-198. Berkeley, 2003.

620

POETRY, PERSIAN

Asani, Ali S. “Muslim Literatures in South Asia.” In Mus-
lim Almanac , edited by Azim Nanji, 355-364. Detroit:
Gale, 1996.

Eaton, Richard. Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700. Princeton,
1978.

POETRY, PERSIAN

Poetry is one of the great glories of medieval Persian
civilization; an enormous amount of verse in various
genres, much of it of very high quality, was written
throughout the medieval period and much has sur-
vived. After the Arab conquest of the seventh century
“two centuries of silence” descended on the country;
in the ninth century poetry in Persian began to be
written again, in the quasi-independent courts of east-
ern Iran. Vigorous patronage by the Samanids, who
ruled in Khorasan from c. 875 CE to the beginning
of the eleventh century, meant that the style of the
first centuries of Persian poetry's revival is named
Khorasani. It is characterized by dignity, relative sim-
plicity, and an immediacy of emotional effect. The
earliest poems were panegyrics, and the rhetoric of
adulation and supplication endemic to courtly praise
poetry pervades virtually all Persian poetic genres,
including the erotic and the mystical, with the partial
exception of epic. Panegyric remained a major form
throughout the medieval period, occupying a place in
the court culture similar to that of the official portrait
in the later court cultures of Europe.

The major genres of Persian poetry emerged in the
period of the Khorasani style (tenth to early twelfth
centuries). These include the short poem or epigram,
generally in the four line rubai (pi. rubaiyat) form, or
as a qate’ (fragment, a form often used for satire or
personal invective); the medium-length poem of
praise (usually in the qasideh form); the lyric (ghazal),
which developed from the traditionally lyrical open-
ing of the qasideh; and the long narrative, which
could be epic, romance, a didactic/mystical work,
or some combination of the three. Narratives were
written in couplets; all the other mentioned forms use
monorhyme (stanzaic forms exist in Persian but are
relatively rare). With the exception of the meter of
the rubai, and that normally employed for epic, all
Persian meters, of which there are a large number, are
derived from meters in Arabic poetry, and like them
are scanned quantitatively rather than accentually
(pre-Islamic Persian meter appears to have been basi-
cally accentual: accentual meters still exist in some
folk/popular compositions). The Khorasani style’s
masterpiece is the Shahnameh (c. 1010) of Ferdowsi,
which recounts the pre-Islamic myths and romanti-
cized history of Iran from the creation of the world to
the Arab conquest. Sanai (d. 1131) is credited with

writing the first important mystical masnavi in
Persian (Hadiqat a-Haqiqat, "The Garden of the
Truth’’), and he is also one of the earliest writers
of the ghazal. Epigrams (as rubaiyat) were widely
written in this period; the usual ascription of
many of them to Omar Khayyam is historically
doubtful.

The most significant works in the majority of Per-
sian verse genres, apart from epic and epigram, were
produced in the so-called Eraqi style (mid-twelfth to
fifteenth centuries), which flourished throughout Iran
but is particularly associated with Shiraz in the south-
ern heartland of the country. Eraqi style is more lush
and more cerebral than Khorasani, delighting in dec-
oration, word play, and conspicuous euphony. Many
of the tropes current during the period of the
Khorasani style had become conventional, and in its
elaborate use of such conventions, Eraqi poetry was
consciously intertextual and self-referential, presup-
posing a fairly high level of literary sophistication
in its audiences. The influential romances of the
Azerbaijani poet Nezami (1141-1209), Kliosrow o
Shirin, Leili o Majnun, Haft Paykar, may be regarded
as transitional between the two styles. Nezami’s con-
temporary, Attar (c. 1136-c. 1220), wrote mystical
narratives (the best known is the Manteq al-Tayr,
Conference of the Birds), a form that achieved its
most celebrated success in the Masnavi-e Ma’navi of
Rumi (1207-1273). Two natives of Shiraz, Sa’di
(c. 1213-1292) and Hafez (c. 1319-c. 1390), are the
acknowledged masters of the ghazal; Sa’di’s are writ-
ten with unrivaled elegance and euphony, while
Hafez’s combine erotic and mystical motifs with con-
summate technical sophistication. Jahan Khatun, the
daughter of a ruler of Shiraz during Hafez’s lifetime,
is the only medieval woman poet whose divan (com-
plete short poems) has come down to us, though she
was preceded by the tenth to eleventh century
Rabe’eh Qozdari, and the twelfth century Mahsati; a
few poems by both these woman poets have survived.

As the Eraqi style flourished, Persian poetry was
more extensively appreciated and written outside the
confines of Persia itself. Poetry in Persian had been
written in northern India since the Ghaznavid con-
quests of the eleventh century, but it is in the time of
Sa’di that we find poets of the first rank (for example,
Rumi in Turkey and Amir Khosrow [1253-1325] in
India) writing outside of Persia. Persian verse retained
great prestige in both Turkey and Moslem India, as
well as in areas of Central Asia, throughout the later
medieval period and beyond. In the sixteenth century
the establishment of the Moghul court in northern
India, and its adoption of Persian as the court
language, gave rise to a distinctive Indian literature
written in Persian.

621

POETRY, PERSIAN

Poetry in the fifteenth century is dominated by the
figure of Jami (1414-1492), who set out to excel in
virtually all current forms of poetry and belles-lettres
and convinced many of his contemporaries that he
had done so. His great fame, and the changes that
overtook Iranian culture shortly after his death, mean
that he is traditionally regarded as the last of the
“classical” poets. In the Safavid period (1501-1736)
a new style, prefigured in some of Jami’s verses, the
“Indian Style,” emerges. There is debate as to wheth-
er the style first appeared in India or Iran, but the
name is fitting since many of its best-known practi-
tioners lived in India. This style is rhetorically com-
plex, tends to use startling and original metaphors,
and the poems often deal with abstruse subjects: It is
thus broadly comparable to the Gongorist style in
Europe. It remained current in Persian poetry until
the mid-eighteenth century, when a return to earlier
and simpler models of rhetoric was advocated.

Richard Davis

Further Reading

De Bruijn, J. T. P. Persian Sufi Poetry. Richmond, 1997.
Meisami, Julie Scott. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Prin-
ceton, 1987.

Pagliaro A., and A. Bausani. Storia della Letteratura Persi-
ana. Milan, 1960.

Safa, Zabihollah. Tarikh-e adabiyat dar iron ( The History of
Literature in Iran). 5 vols. Tehran, 1366/1987.

Yarshater, E. (Ed). Persian Literature. New York, 1988.

POLICE

The police (shurta) as an urban force responsible for
suppression of crime evolved from a military forma-
tion referred to as shurtat al-khamis, which apparently
existed in Kufa during the rule of ‘Ali (656-660). The
association between the shurta and the military
continued during the Umayyad and early ‘Abbasid
period. According to Fred M. Donner, the shurta was
a military force used to fight Muslim rebels, whereas
Michael Lecker considers it an elite force. The Egyp-
tian chronicler al-Kindi (897-961) provides a list of
people who were nominated as the chiefs of Fustat
shurta during the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, but
the precise nature of this force is difficult to ascertain.

In tenth-century Fustat there were two shurta
forces known as the Upper and Lower shurta, and
their role as an urban police responsible for the sup-
pression of crime is clearly attested to for the Fatimid
period (969-1171). The chiefs of police exercised judi-
cial power and were responsible for the punishment of
criminals. By the tenth century the chief of police
monopolized the administration of criminal justice

to the exclusion of the cadi. According to an adminis-
trative text from Baghdad of the early Buyid period
(c. 950) the chief of police had to be familiar with the
scale of punishments, but legal education was not a
qualification required from him. He was advised to
study texts such as the Book of Brigands, apparently
by Jahiz (776-869), and other unspecified works such
as kutub ashab al-shurut wa-sivar al-muluk.

In Fustat during the Fatimid period, the people
nominated as chiefs of police were eunuchs of the
court and officers among the Kutama Berbers. In
364/974-975, an attempt to involve jurists (fuqaha’)
in the in the process of the administration of criminal
justice was unsuccessful. In 401/1010-1011, on the
other hand, the chief cadi Malik ibn al-Fariqi forbade
the chiefs of police to intervene in the jurisdiction
exercised by the cadi according to the Muslim holy
law, the sharia. A certain encroachment of the chief
of police on the judicial domain of the cadi is attested
to by the sources. For example, cases of apostasy from
Islam were dealt with by the cadi and the chief of
police. According to the holy law, apostasy is a capital
offense. In the Fatimid period the apostates were
handed to the chief of policy for the implementation
of the death penalty.

The problematic coexistence between the jurisdic-
tion exercised by the cadi and that of the chief of
police is illustrated by the appointment, in August
1011, of the military commander Muhammad ibn
Nizzal as the chief of the two police forces in the
Egyptian capital. His letter of appointment stated
that it is his duty to implement the Qur’anic dictum
“to command right and to forbid wrong” and, in
practical terms, he was entrusted with the implemen-
tation of a comprehensive ban on the sale and pro-
duction of wine. The reference to this Qur’anic dictum
as describing the function of the chief of police can be
understood as an attempt to Islamize the extra sharia
jurisdiction enforced by the chief of police. To what
degree there was any congruency between the holy
law and the criminal justice administrated by the
chief of police is a vexing question. A further compli-
cation arises when one takes into account the involve-
ment of the rulers themselves in the administration of
criminal justice. In AH 257/870-871 CE, in Baghdad,
a serial killer, ‘Ali the strangler, was flogged to death
on the order of the caliph and, in 321/933-934, a band
of highway robbers was punished at the presence of
the caliph. Their chief was flogged and executed while
the others were punished by having their hands and
legs cut off. Public punishment, including execution,
of criminals was typical of premodern societies and
aimed to deter offenders and restore the moral order.
The royal patronage of such events served to manifest
the ruler’s commitment to uphold the moral order

622

POLITICAL THEORY

and rule of law. These points are neatly demonstrated
by a letter addressed by Fatimid ruler al-‘Aziz to his
vizier, Ya'qub ibn Killis. In 373/983-984, a foreign
merchant was murdered and robbed at a covered
market (qaysariyya) in Fustat. Rashiq, the slave of
the chief of police, made several arrests, but people
accused him as being behind the murder and claimed
that he had arrested innocent people. A petition to
that effect was submitted to al-‘Aziz, who wrote to the
vizier instructing him “to cleanse this disgrace from
our dynasty and the grief it had caused to it.” indeed,
the chief of the police was temporarily removed from
his post. Justice was considered as an Islamic virtue
and rulers declared their commitment to the rule of
justice. Thus, the involvement of Muslim rulers with
the administration of criminal justice is perfectly un-
derstood, but it raises the question whether the holy
law was strictly implemented in those cases or the
emphasis was more on summary justice.

It seems that in the twelfth century the status of the
chief of police was on the decline. During the 1 120s in
Fatimid state receptions and ceremonies, the chiefs of
the two police forces in the capital were at the bottom
of the list of state functionaries, preceding only the
heads of the non-Muslim communities and non-
Muslim secretaries. During the thirteenth century
the terms police and chief of police disappeared from
the sources, and new appellations wali (meaning the
chief of police forces in Fustat and Cairo) and ma’una
(meaning police) became common. The police as an
urban institution completely degenerated during the
Mamluk period. This development is in line with Ira
M. Lapidus’ observation that “The Mamluks gov-
erned not by administration, but by holding all of
the vital social threads in their hands”. Thus, many
aspects of urban life were left to the discretion of the
Mamluk emirs, and the distinction between adminis-
trative responsibilities and police functions was
blurred. The same process is attested to for Damascus
and Aleppo. The existence of a police force (shurta)
in Damascus during the second half of the tenth
century is well attested to by the sources. However,
during the twelfth century the term shurta disap-
peared from the sources and was replaced by a new
urban official: the shihna, who combined in his hands
the authority of an urban prefect and a military gov-
ernor. This new institution was also very prominent in
thirteenth-century Aleppo.

Yaacov Lev

Primary Sources

Anonymous. Siycisat al-Muluk. Edited by J. Sadan. “A New
Source of the Buyid Period.” Israel Oriental Studies IX
(1979): 355-376.

Ibn Jawzi. Al-Muntazam fi Ta’rikh al-Umam wa-l-Muluk.
Edited by ‘Ata, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qadir and ‘Ata,
Mustafa ‘Abd al-Qadir. Beirut, 1992, vol.12, 124;
vol.13, 316.

Ibn al-Ma’mun. Akhbar Misr. Edited by A. F. Sayyid.
Cairo, 1983.

Itti’az al-Hunafa’. Edited by Al-Shayyal, Jamal al-Din.
Cairo, 1967, vol. 1, 262-263.

Kindi. The Governors and Judges of Egypt (together with
fragments of Raf al-Isr by Ibn Hajar). Edited by
R. Guest. London, 1912.

Maqrizi. Kit ah al-Muqaffa al-Kabir. Edited by M. Yalaoui.
Beirut, 1991, vol.5, 433M34.

Further Reading

Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses. The Evolution of the
Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1980, 248, n.474.

Donner, Fred M. “The Shurta in Early Umayyad Syria.” In
The Fourth International Conference on the History of
Bilad al-Sham. Amman, 1989, 247-262.

Lapidus, Ira M. Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Lecker, Michael. “Shurtat al-Khamis and Other Matters:
Notes on the Translation of Tabari’s Ta’rikh.” Jerusa-
lem Studies in Arabic and Islam 14(1991): 276-288.

Lev, Yaacov. “Charity and Justice in Medieval Islam.”
Rivista degli Studi Orientali LXXVI (2002): 1-16.

POLITICAL THEORY

The title “Islamic political theory” should be under-
stood as a euphemism only for the sake of conve-
nience and as a shorthand description to signify
diverse strains of political thought in medieval Islamic
history.

Political theories emerged as responses to various
challenges including the debate over the legitimacy of
the caliphate, providing advice to sovereigns, guiding
the political institution in certain directions, and
elaborating an ideal political regime. All strains of
thought followed a course of evolution in direct
contact with the sociopolitical realities of their sur-
roundings, and therefore not only rationalized the
conceptualization of the political process but also con-
tributed with novel particularities to political thought
in response to specific challenges. In this necessarily
brief survey, only the broad outlines of three tradi-
tions will be given: legal paradigm, siyasa (practical
governance), and political philosophy. Apart from
references for the purposes of comparison, political
thought of the Shi‘is and Mu’tazilites has not been
examined here. Also, this treatment cannot offer a
comprehensive survey of the diversity and nature of
Islamic political theories. Any detailed examination
must treat the discussion of reason and revelation
as applied in political theory to dispel the mistaken

623

POLITICAL THEORY

impression that Islamic political thought has been
fully and overtly religious, with no room for human
morality and rationality. Appropriate attention must
also be given to the Mu'tazilitcs, Shi‘is, and Philoso-
phers whose political views surfaced and resurfaced in
the ideological and intellectual compromises of the
post-Mongolian political milieu.

Qur’an

Most frequently cited Qur’anic terms that are used to
construct political views in medieval Islamic history
are to possess or to dominate, m-l-k; to judge or to rule
over, h-k-m; to succeed, kh-l-f; and finally, to lead,
a-m-rn, although they occur in the Qur’an in unrelated
or only slightly relevant contexts. Although the Qur’an
itself does not offer a vision that can be defined as
political, it certainly encourages the believers to pursue
an organized social and distinctly urban life. The reve-
lations in the Qur’an brought a new sense of commu-
nity and mission to the faithful, which probably
encouraged political organization. Some suggestive
broad political maxims in the Qur’an make reference
to kingship and even traditional tribal leadership. A
number of verses refer to the Egyptian Pharaohs as
kings in the context of the stories of Moses and Joseph
(al-Zukhruf 51; Yusuf 43, 50, 54, 72). Israelites ask
Moses for a king to lead them in warfare (al-Baqara
246); David is given a kingdom (al-Baqara 251); and
Israelites were made kings over other nations (al-
Maida 20). Except for one verse (al-Naml 34: “When
kings enter a country, they despoil it, and make the
noblest of its people its meanest; thus do they be-
have”), the outlook of the Qur’an to kingship may
be defined as mirroring a historical institution without
a particular stance for or against it. Also significant
is the Qur’anic sympathy for city life, especially vis-
a-vis nomadic modus vivendi, for which the Qur’an
displays a clear disdain (al-Quraysh; al-Tawba 101,
120). It is conceivable that the Qur’anic references to
city life, to politically organized societies, and to king-
ship in neutral and even positive terms preconditioned,
without pointing out any details and direction, the
Muslim community to appreciate and even seek a
political framework beyond the nomadic-tribal social
organization of North Arabia.

Caliphate

The establishment of the caliphate in 632 was certain-
ly a groundbreaking achievement politically and in-
tellectually in medieval Islamic history. Muhammad

was above all a messenger transmitting God’s revela-
tions to his community. He was also the leader of his
community, in charge of its political organization in
Medina. His position in Medina had therefore created
a context to which his followers responded in his
absence. Indeed, his death prompted a controversy
among his followers in respect to his political legacy
on two fundamental issues; the form of his political
community and the nature of his religious preroga-
tives — whether transferable to a successor, real or
corporeal. The birth of the caliphate (khalifa, or dep-
uty, from khalafa, meaning “to succeed”) immediate-
ly after his death in 632 was a response to both
challenges. This new institution secured the political
unity of the community against centrifugal tendencies
partially responsible for the first civil war and its
aftermath and set the political organization on a
path of centralized government. The second matter,
however, proved to be a contentious issue for at least
the first two centuries in the history of the caliphate.
As such, how the early Muslim community under-
stood the meaning and nature of the caliphate
remains disputed among scholars. Nonetheless, by
the tenth century the caliphate seems to have been
stripped of its pretensions to religious prerogatives in
a long contestation with religious scholars, although
the caliph was privileged with an aura of holiness.
One must, however, modify that assertion by at least
one condition that it was still possible for the caliph to
claim, like his counterpart rulers in the Latin West,
religious authority by invoking messianic expecta-
tions, which did happen in a number of cases. Howev-
er, this was more of an exception rather than the rule.
As an institution, the caliphate evolved in constant
reciprocal relation with its political realities, tribal
and sedentary Arabic political traditions, local cus-
toms, and Islamic values taking shape within the soci-
ety. The conventions of appointment and succession,
nature of authority, qualifications of the caliph owed
much to this multifaceted relationship and affected the
content of political thought. The historical political
institution for and against which political views were
articulated reflected certain features. First of all, the
caliphate was confined to the members of Quraysh.
Secondly, the method of appointment and succession
to rule was not uniform; it ranged from election
(shura) to appointment (ahd), to even military cue/
usurpation (ghlaba). The caliph was appointed ad
vitam until his death or removal from office by force.
The nature and limits of his authority were not defined
and was, in fact, contested by tribal centrifugalism,
opposition of religiopolitical movements, and later
by military commanders and more significantly
sultans. Competing caliphates in Egypt (the Shi‘i
Fatimids) and Spain (Umayyads) in the tenth century

624

POLITICAL THEORY

put to the test the unity of the caliphate in both practice
and theory. When the Buyids and later the Seljuks
occupied Baghdad and turned the caliph into a sec-
ondary and increasing shadow figure in the eleventh
century, onward they brought with them the discus-
sion of the position of the sultan vis-a-vis the caliph.
Seljuk migration from Central Asia in the eleventh
century and particularly the Mongol conquests in the
thirteeneth century brought about a new type of sover-
eigns who derived their legitimacy not from jurispru-
dential delegation of authority (although the Seljuks
did benefit from such provisions) but from their dynas-
tic birthright. With such dynasties came also new
sources of law based on secular nomadic customs
rendering impossible to limit the discussion on poli-
tics to caliphate. As the succession to the caliphate
and policies of caliphs were matters of controversy in
an age of rapid expansion and organization, the issue
of legitimacy and competition for the office led not
only to civil wars but also to ideological disputes
within the Muslim community. Right from the begin-
ning, the controversy over the caliphate involved the
identity of the rightful candidate for the office. The
first civil war during the reigns of Uthman and Ali
(656-661) led to the separation of the Kharijites from
the rank of Ali, while the second civil war (683-692)
helped the crystallization of Shi'i, Umayyad, and
anti-Umayyad opposition, squeezing out in the pro-
cess the initial political discussions around the quali-
fication of the caliph and the legitimacy of his rule.
With the consolidation of the conquests, the growth
of urban centers and urban classes, the establishment
of the ‘Abbasid caliphate in 750 onward, and more
significantly the religiopolitical developments among
the Mu’tazilites, the Shi'is (Imami and Zaydi varieties),
and proto-Sunnites (and later Sunnites) supplied new
debates and new ideas into political thought on sub-
jects ranging from necessity of the imamate to identity
and qualifications of the imam. One must add to this
the spread of political ideologies of state bureaucrats,
mostly promoting initially Sasanian, but later Turkic
and Hellenistic political practices, and of Greek polit-
ical philosophies, which were elaborated through
translations and writings of Muslim philosophers.
It was against this rich background that political
theories were formulated and reformulated.

Pioneering Debates

One might be surprised to read that the debate over
the free will and predestination or the position of the
sinner in faith had anything to do with political
thought. Yet a position on each one of these questions

had ramifications for recognizing or denying the legit-
imacy of the Umayyad caliphs. As the Umayyads
believed their rule to be something ordained by
God, they promoted predestinarian views, whereas
some of their opposition supported the idea of free
will and held Umayyads accountable for their actions.
Likewise, if the Umayyads could be described as sin-
ners for a number of reasons (least of which killing
and religious laxity), were they still a part of the
community of faithful and therefore legitimate caliphs
despite their sins? Another front where political views
were articulated was the comparative merit or excel-
lence of the first four caliphs. In the seventh and
eighth centuries the order of excellence was not yet
stable. Whereas the non-Shi‘is seem to draw a line
between the reign of the first two caliphs (Abu Bakr
and Umar) and later ones (Uthman and Ali), the
former being the most excellent, and displayed
conflicting views about the latter, the Shi'is ques-
tioned the legitimacy of the historical caliphate in
toto as they were in the process of developing the
idea of a divinely appointed imam. A corollary debate
involved the distinction between the reign of the first
four caliphs and later caliphates (caliphate vs. king-
ship). One of the most important debates among the
opposition to the Umayyads concerned the succession
to rule, particularly the call for shura and election
against Umayyad practices of family succession. Dur-
ing ‘Abbasid times, however, the call for shura
remained a distant echo in the Kharijite opposition
and, in few instances, in dynastic competition. The
Shi'i opposition during the Umayyad caliphate pro-
moted a Hashimite right to the caliphate. However, as
the ‘Abbasids excluded the Alids from their dynastic
lineage the Shi'i opposition became increasingly
focused on Alid lineage, eventually settling on a par-
ticular imam among the Alids. Since much of the
debate about politics in early Islamic centuries
involved legitimacy of the caliph and qualification of
an ideal candidate for the office, political thought
became increasingly focused on the personality of
the candidate. The rise of powerful sultanates in the
eleventh century onward provided the necessary his-
torical background for an elaborate discussion of the
theories of the sultanate, which proliferated especially
in the wake of the Mongol conquests. Such develop-
ments gradually rendered the classical theory centered
on the caliph obsolete and provoked rational
responses among religious scholars to modify their
views. The modification came as shifting the focus of
discussion onto the conduct of the holders of coercive
power in the House of Islam, the Amirs and Sultans,
who were finally vested after the Mongol conquest
with legal political authority instead of the caliph.
After the Mongol conquests the discussion of politics

625

POLITICAL THEORY

no longer involved in any serious measure the caliph-
ate rather the proliferating sultanates. One may ex-
amine medieval Islamic political thought in three
main groups, which are not necessarily aligned with
sectarian divisions: First is the theory formulated by
legal scholars and theologians, which we may call
legal theory because it was based to a large extent
on jurisprudential reasoning. Second is siyasa, which
represented the views promoted by bureaucrats or
secretaries and which evolved into the genre of mirror
for princes and incorporated ethics (akhlaq) into
political thought. The third is political philosophy
advanced by Muslim philosophers.

Legal Theory

Legal theories of politics were put forth by the proto-
Sunni and Sunni religious scholars in an atmosphere
of debate and interaction with three major fronts:
alternative religiopolitical currents, including the
Shi‘is, Kharijites, and Mu'tazilitcs; secretaries; and
finally, the caliphate itself. Overall tenor of the legal
theories may be described as defending the historical
caliphate against its political and sectarian opposition
as legal scholars saw the caliphate as the source of
unity and welfare of the Muslim community. Yet at
the same time political views came about as a con-
scious attempt to place the caliphate on a trajectory
more agreeable to the legal framework already in
formation and less amenable to the intellectual legacy
of Sasanian imperial tradition — ideological and intel-
lectual background of 'Abbas id secretaries. It is in
this delicate balance between recognizing the legitima-
cy of the historical caliphate and steering it in the
direction of the ideal imamate that we find the distinc-
tion the legal scholars made between the rightful
imamate and kingship. Legal theory holds that
appointing an imam is necessary — even a religious
obligation for the community — contrary to many
Mu’tazilites who thought that the imamate was nei-
ther necessary nor religiously obligatory. It is also
required that the caliph be Muslim from the tribe of
Quraysh, a view that again many Mu’tazilites and
Kharijites did not require or even accept. The Shi‘is,
on the other hand, limited the imamate to the descen-
dants of Ali, at best the politically active members of
Banu Hashim (Zaydites). Legal theory emphasized
that the imam should be elected. The terms of election
were rational enough to accommodate practical neces-
sities. The election could be either through a selection
of one well-qualified individual or a group of qualified
electors (ahl al-hall wa al-aqd) . It could also, as stipu-
lated by al-Ghazali (1 1 1 1 ) in the age of Sultanates, be

through the selection of ahl al-shawka, or holders of
coercive power, that is, sultans. The imam could also
be appointed by his predecessor or win himself the
seat through a successful military cue (ghlaba). While
the emphasis on election was clearly a response to the
Shi‘i view of the divinely appointed imam ( nass ) , its
ramifications cannot be confined to sectarian compe-
tition. The provision that the imam must be the most
excellent of the community was generally reserved by
the tenth century for the first four caliphs and
involved to a large extent the debate over the legiti-
macy and the comparative merit of the Rightly Guid-
ed Caliphs (Rashidun), although it certainly was also
intended for improving the historical conditions of
the caliphate, which was not always in line with reli-
gious scholars’ expectations. Zaydites advocated the
imamate of the most excellent among the family of
the Prophet, whereas the Mu’tazilites allowed the
imamate of the less qualified for practical reasons
and to prevent dissension. There can be only one
imam at a time, although al-Baghdadi (1037) stipu-
lated that it was acceptable to have more than one
imam if two regions were separated from each other
by a significant barrier such as a large body of water.
Legal theory as elaborated by al-Mawardi (1058) and
later scholars identified some qualifications for the
caliph: knowledge of laws, legal probity, and physical
and mental fitness to carry his political and military
duties. The duties of the caliph, on the other hand,
simply comprised the governance of the caliphate,
leading armies in warfare, protecting the community
against military threats, assuring the implementation
of laws, distribution of justice, and appointing lesser
administrators who represented the caliph in
their respective responsibilities. (By the time of al-
Mawardi, this included the de facto rulers as well).
Because legal theory held the unity of the community
to be one of the foremost aims of the caliphate, it
frowned upon dissension and advocated obedience to
the ruling caliph as long as the laws of Shari’a were
not violated, in which case obedience becomes not
only unnecessary but also prohibited — a condition
that allowed, significantly, legitimate dissent to keep
the power of the ruler in check. Nevertheless, legal
political theory does not, in general, stipulate a regu-
lation for deposing the caliph apart from apostasy,
loss of freedom, and of sanity. Political theory of
legal scholars was first initiated to some extent in the
jurisprudential corpus (such as Abu Yusuf’s Kitab al-
Kharaj ), which was mostly based on Hadiths attribu-
ted to the Prophet and the practice of the first four
caliphs. It was elaborated in Hadith works of the ninth
century and given a prominent place in the works of
theology (Kalam), beginning with al-Ash’ari.

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POLITICAL THEORY

Siyasa or Mirror for Princes

Already during the late Umayyad period, but increas-
ingly with the establishment of the ‘Abbasid caliphate,
the genre of political advice (produced in a range
of literary styles from fables to poetry and for the
consumption of rulers and educated lay) occupied a
substantial place in medieval Islamic political imagi-
nation. Expressed and elaborated in treatises of advice
to governors, caliphs, princes, and secretaries this
genre began largely with transmitting Sasanian impe-
rial practice as exemplified in the activities of Ibn
al-Muqaffa (757). However, it gradually became a
genre incorporating aspects of practical ethics
(akhlaq), jurisprudence, and Greek political philoso-
phy, thus forming an influential political ideology
that Amirs and Sultans of the late ‘Abbasid period
aspired to follow. This genre proliferated in the post-
Mongol political and cultural environment and was
primarily addressed to rulers for the purpose of im-
proving governance by discussing the necessary moral
qualifications of the ruler and of advising him on
manners to help in practical politics. Despite all of
its practical purposes, it also promoted and advocated
a distinct vision of politics and governance. Foremost
is the promotion of kingship and king, who must be
obeyed at all costs, as the central theme of its political
theory. It was the duty of the king to protect his
domains against any enemy who committed to dis-
turb the sociopolitical equilibrium. Contrary to para-
digmatic legal theory, which saw the caliphate
embedded in religious law, siyasa saw royal authority
and religion as twins whose survival depends on the
welfare of the other. Such concern with balancing
religion and kingship for the survival of royal author-
ity is also reflected in the emphasis on social equilibri-
um, which is accomplished only by keeping every
class in its respective place. It is no other than justice,
a notion that was largely inherited from Near Eastern
imperial traditions and supplanted by experiences
from actual practice in Islamic context, that can
maintain this equilibrium. The famous circle of justice
aptly demonstrates the centrality of the king, the
pragmatic organization of social order, the function
of each class in society, and the necessary medium to
keep this order in balance for the prosperity of all: No
royal authority is possible without military; military
needs finance and finance depends on taxes levied on
subjects; subjects can be maintained only by justice
and justice is provided by royal authority. Remark-
ably, the references to religious law (Shari’a) do not
figure prominently in this genre. Shari’a law was cer-
tainly taken into account as social conduct and moral
attitude derived much from it, but royal authority and
justice were not dependent on Shari’a law, as was the

case with legal theory. To the extent that the Shari’a
law was a part of the society, the ruler and his subjects
were obliged to respect its stipulations for maintain-
ing political and social harmony; religion was, after
all, one of the twins. First of all, the siyasa was much
more interested in practical governance and the ways
by which this should be accomplished. Secondly, the
reality was that dynastic laws were based on extrare-
ligious traditions and customs and did not derive their
legitimacy from religious laws. In fact, siyasa flour-
ished better and was more meaningful and effective in
situations where political legitimacy rested on inher-
ited dynastic right or divine mandate, as was the case
with Turkic, Persian, and Mongolic sultanates in
Central Asia and the Middle East.

Political Philosophy

It would be futile to cramp down the views expressed
in political philosophy into highly condensed lines,
because political theories vary widely from Philoso-
pher King of al-Farabi to Governance of the Solitary
of Ibn Bajja. Rather, a broad sketch of common
aspects of political philosophy will be given. Among
the work translated from Greek heritage into Arabic,
political philosophy formed a portion. Swinging be-
tween advice (Epistles of Salim) and theoretical expo-
sition of political authority, political philosophy
emerged finally as a creative merger of ancient philo-
sophical heritage, late antique royal legacy, and new
Islamic experience. Similar to the legal theory and
siyasa, the elaboration of political philosophy needed
courtly patronage, yet unlike the genre of siyasa, it
did not concern itself primarily with advising the
ruler; it did not address them either. Political philoso-
phy offered a theoretical exposition of politics under
the rubric of tripartite practical philosophy. Further-
more, contrary to the legal theory and siyasa, political
philosophy dealt extensively with raison d’etre and
origins of political authority, which gave it, together
with philosophy’s general orientation, a distinct hu-
manistic and rational dimension. Whereas legal theo-
ry and siyasa approached political organization as a
given, philosophical exposition started from scratch
with the assumption that political authority arose
from human’s need to organize themselves into peace-
ful communities. Stage by stage, from household
management headed by the male member of the fam-
ily, human beings organized their respective domains
of authority, leading their subordinates closer toward
perfection and happiness. Similarly the king/imam, by
his personal virtues and intellectual capacity, leads his
subjects according to their intellectual and moral
capacities to moral and intellectual perfection and

627

POLITICAL THEORY

happiness. In the body of political philosophy the
king figures as central to the whole system: He rests
at the top of the social hierarchy and represents the
highest moral and intellectual level. Similar to the
genre of mirror for princes, political philosophy,
too sidestepped Shari’a as a basis for political com-
munity. Shari’ a laws were certainly incorporated into
the legal system required for any political organiza-
tion since not all of the subjects were of the same
social, moral, and intellectual capacity and level.
Inspired by the Greek sages, Plato and Aristotle,
Muslim philosophers created a political vision that
took into account Muslim political experience but
did not respond to it directly. Rather, unlike legal
theory and mirror for princes, the vision set forth
the conditions for the ideal rule.

Hayrettin Yucesoy

Further Reading

Black, Anthony. The History of Islamic Political Thought:
From the Prophet to the Present. Routledge, 2001.

Crone, Patricia. Gods Rule: Government and Islam. Colum-
bia University Press, 2004.

. Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh Uni-
versity Press, 2004.

Lambton, Ann K. S. State and Government in Medieval
Islam: An Introduction to the Study of Islamic Political
Theory: The Jurists. Oxford University Press, 1981.

. Theory and Practice in Medieval Persian Govern-
ment. Ashgate Pub Co, June 1, 1980.

Mahdi, Muhsin. Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic
Political Philosophy. University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Rosenthal, Erwin Isak Jakob. Political Thought in Medieval
Islam. Greenwood Press Reprint, 1985.

Watt, W. M. Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh Univer-
sity Press, 1998.

El. 2nd ed. Khalifa (A. K.S. Lambton).

El. 2nd ed. Imama (W. Madelung).

El. 2nd ed. Nasihat al-Muluk (C. E. Bosworth).

POPULAR LITERATURE

Definitions

The contours of what is “popular” and “polite” liter-
ature differ from culture to culture, and the aesthetic
assumptions implicit in this binary division have often
been questioned. Most scholarly works on the literary
history of medieval Islamic literature in Arabic, Per-
sian, and Turkish have followed the already existing
format of literary histories of Western languages and
cultures, adopting their divisions and terminology

without taking into consideration different social
structures, priorities, and aesthetic contours, and
without allowing for the fact that our knowledge of
economic and social life in many parts of the early
medieval Islamic world remains extremely patchy and
hence prone to wild conjectures. The essential consti-
tuents of the study of popular literature — the methods
of composition, the performance and location of per-
formance, as well as the different ways of production
and memorization, the range of participating audi-
ence and solitary readership, and the changes in the
content and diction in time and place — have on the
whole not received the attention they deserve. With
the exception of The Arabian Nights, which since the
growth of interest in magical realism as a universal
genre has become a staple diet of academic courses on
comparative literature, popular texts in Arabic and
other languages of medieval Islamic culture have been
used mostly as quarries for motif-indices without
much attention to other contextual, literary, and his-
torical implications. For example, one of the last
examples of traditional popular Persian prose narra-
tives, The Adventures of Amir Arsalan, was first recit-
ed at the Qajar court in Iran in the second half of the
nineteenth century and contains many themes of
much earlier medieval popular narratives, including
incidents illustrating the wiles of women, a favorite
and recurrent theme in medieval literature, perennial
clashes between good and evil viziers, and that hall-
mark of most popular adventures from Hellenistic
romances to Victorian bodice rippers: the ongoing
though constantly interrupted amorous escapade.
This and other similar examples encourage us to reex-
amine the use of terms such as courtly and medieval as
working definitions and labels of demarcation. More-
over, the occurrence of many of the themes of popular
literature, such as the “wiles of women,” or the im-
portance of the shrewd tutor or governess as an emi-
nence grise in manuals of advice and other less strictly
popular genres, shows again how blurred the con-
tours can be in a culture in which the notions of
entertainment and instruction, popular piety, and sec-
tarian beliefs were often indistinguishable and yet
firmly insisted upon and vociferously stated.

Rise of Islam

These connections and tensions appear from the first
centuries of Islamic history and are reflected in the
early commentaries on the Qur’an. Two denuncia-
tions of “Tales of the ancients” (asatir al-awwalin)
in the Qur’an (VIII, 31; LXXXIII, 13) provide early
exegetes with an opportunity to explain and expand

628

POPULAR LITERATURE

these terse verses in terms of a clash of intentions and
worldviews. Nadhr b. al-Harith, a rich merchant from
the Quraysh and a staunch foe of the Prophet, is
depicted in these commentaries as a purveyor not
only of singing slave girls but also of imported stories
from Persia, regaling the public with tales of the adven-
tures of the Iranian heroes Rostam and Esfandiyar.
This propaganda war against the Prophet, implying
that the Qur’anic stories were merely lackluster pro-
ducts of the same genre, came to a bloody end when the
hapless impresario was beheaded by no less a figure
than ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, who himself was to become the
archetypal Moslem hero in later popular literature and
appear as a latter-day Rostam in many an adventure.

Impact of the Qur’an and its Commentaries

As implied and illustrated earlier in this entry, the
impact of Islam on popular literature can be seen
through several different perspectives. The contribu-
tion of the Qur’an itself was pivotal. Again, as in the
case of the “Tales of the Ancients,” not only its
extended accounts of previous times and past nations,
but also its more condensed allusions, became build-
ing blocks for many a full-blown vita of ancient
prophets and their stories ( Qissas al-anbiya; Isra ’i-
liyyat ) , which began to appear in Arabic and Persian,
and later Uighur and Turkish, commentaries of the
Qur’an and soon attracted such attention that they
began to feature in more and more popular expanded
versions with relatively simple diction and syntax,
ideal as part of a preacher’s baggage of exempla.
One exceptionally extended and self-contained ac-
count, the entire Sura XII of the Qur’an, the story
of the prophet Joseph, which was referred to in the
Qur’an itself as “the best of stories,” was retold more
than any other and praised by the exegetes for its
miraculous encapsulation of all the ingredients of an
ideal story, although some thought that its masterly
evocation of female sexuality was too potent for the
weaker sex and advised its perusal to be limited to
men only. On the other hand, the far more nebulous
figure of Du’l-Qarnayn, “the two-horned” figure in
Sura XVIII, has also had an equally profound but
more complex impact on popular stories, through his
identification with Alexander the Great and through
the fusion of the Qur’anic allusion and its extended
explication by commentators with material culled
from the Alexander romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes.
The mixture of the different strands, Islamic and
Hellenic in this particular popular story, and the
way its figures and motifs reflect preoccupations and
anxieties of different peoples of different regions of

the Islamic world, from Egypt and Ethiopia to the
farthest corners of Islamic penetration into Southeast
Asia, require a multidisciplinary approach and a
knowledge of several indigenous cultural histories.
The mystical figure of Khizr, for example — never
mentioned directly by name in the Qur’an itself —
shares many associations with the Green Man or
Knight of European medieval literature, as well as
the angelic figure of Soroush in pre-Islamic Zoroas-
trian Iran and later Persian poetic imagery and litera-
ture in general, including popular stories. Khizr is not
only a major figure in the Alexander legend but also
appears in other popular tales in his capacity as an
intermediary from above and a helper of the tale’s
hero at the bleakest hour.

Religious Biographies and Campaigns

Along with the Qur’an, the life of the Prophet himself
(al-sira al-nabawiyya ) , and the martial feats of the
Prophet and his Companions (ansar) against the hea-
then ( al-maghazi ) , the early history of Islam provided
much material for popular culture in its different
forms, including popular spectacles, religious drama,
and popular epics, and always with some reference to
already existing traditions. In addition to the already
mentioned heroic depiction of ‘Ali, the martyrdom of
his younger son Hosayn at the battle of Kerbala is
reminiscent of the fate of the young princes Iradj and
Siyavosh in the Persian Book of Kings, who opt for
justice and the right conduct while fully prescient of
the fatal consequences awaiting them. Another figure
from the Prophet’s immediate family whose tales of
adventure form a considerable corpus of their own is
Hamza, Muhammad’s paternal uncle, transformed
into an indefatigable fighter who surpasses Alexander
in the range of his itinerary. Hamza traveled not only
in the heartland of the Islamic world but also to such
outposts as Central Asia, Greece, and Tangiers, often
meeting the legendary prophet Khizr in his capacity
as the guide and helper of pious and God-fearing
travelers. The sumptuously illustrated manuscript of
his adventures, the Hamza-nama, commissioned by
the Indian Mughal emperor Akbar, which has been
the centerpiece of several exhibitions in the West, is
yet another reminder of the close interaction between
Islamic courts and popular literature.

Caliphs, Sufis, Monarchs, and ‘Ayyars

Already in the depiction of Hamza, one detects a
distinctly heroic but not necessarily strictly Islamic

629

POPULAR LITERATURE

characterization, a factor that perhaps contributed to
the great range of its translations and adaptations,
including one into Georgian. This tendency is intensi-
fied in the depiction of such later familiar figures in
the world of popular literature as Harun al-Rashid,
the ‘Abbasid caliph who for all intents and purposes
appears indistinguishable from other worldly rulers
who also frequent popular tales, such as Mahmud of
Ghazna or the Safavid Shah Abbas. They are usually
depicted as stern but generous and manly figures
whose courts provide convenient backdrops to a
host of popular episodic anecdotes. The ‘Ayyars,
those cunning yet chivalrous characters of nearly all
Islamic literatures who gave their name as an epithet
to the hero of the earliest Persian popular prose nar-
ratives, Samak-e Avyar, or even those founding
fathers of Sufi sects whose popular hagiographies
form a substantial corpus of popular literature, par-
ticularly in Persian, are celebrated from different per-
spectives. Samak, like Rostam in the Book of Kings,
often appears as Jeeves to his feckless sovereign’s
Bertie Wooster, while Ahmad-e Jam, a celebrated
Persian Sufi with a much-visited shrine and a robust
vita, is eulogized for his physical prowess and saintly
deeds. His gallant self-control in his dotage, when he
refrained from copulating with his nubile peasant
bride more than once in the space of a single night
out of concern for her well-being, is remarked upon
with admiration in his vita.

Language and Style

The nomenclature used in titles of popular stories
illustrates both the connections and regional differ-
ences in the popular literature of the medieval Islamic
world. In Persian for example, the Book of Kings
(Shahnama) of Pre-Islamic monarchs and heroes
became an inexhaustible source of imitation and bor-
rowing and generated secondary verse epics that usu-
ally selected a relatively minor character from its rich
repertoire, and made him into the main protagonist
with the help of new episodes and adventures. The
same process was in force in popular prose literature
in works such as the Firuz Shah Nameh that appears
both in Persian and in Arabic versions. The two lan-
guages also share the term Qissat (Per. Qessa) as a
designation for a narrative story, as in the famous
Arabic Qissat Abu Zaid al-Hilali wa-l-Na'isa, though
in Persian the word was given different nuances and
applied mostly to shorter tales. The Arabic stories,
however, also describe themselves as siras; and in
modern critical terminology the entire genre comes
under the heading of sir a sha'biyya or popular sir a.

These include such famous stories as Sira Antar,
Sirat al-Zahir Baybars, Sirat Bani Hilal al-Kubra,
Sirat Saif b. Dhi Yazan, and others. The Arabic
stories are composed in rhyme prose with frequent
insertions of poetry, whereas the Persian stories tend
to be in simple prose, with some containing occasion-
al lines of poetry. However, in their case, too, the
simple prose is at times replaced by interludes of
ornate descriptive passages on such literary topics as
sunrises and sunsets, or depiction of beautiful women.
This has led some editors and commentators to detect
the influence of copyists or scribes at the final stage
when this basically oral composition was turned into
a written format. But the two styles could have well
coexisted from the outset; in the case of the popular
storyteller, as in the case of his rival the popular prea-
cher, occasional flights of rhetoric and a purple
passage or two depicting a well-established topic
would have been a way of parading one’s skills as
a performer. The more racy and simple diction could
be reserved for the main part of the narrative where
the action demanded all the attention. The same mix-
ture of styles occurs in Turkish folk epics such as
Koroghlu, except that here regional variations contain
different proportions of poetry and prose. The Book
of Dede Korkut, on the other hand, is entirely
in prose but contains passages where rhyming and
transliteration occur.

Narration and Wonder

The uneasy dichotomy between “popular” and polite
has already been referred to at the outset. But it must
be borne in mind that “literature” also has had an
eventful semantic history, with both “literature” and
“text” as metaphors assuming ever more widening
range and connotations. This revision of taxonomies
can itself suggest new ways of studying medieval pop-
ular literature in terms of its own dynamics and inter-
nal structure. Thus in spite of using material culled
from different times and cultures — the reign of the
Kayanids or Sasanids, glancing back at the heroic
age of the Oghuz Turks, or drawing upon the Days
of the Arabs (Ayyam al-Arab) — the underlying narra-
tive techniques of the episodes and their ways of
focalization can be constructively studied together.
The supernatural, for example, in its different mani-
festations, in characterization as magicians and sor-
cerers, or in location, in exotic lands populated by
strange men and beasts, was a frequent feature of
most tales, and it was this abandonment of verisimili-
tude that has given the term popular its laudatory
and pejorative connotations from the outset. The

630

POST, OR BAR1D

eleventh-century Persian historian Bayahqi, for exam-
ple, in a short diatribe against stories in which an old
sorceress can turn a man into an ass, while another
aged hag can rub an ointment into his ears and turn
him back into a human being, dismisses the entire
genre as mere superstitions that induce sleep to the
ignorant when they are read to them at night. Yet it is
this very defiance of verisimilitude and the destabiliz-
ing effect of the magical hall of mirrors conjured up at
times by these narratives that have found them new
audiences in our own time.

Olga M. Davidson

See also Alexander; Biography and Biographical
Works; Dreams and Dream Interpretation; Epic Poetry;
Epics, Arabic; Epics, Persian; Epics, Turkish; Folk Lit-
erature, Arabic; Folk Literature; Persian; Folk Litera-
ture, Turkish; Magic; Maqama; Miracles; Mirrors for
Princes; One Thousand and One Nights; Performing
Artists; Popular Religion; Saints and Sainthood; Safa-
vids; Sasanians, Islamic Traditions; Shahnama; Sira,
Stories and Storytelling; Sufism and Sufis; Supernatural
Beings; Theatre; Women Warriors

Further Reading

Chadwick, N. K., and V. Zhirmunsky. Oral Epics of Central
Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
Connelly, B. Arab Folk Epic and Identity. Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1986.

Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2d ed., articles:

“Hamasa” (Ch. Pellat, Arabic; H. Masse, Persian; I. Melik-
off, Turkish; A. T. Hatto, Central Asia; Aziz Ahmad,
Urdu), Vol. Ill, 110-119.

“Hikaya” (Ch. Pellat, Islamic and Arabic; A. Bausani,
Persian; Pertev Naili Boratav, Turkish; Aziz Ahmad,
Urdu; R. O. Winstedt, Malayan), Vol. Ill, 367-377.
“Kissa” (B. Flemming, In older Turkish Literature; L. P.
Elwell-Sutton, Persian; J. A. Haywood, Urdu; A. H.
Johns, Malaysia and Indonesia) Vol. V, 193-205.
“Manakib” (Ch. Pellat), Vol. VI, 349-357.

“Marthiya” (Ch. Pellat, Arabic; W. L. Hanaway, Jr. Per-
sian; B. Flemming, Turkish; J. A. Haywood, Urdu), Vol.
VI, 602-612.

Sira Sh‘abiyya” (P. Heath), Vol. IX, 664-665.

Gerhardt, M. The Art of Story Telling. Leiden: Brill, 1963.
Hanaway, W. L. Jr. (Tr). Love and War: Adventures from
the Firuz Shah Nama of Sheikh Bighami. Persian Heri-
tage Series, vol 19. New York: UNESCO, 1974.

Heath, P. The Thirsty Sword: Sirat ‘Antar and the Arabic
Popular Epic. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press,
1996.

Irwin, R. The Arabian Nights: A Companion. London: Allen
Lane, 1994.

Lewis, G. (Tr). The Book of Dede Korkut. Harmondsworth,
United Kingdom: Penguin Books, 1974.

Lyons, M. C. The Arabian Epic. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1995.

Norris, H. T. “Fables and Legends.” In The Cambridge
History of Arabic Literature: ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres,

edited by J. Ashtiany et al., 136-145. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1990.

Renard, J. Islam and the Heroic Image. Columbia, SC:
University of South Carolina Press, 1993.

Reynolds, D. F. “Creating an Epic: from Apprenticeship to
Publication.” In Textualization of Oral Epics, edited by
L. Honko, 263-277. (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and
Monographs, 128). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000.

POST, OR BARID

Post, or Barid, was the official system of swift over-
land communication employed by rulers in the pre-
modern Islamic world. The origins of both the term
Barid and the institution that it represents have been
debated by scholars, although it is clear that Byzan-
tine and Sasanian models, which were known to pre-
Islamic Arabians through the imperial penetration of
the Arabian Peninsula, influenced the creation and
early development of the Islamic Barid. Elaborate
postal systems were in existence in the Near East
since ancient times, and the natural and topographi-
cal conditions that dictated the creation and mainte-
nance of these systems remained unchanged over
millennia. Thus caliphs such as Mu‘awiya (r. 661—
680 CE) and ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705 CE), who
are credited with having established the Barid
throughout Umayyad lands, had only to continue
the basic structure of the routes and postal stations
that dotted the caliphal landscape.

In general terms, the Barid allowed caliphs to com-
municate swiftly and securely with the remotest pro-
vinces of their rule. Messengers to and from the
provinces would, upon the presentation of the neces-
sary documentation, be entitled to the use of fresh
mounts, lodgings, and other provisions that were
available at stations along defined routes. These sta-
tions were ideally situated six to twelve miles apart
(the former distance applying to eastern regions, the
latter to western ones), but local conditions such as
the existence (or lack) of water, mountains, deserts, or
towns often affected the course of the routes and the
location of postal stations. From the early ‘Abbasid
period, itineraries of the imperial routes and stations
were collected for official use, and these influenced the
composition of Arabic geographical works.

The Barid served rulers in a variety of capacities:
messengers transmitted official correspondence —
mostly reports and decrees; governors were escorted
to their posts; foreign emissaries were transported to
the capital; and mounts and soldiers were dispatched
to the scenes of battle. Messengers using the Barid
could cover enormous distances with great speed,
thereby allowing rulers to act with efficiency on the
reports sent from afar. Thus the Barid was a crucial

631

POST, OR BAR1D

tool of centralization for rulers of far-flung empires
such as those of the Umayyads, ‘Abbasids, Mamluks,
and Ottomans, whose power depended on their
ability to control and react to events throughout
their lands.

Regional postal administrators coordinated the
local activities of the Barid and regularly relayed
reports to a central postal chief based in the capital.
The regional administrators were responsible for the
upkeep and management of the local postal stations.
Depending on the region and period, funding for the
system was derived either from the central treasury or
by an arrangement according to which towns and
villages that maintained the local postal infrastructure
were compensated through a commensurate reduc-
tion in taxes levied. However, when manned postal
stations were unavailable, couriers would usually req-
uisition mounts and provisions from locals who were
barred from using the system. This often led to a
general feeling of popular resentment toward the
official couriers, and there is a detailed record of the
postal reforms instituted by Near Eastern rulers, from
Roman to Ottoman times, aimed at curbing the
excesses of couriers and the oppression that they are
known to have visited upon the towns and villages
through which they passed.

Under the Umayyads, the Barid was organized on
a rudimentary basis, with local (Sasanian or Byzan-
tine) traditions prevailing in different parts of the
caliphate. The ‘Abbasids rationalized the system and
increasingly used it in the context of gathering and
relaying information; hence, during this period the
Barid came to be closely associated with internal sur-
veillance. With the gradual fragmentation of the ca-
liphate in the late ninth and early tenth centuries CE,
the need for an empire-wide system of communication
diminished, as did the ability of the Baghdad-based
rulers to control the postal infrastructure in distant
provinces. The central Barid declined accordingly,
with independent dynasties such as the Fatimids and
Ghaznavids maintaining their own postal systems
until the Mamluk sultan Baybars I (r. 1260-1277
CE) revived the Barid, albeit on a smaller scale. Earli-
er, in 1234, the second Great Mongol, Khan Ogedei
(r. 1229-1241 CE), established the impressive Yam
postal system, drawing on Chinese precedents and
connecting internally the most extensive land-based
empire in history. A decree of the Ottoman sultan
Mustafah II (r. 1664-1703 CE) ordered that the im-
perial courier system (Ulaq) be privatized, thereby
altering the very nature of premodern postal systems
of the Near East.

From the tenth century CE, homing pigeons were
increasingly used in the Islamic world for transmitting
urgent news, particularly during the Mamluk period.

although they were not, strictly speaking, part of the

Barid' s infrastructure.

Adam Silverstein

See also Diplomacy; Espionage; Ibn Khurradadhbih;

Pigeons; Road Networks

Further Reading

Dvornik, Francis. The Origins of Intelligence Systems. New
Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1974.

Morgan, David O. “Reflections on Mongol Communica-
tions in the Il-Khanate.’’ In The Sultan’s Turret: Studies
in Persian and Turkish Culture. Leiden: Brill, 2000,
375-385.

Sauvaget, Jean. La Poste aux Chevaux dans l’ Empire des
Mamelouks. Paris, 1943.

Silverstein, Adam. “The Origins and Early Development of
the Islamic Postal System (al-Barid), until ca. 846 CE”
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2002.

. “A New Source for the Early History of the Barid.”

al-Abhath 50-51 (2002-2003): 121-134.

POVERTY, ISLAMIC

As is the case in a number of premodern cultures,
medieval Islamic society viewed poverty both as a
social problem and as a form of religious piety. Un-
derstanding the attitudes of medieval Muslims toward
poverty and the poor, therefore, turns on the distinc-
tion between the poor as an identifiable group or
groups in society and the adoption of poverty as a
spiritual value by elite groups of pious men and
women.

Poverty represented a social problem from the very
beginnings of the Muslim community. The Qur’an
lists the poor ( al-fuqara ’ wa al-masakin ) among the
recipients of the alms-tax ( zakah ) . Later, legal scho-
lars argued about the respective meanings of these
two terms, but it was agreed that both referred to
persons who possessed too little property to pay
zakah themselves. This discussion provides us with
the first attempt at a definition of poverty from the
point of view of Islamic law. In time, Sufis argued that
the first pious, poor Muslims in history were those
companions of the Prophet who left their possessions
behind when they emigrated from Mecca to Medina,
and who took up residence on the portico of the
Prophet’s mosque. These ahl-suffa (people of the por-
tico) provided a model for later ascetics and Sufis, as
well as serving as a link that would connect Sufi
poverty to the earliest Muslim community under the
leadership of the Prophet himself.

The Islamic conquests likely had the effect of en-
riching many early Muslims, but this was temporary.
Over time, the community grew to include people of

632

POVERTY, ISLAMIC

all social classes and ethnic origins. By the time of the
civil war between Harun al-Rashid's sons, al-Ma'mun
and al-Amin (809-813 CE), the poor people of
Baghdad were sufficiently numerous to enter Mus-
lim political history for the first time. They defended
the city and supported al-Amin against his brother.
Thereafter, the existence of poor persons among the
Muslim community was accepted as a fact of life, and
the poor appear to us in the sources in a number of
guises. Among these are the harafish, who are de-
scribed as day laborers, beggars, and sometime
Sufis. In Mamluk Cairo, the harafish were led by a
shaykh or sultan who was responsible to the sultan.
The sultans and amirs frequently employed them to
build buildings or dig canals.

In one famous classification of the groups making
up medieval Islamic society, that of the fifteenth-cen-
tury Egyptian chronicler al-Maqrizi, the poor appear
as the lowest of seven social classes and are classified
as “beggars who beg from people and live at their
expense.” The sixth class, made up of those who work
for a wage, includes “wage laborers, porters, servants,
stablemen, weavers, masons, construction workers,
workmen, and the like.” All of these groups belonged
to the ‘amma (common people), as opposed to the
khassa (elite). The chroniclers, as the children of priv-
ilege, often express disgust at the rowdy behavior of
the lower classes, and fear of their propensity for
violence in times of hunger or during epidemics. The
chroniclers routinely record the occurrence of bread
riots, especially in the troubled years of the late four-
teenth and early fifteenth centuries. Also of concern
to the wealthy were the activities of young men
organized in futuwwa groups in the major Muslim
cities. Although originally intended as protectors of
their urban neighborhoods, the groups sometimes
invaded the spaces occupied by the wealthy and en-
gaged in robbery and looting.

In contrast to the negative light in which the
chroniclers present the poor, all classes of society
seem to have held Muslim ascetics and Sufis in high
regard, at least so long as these holy poor did not
violate the norms of Muslim law or adopt heretical
religious ideas. In the early centuries of Islam, it was
ascetics — people who renounced material comfort in
order to pursue a life devoted to worship, study, or
holy war — who filled this role. As Sufism began to
emerge as an independent movement at the end of the
ninth century, however, it began to absorb many of
the ideas and practices associated with the earlier
ascetic movement. There is some dispute as to what
degree Sufism opposed the conventional piety and
political order, but the Sufis quickly emerged as
a spiritual elite, one of whose chief distinguishing
characteristics was the practice of pious poverty.

Although the Sufis would have rejected the term for
theological reasons, one might describe this type of
poverty as voluntary poverty, as opposed to the in-
voluntary poverty of the lower classes. Indeed, the
Sufi hagiographies make a point of emphasizing the
elite origins of many Sufis, and present their disavow-
al of wealth as a sign of their rejection of the material
world and embrace of spiritual devotion.

As time went on, the Sufi became an easily recog-
nizable figure, with his begging bowl and patched
cloak. Sufis began to attract the attention of the rulers
of Muslim states and to attract their patronage. From
the tenth century onward, Muslim rulers built con-
vents to house Sufis, many of whom were itinerant.
Perhaps the best known of these institutions was the
khanqah , a Sufi convent that was usually built by the
ruler as a waqf. Other terms for Sufi institutions
included ribat and zawiya, many of them founded by
private persons to benefit their teacher or a particular
Sufi order. Indeed, late medieval Sufism was increas-
ingly organized around Sufi orders founded by char-
ismatic teachers, who claimed to pass down teachings
originating with the Prophet.

This institutionalization of Sufism had a negative
effect on the reputation of the holy poor. Scholars
critical of Sufism, such as Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200),
suggested that the Sufis were living off of the hard
work of their fellow Muslims, and thus were unde-
serving of veneration by ordinary believers. Ibn
Taymiyya (d. 1328) rejected assigning any special
status to holy poverty, arguing that wealthy persons
who spent their money on pious purposes, such as
supporting jihad, were no less worthy of respect.
These neo-Hanbali scholars denied the holy poor
any special status and argued that the best Muslims
were those who were socially and politically engaged,
not those who isolated themselves from society to
devote themselves to worship. Indeed, the increased
dependence of the Sufis on elite patronage was used to
call their motives into question. Some Sufis, known as
Malamatis, responded to popular veneration by
intentionally violating Islamic law in order to attract
criticism.

In general, however, the piety of the holy poor
continued to inspire the respect of all classes of Mus-
lim society. Even the ordinary beggar received alms
with a prayer for his benefactor, and the idea that the
poor were especially close to God continued to be
persuasive to most Muslims. Many founders of
pious endowments, for example, stipulated that
those employed by the endowment regularly pray
for the souls of the founder and his or her descen-
dants. In this way, the holy poor helped ensure the
salvation of their social superiors.

Adam Sabra

633

POVERTY, ISLAMIC

See also ‘Abbasids; Burial Customs; Charity; Ethics;

Funerary Practices, Muslim; Gifts and Gift Giving;

Hospitality; Ibn al-Jawzi; Ibn Taymiyya; Mamluks;

al-Maqrizi; Mecca; Medina; Mosques; Public Works;

Syria; Sufism and Sufis; Waqf

Further Reading

Amin, Muhammad Muhammad. Al-Awqaf wa’l-hayah al-
ijtima’iyyafi Misr 648-923 H./1250-1517 M. Cairo: Dar
al-Nahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1980.

Bonner, Michael. “Definitions of Poverty and the Rise of
Muslim Poor.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3, 6,
3 (1996): 335-344.

Bonner, Michael, Mine Ener, and Amy Singer (Eds.). Pov-
erty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2003.

Brinner, William. “The Significance of the Harafish and
their Sultan.” Journal of the Economic and Social History
of the Orient 6 (1963): 190-215.

Karamustafa, Ahmet T. God's Unruly Friends : Dervish
Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period. Salt Lake
City: University of Utah Press, 1994.

McChesney, Robert D. Charity and Philanthropy in Islam:
Institutionalizing the Call to Do Good. Indianapolis: Indi-
ana University Center on Philanthropy, 1995.

Sabra, Adam. Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam, Mam-
luk Egypt, 1250-1517 . Cambridge: Cambridge Universi-
ty Press, 2000.

Singer, Amy. Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Impe-
rial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 2002.

Stillman, Norman. “Charity and Social Service in Medieval
Islam.” Societas 5 (1975): 105-115.

POVERTY, JEWISH

For most medieval and even early modern societies,
we know about poverty mainly from the point of view
of those looking at the poor from the outside — those
who thought and wrote about poverty and those who
gave relief to the poor. For the Jewish world of the
Islamic Middle Ages, letters preserved in the Cairo
Geniza (covering mainly the period 1000-1250 CE)
illustrate also the point of view of the poor them-
selves, as their voice is heard in letters of appeal, or
indirectly in requests written on their behalf. Some
of the letters of appeal, especially those of indigent
women, were written by professional letter writers.
Nonetheless, they realistically reflect poverty as a
lived experience, as well as Judaism’s belief that
poverty is a misfortune no matter whom it afflicts.

Written in Hebrew or in Judeo-Arabic, most of the
letters of appeal were addressed to would-be benefac-
tors in Fustat (Old Cairo). Some wrote from far away
(as far away as Europe or distant Islamic lands) and
some from nearby. When their correspondence no lon-
ger served a function, for instance, after a would-be

benefactor responded with a gift, it was discarded in
the Geniza chamber of the synagogue, unexpectedly to
be discovered centuries later and studied by modern
scholars.

The letters reveal strategies of the poor. Biblical
epigraphs to letters, perched like conspicuous inscrip-
tions on buildings; introductions composed of biblical
verses; and scriptural fragments quoted within the
bodies of letters — many of which had received pro-
minence in rabbinic literature in connection with
charity — exhort would-be givers to follow the chari-
table advice of holy writ. Prominent are verses includ-
ing the word tzedaqa, which in the Bible usually
means “righteousness” but was understood by Geniza
people in its post-biblical meaning of “charity.” Fa-
vorite biblical quotations include the verses “Happy is
he who is thoughtful of the wretched; in bad times
may (the Lord) keep him from harm” (Psalm 41:2; see
Palestinian Talmud Pe’a 8:8, 21b and elsewhere) and
“Charity saves from death” (Proverbs 10:2, 11:4; see
Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 10a). The Judeo-
Arabic refrain, “may God make you always one of
the besought rather than a beseecher,” and the He-
brew adage based on a midrash, "be one of the givers,
not of the takers,” both of them pronounced in many
a Geniza letter of appeal, similarly play on the belief
that one can avert indigence by being charitable.

Mindful of the etiquette of female privacy, women
wrote only to communal officials or to the community
as a whole. Widows relied especially on a rabbinic
dictum that “the court (and by extension, the Jewish
community) is the father of orphans and the judge of
widows.” Men appealed to individuals as well, even
ones they did not know or who did not know them.

These people were not beggars (information about
actual begging, defined as house-to-house solicitation
and frowned upon in Judaism, is nearly nil, though of
course it existed). Often making use of the literary
form of the Arabic petition, these suppliants for char-
ity wished to avoid both begging and public charity
(see Charity, Jewish). Their letters reflect a relation-
ship between the petitioner and the petitioned, very
much like the ancient and gentlemanly system of
patronage pervading Near Eastern society. That rela-
tionship was characterized by bonding between the
benefactor and the recipient of his protection, who in
this case prayed to God on behalf of his or her patron
in gratitude for a gift bestowed (or anticipated) and
would praise him publicly for his generosity.

Most of the indigents writing these letters belonged
to the “working poor,” though some came from
the more well-to-do, that is, the “good families.”
Together they made up what modern scholars call
the “conjunctural poor.” Conjunctural poverty
(juxtaposed to “structuraF’or chronic poverty) results

634

POVERTY, JEWISH

from a particular convergence of circumstances that
change a person’s economic situation for the worse.
This sudden impoverishment, however temporary, is
a source of shame. The “shamefaced poor,” as they
are called in medieval and early modern European
texts, resist turning to others for help, let alone resort-
ing to the embarrassment of the public dole or of
beggary. Conjunctural poverty was already recog-
nized in early rabbinic Judaism, where the midrash
speaks about the “person from a prominent family
(ben gedolim) who fell from his wealth (yarad mi-
nekhasav) and was too ashamed to take (alms).” In
the Geniza world the category of the shame-faced
poor extended downward to include the working
poor who, most of the time, lived in self-sufficiency,
just above the poverty line.

One of the most interesting concepts of poverty
revealed by the Geniza letters is the twin notion of
mastur and kashf al-wajh. Mastur means, literally,
“concealed.” Kashf al-wajh means “uncovering the
face.” They are metaphors. Mastur in the medieval
Judeo- Arabic context (the word is also found in clas-
sical Arabic texts and in modern Arabic dialects)
represents the two groups already mentioned, those
who are normally well off and those of the working
poor. When the mastur or mastura fell temporarily
into poverty, he or she was forced to “uncover his/her
face” and seek help. In order to limit their shame, to
avoid having to resort to public charity by collecting
alms at the synagogue compound, along with the
chronic poor, these people wrote letters petitioning
for private charity. Just how salient the distinction
between chronic and conjunctural poverty (with its
attendant shame) was in Jewish thinking during the
Geniza period can also be judged from the more inert
and “silent” evidence of the alms lists, where occa-
sionally a beneficiary is listed as “mastur,” indicating
that he or she is normally self-sufficient and not in
need of a public handout.

If we want to discuss further the different kinds of
victims of poverty, we may begin with the large body
of foreign poor coming to Egypt from abroad, or to
the capital from the Egyptian countryside. They crop
up in letters of appeal written after they arrived and
on scores of alms lists, collecting bread, wheat, cloth-
ing, or cash through the community’s public relief
system. The Egyptian countryside abounded in
needy foreigners, too.

Wayfarers — strangers from the outside — are
among the classic poor in all societies. Typically
they moved on after a short stay. Foreigners who
sojourned for a long time, or who settled permanent-
ly, posed a more serious problem. Until they found
good work, they continued to fill the ranks of the
poor. Many of the educated foreigners wending their

way to Egypt had to settle for work as elementary
school teachers or in other characteristically low-
paying professions in the community. As such, they
still needed alms.

By nature unknown to the community, foreigners
faced the problem of proving they belonged to the
“deserving poor.” Their right to charity was
challenged also by an ancient halakha (Jewish law)
that states: “The poor of your household have priori-
ty over the poor of your town, and the poor of your
town have priority over the poor of another town.”
Means were devised to determine the deservedness of
these outsiders. Foreigners whose eligibility had been
established — for instance, when a local resident
vouched for their need — appear on lists of the poor
receiving alms.

Related to the category of the foreign poor were
the captives, Jews kidnapped by pirates or by soldiers
during war and presented for ransom to the Jewish
community. Usually far from home, stripped of their
possessions, and lacking the support of family, they
remained poor for a long time after their release and
needed to be fed, clothed, and sheltered. Similarly
deprived, refugees from war or persecution often
found sanctuary in Egypt. Military disruptions
and violence in Asia Minor in the late eleventh cen-
tury brought an influx of refugees (called “Rum”)
into the Egyptian capital, where they show up promi-
nently on alms lists from the turn of the twelfth
century.

Also frequently penniless were refugee proselytes.
These were mainly people of European origin (Latin
lands or Byzantium) who converted to Judaism
and later fled to places such as Egypt to escape
abuse in hostile Christian surroundings. In Islamic
lands they received refuge and protection as poll-
tax-paying non-Muslims and charity from the Jewish
community. A remarkable case of an impoverished
proselyte who was also a refugee is the widow
from southern France who made her way through
northern Spain to Egypt, fleeing from her harassing
Christian family. People named “son of the prose-
lyte” and “son of the captive” also appear on the
dole. It is evident that they inherited their parents’
poverty.

Just as women — especially widows, divorcees, and
abandoned wives — suffered from poverty, so did
orphans (fatherless children). The community had
no orphanage. Orphans typically lived with widowed
mothers, with other family relations, or in some cases
with families who had taken them in in a kind of
foster-care arrangement. Monies left by fathers in
their estates (if there was any) was allotted to their
children’s guardians (often their widowed mothers) to
support these youngsters.

635

POVERTY, JEWISH

Debt was a typical cause of poverty, including
the annual poll tax debt to the government, from
which the poor were not exempt during the Geniza
period. For them it constituted a heavy burden.
The community raised monies to subsidize the poll
tax of the indigent. Complaints of people in debt,
sometimes fleeing their creditors, are common.
Debtors were liable to imprisonment and so their
charitable relief was often equated with ransoming
of captives. Hunger, dearth of clothing, and illness —
three cross-cultural symptoms of poverty — loom
large in the Geniza. Many letters complain about
hunger, lack of clothing, or illness. Petitioners com-
plain of having large families, often giving the number
of mouths to be fed. When an item of clothing is
missing, the poor ask for a replacement. The
kinds of illness suffered by the poor feature eye dis-
ease, particularly ophthalmia. Others who were
chronically poor because of illness or infirmity include
people suffering from paralysis, the tremors, and
those with loss of limb. Finally, old age represents
another, typically cross-cultural cause of indigence in
this period. What was the percentage of the Jewish
poor? On the basis of alms lists and economic data
contained in about four hundred engagement and
marriage contracts — the amounts of the marriage
gift of the groom and of the dowry of the bride —
Goitein estimated that 25% of the Jewish community
of Fustat during the eleventh and twelfth centuries
were destitute. Things got worse in the thirteenth
century as general economic conditions in Egypt
declined. This is reflected in pleas for help for
the poor from the head of the Jews, the Nagid
Joshua (1310-1355), the great-great-grandson of
Maimonides.

What kinds of occupations often meant living in
poverty? Members of the underclass included such
poorly paid people as doorkeepers, messengers,
water carriers, shoemakers, washers of the dead,
gravediggers, porters, night watchmen, and kashrut
supervisors. Many people were occasionally poor,
rather than chronically. Their appearance sometimes
on alms lists and sometimes on donor lists means that
they floated back and forth between subsistence
(greater or lesser) when they were working, which
kept them out of “deep” poverty — to borrow Paul
Slack’s term in his study of poverty in early modern
England — and impoverishment, which led them to
the dole. Typical of persons in this category were
cantors, tanners, errand boys, ghulams (young men,
slaves or freedmen, serving as apprentices or facto-
tums), carpenters, teachers, olive makers or sellers,
milkmen, glassmakers, tailors, journeymen, dyers,
and money changers.

Mark R. Cohen

Further Reading

Cohen, Mark R. “Four Judaeo-Arabic Petitions of the Poor
from the Cairo Geniza.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and
Islam 24 (2000): 446—471.

. Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of

Medieval Egypt. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2005.

. The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages : An

Anthology of Documents from the Cairo Geniza. Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Goitein, S. D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish
Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the
Documents of the Cairo Geniza (5 vols plus Index vol-
ume by Paula Sanders). Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1967-1993, esp. vols.
2 and 5.

Lev, Yaacov. “Charity and Social Practice: Egypt and Syria
in the Ninth-Twelfth Centuries.” Jerusalem Studies in
Arabic and Islam 24 (2000): 472-507.

Slack, Paul. Poverty and Policy in Tudor and Stuart Eng-
land. London and New York: Longman, 1988.

PRAYER

Muslims consider prayer as one of the cornerstones
of their religion. The following live practices fall
under the rubric of prayer in Islam: (1) formal prayer
(salat), (2) informal prayer (du‘a), (3) invocation
(dhikr), (4) litanies (awrad, ahzab), and (5) the be-
stowal of blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad
( tasliya ) .

1. Formal prayer (salat). The Prophet
Muhammad said, according to the two most
authentic hadith collections, that the greatest
human act is the performance of the formal
prayers at their proper times. Both Sunni
and Shi‘i Muslims agree that the five times
at which all sane adult Muslims are obligated
to perform the formal prayers are daybreak
(fajr), midday (zuhr), afternoon (‘asr),
sunset (maghrib), and nightfall (‘isha’). They
agree that the daybreak prayer consists of two
units (rak‘as), the sunset prayer consists of
three units, and the remaining three prayers
each consists of four units. There is also
consensus that each unit of prayer consists of
an initial declaration of “God is greatest”
(Allahu akbar), the recitation of the first
Sura of the Qur’an followed, in the first two
units of every prayer, by a passage of choice
from the Qur’an, as well as a single bow, two
prostrations, and that every two units of
prayer are separated by a period of time
seated during which one mentions the twin
professions of Islam: There is no god but
God, and Muhammad is the messenger and

636

PRECEDENCE

servant of God ( tashahhud) . This consensus is
striking because the Qur'an articulates neither
the precise times, nor the number of units, nor
the precise actions of the formal prayers,
despite the large number of verses exhorting
Muslims to perform their prayers properly.
This high degree of consensus across
sectarian lines suggests an early date for the
establishment of the formal prayer, which
traditional Muslim sources link to the pre-
Hijra Ascension ( mi' raj) of the Prophet
Muhammad.

Muslims who execute the formal prayer must
be in a state of purity ( tahara ) , which can be
achieved by either ablutions ( wudu ’) or, in the
cases of major ritual impurity arising from
intercourse or menstruation, a bath (ghusl),
and must face Mecca. Although Muslims
may perform the formal prayers individually,
the Prophet reportedly promised significantly
greater rewards for those who pray in a group.
Group prayer may take place anywhere that
is clean, although the preferred location is
the mosque, or masjid (place of prostration).
The call to prayer (adhan) is issued for each
obligatory prayer at the mosque, and group
prayer must be led by an Imam who, ideally,
is the man who has the greatest knowledge
of the Qur’an.

There are also nonobligatory formal prayers,
usually performed individually, that scholars
recommend prior to the five obligatory (fard )
formal prayers and after the midday, sunset,
and nightfall prayers. Other formal prayers
include the Friday congregational prayer
(jum'a), which substitutes two sermons
(khutba) for two of the units of the midday
prayer and, for Sunnis, extra evening prayers
during the month of Ramadan ( tarawih) .
Other formal prayers detailed in legal and ha-
dith books that consist of slightly modified
units of prayer include the two Feast prayers
(‘id), funeral prayer (janaza), supplication for
rain prayer (istisqa’), eclipse prayer (kusuf),
and the prayer for guidance while facing a
difficult choice ( istikhara ) .

2. Informal prayer (du'a). God informs Believers
in the Qur’an that “I reply to the call of every
supplicant when he calls me” (2:186), and
hadith books contain numerous supplications
that are attributed to the Prophet Muhammad
and his Companions. Informal prayer may be
performed at any time, in any language, by
anyone.

3. Invocation ( dhikr). While the Quranic concept

of dhikr means “remembrance (of God),” as
in “Remember me, and I will remember you”
(2:152), Sufis from an early date identified
three levels of invocation, namely of the
tongue, the heart, and the innermost self (sirr,
lit. “secret”). Each Sufi order developed its own
methods of invocation, the purpose of which
was to draw closer to God. The major hadith
collections also recommend specific invocations
attributed to the Prophet Muhammad after the
formal prayers and other times of day.

4. Litanies ( awrad, ahzab ) are distinguished from

invocation by their greater complexity, set
times, and the fact that they are performed
only by Sufis who have been inculcated
properly in an order, whereas many
invocations can be performed by non-Sufis.

5. Blessings on the Prophet Muhammad ( tasliya).

The Qur’an states “God and His angels send
blessings (sallu) on the Prophet: O you who
believe, send blessings on him and salute him
with all respect” (33:56). Muslims understand
this verse as a command to say “May God
bless and salute him” immediately following
any mention of the Prophet Muhammad;
note that the Shi‘i and some Sunnis add “and
his family” to this statement.

Scott C. Lucas

See also Funerary Practices; Imam; Mosques; Mysti-
cism, Islamic; Popular Religion; Purity, Ritual; Sufism

and Sufis

Further Reading

Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. The Reliance of the Traveller. Rev. ed.
Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 1999.

Padwick, Constance E. Muslim Devotions: A Study of
Prayer-Manuals in Common Use. London: S. P. C. K.,
1961.

Trimingham, J. Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1971.

Zayn al-‘Abidin ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn. The Psalms of Islam:
al-Sahifa al-kamila al-sajjadiyya. Translated by William
Chittick. London: The Muhammadi Trust of Great Brit-
ain and Northern Ireland, 1988.

PRECEDENCE

The term sabiqa (or sabq), meaning “precedence” in
general and, more specifically, “precedence in submis-
sion and service to Islam,” was a key concept in the
early sociopolitical history of Islam, invoked to
“rank” the faithful according to their excellence. In
addition to early conversion, precedence in emigrating

637

PRECEDENCE

for the sake of Islam (both to Abyssinia and to Medi-
na) and in participation in the early battles of Islam
also conferred great merit. The two concepts of pre-
cedences (sawabiq) and “merits” or “excellences”
(fada’il) became conjoined to create a paradigm of
the most excellent leadership. Such a paradigm finds
scriptural sanction in Qur’anic verses such as “God is
satisfied with those who preceded foremost (al-sabi-
qun al-awwalun) from among the Muhajirun and the
Ansar and those who followed them in charity and
they are pleased with Him, and He has prepared for
them gardens below which flow rivers where they will
dwell forever; that is the great victory;” “Those who
precede(d) are the ones who precede (al-sabiqun al-
sabiqun) ; they are those who will be brought near [to
God] in the gardens of bliss” (Surat al-Waqi'a, 56:10-
12), and “Those among you who spent and fought
before the victory are not of the same rank [as others]
but greater in rank than those who spent and fought
afterwards” ( Surat al-Hadid, 57:10).

Sunni sources uniformly assign the highest prece-
dence to the Prophet’s Companions from among the
Muhajirun and the Ansar, and even among them
recognize a certain order of precedence. Among
Sunni exegetes, al-Tabari reports that the phrase “al-
Muhajirun al-awwalun ” or “ al-sabiqun al-awwalun ” in
verse 9:100 was understood to refer to those Muslims
in particular who took the pledge of al-Ridwan (a
reference to the treaty of al-Hudaybiyya in AH 6/628
CE), or more generally to all those who had prayed
toward the two qiblas. The manaqib or fada’il al-
sahaba sections of standard Sunni hadith compilations
also emphasize the sabiqa of the Companions as the
criterion for assigning greater excellence to them in
general from among the community of the faithful.

It is well known that when the official diwan or
register of pensions was first established by ‘Umar in
circa AH 15, the sabiqa of each Muslim became an
important criterion in determining the amount of
stipend he or she would be awarded. Those who
were among the earliest converts to Islam and had
fought in the early battles of Islam, thus, mainly from
among the Muhajirun, were given larger stipends.
Although the diwan was organized according to tribal
affiliation, it was the principle of sabiqa that deter-
mined its overall function, pointing to the centrality
of this concept in the early period.

Asma Afsaruddin

Further Reading

Afsaruddin, Asma. Excellence and Precedence: Medieval

Islamic Discourse onLegitimate Leadership. 36-79.
Diwan. El. new ed. Vol 3. Edited by H. A. R. Gibb et al.

Leiden and London, 1960, 323.

PREDESTINATION

The doctrine of predestination ( qadar) is one of the
cardinal creeds of Sunni religious orthodoxy. Its core
teachings are referenced to the scriptural sources
of the Islamic tradition, namely the Qur’an and the
Prophetic traditions (hadith). The issue of predesti-
nation proved to be a controversial area of discussion
in early Islam, featuring prominently in the schisms
that appeared in the formative years of this tradition.
The circumspect review of topics of this nature
propelled the advancement of scholastic theology
employed for the consolidation and synthesis of the
doctrines of Sunni orthodoxy. The Sunni conception
of predestination advocates that God is the omnipo-
tent creator of all that exists. He created the universe,
determining precisely not only its fundamental nature
but also the form and function of all that exists in it.
As a result, everything that comes into existence or
has existed is incontrovertibly subject to God’s fore-
knowledge and His sovereign will. The temporal
events of the past, present, and future are likewise
encompassed by God's eternal knowledge. Indeed,
one Prophetic tradition states that these events have
been descriptively written on a preserved tablet before
the inception of creation. Details of a person’s life
span, sustenance, and very acts, including whether
individuals would be prosperous or dejected, are
recorded on this tablet. In the words of the Qur’an,
“And all things we created with divine portion”
(Q 54:49). However, the profound question for theo-
logians related to whether God’s determination of
events and their contingencies extended to an indivi-
dual’s inclination to faith and acts of obedience and
disobedience.

Notwithstanding the fact that there were theologi-
cal sects outside of orthodoxy that presented dispa-
rate explanations of the doctrine of predestination,
there also existed within Sunni orthodoxy a number
of fine distinctions regarding the conceptual compass
of the creed of qadar. Sunni theologians were agreed
that God was the sole creator of all that existed,
irrespective of whether it is inherently good or evil;
there was also consensus regarding God’s power over
all creation and the fact that His foreknowledge and
sovereign will governed all man’s acts. They accepted
that God determined a person’s life span and that
individuals could neither exceed their appointed time
nor could they curtail it; and a similar set of strictures
applied to provisions decreed by God. However,
disagreement occurred concerning whether God
bestowed individuals with an innate capacity and
will of their own, allowing them to perform acts for
which they merited either reward or punishment; this
would have implications for their capacity to choose

638

PREDESTINATION

between belief and disbelief. The deliberations on this
subject were intricate as theologians grappled with the
theoretical complexities of this issue. However, from a
practical perspective scholars maintained that the
doctrine of predestination should not be construed
as a pretext for disobedience, laxity, or recklessness.
Moral responsibility and accountability were not
to be relinquished in the wake of this doctrine,
which was essentially a declaration of God’s absolute
omnipotence.

Early Discussions on Predestination

During the rule of the Umayyad caliphs (661-750
CE), the subject of predestination assumed political
importance. The Umayyads emerged as leaders of the
Islamic world following years of political upheaval.
They established a state with its capital in Damascus,
Syria, vigorously pursuing its political and economic
advancement. The legitimacy of this ruling dynasty
was questioned by a number of scholars due to the
unpopularity of its policies. The Umayyads and their
supporters invoked the doctrines of qadar to defend
their position as caliphs. They argued that God had
willed that they should be rulers, implying that oppo-
sition to their leadership constituted defiance of God’s
decree. This situation led prominent individuals to
qualify the specific scope of the accepted doctrine of
predestination, asserting that it did not excuse injus-
tices carried out during Umayyad rule. These issues
are discussed in an epistle attributed to the ascetic
figure, Hasan al-Basri (d. 728 CE). It was supposedly
part of a dialogue on predestination with the caliph
‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705 CE). There are no Prophet-
ic traditions in this epistle, which has led Montgomery
Watt to argue that such traditions were not in wide
circulation at the time and that the subsequent profu-
sion of traditions endorsing a fatalistic espousal of
predestination reflected an attempt to buttress a de-
veloped doctrine. However, such traditions were al-
ways general in character, while the disputable points
relating to the subtleties of predestination were of a
more specific kind. Scholars who compiled collections
of traditions much later often included a separate
chapter on predestination.

The Arabic term qadar literally connotes measure-
ment or estimation; it is often paired with the word
qada’, which denotes God’s general decree. The term
qadar is used in its derived sense to refer to predesti-
nation; however, individuals who opposed key aspects
of the doctrine of predestination were paradoxically
referred to as Aid al-Qadar or Qadariyya, namely,
proponents of free will. A further term featuring in

the discourse on the subject is the word jabr, which
signifies compulsion. Those individuals who sub-
scribed to a rigid understanding of predestination
were referred to as the Jabariyya and even classified
as an active sect. Medieval writers on heresy identified
Jahm ibn Safwan (d. 746 CE) as being the leader of
the Jabariyya. He argued that man acted under abso-
lute compulsion, claiming that individuals possessed
neither the will nor the capacity to act. Jahm pro-
fessed that attributes such as “creator” that are used
to describe God could not be applied to man, deduc-
ing that God alone was the true creator of all that
exists, including the very acts of man. The analogy
of a feather in the wind was employed by Jahm to
exemplify the relationship of man to his acts. He
even contended that reward and punishment are
predetermined.

The proponents of free will were represented by a
curious selection of individuals. Medieval writers
recognized Ma’bad al-Juhani (d. 705 CE) as one of
the first figures to rationalize the doctrine of qadar,
referring to the free will of individuals, although his
contribution was politically inspired; indeed, he was
executed for his insurrectionist activities. A second
figure of importance is Ghaylan al-Dimashqi (d. 743
CE). He debated the subject of predestination in the
presence of two caliphs, recalling in one instance that
God does not will the commission of sins. Ghaylan
was also put to death for political insurgency. Predes-
tination featured among the issues critically examined
by an emerging faction of Basran scholars who were
connected with Hasan al-Basri. This group served as
precursors to a significant theological movement out-
side of Sunni orthodoxy, the Mu’tazilites. The Mu’ta-
zilites were renowned for their rational approach to
the teachings of the Islamic tradition, employing
modes of thought and argumentation imported from
the Greek philosophical tradition. They emphatically
rejected key aspects of predestination, claiming that
the traditional concept of this doctrine, whereby God
is acknowledged as the author of man’s deeds, under-
mined the immutable principle of God’s divine jus-
tice. Mu’tazilites asserted that God acted in
accordance with the dictates of reason. They argued
that it would be unfair of God to determine or decree
an individual’s acts and then subsequently punish or
reward that person. God’s justice predicated that
humans must be free agents and able to choose be-
tween belief and disbelief. However, it is essential to
bear in mind that the antithesis between orthodoxy
and Mu’tazilism on the issue of predestination rested
on who was the true creator of man’s acts. The Mu’ta-
zilites claimed that God neither created the acts of
man nor were these acts subject to His sovereign will;
more crucial was their assertion that God had no

639

PREDESTINATION

power over these acts, indicating that His knowledge
therein was consequential.

The consequence of such abstraction was that it
impinged on the orthodox doctrine of the omnipo-
tence of God, provoking detailed rebuttals. Intrigu-
ingly, Sunni theologians and proponents of
Mu’tazilism adduced verses from the Qur’an to sup-
port their stances. The Qur’an includes verses that are
deterministic in tenor, in addition to verses intimating
human free will. It states that “No misfortune can
take place either in this world or in the life of an
individual, except that it had been set down in writing
before its passing. Indeed, that is for God so simple”
(Q 57:22); it also mentions: “Say, it is the truth from
your Lord. So let him who desires to believe do so;
and let him who desires to disbelieve do so” (Q 18:29).
The Qur’an also comprises verses that speak of God’s
power to guide and lead astray individuals and His
sealing the hearts of disbelievers. The Mu’tazilites
argued that such verses were redolent of description,
not prescription. Sunni orthodoxy accentuated the
contextual strictures that governed the import of
these verses, referring to God’s foreknowledge and
absolute prerogative in such contexts. The Mu’tazi-
lites attained great influence among the ‘Abbasid
caliphs, particularly during the eighth and ninth cen-
turies CE. The doctrines they defined were approved
by the state, despite orthodox opposition. Their
stance on predestination, stressing specific aspects of
the free will of individuals, is also found in Shi‘i
expressions of Islam.

Later Developments

A former leading Mu’tazilite by the name of Abu’l-
Hasan al-Ash’ari (d. 935 CE) devoted his intellectual
energies to refuting Mu’tazilite dogmas, especially
their understanding of human free will. His argument
was based on the premise that there were limits to the
utility of human reason. It was not able to fathom the
true nature of God’s actions, which, in turn, were not
subject to a rationale. The extant literature composed
by Ash’ari serves as testimony to the sustained nature
of his critique of the Mu’tazilites. He inspired many of
his peers and successors to the extent that he became
the eponym of a school of theology aptly known as the
Ash’arite school. Later adherents of this tradition de-
veloped many features of his theological teachings.
However, in stressing the absolute sovereign will of
God and his omnipotence, Ash’ari and his followers
had argued that God was not only the creator of all
acts but also that the capacity to carry out an act did
not exist prior to the execution of that act; moreover, it

is created by God at the exact time of carrying out that
act and not before. Yet, although man may possess
limited capacity as provided by God, this capacity has
no effective efficacy over the object of its power. This
explanation is defined as the concept of kasb (acqui-
sition); it postulated that through this process of
acquisition, humans merited reward and punishment.

Despite the fact that the concept of kasb was sig-
nificantly revised by later Ash’arite theologians, it was
seen as excessively deterministic in substance. Indeed,
some scholars associated with the Zahirite and Han-
balite traditions of orthodoxy equated it with the
harsh determinism of the Jabariyya. Scholars of
these orthodox traditions, including Ibn Hazm (d.
1064 CE) and Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 CE), rebuked
the Ash’arites for their formulation of the doctrine of
kasb , composing diatribes on this and other Ash’arite
theological concepts. They stated that God was cer-
tainly the creator of all that exists in the world. How-
ever, he had furnished man with the capacity to
choose, although His sovereign will governed all
acts. A second theological school of Sunni orthodoxy
is associated with a figure from Samarqand named al-
Maturidi (d. 944 CE). The theology espoused by this
scholar attached great importance to reason in the
synthesis of doctrine. His definition of predestination
presented the notion that God was the creator of
man’s acts, although man possessed his own capacity
and will to act. Man was therefore the true author of
his acts and, although they were subject to God’s will,
in the case of evil acts, they did not occur with the
pleasure of God. Over ensuing centuries, Sunni theo-
logians continued to elucidate the doctrine of predes-
tination, authenticating the creed as a distinction of
orthodoxy. However, even those groups perceived as
being outside the circles of orthodoxy used the basic
construct of predestination as an analogue for their
own understanding of its significance. The dynamics
of the issue left an indelible mark on the discourse of
Islamic theology.

Mustafa Shah

See also ‘Abbasids; Ash’aris; Caliphate and Imamate;
Ethics; Hadith; Al-Hasan al-Basri; Heresy and Here-
tics; Freethinkers; Ibadis; Ibn Sina; Ibn Taymiyya;
Islam; Kharijis; Mu’tazilites; Polemics and Disputa-
tion; Qur’an; Al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din; Shi'ism; Theolo-
gy; Theologians; Umayyads; Zaydis

Further Reading

Abrahamov Binyamin. Islamic Theology: Traditionalism
and Rationalism, Edinburgh: University Press, 1998.

. “A Re-examination of al-Ash’ari’s Theory of kasb

According to Kitab al-luma. Journal of the Royal Asi-
atic Society, (1989): 210-221.

640

PRISONS

Majid, Fakhry. A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy,
Theology, and Mysticism. Oxford: Oneworld Publica-
tions, 1997.

Richard, Frank. Al-Ghazali and the Ash’arite School.

London: Duke University Press, 1994.

Wilferd, Madelung. Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval
Islam. London: Variorum, 1985.

Watt, Montgomery. The Formative Period of Islamic
Thought. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1998.

. Islamic Philosophy and Theology. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press, 1997.

. Freewill and Predestination in Early Islam. London:

Luzac & Co., 1948.

Wolfson, Harry Austryn. The Philosophy of the Kalam.
Cambridge, MA: London: Harvard University Press,
1976.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS, OR KUTTAB

Found from remote villages to large urban neighbor-
hoods, the kuttab was a type of voluntary educational
institution designed to furnish Muslim children with a
basic education in religious matters. Important cen-
ters for the socialization of recent converts, the ear-
liest primary schools seem to have been organized
locally during the Umayyad period and by the ninth
century CE were widespread throughout the Islamic
world. Typically, the curriculum of a kuttab revolved
around the memorization of the Qur’an, coupled with
practical instruction in basic religious duties, al-
though this was often supplemented with elementary
instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Depending on the wishes of a pupil’s family and the
availability of qualified instructors, subjects such as
history, grammar, and poetry could be taught as well.
Usually located in a single room within the precincts
of a neighborhood mosque or similar building, kuttab
education was characterized by a strict system of rote
learning: students sitting on the floor around their
teacher ( mu ‘allim ) in a semicircle writing their lessons
on a tablet (lawh) and then repeating it back for
correction. Typically, teachers were paid by the
pupil’s family; poorer students would simply
run errands on their behalf. Although there was
no precise age for enrollment, students generally
began attending around age four and would spend
between two and five years studying, normally at their
own pace, alongside students of different levels. Gen-
erally speaking, boys constituted the overwhelming
majority of kuttab students, whereas girls were
educated, if at all, in separate facilities or by private
tutors.

Erik S. Ohlander

See also Children and Childhood; Education; Madrasa

Further Reading

Goldziher, Ignaz. “Education (Muslim).” In The Encyclo-
paedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908.

Landau, J. M. “Kuttab.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d
ed, edited by H. A. R. Gibb et al. Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1954-2003.

Totah, Khalil A. The Contributions of the Arabs to Educa-
tion. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University,
1925.

PRISONS

Prisons were known to the pre-Islamic Arabs, and
some settled communities in Arabia had them. ‘Adi
b. Zayd (d. about 600 CE) composed poetry on his
incarceration by the Lakhmid king, al-Nu‘man III
(d. 602). Nomads took captives in raids; imprison-
ment itself was impractical. Imprisonment was neither
an official punishment in Roman law nor in Near
Eastern provincial laws. It was used instead for pre-
trial detention. However, debtors and serious crim-
inals such as thieves and murderers were increasingly
incarcerated in late antiquity, as were political prison-
ers. Imprisonment was also among the punishments
used in Sasanian Iran.

In the Qur’an the only mention of prison (Ar., sijn)
is in the story of Joseph (Q 12:32ff and Q 26:29).
House arrest was the punishment for women guilty
of fornication, before it was replaced by flogging (Q
4:15 and Q 24:2). The reference to banishment as a
punishment for highway robbery was sometimes
interpreted as imprisonment (Q 5:33).

Punitive imprisonment had a very limited role in
the hudud (punishments by divine ordinance). The
main purposes for prisons in the legal literature were
pretrial detention and coercion of debtors. An apos-
tate could be imprisoned for three days to allow him
to repent and escape execution. However, it was oc-
casionally a punishment (such as for certain cate-
gories of murderer and recidivist thieves). These
parallels with pre-Islamic laws in the Near East raise
unresolved genetic questions about Islamic law. A
judge could also impose punitive imprisonment for
matters outside the hudud through his power of
ta‘zir (discretionary punishment). To maintain
order, rulers could imprison whomever they wished.

Nearly all cities had prisons. In 762, when al-
Mansur (d. 775) founded his new capital at Baghdad,
he constructed the Matbaq prison within the Round
City, and another, The Prison of the Syrian Gate,
outside the walls. Al-Tabari (d. 923) mentions men’s
and women’s prisons in ninth-century Baghdad.
Al-Maqrizi (d. 1442) describes seven prisons from
different periods of Cairo’s history. He says those

641

PRISONS

for criminals, thieves, and highway robbers were
cramped and foul-smelling places of torment.

Such terrible conditions were common in robbers’
prisons. The historical evidence suggests that rob-
bers’ prisons were widespread, although they are
rarely mentioned in legal texts. The extent of such
incarceration remains uninvestigated. The conditions
in debtors’ prisons and those in which suspects were
held seem to have been less harsh. The adab al-qadi
(the conduct of the judge) literature sets out prisoners’
rights: people should not be detained without a com-
plainant; guests and even conjugal relations might be
permitted; and mistreatment, such as beatings and
forced labor, was prohibited. How often these stric-
tures were actually observed is less clear.

Historical sources provide numerous accounts of
political prisoners and prisoners of war. Palaces and
other such buildings could be reused to hold them,
such as the Palace of the Tree in which ‘Abbasid
princes were detained in Baghdad and the Treasury
of the Banners in Cairo, where senior officials were
incarcerated until it became a prison for Frankish
captives during the Crusades. Many political prison-
ers and prisoners of war had a worse fate: Castles and
citadels often had a jubb (pit); others were held
in robbers’ prisons; and many were tortured or
executed.

Andrew Marsham

See also Courts; Crime and Punishment; Judges; Law
and Jurisprudence; Shari‘a; Thieves and Brigands;
Treason (Hiraba)

Further Reading

Rosenthal, F. The Muslim Concept of Freedom prior to the
Nineteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 1960.

Schneider, I. “Imprisonment in Pre-classical and Classical
Islamic Law.” Islamic Law and Society 2 (1995):
157-173.

. “Sidjn.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 11 vols.

Edited by C. E. Bosworth et al. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960
2003. Vol. 9, 547-548.

Ziadeh, F. J. “Adab al-Qadi and the Protection of Rights at
Court.” In Studies in Islamic and Judaic Traditions:
Papers Presented at the Institute for Islamic- Judaic
Studies, Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver.
2 vols. Edited by W.M. Brinner and S.D. Ricks. Atlanta:
Scholars Press, 1986-1989. Vol. 1, 143-150.

PROCESSIONS, MILITARY

Processions (Ar. mawkib ; mawakib ) played an impor-
tant role in representing the military and, more
broadly, the political power of medieval Islamic
states and officials. Since the distinction between mil-
itary and political functions can be ambiguous, what

follows will emphasize those examples wherein the
representation of power is primary. No doubt
the use of processions was common to all medieval
Islamic polities; nevertheless, documentation is rather
uneven. Sufficient evidence from a number of histori-
cal contexts does exist, however, to provide some
insight into the political and cultural potency of
these occasions.

Processions displayed publicly the symbols and
instruments of power. Islamic symbols of sovereignty
included such items as the taj (crown, but an elabo-
rate and adorned turban), the parasol, sword, mace,
inkstand, and others. The Seljuks, displaying their
nomadic roots in the Asian steppes, introduced the
elaborately decorated saddle-cover (ghashiyya) that
was carried in front of the parading sultan, and which
was also used, along with those other aforementioned
symbols, by subsequent rulers, including the Mamluk
sultans of both Cairo and Delhi. There is little evi-
dence about processions of the ‘Abbasid caliphate,
the ceremonial of which seems to have been largely
fixed to the court itself; indeed, the term mawkib also
came to mean audience. However, ‘Abbasid officials,
along with their enormous entourages, did mount
elaborate processions, the conduct of which was gov-
erned by strict protocol. According to Hilal al-Sabi’,
one should ride behind one’s superior so as not to
subject him to the dust stirred up by one’s mount;
however, while conversing with the superior one
should ride just ahead of him so as not to require
him to turn his head. Processions of the Fatimid
state are perhaps the most thoroughly documented.
The Fatimids used processions regularly to project
their power into the cultural and urban fabric of
Cairo and Fustat. The most famous occasion was the
New Year’s procession involving hundreds of officials
and thousands of soldiers, which itself became a field
of competing power for the participants.

Military power was displayed on occasions when
armies departed on campaign or returned from battle.
In Mamluk Cairo these often involved the entire
political and social establishment. In their last cam-
paign, when they met defeat at the hands of the
Ottomans in 1516, the parading army was accompa-
nied by members of the state bureaucracy, Sufi orders,
artisan guilds, and various other urban groups. Victo-
ry parades offered the opportunity to demean enemies
of the state. Victorious soldiers carried severed heads
on pikes, violated captured banners, broke war
drums, and shackled prisoners, including vanquished
rulers. Public processions could also provide popular
access to the sultan. When the Mamluk sultan passed
through Cairo with his entourage, whether on official
business or for pleasure, the masses had the opportu-
nity to voice their concerns to the sultan as he passed

642

PROCESSIONS, RELIGIOUS

by or to express their opprobrium by pelting the royal
party with rubbish.

In addition to the representation of power, proces-
sions also signaled former enemies’ submission to the
state and their incorporation into its apparatus. The
Spanish Umayyad caliphate staged elaborate proces-
sions, requiring days of travel, in which North Afri-
can supplicants would submit to their authority. After
transport across the Mediterranean, the party would
be well received and furnished with gifts of horses and
equipment necessary for the journey to Cordoba, in-
cluding litters for women in the group. The party
would then undertake the long journey to Cordoba,
where they would camp outside the city in prepara-
tion for a parade through the city, followed by a
formal procession the day after to the caliphate’s
suburban capital at Madinat al-Zahra’ for an audi-
ence. The latter parade in particular seems to have
been especially spectacular, involving thousands of
armed men who lined the route, state officials, and
soldiers in ceremonial dress, all of whom required
preparations through the preceding night.

The cultural variety inherent in the Islamic world is
evident in processional displays of martial power. Ibn
Khaldun observed in the North African Marinid state
the custom of the Zanata Berber warriors, in which
poets and musicians inspired the troops as they
marched to battle. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna,
whose Afghanistan-based empire extended into the
Punjab, conducted a martial review in which he
employed a formation consisting of forty caparisoned
elephants standing in front of seven hundred war
elephants, all of which would probably have been
adorned with protective metal faceplates and head-
pieces decorated with dangling elements that when
clanged would intimidate the enemy. Martial proces-
sions were the focal point of independent cultural
practices. Ghaznavid expansion into the Gangetic
Plain was commemorated, and described by Ibn
Battuta in the fourteenth century, in the hero-cult
procession of the lance of Sayyid Salar Mas‘ud, the
legendary warrior and nephew of Sultan Mahmud.
The martial displays of the Mamluks, in the context
of the Rajab procession of the Mahmal (see Proces-
sions, Religious and Festivals and Celebrations)
Pop in fifteenth-century Cairo, were parodied by
carnivalesque clowns.

John L. Meloy

Further Reading

Hilal al-Sabi'. Rusum Dar al-Khilafah (The Rules and Reg-
ulations of the ‘Ahhasid Court). Translated by Elie

Salem. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1977.

Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325-1354.

Translated by H. A. R. Gibb. 3 vols. Hakluyt Society,

Second Series, vols. 110, 117, 141. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1958-1971.

Ibn Iyas. An Account of the Ottoman Conquest of Egypt in
the Year AH 922 (AD 1516). Translated by W. H.
Salmon. Oriental Translation Fund, New Series,
vol. 25. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1921.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to His-
tory. Translated by Franz Rosenthal. 3 vols. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958.

Safran, Janina M. “Ceremony and Submission: The Sym-
bolic Representation and Recognition of Legitimacy in
Tenth-Century al-Andalus.’’ Journal of Near Eastern
Studies, 58 (1999): 191-201.

Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid
Cairo. Albany: State University of New York, 1994.

Sanders, Paula et al. “Mawakib.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, 2d ed., vol. 6, 849-867. Leiden: Brill, 1991.

PROCESSIONS, RELIGIOUS

Religious processions played an important role in
daily life across the medieval Islamic world. These
ranged from formal to informal, and from those
required by religious law to those that reflected
local practice. The pilgrimage to Mecca includes
procession-like rituals (circumambulation of the
Ka’ba, the passage between Safa and Marwa, and
the passage to Mina and the Plain of ‘Arafa), which
are the only ones explicitly sanctioned by religious law
and are more fundamentally acts of prayer and wor-
ship. Many other processions, although not necessar-
ily sanctioned by the law, nevertheless related
explicitly to religious life and are a vivid reminder,
along with those of a more profane character, of the
Islamic world’s cultural variety and vitality.

Political authorities throughout the Islamic lands
organized processions on special occasions, which
served to associate the regime with significant
moments in the religious and cultural calendar.
Rulers ranging from the sultans of Delhi to the
Umayyad caliphs of Andalusia staged elaborate pro-
cessions on the Feasts of the Fast-Breaking and Sac-
rifice, as well other days of religious significance. In
the later medieval period, the Meccan sharifs
organized processions to commemorate the birthday
of the Prophet (Mawlid al-Nabi), which entailed a
parade with candles and lanterns from the Ka'ba to
the birthplace of the Prophet within the town and
processions, one festive with musicians and warriors,
during the month of Rajab.

The Fatimid caliphs went to great lengths to asso-
ciate themselves with the cultural traditions of Egypt.
Not only did the Fatimids celebrate occasions of a
distinctly Shi‘i origin, such as the Festival of Ghadir
Khumm commemorating the Prophet’s acknowledge-
ment of the legitimate succession of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib

643

PROCESSIONS, RELIGIOUS

and his descendants, but they also staged parades of
wider appeal to the largely Sunni population of Egypt
during the month of Ramadan, on the occasion of the
Islamic New Year, or on the aforementioned feasts. In
addition, the Fatimid rulers, as well as their Ayyubid
and Mamluk successors, celebrated what were most
likely indigenous Egyptian holidays for the Inunda-
tion of the Nile ( Wafa’ al-Nil) with a procession and
the ceremonial Opening of the Canal (Kasr al-Khalij),
in which the ruler himself often participated.

Processions of the mahmal palanquins, dispatched
to accompany the pilgrimage caravans from locations
such as Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, represented
the piety and protection of the sponsoring ruler. The
most thoroughly documented of these was the mah-
mal sent by the Mamluk sultans in Cairo, a tradition
finally stopped in the twentieth century. The mahmal
was paraded through Cairo on three occasions each
year: in Shawwal upon its departure for Mecca, in
Muharram upon its return, and in Rajab, which in-
cluded the procession of members of the religious
establishment, the Sufi orders, and the soldiers who
often performed tricks displaying their equestrian and
martial skills. The Rajab procession illustrates vividly
the cultural potency of spectacle in any parade; it was
especially carnivalesque, particularly in the fifteenth
century. Even as a state-sponsored event, the occasion
generated such enthusiastic participation on the part
of the Cairene crowd that it owed its power more
directly to the exuberance of its spectators.

Other groups staged processions as well, although
these occasions are less well known. For example,
processions occurred in the context of marriages,
funerals, circumcisions, and the ritual prayer for
rain. The 'Ashura' procession of the symbolic bier of
al-Husayn, as practiced in India, may well have a
medieval precursor. The Festival of Ghadir Khumm
was evidently started as a popular celebration by the
residents of Fustat and the North African troops in
the Fatimid Army. But then it was appropriated by
the state, eventually losing much of its distinctly Shi‘i
or Isma'ili content and becoming an occasion that
attracted the attention of all Muslims in Egypt. The
Sufis of Cairo’s Salahiyya Khanqah silently paraded
every Friday to pray at the Mosque of al-Hakim, led
by their shaykh and attendants bearing a Qur’an
chest, an occasion that attracted spectators seeking
the blessings of the event. The pious visitation
(ziyarat) of tombs and shrines (pilgrimage) also
entailed the use of processions, although this feature
was not characteristic of this cultural practice. As is so
common in popular religious practice, many of these
popular processions blurred confessional boundaries.
The procession of Amir Nawruz, as a spring festival
in Iran or as a renewal festival in Egypt, included the

practice of charivari and ritual status reversals. Local
festivals entailed processions, particularly in Egypt,
to celebrate the days (mawlid) devoted to the com-
memoration of venerated individuals in the Muslim,
Jewish, or Christian faiths, who were celebrated by
members of all three religions.

John Turner

See also Festivals and Celebrations; Hajj; Nawruz;
Pilgrimage; Saints’ Days

Further Reading

Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ihn Battuta, AD 1325-1354.
Translated by H. A. R. Gibb. 3 vols. Hakluyt Society,
Second Series, vols. 110, 117, 141. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1958-1971.

Ibn Jubayr. The Travels of Ihn Jubayr. Translated by R. J.

C. Broadhurst. London: Jonathan Cape, 1952.

Jomier, Jacques. Le Mahmal et la caravane egyptienne des
pelerins de la Mecque ( XHIe-XXe siecles). Cairo: Institut
franpais d'archeologie orientale, 1953.

Lutfi, Huda. “Coptic Festivals of the Nile: Aberrations of
the Past?” In The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and
Society, edited by Thomas Philipp and Ulrich Haar-
mann. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid
Cairo. Albany: State University of New York, 1994.
Sanders, Paula et al. “Mawakib.” The Encyclopaedia of
Islam. 2d ed, vol. 6, 849-867. Leiden: Brill, 1991.
Shoshan, Boaz. Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

PROPHETS, TALES OF THE

The “Tales of the Prophets” ( Qisas al-anbiya’) refers
to a beloved literature in Islam containing legends and
folktales that shed light on the ancient, pre-Islamic
prophets and the events and stories of their age.
These tales serve not only as exegesis on the Qur’an
but also indirectly as Islamic exegesis on the Hebrew
Bible and New Testament, since they often relate to
biblical narratives and personages that are not refer-
enced in the Qur’an. The “Tales of the Prophets”
(TOP) literature also includes material on prophets
and peoples that are not known from the Bible.

The singular form of the term tale is qissa, which is
derived from the verb qassa, meaning “to narrate” or
“tell a story.” This verb is found in the Qur’an in the
sense of narrating stories of messengers (rusul) or
prophets ( anbiya’), specifically including such Islamic
prophets as Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob,
the tribes, Jesus, Job, David, and Solomon: “We have
narrated (qasasna) to you about the messengers. . .”
(4:164), as well as prophets and heroes unknown to
the Bible, such as Shu’ayb (and the destroyed town-
ships al-qura) (Q 7:101, 11:100, 120, and so on).

644

PROPHETS, TALES OF THE

From the first generation following the Prophet
Muhammad, preachers known as qass (pi. qussas,
“storytellers”) commented on the Qur’anic narratives
concerning biblical characters and the fates of extinct
peoples. They were among the first exegetes or com-
mentators on the Qur’an, and their literary products
remained an oral endeavor for generations as they
told their stories in the market or preached in the
mosques. These were popular preachers, and they
were beloved among the masses. Religious and legal
scholars were sometimes annoyed when they were
unable to compete for the crowds and appeal gener-
ated by the entertaining style of the storytellers and
the folkloristic content of their tales. Their material
came from a combination of sources ranging from
pre-Islamic Arabian folklore to Jewish midrash, and
they produced different types and combinations of
material, including moral preaching, political satire,
fractious propaganda, and their own interpretive,
marvelous tales. Their role varied from pious Qur’anic
exegete and sermonizer to teller of tales and even
buffoon, telling comical and inappropriate stories.
Because of their unpredictable nature and potential
threat to religious and political elites, they were
eventually discouraged and even outlawed by the
authorities.

Modern academic studies of oral literatures have
attested to the complex individual, creative process of
passing along tradition, wherein the faithful transmit-
ter naturally clarifies, develops, expands or narrows,
and otherwise contributes personally to the product
that moves among and between generations. While
faithful, the process is nevertheless not one of literal
or unembellished transmission, and the collections
that have been preserved include material that reflects
Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, Gnostic, and other
religious realia. Because the content of the prophetic
tales was constructed from traditions about the be-
loved and sacred prophets of ancient times, there was
always danger of the tellers or the tales moving popu-
lations away from established and approved princi-
ples and categories of belief. As a result, a kind of
censoring process rose with the emergence of Islamic
orthodoxies that removed some materials from the
mass of oral tales and organized others into a variety
of categories that were more or were less acceptable.
Some were eventually branded unacceptable, such
as the infamous isra’iliyyat, the Israelite tales deriv-
ing from what were considered Jewish distortions
of divine and prophetic traditions and marked as
inappropriate for Islam.

As in all Islamic literatures, the TOP existed in oral
form for generations before they were reduced to
writing. The earliest compositions have been lost to
us, but fragments of some have been found while

others can be partially reconstructed from references
to them in later works. Among the earliest are the
works of Wahb b. Munabbih (d. ca. 732), a Yemenite
who is said to have been of at least partial Jewish
origin.

The genre that is known today as TOP does
not find a place among the most noble categories of
Islamic literature, such as hadith, tafsir (Qur’an com-
mentary), and fiqh (law), but the actual content of the
TOP is not infrequently found in hadith and tafsir.
Collections of history (ta’rikh) more unabashedly
contain TOP, especially the universal histories such
as Tabari’s History of Prophets and Kings (translated
into English as The History of al-Tabari ) that begin
with creation and include many tales with biblical
or midrashic parallels, but that are unknown from
Islamic scripture. Tabari also wrote a massive com-
mentary on the Qur’an, and he carefully sifted
through the huge collection of (originally) oral narra-
tive at his disposal, allowing many more prophetic
tales in his History than in his Commentary . He nev-
ertheless includes a great many TOP as appropriate
elucidation of Qur’anic verses, phrases, and individu-
al words in his Tafsir. The hadith collections also
contain TOP in many chapters, and the most highly
regarded collection of al-Bukhari contains an entire
section called “The Book of the Prophets.” More
than four centuries after Tabari, Ibn Kathir (d. 1373)
follows the organization of universal histories, begin-
ning with Creation in his own history, AI-Bidaya wal-
nihaya, but he omits much material found in Tabari
that, by Ibn Kathir’s day, was considered to be
unacceptable isra’iliyat. The first two volumes of
Al- Biday a are sometimes published separately today
under the title Qisas al-anbiya ’.

The two most popular collections of traditional
TOP are those of al-Kisa’i ( Qisas al-anbiya ’) and al-
Thaflabi (‘Ara’is al-majalis), both of which have been
translated into English (see bibliography). Other TOP
material may be found within the published histories
of al-Azraqi (d. 858), Ibn Qutayba (d. 889), al-Ya‘qubi
(d. 892), al-Mas’udi (d. 956), and Ibn al-Athir
(d. 1232), to name only a few. TOP have been revived
in the Islamic world during the twentieth century,
perhaps reflecting the resurgence of Islamic religiosity
during this period. Two of the most popular Arabic
collections are those of ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Najjar
(d. 1941), TOP , published in the 1930s, and ‘Afif
‘Abd al-Fattah Tabbarah, Ma‘a al-anbiya’ fi-l-
Qur’an al-karim (With the Prophets in the Glorious
Qur’an), published in the 1970s. TOP collections
have also been published in many other languages in
the Islamic world, including Farsi, Urdu, Turkish,
and Malay.

Reuven Firestone

645

PROPHETS, TALES OF THE

Primary Sources

Al-Azraqi, A1-. Akhbar Bakka. Edited by Wustenfeld as
Chroniken der Stadt Mecca. Leipzig, 1858; reprint ed.,
Akhbar Makka al-musharrafa. Beirut, n.d.

Ibn al-Athir. Al-Kamil fi al-ta’rikh. Beirut, 1965.

Ibn Kathir. Qisas al-anbiya’ . Beirut, 1982/1402.

. Tafsir. Beirut: Dar al-Andalus, 1985/1405.

Ibn Munabbih, Wahb. Kitab al-tijan fi muluk Himyar.
San‘a’, 1979.

Ibn Qutayba. Al-ma‘arif. Beirut, 1987/1407.

Ibn Sa‘d. Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir. 9 vols. Beirut 1997, vol.
1, 37/Haqq (transl.) 2 vols., New Delhi, n.d., vol. 1,
33-34.

Kisa’i, A1-, Eisenberg (Ed). Vita Prophetarum. Leiden:
Brill, 1922, 110-121/English translation by Wheeler
Thackston. Boston: Twayne, 1978.

Mus’ ‘di, A1-. Muruj al-dhahab wa ma'adin al-jawahir.
Beirut, 1965.

Najjar, A1-. Qisas al-cinbiya'. Beirut, n.d.

Tabbarah, ‘Afif ‘Abd al-Fattah. Ma' al-anbiya’ fi l-Qur’an
al-karim (2d printing). Beirut, 1980.

Tabari, A1-. Ta’rikh. Leiden: Brill, 1964/English translation
by Ehsan Yar-Shater as The History of al-Tabari.
Albany: State University of New York Press.

. Tafsir. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1984/1405.

Tha’labi, A1-. ‘Ara’is al-majalis. Beirut, n.d., 57-63/English
translation by William M. Brinner. Leiden: Brill, 2002,
114-123.

Ya‘qubi, A1-. Ta’rikh. Leiden: Brill, 1969.

Further Reading

Athamina, Khalil. “Al-Qasas: Its Emergence, Religious Or-
igin and Its Socio-Political Impact on Early Muslim
Society.” Stadia Islamica 76 (1989): 53-74.

Barth, J. Midraschische Elemente in der muslimischen
Tradition. Festschrift zum Siebzigsten Geburtstage A
Berliner’s. Frankfurt, 1903, 8M0.

Brinner, William R. “Introduction.” 'Ara’is al-majalis fi
qisas al-anbiya’ (Loves of the Prophets). Leiden: Brill,
2002, xi-xxxii.

Firestone, R. Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the
Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis. Albany,
NY: SUNY, 1990.

Goitein, S. “ ‘Isra’iliyat” (Hebrew). Tarbitz 6 (1934—1935):
89-101.

Hirschberg, J. Judische und Christliche Leliren im Vor-Un
Fruhislamischen Arabien. Krakow, 1939.

Lindsay, J. ‘“Ali Ibn ‘Asakir as a Preserver of Qisas al-
Anbiya ’: The Case of David b. Jesse.” Stadia Islamica 82
(1995): 45-82.

Meyouhas, J. Bible Tales in Arab Folk-Lore. London:
Knopf, 1928.

Newby, G. Tafsir Isra’iliyyat. JAAR Thematic Volume.

. The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction

of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad. Columbia, SC:
USC Press, 1988. '

Rosenblatt, S. “Rabbinic Legends in Hadith.” Muslim
World 35 (1945): 236-252.

Schwarzbaum, H. Biblical and Extra-Biblical Legends in
Islamic Folk-Literature. Walldorf-Hessen: Verlag Fur
Orientkunde Dr. H. Vorndran, 1982.

Tottoli, Roberto. “The Origin and Use of the Term Isra’i-
liyyat in Muslim Literature.” Arabica 46 ( 1999): 193-210.

Waldman, M. “New Approaches to ‘Biblical’ Material in
the Qur’an.” In Studies in Islamic and Judaic Traditions ,
edited by Brinner and Ricks, 47-64. Atlanta: Scholars
Press, 1986.

Wasserstrom, S. “Jewish Pseudepigrapha and Qisas al-
Anbiya’.” In Judaism and Islam: Boundaries Communica-
tion and Interaction: Essays in Honor of William M.
Brinner , edited by Hary, Hayes, and Astren, 237-253.
Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Weil, G. Biblical Legends of The Mussulmans. New York:
Harper, 1846.

PROSTITUTION

Prostitution remained a major social phenomenon in
the Islamic world throughout the medieval period.
Evidence of the widespread nature of this illicit prac-
tice comes from a variety of sources: travel literature,
Islamic legal opinions, law codes, and books on judi-
cial theory and by the sixteenth century, even local
court records.

Unsurprisingly, this evidence almost entirely focus-
es on prostitution within an urban context, particu-
larly major metropolitan areas, such as twelfth- and
early thirteenth-century Baghdad, fourteenth- and
early fifteenth-century Cairo, and Istanbul during its
rapid urban development after 1500. Most of these
accounts are very scant on detail, naming a number of
guilty parties but rarely giving a detailed description.
One can only assert that this crime was often so
discreet that it eluded documentary scrutiny. We
know, for instance, from recent work done on prosti-
tution within the Ottoman era that many female pros-
titutes worked out of their own private homes. Others
worked collectively under pimps or madams, in par-
ticular in non-Muslim quarters where the authorities
were likely to be far more relaxed about enforcing
legal restrictions against prostitution. Other sites in-
cluded bathhouses and taverns, which also catered to
non-Muslims and Muslims alike. By the seventeenth
century, male prostitution would often be solicited in
coffeehouses; “dancing boys” would offer themselves,
along with the opium, tobacco, and coffee that would
also be for sale.

Islamic legal discussion of prostitution revolved
around the concept of zina, or adultery. A male
would commit zina if he had had sexual relations
outside of marriage or his concubine. A female
would commit zina if she had sex with anyone besides
her husband. Although prostitutes could certainly be
prosecuted for committing zina, a number of legal
fictions would be developed in order to leave the
institution untouched. For instance, at least one
scholar from the hanefi mezheb would argue that the
sale of a woman to a male client was not a form of
zina, since the exchange of a fee for sexual favors

646

PTOLEMY

approximated the dowry a bridegroom would pay for
a wife. The male’s payment of a prostitute’s fee, a
dowry, or for that matter the purchase amount for a
female slave constituted a right of ownership of the
female, which allowed him to have sex at will.

The general attitude of tolerating prostitution as a
necessary social evil can be seen throughout the cen-
turies of Islamic history. As early as the caliphates,
prostitution was occasionally taxed, a de facto
acknowledgment that they had the right to exist.
Al-Makrizi makes a similar assertion about Fatimid
and Persian tolerance of the illicit sexual trade. Evliya
Celebi, the great Ottoman traveler of the seventeenth
century, commented that prostitutes had long formed
their own guilds and as such were an accepted part of
Ottoman legal structure.

However, one needs also to remember that there
were at least two other legal categories that at times
approximated prostitution. First is the institution of
mutah, or temporary marriage, which was contracted
between a male who paid a mahr to the female party
in exchange for sexual relations. The duration of
mutah was indeed flexible, lasting as short as a day
to several months or even years. Yet, mutah resem-
bled a marriage contract except for the ability of the
woman, as well as the man, to break the contract, the
requirement that the female not be a virgin, the
female’s waiting period before remarriage was consid-
erably less, the wife had no right of inheritance, and
her offspring only had such rights if the father con-
sented. Mutah had existed prior to Muhammad as a
means to regulate the transient tribal relations of the
times. Some have argued that the mutah originated in
pre-Islamic matrilineal Arabic society, as evidenced
by the female’s equal right to break the marriage
contract. While the Prophet Muhammad did not
clearly condemn the institution, the Caliph Omar
did. From that time onward, mutah was only
practiced by Twelver Shi'i Muslims, who believed
that mutah allowed men to vent their biological needs.

Finally, scholars have often pointed to concubi-
nage as a frequent recourse to marital relations. Mus-
lim males had the right to have sexual relations with
female slaves at will, and could end them at will,
exclusive of whether or not they were married to
third parties. This practice can be seen as early as
the initial Arab conquest but was particularly popular
among the Mamluks and the Ottomans. The purchase
of such slaves, most frequently under the Mamluks
and Ottomans, tended to be expensive, and the
children from such relations became dependents.
For those who could not afford concubines, regular
prostitutes remained the more attractive option.

Birsen Bulmu§

Further Reading

Keddie, Nikki R. Problems in the Study of Middle Eastern
Women. International Journal of the Middle East Studies
10, no. 2 (May 1979): 225-240.'

Mantran, Robert. Istanbul au siecle de Soliman le Magnifi-
que. Paris: Hachette, 1994.

Nielson, Paula I. The Origin of Mu’tah (Temporary Mar-
riage) in Early Islam. Unpublished dissertation. The
University of Utah, June 1995.

Rapoport, Yossef. Marriage and Divorce in the Muslim
Near East, 1250-1517. Unpublished dissertation. Prince-
ton University, June 2002.

Semerdjian, Vivian Elyse. “ Off the Straight Path”: Gender,
Public Morality and Legal Administration in Ottoman
Haleppo , Syria. Unpublished dissertation. Georgetown
University, October 2002.

PTOLEMY

Claudius Ptolemy (Ar. Batlamiyus) was active in
Alexandria circa 150 CE. He belongs, together with
Aristotle, Euclid, and Galen, to the four most well-
known scholars of antiquity in the Arabic and Islamic
intellectual world. Above all he was a scholar in
astronomy, astrology, and geography.

In astronomy, Almagest is the Arabic name (al-
Majisti) for Megale syntaxis, Syntaxis mathematica
(The Mathematical Compilation , The Great Compila-
tion) . This great treatise of theoretical astronomy, in
thirteen books, was written circa 150. It is often pre-
sented as being exclusively a work of “mathematical”
astronomy. Indeed, it exposed all that is necessary to
size quantitatively the movement of stars. But it also
contains elements of “physical” astronomy. Early on,
it was translated into Arabic by al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf
b. Matar (210/826), and revised with the Christian
Sarjis b. Hiliya (Serjios/Serjius Eliae) in 214/829. It
was translated again by the physician Ishaq b.
Hunayn (d. 298/910) in 279/892, a translation that
was revised by the mathematician Harran Thabit b.
Qurra (d. 288/901), whose maternal language was
Syriac and who knew Greek very well, and also
wrote a commentary and other books on it. Gerard
of Cremona (d. 1187) found in Toledo an Arabic
manuscript of it, which was a mix of the versions
of al-Hajjaj and Ishaq b. Hunayn, and translated it
into Latin.

The Book of Planetary Hypotheses ( Hypothesis ton
planomenon), comprising two treatises, was com-
posed after Almagest. Its purpose is to present an
organization of the universe in material spheres.
Only the first treatise is extant in Greek. The history
of the modern knowledge of this book is complicated,
and we must content ourselves in saying here that the
two treatises are extant in Arabic: al-Iqtisas (The

647

PTOLEMY

Exposition) . Al-Biruni gives: Kitab al-Manshurat :
Sections [of the spheres]).

The Book of Phaseis ( Phaseis aplanon aspheron ) is
brief, dealing with the visibility of the fixed stars. It
consists in two treatises, the first of which is not
extant in Greek. The Arabic translation of the whole
in the AH third/ninth CE century is lost, but a pas-
sage of al-Biruni purports to have, partly, the content
of the first treatise.

Ptolemy’s last astronomical work is the Easy
Tables (Procheiroi kanones), a better title than the
usual English one: Handy Tables, which is known
in Arabic as al-Zij al-muyassar , or Zij Batlamiyus
( Ptolemy ’s Tables, Tabulae manuales ) . They are quot-
ed in Arabic since the third/ninth century, having
been transmitted in Greek in the version established
by Theon of Alexandria (d. end of fourth century),
and not Theon (the Old) of Smyrna, as it is often
unfortunately said.

In his astrological work Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy deals
only with general astrology that relates to whole
races, countries, and cities, and genealogy, which con-
cerns the individual. It was translated into Syriac,
then into Arabic (Kitab al-Arba‘a; Quadipartitum) .
According to al-Nadim, it was translated by Ibrahim
b. al-Salt and revised by Hunayn b. Ishaq.

The Geography (Geographike hypegesis) of Ptol-
emy had a great influence on the geographical opi-
nions of the Muslims, but his question as to how the
Arabs came into possession of their Ptolemaic infor-
mation is a crucial one. They give much information
on the authority of Ptolemy, which clearly does not
come fairly directly from his Geographia, and yet
there is not extant in Arabic any work that may be
described as a translation of it. Therefore no such
translation is extant, and it is not clear that it ever
existed.

Claude Gilliot

See also Astrology; Astronomy; Biruni; Geography

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Nadim (or al-Nadim). The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim. A
tenth-century survey of Muslim culture. 2 vols. Edited
and translated by Bayard Dodge. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1970, II, 639 sqq.

Sard al-Andalusi. Science in the Medieval World'. Book of
the Categories of Nations. Translated by I. Salem
Sernaan and Alok Kumar. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1991.

Ya'qubi, Ibn Wadih qui dicitur al-Ja’qubi Historiae. 2 vols.
Edidit indicesque adjecit M. TH. Houtsma. Leiden:
Brill, 1883 (reprint, ibid. 1969), 1, 150-161, translated
by Martin Klamroth in ZDMG 42 (1888): 17-27.

Further Reading

De Zenon d’Elee a Poincare. Recueil d’etudes en hommage a
Roshi Rashed. Edited by Regis Morelon and Ahmad
Hasnawi. Louvain-Paris: Peeters (Les Cahiers du
MIDEO, 1), 2004.

Endress, Gerhard. “Die wissenschaftliche Literatur.” In
Grundriss der arabischen Philologie , II, edited by Helmut
Gatje. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert, 1987, 400-506.
Volume III edited by Wolfdietrich Fischer, ibid., 1992,
3-152.

Morelon, Regis. “Fragment arabe du premier livre du
Phaseis de Ptolemee.” JHAS, 1-2 (1981): 3-22.

. “Une proposition de lecture de l’histoire de 1’ astro-

nomie arabe.” In De Zenon d’Elee a Poincare 237M9.

. “La version arabe du Livre des Hypotheses de

Ptolemee, traite 1.” MIDEO 21 (1993): 7-85.

Pingree, David. “Astrology.” CHAL III 290-300.

Rosenthal, Franz. “al-Kindi and Ptolemy.” In Studi orien-
talistici in onore di Giorgio Levi Della Vida, II, Roma:
Istito per l’Oriente, 1956, 436M56, reprint in Id., Science
and Medicine in Islam, Aldershot: Variorum (CS 322),
1990, nr. IV.

Saliba, George. “Aristotelian Cosmology and Arabic
Astronomy.” In De Zenon d’Elee d Poincare 251-268.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttum, VI,
Astronomie. Leiden: Brill, 1978, 83-96.

The Cambridge History of Arabic literature, III. Edited by
M. J. L. Young et al. Religion, Learning and Science in
the Abbasid Period. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1990.

648

QADI

See Judges

QAYRAWAN

Qayrawan was one of the most important cities of
medieval North Africa and still retains a high status
as one of the first Muslim cities to be founded in the
region. The city is located on an arid plain in the
center of modern-day Tunisia (medieval Ifriqiyya).
Its location away from the coast has meant that its
economy has mostly been based on agriculture and
inland trade. Today the city still has a large number
of traditional crafts, including leatherworking and
textile production.

History

Although Qayrawan is generally regarded as a Mus-
lim foundation, there is considerable evidence of a
Byzantine city or town on or nearby the site of the
present city. The pre-Islamic town was known as
Kuniya or Kamuniya, and remains of an ancient
church and a temple have been identified in the vicin-
ity of the modern town. During the Muslim con-
quests, the area was frequently used as a military
camp (kayrawan) for the Arab armies. The area was
considered safe for the Arab armies because of its
location away from the coast, where it could be

attacked by Byzantine sea power, and away from
the mountains, which contained troops resisting the
invasion. On three occasions in the mid-seventh cen-
tury (654-655, 661-662, and 665), the Muslim general
Mu’awiya Ibn Hudayj set up a military camp in the
area near a rocky outcrop known as al-Karn (this
may be identified with the hill today known as Batn
al-Karn that is twelve kilometers northwest of the
city). Some early Arabic chroniclers (Ibn ‘Idhari
and Ibn Naji) even state that Ibn Hudayj built some
permanent structures at the site.

Despite the plentiful evidence of earlier occupation
of the site, it is clear that the city of al-Qayrawan was
founded by Mu'awiva Ibn Hudayj’s successor ‘Ukba
Ibn Naff, who was appointed governor of Ifriqiyya in
670. ‘Ukba was not satisfied with the location of the
military camp and capital at al Karn, and he chose a
new site on the flat plain nearby. The first buildings
constructed were the Dar al-Tmara (governor’s pal-
ace) and the Friday mosque, which took more than
five years to complete. However, ‘Ukba’s successor
was not satisfied with the location of the town, and he
tried to establish a new town three kilometers away;
this was to be known as Takirwan. This action did not
meet with the approval of the Umayyads, who sent
‘Ukba to return the settlement to its original site.

The town suffered a further setback in 684, when
‘Ukba and his forces were defeated by the Berber rebel
Kusayla. For five years, the Berbers used Qayrawan as
their capital until it was recaptured by Umayyad forces
in 689. The town remained free of armed conflict until
the 740s when it was once again fought over by Berbers

649

QAYRAWAN

and various schismatic religious groups. Central con-
trol was restored by the ‘Abbasids in 761, when they
sent Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath to be governor of the
region. The new governor built a wall around the city
to protect it from further attacks, although this did not
prevent it from being sacked by the Berbers in 771.
Although the town remained nominally under ‘Abbas-
id control, effective rule passed to a local dynasty
known as the Aghlabids. Under the Aghlabids, Qay-
rawan developed as an intellectual, mercantile, and
religious center. The Aghlabid conquest of Sicily
brought further wealth and prestige to the city.

During the tenth century, Qayrawan was incorpo-
rated into the growing domain of the Shi’i Fatimids.
Flowever, the inhabitants of the city remained Sunni,
which caused constant friction with the Fatimid
rulers. Eventually the position of Qayrawan within
the Fatimid realm became untenable. First, the city
was burnt and pillaged by Fatimid troops; later
(1054), the city was subjected to a sacking by the
Banu Flilal (from which it has never fully recovered).
During the twelfth century, the town was peripheral
to the main events in the region, although its promi-
nence increased during the late thirteenth century
(1270) when Ifriqiyya was invaded by the Crusaders
under Louis IX. The Hafsid ruler considered moving
the capital back to Qayrawan.

During the early sixteenth century, the city — along
with the rest of Ifriqiyya — became part of a Spanish
protectorate under the nominal rule of Mawlay Has-
san. Qayrawan was probably of little interest to the
Spanish, although they did establish a garrison in the
city. In 1575, formal Muslim control of the region was
restored when the Ottomans ejected the Spanish.
Under Ottoman rule, Qayrawan was neglected, and,
in 1701, its citizens suffered the indignity of being
forced to destroy their own town. Although the
town was rebuilt three years later, it continued to be
in a very poor condition until the 1750s, when its
citizens were granted tax exemptions and it was sup-
plied with a new city wall. In 1881, the city was
incorporated into the French protectorate of Tunisia.

The population of the city varied considerably
throughout its history, from an estimated fifty thou-
sand during the seventh century to well over one hun-
dred thousand during the ninth century. Although the
majority of the population were Sunni Muslims, there
were also significant numbers of Jews and Christians.

Topography

The old city of Qayrawan is located to the north of
the French colonial quarter and is enclosed by a

circuit of walls built of fired brick that stretch for
more than three kilometers. To the east and north-
east of the walled town are the ancient suburbs of
Guebelia, Jebelia, and Zlass. The Great Mosque is
located at the extreme west end of the Old City
(Medina), although it probably stood somewhere
near the center of the original city as laid out by
‘Ukba ibn Nafi‘.

The layout and dimensions of the original city are
not known, although it is probable that it was roughly
square, and, according to al-Bakri, each side measured
approximately four kilometers. For the first century
of its existence, the city did not have walls, although
it was probably enclosed by a ditch and rampart
(as were other early Islamic cities such as Basra and
Kufa). The interior was divided according to tribal
allotments. Although the precise tribal allocations are
not known, it is known that the Fihr tribe (a branch
of the Quraysh) had an area to the north of the Great
Mosque. The chief building material was reused stone
taken from the Roman Byzantine buildings in the
vicinity, although baked brick was also extensively
used.

The high point of the city came with the period of
Aghlabid rule, when it benefited from both the links
with the high culture of "Abbasid Baghdad and from
the conquest of Byzantine Sicily. The Aghlabids
initiated a series of improvements, the most signifi-
cant of which was the rebuilding of the Great Mosque
and its minaret (see Monuments below). In addition
to these buildings, they also constructed two fortified
palaces in the vicinity of the city: al-'Abbasiyya and
al-Rakkada.

A consequence of the phenomenal growth of Qay-
rawan during the ninth century was that the city’s
water supply was inadequate for its growing popula-
tion. It is known, for example, that the city had forty-
eight hammams (bathhouses), each of which needed a
considerable amount of water. During the Umayyad
period, the rulers had relied on a water source (Mams)
that was thirty-three kilometers away; water was car-
ried to the city by an aqueduct and distribution system
that had been built by the Romans. The Aghlabids
renovated this system and increased capacity by build-
ing a number of large circular cisterns, the most fa-
mous of which stands near the Tunis gate and was built
by Abu Ibrahim Ahmed between 856 and 863.

Monuments

The principal monument of Qayrawan — and the only
surviving building whose origins can be traced back
to the seventh century — is the Great Mosque. This is

650

QAZWINI, AL-, ZAKARIYA B. MUHAMMAD B. MAHMUD (D. 1283)

a large rectangular enclosure (approximately one
hundred and twenty by seventy meters) that is aligned
southeast by northwest with a prayer hall occupying
one-third of the area at the southeast end. At the
northwest end of the enclosure, there is a massive
square minaret built of fired brick on a stone base.
Unfortunately, nothing remains (above ground) of
the first mosque built by ‘Uqba in 670, and the
mosque in its present form dates mostly from the
time of the Aghlabids (ninth century). The only
early features that remain visible are a mihrab, now
functioning as a doorway for the imam, and a cistern,
both of which belong to the mosque as rebuilt by
Yazid ibn Hatim in 772 CE. The present mihrab
dates to the ninth century and comprises a deep con-
cave recess covered by a pointed, horseshoe-shaped
arch. Surrounding the mihrab, there are a series of
139 polychrome-luster tiles imported from Baghdad.
To the right of the mihrab is the minbar, which is the
oldest surviving example of this fixture.

The Mosque of Three Doors is famous for its
faqade, which is made up of three doorways covered
with horseshoe-shaped arches resting on marble col-
umns. Above the arches there is a monumental kufic
inscription attributing the construction of the mosque
to Muhammad ibn Khayrun al-Ma‘arifi in 866. The
mosque was substantially altered in 1440, when a
minaret was added and the interior remodeled.

Qayrawan also has a large number of religious
buildings dating to the later middle ages, including the
fourteenth-century Zawiya of Sidi 'Abid al-Gharyani
and the Zawiya of Sidi Sahib.

Andrew Petersen

Further Reading

The most important early sources are al-Bakri and Ibn
‘Idhari.

For the Great Mosque, see Creswell, K. A. C., with revi-
sions and additions by J.W. Allan. Early Muslim Archi-
tecture, 315-30. Aldershott, 1989.

For the history of the city, see Talbi, M. “Al-Kayrawan.” In
El, 2nd ed., 824-32.

See also visual material at http://archnet.org.

QAZW INI, AL-, ZAKARIYA B.
MUHAMMAD B. MAHMUD (D. 1283)

Qazwlnl’ s name appears in various forms in different
sources (Wiistenfeld, al-Qazwfm, 1849). He was the
author of two well-known works: a cosmography,
The Wonders of Created Things and the Oddities of
Existing Things (Ajd'ib al-Makhluqat wa-Ghard’ib al-
Mawjudat), and a geography with two variant titles,
The Wonders of the Lands (‘Aja’ib al-Buldan) or The

Monuments of the Lands and the Annals of [God’s]
Servants ( Athar al-Bilcid wa-Akhbdr al- Tbcid). Judging
from the broad dissemination of extant manuscript
copies, these two works were the most widely read
examples of a medieval Islamic literary genre about
wonders (‘aja’ib) (£72, ‘“Adja’ib”; Encyclopedia Ira-
nica, “Adja’eb al-Makluqat”). It was a genre that
drew on Neoplatonic ideas about creation as emana-
tion and on classical traditions regarding the oddities
of distant lands. Qazwlnl was a qadi (judge) (Ibn Tagh-
rtbirdl; von Hees) and also a professor at al-Madrasa
al-Sharabtyya in Wasit (Ibn al-Fuwati; von Hees).

Recent work shows that the established version of
Qazwlnl’ s biography as presented in The Encyclopaedia
of Islam, New Edition, requires revision. It has long
been held (a) that Qazwlnl was a qadi at Wasit and
Hilla before the Mongol Conquest, (b) that he left this
post at the time of the conquest and subsequently
turned to scholarship, and (c) that his literary patron
was ‘Ala’ al-Dln ‘Ata Malik Juwaynl.

Of these three propositions, only proposition (a)
continues to stand unchallenged. It has been based on
the clear statement of the biographer Ibn TaghribirdI
(d. 1470), who wrote the following: “He was a judge
in Wasit and Hilla in the days of the Caliphate. He
was a learned imam, a faqth, and he wrote useful
compositions including ‘The Book of the Wonders
of Creation.’ He died on the seventh day of
Muharram in the year 682 [1283 CE]. ”

Proposition (b), by contrast, can now be shown to
be false. It has been based on logical but speculative
assumptions concerning the interpretation of a state-
ment in the preface to The Wonders of Creation.
There, Qazwlnl himself wrote, “When I was tested
to go far from home and homeland, and be separated
from family and from those who lived nearby, I set
myself to studying in accordance with the saying, ‘In
time, a book is an excellent companion.’” Scholars
have assumed that the home referred to here is Wasit,
that the reason for Qazwlnl’s separation from it is the
conquest, and that the reference to studying suggests
the writing of books as opposed to the practice of law.
However, Syrinx von Hees has recently brought to
light new evidence that contradicts these assumptions.
The author of al-Hawadith al-Jdmi a, who is thought
to be Ibn al-Fuwati, mentioned Qazwlnl among the
notable personages of Mongol Iraq who died in
AH 682. He wrote the following: “He composed a
book called The Wonders of Creation. . .. He took on
the judgeship of Hilla in the year (AH) [6]50, and then
transferred to the judgeship of Wasit in the year (AH)
[6]52, and was assigned to teach in the SharabI Ma-
drasa, which he continued to do until his death.”
Therefore, it now seems that if Qazwlnt’s statement
in his preface was meant literally, he was referring to

QAZWINI, AL-, ZAKARIYA B. MUHAMMAD B. MAHMUD (D. 1283)

his departure from a previous home and that, both
before and after the conquest, his life of study in
Wasit included the study, practice, and teaching of
law as well as the composition of books.

As for proposition (c), it is questionable, but it
cannot be summarily dismissed. It is based on a pas-
sage extolling Juwaynl that appears in some — but not
all — of the surviving manuscripts of The Wonders of
Creation. The passage does not appear in the only
surviving manuscript that was made in Wasit while
Qazwlnl lived there (Munich, cod. arab 464). This fact
is notable, but it does not prove that Juwaynl could
not have been the patron of the text, because there are
several comparable instances in which patronage for a
text was only secured after the text was completed.
The passage does appear in an undated manuscript
that was probably produced about twenty years after
both Qazwlnl and Juwaynl died (London, Or. 14140).
Some subsequent manuscripts include the passage,
whereas others do not. On the basis of the available
evidence, it is impossible to settle the question. Even
so, much can be learned much about the history of the
reception of the text if we can identify patterns among
those manuscripts that do include the eulogy to
Juwaynl and among those that do not.

QazwInT’s geography has not traditionally been
used as a source for his biography, but von Hees has
recently approached it as such. By collecting the first-
person references in the geography, von Hees makes a
strong case that Qazwlnl spent his youth in Qazwin,
studied in Mosul, and then pursued his career in
Baghdad, Hilla, and Wasit. One might initially be
cautious about these conclusions given that the use
of the first person in geographic writing is often a
stylistic convention rather than a means for the pre-
sentation of autobiographical data. However, as a
stylistic convention, the use of the first person in
geographical writing often serves to validate other-
wise questionable passages concerning distant lands.
It is striking that Qazwlnl, by contrast, actually uses
the first person for passages concerning areas in which
he is otherwise known to have lived or in which he
may quite conceivably have lived given what is other-
wise known of his life. It therefore seems that the first-
person references in the geography can indeed be used
for the reconstruction of his biography.

Qazwlnl’ s two works are The Wonders of Created
Things and the Oddities of Existing Things (‘ Ajd’ib al-
Makhluqat wa-Ghard’ib al-Mawjudat) and The Won-
ders of the Lands (' Ajd’ib al-Buldan) , of which a
variant edition is called The Monuments of the Lands
and the Annals of [God’s] Servants (Athar al-Bilcid
wa-Akhbar al-Lbad). Both works were widely
disseminated, as demonstrated by numerous surviv-
ing manuscripts not only in the original Arabic but

also in Persian and Turkish translations and summa-
ries. Both were encyclopedic compendia in which
Qazwlnl organized information gathered from nu-
merous previous authorities into an overarching
framework. Manuscripts of the cosmography often
contain hundreds of illustrations. Before describing
the two works further, it is necessary to explain their
modern publication histories.

Both texts were first published by Ferdinand
Wiistenfeld, whose editions remain the most widely
available versions to scholars. As has long been recog-
nized, Wiistenfeld’s choice of manuscript sources for
these editions renders them problematic. Recent scho-
larship based on Qazwlnl’s own manuscript of the
cosmography is beginning to reveal how Wiistenfeld’s
problematic edition of that text has led to misunder-
standings of it in the secondary scholarship. However,
parallel scholarship on the early manuscripts of the
geography has not yet been undertaken, so it is still
unclear what the effects of Wiistenfeld's edition of
that book have been.

In the case of the cosmography, Wiistenfeld mixed
sections from manuscripts dated from the thirteenth
to the eighteenth centuries, the contents of which
actually vary considerably. Ruska attempted to quan-
tify this variation by determining exactly how many
Arabic editions existed, but his method for classifying
the editions was problematic, for two reasons. First,
he attempted to count “lost” versions that he pre-
sumed must have existed along with surviving ver-
sions. Second, he only checked for correspondences
and differences at a select few points in the text, and
thus falsely identified manuscripts that diverge at
other points in the text as belonging to the same
edition (von Hees, 91-6). It is not yet possible to say
exactly how many manuscript versions there are, but
there are clearly many more than the four that Ruska
enumerated. However many versions there may be,
the general observation can nonetheless be made that
the earlier manuscripts place comparatively greater
emphasis on natural history, whereas the later ones
place comparatively greater emphasis on oddities.
Thus, Wiistenfeld’s decision to include many passages
from later manuscripts in his published version has
resulted in an edition that has a much greater empha-
sis on oddities than Qazwlnl’ s original cosmography.
This has unfortunately led to widespread misunder-
standings about the emphases of the original book,
since much of the secondary scholarship on it is based
on Wiistenfeld’s version. There are also less widely
available editions published in the Arab world, but
none that the present author has found to portray the
text as it appears in any single early manuscript.
Therefore, it is desirable to study Qazwlnl’s cosmog-
raphy as much as possible from early manuscripts.

QAZWINI, AL-, ZAKARIYA B. MUHAMMAD B. MAHMUD (D. 1283)

It has long been recognized that the manuscript on
which an authoritative published version should be
based is Munich cod. arab. 464. Dated 1280, it is the
only dated manuscript to survive from Qazwlm’s life-
time. The appearance of his name and titles in the
opening rosette indicate that it was his personal copy,
and it is almost complete. The present author suggests
that the missing passages should be filled in by refer-
ence to a newly found manuscript dated 1322, Siiley-
rnaniye Yeni Cami 813, which is also almost complete
(Berlekamp, Proceedings from the Arab Painting Con-
ference, ed. Contadini, forthcoming). Folio-by-folio
comparison of the texts in the two manuscripts
shows that they contain the same version of the text.

On the basis of these two manuscripts, the original
outline of the cosmography is as follows. It begins
with a preface that contains separate expositions of
the key terms of the title, which are also the overarch-
ing themes of the book: wonder (al-‘ajab), created
things ( al-makhluqat ) , odd things ( al-gharib ) , and
existing things ( al-mawjudat ) . In accordance with
this, the bulk of the book consists of encyclopedia
entries about separate created wonders that are pre-
sented according to the classifications of creation to
which they belong, which in turn are organized
according to a cosmographic hierarchy. The first
part deals with “things above,” whereas the second
deals with “things below.” The “things above” are
organized into chapters about the planets, the fixed
stars of the northern and southern hemispheres, the
lunar mansions, the angels, and time. The “things
below” are divided into sections about the four ele-
ments of fire, air, water, and earth. The fire section is
the shortest and contains no subchapters. The air
section treats such phenomena as winds, thunder,
lightning, the aureole of the sun, and the rainbow.
The water section starts with a preliminary chapter
about the surrounding ocean and then continues with
additional chapters about other seas (the China Sea,
the Indian Ocean, the Persian Sea, the Red Sea, the
Sea of Zanzibar, the Mediterranean Sea, and the
Caspian Sea), with subsections about the islands and
characteristic inhabitants of each; it concludes with a
section about sea creatures in general. The earth sec-
tion includes subchapters addressing differing opi-
nions as to how the earth is laid out, the regions and
climes of the earth, earthquakes and the sinking in of
the ground, mountains, rivers, springs, and wells.
These subchapters are followed by those about beings
born of mothers. The first such discuss metals and
stones (which were understood to have been born of
the earth). These are followed by plants: first trees and
then small plants. These in turn are followed by ani-
mals, classified as follows: people; riding animals;
livestock; predatory animals; birds; creepers (such as

insects and rodents); and, finally, a concluding section
about strangely formed breeds. In Munich cod. arab.
464, a passage about jinn written on later paper and in
a later hand is inserted between those about people
and riding animals. In Siileymaniye Yeni Cami 813,
the text is continuous from people to riding animals,
demonstrating that the passage about jinn was a later
addition to the text of Munich cod. arab. 464 rather
than a replacement for a lost original folio.

The illustrations found in different manuscripts of
the cosmography vary considerably. Their signifi-
cance varies from one manuscript to the next, shifting
with changes in the history of the text and with
changes in audience. However, taken together, they
do challenge two assertions that are often made about
manuscript painting in Islamic societies: that it
appears in secular contexts and that its audiences
were limited to the princely courts. In its original
context and version, the cosmography was a deeply
religious text, with each wonder presented as a sign
pointing to the greatness of its Creator; illustrations
of these created wonders appear throughout QazwTnT’s
own copy of this text, although QazwTnT himself was a
judge and professor of Islamic law and was not asso-
ciated with any princely court. Although the overall
character of the text shifts in its later history,
subsequent illustrated copies vary widely in their
quality, suggesting that they were made for audiences
at a variety of social levels.

As for the geography, Wiistenfeld’s edition of it is
also considered problematic, and rightly so. The ver-
sion entitled The Wonders of the Lands (‘Aja’ib al-
Buldan) is recognized as an older version than that
entitled The Monuments of the Lands and the Annals
of [God’s] Servants (Athar al-Bilad wa-Akhbdr al-
7 bad), but Wiistenfeld’s edition is based on various
manuscripts of The Monuments of the Lands and the
Annals of [ God’s] Servants. It will not be known what
the implications of Wiistenfeld’s problematic choice of
manuscript sources have been for secondary scholar-
ship on the geography until intensive study of the early
manuscripts is undertaken. Meanwhile, the geography
as it occurs in Wiistenfeld’s edition can be described as
follows. It is organized according to the earth’s seven
climes, with descriptions of the cities, countries, moun-
tains, and rivers of each. Included in the descriptions of
the cities and countries are short biographies of the
famous luminaries who came from them.

Persis Berlekamp

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Fuwatl, Kamal al-Din. Al-Hawadith al-Jami'a, ed.
Mustafa Jawad. Baghdad: al-Maktaba al-‘Arab!ya,
135i/1932.

QAZWlNl, AL-, ZAKARIYA B. MUHAMMAD B. MAHMUD (D. 1283)

Ibn Taghribirdl, [Abu Muhasin] Yusuf. al-Manhal al-Safi
wa-al-Mustawfa ba'da al-Wdfl , vol. 5. Cairo, 1988.

Katip Qelebi, aka Hajjl al-Khallfa. Kcishf al-Zunun, 6 vols.,
vol. 2. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘llmlya, 1413/1992.

Qazwlnl, Zakarlya b. Muhammad. Die Wunder des Him-
mels und der Erde, transl. Alma Giese. Stuttgard: Thie-
nemann, Edition Erdmann, 1986.

Qazwlnl, Zakarlya b. Muhammad. “Kitab ‘Aja’ib al-Makh-
luqat. Die Wunder der Schopfung.” In Zakarija Ben
Muhammed Ben Mahmud el-Cazwini’s Kosmographie.
Erster Theil, ed. Ferdinand Wiistenfeld. Gottingen,
1849.

Qazwlnl, Zakarlya b. Muhammad. “Kitab Athar al-Bul-
dan. Die Denkmaler der Lander.” In Zakarija Ben
Muhammed Ben Mahmud el-Cazwini’s Kosmographie.
Erster Theil, ed. Ferdinand Wiistenfeld. Gottingen,
1848.

Further Reading

‘“Adja’ib.” In EI2.

"Adja’eb al-Ma^'luqat.” In Encyclopedia Iranica.

Badiee, Julie. “Angels in an Islamic Heaven.” Bulletin of the
Los Angeles County Museum XXIV (1978).

. “The Sarre Qazwini: An Early Aq Qoyunlu Manu-
script?” Ars Orientalis 14 (1984): 97-113.

. An Islamic Cosmography: The Illustrations of the

Sarre Qazwini. PhD dissertation. The University of
Michigan, 1978.

Berlekamp, Persis. Wonders and Their Images in Late Medi-
eval Islamic Culture: ‘The Wonders of Creation ’ in Fars
and Iraq, 1280-1388. PhD dissertation. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard University, 2003.

. “From Iraq to Fars: Tracking Cultural Transfor-
mations Through the 1322 Qazwini ‘Aja’ib Manuscript,
Siileymaniye Yeni Cami 813.” Proceedings of the Arab
Painting Conference, ed. Anna Contadini. Forthcoming.

Bothmer, Hans-Caspar Graf von. Die Illustrationen des
‘Miinchener Qazwini’ von 1280 (cod. Monac. arab 464):
Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis Ihres Stils. PhD dissertation.
Universitat Mtinchen, 1971.

Carboni, Stefano. “Constellations, Giants and Angels from
al-Qazwini Manuscripts.” In Islamic Art in the Ashmo-
lean Museum, ed. James Allan, 83-97. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, 1995.

. “The London Qazwlnl: An Early Fourteenth Cen-
tury Copy of the ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat.” Islamic Art III
(1988-1989): 15-31.

. The Wonders of Creation and the Singularities of

Ilkhanid Painting: A Study of the London Qazwini British
Library Ms. Or. 14140. PhD dissertation. London:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London, 1992.

Carboni, Stefano, and Anna Contadini. “An Illustrated
Copy of al-QazwInl’s The Wonders of Creation.” Sothe-
by’s Art at Auction 1989-1990 (1990): 228-33.

von Hees, Syrinx. Enzyklopddie als Spiegel des We/tbildes:
Qazwmis Wunder der Schopfung- eine Naturkunde des 13.
Jahrhunderts. Vol. 4, Diskurse der Arabistik. Wiesbaden:
Harrossowitz Verlag, 2002.

"Kazwlnl.” Encyclopedia of Islam.

"Kazwlnl.” EI2.

Rhiirdanz, Karin. “Zwei Illustrierte Qazwlnl-Handschriften
in Sammlungen der DDR.” Persica X (1982): 97-114,
Abb. 1-9.

de Ruita, Jan Jaap. “Human Embryology in Zakariya Al-
Qazwlnl’s ‘The Marvels of Creation.’” Tidjsdrift Voor de
Faxhindeus du Geneeskunde, Naturwaterschappen, Wir-
kunde in Fedurick 9 (1986): 99-117.

Ruska, Julius. “Uber den Falschen und den Echten
Kazwlnl.” Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und
der Naturwissenschaf ten (Leipzig/Hamburg) 13 (1914):
183-8.

Sezgin, Fuat, ed. Studies on Zakariya b. Muhammad al-
Qazwini (d. 1283). Frankfurt am Main, 1994.

QUR’AN

The Qur’an is sacred scriptural text of all forms of
Islam, a compilation of the revelations given to the
Prophet Muhammad. The term Qur’an probably
means “reading” or “recitation,” and it is etymologi-
cally linked both to the Syriac qeryana (scripture
reading) and the Hebrew miqra ’ (recitation, scripture).

The Qur’an is made up of 114 surahs (chapters),
which range in length from three short verses to 286
or 287 relatively long verses (depending upon how
those verses are counted). The chapters are arranged
roughly in order of decreasing length. Because the
length of Muhammad’s revelations tended to increase
with the passage of time, this means that the later
chapters, in terms of the moment of their reception
by the Prophet, occur toward the front of the stan-
dard editions of the book, whereas the earliest revela-
tions are found toward the back.

The Historical Origins of the Qur’an

According to traditional accounts, the divine messen-
ger of revelation (subsequently identified as the arch-
angel Gabriel) first appeared to Muhammad when the
Prophet was approximately forty years old (in or near
610 CE). It is generally agreed that this appearance
constitutes Muhammad’s call as a messenger of God,
and that Qur’an verse 96: 1-5 represents the first
portion of the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet. There-
after, revelation came in various ways. The earliest
chroniclers report that Muhammad would enter a
trancelike state during which he would receive his
divine communications. Sometimes he saw visions,
but, overwhelmingly, his revelatory experiences were
auditory. One well-known account, for instance,
describes a sound like the ringing of bells, which con-
veyed to him the words that he would dictate and that
would eventually be written down.

Establishing the precise chronology of Qur’anic
revelations is a very difficult matter. The chapters of
the Qur’an have traditionally been divided into those
received at Mecca (i.e., prior to Muhammad’s hijra in

654

QUR’AN

Page from the Koran. Surah al-Rum (XXX, The Romans),
verses 24 and 25:. . .after it (the earth) is dead: verily in that
are signs for those who are wise. And among His signs is
this, that heaven and earth stand at his command. Then
when he calls you by a single call from the earth. . .Kiric
writing. Persian, eleventh century CE. (CT 7886). Credit:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London/Art Resource, NY.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Great Britain.

622 CE) and those received during his exile at Medi-
na. Western scholarship, in turn, has distinguished
between early, middle, and late Meccan revelations,
but many questions remain and are perhaps insoluble.
The process of revelation indisputably ended with
Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, which closed the
Qur’anic canon.

There is some controversy about how early
Muhammad’s revelations began to be committed to
writing. Traditional accounts depict his early fol-
lowers as memorizing his revelations — memorizing
the Qur’an in its entirety remains a highly honored
achievement even today — but also portray them as
recording the revelations in whatever medium they
were able to locate in seventh-century central Arabia
(e.g., on the shoulder blades of camel skeletons,
on palm fronds). However long the period of princi-
pally oral transmission, however (assuming that one

occurred), it was effectively ended by very early
efforts to collect and standardize the Qur’anic revela-
tions. These culminated in the promulgation of an
official text within approximately two decades of
Muhammad’s death, under the third caliph, 'Uthman
(r. 644-656 CE). With, for the most part, only rela-
tively minor adjustments of versification and orthog-
raphy, the ‘Uthmanic recension has had the field to
itself since the mid-seventh century — partially, no
doubt, because competing versions were destroyed
for the sake of maintaining unity within the rapidly
expanding and diversifying Muslim community.

The Theological Status of the Qur’an in Islam

In Muslim belief, the historical earthly Qur’an is a
transcript from the umm al-kitab (the “mother of the
Book”), the celestial archetype from which the origi-
nal scriptures of the other “peoples of the Book” (e.g.,
the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus) were
also derived. (Those original Jewish and Christian
scriptures have since become corrupted.) The Qur’an
is seen as complementing and completing earlier
divine revelations. It is a reaffirmation (musaddiq)
of what went before (5:44 — 8) and a reminder (dhikr)
to those who pay heed.

Muslims also believe the Qur’an to be the literal
word of God in the highest possible sense, the divine
utterance that has existed for all eternity. According-
ly, it is inerrant, and even the physical book that
contains the text is holy, to be approached only in
purity and with some degree of awe, and to be dis-
posed of, when that is required, with proper rever-
ence. Indeed, given the importance of the Qur’an as
the word of the transcendent God made manifest in
this world, some have suggested that its analogue in
Christian theology is not so much the Bible but rather
the divinely incarnate Word (Christ, the Johannine
Eogos) itself.

Among the central themes of the Qur’an are the
divine tawhid (unity, rigorously pure monotheism),
demands for ethical behavior and social justice, the
coming universal physical resurrection, the inescap-
able final judgment, and the final rewards of both the
faithful and the unfaithful. The Meccan revelations
tend to be terse and apocalyptic, frequently drawing
notice to the signs of God’s awesome power in nature;
the Medinan revelations, as befitted Muhammad’s
new political role in that settlement, tend to greater
discursiveness and give greater attention to political
and legal topics. The Qur’an is neither a narrative or
historical chronicle nor an anthology of the Prophet’s
meditations but rather a collection of relatively

655

QUR’AN

free-standing revelations in which God, speaking in
the first-person plural, addresses Muhammad and,
through him, the community of the faithful and ulti-
mately the entire world. It is, however, replete with
narratives (and, even more commonly, with allusive
references to narratives with which the audience is
presumed to be familiar) of God’s actions in history,
the exemplary missions of earlier prophets, and the
earthly fates of those who failed to obey.

The Place of the Qur’an in the Muslim
Community

Whereas the Jewish people created and shaped the
Hebrew Bible and the Christian church created and
shaped the New Testament, in a very real sense the
Qur’an created and shaped the Muslim community.
It played an essential role in the transformation of
Arabic culture from orality to a deeply literate civili-
zation, not only because it emphasizes books, pens
(as witnessed by that first revealed text, 96:1-5), and
writing, but because it established a written text —
itself — at the foundation of the Arab/Islamic tradition.
Moreover, such disciplines as rhetoric, grammar, and
lexicography, which are often referred to as the “Is-
lamic sciences,” arose among Muslims first and fore-
most as tools for a precise understanding of the
revealed book of God, a task perhaps made more
urgent by the rapid conversion of peoples for whom
Arabic was an acquired tongue.

Most fundamentally, however, the Qur’an is and,
since the passing of the living prophetic voice from
Islam that occurred with the death of Muhammad,
has always been the ultimate religious authority with-
in the Muslim community, the principal source for
theology, and the unquestioned basis of Islamic law.
As might be expected, its oracular statements and
allusive references have generated a vast commentary
literature as well as large numbers of other books
about various aspects of its text and teachings. One
notable genre is that of the “tales of the prophets,” in
which quasi-midrashic accounts of earlier messengers
of God (drawn, for the most part, from the Jewish
and Christian neighbors of their compilers) are
supplied, no doubt — to some extent at least — in an
attempt to flesh out the many stories to which the
Qur’an alludes but does not fully recount.

Because it is literally the word of God, every indi-
vidual word and every sound of the Qur’an is sacred
to believing Muslims. (The Arabic word ayah [pi.
ay at], which occurs several hundred times within the
Qur’an itself, is frequently translated as “verse.” Sig-
nificantly, however, its essential meaning is “sign” or

“miracle.”) For the same reason, speaking legally and
theologically, the Qur’an is truly the Qur’an only in its
original Arabic. In this form, however, it is considered
not only inerrant but literarily unapproachable. (This
is the doctrine known as the i’jaz al- Qur’an [inimit-
ability of the Qur’an].) Thus, like their Arab co-
believers, non-Arabic-speaking Muslims around the
world study the reading of the Qur’an in its original
language to be able to pronounce it correctly, even if
their grasp of Arabic vocabulary and grammar
remains weak. To recite the Qur’an well is a meritori-
ous act — an entire discipline, called ‘ilm al-tajwid, has
been developed to foster and regulate such recita-
tion — and professional Qur’an reciters can and do
become popular celebrities. Such recitation carries
considerable emotional power for believers, and it is
said to have brought more than a few nonbelievers
(notable among them is ‘Umar, the second of the
orthodox caliphs) into Islam.

The Qur’an is used liturgically: in prayer, for reci-
tation at funerals, during the holy fasting month of
Ramadan, at the beginning of social and official func-
tions, and, in modern times, at the beginning and
end of broadcast days on both radio and television.
Beautiful calligraphic renditions of Qur’anic passages
adorn mosques and public monuments, and, because
careful copying of the Qur’anic text on paper and
other media is also recognized as a meritorious act,
form one of the more important of the “minor” arts
in Islamic civilization. The Qur’an is and has always
been virtually omnipresent wherever Muslims live
and work.

Daniel C. Peterson

See also Muhammad, the Prophet; Qur’an and Arabic
Literature; Qur’an and Christians; Qur’an, Manu-
scripts; Qur’an, Reciters and Recitation; ‘Uthman ibn
‘Affan

Further Reading

Ayoub, Mahmoud M. The Qur’an and Its Interpreters,
2 vols. (to date). Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press, 1984.

Burton, John. The Collection of the Qur’an. Cambridge,
UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Hawting, G.R., and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef, eds.
Approaches to the Qur’an. London and New York:
Routledge, 1993.

Izutsu, Toshihiko. God and Man in the Koran: Semantics of
the Koranic Weltanschauung. Tokyo: Koio Institute of
Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1964.

Jeffrey, The Qur’an as Scripture. New York: R.F. Moore,
1952.

Jeffery, Arthur. Materials for the History of the Text of the
Qur’an. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1937.

Mir, Mustansir. Dictionary of Qur’anic Terms and Concepts.
New York: Garland, 1987.

656

QUR’AN AND ARABIC LITERATURE

Nelson, Kristina. The Art of Reciting the Qur’an. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1985.

Noldeke, Theodor. Geschichte des Qorans, revised ed. Hil-
desheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1964.

Rahman, Fazlur. Major Themes of the Qur'an. Minneapo-
lis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1980.

Robinson, Neal. Discovering the Qur’an: A Contemporary
Approach to a Veiled Text, 2nd ed. Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press, 2003.

Wansbrough, John E. Quranic Studies: Sources and Meth-
ods of Scriptural Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1977.

QUR’AN AND ARABIC LITERATURE

As God’s revelation to the Prophet Muhammad, the
Qur’an has a central place not only in piety and
religious life but in language, education, and culture
generally. It is considered the most exemplary model
of the Arabic language, and it is not surprising that
the influence of both its form and its content is felt
throughout Arabic writing.

Medieval Arabic literature consisted mainly of po-
etry and belles-lettres. The former was well developed
and highly regarded among the Arabs during pre-
Islamic times and thus continued largely unchanged,
enjoying pride of place in literary culture. Although
there was little of what could be called fiction, prose
genres also flourished, from short narrative anecdotes
to highly ornate epistles. In all of these, one may
discern Qur’anic phrases, motifs, and symbols, the
scripture serving as a major component of the Arab /
Islamic literary universe.

Poetry

The Qur’an appears to speak disparagingly of poets in
2:224—7: “And the poets! Attending them are those
who lead astray/Have you not seen how they wander
distraught in every valley/And they say that which
they do not do/Except those who have believed and
have done good works and remembered God

frequently ” The Qur’an insists on its distinction

from human or jinn-inspired poetry and soothsaying,
but the above verses seem to acknowledge the permis-
sibility of poetry, and most Qur’anic exegetes found
ways of explaining these verses without condemning
the art.

The main form of influence is iqtibas (borrowing).
Although some legal objections to this practice are
recorded, it was acceptable as long as the poet was
not trying to imitate or compete with the revelation.
The borrowing may consist of an entire Qur’anic verse
or a part thereof or a word or phrase that conjures up,

in the mind of one well acquainted with the scripture, a
specific Qur’anic passage. Of course, the Arab writer
could and did “borrow” equally from poetry, history,
proverbs, and any other genre in the same fashion, but,
as the Word of God, the Qur’an was at once the most
familiar and the most prestigious and authoritative.

The basic form of Arabic poetry, the qasida (ode),
was established before the rise of Islam and remained
largely unchanged, and thus Qur’anic borrowing in
poetry was subject to limitations imposed by thematic
convention and poetic meter, often requiring alter-
ation of wording or syntax. Nonetheless, from the
earliest stages, there are numerous examples of poets
employing Qur’anic phrases in their own verse. Some-
times these would be consistent with the themes of the
revelation, especially in religious poetry or political
polemic, but often it would simply provide a useful
simile for the topic at hand. For example, from verse
54:7, “They shall come forth from the tombs as if they
were scattered locusts,” al-Hutay‘a (d. c. 661) trans-
ferred the imagery from the eschatological to the
military:

And there we were, when the horses came, as if they
were scattered locusts, the wind behind them.

Sometimes the usage is tangential — if not antitheti-
cal — to the original context. Dfbal al-Khuza‘i (d. 860)
satirized the eighth ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mu’tasim by
referring to the story of the People of the Cave, of
whom the Qur’an (18:22) says, “They say, They were
seven, and the eighth their dog. ”

In the books, the kings of the House of Abbas are seven,
of an eighth no record has come. Likewise the people of
the Cave were seven excellent men, and the eighth was
[their] dog.

The “borrowing” could serve a thematic purpose
on the level of meaning, or it could handily demon-
strate the author’s erudition as well as his skill in
transforming the form or the context of the quotation,
be it from poetry into prose or vice versa. Arab writers
employed various kinds of rhetorical devices such as
alliteration, antithesis, puns, and various figures of
speech, and it was common to employ Qur’anic refer-
ences for this purpose. For example, when a Kharijite
poet says of his comrades, “Most faithful to their
obligations when they make them; most abstemious
in hardship (‘usr) and in ease (yusr)” he is evoking
Qur’an verse 94:5-6: “Indeed, after hardship comes
ease.” However, because the Qur’anic pair of words
are rhyming antonyms, he also uses the common
devices of antithesis and alliteration. The original con-
text of the verse is lost, but the symbolic resonance and
rhetorical qualities of the Qur’anic terms are carried
over to the poet’s verse.

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QUR’AN AND ARABIC LITERATURE

However, there were two poetic genres in which
thematic aspects were especially important: ascetic
poems (zuhdiyyat) and wine poems (khamriyyat).
The former borrows heavily from those Qur’anic
verses that speak of renunciation of worldly things
but also extol fear of God and an awareness of mor-
tality. The most famous of the ascetic poets was Abu
l-‘Atahiya (d. 826), and the following example shows
his evocation (but not direct citation) of verse 31:34,
“No soul knows in what land it shall die”:

Would that I knew, for I know not which day will be the
last of my life, Nor in which country my spirit will be
taken, nor in which my tomb will be dug.

The ascetic poem flourished during the eighth and
ninth centuries, after which Sufi and mystical themes
were the main vehicles for piety in poetry. In these,
Qur’anic references were also common although
perhaps more subject to esoteric transformations.

Wine poetry is best represented by Abu Nuwas
(d. c. 814), whose bacchanalian verse might seem an
unlikely venue for Qur’anic influence. However, his
frequent scriptural references can have thematic sig-
nificance: his mischievous celebrations of hedonism
and his defiance of religious morality are heightened
by the irony of Qur’anic allusion.

Prose

The rising importance of Arabic as the language of
the state meant that the new class of scribes in the
empire’s administration had to learn to write and
express themselves according to nascent standards of
eloquence. The Qur’an became one of — if not the —
most important source of style, diction, motifs, and
themes. The borrowing of scriptural references was
especially prominent in the writings of ‘Abd al-Hamid
(d. 750), secretary of the Umayyad chancery, and his
techniques of citing and elaborating Qur’anic pas-
sages set a precedent for much of subsequent Arabic
prose. Without the restrictions of poetic meter and
convention, Arabic prose writers enjoyed greater free-
dom in their adaptations of Qur’anic phrases, and
they found much more room in various epistles and
sermons for adopting themes of the Qur’an, such as
the power of God, eschatology, ethical and theologi-
cal topics, and prophetic history. Oratory lacking
Qur’anic references could be deemed defective.

The popular “Tales of the Prophets” genre (qisas
al-anbiya’) consisted of narrative expansions and
digressions that were based on the Qur’anic references
to the biblical and Arabian prophets who preceded
Muhammad. In other narratives, the Qur’an may be

quoted as part of some witty repartee, as an expres-
sion of wisdom or piety, or as something apparently
in between, such as in The Book of Misers of al-Jahiz
(d. 869), where the Light Verse (24:35) serves as a kind
of coda to a lesson about the efficient use of lamps
and oil.

In terms of form, the maqamat genre (picaresque
tales in complex rhymed prose) recalls the Qur’an not
only in rhythm and measured movements but also in
the myriad (and ambiguous) thematic and lexical
allusions. Finally, Abu l-‘Ala al-Madarri (d. 1057)
and Ibn Shuhayd (d. 1035) deserve mention for
works; their style, imagery, and homiletic vision are
based squarely on the Qur’an, blending scriptural
eschatology with elegant wit.

Literary Theory

The early or “ancient” poetry was held in high regard
as an art in itself and, because it represented the
pure and uncorrupted Arabic of the Bedouins, it
was thought necessary for understanding Qur’anic
language, among other things. However, the relation-
ship between Qur’an and poetry became more com-
plex as poetic styles changed and critics sought new
ways to evaluate them. With the appearance of “mod-
ern” (muhdath) poetry during the latter part of the
eighth century, some sought justification for new
uses of tropes and figures (e.g., types of metaphor,
paronomasia, antithesis) in the Qur’an and other
“ancient” poetry or prose.

This use of the Qur’an as standard for literary style
marked the beginnings of the doctrine of Qur’anic
“inimitability” (i‘jaz). The Qur’an asserts its own su-
periority in a number of places (10:38; 11:13; 52:33-
4), but it was not until the late tenth century that the
dogma was firmly formulated. In essence, it stated
that the miracle of Muhammad’s prophecy was the
Qur’an, and the nature of that miracle lay in its
stylistic perfection.

Among the major authors of works on Qur’anic
inimitability were al-Rummani (d. 994), al-Khattabi
(d. c. 996), and al-Baqillani (d. 1013), all of whom
argued that the scripture’s rhetorical features are
greatly superior to their counterparts in mundane
poetry. The study of Arabic rhetoric was thus of
interest not only to literary critics but also to exegetes
and theologians seeking explanations of Qur’anic lan-
guage. For example, were the scripture’s references to
the “hand” or “face” of God to be taken literally or
figuratively? Questions of metaphor could be asked
for quite divergent reasons: some were concerned with
the uniqueness of God's language, whereas others

658

QUR’AN, RECITERS AND RECITATION

were interested in the figures and devices it shared
with human poetry.

The literary and the theological interests found rec-
onciliation in the work of the great ‘Abd al-Qahir al-
Jurjani (d. 1078), especially with regard to the theory
of imagery and the relationship between syntax and
semantics. During subsequent centuries, scholars
continued to write poetic commentaries and criticism,
but the framework for the more theoretical science
of rhetoric was not poetry itself but rather a project
of proving the superior eloquence of the Qur’an.

Bruce Fudge

Further Reading

von Grunenbaum, G. E. “I‘djaz.” In The Encyclopedia of
Islam, 2nd ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960.

. A Tenth-Century Document of Arabic Literary Crit-
icism: The Sections on Poetry of al-Baqillani’s I’jaz al-
Qur’an. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1950.

Heinrichs, Wolfhart. “Arabic Poetics, Classical.” In The
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed.
Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan. Princeton. NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1993.

Kennedy, Philip F. The Wine Song in Classical Arabic Po-
etry: Abu Nuwas and the Literary Tradition. Oxford,
UK: The Clarendon Press, 1997.

al-Qadi, Wadad. “The Impact of the Qur’an on the Episto-
lography of ‘Abd al-Hamid.” In Approaches to the
Qur’an, ed. G.R. Hawting and Addul-Kader A. Shareef,
285-313. London: Routledge, 1993.

al-Qadi, Wadad, and Mustansir Mir. “Literature and the
Qur’an.” In The Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, ed. Jane
Dammen McAuliffe. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001.

Sanni, Amidu. The Arabic Theory of Prosification and Ver-
sification. Beirut: Franz Steiner, 1998.

Schimmel, Annemarie. As through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in
Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

Shahid, Irfan. “The Sura of the Poets, Qur’an XXVI: Final
Conclusions.” Journal of Arabic Literature XXXV
(2004): 175-220.

Zubaidi, A.M. “The Impact of the Qur’an and Hadith on
Medieval Arabic Literature.” In The Cambridge History
of Arabic Literature: Arabic Literature to the End of the
Umayyad Period, eds. A.F.L. Beeston et al., 322-43.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

QUR’AN, RECITERS AND RECITATION

The most common word for a reciter of the Qur’an is
qari’ (pi. qurra’), whereas recitation is most common-
ly referred to as tilawa and qira’a. Other terms used
for reciters are ah l al-Qur’an (people of the Qur’an),
hamalat al-Qur’an (bearers of the Qur’an), and huffaz
(those who have memorized the Qur’an; sing, hafiz).
The later term muqri ‘ (pi. muqri’un) is used for a
proficient — and usually professional — reciter of the
Qur’an. The high religious and social status of
the Qur’an reciter is indicated in the following hadith

(tradition) related by Anas b. Malik, in which the
Prophet states, “Indeed there are people from
among the general population who belong to God.”
The people assembled inquired, “And who are they,
O Messenger of God?” He said, “The people of the
Qur’an are the people of God and His elect.”

The term qurra’ also appears to refer to an early
religiopolitical faction that was active during the first
two civil wars. A considerable number of them joined
the Khawarij during the Battle of Siffin in AH 37/657
CE that was fought between ‘Ali and Mu’awiya.

Chapters in hadith works and individual mono-
graphs that deal with the excellences of the Qur’an
(fada’il al-Qur’an) often have valuable information to
impart about early recitational practices and the reli-
gious merits and social status earned by the pious
reciter, both professional and nonprofessional. The
S.ahih of al-Bukhari, for example, records hadiths
that deal with a wide variety of topics pertaining to
Qur’an recitation in the chapter entitled Kitab Fada ’il
al- Qur 'an ( The Book of the Excellences of the Qur 'an ) .
Some reports discuss the manner of revelation and
what was first revealed and that the Qur’an was
revealed in the tongue of the Quraysh and in seven
variant dialects (sab‘at ah ruf ). It describes the compi-
lation and recording of the Qur’anic text, and it refers
to the Qur’an reciters from among the Companions.
Other sections (babs) deal with the merits of individual
surahs (chapters), such as al-Fatiha and al-Baqara;
sections follow that discuss the descent of godly tran-
quility (sakina) and the angels on those who recite or
read the Qur’an. It is stated that the only bequest of the
Prophet was the written Qur’anic text (ma bayna
’1-daffatayn). There is a discussion of the excellence
of the Qur'an over the rest of speech, of the desirability
of chanting the Qur’an, and of the joy of the people
of the Qur’an (ahl al-Qur’an). There are traditions
concerning the excellence of those who learn and
teach the Qur’an, memorize it, and are faithful to its
injunctions. Other traditions warn against forgetting
the Qur’an, talk about referring to the Qur’anic chap-
ters by their names, the various modes of recitation,
and the amount of the Qur’an to be recited at a time.

Such meticulous attention to the modes and eti-
quette of recitation as is apparent in the reports
recorded by al-Bukhari testifies to the importance of
this pious activity in both individual and communal
religious practices.

The Professional Qurra’

The historian al-Tabari describes the rise of profes-
sional qurra’ already by the time of the second caliph,

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QUR’AN, RECITERS AND RECITATION

‘Umar (d. 644), who appointed a separate qari’ for
men and women; it is not clear if they were compen-
sated for their activities. The early literature, however,
shows a great deal of ambivalence toward the notion
of earning a livelihood through the teaching of the
Qur’an. Reports that express pious aversion to this
practice are plentiful in the literature. Thus, Ibn
‘Abbas is quoted as relating the following from the
Prophet: “If one to whom God teaches the Qur’an
should complain of poverty, God will inscribe poverty
between his eyes until the Day of Resurrection.”
However, a countertradition explicitly states what
the ideal wage should be for the professional Qur’an
reciter. In this report from ‘Ali, the Prophet remarks,
“Whoever recites the Qur’an receives two hundred
dinars. If he is not given this amount in this world,
then he will be given it in the next.” The scholars were
in fact divided over this sensitive issue. According to
al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1273), al-Zuhri (124/742), Abu
Hanifa (d. 150/767), and their companions were
against the practice of receiving wages, because teach-
ing the Qur’an is “one of the religious duties” (wajib
min al-wajibat), and receipt of wages for it would be
as unacceptable as being remunerated for prayer and
fasting. On the other hand, Malik, al-Shafi‘i, Ahmad
b. Hanbal, and Abu Thawr acknowledged the permis-
sibility of receiving wages on the basis of a hadith
related by Ibn ‘Abbas and recorded by al-Bukhari,
which states, “Indeed it is the Book of God for which
you have the greatest right to accept wages.” These
reports preserve for us the vestiges of a pietistic reac-
tion against the increasing “professionalization” and
“commercialization” of the teaching of the Qur’an.
There is an implicit — and not-so-implicit — assump-
tion that the professional qurra’ and the ‘ulama’ in
general master the Qur’an mainly to enhance their
scholarly reputations and for monetary aggrandize-
ment, a trend that is vilified in many traditions.
Among the professional qurra’ must be counted the
early qussas (storytellers, popular preachers), who
were appointed as religious functionaries in the
mosque and whose task, among others, was to pub-
licly recite passages from the Qur’an and interpret
them.

Variant Readings of the Qur’an

The literature mentions that the Qur’an in the early
period was recited in sab’ at ahruf, this phrase is un-
derstood to signify the seven “dialects” in which the
early Muslims are said to have recited the Qur’an
until the Qurayshi dialect became the standard one.
Medieval Arabic sources maintain a clear distinction

between the ahruf and the qira’at, the latter being the
variant readings recognized to this day. The distinc-
tion and the connection between these two concepts
are not fully understood in the current time and are in
need of a meticulous study for a better understanding
of the early history of Qur’anic recitational modes. By
the fourth/tenth century, the seven most recognized
qira’at of the Qur’anic text had developed, to which
an additional three are sometimes appended. These
readings are occasionally attributed to Companions
like Ibn Mas‘ud and Ubay b. Ka‘b but more com-
monly to expert reciters of the second/eighth century.
The list of the ten experts from which these recognized
readings emanate is as follows;

1. Naff ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman (d. c. 169/785-786),
Medinese

2. ‘Abd Allah b. Kathir al-Dari (d. 120/737-738),
Meccan

3. Abu ‘Arm Zabban b. al-‘Ala (d. c. 1 54/770—
771), Basran

4. ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Amir (d. 118/736), Damascene

5. ‘Asim b. Abi al-Najud Bahdalah (d. c. 127/
744-745), Kufan

6. Hamza b. Habib (d. c. 156/772-773), Kufan

7. ‘Ali b. Hamza al-Kisa’ (d. c. 89/804-805),
Kufan

8. Abu Ja‘far Yazid b. al-Qa‘qa’ al-Makhzumi
(d. c. 130/747-748), Medinese

9. Ya‘qub b. Ishaq al-Hadrami (d. 205/820-821),
Basran

10. Khalaf b. Hishm (d. 229/844), Baghdadi

Manner of Recitation

The classic science of Qur’anic recitation is referred to
as tajwid (literally “making beautiful”), which
requires “giving each sound its correct weight and
measure.” Recitation handbooks such as those com-
posed by Ibn Mujahid (d. 324/936) and al-Dani (d.
444/1052) began to appear during the fourth/eleventh
century; these detailed, among other things, the cor-
rect vocalization of letters, the proper length of
vowels, and the points of articulation of sounds
(makharij al-sawt). Consonants with the same points
of articulation are often assimilated (idgham), and
there are particular rules for nasalization (ghunna).
The Qur’anic text (mushaf) indicates many of these
conventions through special symbols. Styles of recita-
tion vary from one another, usually on the basis of
their relative rapidity. The term hadr refers to a faster
pace of recitation that is often adopted during
the daily prayers (salat) as compared with tartil

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QUTB MINAR

(murattal), which refers to a slower pace used for
studying and memorization.

Some of the sources indicate that ceremonies that
frequently marked an individual's conclusory
reading/recitation of the Qur’an (khatm al-Qur’an)
and its public witnessing were frowned upon during
the early period as an unbecoming show of piety.
However counter-reports occur in the later literature
that counsel, for example, that one’s family be invited
to witness the conclusion of an individual’s Qur’an
recitation, indicating a change in attitude. One such
a report cited is from Qatada, who related that a
man was once reciting the Qur’an in the mosque
of the Prophet while Ibn ‘Abbas kept watch
over him. When the man expressed his desire to
complete the Qur’an, Ibn ‘Abbas told his seated
companions to rise and attend the concluding recita-
tion. Some reports also suggest that early Qur’an
recitations left out inflectional endings (i‘rab); later
scholars discouraged this practice and advocated full
inflection.

The following noteworthy hadith related by Ibn
‘Umar served as an important proof text in which the
Prophet stated, “For whomever recites the Qur’an
without full declension, the attending angel records
for him ‘as revealed’ with ten merits for each letter;
for whomever declines only part of the Qur’an, two
angels are assigned to him who write down for him
twenty merits; and for whomever declines the [entire]
Qur’an, four angels are assigned to him who record
seventy merits for each letter.” A certain hardening of
the attitude is perceived in some scholars who are not
named and who are quoted by al-Qurtubi as saying,
“Declension of the Qur’an is a fundament of the reli-
gious law (al-sharVa) because through it its meaning
is established which is the Revelation (al-shar'a ) .”
Certainly by the seventh/thirteenth century, when al-
Qurtubi lived, the scriptio plena had become the nor-
mal — and normative — feature of the sacred text, so
much so that the absence of its distinctive features —
desinential inflection and diacriticization — came to be
regarded as a textual deficiency and aberration.

Asma Afsaruddin

Primary Sources

Al-Nawawi. al-Tibyan fi Adab Hamalat al-Qur’an, ed. al-
Khuli. Cairo, 1976.

Ibn al-Jazari. Ghayat al-Nihaya fi Tabaqat al-Qurra’, ed.
Gotthelf BergstraBer. Cairo, 1351-1352/1932-1933.

Further Reading

Afsaruddin, Asma. “The Excellences of the Qur’an.” JAOS
122 (2002): 1-24.

Denny, Frederick M. “The Adab of Qur’an Recitation: Text
and Context.” In International Congress for the Studies
of the Qur'an , series 1, eds. A.H. Johns and Syed Husain
M. Jafri, 143-60. Canberra, 1980.

Juynboll, G.H.A. “The Position of Qur’an Recitation in
Early Islam.” JSS 20 (1974): 240-51.

Melchert, Christopher. “Ibn Mujahid and the Establish-
ment of Seven Qur’anic Readings.” Studia Islamica 91
(2000): 5-22.

Nelson, Kristina. The Art of Reciting the Qur’an. Austin,
1985.

QUTB MINAR

Mosque

A Muslim army occupied Sind in 711, and Islam
subsequently expanded its rule along the Indus
River. By the beginning of the eleventh century,
the Ghaznavid dynasty (977-c. 1150) controlled
Afghanistan, the Punjab, and Sind, and between
1007 and 1027 Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna conducted
more than twenty raids into northern India, destroyed
many Hindu and Jain temples, and acquired enor-
mous booty for his Turkic homeland. The Ghazna-
vids were energetic patrons of architecture, and two
impressive minars still stand in Ghazna.

The successor Ghurid dynasty (c. 1100-1215)
embellished its lands with buildings as well, most
notably during the late twelfth century with the tow-
ering minar of Djam in their capital city of Firuzkuh
in Afghanistan. Inscribed with the entire surah Mar-
yam (Qur’an 19:1-98), the minar’s epigraphs put par-
ticular emphasis on the prophetic tradition leading up
to Muhammad and proclaim the unique role of
Muhammad as the bearer of the final divine revela-
tion. The Ghurid sultan defeated the Hindu army
under Rai Pithora at the second battle of Tarain in
1 192, supplanted the Rajput ruler of Delhi, and estab-
lished a capital there. The new territory was governed
as a Ghurid fief by General Qutb al-Din Aybak, a
literate and manumitted mercenary slave, until 1206,
when he established an independent sultanate. Under
his rule, Islamic domain expanded rapidly in northern
India.

On the site of the eleventh- and twelfth-century Lai
Kot (Red Fort) of Delhi, the Ghurids ordered
the construction of a jami‘ mosque to serve the new
Muslim population and to demonstrate the new order
of faith and governance. Now known as the Quwwat
al-Islam (Might of Islam) mosque or the Qutb
mosque, from the twelfth until the middle of the
seventeenth century it was more simply identified as

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QUTB MINAR

the jami‘ mosque of Delhi, and it served as the city’s
principal congregational mosque until Shah Jahan
constructed his great mosque further to the north in
Mughal Delhi’s Shahjahanabad in 1650 to 1656.

The old jami‘ mosque’s original courtyard sup-
planted not only the Hindu fortress but also a Vaish-
navite temple. As an inscription on the building
testifies, most of the red sandstone building materials
for the new mosque came from twenty-seven demol-
ished temples in and around Delhi. Additional epi-
graphic evidence names Qutb al-Din Aybak as the
commander who ordered the construction of the
mosque in 1192 and his sovereign Mu‘izz al-Din as
its patron in 1197. These two dates allow for the
establishment of the initial dimensions of the early
mosque. Four arcades framed a rectangular court-
yard pointing in the direction of prayer, and the
pillars supporting the arcades’ roof and domes came
from Hindu and Jain temples. In keeping with Islam’s
avoidance of figural imagery in a sacred context, the
building’s work crews, which were almost entirely
Hindu, chiseled away or plastered over the pillars’
figural art. Despite this refurbishing, the second
Delhi sultan, Iltutmish (1210-1235), decided that the
qiblah arcade should be altered to approximate
mosque aesthetics in the Ghurid homeland. An enor-
mous five-arched stone screen that was richly deco-
rated with incised ornament and inscriptions in
angular and cursive styles was erected in front of the
qiblah. The screen’s central arch was notably taller
than the flanking arches, and some ten meters in front
of it was an eleventh-century iron pillar, once topped
with an image of Garuda, the Hindu god of victory.
With the statue removed, the iron pillar remained in
the mosque as a remarkable trophy and permanent
testimony to victory.

The epigraphic program of the screen consists of
both Quranic selections and hadith (tradition) and
should be read like a huge open book: it is visual
support for the imam leading the community in
prayer. Hadith underscores the importance of build-
ing mosques, whereas citations from the Qur’an pres-
ent several themes: divine sovereignty; divine support
for Muslim victory; warnings to all nonbelievers and
opponents of Islam that their disbelief will bring them
defeat and destruction; a promise of paradise to
believers; and the obligations of faith and the times
of prayer. In essence, this quotation of scripture rein-
forces Islam’s political and social agenda in occupying
Delhi and its environs. It presents an appropriate and
very careful selection from Qur’an and hadith that
must have been the responsibility of the sultan, ad-
vised by learned persons such as the Muslim judge
(qadi) who accompanied the army. Iltutmish was
known for his piety and for his support of the Hanafi

madhhab (rite). That very few persons were literate
and that the inscriptions were rendered in styles that
only the highly educated could read did not pose a
problem; for most believers, the visible presence of
holy writ was more important than specific content.

Minar

If the mosque’s courtyard presented the obligations of
the faith to believers, then the great minar was a
visible statement of Islam’s victory to the surrounding
countryside and its former Hindu rulers. With a di-
ameter of 14.32 meters at its base and a height of 72.5
meters, it towered over the entire complex. Like its
Ghaznavid and Ghurid predecessors — especially the
somewhat shorter minar of Djam — it marked the sur-
rounding landscape as part of the realm of Islam. In
the original mosque, it stood outside of the southeast
corner, but Iltutmish’s extension brought it within the
walls. Its five distinct stories delineate much of the
history of Islam in Delhi. According to Persian and
Arabic historical inscriptions on the lower three
stories, the first story was completed under the au-
thority of the Ghurid Sultan M u'izz al-Din b. Sam
and Qutb al-Din Aybak, whereas the second and
third stories were constructed under the patronage
of Sultan Iltutmish. Most of the fourth and all of
the present fifth story were the result of repairs or-
dered by Sultan Firuz Shah (1351-1388) after the top
of the minar was severely damaged by lightning.

Its 379 steps provide access to four overhanging
balconies that are supported by elaborate projecting
muqarnas (honeycomb or stalactite) brackets. Each
of the stories is visually unique. The first story was
decorated with alternating wedge-shaped flanges and
semicircular fluting. The second story was ringed only
with fluting, and the third story was solely ornamen-
ted with flanges. The fourth story is circular but
clothed in white marble, whereas the final story is a
composite design. Ten times the height of the iron
pillar, the minar stood as a gigantic symbol of victory,
and, with the morning light, its shadow moved across
the prayer wall’s face and touched the pillar.

Extensive Qur’anic and historical inscriptions cover
the exterior of the first two stories, where sharp-eyed
and experienced viewers could have read them. Place-
ment and styles of script suggest that the designers
came from Khurasan in northeastern Iran. Several
themes occur on the first story: God’s uniqueness,
omniscience, and omnipotence; God’s power to create
and maintain life; the obligations of prayer and faith-
ful adherence to Islam; Islam’s victory; the promise of
paradise to the faithful; and warnings to disbelievers

662

QUTB MINAR

and idolators that a terrible fate awaits them (this
theme in particular occurs again and again). Notably,
Qur’an verses 258-60 refer to the prophet Abraham’s
devotion to monotheism and his destruction of idols;
this is a very pointed object lesson for those that Islam
considered polytheists in northern India.

Later History

Successor to the Mu’izzi sultans, the Khalji dynasty’s
most important ruler, ‘Ala’ al-Din Muhammad
(1296-1318), initiated the construction of a second
rninar that would have risen to at least twice the
height of the Qutb minar. Never completed, its giant
stump stands in a northern section of ‘Ala’ al-Din’s
expansion of the mosque. Other planned extensions
would have included a doubling of the size of the
qiblah screen and the construction of four cubic and
domed gateways. Only one of these gateways, the
‘Alai Gate, still stands on the southern side of the
mosque; its red sandstone and marble exterior and
interior walls are elaborately inscribed. ‘Ala’ al-Din’s
wars in the south had brought unparalleled wealth
back to Delhi, and the sultan used much of it to
start his massive building program at the early
mosque. Quranic verses and Persian inscriptions
refer repeatedly to the destruction of idolators’ tem-
ples. Other inscriptions focus on belief and disbelief,
paradise, pilgrimage, the truth of the Revelation, and
the benefits of prayer. Again and again, nonbelievers
are promised dire punishment for eternity, whereas
believers are offered the joys of paradise.

In the southwest corner of the complex, ‘Ala’ al-
Din also constructed a madrasa that probably con-
tains his own tomb. Well into the sixteenth century,
the Qutb mosque remained the center of belief and a
symbol of Islam’s power. On its periphery over the

course of three centuries were constructed numerous
mosques, water tanks, and tombs that make it a
virtual necropolis of the wealthy and powerful and
one of the richest repositories of Islamic architecture
anywhere in the world.

During the British Raj, the Qutb mosque and minar
were admired and beautified as picturesque ruins. The
old jami‘ mosque became a popular picnic place, and
Indian and British painters produced hundreds of
surviving views of the site. This marked the beginning
of its transformation into a major tourist site; the
Qutb minar has become a revenue generator in India
that is second only to the Taj Mahal.

Anthony Welch

See also Afterlife; Abu Hanifa; Arabic; Arabs; Archi-
tecture, Religious; Baraka; Conquest; Delhi; Ghazna-
vids; God; Hadith; Hindus; Imam; India; Khurasan;
Madrasa; Mahmud of Ghazna; Mosques; Muhammad,
the Prophet; Muslim Community and Polity (Umma);
Persian; Persians; Prayer; Qur’an; Razia Sultana;
Scriptural Exegesis, Islamic; Slavery (Military); Slaves
and Slave Trade, Eastern Islamic World; Sunni Reviv-
al; Turkestan; Turks

Further Reading

Brown, Percy. Indian Architecture (The Islamic Period).

Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala Sons, 1942.

Maricq, Andre, and Gaston Wiet. Le Minar de Djam, Paris:
Memoires de la Delegation Archeologique Frangaise en
Afghanistan, 1959.

Nath, R. History of Sultanate Architecture . New Delhi:
Abhinav Publications, 1978.

Page, J.A. An Historical Memoir on the Qutb: Delhi, vol. 22.
Calcutta: Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of
India, 1926.

Welch, Anthony, Hussein Keshani, and Alexandra Bain.
“Epigraphs, Scripture, and Architecture in the Early
Delhi Sultanate.” Muqarnas, an Annual on the Visual
Culture of the Islamic World 19 (2002): 12-43.

663

RANIRI, AL-, NUR AL-DIN (D. 1658)

Nur al-Din Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hasanji ibn
Muhammad al-Raniri (d. 1658) was a scholar and
religious reformer who was influential in the religious
affairs of the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian
Archipelago. He was born in the port city of Rander
in Gujarat, India, in the late 1500s to a father of
South Arabian and Indian ancestry and probably to
a Malay mother. Little is known of al-Raniri’s early
life, but he was likely already studying in Arabia when
he performed the hajj in 1620. He was a member of
the Shafi’i rite, of the Asli'ari theological school, and
of the Rifa’iyya Sufi order.

In 1637, al-Raniri arrived in Acheh, North
Sumatra, the most important sixteenth- and seven-
teenth-century Southeast Asian center of Islam since
the fall of Malacca in 1511. Acheh’s ruler, Sultan
Iskandar Thani (r. 1637-1641), appointed al-Raniri
to the highest religious office, and al-Raniri immedi-
ately set about to purge heterodox Sufi pantheistic
ideas (wujudiyya), which had been popularized by
the Malay poet Hamza Fansuri (fl. 1550-1600) and
by his followers Shams al-din of Pasai (d. 1629) and
‘Abd al-Ra‘uf al-Singkili (d. c. 1693). Al-Raniri had
holders of heretical views banished and some possibly
burned at the stake.

During his time in Acheh (and, later, Pahang
on the Malay Peninsula), al-Raniri wrote eighteen of
his twenty-one works. The al-Sirat al-Mustaqim
(Straight Path), in which he itemizes rules of ortho-
dox belief, contributed to the Islamization of Kedah
(on the peninsula), and it continues to be popular in

Southeast Asia. The polemical Hujjat al-Siddiq li-Daf
al-Zindiq ( Proof of the Veracious in Refutation of the
Mendacious), was written between 1638 and 1641,
and the al-Tibyan fi ma’ Rifat al-Adyan (The Exposi-
tion on Knowledge of Religions ) was commissioned by
Iskandar Thani’s successor. Queen Taj al-‘Alam
(r. 1641-1675). The Malayo-Arab scholar and po-
lemicist S.M. Naquib al-Attas has characterized al-
Raniri’s critique of Hamza’s teachings as distortions
and the Plujjat as proof of al-Raniri’s appetite for
power. However, others view the issues taken up by
al-Raniri against the backdrop of the religious and
intellectual debates taking place in India, especially
the ideas of Sirhindi.

Al-Raniri’s longest work, the encyclopedic Bustan
al-Salatin fi Dhikr al-Awwalin wa-l-Akhirin ( Garden of
Kings Concerning Beginning and Ending), is the one
that has begun to receive the most widespread atten-
tion. Commissioned by Iskandar Thani in 1638 and
something of a “mirror for princes,” it is divided into
seven parts: (1) creation; (2) prophets and rulers; (3)
just kings and wise ministers; (4) ascetic rulers and
pious saints; (5) unjust rulers and oppressive minis-
ters; (6) noble and generous people and brave men;
and (7) intelligence, science, and the like. Because
al-Raniri drew from numerous Arabic sources when
compiling this work, it reveals a great deal about what
was available in Acheh at the time.

Popular reaction to al-Raniri’s measures was
probably the reason he left Acheh for Rander in
1644. He died on September 21, 1658, but, a quarter
century after his death, in 1684, a fatwa (legal

665

RANIRI, AL-, NUR AL-DIN (D. 1658)

opinion) — possibly sought by ‘Abd al-Ra’uf al-

Singkili — was issued in Medina condemning al-Raniri

and his views.

Shawkat M. Toorawa

See also Ibn ‘Arabi; Malay Peninsula; Reform, or

Islah; Sufism and Sufis; South Asia

Further Reading

al-Attas, Syed Muhammad al-Naquib. A Commentary on
the Hujjat al-Siddiq of Nur al-Din al-Raniri. Kuala
Lumpur: Ministry of Culture, Malaysia, 1986.

Azra, Azyumardi. ‘'The Transmission of Islamic Re-
formism to Indonesia. Networks of Middle Eastern
and Malay-Indonesian ‘Ulama’ in the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries.” PhD dissertation. New York:
Columbia University, 1992.

Iskandar, Teuku, ed. Bustanu’s-Salatin of Nur al-Din al-
Raniri. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka,
1966.

Vakili, Abdollah. “Sufism, Power Politics, and Reform:
Al-Raniri’s Opposition toHamzah al-Fansuri’s Teach-
ings Reconsidered.” Stadia Islamika 4 (1997): 113-35.

RASHID AL-DIN

Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani was a physician,
historian, scholar, and chief administrative official to
a series of Mongol Ilkhan rulers in Iran during the
late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

Biography

Born in 1248, Rashid al-Din grew up among the
relatively prosperous Jewish community of medieval
Hamadan in western Iran. From this time forward,
Iran would be under the full control of the Mongol
Ilkhan dynasty (1265-1335), and its somewhat
ecumenical policies allowed assertive Christians and
Jews to pursue professional careers with the Mongols
as patrons. It is within this context that it must be
understood how a Jewish convert to Islam would
ultimately rise to the highest echelons of administra-
tive power in the Mongol empire. Information about
Rashid al-Din’s early life is somewhat scant, but it
is known that his father was an apothecary and
that Rashid al-Din himself pursued medical studies
as a young man. He received his first employment,
serving as the court physician for the Ilkhan Abaqa
(r. 1265-1282); little is heard of him again until the
reign of Arghun (1284-1291). It would appear that
Rashid al-Din continued to practice medicine during
this time, but historical sources describe his increasing
consultation with Mongol amirs and other elites about
political and governmental matters.

The historian Ahmad b. Husain b. Ali Katib
describes how Rashid al-Din was an extensive traveler
during these early years of his career; indeed, his
detailed taxonomy in the Athar wa Ahya of trees,
plants, and other botanical features from Iran and
Central Asia point to a scholar-doctor who traveled
wide and far for both scholarly and pharmacologic
interests. Some of these peregrinations are likely
connected to Rashid al-Din’s decision to flee the
Ilkhanid court in 1295 because of the paralyzing fiscal
crisis and ensuing courtly strife, which resulted when
the vizier Sadr al-Din introduced a paper currency
(ch’ao) that was based on an earlier Chinese banking
initiative.

Rashid al-Din subsequently reappeared during the
late 1290s as a recent convert to Islam and an admin-
istrator of great promise in the court of Ghazan Khan
(r. 1298-1305). Rashid al-Din was approached by the
Mongol ruler to replace Sadr al-Din Zanjani — who
had been executed for his aforementioned currency
debacle — as the chief vizier of the Ilkhan empire. He
appears to have enjoyed a meteoric rise from this time
forward both among the Mongol ruling elite as well
as in the administration. By 1299, he had been named
as the sahib-divan (chief of administration) as well as
na’ib (deputy), and he had also quickly arranged
diplomatic marriages of his sons to daughters of a
number of prominent nobles, Turco-Mongol amirs,
religious scholars, and high-profile administrators.
According to Rashid al-Din’s personal correspon-
dence (the veracity of these epistles has been debated
extensively; see Morton, 2000, 155-199), these includ-
ed, among others, Majd al-Din Isma’il b. Yahya
b. Isma’il al-Fali (a famous religious scholar), ‘Ala
al-Din (atabeg of Yazd), Ali b. Muhammad Shah
b. Pahlavan (atabeg of Azarbaijan), and Maudud
Shah b. Ala al-Din (nephew of Firuz Shah, a Indian
Tughluq ruler). He was also reportedly well connected
through marriage to persons of quality in the city of
Yazd, most notably Nizam al-Din Ali ibn Mahmud
ibn Mahfuz ibn Nizam. Rashid al-Din is believed to
have amassed a personal fortune during this time, and
much of this was channeled toward the purchase of
land and the development of this property for waqf
(endowment) purposes.

According to the Waqf Nama-i Rab’-i Rashidi
(compiled in 1310), it appears that Rashid al-Din
owned property throughout central-western Iran and
Azarbaijan: Yazd, Isfahan, Shiraz, Abarquh, Mawsil,
Maragha, Hamadan, Sultaniyya, and Tabriz. The
largest waqf complex established by Rashid al-Din
was the Rabi’-i Rashidi in Tabriz. Admittedly there
was a certain cupidity here, but it would appear that
Rashid al-Din was genuinely alarmed by the detrimen-
tal effects of Mongol coercion and corruption on the

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RASHID AL-DIN

peasantry and land. In addition to revenues from
these properties being used for charitable purposes
(madrasas [schools], hospices, public works), Rashid
al-Din also founded and developed a number of
villages and settlements in the Hawiza area.

There is little doubt that Rashid al-Din played
a pivotal role in a series of dramatic administrative
and agricultural reforms instituted by Ghazan Khan
during the early 1300s. Excessive and haphazard
taxation, in combination with governor-related and
bureaucratic avarice, had resulted in considerable
peasant flight from agricultural regions which —
although once prosperous — had never fully recovered
from the initial Mongol invasions. Ghazan Khan’s
interdiction against many unhelpful practices by tax
collectors and strict admonitions to henceforth
survey, assess, and document taxation practices are
preserved in a series of yarlighs (decrees), which were
included by Rashid al-Din in his monumental JamV
al-Tavarikh (The Collection of Histories). The most
famous yarligh is that of 1304, when Ghazan Khan
declared that governors were no longer allowed to
collect taxes in their respective territories; henceforth,
scribes (bitikchis) were being sent in to respective
provinces to properly assess and record taxation
levels. As a result of his reforms, Ghazan Khan
boasted, the revenues for the Mongol treasury had
doubled, and Muslim peasants and townspeople alike
could now enjoy justice and responsible government.

However, the Mongol era was by and large an
unsafe one for chief administrators, and many viziers
and mustaufis (chief financial officers) often found
themselves victims of court intrigue and false allega-
tions. Rashid al-Din was no exception to this rule,
and, during his later years, he was forced to contend
with considerable rivalry and opposition from his co-
vizier, Taj al-Din Ali Shah, after Ghazan’s successor,
Oljeitu, came to power in 1305. These machinations
would intensify to such a point that Oljeitu decreed
that they should divide the empire so as to provide
them with respective administrative bailiwicks;
Rashid al-Din was given control of Luristan, Kirman,
Fars, and Iraq’-i ’Ajam. Rashid al-Din would survive
his seventh consecutive Mongol coronation in 1317 —
no small feat indeed — but he ultimately fell prey to
the intrigues of Taj al-Din in July 1318, when he was
accused, convicted, and executed for poisoning his
previous liege Oljeitu.

His Work

Rashid al-Din was a scholar of tremendous energy
and industry, and, although he produced various

treatises on theology, medicine, epistolography,
administration, and agronomy, his most enduring
and well-recognized work is the JamV al-Tavarikh
( The Collection of Histories ) . In the spectrum of me-
dieval Perso-Islamic histories, the JamV al-Tavarikh
is arguably unsurpassed with respect to its scope,
depth, and historical methodology for understanding
the Turco-Mongolian world of the thirteenth and
early fourteenth centuries. This work first began as a
commissioned history for Ghazan Khan, who hoped
to establish and record a legacy of his rule in Iran.
When this text (Tarikh-i Mubarak-i Ghazani) was
presented formally to Ghazan’s brother and succes-
sor, Oljeitu, it was decided that this historical project
should be extrapolated to include a general history of
the Mongol invasions and the establishment of one
of the largest land empires to date in Eurasia. Thus,
the JamV al-Tavarikh comprises a series of histories of
China, India, pre-Islamic Iran, Central Asia, and the
Steppe while also focusing on the respective history of
the Jews, the Muslim ummah under Muhammad and
the Rightly Guided Caliphs ( al-Khulafa al-Rashidin ) ,
and the Christian infidel Franks (Europeans). Rashid
al-Din brought a formidable palette of languages to
this project — Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and
Mongolian — and his historiographical approach was
such that he provided names and sources for much of
the material for earlier parts of the JamV al-Tavarikh.
For this reason, Rashid al-Din can be considered one
of the first world historians in the medieval Perso-
Islamic historical tradition. Specialists of Mongol
administrative history have always been enamored
with Rashid al-Din because of his decision to include
the full texts — some of which were written by him — of
every single decree (yarligh) that was issued during
Ghazan Khan’s reform initiatives in the early 1300s.

Although much of the material in the JamV al-
Tavarikh is borrowed directly from Juvaini’s earlier
Tarikh-i Jahan-gusha , Rashid al-Din was able to bring
one particularly valuable source to bear in his own
history: the Altan Debter (Golden Book). This pecu-
liar text — of which there are no extant copies — was an
indigenous Mongolian history that enjoyed near-holy
status in the Kara Korum court of the Great Khan.
No non-Mongols were permitted to see or touch it,
but it is known that Rashid al-Din was able to have its
contents orally transmitted to him, most likely by
Boland Chingsang, the official envoy of the Great
Khan in Tabriz. As the Mongol historian David
Morgan cautions, it must be appreciated that Rashid
al-Din’s presentation of Mongol history was skewed
in such a way as to present his first sponsor, Ghazan
Khan, in as positive a light as possible. As a result,
there is a less-than-subtle juxtaposition of the detri-
mental rule of earlier Mongols with the enlightened

667

RASHID AL-DIN

and visionary policies of Ghazan Khan himself.
Nonetheless, there is no mistaking that this massive
history is the product of an unrivaled erudition and
industriousness, and medieval historians appreciate
the authoritative status of Rashid al-Din’s section
about the reign of Ghazan Khan and his reforms.

Colin Paul Mitchell

See also Agriculture; Bureaucrats; Horticulture; Irriga-
tion; Mongols; Oljeitu; Tax and Taxation; Viziers

Primary Sources

Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani. Athar wa Ahya’, eds.
I. Afshar and M. Sotoodeh. Tehran, 1989.

. Jami’ al-Tavarikh, 3 vols., ed. B. Karimi. Tehran,

1959.

. Lata’if al-Haqci’iq, 2 vols., ed. Ghulam Riza Tahir.

Tehran, 1976.

. Mukatabat-i Rashidi , ed. M. Shall’. Lahore, 1945.

. Oghuz-nama , ed. R. Shukiurova. Moscow, 1991.

. Tanksuq-ncima , ed. M. Minovi. Tehran, 1972.

. Tarikb-i Mubarak-i Ghazani, ed. K. Jahn. La Haye,

1957.

. Vaqf-nama-i Rab’-i Rashidi , eds. M. Minovi and

I. Afshar. Tehran, 1977.

Further Reading

Blair, Sheila. “Patterns of Patronage and Production
in Ilkhanid Iran: The Case of Rashid al-Din.” In The
Court of the Il-khans 1290-1340, eds. J. Raby and
T. Fitzherbert, 39-62. Oxford, UK, 1997.

Bloom, Jonathan, and Sheila Blair. A Compendium of
Chronicles: Rashid al-Din’s Illustrated History of the
World. London, 1995.

Boyle, J.A. “Juvaini and Rashid al-Din as Sources on the
History of the Mongols.” In Historians of the Middle
East , ed. B. Lewis, 133-7. New York, 1962.

. “Rashid al-Din and the Franks.” Central Asiatic

Journal 14 (1970): 62-7.

Gray, B. The World History of Rashid al-Din: A Study of the
Royal Asiatic Society Manuscript . London, 1978.
Hoffman, B. “The Gates of Piety and Charity: Rashid
al-Din Fadl Allah as Founder of Pious Endowments.”
In L’lran Face a la Domination Mongole, ed. Denise
Aigle, 189-202. Paris, 1997.

Lambton, A.K.S. “The Athar wa Ahya’ of Rashid al-Din
Fadl Allah Hamadani and His Contribution as an
Agronomist, Arboriculturist and Horticulturist.” In
The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy, eds. R. Amitai-
Preiss and D.O. Morgan, 126-54. Leiden, 1999.

. Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia: Aspects

of Administrative, Economic and Social History,
llth-14th Century. Albany, 1988.

Morgan, D.O. “Cassiodorus and Rashid al-Din on Barbar-
ian Rule in Italy and Persia” BSOAS 44 (1977): 302-20.

. The Mongols. London, 1986.

. “Persian Historians and the Mongols.” In Medieval

Historical Writing in the Christian and Islamic Worlds,
ed. D.O. Morgan, 109-24. London, 1982.

. “Rashid al-Din and Gazan Khan.” In L’lran Face

d la Domination Mongole, ed. Denise Aigle, 179-88.
Paris, 1997.

Morton, A.H. “The Letters of Rashid al-Din: Ilkhanid Fact
or Timurid?” In The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy, eds.
R. Amitai-Preiss and D.O. Morgan, 155-99. Leiden,
1999.

Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani. The History of the
Seljuq Turks from the Jami’ al-Tawarikh: An Ilkhanid
Adaptation of the Saljuq-nama of Zahir al-Din Nishapuri,
ed. C.E. Bosworth, transl. K. Luther. Richmond, 2001.

. Rashiduddin Fazlullah's Jami’u’t-Tawarikh (Com-
pendium of Chronicles), transl. W.W. Thackston.
Cambridge, UK, 1998.

. The Successors of Genghis Khan, ed. and transl. J.A.

Boyle. New York and London, 1971.

Richard, Francis. “Un des Peintres du Manuscript Supple-
ment Person 1113 de l'Histoire des Mongols de Rashid
al-Din Identifie.” In L’lran face a la Domination
Mongole, ed. Denise Aigle, 307-19. Paris, 1997.

Riihrdanz, K. “Illustrationen zu Rashid al-Dins Ta’rih-i
Mubarak-i Gazani in den Berliner Diez-Alben.” In
L’lran Face a la Domination Mongole, ed. Denise Aigle,
295-305. Paris, 1997.

Soudavar, Abolala. “In Defense of Rashid-ol-din and His
Letters.” Studia Iranica 32 (2003): 77-122.

Spuler, B. Die Mongolen in Iran. Berlin, 1985.

Togan, Z.V. “The Composition of the History of the
Mongols by Rashid al-Din.” Central Asiatic Journal 1
(1962): 60-72.

. “Still Missing Works of Rashid al-Din.” Centred

Asiatic Journal 9 (1964): 113-22.

Van Ess, J. Der Wesir und Seine Gelehrten. Wiesbaden,
1981.

RASULIDS

The Rasulid dynasty that ruled in Yemen from 1229
to 1454 started out as a family of officers of Turkmen
origin that was comprised of a patriarch, ‘Ali ibn
Rasul, and his four sons, who were attached to the
Ayyubid army that conquered Yemen from Egypt in
1173 and 1174. Their rise within the Ayyubid admin-
istration culminated in the appointment of Nur
al-Din ‘Umar ibn ‘Ali ibn Rasul as deputy to the
departing Ayyubid governor, al-Mas‘ud ibn al-
Kamil. When a new appointment from Cairo failed
to materialize, Nur al-Din ‘Umar wasted little time
taking possession of the most strategic forts and
towns, replacing loyal Ayyubid officials with his
own followers and arranging a truce with the Zaydis.
He also managed to avert a military confrontation
with the Ayyubids in Yemen, and, by 1234 or 1235,
he had received formal recognition of his sultanate
from the ‘Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. For the next
two centuries, Nur al-Din ‘Umar and his successors
succeeded in turning Yemen into a regional power,
primarily through their control of the east-west trade
and their interest in cultivating diplomatic ties with
the rulers of Egypt, India, Persia, Africa, and China.

The dominions of the Rasulid dynasty extended
over the same territories conquered by the Ayyubids:

668

RASUL1DS

the central and southern highlands and the Tihama
coastal plain. Ta‘izz, a former Ayyubid fortress and
stronghold, was chosen by the second Rasulid sultan,
al-Muzaffar Yusuf, as the dynasty’s political capital
because of its strategic location and its proximity to
the great emporium of Aden. Alternatively, the Rasu-
lids had little control over northern and eastern
Yemen beyond San'a’; both of these areas remained
under the control of the Zaydis, the Rasulids’ political
and religious rivals. Furthermore, San'a’, which
continued to serve as the outpost of the Rasulid
northern frontier, remained the focus of both Rasulid
and Zaydi aspirations but was ultimately lost to the
Zaydis by 1323. The Fladramawt, on the other hand,
continued to be ruled by small local dynasties that
paid tributes to the Rasulids. Trade and taxes levied
on merchandise transiting through the port of Aden
were the most important source of revenue for the
Rasulid state. For this, they developed the port and
its administration system, and they ensured the safety
of merchant ships with a fleet of patrol ships. Agri-
culture was another source of revenue developed by
the Rasulids, particularly in the Tihama region, the
administrative capital of which (Zabid) became their
winter residence.

In these towns and others, the Rasulids con-
structed a large number of secular and religious
monuments. As staunch Shaffis, they favored the
construction of madrasas, which attracted many
Sunni scholars from all over the Islamic world.
These scholars, as well as other officials, were often
offered posts in the Rasulid administration, such as
Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi, who arrived in Yemen in 1394
and was appointed as chief judge (Qadi al-qudat) by
Sultan al-Ashraf Isma‘il, who also gave him his
daughter in marriage. The sultans were learned men
in their own right who not only had important
libraries but who also wrote treatises on a wide
array of subjects, ranging from astrology and medi-
cine to agriculture and genealogy. They also played
an active role in the religious debates between the
Sufis and the faqihs with regard to the works of Ibn
‘Arabi; these debates polarized opinions, but most
favored the former over the latter.

The Rasulids modeled much of their administra-
tion on that of the Mamluks, despite their recurrent
difficult relations because the latter considered them
as a vassal state. Their competition centered at first
over the Hijaz and the right to provide the kiswa
(covering) of the Ka‘ba, each supporting a rival fac-
tion among the ruling sharifs of Mecca. Despite the
strong Rasulid-Mamluk antagonism surrounding
the internal politics of the Hijaz, traditional diplomat-
ic channels remained open, and embassies and gifts
were exchanged. However, official gifts to Cairo came

to be regarded as tributes from the Rasulid side. The
ultimate crisis resulted in the arrest of Sultan
al-Mujahid Ali in 1352 (while he was on pilgrimage
in Mecca) and his subsequent dispatch to Cairo; he
was released a few months later upon payment of
a large ransom. Taxation and commercial monop-
olization were two other major factors around
which Rasulid-Mamluk rivalry revolved. Accusations
against the Rasulid sultans’ imposing of heavy taxes
on merchants became a paramount dispute between
al-Nasir Ahmad and Barsbay. By the end of the
second quarter of the fifteenth century, the economic
situation of the Rasulids suffered considerably as
a result of Sultan Barsbay’s trade monopoly, al-
Nasir Ahmad’s heavy taxes levied in Aden, and the
emergence of Jedda as the new favored port of the
Red Sea.

The Rasulid state became increasingly threatened
by periodic tribal revolts, particularly those of the
Tihama region, which rebelled against heavy taxes.
These tribes cultivated major agricultural areas and
reared stock animals (mainly horses), which became,
during the Rasulid period, a major export item to the
Indian subcontinent. Rasulid rule was periodically
challenged by disgruntled family members over the
problem of succession. It was during their frequent
revolts that many Rasulid women family members
played active roles in supporting one faction against
another. During the last twelve years of Rasulid rule,
the country was torn between several contenders for
the sultanate, each supported and manipulated by
different power groups. Ultimately, they lost out to
the Tahirids, their own governors in Aden.

Noha Sadek

Further Reading

Daum, Werner, ed. Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisa-
tion in Arabia Felix. Innsbruck and Frankfurt/Main:
Pinguin, 1988.

Sadek, Noha. "Patronage and Architecture in Rasulid
Yemen, 626-858 A.H./1229-1454 A.D." PhD disserta-
tion. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto, 1990.
Sadek, Noha. “Ta‘izz, Capital of the Rasulid Dynasty in
Yemen.’’ Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies
33 (2003): 309-13.

Smith, G.R. The Ayyubids and Early Rasulids in Yemen ,
2 vols. London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Series,
1974-1978.

669

RAZI, AL-, FAKHR AL-DIN

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi was one of the most prominent
theologians, jurists, and Qur'an commentators of
Sunni Islam who lived at a time when Muslim theolo-
gy was trying to come to grips with the impact of the
Aristotelian philosophical tradition (falsafa). Fakhr
al-Din al-Razi was born around 1149 in Ray (today,
Tehran), Iran. His father was a famous preacher who
had studied Kalam at the Nizamiyya madrasa of
Nishapur. Fakhr al-Din studied in Ray and in
Maragha, the intellectual center of northeastern Iran.
Like his father, Fakhr al-Din became an Ash’arite
in theology and a Shafi’ite in Islamic law. After the
conclusion of his studies, he went to Khwarizm in
Transoxiana (today, Uzbekistan) to dispute with
the Mu’tazilites, who were prominent there. He failed,
however, to convert them to Ash’arism and was
expelled. He continued to travel and teach in Iran,
Central Asia (Bukhara and Samarkand), Afghanistan
(Ghazna), and the Indus Valley, until he settled in
1203 in Herat (Afghanistan), where the local ruler
founded a madrasa to accommodate his teaching ac-
tivity. Fakhr al-Din was a controversial teacher, and
Herat seemed to have been evenly divided in friends
and foes. His most fierce enemies were a group of
traditionalist Karramites, and it was rumored that
they played a role in his death. However, Fakhr
al-Din died of natural causes in 1210.

Al-Razi’s theological doctrine is the result of the
epistemological conflict between divine revelation
(Qur’an and hadith [tradition]) and the scientific prin-
ciple of demonstration (burhan; Greek apodeixis).
After the Arabic translation of the works of Aristotle
during the eighth and ninth centuries, the Muslim
philosopher al-Farabi (d. c. 950) had made the
Aristotelian technique of demonstration the yardstick
of all knowledge in the sciences and in falsafa. If an
argument is formally correct and if its premises are
already proven, its conclusion is necessarily true and
must be accepted. Later, Ibn Sina (d. 1037) had
refined the technique of the demonstrative argument
in the Arabic sciences and in falsafa. Since the begin-
ning of the twelfth century, Ibn Sina’s works had
become part of the curriculum of studies at the
Ash’arite madrasas in Iraq and Iran. Fakhr al-Din
studied the books of Ibn Sina thoroughly, and he
wrote an influential commentary about Ibn Sina’s
most theological work, Pointers and Reminders.

Al-Razi generally accepted the findings of the
scientists and Muslim philosophers (falasifa) wherev-
er they are based on demonstrative arguments. Where
the views of the falasifa are not based on demonstra-
tion or where al-Razi does not accept that their argu-
ments are truly demonstrative, he considered other
sources of knowledge, most importantly the literal

wording of the Qur’an and the hadith corpus. On
the question of whether the place of the intellect
(‘aql) is within the brain or the heart, for instance,
al-Razi opted for the latter; his conclusion was based
on the many verses in the Qur’an that locate insight
and knowledge in the heart. These clear indications in
revelation cannot be overruled by the physicians’
arguments for the location of the intellect in the
brain, which al-Razi did not accept as being demon-
strative.

Despite being a deeply pious man, Fakhr al-Din
was unusually rationalistic in his theology, even for
his time. He often abandoned the school tradition of
the Ash’arites in favor of the philosophical system of
Ibn Sina. Ash’arite theology, for instance, emphasized
that the moral values of a person’s actions, namely
good and bad, can only be understood through reve-
lation (rather than reason); only the fact that God
recommends or condemns an action can make it good
or bad. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi abandoned this prin-
ciple in favor of the rationalist position that it can be
determined whether an action is morally good or bad
independent of revelation. This view had a profound
impact on Fakhr al-Din’s reasoning in Islamic law.
Although al-Ghazali (1058-1111) had cautiously
introduced the idea that a jurist should consider
the benefit (maslaha) of society in his judgments,
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi thoroughly aimed to establish
maslaha as a source of Islamic law. Because the well-
educated jurist knows what is best for the individual
and the society, he should apply the principle of
expediency in his rulings, even if such application
overturns the judgments of earlier jurists.

Fakhr al-Din’s most influential work is his volumi-
nous commentary on the Qur’an, which he wrote
close to the end of his life. Although its official title
is The Keys to the Unknown , the work is often known
as The Grand Commentary (al-Tafsir al-Kahir). It
combines Fakhr al-Din’s rationalist teachings in the-
ology with a precise philological analysis of the text
and a deeply pious, often mystic interpretation. The
book is known for its many digressions into the
sciences, philosophy, and mysticism; Ibn Taymiyya
(1263-1328), one of Fakhr al-Din’s conservative
adversaries, claimed it contains everything but a com-
mentary of the Qur’an. Fakhr al-Din’s followers, how-
ever, responded that it contains everything and a
commentary of the Qur’an.

Fakhr al-Din’s Grand Commentary became a yard-
stick for all later commentaries on the Qur’an and
had a lasting influence. It was, for instance, widely
read by modernist Muslim reformers in the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries and thus shaped
all modern Muslim Qur’an commentaries.

Frank Griffel

670

RAZI. AL-, OR RHAZES

Further Reading

Anawati, George. “Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.” In Encyclopea-
dia of Islam , 2nd ed., vol. 2, 75 1-55. Leiden and London:
Brill/Luzac & Co., 1963.

Kholeif, Fathalla. A Study on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and his
Controversies in Transoxania. Beirut: Dar El-Mashreq,
1984.

Kraus, Paul. “The ‘Controversies’ of Fakhr al-Din al-
Razi.” Islamic Culture 12 (1938): 131-53.

Mafisumi, M. Saghir Hasan. “Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
and His Critics.” Islamic Studies 6 (1967): 355-74.

Muhibbu-Din, Murtada A. “Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s
Philosophical Theology in al-Tafsir al-Kabir.” Hamdard
Islamicus 27 (1994): 55-84.

Nasr, Seyyid Hossein. “Fakhr al-Dm Razi.” In The Islamic
Intellectual Tradition in Persia, ed. M.A. Razawi,
107-21. Richmond: Curzon, 1996.

RAZI, AL-, OR RHAZES

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi was
bom and died in al-Rayy (classical Rhagai; on the
southern outskirts of today’s Teheran) (1 Sha‘ban
251-5 Sha'ban 313/28 August 865-26 October 925).
He was a physician, a scientist, and a philosopher,
and he was a prolific author in medicine (including
ancillary subjects), alchemy, logic, and philosophy.

Life

The times of al-Razi’s life and his places of residence —
mostly far distant from the caliphal capital, Bagh-
dad — as well as his nonreligious vocation removed
him from the focus of attention in the extant bio-
bibliographical sources of classical and medieval
Islam; nevertheless, the relative importance that his
birthplace al-Rayy then enjoyed and, more to the
point, his own scholarly reputation there and in
Baghdad, did perpetuate his memory as a person
apart from his works. Although his treatise The Phil-
osophical Life ( Kitab al-Sira al-Falsafiyya ; also called
Apologia [Arberry]) is short on concrete detail, a
broad outline of his life can be sketched by combining
information contained in it and other works of his
with carefully sifted secondary evidence.

The precise transmission of the dates of his birth
and death would seem to credit his family with a
certain level of education and affluence, which subse-
quently may have facilitated his access to the scholar-
ship that his works amply attest. Further, comfortable
circumstances would easily explain the report about
his initial occupation as a moneychanger. His own
station in life would later have ensured the recording
of his death. As alluded to above, al-Razi spent most

of his life in his hometown of al-Rayy; however,
medical studies and practice more than once occa-
sioned years of absence from al-Rayy. He is said to
have sojourned in Baghdad as a student and, later, as
the director of its hospital. In Nishapur and Bukhara,
he attended Samanid dynasts.

Before taking up medicine (as late as in his
thirties), al-Razi is alternatively said to have been a
lute player and poet or a practitioner of alchemy.
Because his alchemical writings show a far more em-
pirical bent than those of the Corpus Jabirianum (see
below), such reports would seem credible enough;
however, they also function as an etiological legend,
deriving his — indubitably attested — poor eyesight
and eventual blindness in old age from the noxious
effects of alchemical experiments; a variant and no
less suspect explanation would link his eye condition
to excessive predilection for the broad bean. Clearly,
both accounts impugn his reliance on secular science
in that they construe an otherwise inexplicable organ-
ic ailment as its consequence and, by inference, as
divine retribution.

Although al-Razi came to embody Galen’s ideal
that the excellent physician also be a philosopher, the
relationship — if any existed — between his medical
and philosophical interests and the circumstances of
his philosophical studies cannot be ascertained. Al-
Razi himself mentions as his teacher Abu Zayd
Ahmad b. Sahl al-Balkhi (i.e., the man from Balkh,
classical Bactra), but he also conducted epistolary
debates with two of Abu Zayd’s fellow townsmen,
Abu 1-Qasim ‘Abdallah ibn Ahmad al-Ka‘bi and
Abu ’1-Husayn Shahid. Actually, he thus addressed
an impressive number of earlier and contemporaneous
scholars — physicians, scientists, philosophers, the-
ologians (e.g., Ahmad ibn al-Oayyib al-Sarakhsi,
al-JahiU, al-Kindi, Abu Sahl al-Rasa'ili, al-Nashi’,
and the Manichean Sisinnius). Whereas al-Razi’s
own accounts of philosophical controversies are,
with one exception, lost, disputations with the Isma‘ili
Abu Hatim al-Razi (d. 322/933-934) left an echo
in the latter’s, fortunately extant, writings; Doubts
Concerning Galen (see below) demonstrates al-Razi’s
critical attitude toward classical authorities. With
regard to students of al-Razi’s, the only name to
be transmitted is Yahya ibn ‘Adi, who was later a
prominent disciple of al-Farabi’s.

Al-Razi’s medical writings would seem to confirm
the biographers’ reports about his heading the hospi-
tals of al-Rayy and of Baghdad, respectively. As some
sources would have it, he was so much sought after by
students and patients alike that he attended only to
the most intractable cases, referring all others, by
degree of severity, to his junior and senior students
and assistants. In any case, he generously cared for

671

RAZI, AL-, OR RHAZES

indigent patients (as witnesses attest) and dedicated
a special treatise to the needs of those who had to
do without expert treatment (Everybody His Own
Doctor — Arberry’s version of Man la yahduruhu al-
tabib ) . On the other hand, his medical acumen could
not fail to attract the attention of the powers that be;
indeed, his familiarity with princes aroused criticism
for violating the principles of the philosophical life,
which was here defined along cynic, ascetic lines.

Al-Razi’s self-statement of indefatigably pursuing
knowledge and scholarship, both for his own benefit
and for that of his fellow humans, is fully borne out
by the extent and quality of his literary production;
the debilities of age, cataracts, and failing hand
muscles did not stop him nor apparently embitter
him — he merely employed help. Beyond study and
writing, he strove after human perfection by
practicing the philosophical life, which he saw embod-
ied in Socrates; by honoring Socrates as “our
imam” — thus applying the title of supreme Muslim
leadership to a pagan philosopher — al-Razi implicitly
rejected all religiously based claims of authority.

Al-Razi’s outline of the good life in Apologia
includes gainful occupation, procreation of the species,
and, generally, measured enjoyment of worldly goods;
he specifically rejects rigorous self-mortification on
the model of Hindu, Manichean, and Christian ascet-
icism. As for his own conduct of the philosophical
life, other than study and writing, he expressly names
his general moderation in material acquisitions; the
pursuit of legal claims; in food, drink, entertainment,
dress, mount, and slaves (eunuchs and concubines);
the implied premise of a certain wealth illustrates that
moderation was to be relative to one’s station in life
and not to be measured by some absolute standard.
His reticence about his private life otherwise con-
forms to the conventions of his age except that male
offspring would normally have been mentioned.

Works

Al-Razi’s autobibliography runs close to two hundred
titles. Subsuming his entire work under philosophy, he,
in turn — and along established Aristotelian lines —
divides philosophy into natural and metaphysical sci-
ence on the one hand and mathematics on the other.
However, deviating from the tradition of Islamic
Aristotelianism, he depreciates mathematics and, on
the other hand, includes both medicine and alchemy
within natural philosophy; logic is apparently not
assigned a separate place.

In trying to understand al-Razi’s epistemology —
learning as open-ended, infinite progress — and.

specifically in medicine and alchemy, his attitude
toward book learning versus empirically acquired
knowledge, care has to be taken to distinguish his
programmatic statements (e.g.. Doubts Concerning
Galen ) and his actual practice. In his much celebrated
but understudied monograph On Smallpox and Mea-
sles, he is quite reluctant to impute to Galen the
neglect — let alone ignorance — of these devastating
transmissible diseases. A proper assessment of al-
Razi’s own contribution to their symptomatology
and differential diagnosis is still wanting, notwith-
standing the impact of his treatise on later medicine;
its Greek and Latin translations were printed repeat-
edly (and not for antiquarian reasons) right through
the middle of the nineteenth century.

Continens, the most voluminous of al-Razi’s
works, is a posthumous compilation of his medical
notebooks and files that was never meant for publica-
tion; rather, they were mainly to serve his (as he
proudly proclaims, in Islam, unprecedented) project
of a medical encyclopedia — apparently consisting of
a series of thematically related but separate mono-
graphs — under the title al-JamV (Colligens; not to
be confused with the nearly synonymous al-Hawi).
However, even as they stand gathered in Continens,
al-Razi’s notes convincingly fulfill his requirement of
a thorough command of existing scholarship; in the
given case of medicine, this extended — beyond Greek,
Sanskrit, Syriac, and early Islamic traditions — to
unattributed hospital practice and that of “wise
women.” Finally, he recorded his own — at times
contrasting — clinical experience.

The immense volume of al-Hawi could not but
affect its manuscript transmission. However, interest
in it transcended religious boundaries, as attested to,
for example, by a copy in Hebrew characters and, in
Europe, by its Latin translation in 1279.

Plausibly the single most influential of al-Razi’s
books was his medical compendium Book for
Mansur, one hefty volume that combined theory and
practice. Its success is illustrated by a large number of
manuscripts in the original Arabic, in Hebrew, and in
Gerard of Cremona’s Latin version of 1175 (several
printed editions) and by a series of Arabic and Latin
commentaries.

Corresponding with the format of al-Razi’s
medical writings — ranging from encyclopedias to the
briefest of monographs, which were designed as
handy references for far-flung practitioners — his envi-
sioned audiences run the gamut from fellow scholar
to layman. His equally comprehensive thematic in-
terests include everything from anatomy to specific
disorders; to dietetics (including sexual medicine),
materia medica, and pharmacy; to deontological
questions; and to lay people’s attitudes toward

672

RAZI. AL-, OR RHAZES

medicine and its practitioners. In addition, al-Razi
engaged authoritative texts of his discipline — espe-
cially Hippocrates and Galen — in commentaries, revi-
sions, and emulations. Monographic treatments of
(in the broad medieval sense) philosophical interest
include discussions of allergic reactions to flowering
roses; of the strictly physiological causation of pathi-
cism (passive anal eroticism); of the public’s frequent
preference for quacks over qualified doctors; and of
physicians’ curative failures and, conversely, of the
success of wise women and their ilk.

Al-Razi’s epistemological open-mindedness led
him to devote a treatise to the (occult) properties
(khawass) of mineral, vegetable, and animal sub-
stances. Alternatively, his work in alchemy, betraying
a similar attitude, dispenses with magic in the
attempted transformation of bodies, such as base
metals into gold. The implications of his work, calling
into question the traditional doctrine of four elemen-
tal qualities (among others), were not to be lost on
al-Ghazali and other later thinkers.

Al-Razi stands out among Islamic philosophers
for his ethics and his metaphysical and physical doc-
trines, although he did not ignore logic (in Aristote-
lian terms, philosophy’s indispensable implement).
Conspicuously, he rejects one of Islam’s basic
dogmas — prophecy — and with it all revealed religion.
Reason being the creator’s equal gift to all human-
kind, there was no need for divine dispensations
through the mouth of prophets; to the contrary,
such (in reality) demonically induced self-delusions
had invariably proven pernicious in leading to san-
guinary strife. Human beings’ apparent inequality
in philosophical potential resulted from the wide
variance of their interests and preoccupations.

Further religious and philosophical disagreements
of al-Razi with his contemporaries concern creation
as such and man’s destiny in the hereafter. He posits
the pre-eternal existence of five entities: (1) God;
(2) universal soul; (3) absolute time; (4) absolute
space; and (5) matter. By defining, in contradiction
to Aristotle, time and space as absolute and infinite,
he expressly relies on the uncanny certainty of in-
ferences from straightforward sensory perception.
Al-Razi’s concept of matter is atomistic in a generally
Democritean way, which is in contrast to the notion
of dimensionless atoms that was prevalent in Muslim
dialectic theology (kalam).

In al-Razi’s cosmological myth, creation is occa-
sioned by God’s accession to Soul’s desire of embodi-
ment in matter; the resulting chaos is mitigated by
God’s further gift of intelligence — his own — to crea-
tion and to Soul. Intelligible order is thus imparted to
the universe and, in humankind, self-awareness to
Soul; conscious of her incorporeal origin, she strives

after liberation from imprisonment in this life to
return to her primal abode. Thus, al-Razi premises
the afterlife on Soul’s incorporeal substantiality
alone, rejecting the Qur’anic resurrection of the
flesh. Generally taking, like the Gnostics and Mani-
cheans, a dim view of Soul’s embroilment with mat-
ter, al-Razi yet insists on the creator’s wisdom and
mercy. Creation’s ultimate end, however, is its disso-
lution after Soul’s liberation from bondage to matter.

Central to al-Razi’s ethical theory are his concepts
of pleasure, which exists only as release from and in
proportion with previous discomfort and of the fear
of death as a motive force. The attempt to silence such
fear — irrational, whether or not death terminates the
soul’s sentient existence — impels humans to indulge
their natural appetites for power, food, or sex. In an
effort to predicate his ethical theory on unfounded
assumptions — given the impossibility of rationally
demonstrating the reality of the beyond — he bases
it on the finality of death. Because the appetites,
feeding on gratification, ever forestall the achievement
of the desired pleasure, they are to be reduced by
judiciously denying them gratification to approximate
a modicum of contentment: the maximum attainable
in this life.

From among al-Razi’s physical works, his treatise
about vision deserves special mention for his rejection
of Galen’s extromission theory and excessive reliance
on Euclid.

Lutz Richter-Bernburg

Further Reading

Bar Asher, M.M. “Quelques Aspects de l’Ethique d’Abu
Bakr al-Razi.” Studici Islamica 69 (1989): 5-38; 70
(1990): 119M7.

Bungy, Gholam Ali, et al. “Razi’s Report About Seasonal
Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever) from the 10th Century
AD.” International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
110 (1996): 219-24.

Escobar Gomez, S. “De un Predecesor Arabe de Bentham
en la Defensa de los ‘Derechos de los Animales’.”
Anaquel de Estudios Arabes 8 (1997): 87-99.

Goodman, Lenn E. “Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi.”
In Routledge History of World Philosophies, Vol I, His-
tory of Islamic Philosophy , eds. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and
Oliver Leaman, 198-215. London and New York:
Routledge, 1996.

. “al-Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad.” In Encyclopae-
dia of Islam, vol. VIII, 474a-7b. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994.

Jacquart, E)anielle. “Note sur la Traduction Latine du Kitab
al-ManOuri de Rhazes.” Revue cl’Histoire des Textes 24
(1994): 359-74.

Kitab al-ManOuri fi al-Oibb, ed. Hazim al-Bakri al-Niddiqi.
Kuwait: Publications of Institute of Arab [sic] Manu-
scripts, Arab League Educational Cultural & Scientific
Organization, 1987.

Kitab Sirr al-Asrar (Secret of Secrets), ed. M.T.
Daneshpazhuh. Tehran: Unesco, 1964 ( Nashriya-i

673

RAZ1, AF-, OR RHAZES

Kumisyun-i Milli-i Yunisku Aar Iran', 25); J. Ruska, Ger-
man trl., as al-Razi’s Bitch Geheimnis der Geheimnisse,
Berlin 1937.

Kitah al-Shukuk ‘ala Jalinus, ed. M. Mohaghegh. Tehran:
Mu’assasa-i Mutala’at-i Islami, 1372/1993.

Kitab al-Taqsim wa-l-Tashjir /as Taqasim al-'Ilal), ed. S.M.
Hammami. Aleppo, Syria: University of Aleppo, Insti-
tute for the History of Arabic Science, 1412/1992.

Kraus, Paul, and Shlomo Pines. “al-Razi, Abu Bakr
Muhammad.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. Ill,
1 134a-6b. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1936.

Mahdi, Muhsin. “Remarks on al-Razi’s Principles.” Bulle-
tin d Etudes Orientates 48 (1996): 145-53.

Meier, Fritz. “‘Urknall’ bei . . . a. Bakr al-Razi.” Oriens 33
(1992): 1-21.

Muhaqqiq [Mohaghegh], Mahdi. Filsuf-i Rayy. Tehran,
1970.

Pines, Shlomo. “al-Razi.” Dictionary of Scientific Biogra-
phy, vol. XI, 323a-6b. New York: Scribner, 1975.

. Beitrdge zur Islamischen Atomenlehre. Berlin, 1936.

(Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hadi Abu Rida, Ar. trl. as Madh-
hab al-dharra ‘inda l-Muslimin, Cairo 1946; Michael
Schwarz, Engl. trl. as Studies in Islamic Atomism, Jeru-
salem: The Magnes Press 1997).

. “What was Original in Arabic Science?” In Sci-
entific Change — Historical Studies : Symposium. . .

Oxford. . .1961, ed. A.C. Crombie, 181-205. London,
1963. 1-205 [repr. in The Collected Works of Shlomo
Pines II: Studies in Arabic versions of Greek texts and in
medieval science, Jerusalem: Magnes and Leiden: Brill
1986, pp. 329-53],

Richter-Bernburg, Lutz. “Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi’s
(Rhazes) Medical Works.” Medicina nei Secoli Arte
e Scienza VI (1994): 377-92.

. “al-Hawi.” In Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. XII, 64b-

7b. New York: Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, 2003.

Rosenthal, Franz. “Al-Razi on the Hidden Illness.” Bulletin
of the History of Medicine 52 (1978): 45-56.

Ruska, Julius. “Die Alchemie al-Razi’s.” Der Islam 22
(1935): 281-319.

Sezgin, Fuad. Gescliichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, vol.
Ill: Medizin [etc.]; vol. V: Mathematik; vol. VII: Astrol-
ogie [etc.]. Leiden: Brill, 1970, 1974, 1979, respectively.

Stroumsa, Sarah. Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-
Rawandi. Abu Bakr al-Razi and Their Impact on Islamic
Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1999. (Islamic philosophy, theolo-
gy and science. Texts and studies', v. 35).

Ullmann, Manfred. Die Medizin im Islam. Leiden, etc.:
Brill, 1970. ( Handbuch der Orient alistik, 1. Abtlg.,
Erganzungsbd. VI, 1), esp. pp. 128-36.

. Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: UP, 1978. ( Islamic

Surveys; 11), esp. pp. 109, 112, 129 (ns. 3-6, 14).

RAZIA SULTANA

The daughter of Iltutmish, the second of the so-called
“Slave Kings” of Delhi, Razia ruled the Delhi
Sultanate from 1236 to 1240, thus becoming the first
woman to rule a Muslim state in India. On his death
bed, Iltutmish had expressed his wish that he be
succeeded by Razia, whom he thought more capable
for the position than any of his sons. In the intense

competition among the various factions of the court
to fill the political vacuum left by Iltutmish’s death,
however, Razia was passed over in favor of her half-
brother, Rukn ad-Din Firuz, Iltutmish’s eldest surviv-
ing son. Rukn ad-Din Firuz turned out to be a ruler
who was given to pursuing a life of pleasure and
satisfying his lust, being content to leave the affairs
of state in the hands of his mother, Shah Turkhan.
Shah Turkhan used her newly acquired power to
settle old insults she had suffered in Iltutmish’s
harem by either putting to death or humiliating
some of Iltutmish’s wives. Rukn ad-din Firuz’s de-
bauchery, as well as Shah Turkhan’s machinations,
provoked further hostility at the court when they
blinded Iltutmish’s infant son, Qutb ad-Din, so that
he could no longer be a contender for the throne.
When Shah Turkhan began making arrangements
to execute Razia because she deemed her to be a
threat to her son’s authority, the people of Delhi
and some officers of the army revolted. Because of
the high esteem with which they regarded her, they
raised Razia to the throne. Rukn ad-Din and his
mother were put to death. At the time there were
apparently no religious objections to a woman ruling
a state. Only in the seventeenth century does a theo-
logian, Abdulhaqq Dihlawi (d. 1624), deem Razia’s
appointment to be contrary to the shari’ a.

Although Razia came to power on the basis of
popular support in Delhi, the confederacy of nobles
and regional governors who had been responsible
for excluding her from the throne in the first place
refused to acknowledge her authority. Through astute
diplomacy and complex intrigues, she was able to
create dissension and mistrust in the ranks of the op-
position, even managing to convince some of the
nobles to support her cause. Having consolidated a
shaky support base, she began appearing in public
unveiled and in male attire. The chronicler Minhaj
as-Siraj reports that she was a wise and just ruler,
possessing all of the attributes and qualifications
necessary for a king. She conducted affairs of state
in an open court, marching in person with her armies
when engaged in battles. Early in her reign Razia,
however, managed to arouse a great deal of hostility
and jealousy among the predominantly Turkish no-
bility when she appointed Jalal ad-Din Yaqut, an
Abyssinian slave, to the post of master of the stables,
a position traditionally reserved for a distinguished
Turk. Her partiality for Yaqut has led later historians
to speculate whether there had been a sexual relation-
ship between them, but contemporaneous sources
do not indicate that this was necessarily the case. In
a society in which ethnicity and race (i.e., Turkish
ancestry) were the prime qualifications for holding
office, Razia’s advancement of Yaqut was deemed to

674

REFORM, OR ISLAH

be not only scandalous and improper but also insult-
ing to the Turkish oligarchy. It is very likely that, by
appointing Yaqut, Razia was attempting to cultivate
a cadre of non-Turkish officers and courtiers to
counter the power held by nobles of Turkish ancestry
at the court.

As a result of the Yaqut affair, Razia encountered
powerful opposition at the court in Delhi as well as
from the governors of the provinces. The governor of
Punjab revolted but was subdued by Razia’s forces.
Fatal to Razia’s rule was the revolt of Ikhtiyar ad-Din
Altuniyya, the governor of Bhatinda. On April 3,
1240, Razia set out with her army to subdue him.
However, as the army reached Bhatinda, some officers
killed Yaqut and handed over Razia to Altuniyya.
The confederacy of nobles in Delhi proclaimed Muiz
ad-Din Bahram, Razia’s half-brother, to be the new
ruler. In the meantime, Ikhtiyar ad-Din Altuniyya,
feeling left out of the power sharing taking place at
the court in Delhi, released Razia from prison, and,
after marrying her, proceeded to Delhi to promote the
claims of his wife to the throne. Altuniyya’s army was
defeated by Bahram’s forces, and, on October 14,
1240, both Razia and Altuniyya were killed.

Ali Asani

Further Reading

Haig, W., ed. Cambridge History of India, vol. 3, 56-60.
Nizami, K.A. Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India

during the 13th Century. Bombay, 1961.

REFORM, OR ISLAH

The Concept, Historical Development, and
Main Views

Islah is an infinitive form derived from the root s-l-h
and has the sense of “to improve, to better, or to put
something into a better position.” It may be seen as
the Arabic counterpart of reform. The word islah
occurs in forty verses of the Qur’an in the sense of
“to restore oneself or to reconcile people with one
another, to make peace.” Muslih , the active participle
of islah, is used to describe people who favor peace
and order against wickedness, disorder, and anarchy.
In the Qur’anic terminology, islah is the opposite of
ifsad (corruption), and muslih is the opposite of muf-
sid (practicing corruption). The term islah also occurs
in hadith (tradition) collections.

The term islah has acquired a systematic sense
imbued with a Salah tendency within religious

thought owing to the ideological contributions of
Muhammad ’Abduh and M. Rashid Rida. Modern
view of islah aims at the revivification of Islamic
values and is based on the principle of “commanding
the good and forbidding the evil” of the Qur’an
(3:104, 110). Champions of the islah movement also
emphasize the Qur’anic verse that reads, “I only wish
to reform you as best as I can” (1 1:88). Another point
of reference for them is a hadith that heralds that God
will bring about people in each century who are able
to accomplish religious and moral reformation.
Although past reform attempts stressed the adherence
to the Prophet, modern reformist movements viewed
the Qur’an as the most important source of reference.
Those who thought it necessary to adhere to the
Sunnah of the Prophet were of the opinion that inno-
vative practices (bid’ah) penetrated the spheres of
religious beliefs and worship. In their view, the arti-
cles of faith have gained a speculative outlook thanks
to kalam (Islamic theology) discussions. Another rea-
son for the increasing number of innovative ideas
were the esoteric (batini) interpretation of the scrip-
ture and the views of the extreme branches of the
Shi’ah. As for the domain of worship and prayers,
they believed that excessive asceticism and mystic
practices that stemmed from some Sufi movements
and that run contrary to the Sunnah were indications
of practices that opposed the essence of Islam. Inno-
vations that were thought to be within the domain of
belief and prayer were each deemed threatening to the
creedal, political, and moral unity of Islam.

The political and moral turmoil that followed the
wars of Siffin (AH 37/657 CE) and Nahrawan (38/658)
resulted in political and religious controversies be-
tween the political authority and the Kahrijites and
Shi‘i groups. This schism played an effective role in
the development of the sects that the Sunni view
called ahl al-bid’ah (the people of innovation). At
the end of the seventh century, the Muslim communi-
ty gained a heterogeneous outlook. Theological con-
troversies surrounding issues such as predestination,
freedom of the will, the problem of evil, divine attri-
butes, and whether or not the Qur’an was created
became determining factors in sectarian identities.
However, dominant official Sunnism did not appear
to retain sufficient unifying force and vitality to mold
the religious and moral conducts of new generations.
It also diminished, to some extent, the religiously and
culturally determinant power of the Sunnah (the so-
ciological bases of which had already been weakened)
within the state, which had a diverse ethnic structure
and expanded borders.

The community in which early Muslims (the
Companions and the generation after them) practic-
ed the true meaning of the Sunnah was gradually

675

REFORM, OR ISLAH

disappearing. The famous discussion that took place
between Hasan al-Basri (d. 110/728) and Wasil b.
‘Ata’ and their disagreement marked the beginning
of the resystematization of the Sunni and Salah
schools against the schools that are considered by
the Sunnis as the people of innovation, such as the
Shi’a, Kharijiyyah, Jahmiyyal, and Mu’tazilah. The
work of Ahmed b. Hanbal (d. 855/241 H) entitled
al-Radd ’ala al-Zanadiqa wa al-Jahmiyyah is a good
example of Sunnism prepared to battle the newfan-
gled movements. The main impetus for the reformists
who rejected the innovations was the desire to light
against the sects that brought innovative ideas into
the social and individual lives of the believers and to
revive the Sunnah with a view to guiding people back
to the authentic faith.

It is in this sense that Rashid Rida refers to Ibn Hazm
(fifth/eleventh century), Ibn Taymiyya (seventh/
thirteenth century), Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (ninth/
fifteenth century), and Shawqani of Yaman (twelfth/
eighteenth century) as the reformists and renewers
(mujaddid) of their own centuries. Opposing the po-
litical authorities of their own eras, these scholars
committed themselves to preserving the continuity of
the Sunnah tradition as well as the original values of
Islam through it. As a result of historical and cultural
development, the modern Salafi movement of the
Egyptian roots marks the last and the most produc-
tive phase in terms of the reformist stance. Among
the prominent leading figures of this movement are
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and
Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi.

In the Muslim/Arab world, one may find many
factors that have contributed to the development of
the notion of islah. In an attempt to restore the Islam-
ic way of living in accordance with the pristine state of
Islam that the first generations lived, the Wahhabiyah
advocated the idea of clinging to the Scripture and
the Sunna and of shunning innovations and super-
stitions. One of the factors contributing to the Arab
renaissance from 1 822 on is the Bulak Printing House
in Egypt, through which Egyptian, Syrian, and
Lebanese intellectuals spread the doctrines of the
movement. In the Ottoman Empire, by inaugurating
Tanzimat (a policy of reforms) with the Gulkhane
Khatt-i Humayun on November 3, 1839, the Sultan
‘Abd al-Majid lay the foundations for the notion of
liberal administration. With the Declaration of Re-
forms in 1856, the reforms launched under the influ-
ence of the West were gradually enforced in society,
and thus the thought and impact of the West were
transmitted to the Near East. Moreover, as Joseph
Hajjar points out, the facts that the Eastern churches
were exposed to Western thought and that missionary
activities effected a reactionary movement on the

part of the Muslims helped establish an intellectual
infrastructure in the Muslim world.

Furthermore, since the beginning of the nineteenth
century, Muslims familiarized themselves with West-
ern science, culture, and technology via translations
and travels. They had on their agenda discussion of
the causes of — and solutions to — the backwardness of
the Muslim world, which was the main theme of the
writings of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida in
al-XJrwa al-Wuthqa and al-Manar. Ernest Renan’s
conference on “Islam and Science” at the Sorbonne
on March 29, 1883, and the subsequent discussions
that took place between Renan and al-Afghani led the
reformists to struggle against the thesis that Islam
clashed with science and that it was the reason that
the Muslim world is backward. The main driving
force and motivation of the reformists to put an end
to the cultural and social stagnation was the follow-
ing Quranic verse: “God does not change the state of
a people until they change themselves” (13:11). The
proponents of islah held that it was necessary to
combat the Sufi orders and conservative and tradi-
tionalist forces to improve the situation. The pro-
blems on which they concentrated most were
education, law, and the Sufi orders. The improvement
of Islamic education in traditional institutions and
the Azhar in particular was considered to be related
to the improvement of the mosques and religious
foundations. The idea was that, if these were adminis-
tered well enough, new resources could be obtained
for the educational system.

This general reform movement at the end of the
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth
century appeared in Arabic and Turkish media. After
a while, islah became a movement that was attractive
to those who strive for their cultural and social free-
dom. However, interest in islah that grew in the minds
of young generations and intellectuals faced some
difficulties. This new movement drew the suspicions
of many countries, because it meant cultural and
political inclinations toward the exaltation of Arab-
ism and Pan-Islamism. Because of its social and
political aspect, it caused reactions on the part of
the authorities representing the status quo. Moreover,
the reformists’ uncompromising notion of divine
oneness that viewed certain beliefs and practices of
people as possessing idolatrous elements also drew
criticisms of those who considered traditions and
some rituals as complementary parts of religion.
Lacking the patronage of a spiritual authority (e.g.,
one resembling the reformist church), the Salafiyya
was apt to be accused of altering and even destroying
the sacred Sunni tradition.

Furthermore, making constant references to the
early period of Islam and to primary sources was

676

REFORM, OR ISLAH

one of the salient characteristics of the movement.
According to the reformists, to be loyal to Islam
amounted to the adherence to the Qur’an and the
Sunna. The saying attributed to Malik b. Anas saying
that “the later (generations) of this ummah will only
improve through that by which the first (generations)
improved” is a good example that indicates the
historical connection of islah.

The reformists refused to accept the subjective
forms of interpretation that claimed to find out the
symbolism that lies deep beneath or beyond the
visible images of the external meaning of the Qur’anic
verses. Rashid Rida’s comment that “interpretation
(ta’wil) is a typical example of innovation (bid ’ah)”
epitomizes the reformist position. The reformist un-
derstanding of interpretation tended to reject ta’wil in
favor of mere tafsir (commentary ) and embraced the
view that the Qur’anic revelation was as comprehen-
sible to modern Muslims as it was to the salaf (first
generations), except for certain verses concerning
divine attributes and the hereafter. For them, the
fundamental aim of tafsir was to explicate the moral
values that would invigorate the religious sentiment
and hence guide the believer. The Sunna is of the same
significance as the Qur’an, and the former explains
the latter. However, the reformist doctrine ascribes
more importance to the Qur’an than to the Sunna.

Being aware of the significance of preaching and
guidance in mosques and other environments, the
reformists disseminated their doctrines by issuing
journals (e.g., Rashid Rida’s al-Manar in 1898-1935
and Ibn Badis’ al-Shihab in 1925-1939). What the
reformists attempted to do was to warn people
against beliefs and practices that seemed religious
but that in fact did not have reliable proofs in the
Sunna of the Prophet, such as reciting Qur’anic verses
over graves, saying prayers loudly, the mawlid cele-
brations, and some other practices that modern Sala-
fiyya deems idolatrous, such as excessive veneration
of the awliya’ (the saintly men) and appealing to the
dead for help.

Theoretically, the logical consequence of the prin-
ciple of returning to the first and essential sources was
the rejection of taqlid (following blindly) and the
subsequent search for new ways in the practice of
ijtihad (independent judgment). For example, Rashid
Rida viewed ijtihad as the “vital energy of the reli-
gion.” According to the reformists, ijma’ (consensus)
is neither the general consensus of the Muslim com-
munity nor the agreement of Muslim scholars on a
given issue. For the reformists, ijma’ is restricted to
the consensus of the Companions of the Prophet only.

The intellectual infrastructure of the reformists
is based on such notions as the universality of
Islam, freedom of reason, and summoning people to

God and religion. Summoning to God amounts to
attempts at reverting to the Islamic sphere those
Muslims who have been intoxicated by modern scien-
tific knowledge and who have been in a position of
ridiculing the injunctions of Islam.

On these foundations, the development of islah
consists of three significant phases. The first phase
is the period in which Jamal al-Din al-Afghani,
Muhammad ’Abduh, and ‘Abd al-Rahman al-
Kawakibi lay the foundation of the islah project.
The second one is the period covering the years
from 1905 to 1950, in which Rashid Rida and Ibn
Badis played crucial roles and which witnessed the
emergence of the doctrinal system of the movement.
Among the prominent figures of this period were
Farid Wajdi, who composed a commentary on the
Qur’an with a reconciliatory perspective; Mustafa
al-Maraghi, who was the Shaykh of the Azhar;
Mahmud Shaltut; and Ahmad Amin, who tried to
give a Mu’tazilite direction to the movement through
his writings in the Journal of al-Thaqafa. Muhammad
Tahir b. Ashur in Tunisia and Abd al-Hamid b. Badis
in Algeria were leading reformists during the second
half of the nineteenth century. There are also many
reformist activities in Turkey, Iran, and India. The
third phase covers the period after World War II.

Consequently, the idea of islah — although it does
not appear to be a religious and cultural movement as
strong and unified as it was between the two world
wars — continues its existence in different forms that
are extreme in some cases and moderate in others.
Whether it is considered the liberal reformism of the
moderate intellectuals who advocate tolerance and
freedom of inquiry, who wish to deliver people by
way of education, and who maintain the optimistic
view that man will evolve through reason and science;
the radical reformism of Ikhwan al-Muslimin, who
desired to maintain the existence of Islam in the
world; or the reformism of the idealist youth that
was activated by demands for social justice and
political morality and articulated with concepts char-
acteristic of the left, each of these tendencies repre-
sents one of the main preferences that were provided
by al-Afghani, ‘Abduh, and al-Kawakibi and that
were disseminated by their followers throughout the
East and West.

Mufit Selim Saruhan

Further Reading

Abduh, Muhammad. Risalat al-Tawhid, ed. Rashid Rida, 7,
15, 101, 103, 124-5, 139, 169, 172, 195-9, 202. Cairo,
1379/1960.

Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi. Rijal cil-Fikr wa al-Da’wa fi
al-Islam, 25-60. Damascus, 1379/1960.

677

REFORM, OR ISLAH

Amin, Ahmad. Zu’ama’ al-Islah fi al-Asr al-Hadith. Cairo,
1368/1949.

Al-Afghani. Jamal al-Din. al-Radd 'ala al-Dahriyyin.
Beirut, 1886.

Al-Afghani, Jamal al-Din and Muhammad Abduh.

Al-’Urwa al-Wuthqa , 65-128. Cairo, 1958.

Brockelmann, Gal. Tarikh al-Adab al-Arabi, transl. A.
Halim al-Najjar, vols. i and vi; vol. iii, 310-355. Cairo,
1983.

Halaf Allah, Ahmad, al- Qur’an wa Mushkilat Hayatina
al-Mu’asirah, 63-5. Cairo, 1967.

Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age,
1798-1939, 11, 46. Oxford, 1962.

Ibn Hazm. Al-Ihkam, ed. Ahmad Shakir, vol. i, 121-2; vol.
iv, 132 ff. Cairo, 1345/1927.

Ikbal, Muhammad. The Reconstruction of Religious
Thought in Islam, 89, 164. Oxford, UK, 1934.

Keddie, N.R. An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political
and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal al-Din Afghani.
Berkeley, 1968.

Kerr, M. Islamic Reform and the Political and Legal
Theories of Abduh and R. Rida, 179. Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 1966.

Kudsi Zadeh, A. Albert. Sayyid Jama l al-Din al-Afghani,
An Annotated Bibliography, 80. Leiden, 1970.

Merad, Ali. “Islah.” In Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. iv, 141,
167. Leiden: Brill, 1978. '

Rida, Rashid. Tafsir al-Manar, vols. i, x, xii. Cairo,
1353-1354.

Schacth, J. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, 122.
Oxford, UK, 1950.

Al-Shatibi. Al-I’tisam, ed. M. Rashid Rida, vol. i, 1-19.
Cairo, 1332.

Wensinck, A.J. al-Mujam al-Mufahras li-Alfaz al-Hadith
al-Nabawi , vol. viii, “slh.” Leiden, 1936-1969.

RENEWAL (TAJDID)

Tajdid is an Arabic word that means “renewal” and
that is usually coupled with din to mean “renewal of
the religion.” A similar but less common expression is
ihya’ al-din, which may be translated as “revival of
the religion.” Other phrases that occur less frequently
in the literature are ihya ’ al-sunna (revival of the
custom [of the Prophet]); tajdid al-islam (renewal of
Islam); and iqamat al-din (the [proper] establishment
of the religion). The “renewer” and the “reviver” of
the religion are referred to as mujaddid and muhyi
al-din, respectively.

These terms and their specific significances are
not to be found in the Qur’an, although the general
concepts of renewal and revival are part of Qur’anic
prophetology, according to which God sent various
prophets through time to various communities to
cleanse and revitalize the primordial religion of
Islam in the sense of submission to God. The concept
of tajdid and the term mujaddid come rather from
the famous hadith (tradition) recorded by Abu
Da’ud in his Sunan, one of the six authoritative
Sunni collections of the Prophet’s statements, in

which Muhammad foretells, “At the beginning [or
possibly end] of every [Islamic] century, [there will
come] someone who will renew the faith in it.” The
concept of tajdid is essentially an optimistic one,
expressing the belief that the religion is always capable
of regenerating itself through the insights and labors
of its most gifted and morally excellent adherents.

The first such designated mujaddid for the second
century by popular consensus (there is no formal
mechanism for such a designation) is the Umayyad
Caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (d. AH 101/720 CE),
who was lionized as the only righteous ruler among
the Umayyad coterie of perceived godless tyrants.
Every century since his time has henceforth been
assigned a renewer of the faith, who tended to be
drawn mainly from among the most prominent scho-
lars of the time and, less frequently, from among
pious rulers. Among scholars are the celebrated jurist
Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi‘i (d. 204/820), acknowl-
edged for his groundbreaking contributions to juris-
prudence, and, more famously, the theologian and
prolific author with Sufi leanings, al-Ghazali (d. 505/
1111); these men were acknowledged as the renewers
of the second and sixth centuries, respectively. The
latter is specifically given the title Muhyi al-Din, no
doubt because of his magnum opus entitled Ihya’
‘Ulum al-Din (The Revivification of the Religious
Sciences) and for his seminal role in making Sufi
thought part and parcel of the religious and intellec-
tual mainstream. Other religious scholars who have
been recognized as centennial renewers are al-Ash‘ari
(d. 324/935) and al-Baqillani (d. 403/1013), both stal-
wart defenders of Sunni orthodoxy during their time.
One source is of the opinion that the ‘Abbasid caliph
al-Ma’mun (d. 218/833) was the renewer of the second
century rather than al-Shafi‘i, but this is clearly a
minority opinion.

The Shi‘i have their own list of mujaddids that are
drawn from the descendants of the Prophet. Among
the Sufis, the Naqshbandiyya in particular have their
own tradition of mujaddids. It is from among this Sufi
order that the well-known Indian Muslim scholar
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1034/1624) emerged as
the acknowledged mujaddid of the eleventh century.
Sirhindi is called, in Persian, mujaddid-i alf thani
(renewer of the second millennium) and Imam-i Rab-
bani (the Divinely Appointed Leader). His disciples,
dispersed throughout Central Asia and Afghanistan,
are known as Mujaddidis, after the order established
by him.

The title of mujaddid al-din was sometimes coveted
by ambitious individuals, who tried to canvass for
themselves as the promised renewer of their centuries.
One such person who failed in this enterprise was
the scholar and jurisprudent Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti

678

RHETORIC

(d. 911/1505), who expressed hope in one of his works
that he would be awarded this title for the tenth
century. His irascible disposition and consequent
general unpopularity militated against this possibility.

The tradition has persisted to the present day. For
the thirteenth/nineteenth century, the erudite and
charismatic Egyptian reformer Muhammad ‘Abduh
(d. 1323/1905), who served as the rector of Sunni
Islam’s premier educational institution, al-Azhar
University in Cairo, is sometimes declared to be
the reviver of the faith, but this is not a universally
held opinion. So far, no one has emerged as the
undisputed renewer of the fourteenth/twentieth cen-
tury. The Iranian cleric and revolutionary Ayatullah
Khomeini’s (d. 1409/1989) name has been advanced
as a possible contender, but this has by no means
gained widespread recognition.

Asma Afsaruddin

Further Reading

Jansen, J.J.G. Art. “Tadjdid.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, New Edition, ed. P.J. Bearman et al., vol. 10,
61-2. Leiden and London, 2000.

Lazarus- Yafeh, Hava. “Tajdid al-Din: A Reconsideration
of Its Meaning, Roots and Influence in Islam.” In
Studies in Islamic and Judaic Traditions, eds. William
M. Brinner and Stephen D. Ricks. Atlanta, Ga, 1986.
Van Donzel, E. Art. “Mudjaddid.” In The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, New Edition, ed. C.E. Bosworth et al., vol. 7, 290.
Leiden and London, 1993.

Voll, John O. ‘‘Renewal & Reform in Islamic History:
Tajdid and Islah.” In Voices of Resurgent Islam, ed.
John L. Esposito, 32-47. New York and Oxford, 1983.

RHETORIC

An interest in rhetorical practice and theory has been
an aspect of Islamic civilization since its inception.
The Prophet Muhammad received his calling in a
cultural environment in which various kinds of verbal
arts, including poetry and oratory, were taken seri-
ously and held in high esteem, and the art of public-
speaking and oratory has played a very important
role in the history of Islam ever since. However, be-
cause the word rhetoric may have different meanings
in different contexts in Western languages, there is no
precise notional equivalent in Arabic. The closest
equivalents are al-balagha and al-khataba, which are
frequently used in compounds such as ‘ilm al-balagha
(the science of eloquence) and fann al-khataba (the art
of public speaking), respectively. 'Ilm al-balagha
parallels rhetoric in Western traditions in the sense
that it deals with tropes and figures of speech, thus
corresponding with what is called elocutio in Latin
rhetoric. In general, however, 'ilm al-balagha shows

little similarity with rhetoric in the sense of public
speaking and oratorical art. In this respect, fann
al-khataba is a closer counterpart to rhetoric.

To a significant degree, early preachers and orators
in Islam inherited their profession and position
in society from the pre-Islamic orator (khatib), sooth-
sayer (kahin), and poet (sha‘ir), and from traditions
of rhetoric current in the Near East in late antiquity
and the early Middle Ages. Speeches and sermons
attributed to leading personalities during the first cen-
turies of Islam — including the Prophet, the caliphs,
governors, generals, and others — were subsequently
recorded in writing and preserved in the classical
works of adab (edifying literature), such as the Kitab
al-Bayan wa-l-Tabyin of al-Jahiz (d. 868) and ‘Uyun
al-Akhbar by Ibn Qutayba (d. 889); in chronicles such
as The History of al-Tabari (d. 923); and, in the case of
Muhammad’s sermons, in the hadith literature and
biographies of the prophet. These recorded speeches
served as models for later orators. Another important
source in this respect, particularly in Shi‘i circles, was
the book Nahj al-Balagha, which purportedly
contained the speeches and letters of ‘Ali, the Pro-
phet’s son-in-law (d. 661). During subsequent centu-
ries, sermons by eloquent preachers and learned
scholars (‘ulama) were also preserved in writing to
form part of this corpus of exemplary models, which
have continued to exert an influence up to modern
times. Among the most important of these are
the collections attributed to the Hanbali scholar
‘Abd al-Rahman bin ‘Ali Abu ’1-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi
(d. 1200), who was also the author of a well-known
handbook for preachers and admonishers (see below).

Different names are applied to various kinds of
oratory or preaching in the sources: for example,
khutba (official sermon in the mosque, referring spe-
cifically to the Friday sermon), qasas (a “free” sermon
based on edifying narratives) and wa‘z (admonition,
exhortation). Although the term khutba tends to be
reserved for official preaching in the mosque by a
preacher (khatib) approved by the authorities, qasas
and wa‘z were applied to less-regulated kinds of
preaching. As such, the latter were the focus of
much controversy during the Middle Ages. Qasas
came under particular attack, because its practi-
tioners, the qussas, were accused of leading people
astray by transmitting false hadiths, thus creating
political turmoil and social unrest among the
ordinary people. Several well-known scholars contrib-
uted to this criticism, including Abu Hamid al-
Ghazali (d. 1111), who based his arguments on
those of Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996). More generally,
there was a tendency on the part of the scholarly
community to make a distinction between undesirable
forms of unofficial preaching (qasas) on the one hand

679

RHETORIC

and praiseworthy or at least tolerable forms of the
same practice (wa‘z) on the other. Although there
may be little difference between these genres in reality,
the term wa‘z thus came to be the preferred designa-
tion for a more respectable kind of “free” preaching,
whereas the term qasas fell into disrepute and
subsequently acquired the meaning of popular
“storytelling.” One example of a collection of sermons
that has been variously described as wa‘z or qasas is
al-Rawd al-Fa ‘iq ( The Splendid Garden ) , attributed to
Shu‘ayb al-Hurayfish (d. c. 1400).

The rhetorical science called ‘ilm al-balagha de-
veloped through exegetical as well as linguistic and
rhetorical practices. As a scholastic discipline, it ac-
quired a certain maturity during the thirteenth centu-
ry, epitomized in Talkhis al-Miftah (Epitome of the
Key ) and al-Idah ( The Clarification ) by Muhammad
bin ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Qazwini (1268-1338). Al-
Qazwini had important precursors, particularly ‘Abd
al-Qahir al-Jurjani (d. 1078) and Abu Ya‘qub Yusuf
al-Sakkaki (d. 1229). However, al-Qazwini provided
a systematic presentation of the subject that came to
be most influential during subsequent centuries, in-
cluding, for instance, the common tripartite division
of ‘ilm al-balagha into the following categories:
( 1 ) ‘ilm al-ma‘ani (the science of meanings); (2) ‘ilm
al-bayan (the science of clarification); and (3) ‘ilm
al-badi‘ (the science of embellishments). Although
the first of these may be seen as dealing with prag-
matic issues of language use, such as the distinction
between informative statements and performative
speech acts, the second concerns the use and inter-
pretation of metaphorical language to clarify rather
than obscure. The third is about the art of embellish-
ing an utterance with various modes of beautification,
including figures of meaning and figures of speech.

To a significant degree, the development of ‘ilm
al-balagha was shaped by theological concerns,
first and foremost the interpretation of the Qur’an.
Many of its illustrative cases and examples are taken
from the Qur’an, and there is a clear emphasis on
the possibility of reconstructing the intentions of the
speaker, who in the case of the Qur’an is God
Himself. For this reason, it might be argued that
‘ilm al-balagha is a hermeneutic discipline and an
auxiliary to Qur’anic exegesis rather than rhetoric
proper. Apart from this, various forms of rhetorical
theory and practice were cultivated by bureaucrats
and courtiers in more profane settings. In the bureau-
cracies and erudite circles of the caliphate, it was im-
portant to be able to master elegant prose as well as
poetry in the composition of official letters and docu-
ments. Over the centuries, handbooks and guides
were written about these subjects to serve a practical
purpose, including, for instance, the Subh al-a'Sha fi

Sina’at al-Insha’, al-Qalqashandi’s (d. 1418) famous
manual for bureaucrats and clerks in the Mamluk
administration. In addition, the art of public speaking
and oratory, including the art of preaching, was
discussed and practiced in terms of al-khataba rather
than al-balagha. The former was commented upon
theoretically by the medieval Muslim philosophers,
such as al-Farabi (Alfarabius; d. 950), Ibn Sina
(Avicenna; d. 1037), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes;
d. 1198), who treated it in the context of their studies
of the Aristotelian Organon (the corpus of texts deal-
ing with the various tools of logical reasoning to be
used in all the sciences). However, the philosophers
were not the only ones to take an interest in the art
of public speaking. Quite naturally, the subject of
al-khataba also attracted the attention of Muslim
preachers and theologians for other, more practical
reasons than those that motivated the philosophers.
The primary concern here was homiletic practice
(the preaching of religious truths and values) rather
than philosophical and logical debates. In addition to
the collections of sermons, a few books with rules and
guidelines for preachers have also survived from the
medieval period, such as ‘Ala’ al-Din Ibn al-‘Attar al-
Dimashqi’s (d. 1324) Kitab Adab al-Khatib ( The Book
of the Preacher’s Etiquette) and ‘Abd al-Rahman bin
‘Ali Abu’l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi’s (d. 1200) Kitab
al-Qussas wa-l-Mudhakkirin (The Book of the Story-
tellers/ Admonishers and Those Who Remind).

The medieval Muslim works of ‘ilm al-balagha,
like those devoted to the art of public speaking
(fann al-khataba), show significant similarities with
rhetoric as discussed and practiced in European tradi-
tions. Several concepts and notions are similar, such
as the distinction between figures of meaning and
figures of speech. With regard to the art of public
speaking proper (fann al-khataba), it should be
remembered that the translation into Arabic of the
Aristotelian Organon, including the book on rhetoric,
was a complex process that went through several
phases, from the early works based on Syriac transla-
tions of the editions current in late antiquity to
the final phase as represented in the scholarship of
Christian and Muslim Aristotelians in ‘Abbasid
Baghdad. The commentaries that were subsequently
composed by Muslim philosophers are important
contributions in the history of rhetoric: not only did
they provide the Muslim world with a knowledge of
Aristotelian rhetoric, they also came to have signi-
ficance in the West, where they were translated
into Fatin and provided with commentaries by Chris-
tian scholars during the later Middle Ages. This pro-
cess provided an important impetus to the cultural
development in Europe known as the Renaissance.

Philip Hallden

680

ROAD NETWORKS

Primary Sources

Aristotle. Ars Rhetorica: The Arabic Version, 2 vols., ed.
Malcolm C. Lyons. Cambridge: Pembroke Arabic Texts,
1982.

al-Farabi. Deux Ouvrages Ineclits sur la Retorique, eds.
Jacques Langhade and Mario Grignaschi. Beirut: Dar
El-Machreq, 1971.

al-Hurayfish, Shu’ayb. al-Rawd al-Fa‘iq fi’l-Mawa’iz
wa'l-Raqa’iq, ed. Khalil al-Mansur. Beirut: Dar al-
Kutub al-Tlmiyya, 1997.

Ibn al-‘Attar al-Dimashqi. Kitab Adab al-Khatib, ed.
Mohamed Ibn Hocine Esslimani. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb
al-Islami, 1996.

Ibn al-Jawzi. Kitab al-Qussas wa’l-Mudhakkirin, ed. Merlin
L. Swartz. Beirut: Dar El-Machreq Editeurs, 1971.

Ibn Rushd. Averroes’ Three Short Commentaries on Aristo-
tle’s ‘Topics,’ Rhetoric,’ and ‘Poetics’, ed. and transl.
Charles E. Butterworth. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press, 1977.

Ibn Sina. Al-Shifa’: al-Khatabah , vol. 1, pt. 8, rev. I, ed.

Muhammad Salim. Cairo: Imprimerie Nationale, 1954.
al-Qazwini, Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Rahman. Talkhis
al-Miftah fi’l-Ma'ani wa’l-Bayan wa’l-Badi‘. Cairo:
Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1938.

Further Reading

Berkey, Jonathan P. Popular Preaching & Religious Author-
ity in the Medieval Islamic Near East. Seattle and
London: University of Washington Press, 2001.

Black, Deborah. Logic and Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics
in Medieval Arabic Philosophy. Leiden and New York:
E.J. Brill, 1990.

Bohas, George, Jan-Patrick Guillaume, and Djamel Eddin
Kouloughli. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition. London
and New York: Routledge, 1990.

Butterworth, Charles E. “The Rhetorican and his Relation-
ship to the Community: Three Accounts of Aristotle’s
Rhetoric.” In Islamic Theology and Philosophy. Studies in
Honor of George F. Hourani, ed. Michael E. Marmura.
New York: State University of New York Press, 1984.
Hallden, Philip. “What is Arab Islamic Rhetoric? Rethink-
ing the History of Muslim Oratory Art and Homiletics.”
International Journal of Middle East Studies 37 (2005):
19-38.

Heinrichs, Wolfhart. “Poetik, Rhetorik, Literaturkritik,
Metrik und Reimlehre.” In Grundriss der Arabischen Phi-
lologie, vol. 2, ed. Helmut Gatje. Wiesbaden: Reichert,
1987.

Jenssen, Herbjorn. The Subtleties and Secrets of the Arabic
Language: Preliminary Investigations into al-Qazwini’s
Talkhis al-Miftah. Bergen: Centre for Middle Eastern
and Islamic Studies, 1998.

Larcher, Pierre. "Quand, en Arabe, on Parlait de l’Arabe. . .

(I) : Essai sur la Methodologie de l’Histoire des
‘Metalangages Arabes’.” Arabica 35 (1988): 117M2.

Larcher, Pierre. "Quand, en Arabe, on Parlait de l’Arabe. . .

(II) : Essai sur la Categorie de Isha ' (vs Khabar).” Arabica
38 (1991): 246-73.

Larcher, Pierre. "Quand, en Arabe, on Parlait de l’Arabe. . .

(III) : Grammaire, Logique, Rhetorique dans l’lslam
Post-classique.” Arabica 39 (1992): 358-84.

Larcher, Pierre. “Elements de Rhetorique Aristotelicienne
dans la Tradition Arabe Hors la Falsafa.” In Traditions

de I’Antiquite Classique , eds. Gilbert Dahan and Irene
Rosier-Catach. Paris: Vrin, 1998.

Larkin, Margaret. The Theology of Meaning: ‘Abd al-Qahir
al-Jurjani’s Theory of Discourse. New Haven, Conn:
American Oriental Society, 1995.

Mehren, August F. Die Rhetorik der Araber. Hildesheim,
New York: G. Olms, 1970 (1853).

Pedersen, Johs. “The Criticism of the Islamic Preacher.”
Die Welt des Islams II (1953): 215-31.

Simon, Udo Gerald. Mittelalterliche Arabische Sprachbe-
trachtung Zwischen Grammatik und Rhetorik: ‘ilm
al-Ma‘ani bei as-Sakkciki. Heidelberg: Heidelberger
Orient verlag, 1993.

Smyth, William. "Rhetoric and ‘Ilm al-Balagha: Christi-
anity and Islam.” The Muslim World LXXXII (1992):
242-55.

Swartz, Merlin L. “The Rules of the Popular Preaching in
Twelfth-Century Baghdad, According to Ibn al-Jawzi.”
In Preaching and Propaganda in the Middle Ages: Islam,
Byzantium, Latin West, eds. George Makdisi, Domi-
nique Sourdel, and Janine Sourdel-Thomine. Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1983.

Swartz, Merlin L. “Arabic Rhetoric and the Art of the
Homily in Medieval Islam.” In Religion and Culture in
Medieval Islam, eds. Richard Hovannisian and Geroges
Sabagh. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1999.

Wansbrough, J. 1968. “Arabic Rhetoric and Qur’anic
Exegesis.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies xxxi (1968): 469-85.

ROAD NETWORKS

The roads of the medieval Middle East were largely a
continuation of the preexisting road systems of the
Roman and Partho-Sasanian empires, which in turn
were often continuations of more ancient routes.
Although paved streets had existed in towns before
the Roman period, paved roads between settlements
were a Roman innovation. Under the Romans, the
development of the road network was dictated by mili-
tary and, to a lesser extent, commercial considerations.
During the Islamic period, the existing road system
was supplemented by new routes that were developed
to provide easy access to Mecca and Medina.

Principal Hajj routes ran from Damascus (Darb
al-Hajj al-Shami), Cairo (Darb al-Hajj al-Misri), and
Baghdad (Darb Zubayda), with subsidiary routes
from Yemen and Oman and trans-Saharan routes
from West Africa. The majority of these routes were
unpaved (except in places where they used preexisting
Roman roads), although they were provided with
facilities such as milestones, wells, cisterns (burak),
caravansaries, and mosques. The best-documented
route is the Darb Zubayda, which was constructed
by the ‘Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid during
the eighth century and which included palatial resi-
dences in addition to the usual facilities. The Syrian
pilgrimage route via Medain Saleh and Petra is of

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ROAD NETWORKS

the greatest antiquity and was of primary importance
during the Umayyad period and later under the
Ottomans. Some idea of the political importance
of this route can be gauged by the fact that the
‘Abbasid revolution was organized from Humayma,
a small town on the road midway between Damas-
cus and Medina. The Egyptian route via Aqaba/
Ayla is the least well-known route, although it
appears to have been the most important for much
of the Medieval Period, when it was used by the
Mamluk sultans.

There is little evidence that major new roads were
constructed during the Islamic period, although
improvements were made to existing routes, such as
the construction of bridges, rock cut passes, and the
provision of milestones. One of the earliest known
examples of road improvements is a rock cut pass
near Lake Tiberias in Palestine, which is recorded
on a milestone (now in the Israel Museum) dated to
the reign of the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik.
Other examples of rock cut passes include two at
Aqaba/Ayla: one on the Arabian side dated to the
tenth century and one on the Egyptian side dated to
the Mamluk period.

Numerous bridges are known both through histor-
ical sources and through archaeology. Bridges were of
two types: arched masonry structures (qantara) and
wooden floating structures (jisr). The former were
used for rivers of limited span, whereas the latter
were used on wide rivers or where there was a signifi-
cant variation in seasonal water levels. Often caravan-
saries or khans were located next to bridges, such as
at al-Harba south of Samarra in Iraq and at Lajjun in
Palestine. Rivers also functioned as routes in their
own right; the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided
important links between Anatolia and the [Persian]
Gulf, just as the Nile connected upper Egypt with the
Mediterranean.

One innovation of the Islamic period was the
increased use of camels for transport (c.f. Bulliet),
which opened up trans-desert routes for commercial
use but which also meant that roads did not have to
be maintained to the same standards that were needed
for wheeled vehicles. There was, however, some reviv-
al of wheeled transport in the eastern Islamic world
during the thirteenth century, when the Mongols
established an imperial road network.

Also during the thirteenth century, the Mamluk
rulers of Egypt and Syria revived and improved the
postal routes of early Islamic times. The revival took
place in two stages. During the first phase, the route
was provided with khans that could be used both by
the members of the official postal service and by
merchants traveling the route. During the later peri-
od, special postal stations were built where horses and

riders could be exchanged. The most important route
was the road linking Cairo with Damascus, the
so-called Via Maris, which was provided with a num-
ber of bridges, the most famous of which is Jisr Jindas
in Palestine, which carries carvings of panthers. Other
routes included a special road into the Lebanon
mountains to bring ice to Damascus.

As in other cultures, settlements often developed
around road systems. Thus, the caliphal city of
Samarra was built along a main arterial route leading
north from Baghdad to Mosul. Similarly, the city of
Ramla in Palestine, founded during the early eighth
century, was built at the intersection of the Cairo-
Damascus route (Via Maris) and the Jaffa-Jerusalem
roads.

Andrew Petersen

See also Hajj; Silk Roads; Travel; Transport; Ibn
Khurradadhbih; Yaqut

Primary Sources

Ibn Khudadhbih. al-Mcisalik wa-l-Mamalik (The Book of
Routes and Provinces) .

Further Reading

Birks, J.S. Across the Savannas to Mecca: The Overland
Pilgrimage Route from West Africa. London, 1978.
Petersen, A.D. “Early Ottoman Forts on the Darb al-Hajj.”
Levant 21 (1989): 97-118.
al-Rashid, S.A. Darb Zubayda. Riyadh, 1980.

Sauvaget, Jean. “Les Caravanserais Syriens du Hadjdj de
Constantinople.” Ars Islamica 4 (1937).

. La Poste aux Chevaux dans V Empire des Mame-

louks. Paris: Adrien-Maisoneuve, 1941.

ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND
LITERATURES OF IBERIA

For centuries after the settlement of Muslims in parts
of the Iberian Peninsula (beginning in 711 CE), the
vernacular literature produced by Christians in Spain
displayed various signs of cross-fertilization with
Arabic. Contact with Arabic occurred not only
through actual Muslim kingdoms on the peninsula
but also through Muslim minorities living at different
times under Christian rule. There is much debate
today, especially among Hispanists, regarding the
extent of the influences brought about by this contact.
Although some consider the role of Islamic civiliza-
tion central to the literary history of medieval Spain,
others interpret it as a marginal detail; other opinions
cover the vast range in between. To consider the
nature of the contact between Arabic and Romance
literatures, one naturally has to raise questions about

682

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the appropriate ways to gauge how one culture
affects another and what the actual definition of influ-
ence is; such issues are increasingly being addressed by
scholars.

Attention must be paid to the fact that the lan-
guages of the Iberian Peninsula are not limited to
Castilian (commonly referred to as Spanish): Basque
(not a Romance language), Catalan, and Gallego-
Portuguese enjoy a rich heritage in the literary history
of Spain. However, because of its frequent contact
with Muslim communities, Castile appears to show
the stamp of encounter more visibly.

Certain facts about the interaction between Castil-
ian literature and the cultural world of Islam are
clear. Castilian contains numerous words of Arabic
origin. In the realm of nonfiction, the constant move-
ment of Arabic medical, philosophical, and scientific
treatises into the vernacular, enabled by events such
as the massive translation projects of King Alfonso X
of Castile (r. 1252-1284 CE), embedded Arabic terms
into Castilian vocabulary and even syntax, much of
which is visible today.

In the realm of fiction, literature produced in
Castilian by Christian authors of the Middle Ages
provides evidence of intimate engagement with the
Islamicate cultures that coexisted on the Peninsula
for centuries. The tradition of prose narrative in
Castilian was enriched by translations or close retell-
ings from Arabic and other non-Western languages
(e.g., the tales of Kalila and Dimna). The didactic
narratives of Don Juan Manuel (14 CE) and Petrus
Alfonsus (12 CE) show ample evidence of Indian,
Persian, and Arabic sources, among others. The
early popular lyric of Castilian, often expressing the
laments of a young lovesick girl, is injected with
Arabic words and metrical sensibilities.

The question of Arabic poetics as an integral part
of Castilian literary history becomes more complex in
cases in which the works being studied are no longer
obvious retellings or translations. Here, scholarship
is divided with regard to the Western or Eastern
derivation of medieval masterpieces such as Juan
Ruiz’s El Libro de Buen Amor (c. 1330 CE), Fernando
de Rojas’ La Celestina (1499 CE), and mystical poet-
ry. Much debate has been generated by questions of a
strong Islamic versus Western and Latin presence in
the motifs, patterns of composition, and general
thematics in these and other works. No consensus
has been achieved, but a useful discussion about the
nature of the fundamental hybridity of Spanish
culture — transcending mere categories of Eastern or
Western identification — has been generated. At the
same time, increasing attention is being paid to
Spain’s intricate ties to Islamic civilization.

Leyla Rouhi

See also Folk Literature, Arabic; Kalila wa Dimna;

European Literature, Perception of Islam

Further Reading

Brann, Ross, ed. Languages of Power in Islamic Spain.
Bethesda, Md: CDL Press, 1997.

Cacho Blecua, Juan Manuel, and Maria Jesus Lacarra, eds.
Calila e Dimna. Madrid: Castalia, 1984.

Castro, Americo. De la Edad Conflictiva. Madrid: Taurus,
1961.

Constable, Olivia Remie, ed. Medieval Iberia: Readings
from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources. Philadel-
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

Hook, David, and Barry Taylor, eds. Cultures in Contact in
Medieval Spain: Historical and Literary Essays Presented
to L.P. Harvey. London: King’s College Medieval
Studies, 1990.

Khadra Jayussi, Salma, ed. The Legacy of Muslim Spain.
Leiden: Brill, 1992.

Lopez Baralt, Luce. Huellas del Islam en la Litercitura Espa-
hola: de Juan Ruiz a Juan Goytisolo. Madrid: Hiperion,
1985.

Marquez Villanueva, Francisco. “The Alfonsine Cultural
Concept.” In Alfonso X of Castile: The Learned King
(1221-1284 ): An International Symposium: Harvard
University 17 November 1984, eds. Francisco Marquez
Villanueva and Carlos Alberto Vega, 76-109. Cam-
bridge, Mass: Department of Romance Languages,
Harvard University, 1990.

Menocal, Maria Rosa. Shards of Love: Exile and the
Origins of the Lyric. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 1994.

Rouhi, Leyla. “Trotaconventos, Dona Garoga and the
Dynamics of Dialectical Reasoning in the Libro de Buen
Amor." Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 76 (1999): 21-33.

Smith, Colin. Christians and Moors in Spain, 3 vols.
Warminster: Aris and Philips, 1988.

ROSEWATER

The manufacture of rosewater (ma’ al-ward or ma’
ward; sometimes contracted to maward) was an
important industry with centers in Damascus, Jur
(in Fars, southern Iran), and other places, including
Muslim Spain. An historian of the early tenth cen-
tury, quoting a document from the time of Harun al-
Rashid (r. 786-809), mentions that the caliphs in
Baghdad used to receive thirty thousand flasks of
rosewater from Fars annually. The technique of its
distillation using steam or hot air ovens is described in
several medieval treatises; sublimation was another
method used.

Rosewater was normally made from red roses (the
damask rose was particularly popular) using fresh or
dried petals, and it was usually blended with herbs
and aromatic substances such as saffron, musk, or
camphor. It was used medicinally: it was deemed
good for the stomach and the eyes and was used for

683

ROSEWATER

a variety of diseases. It was also very popular in dishes
and lotions, as a refreshing ingredient and a scent,
and it was used as a mouthwash, a deodorant, and in
ointments. Rosewater could, by vaporization, be
turned into a scented powder, which could be
used in various ways. Julanjabin (from the Persian
gol-angabin [rose honey]) was a kind of preserve
made from roses and honey.

Rosewater is included among the ingredients of
countless recipes in, for instance, the anonymous
Arabic Mamluk cookery book Kanz al-Fawa’id fi
Tanwi’ al-Mawa’id (The Treasure-Trove of Things
Delicious for the Diversification of the Table’s Dishes).
The same source also gives recipes for various kinds
of rosewater. These may differ in color (i.e., pale, red,
or glaucous), provenance (i.e., from Jur, Damascus,
Nasibin, or Persia), or composition (i.e., with saffron
and musk, with camphor and musk). The Persian
word for rosewater, gol-ab, adopted in Arabic as
jullab (sometimes julab), was in turn borrowed by
many European languages as julep, in the meantime
acquiring the sense of various kinds of sweet drink.
The popularity of rosewater is not unconnected with

the greet esteem in which the rose, chief of flowers,
was held; this is obvious, for instance, from the count-
less poems in Arabic (at least in Islamic times) and
even more in Persian, in which the rose is associated
with love. Strange though it may seem, the Arabic
word for roses, ward, the Persian/Turkish gol/gtil, and
the several European words (Greek rhodon; English
rose ) are all related etymologically, going back to an
Old Iranian word.

Geert Jan van Gelder

Further Reading

al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. and Donald R. Hill. Islamic Technol-
ogy: An Illustrated History, 140-3. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Johnstone, Penelope C. "Ward.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition, vol. 11, 144-5. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Rodinson, Maxime, A.J. Arberry, and Charles Perry. Me-
dieval Arab Cookery. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books,
2001 .

Sanagustin, F. “Ma’ al-Ward.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam,
New Edition, Supplement, fasc. 7-8. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

684

SA ADYAH GAON

Born in Egypt in 882 CE, Sa‘adyah ben Joseph
al-Fayyumi emigrated to Palestine around the begin-
ning of the tenth century, studying with a leading
Hebraist in Tiberias before migrating to Iraq. His
incisive mind, erudition, and forceful personality
were early apparent and his intervention on behalf
of Iraqi Jewish authorities in a calendar dispute with
the Palestinian Jewish leadership (921-922) brought
him wide recognition. In 928, the Exilarch, or Head of
the Babylonian Jewish community, David ben Zakkai,
appointed him Gaon (Head) of the Yeshiva (academy)
of Sura in Baghdad. Within two years, however,
Sa'advah and the Exilarch became embroiled in a
politico-economical dispute that quickly escalated
into a community-wide affair, with each side issuing
bans of excommunication. When reconciliation be-
tween the parties was effected some six years later,
Sa'adya again became the undisputed Gaon of Sura,
continuing in this post until his death in 942.

Styled “the first and foremost of scholars every-
where” by the twelfth-century polymath Abraham
Ibn Ezra, Sa‘adyah pioneered many disciplines. Im-
mersed from an early age in such traditional Jewish
subjects as Bible and Talmud, he was also well versed
in Muslim and Christian scholarship. Indeed, his
greatest innovation was to synthesize many different
areas of Jewish and Arabic learning. Impressed by
Arab grammarians, he composed the first Hebrew
lexicon, Sefer ha- Egron (902) and wrote a pioneering
work on Hebrew grammar, Kutub aJ-Lugha ( Books of
the Language) , which bears the imprint of Arabic
linguistic theory. He translated the Bible into Arabic

to make it more accessible to Jewish readers; noted
for its idiomatic qualities, this translation (Ar. tafsir)
served as the basis for numerous other Arabic
versions, some of them Christian. Sa‘adyah also
wrote Arabic commentaries on many, if not all, of
the books of the Bible. These commentaries, which
have only survived in part, are notable for their long,
programmatic introductions, their attention to the-
matic and structural issues, and their incorporation
of Arabic exegetical terminology. A gifted liturgical
poet, he also edited the Jewish prayer book. Sa‘adyah
tirelessly defended rabbinic Judaism, polemicizing
against the Karaites, a Jewish sect that denied the
authority of the Oral Tradition, and refuting the
freethinker, Haywayhi of Balkh (ninth century).
Sa‘adyah’s chef d’oeuvre is his Kitab al-amanat wa’l-
Vtiqadat (Book of Doctrines and Beliefs), composed
toward the end of his life. One of the earliest Jewish
works of systematic theology, it is firmly grounded in
the Bible and rabbinic literature on the one hand, and
the Mu‘tazilite kalam on the other, while incorpo-
rating certain philosophical doctrines. From the out-
set, Sa'adyah argues that knowledge is grounded in
revelation and reason, and that these two sources are
complementary. The book covers such topics as
creation, the proof of God’s existence and unity, di-
vine revelation, divine command and prohibition,
obedience to God and rebellion, human merits and
demerits, the essence of the soul and the afterlife,
resurrection, redemption, reward and punishment,
and ethics. It was translated into Hebrew by Judah
Ibn Tibbon (Provence, 1186).

Daniel Frank

685

SA‘ADYAH GAON

See also Baghdad; Freethinkers; Hebrew; Judeo-
Arabic; Kalam; Polemics and Disputation; Scriptural
Exegesis, Jewish

Primary Sources

Gaon, Sa‘adyah. The Book of Belie fs and Opinions. Transl.
Samuel Rosenblatt. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1948.

Sa‘adyah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi. The Book of Theodicy:
Translation and Commentary on the Book of Job. Transl.
L.E. Goodman. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1988.

Further Reading

Brody, Robert. The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping
of Medieval Jewish Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1998.

Malter, Henry. Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works. New
York: Hermon Press, 1969.

Stroumsa, Sarah. “Saadya and Jewish Kalam.'’ In The Cam-
bridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, eds.
D.H. Frank and O. Leaman, 71-90. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2003.

SACRED GEOGRAPHY

Sacred geography refers to notions of the world
centered on the Ka'ba in Mecca [q.v.] with the specific
purpose of finding the qibla [q.v.], or direction toward
the Ka'ba, without any calculation whatsoever, that
is, with the framework of folk science. It is quite dis-
tinct from the Islamic tradition of mathematical geog-
raphy [q.v.], in which the qibla was calculated from
available geographical coordinates using a complicat-
ed trigonometric formula. Sacred geography was de-
veloped by Muslim scholars working exclusively in the
folk astronomical tradition.

Some twenty different schemes of this kind of sa-
cred geography — sometimes beautifully illustrated in
manuscripts, sometimes described in words — are
known from some thirty different medieval sources.
In most of the illustrations, the Ka'ba is accentuated
and its various features identified. The world is
divided in sectors around the Ka‘ba that are defined
by specific segments of its perimeter. The qiblas for
each sector are then defined in terms of specific astro-
nomical horizon phenomena, such as the risings and
settings of the sun and various qibla-stars. In some
schemes the qibla is defined in terms of the winds,
whose limits were defined in Islamic folklore in terms
of such horizon phenomena.

This tradition began in Baghdad in the ninth
century. It was particularly popular in the medieval
Yemen, not least because a faqih of Basra of Yemeni
origin named Ibn Suraqa proposed three serious

schemes with eight, eleven, and twelve sectors around
the Ka'ba. In various later works, such as the geo-
graphical writings of Yaqut (Syria ca. 1200 CE ) and
al-Qazwini (Iraq ca. 1250), the information on the
qibla in twelve sectors, sometimes eleven, is sup-
pressed. In yet later works, such as the nautical atlas
of Ahmad al-Sharafi al-Safaqusi (Tunis ca. 1550)
and various other Ottoman compilations, forty or
seventy-two sectors are uniformly distributed on a
ring around the Ka‘ba with no specific qibla values.

Underlying all of these schemes is the notion that
to face the Ka'ba in any region of the world, one
should face the same direction in which one would
be standing if one were directly in front of the appro-
priate segment of the perimeter of the Ka'ba. Since
that sacred edifice is itself aligned in astronomically
significant directions, the directions adopted by the
legal scholars for the qibla were toward the risings
and settings of the sun at the equinoxes or the sol-
stices or of various significant qibla stars. The astro-
nomical orientation of the Ka'ba — major axis aligned
with the rising of Canopus, and minor axis toward
summer sunrise and winter sunset — is implicit in
statements about the directions of the winds by a
series of medieval Muslim scholars.

The various directions adopted for the qibla in
these schemes would necessarily be different from
the qiblas that were calculated by the Muslim astron-
omers. Indeed, the various qibla directions proposed
in the medieval sources account for the wide range of
orientations of religious architecture in each region of
the Muslim world.

David A. King

Further Reading

Newman, forthcoming.

SAINTS AND SAINTHOOD,

CHRISTIAN

The rapid Arab conquest of the eastern Byzantine
provinces and the Sasanian empire resulted in the
acquisition of vast territories that, over the course of
the preceding centuries, had been mapped by the lives
and deaths of Christian saints. The landscape was
dotted with monasteries, churches, and shrines
where apostles, martyrs, and a variety of holy men
and women were remembered, their remains vener-
ated, and their patronage and intercession sought.
Itineraries of pilgrimage connected many of the
dots. Already in the late fourth century CE, the West-
ern pilgrim Egeria visited not only what was being
constructed as a Christian “Holy Land” in Palestine,
but also monastic sites in Egypt and Sinai — Edessa
with its martyrion of the apostle Thomas, and the
shrine of the martyr Thecla in Seleucia. The two
centuries that followed were a period of intense
church building and of growth in the cult of the
martyrs, which is to some extent reflected in the
account of the “Piacenza Pilgrim” (ca. 570): In addi-
tion to his visit to the biblical sites in Palestine, he
reports an excursion south and west (to Mt. Sinai, the
cave of Paul, the first hermit near the Red Sea, the
pilgrimage center of the martyr Menas outside of
Alexandria, and the church of the evangelist and

martyr Mark in Alexandria itself), and another
north and east (to Antioch and its martyrs, the shrine
of the martyr Bacchus at Barbalissus, and nearly to
the frontier shrine of the martyr Sergius at Rusafa).

The Qur’an itself alludes to stories of Christian
saints and martyrs whose commemoration contri-
buted to the construction of this Christian sacred
geography. Surat al-Buruj (85) refers to the martyred
“men of the pit,” probably the Christians massacred
by Dhu Nawas around 520 in Najran in South
Arabia. Their martyrion became a pilgrimage center
that, for a time, rivaled Mecca to the north. Surat
al-Kahf (18) presents a version of the legend of the
Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, whose cult spread through
the Islamic world as well as the Christian world. Of
course, a large number of biblical figures appear
prominently in the Qur’an, including Jesus Christ,
the Virgin Mary, and John the Baptist.

The Christian map of holiness underwent continu-
al reconfiguration under Islamic rule. Not all shrines
fared well, however. The Christian community of
Najran was uprooted under the caliph ‘Umar, while
the Church of St. John the Baptist in Damascus
was converted into a mosque under the Umayyad
caliph al-Walid. At the shrine of St. Sergius in Rusafa,
however, a mosque was constructed alongside the
existing Christian buildings. While some pilgrimage
centers suffered slow decline because of changing
political and demographic realities, new cults sprang
up, as they continue to do in the present day.

At the time of the Arab conquest, the Christian
communities that suddenly found themselves within
the Dar al-Islam all possessed extensive hagio-
graphical literatures in their original languages
(Syriac, Greek, Coptic, and others). These literatures
continued to grow after the Arab conquest, but with
the passage of time many Christians came to adopt
the Arabic language. In a process that began in the
monasteries of Palestine in the eighth century, many
Lives and Martyrdoms were translated into Arabic,
while others were composed directly in that language.
In some communities the Lives and Martyrdoms
of the principal saints were collected together, in
abbreviated form, in synaxaria that served their
daily commemoration in the liturgy.

The hagiographical literatures of the Christian
dhimmi communities were enriched by the stories of
the neomartyrs, Christians who were executed by
Muslim authorities while confessing their Christian
faith; the grounds for execution are normally apostasy
front Islam, converting others from Islam, or invective
preaching against Islam. A particularly rich literature
of this kind, much of it composed in Arabic, sprang
up in the Melkite communities of Syria and Palestine
in the early Islamic centuries. The phenomenon of

688

SALADIN, OR SALAH AL-DIN

voluntary martyrdom sometimes found in these
stories was controversial among Christians and
puzzling to Muslims. Occasionally, voluntary martyr-
doms would come in waves, as in the case of the
“martyrs of Cordoba” during the 850s, or the Forty-
Nine Martyrs in Egypt during the patriarchate of
Matthew I (1378-1408). Such phenomena must be
interpreted against a background of rapid Arabization
and/or Islamization.

The example of the martyrs, old and new, was an
important element in preaching and catechesis that
urged Christians to cling to their faith, regardless of
the consequences. The hagiographical production of
the Christian churches under Islam, however, was by
no means restricted to stories of martyrs. Floly men
and women regularly emerged from communities that
eagerly recognized them as “saints” — one notes the
informality of the process — and that recorded and
read their Lives and Miracles. Some of these saints
were consulted by Muslim authorities and notables,
and on occasion played the role of mediator between
them and the Christian community. The Coptic
synaxarion records, for example, that Barsum the
Naked (d. 1317) had a role in persuading the Mamluk
sultan al-Nasir Muhammad to reopen the churches of
Cairo, after he had ordered them closed in 1301.

It will be apparent that the commemoration of the
saints (including the regular retelling of their stories,
visiting their shrines, and participating in their feasts)
was an important element in forming and reinforcing
the specific identities of Christian communities over
their Islamic environment. At the same time, the cult
of saints and martyrs could be a meeting place for
Christians and Muslims. The sharp edges of particu-
lar figures could blur, as when the martyrs Sergius
and George were confused not only with one another
but also with the mysterious Qur’anic figure Khidr. In
many places, Christians and Muslims were ready to
seek healing and protection wherever it could be
found, whether from Christian or from Islamic saints.
From early in the Islamic period to the present day,
the annual festivals of certain much-beloved saints
have been fairlike events at which Christians and
Muslims alike have sought entertainment, as well as
blessing.

Mark N. Swanson

See also Apostasy; Christians and Christianity;
Churches, Coptic; Copts; Dhimma; Greek; Syriac;
Seven Sleepers

Further Reading

Fowden, Elizabeth Key. The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius

between Rome and Iran. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and

London: University of California Press, 1999.

Frankfurter, David, ed. Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late
Antique Egypt. Leiden, Boston, and Koln: Brill, 1998.

Graf, Georg. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Litera-
tur, I: Die Ubersetzungen [The History of Arabic
Christian Literature, I: Translations ]. Vatican City: Bib-
lioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944, esp. part four,
“Hagiographie.”

Griffith, Sidney H. “Christians, Muslims, and Neo-
Martyrs: Saints’ Lives and Holy Land History.” In
Sharing the Sacred: Religious Contacts and Conflicts in
the Holy Land, First-Fifteenth Centuries CE. Ed. Arieh
Kofsky and Guy G. Stroumsa, 163-207. Jerusalem: Yad
Izhak Ben Zvi, 1998.

Hoyland, Robert G. Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A
Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroas-
trian Writings on Early Islam. Princeton: The Darwin
Press, 1997, esp. Chap. 9, “Martyrologies.”

Meinardus, Otto F.A. Coptic Saints and Pilgrimages. Cairo
and New York: The American University in Cairo Press,
2002 .

O’Leary, De Lacy. The Saints of Egypt in the Coptic
Calendar. London and New York: Church Historical
Society, 1937. Reprint, Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1974.

Segal, J.B. Edessa, "the Blessed City. ” Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1970. Reprint, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias,
2001 .

Swanson, Mark N. “The Martyrdom of ‘Abd al-Masih,
Superior of Mount Sinai (Qays al-Ghassani).” In Syrian
Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years, edited
by David Thomas, 107-129. Leiden, Boston, and Koln:
Brill, 2001.

Wilkinson, John. Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades.
Warminster, England: Aris and Phillips, 1977.

Wolf, Kenneth B. Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1988.

SALADIN, OR SALAH AL-DIN

Salah al-Din Yusuf b. Ayyub (d. 1193 CE) was a
Kurdish warrior who established the Ayyubid confed-
eration that dominated Egypt, Syria, and the Jazira
(upper Iraq) from the late twelfth to the mid-thir-
teenth centuries. The career of Saladin (as his name
was rendered by Europeans) was marked by concert-
ed military campaigns against the Crusader states of
the Syrian littoral. These military activities culmi-
nated in his decisive victory over Crusader forces at
the Horns of Hattin on July 4, 1187, which brought
about the near elimination of the Frankish states
centered around Jerusalem, Tripoli, and Antioch.

Little is known of Saladin’s early life. His father
Ayyub (the Arabic form of the prophetic name Job)
was for a time in the military service of Zangi
(d. 1146), the Turkish military leader who controlled
Mosul and Aleppo. In 1152, at age fourteen, Saladin
joined his uncle Shirkuh in Aleppo in the service of
Zangi’s son, Nur al-Din. Nur al-Din had emerged
by then as the most powerful figure of the Muslim
opposition to the Crusader states. When the Fatimid

689

SALAD1N, OR SALAH AL-DIN

caliphate of Egypt was troubled with succession
struggles and threatened by several Frankish inva-
sions, Nur al-Din sent armies under the command
of Shirkuh to aid the Fatimids. Saladin accompanied
his uncle, and thus was in Egypt when Shirkuh died
in 1169. Taking advantage of the internal chaos of
the Fatimid state, Saladin took control of Egypt, first
as a vizier of the Fatimids and subsequently, in 1171,
by displacing the Fatimids and ruling in the name of
his sovereign, Nur al-Din. Saladin’s relations with
Nur al-Din grew strained, however, and when the
latter died in 1174, Saladin quickly marched to
Damascus to take that city from Nur al-Din’s heirs.
By May 1175, Saladin was invested by the ‘Abbasid
Caliph al-Mustadi’ (r. 1170-1180) as the Sultan of
Egypt and Syria. Over the next decade, Saladin’s
forces were frequently engaged with fighting the
Franks. Saladin was also concerned, however, with
solidifying his rule (by 1175 he had survived two
assassination attempts) and expanding the land
under his control. In 1183, Aleppo submitted to
him, and in 1186, Mosul recognized him as well.
Flaving thus brought the collective resources of
Egypt, Bilad al-Sham (Syria), and the Jazira under
his control, Saladin renewed his efforts against the
Crusaders. His campaign in the summer of 1187
resulted in the surrender of Jerusalem three months
after his victory at Hattin. Saladin’s subsequent cam-
paigns left the Crusader states reduced to the coastal
enclaves of Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli.

Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem resulted in the call
for the Third Crusade in Europe. Those Crusader
forces, including Kings Richard I of England and
Phillip II of France, arrived on the Syrian coastal
plain in the summer of 1191. While Phillip soon de-
parted, over the next year Richard’s forces engaged
those of Saladin in a series of military maneuvers.
Two Crusader marches on Jerusalem failed, yet the
two significant battles — at Arsuf in 1191 and Jaffa in
1192 — resulted in Frankish victories. A truce was
negotiated between Saladin and Richard in September
1192, and Richard left the Levant a month later, the
Third Crusade having thus expanded and strength-
ened the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem so weakened
by Saladin in 1187-1189. Saladin died a few months
later in March 1193. His Ayyubid relatives who suc-
ceeded him in control of Egypt and Syria were unable
to duplicate his degree of success against the Franks.

The life of Saladin has resonated for many audi-
ences since his death. Members of his administration
penned biographies celebrating his achievements, and
eulogists commemorated him as the epitome of a
mujahid fi sabil allah, a fighter for the cause of God.
A dissenting view, however, is found in the works
of Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233), who wrote in the service of

Nur al-Din’s descendants displaced by Saladin. His
struggles against Richard became the stuff of chivalry
in medieval Europe and the fodder for Sir Walter
Scott’s historical fiction in the nineteenth century.
More significantly, Saladin’s unification (forcibly or
otherwise) of the Muslim lands surrounding the
Crusader states, as well as his success against those
states, are major reasons why he has been celebrated
by many subsequent Muslim authors and rulers, and
his example has been appropriated into the ideas of
twentieth-century Arab nationalism and contem-
porary Islamist thought. Within modern Western
scholarship about Saladin, a dissenting interpretation
of his achievements is found in the biography by
Ehrenkreutz.

Warren C. Schultz

See also ‘Abbasids; Ayyubids; Caliph; Fatimids; Nur
al-Din; Sultan

Primary Sources

Ibn Shaddad, Baha’ al-Din. The Rare and Excellent History
of Saladin. Transl. D.S. Richards. Crusade Texts in
Translation 7. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2001.
Al-Maqrizi. A History of the Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt.
Transl. R.J.C. Broadhurst. Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1980.

Further Reading

Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. Saladin. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1972.

Gibb, H.A.R. The Life of Saladin. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1973.

Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.

Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.

Lyons, Malcolm Cameron, and D.E.P. Jackson. Saladin:
The Politics of Holy War. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1982.

SALMAN AL-FARISI

Salman al-Farisi was a Persian companion of
Muhammad who plays a large role in the self-image
of the nascent Shi‘i, and later a cosmic role for some
of the ghulat extremists; little is known about his life
before his arrival in Medina. Hagiographies describe
his provenance from a courtly family in Isfahan, who
dissatisfied with the religion of his ancestors sought
the “true” religion. This account may have some
roots in the religious conflicts of the later Sasanian
period in which Mazdaian orthodoxy was under
threat. Having tried out other religious options such
as Nestorian Christianity in Iran, Mosul, and Chalcis,
Salman was sold as a slave into Arabia, where he
ended up in Medina. Meeting the Prophet, he became

690

SAMANIDS

a Muslim, recognizing the seal of prophecy on
Muhammad’s back. He later became famous as the
one who devised the strategy of building a ditch
(khandaq) to defend Medina.

After the death of the Prophet, he was a staunch
supporter of the rights of 'Ali and was regarded as
one of the four pillars of the early Shi‘i. The Prophet
is reported to have honored him by describing him as
a member of his family. Following Abu Bakr’s selec-
tion at Saqifa Bani Sa‘ida, he was reported to have
said to the Quraysh, “kardid o nakardid” (“They have
selected a successor to the Prophet but failed to
recognize the true successor, ‘Ali”). This phrase is a
key example of New Persian fragments in early
Islamic texts. Popular Twelver tradition commemor-
ates his death on AH 9 Safar 35/17 August 655 CE. In
some forms of later extremist Shi‘ism, Salman became
the part of the tripartite divine hypostasis, along with
Muhammad and ‘Ali.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

See also Abu Bakr; ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib; Islam;
Muhammad; Shi‘ism

Primary Source

Ibn Ishaq. Sir at Rasul Allah [The Life of Muhammad] .
Transl. A. Guillaume. Karachi: Oxford University
Press, 1955, 95-98.

Further Reading

Crone, P. “Kavad’s Heresy and Mazdak’s Revolt.” Iran 29
(1991): 21-42.

Kosky, A., and M. Bar-Asher. The ‘Alawi-Nusayri Religion.
Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Massignon, L. Salman Pak et les premices spirituelles de
Vislam iranien. Tours: Arrault et die, 1934.

Stroumsa, G.G. “Seal of the Prophets: The Nature of a
Manichean Metaphor.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic
and Islam 1 (1986): 61-74.

SAMANIDS

The Samanids were a semiautonomous eastern
Iranian dynasty, based in Bukhara, that ruled Trans-
oxiana, Khurasan, Tabaristan, and Tukharistan bet-
ween 819 and 999 CE. They are largely recognized for
ushering in the New Persian linguistic and literary
renaissance of the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Dynastic History

The origins and early history of the Samanids
as familial governors of Transoxiana on behalf of

‘Abbasid Baghdad are far from clear, but most near-
contemporary historians are fond of repeating the
tradition that Saman-Khuda — a prominent dihqan
(Iranian noble landowner) and eponymous founder
of this governorial dynasty — was a direct descendant
of the Sasanian hero-cum-general Bahram Chubin.
It would appear that Saman-Khuda and his son,
Asad, served the ‘Abbasid authorities efficiently in
Transoxian, and in recognition of their campaigns
against local rebels, a number of prestigious posts in
the region were appointed to the four sons of Asad:
Nuh received Samarqand; Ahmad was appointed to
Farghana; Yahya received control of Shash; and Ilyas
was granted the city of Herat. It would appear that
Samanid control of the southern reaches of Herat
could not contend with the rise of another local re-
gional power, the Saffarids under Ya’qub al-Laith,
and Ilyas was defeated and captured in 867. By 875,
Ahmad’s son, Nasr I, was more or less the sole gover-
nor of all of Transoxiana, a reality that was ceremo-
nially acknowledged by the ’Abbasid caliph in 875
when he named Nasr as governor of the region.
Samanid control of the region extended to Bukhara
thanks to the campaigns of Nasr’s brother, Isma’il,
but fraternal civil war soon ensued. By 892, Isma’il
had displaced Nasr as the sole Samanid governor of
Transoxiana. The emergence of a centralized Sama-
nid state with a lively court culture, consistent
bureaucracy, and efficient provincial administrations
is typically dated to the reign of Isma’il (892 — 907).
This might be at least partially rationalized by the fact
that Isma’il is touted by later scholars — most notably
Nizam al-Mulk — as a paragon of justice and
responsible rule. He invested considerable energy
toward building up the urban infrastructure of
Bukhara, and numerous traditions describe his equi-
table treatment of artisans, peasants, and sharecrop-
pers. However, we must acknowledge that Isma’il was
also an efficient military campaigner, and no doubt
his exemplary status as a Muslim ruler was bolstered
by his defeat of the disruptive Saffarid dynasty in 900
and his extension of control into central Iran, along
with his jihad against the pagan Turkic areas north of
Samarqand.

After the death of Isma’il in 907, and the assassina-
tion of his immediate successor, Ahmad, in 914, the
Samanid house was placed under control of eight-year-
old Nasr b. Ahmad (Nasr II). Politically, the Samanids
were at their most vulnerable as various familial re-
bellions, revolts, and external invasions dominated
much of the 910s and 920s. By 926, however, Nasr
II was able to consolidate control of his territory, and
mounted a number of successful expeditions against
central Iran and Tabaristan. Despite these menaces,
the reign of Nasr II is widely acknowledged as the

691

SAMANIDS

apogee of Samanid literary and cultural activity. This
is undoubtedly explained by Nasr’s decision to ap-
point two key Persians — Abu ’Abd Allah al-Jaihani
and Abu al-Fadl Muhammad al-Bal’ami — to the of-
fice of vizier. Henceforth, we see the development of a
centralized administration — based largely on its
Baghdadi counterpart but with some interesting
influences from Sasanian Iranian and Central Asian
culture — with various offices for land assessment, tax
collection, financial accounting, bureaucratic corre-
spondence, agronomical improvements, and military
maintenance. This administrative confidence was
only reinforced by the fact that Transoxiana was no
longer the subordinate, weaker province to the great
region of Khurasan and henceforth was considered a
productive and culturally sophisticated component of
the Dar al-Islam. Indeed, the Sivasat nama holds up
Samanid administration as a model for the Seljuks
to emulate in their own administrative organization.
Religiously, there is no substantial evidence to suggest
that the Samanids were anything but orthodox
Hanafi Sunnis; it should be noted that there was a
brief flirtation by certain elements of the Samanid
military (particularly a general named al-Husain
al-Marwazi) with Isma’ili Slii'i preachers in the 920s,
but by and large Shi‘is and heterodox groups were
considered anathema by the authorities.

Medieval geographers such as Ibn Hawqal. who
had extensive experience traveling across Spain and
the Maghrib, presents a Samanid Bukhara replete
with legal scholars, Qur’anic exegetes, tradition
compilers, Arab grammarians, philosophers, and
other classes of intellectuals. The relative proximity
of Bukhara to eastern Asia and the increased access
to paper and papermaking technology (especially
in Samarqand), fostered a certain bibliophilia among
the Samanids; Ibn Sina (Avicenna), originally from
the region of Balkh, talked glowingly of the library in
Bukhara, noting that it was there he had been first
introduced to the political philosophical writings of
al-Farabi. The infusion of scholarly and courtly
Arabic — at the expense of local idioms of Soghdian
and Khwarazmian — is attested to by the large num-
ber of poets listed in the Yatimat al-dahr by Abu
Mansur al-Tha’alibi and the Lubab al-albab by
Muhammad ’Aufi. Nonetheless, the majority of the
subject population was unable to digest such high-
brow Arabic, and many translation projects were
initiated under Nasr II, most notably the monumental
Persian translation of the history of al-Tabari by
al-Bal’ami (son of the aforementioned vizier).

The remaining years of the Samanid dynasty were
occupied chiefly with contending with the Buyid
"heretical” threat to the west and the restoration of
the ‘Abbasid caliph in Baghdad to nominal Sunni

control. However, overextension in Tabaristan and
financial mismanagement only exacerbated the
devolution of power that had begun to characterize
the Samanid court under the amir-ships of Null I
(r. 943-954) and ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 954-961). Like
the ‘Abbasid caliphs, Samanid military commanders
had begun to look to the vibrant slave trade of
Samarqand and Bukhara, and the arrival of pro-
digious numbers of Oghuz Turks into the Farghana
and Zarafshan valleys, as new and skilled sources of
military power. By the 960s and 970s, Turks had risen
to considerable levels of military and courtly power,
so much so that rivalries and competing claimants
began soliciting the political support of these recently
empowered Turkish military elite. A good example of
this trend is the career of the Turkish general Alp
Teghin, who had manipulated court machinations to
secure an appointment as governor of Khurasan and
developed ultimately sufficient prestige to relocate to
Ghazna and establish the first independent Turkic
dynasty in Central Asia: the Ghaznavids. Samanid
impairment was at its highest during the reign of
Nuh II (976-997) who, in addition to contending
with the Shi‘i Buyids and a politically precocious
Turkish elite, was now attempting to fight off numer-
ous invasions from the north by the Qarakhanid
Turks of Kashgar and Balasghun. Their leader,
Bughra Khan, would conquer Bukhara temporarily
in 992, and by 997, Samanid dominion had shrunk
considerably. The coup de grace invasion of 999 by the
Qarakhanids was so quick and successful that some
historians have suggested that key personages of
the Samanid court might have collaborated with the
Qarakhanids.

Ascendancy of New Persian Language
and Literature

While the Samanid court and administration was
ostensibly conducted in Arabic, nonetheless, we see
the emergence of a new and stylized Persian language
that, in turn, replaced local Iranian idioms of
Soghdian and Khvarazmian. This New Persian
fused older vocabulary and concepts of pre-Islamic
Sasanian and Achaemenian Iran with the energetic
and robust stylistic motifs and imagery found not
just in the Qur’an but also in traditions of the Pro-
phets, hagiographies of Companions, and of course
the popular poetic Bedouin tradition. The eminent
Iranologist Richard Frye has always contended
that it was the New Persian “renaissance” under
the Samanids and other eastern Iranian states — all
beneficiaries to millennia of pre-Islamic Zoroastrian,

692

SAMARQAND

Manichean, Buddhist, and Nestorian Christian tradi-
tions — that “liberated” Arab, Bedouin-dominated
Islam from its parochial roots and brassbound
worldview. The bulk of what was produced in New
Persian for this period were translations of key Arabic
texts (al-Tabari’s history or translations of the
Qur’an, for example), but within time we see the rise
of an independent and vigorous Persian literary
tradition. In its infancy, New Persian was established
and cemented in the increasingly famous court of
Bukhara by such legendary poets as Abu ’Abd Allah
Ja’far b. Muhammad Rudaki (d. 940) and Abu
Mansur Muhammad b. Ahmad Daqiqi (d. 977).
Rudaki spent much of his professional career in
Bukhara, under the auspices of the ruler Nasr
b. Ahmad, and is widely recognized for developing
the panegyric form of poetry (qasida); indeed,
Rudaki was the foundation for later great panegyrists
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries such as
’Unsuri, Mu’izzi, and Anvari. Likewise, Daqiqi’s
lyrical poetry is considered to be a forerunner of
Ferdowsi’s Shahnama , and historians of Persian liter-
ature agree that many of the great literary accom-
plishments of the Ghaznavid and Seljuk periods
would not have been possible if not for the Samanid
program of encouraging New Persian at both the elite
and popular levels.

Colin Paul Mitchell

See also ‘Abbasids; Bukhara; Buyids; Epic Poetry;
Epics, Persian; Ibn Sina; Khurasan; Libraries; Nizam
al-Mulk; Paper Manufacture; Persian; Persians;
Poetry, Persian; Samarqand; Transoxiana

Primary Sources (in Arabic and Persian)

’Abd al-Malik Tha’alibi. Yatimat cil-dahr. Ed. M.M.

Qumyhah. 6 vols. Beirut, 2000.

Abu ’Abd Allah Ja’far b. Muhammad Rudaki. Asar-i
manzum. Ed. I.S. Braginskii. Moscow, 1964.

Abu Mansur Muhammad b. Ahmad Daqiqi. Daqiqi v a
ash'ar-i u. Ed. M. Dabir-Siyaqi. Tehran, 1964.

Ibn Hawkul. Kitab swat al-’ard. Ed. J.H. Kramers. Leiden,
1938.

Muhammad ibn Ja’far Narshaki. Tarikh-i Bukhara. Ed.
M. Razavi. Tehran, 1972.

Further Reading

Bartold, W. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion.
London, 1928.

Bosworth, C.E. “Samanids — History, Literary Life and
Economic Activity.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. 2d ed.
Vol. 9, 1025-1029.

Browne, E.G. A Literary History of Persia. 4 vols.
Cambridge, 1958.

Frye, Richard. Bukhara: The Medieval Achievment.

Norman, 1965.

. The Golden Age of Persia: the Arabs in the East.

London, 1975.

. “The Samanids.” In Cambridge History of Iran. Ed.

R. Frye, 136-161. Vol. 4. London, 1975.

Muhammad ibn Ja’far Narshaki. The History of Bukhara.

Transl. R. Frye. Cambridge: 1954.

Paul, Jurgen. Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ost Iran
und Transoxanian in vormongolischer Zeit. Stuttgart,
1996.

Rypka, Jan. History of Iranian Literature. Ed. K. Jahn.
Dordrecht, 1968.

Soucek, Svat. A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge, 2000.
Spuler, B. Iran in cler fruh-islamischer Zeif. Politik, Kultur,
Verwaltung und offentliches Leben 633-1055. Wiesbaden,
1952.

SAMARQAND

Samarqand has always been the leading city (misr
al-iqlim) of Transoxiana (Ma-wara al-nahr: the land
beyond the Oxus River in Arabic). Its importance is
explained chiefly by its position at the junction of the
main trade routes crossing Central Asia (the name
“Silk Road” was coined in the nineteenth century by
Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen), and its situation
on the banks of the Zarafshan (Sughd) River ( na.hr ) .
The elaborate irrigation system (ariq) that watered
the city and its environs caused many people to settle
in the district of Samarqand.

As the Soghdanian word hand (settlement) attests,
the place was an urban center long before the coming
of Islam. The traditional historiography of the
Islamic conquests narrates that in the early Umayyad
period, Muslim armies penetrated the Zarafshan River
Valley. The Arabs, the people of Sogdia ( sughd), and
the Turks fought over the territory. The fighting ended
when Sa‘id Ibn Uthman seized the castle ( quhnduz ) of
Samarqand. Muslim chronicles narrate, in line with
the Islamic conquest (futuhat) literary genre, that
Kutham Ibn ‘Abbas, the Prophet’s cousin and com-
panion, died during this raid (AH 56/676 CE). Even if
this event actually took place its importance would
be marginal, since other historical traditions describe
later Islamic onslaughts against the city. In this nar-
rative a second person plays a role: Umm Muham-
mad bint ’Abd Allah joined the armies of Islam and
by doing so gained fame as the first Muslim woman to
cross the Oxus River.

When Qutayba Ibn Muslim arrived (in 87/706),
Samarqand was governed by a local chief, named
by the Arab source as Ghurak, who bore the title
Ikhshid. The victorious Muslim commanders did not
remove him from his post — they accepted his surren-
der and were satisfied with his payments, an arrange-
ment that lasted until his death in 737. As in other
quarters of Transoxiana, this local force served as
a buffer between the caliphate and the indigenous

693

SAMARQAND

inhabitants. Hoping to take advantage of the crisis in
the Umayyad administration, the people of Samar-
qand joined forces with the Turks (Targesh) and fought
the Muslim armies. It was only during the term in
office of Nasr b. Sayyar (738-748) that the authority
of the Umayyad caliphate was firmly reinstalled.

With the emergence of the ‘Abbasid caliphate,
Samarqand, like other settlements in the Zarafshan
Valley, was deeply affected by the revolt of the al-mu-
bayyida (safid jamgan; the white-clad ones). This was
a coalition of heretical forces led by a person nick-
named al-Muqanna’ (the Veiled). A generation after
the suppression of this revolt Rafi’ ibn Layth killed
the governor of Samarqand and seized the territory
(190/806). The difficulties of the central government
in Baghdad to control the remote frontier lands in
Central Asia and the relationships that al-Mam’mun
established between the periphery and the caliphate
paved the way for the Samanids.

Nuh b. Asad b. Saman became the ruler of
Samarqand in 204/819. On his death the city passed
to his brother Ahmad (227-250/842-858). His son
Nasr was virtually the independent ruler of Ma-wara
al-Nahr (Transoxiana, 260-279/874-892). Samarqand
served as the capital of Islamic Central Asia until
Isma’il b. Ahmad removed the province’s headquar-
ters to Bukhara (279-287/892-907). Following the
disintegration of the Samanid dynasty, Samarqand
fell into the hands of the Qarakhanids (382/992).
Under Ali Tegin (d. 1034) it served as the center of
the western khanate of this dynasty.

Following their defeat at Katwan (536/1141),
Samarqand came under the lordship of the Kara
Khitay, who installed a collaborating force as gover-
nor of the city. They lost it to Khwarazm Shah (in 608/
1212), who failed to defend it against the Mongols
(Chingiz/Genghis Khan 617/1220). After Chingiz
Khan died, his son Chagatay inherited the city.
Samarqand was the capital of his offspring (the Cha-
gatay ulus). The fighting and siege devastated the city.
It was not until the days of Timur Leng (Tamerlane)
that Samarqand reemerged as the major city of
Central Asia. It then became the seat of the Timurid
dynasty (1370-1507).

It seems that only after the successes of Abu
Muslim and the emergence of the ‘Abbasids that
Islam able to gain ground in Samarqand, driving
out Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity. From the
biographies collected by ‘Umar al-Nasafi it seems that
Islam then became firmly established in the city and
the countryside. He mentions scholars who originated
in villages and towns, and illuminates a local tradition
of Islamic learning and transmission of knowledge
and history, a process facilitated by the diffusion of
a new material: paper. Samarqand became a center of

Islamic studies, as attested to by biographies of many
Muslim scholars.

The economy of Samarqand was strongly
connected to the central Islamic lands. The city served
as an emporium for goods, including furs from Inner
Asia and Eurasian slaves. The Qarakhanids further
developed it as a cultural center. Descriptions of
the city are preserved in geographical and travel liter-
ature. They tell of a fortified city populated with
scholars. Another source that bears evidence to the
past glory of Samarqand are several illustrious build-
ings including mausoleums, schools, mosques, and an
observatory. From the late ‘Abbasid period the tomb
of Kutham b. al-‘Abbas in Afradiyab attracted pil-
grims to the shrine of Shah-i zinda (the living prince;
also called Shah-i javanan, or the prince of the youth).

Yehoshua Frenkel

Further Reading

Collins, B.A. Al-Muqaddasi — The Best Divisions for Knowl-
edge of the Regions. Reading, 1994.

Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate.
London, 1905.

Najm al-Din Umar b. Muhammad al-Nasaf (d. 1142).
Al-Qand fi dhikr ’ulama Samarqand. ed. Y. al-Hadi.
Tehran, 1420/1999.

Paul, J. “The Histories of Samarqand.” Stadia Iranica 22
(1993): 69-92.

SAMARRA

Samarra is a city on the East bank of the middle
Tigris River in Iraq, situated 125 kilometers north of
Baghdad, with a present-day population of about two
hundred thousand. Between AH 221/836 CE and 279/
892, Samarra, the seat of the ‘Abbasid caliphs, expand-
ed to a built-up area of 58 square kilometers, the largest
ancient city in the world whose plan has survived.

Before Islam, Samarra was not much more than a
village, in an area that was only lightly occupied
in antiquity along the banks of the Tigris River. How-
ever, the digging of the Qatul al-KisrawI in the
sixth century, by the Sasanian king Khusraw Anush-
irwan (r. 531-578), as a feeder to the Nahrawan canal,
irrigated the area east of Baghdad, stimulated interest
in the area, and led the Sasanians to build a hunting
park east of modern-day al-Dur, and a monumental
tower (Burj al-Qaim). The ‘Abbasid caliph Harun
al-Rashld (r. 170-193/786-809) dug a supplementary
canal, the Qatul Abl al-Jund, and commemorated
it by an unfinished octagonal city (modern-day Husn
al-Qadisiyya ), called al-Mubarak by al-Hamadhanl,
and left unfinished in 180/796. The plan is one
of two surviving imitations of the Round City of
Baghdad.

694

SAMARRA

Minaret of the mosque at Samarrah. Abbasid dynasty, 848-852 CE. Credit: SEF/Art Resource, NY. Great Mosque (Mosque
of al-Mutawakkil), Samarra, Iraq.

Probably in 220/834-845, the caliph al-Mu‘tasim
left Baghdad in search of a new site for the court and
army, a move explained by the sources as due to
conflict of the Turkish guard with the population of
Baghdad. Although there are different versions of
al-Muflasim’s journey, all agree that a start was
made on a city near Rashid’s unfinished foundation,
a site identified east of Husn Qidisiyya. Then he
stopped work and moved on to Samarra.

The caliph’s city was formally called Surra Man
Ra’a (“He who sees it is delighted”). Although Yaqut
(Mu jam ,S'V Samarra) suggests that the present name
is a shortened form of Surra Man Ra a, it is clear that
Samarra is in reality the Arabic version of the pre-
Islamic toponym, Sumere in Latin, Sumra in Syriac,
and Souma in Greek.

Surra Man Ra’a was founded by al-Mu‘tasim in
221/836, with the palace on the site of a monastery.
The plan was composed of a caliphal palace complex,
called in the sources variants on the theme of “House
of the Caliphate”: Ddr al-Khilafa, Ddr al-KhalTfa, Ddr
al-Sultan, and Ddr Amir al-Mu’minin. The interior

was divided into two major units: the official palace,
Ddr al-’Amma, where receptions and public business
were conducted, and the residence, al-Jawsaq al-Khd-
qanl, intended for family life, where four of the caliphs
are buried. The site was excavated by Viollet (1910),
Herzfeld (1913), and most recently by the Iraq Direc-
torate-General of Antiquities.

From the south gate of the palace, an avenue, later
referred to by al-Ya’qubl as Shari’ Abl Ahmad, was
laid out over seven kilometers parallel to the river,
with a single bend, where the original mosque of al-
Mu'tasim and the markets were located. Otherwise,
the plan was composed of subunits (Ar. qatd'ij dedi-
cated to the military leaders and their troops, and
composed also of a palace, avenue, and a grid of
houses. North of the bend, the cantonments of the
Turks under Waslf were located on the east side, and
possibly the Faraghina (from the Farghana valley in
Uzbekistan) on the west side. South of the markets
were situated the cantonments of the Maghariba from
Egypt, the Iranian Arabs, and the KhurasanI troops
from Baghdad. On the north side of the palace, two

695

SAMARRA

quarters, one of which was under the Turk Khaqan
’Urtuj, appear to have been dedicated to the palace
servants. Two further principal military cantonments
were located outside the city, that of the Central
Asian Iranians under al-Afshln Khaydar b. Kawus
al-Ushrushanl at al-Matlra, a mainly Christian
village south of Samarra (modern-day al-Jubayriyya),
and that of the Turks under Ashinas at al-Karkh, that
is, Karkh Fayruz (modern-day Shaykh Wall), ten kil-
ometers north of Samarra. The area east of the city
was walled as a hunting park (al-Hayr), in imitation
of the earlier Sasanian parks.

Al-Mu‘tasim died in 227/842. His successor,
al-Wathiq (r. 227-232/842-846), stayed in Samarra
and built a new luxurious palace called al-Harunl,
identified at the unexcavated site of al-Quwayr, now
an island in the Tigris, to the west of the Caliphal
Palace. The main feature of the short reign of
al-Wathiq was the consolidation of settlement — the
people are said by al-Ya’qubl to have been more
convinced of the permanence of the settlement and
to have turned a camp (’Askar al-Mu‘tasim) into a
real city.

The reign of al-Mutawakkil (232-247/847-861)
had a great effect on the appearance of the city, for
the size of the city doubled in his reign. A list of his
building projects has survived in various versions, the
new congregational mosque and twenty other con-
struction projects that totaled in cost between 258
and 294 million dirhams. The congregational mosque
of al-Mutawakkil with its spiral minaret was built
between 235 and 237 (849 and 852) and constituted
part of an extension of the city to the east. Two new
hunting palaces were built in the south, al-Istablat,
identified as al-' Artis, and al-Musharrahat, identified
as the palace of al-Shah.

The palace of Balkuwara, excavated by Herzfeld in
1911, was also built in the south as the kernel of the
cantonment of a new army of Arabs under al-Mu‘-
tazz, second son of al-Mutawakkil. An important
feature of al-Mutawakkil’ s reign was a sixty-six per-
cent increase in the size of the military cantonments,
suggesting extensive new recruiting of Arabs and
others to balance the Turks of al-Miftasim.

In this period, the city center reached its greatest
extent, and was described by the geographer
al-Ya’qubl (Buldan 260-263). There were seven par-
allel avenues. Shari ’al-Khalij, adjacent to the Tigris,
accommodated the quays for the river transport
supplying the city, and the cantonments of the
Maghariba. The principal avenue of al-Ya’qubl,
al-Shdri' al-A’zam, or al-Sarija, followed an irregular
line passing by the tax registry (Diwdn al-Kharaj), the
stables, the slave market, the police office, the prison,
and the main markets, before reaching the Bah

al- ’Amina (Gate of the Public) of the caliphal palace.
The third avenue, Shari’ AhT Ahmad, the original
avenue of the time of al-Mu'tasim, terminated at the
south gate of the palace and housed the leading Turks
of the period. The remaining avenues, Shari’ al-Hayr
al-Awwal, Shari’ Barghdmish al-TurkT, Shari' al- As-
kar, and Shari’ al-Hayr al-JadTd, were the quarters
of disparate military units, the Shakiriyya, Turks,
Faraghina, Khazar, and Khurasanis.

Al-Mutawakkil began a final new project in 245/
859: the replacement of the caliphal city of Surra Man
Ra’a by a new unit called al-Mutawakkiliyya, though
also referred to as al-Ja‘fariyya and al-Mahuza. The
main palace, al-Ja‘farI, was located at the entrance to
the Qatul, and the city plan is a variant of the already
existing models at Samarra: a central avenue leading
past the Abu Dulaf Mosque, and subunits allocated
to military units. After the death of al-Mutawakkil in
247/861, the site was abandoned, and has survived
virtually untouched until the present day.

The reign of al-Mutawakkil was the climax of the
city. Vast architectural projects were undertaken —
though using inexpensive techniques — and large num-
bers of troops were recruited to balance the political
power of different ethnic units, thus stimulating the
economy of the city. However, the financial drain was
fatal to the survival of the city; disturbances stemming
from revenue shortages led to the unmaking of four
caliphs up to 256/870.

In the following decade, under al-Mu‘tamid, the
army was removed from Samarra, but the city
remained the official residence of the court until 279/
892. Al-Mu‘tamid himself appears to have left in 269/
884, though he was buried there in 279/892. Reports of
looting of the city occur between 274 and 281 ( 887-888
and 894-895) and suggest a depopulation in these
years. Nevertheless, the area around the markets
continued to be occupied, together with the settle-
ments of al-Matlra and al-Karkh. The two imams,
‘All al-Hadl (d. 254) and al-Hasan al-‘AskarI, had a
house in the center of the city on the Shari’ Abl
Ahmad, and were buried there. The twelfth imam
disappeared in a cleft there in 260/874. The shrine
was first developed in 333/944-945 by the Hamdanids,
and later by the Buyids. The shrine was frequently
rebuilt, notably by the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Nasir li-
Din Allah in 606/1209-1210. Consequently, Samarra
became a pilgrimage and market town, but it remained
an open city until a wall was built in 1834.

Alastair Northedge

Further Reading

Al-Ya’qubl, Ahmad b. Abl Ya’qub b. Wadih. Kitdh al-Bul-

dan. Ed. de Goeje, 255-268. BGA 7, Leiden, 1892.

696

SASANIANS, ISLAMIC TRADITIONS

Creswell, K.A.C. Early Muslim Architecture. 1st ed, vol. II.
Oxford, 1940.

Directorate General of Antiquities. Hafriyyat Samarra’
1936-1939. 2 vols. Baghdad, 1940.

Gordon, M.S. The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A His-
tory of the Turkish Military of Samarra ( AH 200-275/
815-889 CE). Albany, NY, 2001.

Herzfeld, E. Ausgrabungen von Samarra VI, Geschichte cler
Stcidt Samarra. Hamburg, 1948.

Leisten, T. Excavation of Samarra, vol. I, Architecture:
Final Report of the First Campaign 1910 — 1912. Mainz.
2003.

Northedge, A. “An Interpretation of the Palace of the Caliph
at Samarra (Dar al-Khilafa or Jawsaq al-Khaqani).” Ars
Orientalis 23 (1993): 143-171.

. The Historical Topography of Samarra. Samarra

Studies 1, British Academy Monographs in Archaeolo-
gy/British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2005.

Robinson, C., ed. A Medieval Islamic City Reconsidered: An
Interdisciplinary Approach to Samarra, Oxford Studies in
Islamic Art. Vol 14. Oxford, 2001.

Rogers, J.M. “Samarra, a Study in Medieval Town-
Planning.” In The Islamic City, eds. Hourani and
Stern, 119-155. Oxford, 1970.

SASANIANS, ISLAMIC TRADITIONS

Islamic civilization’s Sasanian inheritance runs broad
and deep. The conquest of the Sasanian empire,
which began in 638 CE but was not completed until
651, with the death of the Sasanian king, Yazdgird
III, provided the victorious Arabs with a ready-made
imperial structure and administration that had
overseen the area stretching from the eastern borders
of Syria into present-day Turkmenistan in Central
Asia. The conquest also made the Arabs heirs to a
rich and ancient cultural tradition, for Sasanian
civilization was the culmination of more than a mil-
lennium of religious and artistic traditions in Iranian
and neighboring lands.

Administration and Government

A well-organized state with an efficient bureaucracy,
the Sasanian empire provided a class of qualified
administrators and scribes to administer the con-
quered territories. The introduction of royal etiquette
and ceremonial practices that closely imitated the
elaborate court ritual of the Sasanian kings fulfilled
the need of the newly established caliphate to pro-
claim its legitimacy to the diverse peoples who came
under its rule. The prime minister of the Sasanian
state, the vuzurg framadar (“Great Commander”),
was replaced by the chief official of the caliphate,
the Wazir (vizier), which as a title seems to be derived
from the Middle Persian vicir (decision). To serve an

increasingly centralized government, specialized
diwans or bureaus were created, based on the Sasani-
an model, among which were the diwan cd-khatam
(office of the seal, or chancellery) and the diwan
al-barid (postal service), which took over the network
of roads with rest stations (Ar. Ribat ) that had been
developed by the Sasanians. Under the Sasanians,
priests (mobads) had directed many administrative
activities; the Muslim qadis continued this function.
The endowment of fires for the Zoroastrian fire tem-
ples may have influenced the system of Islamic waqfs
(Ar. pi., auqaf).

The continuity of Sasanian court ceremony is
attested to not only in Islamic art (see the section on
art below) but also in literature. Well into the later
Middle Ages, Muslim chroniclers were drawing
upon such Middle Persian literary works as the coun-
sels (andarz) or “mirrors for princes,” addressed to
aristocrats or to rulers, which contributed to the
development of Arabic adab literature. Besides pre-
senting stories to illustrate the wisdom of the sixth-
century Sasanian king, Khosrow Anoshirvan, or of
the third-century founder of the dynasty, Ardashir,
these works describe Sasanian court practice and
rules of conduct and strongly influenced the conduct
of Muslim rulers. Such “advice” literature was also
known in the Byzantine world, but it was not as
widespread as in Persia. Arabic books based on
this literature about Sasanian administrative prac-
tices and government were produced well into
the twelfth century (AH sixth century) as far west of
the former Sasanian lands as Sicily and Spain.
These works were adapted to reflect Islamic precepts
and practices.

Literature, Mathematics, and Science

In addition to andarz literature, oral and written
narratives about the Sasanian and earlier kings and
heroes had a valued place in Islamic culture and for
centuries inspired artists and writers throughout
Muslim lands. In particular, the Shahnama, or Book
of Kings, written down by the Persian Ferdowsi
around 1000, provided specific incidents about the
mythic and historic Iranian past, as well as the courtly
themes of feasting, drinking, and hunting for both
Persian and Arab painters and poets; among such
stories are the exploits of the hero Rustam, and the
Sasanian hunting king, Bahram Gur.

The Sasanians also gave the Arabs a wealth of
medical, mathematical, astronomical — as well as as-
trological — and other scientific writings (partly of
Indian origin); these were co-foundations of many of

697

SASANIANS, ISLAMIC TRADITIONS

the Muslim contributions to science, such as the
astrolabe and other instruments for measuring the
circumference of the earth. Such Sasanian traditions
carried into the early centuries of Islam and, indeed,
many of the great mathematicians and scientists in the
early centuries of Islam were of Iranian origin, among
them the ninth-century mathematician and astrono-
mer Muhammad b. Musa al-Khwarazmi, who wrote
on algebra; the polymath Abu ‘1-Rayhan al-Biruni,
who in the eleventh century produced treatises on
geography, geology, astronomy, and history; and the
eleventh-century poet ‘Umar Khayyam, who was also
a mathematician and astronomer.

Religion and Philosophy

It is of some scholarly dispute whether the Zoroastrian
religion of Sasanian Iran influenced the development
of Islam. It seems possible that Zoroastrian dualism
with its ethical doctrine of the struggle of good
against evil, as well as the use of myth or mythical
language to express religious thoughts, influenced
early Islamic thinkers, especially those of Iranian
origin. Some scholars have noted the similarities be-
tween specific Zoroastrian and Muslim practices and
beliefs: the five times daily prayer, the reading of holy
texts as part of the funeral rite, and the significance of
the number thirty-three. Similarly, there may be a
connection between Zoroastrian thought and some
Islamic philosophies; for example, the Illuminationist
or Ishraqi school of philosopher-mystics (founded by
Suhrawardi) parallels such Zoroastrian doctrines as
concern the function of angels and the symbolism of
light (goodness) and darkness (evil).

Art and Architecture

Perhaps the greatest impact the Sasanians exerted on
Islamic civilization was in the visual and building arts.
Although it had its unique stylistic and iconographic
characteristics, Sasanian monumental and decorative
arts also partook of the many earlier cultures that had
flourished for millennia in Iran and Mesopotamia.
This Sasanian heritage, not surprisingly, was stron-
gest in Iran, continuing with the Qajar dynasty well
into the nineteenth century, although aspects of the
Sasanian legacy can be found as far west as the
Maghreb.

The Sasanian architectural legacy consists of
building techniques and architectural forms. The
main techniques are squinches to support a dome on

a square base and brick or rubble construction coated
with plaster; a key building form is the chahar taq, a
domical room or structure resting on four pillars with
arches in between, which characterized Zoroastrian
fire temples and served as the prototype for the
kushk or kiosk mosque, with its vaults and domes.
Of pre-Sasanian origin but put to spectacular effect in
the great Sasanian palace at Ctesiphon (the Taq-i
Kisra ) in Iraq was the iwan (aiwan), a vaulted hall
open on one end — when joined to the domed kiosk, it
influenced religious architecture from Egypt to
Central Asia. These architectural forms were also
used for palatial structures, as their association with
the Ctesiphon audience hall imbued them with the
power and ceremony of kingship and conferred
legitimacy upon the ruler who held audience within.
This was certainly the intent of the late thirteenth-
century Mongol ruler who built a palace at Takht-i
Suleiman in northwestern Iran by incorporating
surviving Sasanian palatial and religious buildings
and thus presented himself symbolically as the heir
of the Sasanian dynasts.

Plaster or stucco, a material not used in pre-Islamic
architecture west of Iran but a major decorative me-
dium in Sasanian architecture, became widely used, as
it was well-suited for carrying the rich vocabulary of
decorative motifs — geometric, floral, vegetal, faunal,
and even human — required for the interiors of reli-
gious and secular buildings. Many of these motifs,
mainly of Sasanian origin (though some derived
from the classical Mediterranean world) — the stepped
merlon, rosette, palmette, the fantastical Senmurv,
griffin, and harpy — were transferred across Islamic
territories through highly portable small-scale works
of art, such as metalwork and textiles; in particular,
richly patterned silks were an important means of
transmittal.

The conquering Arabs readily adopted other Sasa-
nian motifs bound up with imperial imagery and
iconography. The winged crown, topped by a crescent
and globe, which from the fifth century was worn by
every Sasanian emperor to symbolize his divine for-
tune, was the typical headgear worn by enthroned,
feasting, and even hunting kings in Islamic works of
art. Abstracted into a crescent and globe between a
pair of wings, the motif became a generic symbol of
royal power and legitimacy; abstracted further, it is a
decorative design that appears as far west as the
ninth-century Great Mosque in Qairouan, Tunisia.

Other motifs taken from Sasanian royal icono-
graphy include the ribbons that flutter to either side
of the crown or from the necks of various animals,
and the crescent (Ar.: hilal), an emblem closely asso-
ciated with Islam to the present day; its pairing with a
star, also widespread in Islamic contexts, occurs on

698

SASANIANS, ISLAMIC TRADITIONS

Arab-Sasanian coins and is a continuation of late
Sasanian coin designs. Although winged animals
(griffins, horses, bulls, and lions) have a long history
in the art of the ancient Near East, they are ubiqui-
tous in Sasanian art and are taken into Islamic design;
similarly, the lion-bull combat comes from this long
tradition as both an astronomical symbol and one of
royal power and as such was transferred through
Sasanian into Islamic art.

The image of the Sasanian ruler holding court or
engaged in the pleasures of the banquet and the
hunt, as depicted in a variety of artistic media, was
readily adopted by the Muslim rulers to illustrate
their power and greatness. Despite the prohibitions
against figural art, Muslim rulers and their well-to-
do subjects perpetuated these pictorials, as well as a
range of literary themes, through commissioned
works in metal, ceramic, fabric, and paint.

Further Examples of the Sasanian Legacy

Such games as backgammon, chess, and polo were
developed or invented under the Sasanians. Backgam-
mon, ubiquitous in Islamic lands, and chess were
brought (probably in the sixth century) from India to
Iran, where they became an important part of princely
education. The earliest treatises on the games are in
Middle Persian and date from this period of late
Sasanian rule. As a training game for elite cavalry,
polo may be a Persian invention. Considered the
sport of kings, it was played in much of the Islamic
world and was often associated with a royal architec-
tural complex (for example, Timurid Samarkand,
Safavid Isfahan, and Mughal Agra).

Finally, the Islamic garden, both a heavenly and
earthly creation, is based on Sasanian and much ear-
lier Iranian designs; in fact, “paradise” derives from
Old Persian pairidaeza. The typical “four garden”
plan ( chahdr bagh ) , in which intersecting streams or
avenues divide the enclosed area into quarters that are
planted with trees and flowers, informs not only actual
gardens in the Islamic world but also some carpet
designs. Indeed, the numerous mentions of the celestial
garden in the Qur’an reflect this garden design.

Judith Lerner

See also Al-Biruni; Al-Suhrawardi, Shihab al-Din
‘Umar; Angels; Architecture, Religious; Architecture,
Secular: Palaces; Archives and Chanceries; Astrolabes;
Astronomy; Backgammon; Bureaucrats; Carpets;
Ceramics; Chess; Epics, Persian; Ferdowsi; Frescoes;
Gardens and Gardening; Hospitals; Hunting; Intellec-
tual History; Mathematics; Medical Literature, Ara-
bic; Medical Literature, Persian; Medicine; Metal

Work; Mirrors for Princes; Mosques; Murals;

Mythology and Mythical Beings; Painting, Miniature;

Painting, Monumental and Frescoes; Poets; Post

(Barid); Sculpture; Shahnama; Silk Roads; Textiles;

Translation, Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic; Viziers;

Waqf; Zoroastrianism

Further Reading

Arnold, Thomas W. Survivals of Sasanian and Manichaean
Art in Persian Painting. Oxford: The Clarendon Press,
1924.

Baer, Eva. The Human Figure in Islamic Art: Inheritance and
Islamic Transformations. (Bibliotheca Iranica. Islamic
Art and Architecture Series, 11). Costa Mesa, CA:
Mazda Publishers, 2004.

Bier, Lionel. “The Sasanian Palaces and their Influence in
Early Islam.” Ars Orientals XXIII (1993): 57-66.

Daryaee, Touraj. “Mind, Body, and the Cosmos: Chess and
Backgammon in Ancient Persia.” Iranian Studies 35/4
(2002): 281-312.

Ettinghausen, Richard. “Hilal, ii. — In Islamic Art.” In
Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., vol. III. Leiden: Brill,
1971, 381-385. Reprint, Islamic Art and Archaeology:
Collected Papers [of] Richard Ettinghausen. Prepared
and edited by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon. Berlin: Gebr.
Mann Verlag, 1984, 269-280.

. From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic

World: Three Modes of Artistic Influence. (L. A. Mayer
Memorial Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture, 3).
Leiden: Brill, 1972.

Frye, Richard N. The Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in
the East. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975.

Grabar, Oleg. “Notes sur les ceremonies umayyades.” In
Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet, edited by Myriam
Rosen-Ayalon, 51-60. Jerusalem: Institute of Asian
and African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
1977.

. The Formation of Islamic Art. Revised and enlarged

ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press,
1987.

Hartner, Willy, and Richard Ettinghausen. “The Conquer-
ing Lion, the Life Cycle of a Symbol.” Oriens 17 (1964):
161-171. Reprint, Islamic Art and Archaeology: Collect-
ed Papers [of] Richard Ettinghausen. Prepared and
edited by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon. Berlin: Gebr. Mann
Verlag, 1984, 693-711.

Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture: Form, Function
and Meaning. New York: Columbia University Press,
1994.

Irwin, Robert. Islamic Art in Context: Art, Architecture, and
the Literary World. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
1997.

Kroger, Jens. “Vom Fliigelpaar zur Fliigelpalmette. Sasa-
nidische Motive in der Islamischen Kunst.” Bamberger
Symposium: Rezeption in der Islamischen Kunst vom
26.6-28.6.1992. Ed. Barbara Finster, Christa Fragner,
and Herta Hafenrichter, 193-203. Beirut: Franz Steiner
Verlag Stuttgart, 1999.

Lerner, Judith. “A Note on Sasanian Harpies.” Iran (Jour-
nal of the British Institute of Persian Studies XIII (1975):
166-171.

Melikian-Chirvani, Assadullah Souren. Islamic Metal-
work from the Iranian World 8 ,h -18 ,h Centuries. London:

699

SASANIANS, ISLAMIC TRADITIONS

Victoria and Albert Museum; Her Majesty’s Stationery
Office, 1982.

. “ Rekab : the Polylobed Wine Boat from Sasanian to

Saljuq Times.” In Au Carrefour des religions melanges
offerts a Philippe Gignoux. (“Res Orientales, VII), edited
by Rika Gyselen, 187-204. Bures-sur- Yvette: Groupe
pour l’Etude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 1995.

Pinder-Wilson, Ralph. “The Persian Garden: Bagh and
Chahar Bagh.” In The Islamic Garden. (Dumbarton
Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architec-
ture, 4, 1974). Ed. Elisabeth B. MacDougall and Richard
Ettinghausen, 69-85. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks,
Trustees for Harvard University, 1976.

Simpson, Mariana Shreve. “Narrative Allusion and Meta-
phor in the Decoration of Medieval Islamic Objects.” In
Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
(Studies in the History of Art, 16). Ed. Herbert L. Kess-
ler and Marianna Shreve Simpson, 131-149. Washing-
ton, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1985.

Sims, Eleanor, with Boris I. Marshak and Ernst J. Grube.
Peerless Images. Persian Painting and Its Sources. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.

SCHOLARSHIP

Scholars

The word for scholar in the Arabic Islamic tradition
is ‘alim (pi. ‘ulama’, meaning wordly, “knowing,”
learned). It denotes scholars of almost all disciplines:
traditions of the Prophet and his Companions; tradi-
tionist (muhaddith), Quranic exegesis; exegete and
other Qur’anic fields like variant readings; reader
(muqri’); jurisprudence: jurist (faqih), and connected
areas like successions; specialist of successions, or the
one who is recognized as a mufti (that is, having the
competence of delivering juridic or theological
decisions), or judicial power; judge (qadi); dialectic
theology: dialectic theologian (mutakallim); gram-
mar, lexicography, and philology; knowledge of
poetry and poets; learned in (ancient) poetry and
poets (‘alim bi-l-shi‘r wa-l-shu'ara’); tribal traditions
of the ancient Arabs, such as “the days of the Arabs”
(ayyam al-'Arab, above all their battles); genealogy:
genealogian; chronology and historiography and
related disciplines such as prosopography; learned in
the “men,” that is, in the biography of traditionists or
others; belles-lettres; man of letters ( adib ) ; and later,
philosophy and medicine, astronomy, mathematics,
and other sciences. Those last five disciplines are usu-
ally called “foreign sciences,” most having their origin
in the Greek legacy.

However, the term ‘alim refers more specifically
to the scholars of religious sciences, considered as
Islamic, because in this religious realm the central

component of science is the knowledge of religious
precepts and duties. In the Indo-Iranian world, and
especially but not exclusively in the Shi‘i environment,
the scholars in religious sciences are called “Molla,” a
word derived from Arabic maw la (master). The word
scholars (‘ulama’) to denote a group devoted to
religious sciences compelled recognition only progres-
sively, as scholars recognized as such succeeded in
occupying a favored rank in the society, and even
in the various governments in the Islamic countries.
In the two first centuries of Islam they consisted of a
relatively small number of people engaged in the
elaboration of jurisprudence (fiqh) on the basis of
the Qur’an and its exegesis, and the traditions of the
Prophet and his Companions (also local customs,
often presented as coming from the Prophetic Tradi-
tion). They were concentrated in Medina, in the
South of Irak (Basra, Kufa), then in Baghdad after
its construction. However, they had a consciousness
of their identity that marked them as a distinct group.

As a general tendency was to be observed in the
practitioners of religious sciences to consider as cer-
tain knowledge only that transmitted (or attributed)
to the Prophet, that is, Qur’an and Sunna (transmit-
ted in the Hadith), traditions were attributed to
Muhammad, which emphasized the precedence of
knowledge and the scholars, most of them dating
probably from a period in which the influence and
prestige of the latter were not yet well established.
Therefore Muhammad is supposed to have declared:
“Scholars are the heirs of the prophets,” or that they
are superior to “martyrs” ( shuhada those who are
killed in the Holy War), or that the best of his commu-
nity are the scholars and among the latter the jurists.

Indeed, the scholars were progressively constituted
as such by the practice of jurisprudence; however, the
notion of “heirs” was very important in their self-
consciousness, because their essential characteristic
was definitely the knowledge of hadith, this being
the science par excellence in that religious representa-
tion and imaginaire, because it was transmitted
(inherited) from the Prophet (like the Qur’an). All
the scholars studied the Qur’an and the Sunna, but
not all were specialists in law, and those engaged in
theology were fewer still.

The ‘Abbasids, with the exception of the caliph
al-Ma’mun, preferred to have the scholars and the
army on their side, rather than with bureaucracy.
During the first five centuries of Islam the scholars
developed their own practices and organization inde-
pendent of the state. It is a fact that the Umayyads,
then the ‘Abbasids, had recourse to scholars and
employed them as judges, but they did not found
lasting institutions with personnel dedicated to the
study of religion and law.

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SCHOLARSHIP

The political traumas of the AH fourth/tenth CE
centuries and the eighth/eleventh centuries, and the
disintegration of the ‘Abbasid state, contributed not a
little to the consolidation of the power of scholars.
Whereas they had been essentially a religious elite,
scholars also became a social and political elite. This
evolution and the creation and development of new
institutions of learning, such as the “higher colleges”
( madrasas ) from the fifth/eleventh century onward,
and pious foundations (waqfs), resulted in a certain
professionalization of scholars, at least of groups
among them. In Cairo, for instance, between the sec-
ond half of the eighth/thirteenth century and the elev-
enth/seventeenth century, appointments to post in the
education were often controlled by the Mamluks or
by the intellectual elite itself. Concerning that, some
have spoken of the scholars at this time as an inter-
mediate class. Despite the evidence of social mobility,
this schlolarly elite experienced certain forms of self-
reproductions, if not inbreeding, and this led to the
emergence of veritable dynasties of scholars. Evolu-
tion toward professionalization reached its culminat-
ing point under the Ottomans, who among other
things established a hierarchy of muftis, presided
over by the senior mufti in Istanbul.

Scholarship and Scholars

Given the importance of the Qur’an in Islamic cul-
ture, the Quranic disciplines have played a great role
in education, activities, and works of scholars, first of
all exegesis. We can distinguish several periods in this
huge production. During the formative period three
types of exegesis emerged. The first type was para-
phrastic, such as the Meccan Mujahid b. Jabr (d. 104/
722), the Kufan Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/778), the
Kufan then Meccan Sufyan b. ‘Uyayna (d. 196/811);
most of these people were also traditionists and
jurists. The second genre was the narrative exegesis.
It featured edifying narratives, generally enhanced by
folklore from the Near East, especially that of the
Judeo-Christian milieu. To this genre belongs the
exegesis of al-Dahhak b. Muzahim (d. 105/723), who
delivered moral lessons to the young warriors of
Transoxiana, that of the genealogian and historio-
graph al-Kalbi (d. 146/763). The third genre was
legal exegesis, like the exegesis of Ma‘mar b. Rashid
(d. 154/770) in the recension of the Yemenite ‘Abd
al-Razzaq al-San'ani (d. 211/827). An intermediary
and decisive stage was the introduction of grammar
and the linguistic sciences, with works such as The
Literary Expression of the Qur’an of the Basran Abu
‘Ubayda (d. 210/825) or The Significations of the

Qur’an of the Kufan grammarian al-Farra’ (d. 207/
822). A latter development was represented by the
constitutive exegetical corpora, such as The Sum of
Clarity Concerning the Interpretation of the Verses of
the Qur’an of the Sunnite Abu Ja‘far al-Tabari
(d. 310/923), or Unveiling the Elucidation of the
Exegesis of the Qur’an of the Shaffite of Nishapur
al-Tha‘labi (d. 427/1035), or the commentary of the
Cordoban Malikite al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272), which is
especially oriented in legal matters.

This type of exegesis includes all the elements of
the different exegetical production of the previous
period: exegetical traditions coming from ancient exe-
getes, historical and legendary material, grammar,
variant readings, poetry of the ancient Arabs, legal
exegesis, and so on.

Scholars of all theological and/or “sectarian”
orientations were active in this realm: Mu‘tazilites,
such as Abu ‘Ali al-Jubba’i (d. 303/915) and Abu
1-Qasim al-Ka‘bi al-Balkhi (d. 319/931); Kharijite
Ibadites such as Hud b. Muhakkam (living in the
second half of the third/tenth century); Shi‘is such as
‘Ali al-Qummi (still alive in 307/919); Shi‘is who
were also Mu‘tazilites in theology, such as Abu
Ja‘far al-Tusi (d. 460/1067); and Sunnites who were
Ash’arites in theology, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
(d. 606/1210). Of course, the Qur’anic disciplines
do not constitute the whole of Islamic scholarship,
but it is a mirror of many of its components: grammar
and philology, poetry, hadith and traditions of the
ancient Muslims, law, and theology.

The sciences of traditions (‘ulum al-lwdith) were
matters necessary in the formation of every Muslim
scholar. Some of them, however, became more
specialized in this field, such as Ibn Hanbal (d. 241/
855), whose Summa of prophetical traditions
(Musnad) contains approximately thirty thousand
traditions, and al-Bukhari (d. 256/870), whose
Summa of traditions is the second book in Sunni
Islam after the Qur’an. This book, like others of the
same type, has been often commentated on.

It should be noted that the different genre of the
commentary and gloss in almost every field of knowl-
edge is one of the characteristics of Islamic scholar-
ship: in poetry, grammar, law, traditions, theology,
and so forth. To give only two examples, the com-
pendium on Arabic grammar, a poem in a thousand
verses (Afiyva) of the Andalusi grammarian Ibn
Malik (d. 672/1274) has been commented on several
hundreds of times; that has also been the case for the
Creed of Abu Hafs al-Nasafi (d. 537/1 142).

In Islamic scholarship the oral transmission of
knowledge has played a great role: memorizing the
Qur’an and vast quantities of traditions, as well as
poems and stories, was of major importance. However,

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SCHOLARSHIP

Muslim civilization was a civilization of the written
word. Both aspects, orality and literacy, are present
together in several ways of the transmission of know-
ledge from masters to students, for instance, in the
"license of transmission” ( ijaza), by which an author-
ized guarantor of a text or of a whole book (his
or her own book or a book received through a chain
of transmitters) gives the person the authorization to
transmit it in his or her turn. To the institutions
of Islamic scholarship belong also the journeys for
seeking knowledge.

Claude Gilliot

See also Education; Seeking Knowledge
Primary Sources

Manjais, William (Trans and annot). Le Taqrib de en-
Nawawi. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1902.
al-Qabisi, Abu 1-Hasan. Epitre detaillee sur les situations des
eleves, leur regies de conduite et cede des maitres, edition
of the Arabic text and translation by Ahmed Khaled.
Tunis: Societe Tunisienne de Diffusion, 1986.

Further Reading

Gilliot, Claude. Exegese, langue et theologie en islam.
L’exegese coranique de Tabari. Paris: Vrin (Etudes
Musulmanes, XXXII), 1990.

. "La transmission des sciences religieuses.” In Etats,

societes et cultures du monde musulman medieval Xe-XVe
siecle, II, edited by Jean-Claude Garcin et al, 327-351.
Paris: PUF (Nouvelle Clio), 2000.

et al. ‘“Ulama’.” El , X, 801-10: Joseph E. Lowry,

Devin J. Stewart, and Shawkat M. Toorawa (Eds). Law
and Education in Medieval Islam. Studies in memory of
Professor George Makdisi. Warminster: E. J. W. Gibb
Memorial Trust, 2004.

Makdisi, George. Rise of Colleges. Institutions of Learning
in Islam and the West, Edinburgh: EUP, 1981.

Melchert, Christopher. “The Etiquette of Learning in
the Early Islamic Study Circle.” In Law and education,
edited by Lowry et al., 33-44.

Rosenthal, Franz. Knowledge Triumphant. The Concept of
Knowledge in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1970.

. The Technique and Approach of Muslim Scholar-
ship. Roma: Pontificum Institute Biblicum (Analecta
Orientalia), 24, 1947.

Weisweiler, Max. “Das Amt des mustamli in der arabischen
Wissenschaft.” Oriens IV (1951): 27-57 .

SCHOOLS OF JURISPRUDENCE

Schools of jurisprudence (madhahib, sing, madhhab )
of law; literally means “a way,” and in the context of
Islamic law, a legal opinion attributed to a particular
individual or group.

Islamic law was largely the product of efforts of
private scholars operating in the major urban centers
of Islamdom, such as Kufa, Basra, Makka, Medina,

and Damascus. By the third century of the Islamic
era, legal opinions of these scholars began to be
attributed explicitly to individual authorities (muj-
tahid or imam), for example, the opinion of Malik
(madhhab Malik), rather than generically to a
particular locale, such as the opinions of the people
of Madina (“madhhab ahl al-madina” or “ara’ ahl
al-madina”). Because of the generally deferential
relationship that characterized post-third-century
jurists to the opinions of the various mujtahids, legal
specialists, beginning in this era, generally became
known as followers (, muqallidun ; sing, muqallid ) of
the teachings of a particular mujtahid, for example,
the followers of Malik (ashab Malik). Eventually,
legal specialists who deferred to the doctrines of a
particular mujtahid, such as Malik, became known
simply by their affiliation to that mujtahid (a Maliki).
Although Islamic legal history produced numerous
authorities universally recognized as mujtahids, only
four of the Sunni schools had adherents in numbers
sufficient to guarantee them an institutional role in
the governance of Islamicate societies — the Maliki,
Hanah, Shaffi, and Hanbali madhhabs.

The Maliki madhhab is affiliated with the teaching
of Malik b. Anas, who lived in Medina and was
thought to represent the legal opinions of the
Medinese. The Hanafi madhhab is affiliated with the
teaching of Abu Hanifa, who for most of his life lived
in Kufa, Iraq. Both Malik and Abu Hanifa lived in
the second Islamic century.

The Shafi‘i madhhab is affiliated with the teaching
of Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi‘i. Al-Shafi‘i studied
with many authorities throughout Islamdom, in-
cluding Malik b. Anas in Medina, and Muhammad
b. al-Hasan al-Shaybani and Abu Yusuf in Baghdad
(the two leading disciples of Abu Hanifa), before he
settled permanently in Egypt, where he died at the
beginning of the third Islamic century. The Hanbali
madhhab is affiliated with the teaching of Ahmad
b. Hanbal. Like al-Shafl‘i, Ibn Hanbafs teaching
was not associated with any particular geographical
school. Although Ibn Hanbal was reported to have
traveled extensively in pursuit of hadith, his scholarly
career was centered in Baghdad. Ibn Hanbal died
in the middle of the third Islamic century.

Unlike the Maliki and Hanafi schools, which
succeeded to the geographically based schools of the
Hijaz and Iraq, respectively, the Shafi'i and the
Hanbali schools were to a much greater degree de-
fined by their self-conscious adherence to an explicit
method of systematic legal reasoning. In particular,
al-Shafifi is credited with an attempt to transcend
the differences of the geographical schools that had
developed in the Islamic world by developing an
explicit methodology for legal argumentation set

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SCHOOLS OF JURISPRUDENCE

forth in his Epistle (al-Risala). Central to al-Shali'i’s
methodological innovation was his insistence that
the provenance of proof texts be subject to objective
corroboration. Accordingly, a hadith of the Prophet
Muhammad that was supported by an explicit and
uninterrupted chain of transmitters (isnad), all of
whom were known to be reliable because of their
knowledge and piety, and which is expressly attribu-
ted to the Prophet Muhammad, is a more reliable
indicator (dcdil) of the divine will than the opinion
of a Companion of the Prophet — no matter how
prominent — or a hadith whose isnad was formally
defective, either because the chain of authority was
incomplete, or because one or more of the reporters in
the isnad was not reliable. A fortiori, a validly cor-
roborated hadith of the Prophet Muhammad is
weightier than any analogy or other argument based
on legal reasoning (ijtihad).

Despite the influence of al-Shafi‘i on the form of
legal argumentation, however, his conviction that
consistent methodology could lead to legal uniformity
proved to be misplaced. Ibn Hanbal, unlike the other
three mujtahids, had greater influence in his capacity
as a scholar of hadith rather than for his legal opi-
nions, and indeed, many of his contemporaries and
near contemporaries did not even consider him a
jurist. Nevertheless, Ibn Hanbal’s conservative ap-
proach to law and theology was retained by his
followers, and the Hanbali madhhab gained a reputa-
tion as rigorous adherents to the apparent sense of
revelatory texts. Because they accepted ijtihad, their
scripturalism is distinct from the defunct Zahiri
madhhab, which rejected any ijtihad that attempted
to go beyond the apparent sense of revelation’s texts.

In response to the centrality that the Shafifis (and
to a lesser extent, the Hanbalis) afforded methodology,
the Malikis and the Hanafis were forced to recon-
struct the “methodology” that lay behind the ijtihad
of their founders. In so doing, the Malikis and the
Hanafis developed methodological doctrines that jus-
tified the doctrines of their predecessors while at the
same time acknowledging the basic proposition of
al-Shafi‘i — ijtihad was not applicable in the face of
conclusive textual evidence. For example, the Hanafis
introduced the interpretive concept of ‘umum al-balwa,
which was used to justify ignoring the apparent rule
communicated by a hadith in circumstances where the
alleged rule would be one of general (or near general)
applicability, but the practice of the community as
documented in the opinion of a Prophetic Compan-
ion or prominent scholars was not in conformity with
the teaching of that hadith. The Maliki concept of
“the practice of the people of Madina (‘amal cdd
al-madina) also served to preserve normative prac-
tices that appeared to conflict with formally authentic

hadiths. In each case, the Hanafi and the Maliki
doctrines functioned to reinforce the authority of
Prophetic sunna, while at the same time challenging
ShafiTs thesis that hadiths with formal isnads were the
most reliable historical source for discovering norma-
tive Prophetic practice, especially when solitary trans-
missions (khabar al-wahid) conflicted with well-
known and widespread religious practices. In any
case, the Malikis and the Hanafis developed theories
regarding the manner by which sunna should be docu-
mented that distinguished their approach to the
Prophet’s sunna from that of the Shalfis and the Han-
balis without challenging the supremacy of the
Prophet’s practice in determining Islamic normativity.

In addition to their differences vis-a-vis the Pro-
phetic sunna, it also appears (at least from interschool
polemics) that the Malikis and the Hanafis were more
willing to give practical reason, often in the form of
direct or indirect appeals to utility (sometimes called
istihsan, maslaha mursala, or sadd al-dhari’a), a great-
er role in the derivation of legal rules than the Shalfis
and the Hanbalis. Thus, whereas the Shafi‘is depre-
cated these techniques as little more than arbitrary
personal opinion, the Malikis and the Hanafis deemed
them to be central to the development of Islamic
substantive law. These differences can be exaggerated,
however. Prominent Shafifis, for example, played an
important role in articulating the jurisprudential the-
ory of the five universal ends of revealed law, with its
attendant doctrines of primary, secondary, and tertia-
ry goods (masali’) secured by the law, and the princi-
ple that, in the event of any conflict among various
commands or goals of the law, the law commanded
the maximization of net legal benefits. Accordingly,
the law would never command the performance of an
act designed to achieve a tertiary good if it would
preclude the satisfaction of a primary good. Likewise,
prominent Shafi‘i jurists writing in the area of public-
law advanced arguments rooted in utility despite their
Shafi‘i affiliation.

Historically, the Hanafi madhhab has had the
greatest institutional impact of all the madhhabs, as
a result of its close relationship first with the 'Abba-
sids and then with the Ottomans. To the extent that
Islamic law is still applied in modern jurisdictions, it is
often Hanafi law, subject to legislative reforms in
particular areas. Geographically, Hanafism spread
from Iraq to Iran, Central Asia, the Indian subconti-
nent, and Eastern Europe. Malikis dominated the
political and social life of Islamic Spain, North
Africa, and Islamic sub-Saharan Africa, and in earlier
periods of Islamic history, were influential in Egypt.
Today they are a distinct minority of Egyptian
Muslims, largely confined to Upper Egypt. Shalfis
historically have been predominant in Cairo and

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SCHOOLS OF JURISPRUDENCE

lower Egypt, Syria, and Palestine and, prior to the
Mongol invasion, Iran. Shafi‘is dominated the judicial
administration during the Ayyubid and Mamluk
periods and continued to predominate in Egypt,
Syria, Palestine, and Yemen. They have also become
the dominant school of law followed by the Muslims
living on the East African coast and Southeast Asia.
The Hanbalis, prior to the modern period, were polit-
ically the least significant of the madhhabs, both in
terms of their impact on the administration of the law
and in numbers of adherents. They have enjoyed a
renaissance in the modern era, however, as a result of
their relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
where the Hanbali madhhab is recognized as the
official law of the Kingdom.

In the modern era, as a result of multiple factors
that included colonialism, the rise of mass literacy,
and ideals of egalitarianism, the traditional madhhabs
have lost much, if not all, of their currency.

Muhammad H. Fadel

Further Reading

Coulson, Noel. A History of Islamic Law. Edinburgh
University Press, 1964.

Hallaq, Wael B. Authority, Continuity and Change in Islamic
Law. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Melchert, Christoper. The Formation of the Sunni Schools of
Law, 9"'-10' h Centuries C.E. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Schacht, Joseph. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford:
The Clarendon Press, 1964.

. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford

University Press, 1950.

SCRIBES, COPYISTS

One of the most important occupations in medieval
Muslim society was that of the scribe. This was due
primarily to the centrality of the Qur’an in Islamic
civilization and the resultant culture of the book.

As the need for copies of the Qur’an increased, and
new disciplines emerged, the corpus of Islamic litera-
ture grew rapidly, as did the number of educated
people. The search for religious knowledge became a
hallmark of Islamic society. This, in turn, created a
demand for numerous copies of existing works. With
this increased intellectual activity there coincides the
introduction and later the widespread usage of a new
writing surface: paper.

Although many manuscripts were copied by
scholars for their private use, the role of the profes-
sional scribe ( warraq) was significant throughout the
manuscript period. Indeed, the profession, called
wiraqah, came to characterize the intellectual life of
the period and was a cultural phenomenon of not
only the AH third/ninth CE and fourth/tenth

centuries but throughout the medieval period as
well. The warraq was a copyist, stationer, and book-
seller at the same time. Professional scribes and calli-
graphers became much-respected members of Muslim
society. Indeed, they formed a distinct class of people.

Normally, the scribe was responsible for the copy-
ing of the text itself. However, sometimes this func-
tion was shared with those who specialized in
orthography and vocalization. This practice goes
back to the early period of copying Qur’ans and is
evident in the later periods. On the other hand, the
same person often did this and other functions. The
most common phenomenon encountered in illumi-
nated books is one where the scribe was also the
illuminator/limner. Quite often, indeed, the scribe
was a jack-of-all-trades.

Many scribes were secretaries in the state chancery,
as well as famous scholars or other professionals,
such as imams, qadis, and the like, who practiced
this trade to earn their living. Indeed, to be engaged
in this profession was regarded as a mark of distinc-
tion and manliness. Thus a saying is attributed to the
Kufan traditionalist and lawyer Ibrahim al-Nakha’i
(d. ca. 69/717), “an aspect of manliness is to see ink
stains on man’s clothes and lips.” It is also related of
the vizier ’Ubayd Allah ibn Sulayman (d. 288/901)
that when he saw a yellow stain on his clothes, he
took ink, covered the stain with it, and said: “saffron
is the perfume of young maidens, whereas ink is the
perfume of men.” This, of course, does not mean that
the profession was the exclusive preserve of men. On
the contrary, medieval texts have preserved for us
several names of women scribes and calligraphers.

Since Islamic books are fundamentally products of
a religious culture, their makeup, that is, their internal
and external structure, clearly reflects Muslim piety.
It is important to bear in mind that these books, first
the copies of the Qur’an, but also works on hadith
and jurisprudence (fiqh), were regarded as sacred
objects. It is not surprising, therefore, that the copy-
ing of books was seen an act of worship ( ’ibadah ) or
that the conduct of the scribe came to be governed by
a well-defined set of rules, the religious etiquette
(adab). The reverent attitude toward books, but es-
pecially copies of the Qur’an, is also reflected in the
way in which worn-out books were disposed.

This religious etiquette of the scribe incuded such
standards as a pure intention (niyah), the state of
ritual purity (taharah), observation of the qiblah,
having a clean body, and wearing clean clothes. The
copyist or calligrapher was instructed always to begin
his or her work by writing the basmalah (“In the name
of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate”), followed
by the hamdalah (“praise be to God”) and tasliyah
(“prayer for the Prophet”), even if these formulae

704

SCRIBES, COPYISTS

were not in the exemplar. Furthermore, it was be-
lieved that an elegant, clear handwriting, but especial-
ly an elegantly executed basmalah, would earn the
scribe forgiveness of his or her sins.

All throughout the manuscript age there was a
tendency on the part of the scribe to preface his or
her name (normally in the colophon) with adjectives
of humility, such as servant (‘abd), poor (faqir),
wretched (haqir), sinner (mudhnib), or humble
(miskin). The name was usually followed by pious
invocations and prayers for longevity, God's grace,
and the forgiveness of sins.

From the early years of Islam the traditional
writing instrument was a reed pen or calamus
(qalcim). This word appears in the Qur’an several
times, and one chapter, namely surah 68, bears its
name (swat al-qalam). Before the reed was ready to
be used as a pen it had to be pared or trimmed to
create a nib by cutting off at an angle one of its
extremities. The nib was then slit at its end, usually
once in the middle, but for large scripts twice or even
three times. In most cases, however, the nib was
halved to create two half-nibs.

The most important aspect of nibbing was the
cutting of the point of the nib. Thus, for instance, in
the Middle East (Mashriq) the point was usually cut
either straight or at an angle, obliquely. The thickness
and the manner of cutting the nib had a direct impact
on the calligraphic style or script. The nibbing was
done on a nibbing block (miqattah) made either of
ivory or hard wood or animal bone. The pens were
kept either in a writing case or in a pen box.

The ink was often kept in its solid state, especially
when used by itinerant scribes. Inks were made either
for writing on paper or for writing on parchment. The
two types of inks used were carbon (soot) ink and
gallnut (tannin) ink. The soot was traditionally sus-
pended in gum arabic, honey, and water. The gallnut
ink, on the other hand, was made by mixing galls
(pulverized or fermented), vitriol, and gum arabic.
When mixed properly, it made a fine permanent
black ink, but when improperly mixed it produced a
highly acidic or encaustic ink that, over a period,
could cause burns in parchment or paper.

Inks were sometimes perfumed using camphor and
musk. Other ingredients sometimes added to ink were
aloe (to ward off flies and worms), honey, salt, vine-
gar, or yoghurt to act as preservatives and to prevent
or slow down the formation of mold. To dry the ink
on the freshly written surface the scribe would use
sand or sawdust.

Among other important implements used by
scribes were the ruler or straight edge, ruling board
(mistarah), scissors, and a burnisher for paper and
gold leaf. Arabic sources also mention a paperclip

used both for a roll and a codex, compass, or a pair
of dividers. Supports for copying paste or wooden
boards were also used.

Unlike the Western scribe who worked behind a
desk, Muslim scribes sat with one leg folded under
and the other bent. They held a sheet of paper (or a
quire) on their right or left knee. For a support, they
may have used the palm of their left hand or a paste-
board. Their calamus, when not in use, rested behind
their right ear or on a support, and they followed the
ancient custom of keeping their writing case stuck in
their girdle.

Scribes tried to reproduce the arrangement of the
original text and even imitate their teachers’ hand-
writing. The imitation of the handwriting of holy
people and scholars carried with it an inherent bless-
ing. A scribe’s attitude was expected to be marked by
humility and reverence toward books, knowledge,
and teachers.

Medieval literature provides many accounts of the
daily or lifetime output of famous scholar scribes and
calligraphers. Even though some of these accounts
may be exaggerated or embellished, they certainly
give us a picture of great activity consistent with the
prevailing preoccupations in literary and scholarly
circles. Thus, Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597/1200), one of the
most prolific authors in the Arab world, is said to
have written or recopied, according to his own ac-
count, two thousand volumes in all, that is, fifty to
sixty volumes per year (four quires per day = forty
folia = eighty pages). The great calligrapher Yaqut
al-Musta’simi (d. 698/1298) is reported to have copied
two sections (juz ") of the Qur’an every day, two
Qur’ans every month, and 1001 Qur’ans in his lifetime.

Although some scribes certainly enjoyed a good
standard of living, especially when working for
wealthy patrons, many others were underpaid to say
the least. Abu Mansur ‘Abd al-Malik al-Tha’alibi
(d. 429/1038), for instance, included the following
passage in his Kitab khass al-khass :

“A warraq was asked, ‘What is pleasure?’ He
answered, ‘parchments, papers, shiny ink and a
cleft reed pen.’ And when asked about his
condition, he replied, ‘my livelihood is narrower
than an inkwell, my body more slender than a
ruler, my rank (standing) more delicate than
glass, my face darker than vitriol, my lot more
concealed than the slit of a nib, my hand weaker
than a reed, my food comes from gall nuts, and
bad luck clings to me like gum arabic.’ ”

Libraries were often not just repositories of books
but also centers of learning where new works and
translations were created, and the copying and cor-
rection of books was a regular activity. Indeed, the

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SCRIBES, COPYISTS

medieval library was a privileged place for the copy-
ing of books. Although a scriptorium (a place where
the copying of books is done in a structured way), in
the Western sense of the word, did not exist, libraries
throughout the manuscript age, by providing paper
and pens for copyists, were an important factor in
the dissemination and transmission of texts. Major
libraries employed scribes to copy manuscripts for
their collections. On the other hand, workshops
(ateliers) bringing together painters, illuminators,
and calligraphers flourished under the Ilkhanids,
Timurids, Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans.

Adam Gacek

Further Reading

Beg, M.A.J. “Warra.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed. 11:
150-151.

Deroche, Francois et al. Manuel de codicologie des mami-
scrits en ecriture arabe. Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de
France, 2000, 112-167, 198-215.

. “Copier des manuscrits: remarques sur le travail

du copiste. ” Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la
Mediterranee 99-100 (2002): 1 33—144.

SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS, ISLAMIC

The exegetical literature written to elucidate the
Qur’an, called tafsir in Arabic, was the product of a
highly cultivated discipline of the religious sciences.
Tafsir became a cherished mode of self-articulation
for most of the sects in medieval Islam. In the classical
phase these works show a remarkable uniformity
across the different sects and Islamic languages
(whether Arabic, Persian, or Turkish). A tafsir work
usually commented on the whole of the ’Uthmanic
codex in its canonical sequence. The verses of the
Qur’an were commented on word by word, or phrase
by phrase, depending on the preference of the com-
mentator. More often than not these works were
sprawling, multivolume compositions that reflected
the significance and attention given to articulate the
meaning of the word of God.

Origins of Tafsir

The study of the early phase of tafsir has long engaged
modern scholars, yet there is no consensus as to how
far back we can push the beginning of this genre.
There is, however, enough evidence that some form
of exegetical activity was well advanced by the early
second/eighth century. The most significant groups of
works that stem from this period are two: the works

that have their origins in the school of Ibn ‘Abbas
(d. 69/688), and the work of Muqatil Ibn Sulayman
(d. 150/767). The works stemming from the school of
Ibn ‘Abbas do not comment on every word or verse in
the Qur’an, but do that rather selectively. Most of
these early works are lost and can now be studied
only to the degree that they are quoted in later
works. Muqatil’s work comments on almost all of
the Qur’an, and it set the tone for subsequent
commentaries.

The early phase of tafsir ended with the emergence
of a fully articulated grammatical theory that
explained the workings of Arabic language in a scien-
tific way. The publication of the work of Sibawayhi
(d. ca. 180/798) changed the course of the develop-
ment of tafsir, for it made possible an independent
analysis of the language of the Qur’an uncontrolled
by dogma. The publication of this book brought out
into the open the latent tension between a dogmatic
polemical reading of the Qur’an and a philological
reading that gave little heed to doctrinal considera-
tions. This tension became characteristic of the histo-
ry of tafsir. The creative impulse behind tafsir is thus
a paradoxical conflict between two mutually exclusive
axioms, both of which are central to the experience of
tafsir and were both held and affirmed at the same
time throughout the subsequent history of tafsir. The
first is that the Qur’an has to encompass everything
because it is the word of God eternal, and as such it
was spoken above history. In other words, the Qur’an
was made to justify later developments in dogma and
theology. The second axiom is philological, the reali-
zation that language can only mean one thing at any
moment. When they lacked a philological backing,
dogmatic interpretations soon had to be legitimized
through the process of giving precedence to earlier
authorities; thus the interpretations of scholars who
were part of the early phase of tafsir came to enjoy a
sort of canonical status in the Sunni camp, while the
Shi‘i imams came to enjoy that status for the Shi‘is.

Pre-Classical Phase

This is the phase that saw the rise of the grammatical
approach to the language of the Qur’an. Many works
stemming from this period concentrated on the lin-
guistically interesting parts of the Qur’an: difficult
constructions, unusual phraseology, rare and difficult
words, and possible variations in grammatical case
endings. Like the early phase, grammatical works
were selective in what they commented on. The writ-
ten ‘Uthmanic codex, with its lack of vocalization, has
given rise to different readings of various Qur’anic

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SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS, ISLAMIC

words, which became known as qira’at, or variant
readings. The new grammatical science was used to
justify, accept, or dismiss such readings. As such,
grammar was starting to act as a judge on some of
the traditional methods developed to safeguard the
transmission of the Qur’an. The battle was being
drawn now between the two camps, grammarians on
one hand and the Qur’an specialists on the other.
Eventually some sort of resolution to these issues
would come about, but the threat that philology
posed to traditional interpretation was always latent.
It is also important to draw attention to the fact that
philology was not unaffected by religious dogma.
The Arabic lexicon shows remarkable sensitivity to
theological issues, and at certain points is willing
to avoid conflict by siding with theology. Thus the
interplay between the two was far more complex a
phenomenon than might first appear. The major
works stemming from this period are those of Abu
‘Ubaydah (d. 209/825) and al-Farra’ (d. 207/822).

This pre-classical phase of the exegetical tradition
culminated in the publication of the monumental
work JamV al-bayan of al-Tabari (d. 310/923). JamV
al-bayan is nothing short of a consolidation of two
centuries of exegetical Sunni tradition. It sought to
collect, sift, and prescribe the most orthodox mean-
ings to the Qur’an. One virtue — and it has many —
was its attempt to be catholic in its taste. Material
from the formative period was wedded to the gram-
matical exegetical tradition and although al-Tabari
would more often than not weigh in to tell the reader
which of the many interpretations offered to a certain
verse was more valid than others, he nevertheless
made available to the reader the spectrum of various
interpretations current in the tradition of tafsir. Thus
the work remains one of our most complete registers
of lost early material. This marriage between the two
streams of the Sunni exegetical tradition came with a
heavy price, however, and a great license. Sunni scho-
lars admitted to the main premise of the philological
school: that divine speech, no matter how divine it
was held to be, was still comprehensible because it
was using conventional human language. In other
words, the language of the Qur’an was transparent
and decipherable through philology. The main prem-
ise of Sunni hermeneutical theory is that the literal
meaning of the text is the divine meaning. The text as
such is transparent — and as it happens the Sunni
dogmatic reading of the Qur’an was also claimed to
be nothing but its literal meaning — or such was the
premise. Yet, having allowed philology to be the bed-
rock of Sunni hermeneutics, the exegetes negated this
all-too-powerful restriction on their craft by allowing
for a polyvalent Qur’an. A philological reading of the
text did not mean one reading only. The Qur’an was

deemed to be capable of offering more than one
meaning to any verse at any single time.

The other important aspect of al-Tabari’s work is
that it introduced its material with a chain of trans-
mitters, in Arabic isnad. The science of exegesis was
now donning the mantle of a traditional science:
isnad. Soon this appearance would shield the tradi-
tional material from any criticism and thus obscure its
true origins: All exegetical material is based on noth-
ing more than the personal reflections of the respec-
tive exegetes. As Sunnism moved to consolidate its
grip on what is orthodox and what is not, it attempted
to limit the scope of meanings by enshrining the older
layer of exegetes as authoritative.

Meanwhile, other Islamic sects and intellectual
currents were busy issuing their own commentaries.
The most important of these were the Shi‘is, the
Mu'tazilitcs, and the Sufis. The early Shi‘i hermeneu-
tical practice was based on two premises, both for-
mulated in contradistinction to the Sunnite theory.
The first is that the language of the Qur’an has an
inner meaning (a batin), in addition to the literal
meaning (a zahir). The second premise was that this
inner meaning can only be made manifest through the
interpretations offered by the imams (the divinely
guided presumptive leaders of the community). The
major two figures in early Shi‘i exegesis are al-Kufi
(d. ca. AH 310/922 CE) and al-Qummi (alive around
260/873). When read thus, the Qur’an spoke of the
truth of the claims of the Shi’is against the Sunnis.

Little has survived of the exegetical material from
the early Mu‘tazilites, and we still await a study of
one of the major medieval M u'tazilitc commentaries
to survive: the Qur’an commentary of al-Jushami
(d. 494/1 101), which has early material now otherwise
lost. The mystical approach to interpreting the
Qur’an reached a stage of high development by the
time of al-Tustari (d. 283/896). The premise of this
approach was not unlike the Shi‘i method of stipulat-
ing two levels of meaning in the Qur’an, one literal,
which was of little concern to the mystics, and one
inner, the layer they were confident they could un-
earth. Invariably the mystics saw the inner meaning of
the Qur’an to cluster around two major themes:
God’s ineffable majesty, and the quest for a sort of
human perfection and connection to God.

Classical Phase

The emphasis in modern scholarship has been shifting
to the study of the better-documented classical peri-
od. Indeed, what we know about the six hundred
years of the later history of the medieval exegetical

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SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS, ISLAMIC

tradition is sketchy at best. Thus the Qur’an commen-
tary of the Mu‘tazilite al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144),
the closest we will come to a household name in this
field, is usually described in the secondary literature
as a philological and M u'tazilitc commentary. There
is, however, no study available that elaborates on
such broad characterizations. Moreover, no one
seems to be puzzled by the fact that al-Zamakhshari’ s
Mu‘tazilite commentary was preserved and highly
esteemed by the Sunni scholars.

The work of al-Tha‘labi (d. 427/1035) ushered
in the high classical phase of Qur’anic commentary.
Al-Thafiabi enlarged and perfected the trends started
by al-Tabari. First, he decided to collect indepen-
dently of al-Tabari the early material, in addition to
the material that had accumulated since al-Tabari’s
work. To allow space for this enlargement al-Thaiabi
dropped the use of isnad. He used no fewer than
seventy works as basis for his commentary. Thus the
work is our second most important source for the
early period, and for the fourth/tenth century. More-
over, al-Tha‘labi decided to include Shi‘i and Sufi
material in his commentary. This catholic encyclope-
dic spirit was hardly unique to Sunnism of this period.
The Shi‘i exegetes were busy making their commen-
taries more mainstream, thus swamping their Shi‘i
sympathies with a normative philological discourse.
Sufism, in the person of al-Qushayri (d. 465/1063),
attempted to give the literal sense a reverential nod.
The Mu’tazilite al-Zamakhshari produced what for
all practical purposes was a Sunnite mainstream com-
mentary. Finally, the exegetical tradition could no
longer ignore scholastic theology and philosophy,
and it would offer us the most important response in
the work of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1210).

The encyclopedic spirit that was behind the classi-
cal exegetical tradition came with a drawback. Works
were becoming unwieldy and soon the need arose for
more manageable works that could offer a summary
of the debates in those encyclopedic commentaries.
The rise of what I have termed the Madrasa (college)-
style commentary was a major development and
allowed the field to continue to grow and respond to
different intellectual developments. Finally, the rise of
Madrasas (colleges) after the fifth/eleventh century
produced a new genre of commentaries, the glosses.

Two major reactions to the Sunnite encyclopedic
approach should be mentioned. The first is philologi-
cal, the second is dogmatic. Soon after the work of
al-Thaiabi appeared, his student al-Wahidi (d. 468/
1076) would publish his magnum opus, al-Basit
(published 446/1054), in which he attempted to align
Sunnism with a thorough philological reading of the
Qur’an. The attempt horrified even its author. But
having sounded the alarm for the disaster awaiting

the Sunnite neglect of the challenge of philology,
orthodoxy soon mustered a far more daring response:
jettison philology and keep dogma. A reexamination
of the foundations of Sunnite hermeneutics became
thus inevitable, and having offered it, Ibn Taymiyya
(d. 728/1328) would challenge the field and reinvigo-
rate it. His radical hermeneutics would claim that
only Muhammad and his Companions knew what
the Qur’an meant. His call for purifying tafsir would
have to await the indefatigable al-Suyuti (d. 911/
1505). Luckily for us no one kind of tafsir was able
to negate the others, and medieval exegetical tradition
is one of the most intellectually interesting of the
medieval disciplines.

Walid Saleh

See also al-Suyati; al-Tabari; Fakhr al-Din al-Razi;
Hadith; Ibn Taymiyya; Madrasa; Mu‘tazilites; Qur’an;
Shi‘is; Sibawayhi; Sufis

Further Reading

For a medieval exemplar of Islamic scriptural exegesis
see: Beeston, A.F.L. Baidawi’s Commentary on surah 12
of the Qur'an: text, accompanied by an interpretative
rendering and notes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.

For the formative period see: Versteegh, C.H.M. Arabic
Grammar and Qur 'anic Exegesis in Early Islam. Leiden:
Brill, 1993; see also the relevant parts of Wansbrough,
John. Quranic Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1977. For early Shi‘i exegetical tradition see: Bar- Asher,
Meir M. Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imami Shiism.
Leiden: Brill, 1999.

For Sufi and mystical tradition see: Bowering, Gerhard.
The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The
Qur’anic Hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl at-Tustari
(d. 283/896). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980.

For classical period see: Saleh, Walid A. The Formation of
the Classical Tafsir Tradition: The Qur’an Commentary
of al-Thaiabi (d. 427/1035). Leiden: Brill, 2004.

SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS, JEWISH

Background

Because the Hebrew Bible is the Jewish scripture, its
interpretation has determined the shape of Judaism.
Biblical exegesis, therefore, has always been central
to Jewish religious and intellectual activity. Scholars
active in Islamic lands during the Middle Ages played
a key role in developing a rationalistic, philologically
based approach to scripture.

Jewish interpretation of the Bible dates to anti-
quity, when various exegetical approaches emerged,
including the prognostic pesher of the Qumran

708

SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS, JEWISH

community and the philosophical allegory of
Philo Judaeus (25 BCE-50 CE). Most widespread
and enduring was Rabbinic midrash, which literally
means “searching” scripture. Midrash seeks to
discover apparent difficulties or contradictions in
the Bible, which it then resolves through further
scrutiny of the text. The method demonstrates
scripture’s perfection, the significance of its every
detail, and its eternal relevance. Midrashic literature
encompasses a variety of genres, including expan-
sive Aramaic translations (targumim), exegetical
compilations, and anthologies of homilies. The
midrashic method is also used throughout the
Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds. Like all classic
rabbinic writing, this literature preserves the oral
character of preaching or teaching. Interpretations,
comments, or discussions are ascribed to ancient rab-
bis, and sometimes, short chains of transmission are
given. But the compilers who arranged the material
remain anonymous, revealing nothing of their edito-
rial methods and motivations. In certain respects,
then, classic rabbinic literature resembles early Islam-
ic writings, such as hadith (tradition) collections,
which do not yet betray the imprint of Greco-Arabic
scholarship.

Rabbanites and Karaites in the East
(Tenth-Eleventh Centuries)

During the late ninth century and tenth century, Jews
began composing full-fledged Bible commentaries.
Writing in Arabic, they drew upon Christian models,
while borrowing from the terminology and method-
ology of Quranic exegesis. Dawud Ibn Marwan
al-Muqammas (middle to late ninth century), an
Iraqi Jew who converted to Christianity and then
reverted to Judaism, wrote commentaries on Genesis
and Ecclesiastes that drew heavily upon older Syriac
works. Little of this work remains, but much of
the exegetical oeuvre of Sa'adyah Gaon (882-942)
and Samuel ben Hophni Gaon (d. 1013), and such
Karaites as Ya‘qub al-Qirqisani (d. after 938),
Japheth ben Eli (d. after 1006), and Abu’l-Faraj Ibn
Asad (mid-eleventh century) survives. Although these
commentaries remain rooted in rabbinic midrash,
they also evince familiarity with contemporary
Islamic, Christian, and philosophical texts. Like the
non-Jewish works that inspired them, they include
extended introductions that discuss theological,
methodological, and literary problems. They also fea-
ture full Arabic translations of the biblical text, de-
tailed philological comments, and lengthy digressions
on many different topics.

Three main factors prompted this outburst of exe-
getical activity. First, by the tenth century, many
eastern Jews knew Arabic better than Hebrew or
Aramaic, the traditional national languages. For
them, new Arabic translations and commentaries
made scripture accessible again. Although Sa’adyah’s
rendering — the first Arabic version of the entire
Hebrew Bible — is faithful to the original, it avoids
anthropomorphisms, resolves syntactic ambiguities,
and identifies obscure toponyms. It often circulated
independently of his commentaries. By contrast, the
Karaite translation’s extreme literalism defies good
Arabic usage; likely, they aimed at conveying the
original Hebrew as faithfully as possible. Second, as
Jews acculturated and gained an appreciation for
Islamic modes of thought and expression, they sought
to produce Jewish works on Islamic models. At the
same time, they responded to Muslim cultural and
religious claims for the superiority of the Arabic lan-
guage and the inimitability of the Qur’an, by striving
to demonstrate the excellence of Hebrew and the
perfection of the Bible. Consequently, they developed
the fields of Hebrew grammar and lexicography in
order to study the Bible scientifically. Finally, the
Rabbanite-Karaite debate revolved around biblical
exegesis — who was authorized to interpret scripture
and how it was to be interpreted. Here, too, Islamic
notions shaped the arguments. Rabbanites main-
tained, for example, that legal ambiguities (Ar.
mutashabbihat ; Q 3:7) in the Bible are all resolved by
the authoritative traditions preserved in the Talmud.
Karaites, however, insisted upon the interpreter’s
autonomy in determining the details of the Law.

Legal passages aside, Karaites and Rabbanites
alike strove to interpret the Bible contextually.
Sa’adyah and Japheth ben Eli both insisted that
every passage in scripture must be understood accord-
ing to its plain meaning, unless this would contradict
sense perception, human reason, or the evidence of
another passage. (Sa’adyah adds a fourth category:
tradition.) Like their Muslim contemporaries, there-
fore, they sought to identify and explain figurative
language (Ar. majaz) and parables (Ar. amthal ) in
scripture whose literal meaning would be absurd or
even blasphemous. For example, the statement that
Eve was “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20)
cannot be taken literally, since she was not the ances-
tor of lions or oxen; nor is God really “a devouring
fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), since fire can be created
and extinguished, whereas God is eternal and immu-
table. Consequently, these exegetes distinguished be-
tween the literal/exoteric (Ar. zahir) and the hidden/
esoteric (Ar. bat in) meanings of biblical expressions.
According to Sa’adyah, the plain sense of Proverbs
24:27 is that a man should have a profession before he

709

SCRIPTURAL EXEGESIS, JEWISH

marries; the hidden meaning is that he must attend
to the demands of this world before addressing the
concerns of the next.

A striking feature of Karaite exegesis from tenth-
century Jerusalem is its prognostic approach to bibli-
cal prophecies. Referring many passages to recent or
contemporary events, these sectarians found allusions
to the Fatimids (Numbers 24:21), the Carmathian
assault on Mecca (Daniel 11:31), and the Buyids
(Daniel 1 1:40). Like the pesher of the ancient Qumran
sectarians, this type of exegesis was fostered by an
apocalyptic worldview.

The Andalusian School

During the late tenth and early eleventh centuries,
Andalusia emerged as a leading Jewish cultural
center and Hebrew studies progressed dramatically.
Grammarians such as Menahem ben Saruq, Judah
Hayyuj, Abu’l-Walid (Jonah) Ibn Janah, and Moses
Ibn Chiquitilla set biblical Hebrew philology on a
sound basis by using their thorough knowledge of
Arabic and Aramaic effectively. At the same time,
exegetes such as Ibn Chiquitilla and Judah Ibn
Bifam produced concise, philologically oriented
commentaries on many biblical books. Rationalisti-
cally inclined, Ibn Chiquitilla offered naturalistic
explanations for certain biblical miracles, and referred
many biblical prophecies to events that transpired
in antiquity. Other Andalusians sought to discover
philosophical notions in the Bible. The jurist and
religious poet Isaac Ibn Ghiyath (1038-1089) com-
posed a Neoplatonic commentary on Ecclesiastes in
Arabic; within two generations, Bible commentaries
would become important conduits for the dissemina-
tion of philosophical ideas. Commentaries were not
the only works dedicated to biblical interpretation.
The poet and philosopher Moses Ibn Ezra
(ca. 1055-ca. 1135) devoted his Treatise of the Garden
to figurative and literal expressions in scripture and
much of his Book of Discussion and Conversation to
biblical poetics. Also, Moses Maimonides (1 135/38—
1204) wrote his Guide of the Perplexed (see later in this
entry) for philosophically informed readers of the
Bible.

During the mid-twelfth century, the greatest
Andalusian exegete, Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1089
ca. 1164), composed Hebrew commentaries in Chris-
tian Europe incorporating both the grammatical
advances and philosophical outlook of the Spanish
school. Since he also drew heavily upon the interpre-
tations of eastern Rabbanite and Karaite scholars,
Ibn Ezra became an important conduit for the

transmission of Judeo-Arabic learning in Latin Eur-
ope. (An extremely important, but largely indepen-
dent, exegetical school in northern Europe lies outside
the scope of this article.)

Maimonides and Later Exegetes

Completed in Egypt around 1 190, Maimonides'’ Guide
of the Perplexed was intended for scholars who found
certain biblical expressions to be incompatible with
philosophical truth. Drawing upon the rabbinic
dictum “the Torah speaks in human language,”
Maimonides declared that biblical anthropomorph-
isms and anthropopathisms must be understood met-
aphorically. References to God’s sitting or standing,
for example, connote His immutability ( Guide 1:11,
13); conversely, “seeing” or “beholding” God means
apprehending Him intellectually ( Guide 1:5). Maimo-
nides also interprets extended passages as philo-
sophical parables whose plain meaning (Ar. zahir),
intended for the uneducated masses, masks their
true, esoteric significance (Ar. hatin). His philosophi-
cal outlook, moreover, leads him to naturalize certain
miraculous events, such as Abraham’s encounter with
the three angels (Genesis 18), which he explains as a
prophetic vision ( Guide 2:42). He also rationalizes
ceremonial commandments, insisting that they are
not arbitrary enactments (Guide 3:28-49).

Jewish intellectual life in the East declined after
Maimonides’ death. To be sure, his direct line in-
cluded several important scholars, notably his son
Abraham (1186-1237) and his descendant, David II
Maimuni (fl. 1335-1415), both of whom composed
Bible commentaries imbued with Sufi notions.
Another exegete deserving of notice is Tanhum ben
Joseph ha-Yerushalmi (ca. 1220-1291), who commen-
ted on the entire Bible. Philologically rigorous, he
drew upon Arabic grammar and lexicography for his
explanations. A committed rationalist, he allegorized
certain biblical narratives, such as Jonah, which he
viewed as a parable about the soul.

Finally, a school of philosophically informed
exegetes developed in the Yemen during the
fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. Favoring a
homiletical style — they called their commentaries
midrashim — commentators such as Nethaneel ben
Isaiah, Zechariah the Physician, and Sa‘adyah ben
David drew upon rabbinic literature, Maimonidean
theory, and Ismaili notions for their unusual readings
of the Bible. For them, as for other exegetes living in
Islamic lands, Arabic furnished an important tool
for scriptural exegesis.

Daniel Frank

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SCULPTURE

See also Baghdad; Education, Jewish; Hebrew; Judeo-
Arabic; Karaites; Moses Maimonides; Sa‘adyah Gaon

Primary Sources

Abraham Ibn Ezra. Ibn Ezra’s Commentary on the Penta-
teuch. Vol. 1. Transl. H. Norman Strickman and Arthur
M. Silver. New York: Menorah, 1988.

Japheth ben Eli. A Commentary on the Book of Daniel by
Rabbi Jephet the Karaite. Ed. and transl. by D.S.
Margoliouth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889.

Moses Maimonides. The Guide of the Perplexed. Transl. S.

Pines. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Saadiah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi. The Book of Theodicy:
Translation and Commentary on the Book of Job. Transl.
L.E. Goodman. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1988.

. Rabbi Saadiah Gaon ’s Commentary on the Book of

Creation. Transl. Michael Linetsky. Northvale, NJ:
Jason Aronson, 2002.

Further Reading

Frank, Daniel. Search Scripture Well: Karaite Exegetes and
the Origins of the Jewish Bible Commentary in the Islamic
East. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004.

Langermann, Yitzhak Tzvi. Yemenite Midrash: Philosophi-
cal Commentaries on the Torah. New York: Harper
Collins, 1996.

Polliack, Meira. The Karaite Tradition of Arabic Bible
Translation: A Linguistic and Exegetical Study of Karaite
Translations of the Pentateuch from the Tenth to the
Eleventh Centuries. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997.

Sasbo, Magne (Ed). Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 1/1-2. 2 vols.
Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996-2000, esp.
Chaps. 25, 31, 33.

Simon, Uriel. Four Approaches to Psalms: From Saadiah
Gaon to Abraham Ibn Ezra. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.

Strack, H.L., and Gunter Stemberger. Introduction to the
Talmud and Midrash. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1996.

SCULPTURE

Among the forms of art produced in medieval Islamic
cultures, sculpture is frequently overlooked and its
prevalence is generally underestimated. Nevertheless,
sculpture, comprising the techniques of carving, cast-
ing, molding, and modeling and the work of art
produced by those techniques, was part and parcel
of the late-antique visual culture and continued for
centuries after the rise of Islam. Sculpture can be
divided into two modes. The first is work in low or
high relief used as surface decoration on architecture
and objects, with figural and nonfigural representa-
tion, made of stone, stucco, ceramic, wood, ivory, and
rock crystal. The second mode consists of freestand-
ing statues and figurines of human and animal forms,
often with potentially utilitarian functions, made of

cast metal, modeled or molded ceramic, and probably
also of carved wood and stone. The focus here will be
on freestanding and high-relief figural sculpture,
which, in contrast to low-relief nonfigural sculpture,
has received little attention.

For the early period, copious examples of very
high-relief stucco sculpture have been found in the
eighth-century Umayyad country estates of Qasr
al-Hayr al-Gharbi (Syria) and Khirbat al-Maijar
(Jordan). Most of these may be said to derive from
the late-antique artistic tradition employed in the
Byzantine and Sasanian realms, with representations
of enthroned rulers, dancers, attendants, and hunters
applied to walls and domes. Beyond contributing to
the aura of princely pleasure in the court, the icono-
graphic programs of these works were probably keyed
into Umayyad cultural and imperial ambitions.

Similar ambitions may have motivated the place-
ment of statues that turned with the wind over the
domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the
Round City of Baghdad founded in the mid-eighth
century by the ‘Abbasids. As reported in the sources,
the Green Dome of the palace was surmounted by
the statue of a horseman carrying a lance that was
believed to point toward the enemy. This public spec-
tacle of wind-powered statues had its private counter-
part in the ‘Abbasid palaces where automata of
various types were prominently displayed. The taste
for conspicuous displays of statuary survived the slow
disintegration of the ‘Abbasid empire. In particular,
animal statues in metalwork designed as fountains —
attributable to Fatimid Egypt and to caliphal and
post-caliphal Spain — reveal the ongoing fascination
with “animated” statues. Such playful statues were
produced in both small and large scale, the latter
exemplified by the famously mysterious Pisa griffin,
as well as the fountain lions of the Alhambra.

In the eastern Islamic world, stucco continued to
be used for high-relief sculpture of figural subjects. A
number of nearly life-size stucco figures of attendants
have been attributed to twelfth- and thirteenth-
century Iran, but the precise nature of their architec-
tural contexts remain unknown. In contemporary
Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, stone was the
primary medium for high- and low-relief figural
sculpture that adorned city gates and walls. At the
same time, there was a rise in the production of small
figurines in metal and ceramic. Many of these were
conceived as vessels or incense burners, but it was the
figural form rather than potential functionality that
had primacy in design. Thus the famous Hermitage
bull — cast in bronze with its suckling calf and a pre-
datory if diminutive feline on its back — could have
contained liquid, but such a function was secondary
to its visually engaging overall design. Other forms

711

SCULPTURE

produced in ceramic include equestrian figures and
more remarkable vessels in the form of breastfeeding
women, or objects in the form of courtyard dwellings
with an assembly of figures. The lack of knowledge
about the contexts of such objects has hindered
meaningful interpretation, although they are less
puzzling if they are considered as part and parcel of
the contemporary rise in figural art in general. The
display of figural statues as fountains also continued
to be appreciated in this period, as evidenced by three
ceramic examples found in Raqqa, which depict a
rooster, a sphinx (David Collection, Copenhagen),
and a horseman spearing a serpent (National
Museum, Damascus).

In addition to extant examples of medieval Islamic
sculpture, there is considerable textual evidence for a
cultural interest in famous sculptural works, which
can be gleaned from moralizing and entertaining dis-
course on images and image making. The high-relief
Sasanian sculpture of Khusraw Parviz on horseback
at Taq-i Bustan, for example, appealed to the popular
imagination as an epitome of artistic skill and
functioned as a didactic motif in edifying stories.
Ultimately, medieval Islamic sculpture may be better
understood as an integrated, rather than a discrete,
art form that partook of various cultural products
ranging from ceremonial and propaganda to folk-
lore, literature, and the other visual arts, especially
painting.

Oya Pancaroglu

See also Architecture, Secular: Palaces; Ceramics;
Marvels and Wonders; Metal Work; Painting

Further Reading

Baer, Eva. “A Group of Seljuq Figural Bas Reliefs.” Oriens
20 (1967): 107-124.

Ettinghausen, Richard. From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran
and the Islamic World. Three Modes of Artistic Influence.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972.

Gibson, Melanie. The Enigmatic Figure: Islamic Glazed
Ceramic Sculpture 1100-1250. Ph.D. dissertation. Uni-
versity of London, forthcoming 2005.

Gierlichs, Joachim. Mittelalterliche Tierreliefs in Anatolien
und Nordmesopotamien. Tubingen: Ernst Wasmuth
Verlag, 1996.

Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. Rev. ed. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

Grube, Ernst J. “Islamic Sculpture. Ceramic Figurines.”
Oriental Art 12 (1966): 165-175.

Hamilton, R.W., and Oleg Grabar. Khirbat al-Mafjar.
An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1959.

Hillenbrand, Robert. “La Dolce Vita in Early Islamic Syria:
The Evidence of Later Umayyad Palaces.” Art History 5
(1982): 1-35.

Lassner, Jacob. The Topography of Baghdad in the Early
Middle Ages. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970.

Loukonine, Vladimir, and Anatoli Ivanov. Lost Treasures
of Persia. Persian Art in the Hermitage Museum.
Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 1996, esp. cat. nos.
84, 87, 92-93, 100-101, 103, and 127.

Melikian-Chirvani, A.S. “Les taureaux a vin et les cornes a
boire de l'lran islamique.” In Histoire et cultes de VAsie
centrale preislamique, edited by Paul Bernard and Frantz
Grenet, 101-125. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale
de la Recherche Scientifique, 1991.

. “The Wine Birds of Iran from Pre-Achaemenid to

Islamic Times.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 9 (1995):
41-97.

Otto-Dorn, Katharina. “Figural Stone Reliefs on Seljuk
Sacred Architecture in Anatolia.” Kunst des Orients 12
(1978-1979): 103-149.

Pancaroglu, Oya. “Signs in the Horizons: Concepts of
Image and Boundary in a Medieval Persian Cosmogra-
phy.” Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 43 (2003): 31-41.

Redford, Scott. “The Seljuqs of Rum and the Antique.”
Muqarnas 10 (1993): 148-156.

Rice, Tamara Talbot. “Some Reflections Aroused by Four
Seljukid Stucco Statues.” Anatolica 2 (1968): 112-121.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M. “Persian Islamic Stucco Sculptures.”
The Art Bulletin 8 (1931): 439M63.

Rogers, J.M. “On a Figurine in the Cairo Museum of
Islamic Art.” Persica 4 (1969): 141-179.

Schlumberger, Daniel. Qasr e-Heir el-Gharbi. Paris:
Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1986.

Soucek, Priscilla P. “Farhad and Taq-i Bustan: The Growth
of a Legend.” In Studies in Art and Literature of the Near
East in Honor of Richard Ettinghausen, edited by Peter
J. Chelkowski, 27-52. New York: New York University
Press, 1974.

. “Solomon’s Throne/Solomon’s Bath: Model or

Metaphor.” Ars Orient alis 22 (1993): 109-134.

SEDENTARISM

Within the civilizatory process in the Old World
Dryland Belt, where nomads/pastoralists and se-
dentists/agriculturalists practice antipodal lifestyles,
sedentarism exists when agricultural or artisanal activ-
ities become the primary factor governing the rhythm
of life and the organization of time (Herzog 1954).
In this context, empirical nomadism studies and prac-
tical experience generally assume an evolution from
full nomadism, seminomadism/mountain nomadism
to transhumance/alpine cattle breeding (farming) to
agriculture. Regarding the underlying process, a dis-
tinction is made between sedentization (based on free
and independent decision) and sedentarization (the
forced result of external intervention).

There are two contending approaches in the
civilization theory debate. In Ibn Khaldun’s three-
generation theory, umran badawi (nomadic mobility)
and umran hadari (sedentary cultivation), are the
(primitive) beginning and (civilized) peak/outcome
of a general pattern of social evolution (Alafenish
1982). By contrast, the theory of nomadism as a
socioecological mode of culture sees nomadism and

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SEDENTAR1SM

sedentarism as (the only) meaningful and inter-
changeable alternatives. Throughout the Old World
Dryland Belt, ecological and/or political constraints
caused these survival strategies to recur and/or alter-
nate in time and space (Scholz 1995, 2001). This
contention is corroborated by ethnoarchaeological
(Cribb 1991; Francfort 1990) and historical studies
attributing the shift between sedentarism and mobili-
ty to changes in the ecological, social, and political
settings (see Scholz 1995). Drought, famine, disease,
animal deaths, the rise and fall of empires, population
pressure, raiding, tribal conflicts, and wars are
regarded as governing factors.

Roman rule on the Arabian peninsula (second
century CE), Arab incursions into the fertile lands of
the Nile (seventh century), the migration of the Beni
Hilal tribes in North Africa (eleventh century) or the
Mongol invasions of Western Asia (thirteenth centu-
ry) triggered a wave of Bedouinization (Caskel 1953;
Planhol 1975: “medieval Bedouinization”). However,
similarly significant sedentization processes were acti-
vated (Elders 1980; Leidlmair 1965), and the invaders
were assimilated (Herzog 1954). This is documented
by many place names in North Africa and Western
Asia indicating a nomadic-tribal origin, such as banil
beni (tribe) or bilad (brother) (for example, Bilad
Bani Bu Ali/Oman). According to Oppenheim (1939—
1952), similar processes occurred in what are now
Syria and Iraq and caused the invasions of Anatolia
by Timur (fourteenth century) and the Turkmen
(sixteenth century) (Braudel 1990), where nomadism
was replaced by sedentary agriculture in the West,
yet burgeoned again in the East. Sedentization also
occurred in Inner Oman, for example (after the ninth
century approximately), where former Bedouin immi-
grants from southern and central Arabia used water
in the wadis of Jabal Akhdar or Wadi Batha and
became sedentary oasis farmers (Wilkinson 1972).
Nomads also settled on the floodplains of the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, the alluvial fans at the foot of
the Zagros Range, the water-rich wadis at the south-
ern edge of the Atlas and the northern edge of
the Hindu Kush (Afghanistan), or the lowland bays
of the southern Taurus (Antalya, Cukurova) on the
Anatolian Peninsula, and the Kithar Range (Las
Bela, Kachhi) in Baluchistan. Similarly, it is likely
that the nomadic Baluchi who entered the Indus val-
ley from the west (ninth century) soon adopted a
semisedentary or sedentary way of life (Wissmann,
1961), like the Seraikis who advanced into the flood-
plains of the Punjab from the Cholistan Desert in
the east.

Even the foundation of towns or oases such
as Agades, Kanem, Bilma, and Kufra in North
Africa; Nizwa, Ibri, Kuwait, Doha, and Liwa on the

Arabian Peninsula; or Kalat, Kharan, and Panjgur in
Baluchistan was the outcome of nomadic settlement
or semisettlement. The town of Meknes (eleventh
century) was founded by former Berber nomadic
herders; Timbuktu resulted from the sedentization of
Tuareg nomads in the eleventh century (Herzog 1954).
The horizontal social pattern typical of Islamic-
oriented towns, that is, their division into quarters
according to ethnic groups (Bobek 1950-1951), is
both the expression and the result of the incursion
of nomadic groups into urban settlements.

Not infrequently, sedentarism of nomadic tribes
led to the creation of empires (Klengel 1972). For
instance, Westermann (1949) attributes the empires
of western Sudan to the activities of Berber tribes,
who — as Herzog (1954) concludes — lived at least a
partly nomadic life. The Brahui confederation in
Baluchistan can be interpreted as the outcome of
partial sedentization of the Dravidian nomads in
Sarawan and Jhalawan (eastern Iranian mountains/
Baluchistan) (Scholz 2002). Also — not least owing to
partial sedentarism in the valleys in the southern arc
of the central mountain massif (Hindu Kush) —
Pashtunization (the settling of nomadic/Pashtun
groups in areas belonging to other tribes) enabled the
Pashtun Durrani (the predominant nomadic group
in the area of present-day Afghanistan) to create an
empire stretching from Seistan west of the Iranian
mountains to the Indus lowlands in the east during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Grotzbach
1990). Nor should we forget the Fertile Crescent of
northern Syria, where Cherkessian farmers were
settled to defend the land against nomads in the
nineteenth century (sedentarization; Wirth 1963).

Sedentarization and sedentization of nomads/
Bedouins — sedentarism — have prevailed throughout
the Old World Dryland Belt since the end of the
nineteenth century. Settlement processes were
initiated by Ottoman rulers (A1 Wardi 1972), closely
followed by the colonial powers with the aim of
controlling and making political use of the nomadic
tribes. Today, sedentarism is demanded/imposed
and promoted by national governments. By contrast,
the traditional nomadic mode of culture as an eco-
logically adapted subsistence strategy is considered
outdated and is being consistently eliminated by
sedentarization policies.

Fred Scholz

Further Reading

Alafenish, Salim. “Die Beduinen in Ibn Khalduns
Wissenschaft.” In Nomadismusein Entwicklungsproblem?
Abhandlungen des Geographischen Instituts — Anthropo-
geographie. Band 33. Ed. Fred Scholz and Jorg Janzen,
119-129. Berlin, 1982.

713

SEDENTARISM

A1 Wardi, Ali. Soziologie des Nomadentums. Neuwied:
Darmstadt, 1972.

Bobek, Hans. Soziale Raumbildungen am Beispiel des
Vorderen Orients. In Abhandlungen d. 27. deutschen
Geographentages Mtinchen. Landshut 1948, 193-206.

Braudel, Fernand. Das Mittelmeer und die mediterrane Welt
in der Epoche Philipps II. I. Band, Frankfurt a.M., 1990.

Caskel, W. “Die Bedeutung der Beduinen in der Geschichte
der Araber.” In Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Forschung des
Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften.
Vol. 8. Koln: Opladen, 1953, 7-26.

Cribb, Roger. Nomads in Archaelogy. New York, Port
Chester, Melbourne, Sydney. Ehlers, Eckard. “Die Ent-
nomadisierung iranischer Hochgebirge — Entwicklung
und Verfall kulturgeographischer Hohengrenzen in vor-
derasiatischen Hochgebirgen.” In Hohengrenzen in
Hochgebirgen, edited by Ch. Jentsch and H. Liedtke,
311-325. Arb. A, d. geogr. Inst. D. saarlandes, Bd. 29,
Saarbriicken, 1980.

Francfort, H.-P. (Ed). Nomades et sedentaires en asie cen-
trale. Paris: Apports de l’archeologie et de Pethnologie.

Grotzbach, Erwin. Afghanistan. Darmstadt, 1990.

Herzog, Rolf. “Veranderungen und Auflosungserscheinun-
gen im nordafrikanischen Nomadentum.” In Paideuma,
Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde , Bd. Vi, H. 1. Wiesbaden,
1954, S. 210-223.

Klengel, Horst. Zwischen Zelt und Palast. Die Begegnung
von Nomaden und Sesshaften im alten Vorderasien. Wien,
1972.

Leidlmair, Adolf. “Umbruch und Bedeutungswandel im
nomadischen Lebensraum des Orients.” Geogr. Zeitschrift
53, 85-100.

Oppenheim, Max v. Die Beduinen. Band 1-3. Leipzig, 1939-
1952.

Planhol, Xaver de. Kulturgeographische Grundlagen der
islamischen Geschichte. Zurich, Miinchen, 1975.

Scholz, Fred. Nomadismus. Theorie und Wandel einer sozio-
okologischen Kulturweise. Stuttgart, 1995.

. “Nomads/Nomadism in History.” In Intern. Ency-
clopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam,
Paris, New York, Oxford, 2001, Article-Nr. 3.7.108,
10650-10655.

. Nomadism and Colonialism. A Hundred Years of

Baluchistan 1872-1972. Oxford/Krachi, 2002.

Westermann, Dietrich. Die Volkwerdung der Hausa.
Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissen-
sachaften zu Berlin, Jahrgang 1949, 12.

Wilkinson, John, C. “The Origin of the Omani State.” In
The Arabian Peninsula: Society and Politics, edited by
Hopwood, Derek, 67-88. London, 1972.

Wirth, Eugen. “Die Rolle tscherkessischer ‘Wehrbauern’
bei der Wiederbesiedlung von Steppe und Odland im
osmanischen Reich. Bustan , 4, H. 1, 16-19.

Wissmann, Hermann v. "Bauer, Nomade und Stadt im
islamischen Orient.” In Die Welt des Islam und die
Gegenwart, edited by Rudi Paret. Stuttgart, 1961.

SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge and faith are equated in the Qur’an. This
identification, however, was not left undiscussed by
subsequent generations of Muslim scholars. “Seeking/
searching for knowledge” (talab al-‘ilm) does not
necessarily refer to extensive journeys, but it is the

case when the context indicates it or in the expression
“The journey for seeking knowledge.” This knowledge
is usually equated with traditions of Muhammad (and
his Companions), that is, the Hadith.

The specialists of hadith, like al-Khatib
al-Baghdadi (d. AH 463/1071 CE) in his book The
Journey for seeking hadith , base themselves on a well-
known tradition attributed to Muhammad: “Search
for knowledge even as far as China, for this is incum-
bent upon every Muslim.” It is a spurious tradition,
also from the point of view of hadith criticism among
Muslim scholars; only they label it “weak,” as far as
its chain of authorities (isnad) is concerned, and
“sound” in its signification. It was probably put into
circulation circa 150/767. What it may be, there are
lengthy discussions in books of the import of the
statement that knowledge is a duty (farida), whether
or not it is a duty in the legal sense, and which types
of knowledge are individual duties and which are
community duties (that is, not incumbent upon
every member of the Muslim community).

Other traditions were attributed to Muhammad on
the same matter, such as: “He who sets out searching
for knowledge, verily the angels joyfully spread their
wings to which he is searching for, he sets out on a
path that leads to paradise.”

The feverish desire to know what Muhammad had
said and done in every thing increased in intensity.
The enormous mass of traditions attributed to him
became bigger still in the first/seventh century and
the first half of the second/eighth century. They had
been accumulated by Companions and Followers,
and followers of the Followers, who were scattered
throughout the Islamic world, or they were forged.
Some of the “searchers for knowledge” displayed an
enormous activity, undertaking long and hazardous
journeys from the Guadalquivir to the Oxus in order
to hear a hadith from the lips of one who claimed to
have it in succession of Muhammad. According
to al-Darimi (d. 255/869), a man came from Medina
to Damascus to hear a tradition from the Companion
Abu 1-Darda’; this tradition was the following:
“Whoso travels a road in search of knowledge will
God lead in a road to paradise. Verily the angels
joyfully spread their wings over him who is seeking
knowledge. All creatures in heaven and earth and
even the fishes in the depth of waters pray for the
learned man (or scholar, ‘alini). His superiority over
the worshiper is as that of the full moon over the
stars. The learned men (or scholars) are the heirs of
the prophets. They do not herit a dinar and not a
dirham, but they herit knowledge ”

This statement atttibuted to Muhammad is a put-
ting together of different declarations, also known in
other contexts. It has its origins in a period in which

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SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

debates took place concerning the best knowledge or
the best scholars. One of the weapons in this “war”
consisted in prophetical hadith and/or traditions from
the early generations of Muslims. Was the best
knowledge one of the Qur’anic disciplines, the hadith,
the biography of the Prophet, or jurisprudence and
connected matters (fiqhp. For instance, the son-in-
law of the great exegete Muqatil b. Sulayman, Abu
‘Isma (Nuh b. a. Maryam, d. 173/789), a student of
Abu Hanifa (d. 150/767) and a judge in Marv, was
asked on traditions that he transmitted from the
Companion Ibn ‘Abbas about “the excellencies of
the Qur'an sura by sura,” although transmitters of
‘Ikrima, one of the students of Ibn ‘Abbas, did not
possess them. He replied: “I saw that people had
turned away from the Qur’an and occupied themselves
with the fiqh of Abu Hanifa and The Military Cam-
paigns of the Prophet (maghazi) of Ibn Ishaq, so I
forge this tradition seeking reward in the next world.”
It seems that the predominant characteristic of the
various centers in which in early Islam traditions were
collected and recorded, was their regionalism. So we
should distinguish between “seeking knowledge” and
“traveling in quest of knowledge.”

This last activity became a general practice at a
relatively late date. The first scholars who are said to
have practiced it are people who died between be-
tween 150/767 and 180/796. Sometimes ‘Abd Allah
b. Mubarak (d. 181/797) is said to have been the
first of them. He is a well-known traditionist of
Marv, who wrote a book in which he collected
traditions on the Holy War, a community duty in
which he took part in Syria against the Byzantines.
He was a rich tradesman who enterprised journeys
to Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen, not only for the
purpose of seeking knowledge but also for his own
business. Many scholars in the following generations
were also tradesmen. For a lot of them, the pilgrimage
to Mecca was the occasion of very extensive journeys,
especially students or scholars coming from Muslim
Spain or from Northern Africa.

The example of the exegete, traditionist, jurist,
and historian al-Tabari (d. 310/923) is representative,
among thousands of others, of what traveling in quest
of knowledge practically means. After having learned
the Qur’an by heart at the age of seven and studied
traditions of the Prophet since he was age nine,
al-Tabari left his hometown of Amol in Tabaristan,
and his parents, at the age of twelve in 236/850. He
received his further schooling in Rayy (site of present-
day Teheran), where he remained almost five years;
there he was formed in the Hanafi law and the histo-
riographical traditions of Ibn Ishaq transmitted to him
by Muhammad b. Humayd al-Razi, who was also one
of his masters in hadith and Qur’anic exegesis.

Then he left for Baghdad, where he wanted to
attend the lessons of Ibn Hanbal in hadith, but
when he arrived in the caliphal capital (241/855), the
master was dead. However, he could attend there the
lessons of other masters, not only in hadith but also
on Shafi’ite law (the ancient doctrine of al-Shafi’i; he
then became acquainted with “the new doctrine of
al-Shafi’i” in Egypt). Rather soon, he left Baghdad
to continue his study in Basra and Kufa, including
Wash on the way, attending other lessons on Qur’anic
exegesis, hadith, life of the Prophet, and so on. He
returned to Baghdad about 244/858, where he became
the tutor of the young son of a wazir.

In 248/962, al-Tabari was in in his late twenties
and an acknowledged scholar, when he again left
Baghdad, this time to Egypt. This journey included
visits to Syria and Palestine. In Beirut, for instance, he
had the opportunity to study the variant Qur’anic
readings of the Syrian school and the legal views of
al-Awza‘i (d. 157/774), Syria’s most prominent jurist.

He had attended lessons also in Homs (Emesa),
Ramlah, Damascus, and Jerusalem, among others.
He arrived in Egypt in 253/867, and perhaps again
in 256/870, after being returned to Syria, and proba-
bly having performed the pilgrimage. In Fustat he
profited from the knowledge of Yunus b. al-A‘la
al-Misri (d. 264/877), a leading scholar in the field of
hadith and Qur’an reading. But the greatest boon that
he reaped during his sojourn in Egypt was an increased
understanding of the Maliki and Shafi’i legal system.
For the second one, his main authority was al-Rabi‘
b. Sulayman al-Muradi (d. 270/884), from whom he
learned “the new doctrine of al-Shafi’i”; but in the
same time al-Tabari could teach there “the ancient
doctrine of al-Shafi’i,” which he had learned in
Baghdad. Among his many contacts in Egypt, the
most important was probably the one with the eminent
Ibn al-Hakam family, whose members had been
intimately connected with al-Shafi’i himself. They
were also outstanding representatives of the Maliki
legal system.

On his return to Baghdad, after 256/870, he had
fifty years of scholarly activity there. He appears
never to have married. The tremendous volume of
work he accomplished evoked the admiration of all
scholars. It is said that he used to write fourteen (or
up to forty!) folios every single day.

Given the importance of “seeking knowledge” and
“traveling in quest of knowledge,” the relation be-
tween masters and students, and also the importance
of a so-called sure continuity of transmission of ha-
dith and other matters, one should not be astonished
of a great literary production in the field of prosopog-
raphy. Toward the second half of the third/ninth
century, traditionists began to write special books,

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SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

often arranged alphabetically as dictionaries, on the
masters they had encountered during their studies
and journeys for the research of science, meaning
with that above all hadith, and including especially
those masters from whom they had received a certi-
ficate (ijaza) to transmit “science” to others. These
books could have different titles, such as The Masters
( mashyakha ) or Dictionary of the Masters of. . .. Some
of them contain very precise dates or data (the place
where the lessons were held, the number and/or the
names of participants). We may mention here the case
of the great Alexandrian traditionist Abu Tahir
al-Silafi (d. 576/1180). He wrote a Dictionary on his
masters in Baghdad and The Dictionary of Journey , in
which he assembled entries on scholars whom he had
met outside Baghdad and Isfahan, and more spe-
cifically in Alexandria (Egyptians, Maghribis, among
others).

Others wrote indexes of disciplines, genres and
books, or bio-bibliographical dictionaries. The oldest
and most important is the Index of the Baghdadian
copyist and bookseller (warraq) Ibn al-Nadim
(d. 380/990 or 385/995). Mention should be made of
the Index of Books and Masters of Ibn Khayr of
Seville (d. 575/1179), and of the Well Established
Confluent of the Alphabetical Index of the Egyptian
Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (d. 852/1449).

Scholars wished to be very accurate in the correct
pronunciation of proper names: names of transmit-
ters and authors (rijal), ethnic names (ansab), geo-
graphical names, and so on. For this reason many of
them devoted themselves also to the writing of special
books in these fields, also a branch of prosopography.
The great traditionist of Marv, Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani
(d. 562/1166), for instance, composed the Book of
Genealogies and Proper Names and two Dictionaries
of Masters, in which we also find precise data on the
localities he has visited. Special books were also writ-
ten on “different and connected” names, for example,
The Connected and Different (in the names of trans-
mitters and the like) by al-Daraqutni (385/995), which
was completed by the Reshaping of Achievement of the
Connected and Different, by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi.
Another Baghdadian, Ibn Makula (d. 486/1093, or
other dates) wrote the Perfect for Removing Doubt
about the Connected and Different Proper Names or
Names of Relation.

We have, above all, spoken here of seeking knowl-
edge in religious sciences that appear in the “direct
formation” of scholars, but many of them had also
what we have called elsewhere an “indirect forma-
tion,” which was more personal, not passing by the
usual ways of learning and not always recognized, for
instance, in the “foreign sciences,” coming from
the Greek and Syrian legacies: philosophy, medicine,

astronomy, and so on. Tabari, for instance, was
acquainted with arithmetics and algebra. He had a
certain mastery of logic, dialectics, and, indeed Greek
philosophy (fcdsafa). Medicine was one of his great
interests. The important medical encyclopedia the
Paradise of Wisdom, by ‘Ali b. Rabban (viv. 2nd/
ninth century), a Christian who converted to Islam,
became Tabari’s medical Bible.

Of course, it was not the case of every scholar,
because many of them — often qualified as “Hanbali
in theology” ( hanbali al-usul), that is, not only people
pertaining to the Hanbali law school — were not only
opposed to the knowledge of the foreign sciences but
also to the practice of speculative theology (kalam).

Seeking knowledge remained a principle and a
reality during the different periods of classical Islam.
But the practice of traveling in quest of knowledge
disappeared in the course of time. At the end of the
Mamluk period a lack of enthusiasm for it has
been noticed, and it is difficult to find a single Egyp-
tian scholar who practiced it after Shams al-Din
al-Sakahawi (d. 902/1497).

Claude Gilliot

Further Reading

Dickinson, Eerik. The Devlopment of Early Sunnite Hadith
Criticism. The Taqclima of Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi ( 240/
854/327/938). Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Gilliot, Claude. Exegese, Langue et Theologie en Islam.
L’exegese coranique de Tabari. Paris: Vrin (Etudes
Musulmanes, XXXII), 1990.

. “Prosopography in Islam. An Essay of Classifica-
tion.” Medieval Prosopography . 23 (2002): 19-54.

Grandin, Nicole, and Marc Gaboriau, Marc (under the
direction of). Maclrasa. La transmission du savoir dans
le monde musulman. Paris: Edition Arguments, 1997.

Guillaume, Alfred. The Traditions of Islam. Oxford, 1924.

Juynboll, Gautier H.A. Muslim Tradition. Studies on chro-
nology, provenance and authorship of early Iadith.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Lowry, Joseph E., Devin J. Stewart, and Shawkat M.
Toorawa (Eds). Law and Education in Medieval Islam.
Studies in memory of Professor George Makdisi.
Warminster: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2004.

Mez, Adam. The Renaissance of Islam. Transl. Salahuddin
Khuda Bukhsh and D.S. Margoliouth. London: Luzac,
1937.

Rosenthal, Franz, trans. and annot. The History of
al-Tabari, I. General introduction and from the Creation
to Flood. Albany: SUNY, 1989.

. Knowledge Triumphant'. The concept of knowledge in

medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1970.

716

SELIMIYE MOSQUE, EDIRNE

Toorawa, Shawkat M. “A Portrait of ‘Abd al-Latif
al-Baghdadi's Education and Instruction.” In Law
and Education in Medieval Islam , edited by Lowry
et al„ 91-109.

SELIMIYE MOSQUE, EDIRNE

The Selimiye Mosque complex was built in AH 976-
982/1569-1575 CE by the architect Sinan for Sultan
Selim II in Edirne, the Ottoman empire’s European
gateway. The new architectural foundation celebrated
the recent conquest of Cyprus and was financed by its
rich spoils. Regarded by most modern historians as
the culminating achievement of Sinan’s distinguished
fifty-year career as chief architect to the Ottoman
court, Sinan himself (according to the “autobiogra-
phy” that he wrote with Sa’i Mustafa Celebi) under-
took the Selimiye project in a competitive frame of
mind. He stated, “Those who consider themselves
architects among Christians say that in the realm of
Islam no dome can equal that of the Hagia Sophia. . .
[but] in this mosque, with the help of God and the
support of Sultan Selim Khan, I erected a dome six
cubits higher and four cubits wider than the dome of
the Hagia Sophia” (Kuran). He was determined both
to outdo the size and grandeur of that venerable
Byzantine monument (finished in 537) and to contin-
ue a dialogue with his own Suleymaniye Mosque that
was built twenty years earlier.

The Selimiye has a magnificent presence on the
skyline of Edirne — its hilltop position and imposing
profile were intended to overwhelm and to suggest,
through architectural grandeur, the imperial majesty
of the patron. It stands on a high platform and, unlike
comparable Ottoman kiilliyes (religious complexes),
has few dependent buildings. The complex consists of
a large enclosure with a centrally placed mosque, and
a medrese (theological college) and Qur’an school of
equal size symmetrically filling the southeast and
southwest corners of the greater enclosure. The com-
plex was entirely symmetrical until a covered market
was added on the west side of the enclosure in the
1580s to provide rental income.

The mosque consists of a rectangular prayer hall
and rectangular courtyard of equal size (sixty by
forty-four meters) with an ablution fountain in its
center. A large, single central dome dominates the
prayer hall; from the prayer hall’s corners rise four
exceedingly slender fluted minarets that at approxi-
mately seventy meters are taller than any others in the
Ottoman realm. Their soaring verticality provides a
marked contrast to the massive and imposing domical
structure of the prayer hall and provides a spatial
frame that both draws attention to the mosque in
Edirne’s skyline and sets its apart. Sinan wished to

make the central dome higher than the Hagia Sophia
(which he had not quite outstripped in the Suleyma-
niye). Although from floor level the Hagia Sophia
rises to 55.60 meters while the Selimiye rises to only
42.25 meters, if calculated from the base of the dome,
the latter’s profile is indeed steeper and higher.

The dome rests on eight enormous piers, which is a
departure from Sinan’s earlier four-pier plans at the
Shahzade and Suleymaniye mosques. Each pier rises
from a fluted, then faceted shaft that transitions,
without a capital to mark the shift in architectonic
function, to a great arch that springs from muqarnas.
The piers are ingeniously pushed toward the walls of
the prayer hall so that, rather than permitting their
manifest architectonic function to obstruct interior
space, they seem to frame and articulate it. The con-
sequence is an extraordinarily unified interior in
which there is no perceptible distinction between the
space beneath the central dome and the auxiliary
spaces below the half domes that fill the corners of
the hall. The equidistant positioning of the piers also
diminishes the sense of lateral axiality that such a
rectangular space might have provoked, and the side
arcades bearing galleries are pushed to the far walls,
where they do not interrupt or intrude on the open
interior. Instead, the dominant axis runs from the
mosque’s northern entrance, through the courtyard,
into the prayer hall, and culminates at the mihrab.
Indeed, the axis is slightly prolonged by the spatial
recession of the mihrab apse. The sole interruption in
the mihrab axis is a platform for Qur’an reading
(dikka), poised above a fountain, which temporarily
shifts the visual focus from the horizontal axis to the
vertical, directing vision upward to the great dome
overhead.

The airy interior is flooded with light from the rows
of windows encircling the base of each dome and
semidome. Furthermore, enormous arches of alter-
nating red and white voussoirs relieve the supportive
function of the mosque’s walls so that instead of wall
mass, the space is filled by thin tympana with win-
dows. The recessed mihrab is likewise lined on both
the qibla and side walls, with windows that filter light
through windows with ornate mullions. Beautiful
Iznik glazed ceramic covers much of the qibla wall,
reflecting light and giving the interior a gleaming
luminosity. A band of inscription in blue and white
tile runs around the upper part, while below there are
panels with floral designs that were probably intended
to suggest paradise, a common theme in mosque
ornament.

The brilliance of Sinan’s design appears not only in
the spatial plasticity of the manipulation of domes,
semidomes, and arches within the prayer hall but also
in the clarity of the design’s structural logic from

717

SELIMIYE MOSQUE, EDIRNE

Sinan the Great (1489-1588). Interior of dome. Built for
Selim II, Ottoman sultan. 1568-1575. Credit: Vanni/Art
Resource, NY. Selimiye Mosque, Edirne, Turkey.

without. Although from afar the building appears as a
single mountainous dome surrounded by elegant
spires, at middle distance the eight piers, capped by
small cupolas and descending into mighty buttresses,
have clear presence on the building’s exterior, reveal-
ing a well-composed, symmetrical, and geometrically
conceived figure of discrete geometrical units subor-
dinated to a harmonious whole. The Selimiye is a tour
de force of interior and exterior space.

D. Fairchild Ruggles

Further Reading

Bates, Ulkii. “Architecture.” In Turkish Art, edited by Esin
Atil, 44-136. Washington, D.C., and New York, 1980.
Blair, Sheila and Jonathan Bloom. Art and Architecture of
Islam, 1250-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1994.

Goodwin, Geoffrey. A History of Ottoman Architecture.

London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.

Kuban, Dogan. "The Style of Sinan’s Domes Structures.”
Muqarnas 4 (1987), 72-98.

. “Architecture of the Ottoman Period.” In The Art

and Architecture of Turkey, edited by in Ekrem Akurgal,
137-169. New York, 1980.

Kuran, Aptullah. Sinan, The Grand Old Man of Ottoman
Architecture. Washington, D.C., and Istanbul, 1987.
Sa’i, Mustafa. Tezkiretul-Biinyan (Istanbul, 1897). Transl.
M. Sozen, and S. Saatpl, Mimar Sinan, and Tezkiret-ul
Biinyan. Istanbul, 1989.

SELJUKS

The Seljuk dynasty was a Turkish dynasty that ruled
much of the Middle East from the late eleventh
through the twelfth century CE. The eponymous
Seljuk ibn Duqaq was the chief of a confederation
of Oghuz Turkmen tribes that migrated in search of
land, perhaps pressured by other tribes, from the area
between the Caspian and Aral seas to Transoxiana in
the mid-tenth century. Settling in Jand on the left
bank of the Jaxartes (Syr Darya), Seljuk and the
Oghuz became Muslims. In the early eleventh centu-
ry, these Oghuz were caught between the expansionist
ambitions of the Qarakhanids from the north and the
Ghaznavids from the south. In 1040, Seljuk’s grand-
sons, Chaghri Beg and Toghril Beg, defeated the
Ghaznavids at Dandanqan near Merv. This victory
opened the Middle East to large-scale Turkish immi-
gration. Thus began the long-term movement, laden
with enormous social, economic, and political conse-
quences, of Turkish peoples from Central Asia to the
Middle East, changing the linguistic and cultural
zones of that region from Arabic and Persian to
Arabic and Turko-Persian.

Having taken the title of sultan and proclaiming
himself the protector of the ‘Abbasid caliph and de-
fender of Sunni Islam, Toghril entered a politically
fragmented Muslim world. Many areas were ruled by
Shi‘i dynasties. One of them, the Buyids, held sway
over the ‘Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad. From Cairo
the Fatimid caliphs claimed authority over the entire
Muslim world. Toghril attempted to put an end to
these Shi‘i dynasties and reunite Muslims under
Sunnism. In 1055, he entered Baghdad and destroyed
the Buyids. In 1058, the caliph al-Qa’im formally
acknowledged him as sultan and later gave him a
daughter in marriage. Toghril consolidated his
power in Iraq, destroying pro-Fatimid forces in
1060, while keeping the caliph under tight control,
and sending various family members to conduct
further conquests. The empire in turn was parceled
out to these family members. Toghril thus laid the
foundation of the Great Seljuk Empire. He died in
1063 at Rayy, his capital.

Toghril had no children. His nephew, Alp Arslan,
succeeded him in 1064 after a brief struggle for the

718

SEVEN SLEEPERS

throne. Alp Arslan reorganized the government and
appointed the brilliant Nizam al-Mulk as grand vi-
zier. Nizam ran the empire and tried to mold the state
along traditional Persian lines. Alp Arslan was con-
tinuously in the field suppressing revolts and cam-
paigning on the frontiers. In 1071, he defeated the
Byzantine emperor Romanus Diogenes at Manzikert.
Byzantine defenses collapsed and Anatolia was open
to Turkmen tribes, who streamed into it. Also in
1071, another Turkmen army under Atsiz captured
Jerusalem from the Fatimids. These two victories
reverberated in Europe where Pope Urban II eventu-
ally called for a crusade in 1095. After Manzikert,
Alp Arslan marched east to Transoxiana, where he
faced a crisis with the Qarakhanids. There he was
murdered in 1073.

Alp Arslan was succeeded by his son Malikshah,
during whose reign the Great Seljuk Empire reached
its height. Malikshah made Isfahan his capital and
kept Nizam as grand vizier. Besides settling various
family quarrels, he further expanded Seljuk power
by bringing the Qarakhanids to terms and extending
his authority down the west coast of Arabia to
Yemen. Furthermore, in the early years of his reign
an independent Turkmen chief, Sulayman ibn
Qutulmish (r. 1081-86), founded the Seljuk Sultanate
of Anatolia. In 1092, shortly after Nizam was assassi-
nated, Malikshah died. The empire, stretching from
Khwarazm to the Mediterranean, was then torn by
struggles for succession. His sons Muhammad I
Tapar (r. 1105-1118) and Sanjar (r. 1118-1157) were
more or less able to keep the core of Iraq and Iran
together, although the latter’s reign ended in disaster
in 1153, when the Oghuz revolted and took him
captive. While Anatolia had been independent from
the beginning (1081-1307), other regions of the
empire broke away: Kirman (1048-circa 1188) and
Syria (1078-1117). The last of the Great Seljuks,
Toghril III, was killed in 1194 in the east, fighting
the Khwarazm-Shah Tekish.

The major reason for the disintegration of the
empire was the lack of a well-ordered means of
succession. The Seljuks followed the custom whereby
the state was considered the common property of the
dynasty. Consequently, each member of the dynasty
could claim to be the ruler. This resulted in a struggle
for the throne with each passing sultan. These strug-
gles in turn provided opportunities for the ‘Abbasid
caliphs to try to reassert their worldly authority and
also allowed the atabegs, the guardians and tutors
of various princes, to take local power into their
own hands. Some, like the Zankids, established their
own dynasties. All of this contributed to the further
fragmentation of the empire.

Gary Leiser

See also Byzantine Empire; Muslim-Crusader Rela-
tions; Nomadism and Pastoralism; Seljuk Warfare;
Shi‘ism; Sultan; Turks; Vizier

Primary Sources

Ibn al-Athir. The Annals of the Saljuq Turks. Transl.
and annot. D.S. Richards. London: Routledge Curzon,
2002 .

Zahir al-Din Nishapuri. The History of the Seljuq Turks.
Transl. Kenneth Luther. London: Curzon, 2001.

Further Reading

Bosworth, C.E. “The Political and Dynastic History of the
Iranian World (A.D. 1000-1217.” In The Cambridge
History of Iran, vol. 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods,
ed. by J.A. Boyle, 1-202. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1968.

Cahen, Claude. “The Historiography of the Seljuqid
Period.” In Historians of the Middle East, edited by
B. Lewis and P.M. Holt, 59-78. London: Oxford
University Press, 1962.

Lambton, Ann K.S. “The Internal Structure of the Saljuq
Empire.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5,
The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, ed. by J.A. Boyle, 203-
202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.

. Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia. Albany,

NY: Bibliotheca Persica, 1988.

Leiser, Gary. A History of the Seljuks: Ibrahim Kafesoglu ’s
Interpretation and the Resulting Controversy. Carbondale,
IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988.

SEVEN SLEEPERS

The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, in its
earliest form, relates the fabulous experience of seven
(or eight) Christian soldiers who are saved from
the persecution of the Roman Emperor Decius
(r. 249-251) by a miraculous sleep, from which they
awake only during the reign of the Christian Emperor
Theodosius II (r. 408 450). The Seven Sleepers of
the Christian legend appear in the Qur’an as the
“Companions of the Cave” of Chapter Eighteen
(named accordingly “the Cave” [al-kahf]), a chapter
in which narratives based on the Jewish legend of
Joshua ben Levi and the Christian Romance of
Alexander also appear. Louis Massignon, pointing
to the fact that the recitation of this chapter is en-
couraged every Friday at Islamic common prayer,
describes the legend of the Seven Sleepers as a point
of mystical and eschatological meeting between Islam
and Christianity.

The origins of the legend, however, are unclear.
Although some reports credit Steven, bishop of
Ephesus during the Second Council of Ephesus
(449), with compiling the original version in Greek,
T. Noldeke and P. Huber argue that the legend was

719

SEVEN SLEEPERS

originally written in Syriac. Indeed, the first extant
form thereof appears in two Syriac homilies of Jacob
of Sarug (d. 521), while Gregory of Tours (d. 594),
author of the first Latin version, employed the ser-
vices of a Syriac translator for the job. In any case, the
spread of the legend into numerous languages (it
entered later into English, German, Nordic, French,
and Spanish literature) testifies to its attraction.
Popular Christian devotion to the Sleepers, embraced
as saints by both Catholic and Orthodox tradition,
spread as well. Feast days were devoted to them.
Chapels and shrines were dedicated to them, not
only in Ephesus itself but also throughout the Middle
East and Europe, including the Church of the
Seven Sleepers in Rome, which is decorated with
vivid paintings of the seven heroes.

The attraction of the story in the Christian context
lies in the fact that it is at once edifying and didactic.
On one hand, it celebrates the devotion of Christian
martyrs and, more generally, the victory over pagan-
ism. On the other hand, it serves as a proof for the
resurrection, as the sleep of the seven saints in most
recensions is only a metaphor for death (see John
11:11 and I Thessalonians 4:13), from which they
are raised by God.

In the Qur’an, meanwhile, certain details of the
Christian legend remain: the Cave as a refuge (Q
18:10) from unbelief (Q 18:14-15), the sensation of
the sleepers that only a day had passed (Q 18:19),
their plan to buy food with a coin they had preserved
(Q 18:19), and the building of a shrine above the spot
where they slept (Q 18:21). Other elements of the
Quranic narrative are novel: a watch dog (Q 18:18;
on the model of the Greek Cerberus, protecting
the domain of the dead), the insistence on “pure”
food (Q 18:19), confusion over the number of sleepers
(Q 18:22), and 309 years as the duration of sleep
(Q 18:25; early Christian sources state 372 years).
Still other elements of the Qur’anic account present
a mystery to Muslim interpreters, not least of which is
the introductory line, which speaks of the “Compa-
nions of the Cave” and al-raqTm. This latter word is
interpreted variously as: tablet, inscription, name of
the sleepers, their ancestry, their religion, the thing
from which they fled, the town from which they came,
the mountain of their cave, or the name of their dog.

Most important, perhaps, is the particular tone
with which the Qur’an relates the legend of the cave.
While in the Christian legend the Emperor Decius
closes up the cave in order to kill the saints, in the
Qur’an there is no protagonist other than God
Himself, and it is He who shuts in the “Companions
of the Cave” (Q 18:11). In the Christian legend it is
shepherds stumbling across the site of the sleepers
that causes their awakening. In the Qur’an it is God

Himself who awakens them, in order to test them, by
seeing if they are able to calculate the duration of
their sleep (See Q 18:12, 18:19). Ultimately

(Q 18:19), one of the sleepers shouts out the pious
solution to the test: “Your Lord knows best how long
you have tarried.” In its Qur’anic form the legend of
the Seven Sleepers becomes an affirmation of human
limitation before an omnipotent, and omniscient,
God. Thus if this legend indeed serves as a point of
contact between Christianity and Islam, it also
manifests the uniqueness of each tradition.

Gabriel Said Reynolds

Further Reading

Avezzu, Guido. I Sette Dormienti: Una leggenda fra Oriente
e Occidente. Milano: Medusa, 2002.

Coleridge, Mary. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. London:
Chatto & Windus, 1893.

Huber, P. Michael. Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschla-
fern. Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1910.

Massignon, Louis. “Les ‘Septs Dormants’ Apocalypse de
ITsiam.” In Opera Minora, edited by Y Moubarac. 3
Vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1963, 3:104-118.

Torrey, Charles. The Jewish Foundation of Islam. New
York: KTAV, 1967, esp. Chap. 5.

SEVILLE

Seville (Ar. Ishbiliyya, a derivation from the Latin
place name Hispalis ) was a major town of al-Andalus
on the bank of the Guadalquivir River (an Arabic
name, Wadi ' l-kabir , meaning “The Wide River”). It
was the capital of the kura that bore its name, a kura
being the basic territorial division of al-Andalus.

History

Seville was conquered around 713 or 716 CE in the
first wake of the Muslim occupation of the Iberian
Peninsula. Subsequently, contingents of mainly
Yemeni warriors settled in the city and its outskirts,
and formed the core of its ruling classes until the end
of the Muslim-ruled period, when the city was
conquered by the Castilian king, Ferdinand III, in
1248. Overt or more concealed Islamic lifestyles, how-
ever, continued to be conducted in Seville, as in other
parts of Spain, until the expulsion of the Moriscos
(converted-to-Christianity Muslims) from Spain in
1609-1610, that is to say, almost four centuries after
the Christian conquest of the city.

The Arab warrior elite of Seville often revolted
against the central power based in Cordoba during
the time of the first Umayyad ruler, al-Andalus Emir

720

SEVILLE

‘Abd al-Rahman I (756-788). Lie was succeeded in the
throne by Hisham I (r. 788-796) and al-Hakam I
(r. 796-822). Both reigns were periods of relative
peace for Seville, according to the sources. In 844,
under the Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman II (r. 822-852),
Seville was stormed by the Normans (named Majus
in the Arabic chronicles). Normans pillaged the whole
of Western Andalusia for almost a month and a half,
until they were driven out by an army dispatched
from the Andalusi capital of Cordoba.

The following years under the ruling of Emir ‘Abd
Allah I (844-912) saw a widespread outburst of
rebellions all over Al-Andalus, including in Seville. A
de facto autonomous state was established by the local
powerful clan of the Banu Hajjaj from 889 to 913.

Seville was seiged and pacified by the first Andalusi
caliph, ‘Abd al-Rahman III, in 913. The period of
the caliphate (929-1031) was one of certain prosperity
for the city. Only an uprising instigated by the Banu
Hajjaj family in 974 troubled to some extent the
stability of the period.

With the downfall of the caliphal regime and the
outburst of the fitna (civil war) in Al-Andalus from
1009 to 1031, Seville became the capital of one of
the taifa (party) kingdoms into which Al-Andalus
had split. The new dynasty of the Banu ’Abbad or
’Abbadids (1013-1090) seized power, leading the
town into what is generally considered to be its cul-
tural and economic peak. It was, objectively speaking,
the moment when the greatest territory was ruled
from Seville.

The most celebrated ’Abbadid ruler was
Muhammad bin 'Abbad al-Mu’tamid (1069-1090),
who is still widely regarded as one of the finest clas-
sical Arab poets. His verses about his concubine
Rumaykiyya have never ceased to be a part of the
common Arab poetic curriculum.

In the political sphere, the 'Abbadid rulers were
forced to pay parias (levies) to the Castilian kings.
This forced al-Mu’tamid and many other taifa sover-
eigns to seek the help of the Almoravid sultan, Yusuf
bin Tashufin, whose territorial base was in the current
territory of Morocco. In 1086 and 1088, Yusuf bin
Tashufin disembarked in the Iberian Peninsula in
assistance of his coreligionists. Sources tell us that
he — motivated by Islamic religious scholars (fuqaha)
and with popular spur — resolved to seize power of
Iberian Muslim-ruled lands and depose the taifa
rulers, including al-Mu’tamid. In 1090, Yusuf bin
Tashufin conquered Seville and sent al-Mu’tamid to
exile.

Seville remained under Almoravid rule for more
than half a century. Aspects of daily life during this
period can be deduced by reading Ibn 'Abdun’s hisba
(market policing) treatise. During the Almoravid

period, Seville was transformed into a key port
where troops were disembarked. Seville also became
a gathering point for the army. Archaeological evi-
dence implies that the last wall ring of Seville was
built by the Almoravids as a compound crowned by
eight fortified towers.

In 1132, the King of Castile, Alphonse VII, sacked
the region of Seville and even killed the Almoravid
governor. In 1147, Seville was incorporated into the
Almohad caliphate, which had before replaced the
Almoravids. An Almohad governor of Seville, Abu
Ya’qub Yusuf, was proclaimed caliph and made his
second (with Marrakesh, in Morocco) capital in the
town since 1171/1172. He conducted a full public
works program that included an improvement to the
fortifications of the town, a new palace outside the
walls, a new pontoon bridge over the Guadalquivir
River that linked the town and the Triana quarter at
the other side of the river, and a new Friday mosque.
Construction of this new central mosque began in
1172. Its minaret is a twin of the famous Kutubia
minaret in Marrakesh. After the Christian conquest,
the whole site of the great mosque was dedicated to
the new cathedral. The minaret is today the “Giralda”
bell tower, which is recognized as the major symbol of
the city throughout the world.

Frequent Castilian raids threatened the safety
and stability of Seville during the Almoravid period.
Additionally, the periodic floods of the Guadalquivir
contributed to the unease of the population.

Since 1220, the Almohad power approached its
final decline. Following a number of unsuccessful
revolts, the people of Seville turned to the Ibn Hud
family against the Almohads in 1229. In 1248, the
Castilian King Ferdinand III conquered the city
after seventeen months of siege. Soon after, the
Moroccan Marinid dynasty attempted to seize control
of the city, but they could only pillage the outskirts,
and in 1275 made an unsuccessful siege on the city.

Islamic Heritage in Modern Seville

Although Seville was counted among the richest cities
of al-Andalus, its extant Islamic built heritage is not
abundant, since a myriad of new buildings in the Re-
naissance and Baroque styles were commissioned in the
prosperous period — which lasted from the sixteenth to
the seventeenth centuries — as a result of Seville’s key
role in economic exchange with the Spanish colonies
in America.

The walls that defended the city against attacks
both from the navigable Guadalquivir and from the
surrounding plains are a major extant that remains.

721

SEVILLE

Numerous accounts in extant sources report building
and repair work being conducted in the Umayyad and
subsequent periods. In 1220-1221, a new angled de-
fensive outwork was built, ending in a twelve-sided
stronghold, the “Golden Tower” (Torre del Oro in its
current Spanish denomination), which is still a land-
mark of the city. Originally standing three stories
high, only the two lower ones have been preserved,
as the upper lantern was modified after the Christian
conquest.

A compound of residential palaces, known as the
Reales Alcazar es, is still the official residence for the
Spanish royals when they are in Seville. It is, together
with the Alhambra and the ruins of Medina Azahara
in Cordoba, a fine example of Andalusi architecture.
Its foundations were laid in the time of Umayyad
Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman II (822-852).

Before the construction of the current cathedral,
the third largest cathedral in the world, the Friday or
central mosque, occupied the same site. The mosque
was itself a building of considerable size, probably
measuring 150 meters by 100 meters. Its most relevant
feature was the aforementioned minaret. In its present
form, the belfry is 16.1 meters wide and 50.85 meters
high.

Jesus de Prado Plumed

See also ‘Abd al-Rahman III; Al-Ghazali; Al-Idrisi, or
Dreses; Al-Maqqari; Almohads; Almoravids; Andalus;
Berbers; Cordoba; Gibraltar; Granada; Ibn Battuta;
Ibn Ezra; Ibn Gabirol; Ibn Khaldun; Ibn Quzman; Ibn
Rushd, or Averroes; Ibn Tufayl; Malik ibn Anas; Med-
iterranean Sea; Party Kingdoms: Iberian Peninsula;
Umayyads

Primary Source

Ibn ’Abdun, Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Tujibi. Sevilla a
Comienzos del Siglo XII: el Tratado de Ibn Abdun. 1st
ed. Transl. Emilio Garcia Gomez and Evariste Levi-
Provenpal. Sevilla: Servicio de Publicaciones del Ayun-
tamiento de Sevilla, 1981. Reprint, 1948.

Further Reading

Arberry, Arthur John. Moorish Poetry. 1st ed. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1953.

Burkhardt, Titus. Moorish Culture in Spain. 1st ed. London:
Allen and Unwin, 1972.

Kennedy, Hugh. Spain Muslim and Portugal: A Political
History of Al-Andalus. 1st ed. London: Longman, 1996.

Latham, John Derek. From Muslim Spain to Barbary. 1st
ed. London: Variorum Reprints, 1986.

Wasserstein, David. The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings.
1st ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Whishaw, Bernhard. Arabic Spain: Sidelights on Her
History and Art. 1st ed. Reading: Garnet, 2002 Reprint,
1912. '

SHADOW PLAYS

Terminology

Many Western and Arab scholars have assumed that
the Arabic term for the shadow play (khayal al-zill) is
tautological, since both khayal and zill mean “shad-
ow” in Arabic. The assumption is that it is a vulgar
coinage, and that it should really be termed zill
al-khayal (shadow of the vision or shadow fantasy).
The term khayal, appearing alone, has been routinely
explained or translated as “shadow play.” The
German Orientalist Theodore Menzel, however,
objected that in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish the
term is puzzling; he argued that it cannot mean shad-
ow play unless it occurs in its complete form, that is,
khayal al-zill in Arabic and zill-i-khayal in Persian.

In Arabic literature and historiography, the term
khayal or khiyal was used in the Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic
times) and in the first centuries of Islam in the sense of
“figure” and “statue,” and was given to the figure of
the hobbyhorse (kurraj) as well (see Theater, Arabic).
During the eighth century it came to mean “imagina-
tion,” “phantom,” and “fantasy,” and finally it
became synonymous with the term hikava (imitation
or pantomime, as in Hebrew hikkuy). When, during
the ninth century, the term hikaya came to mean
strictly “story” or “storytelling,” the term khayal
replaced it to denote “live play” or “live theatrical
performance.” It seems that this is the main reason
that led to the conclusion that the Arabs performed
only shadow plays and puppet theater, and neglected
live theatrical performance because of religious
restrictions. When Gypsies and Muslim merchants
from southeast Asia to the Muslim world imported
the shadow play during the late tenth century, the
word zill (shadow) was added to the already estab-
lished term for acting and theater, and the new term
khayal al-zil! was coined.

Performance Practice

The earliest discussion of the technique of the shadow
play occurs in a scientific work on optics, Kitah
al-manazir (Latin, Thesaurus Opticus), by the Arab
mathematician and physicist Ibn al-Haytham
(Alhazan) (Basra, ca. 965 CE, Cairo, 1039, see Math-
ematics and Optics). His description of khayal recalls
modern cinematographic techniques: He speaks of
translucent figures of characters and animals “which
the performer (mukhayyil) manipulates so that their

722

SHADOW PLAYS

Shadow play figures, translucent colored camel-leather
figures from Istanbul. On the right Karakoz (30 cm x 8 cm),
and on the left Hajibad (28 cm x 8.5 cm). Private collection
of Shmuel Moreh, Jerusalem.

shadows appear upon the wall which is behind the
curtain and upon the curtain itself” ( Kitab al-manazir
1983:408). Other descriptions of shadow plays state
that figures made of colored, translucent camel leath-
er were held against the screen with one stick, while
the limbs of the figures were moved with another. The
performer, accompanied by music and singing, recited
the dialogue between the dramatis personae. The light
of candles or lamps cast the shadow of the figures
upon the screen (sitara, izar), which was made of
muslin (shash).

Significance

The extant prose and verses composed by Sufi scho-
lars such as al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn al-‘Arabi
(d. 1240) and Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235), as well as intro-
ductions to shadow plays, describe the hidden philo-
sophical and religious significance of this art. They
argue that “God has presented it as a parable” to this
world. The presenter represents God who is the
muharrik (prime mover); the curtain represents the
hidden and secret foreordained future. The first figure
represents Adam, who describes the images that will

follow him as depicting the generations of mankind,
who behave according to God’s will and predestina-
tion. The characters of the plot are arranged accord-
ing to role, in a box on the right-hand side, which
stands for the womb, while the box on the left, in
which the figures are placed after ending their role,
represents the tomb. It is this moral parable that
induced poets to use the shadow play as a symbol of
this world in Arabic literature and historiography.
Even the three indecent shadow plays composed by
the oculist Ibn Daniyal (Mosul, 1248; Cairo, 1311) at
the request of a shadow puppeteer who complained
that the art had became tedious and trivial emphasize
moral admonition.

According to the Egyptian historian Ibn Iyas
(d. 1524), who recorded the Ottoman occupation of
Egypt in 1517, shadow players used to represent actu-
al political and social events, such as the hanging of
the defeated Mamluk sultan by Sultan Selim. The
latter was pleased with the plot of the performer,
rewarded him, and took him to Istanbul to entertain
his son. On the other hand, E. W. Lane indicates that a
reversed direction of influence occurred later on. In his
Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836),
he says that the shadow play “Kara Gyooz,” as he calls
it, “has been introduced into Egypt by the Turks, in
whose language the puppets are made to speak. . .
They are conducted in the manner of the ‘Chinese
shadows’, and therefore exhibited only at night.”
Historians and scholars of the shadow play have
criticized the pornographic and frivolous aspects of
this popular art. Some plays, however, satirized the
tyranny of rulers, administrators, and religious
officials, and it seems that this is the main reason
why some Mamluk sultans and scholars prohibited
the shadow play and even burned the puppets
and made the performers sign an undertaking not to
practice it.

Shmuel Moreh

See also Theater, Arabic
Further Reading

And, Metin. A History of Theatre and Popular Entertain-
ment in Turkey. Ankara: Forum, 1963-1964.

. Karagoz, Theatre d’ombres Turc. Ankara: Editions

Dost, 1977.

Hamada, 1. Khayal al-zill wa-tamthiliyyat Ibn Daniyal ( Sha-
dowplay and the Plays of Ibn Daniyal). Cairo, 1963.

Ibn Daniyal, Muhammad. Three Shadow Plays. Edited
by Paul Kahle, with a critical apparatus by Derek
Hopwood. Prepared for publication by Derek Hopwood
and Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb
Memorial, 1992.

Ibn al-Haytham. Kitab al-manazir (The Book of Optics),
al-Maqalcit: 1-2-3, ft ’l-ibsar ‘ala al-istiqama. Ed. ‘Abd
al-Hamid Sabra. Kuwait, 1983.

723

SHADOW PLAYS

Jacob, G. Geschichte des Schattentheaters im Morgen-und
Abendland. Osnabruck, 1972.

Kahle, P. Zur Geschichte des arabischen Schattentheaters in
Agypten. Leipzig, 1909.

Kahle, P. E. Zur geschichte des arabischen Schattentheaters
in Agypten. Leipzig, 1909.

. “The Arabic Shadow Play in Medieval Egypt

(Old Texts and Figures).” The Journal of the Pakistan
Historical Society. (April 1954): 85-115.

Kayyal, Mounir. Mu' jam babat masrah al-zill, karakuz
wa-Twaz fi nusus muwaththaqa. (Dictionary of the Plays
of Shadow Theatre, Arabic, Arabic). Beirut: Librairie du
Liban Publishers, 1995.

Menzel, Theodore. Meddah, Schattentheater und Orta
Ojunu. Prague, 1941.

Moreh, S. “The Shadow Play (khayal al-zill) in the Light of
Arabic Literature.” Journal of Arabic Literature 18
(1987): 46-61.

. "Shadow-play.” Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature.

Ed. J. Scott Meisami and P. Starkey. Vol. 2, 701-702.
ADD UNDER Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature: “Ibn
Daniyal” (E. K. Rowson), I, 319-320.

Sa’d, Faruq. Khayal al-zill ‘indci al-'Arab (Arabic Shadow
Play). Beirut, 1991.

SHAFI’I, AL-, ABU ABDALLAH
MUHAMMAD IBN IDRIS

Al-Shafi’i (767-820 CE) ranks among the most influ-
ential jurists in the history of Islamic law by virtue of
his contributions to substantive legal doctrine, elabo-
ration of hermeneutic concepts and techniques, and
his jurisprudential legacy as preserved in the Shafl’i
School of Jurisprudence. Al-Shafi’i was probably
born in Palestine and studied law first in Mecca and
then in Medina, where he became a pupil of the
celebrated jurist Malik ibn Anas. He also studied
with at least one prominent student of the important
Iraqi jurist Abu Hanifa.

Although al-Shafi’i taught and wrote for a period
of years in Baghdad, only scattered references to his
doctrines from this period survive. After relocating to
Egypt (ca. 814), however, he authored (or his students
compiled) a number of works that became authorita-
tive. His massive Kitab al-Umm (The Exemplar) cov-
ers the standard topics found in a work of Islamic law.
Traditionally published with the Umm are a number of
shorter works, including some that preserve doctrines
of earlier jurists with critical evaluations of these by
al-Shafi’i.

What is new in al-Shafi’i’s writings is the self-
conscious concern with adherence to hermeneutical
principles. Al-Shafi’i insists that laws be derived ex-
clusively from revealed sources, namely the Qur’an
and Hadith. In particular, al-Shafi’i emphasizes the
special importance of Hadith from the Prophet, both
as a supplement to the Qur’an and as an independent
source of law. Thus, al-Shafi’i sought to ground law

exclusively in revelation, making Islamic jurispru-
dence (for him, anyway) into a field more dependent
on textual analysis than on the handing down of
traditional authority. This feature of al-Shafi’i’s
thought entailed a further development in his her-
meneutics, namely the elaboration of a series of tech-
niques for sorting through and resolving apparent
contradictions in the revealed sources of the Shari'a.
Al-Shafi’i’s most detailed discussion of his hermen-
eutical principles is contained in his Risala (Epistle),
but they also figure prominently in his Ikhtilaf
al-Hadith (Contradictory Hadith), in several shorter
works, and in the context of discrete problems dealt
with in the Umm.

Recent scholarship, however, has cast doubt on
the attribution of all works traditionally ascribed to
al-Shafi’i. Scrutiny of the works bearing al-Shafi’i’s
name has led some to conclude that the Umm and the
Risala were subject to a process of organic growth and
redaction, and it has also been argued that hermeneu-
tical approaches found in both works fit more easily
into the intellectual world of the later ninth century.
These studies raise important questions that are, for a
variety of reasons, difficult to resolve definitively.

Al-Shafi’i’s two Egyptian students, al-Rabi‘ ibn
Sulayman al-Muradi (d. 883) and al-Muzani (d. 877),
preserved, developed, and transmitted his doctrines. It
is on the basis of their efforts to preserve al-Shafi’i’s
teachings that the Shafi’i School of Jurisprudence was
founded and began to flourish, especially in Baghdad
(c. 900). In time, the Shafi’i School spread to and
remains important, in Arabia, Egypt, East Africa,
and Malaysia.

Joseph E. Lowry

See also Ibn Hanbal; Imam; Knowledge; Madrasa;
Scholarship; Theology

Primary Sources

Al-Shafi’i. Kitab al-Umm. 8 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1990.
. Al-Risala. Ed. A.M. Shakir. Cairo: al-Halabi, 1940.

Further Reading

Al-Shafi’i. Islamic Jurisprudence: al-Shafi’i’s Risala Trans-
lated with an Introduction, Notes, and Appendices. Transl.
Majid Khadduri. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1961.

Calder, Norman. Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

Chaumont, Eric. “Al-Shafi’i.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam.

New Ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954-2002.

Coulson, N.J. A History of Islamic Law. Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1964.

Hallaq, Wael B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories:
An Introduction to Sunni usul al-fiqh. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997.

724

SHAH ‘ABBAS I (1571-1629), FIFTH SHAH OF IRAN’S SAFAVID DYNASTY (1501-1722)

Lowry, Joseph E. “Does Shafi’i Have a Theory of Four
Sources of Law?” In Studies in Islamic Legal Theory,
edited by B.G. Weiss. Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Schacht, Joseph. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurispru-
dence. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.

SHAH ‘ABBAS I (1571-1629), FIFTH
SHAH OF IRAN’S SAFAVID DYNASTY
(1501-1722)

‘Abbas was the great-grandson of the first Safavid
shah Isma’il 1 (r. 1501-1524), grandson of the second,
Tahmasp (r. 1524-1576), and son of the fourth,
Khudabandah (r. 1578-1587), and was enthroned by
an alliance dominated by elements of the Ustajl, one
of the preeminent tribes of the Qizilbash tribal con-
federation that had provided the military backbone of
the dynasty to this period.

Tahmasp’s death had caused splits among different
tribal factions, Tajik (native Persian), Georgian,
and Circassian, at court around his sons Isma’il
II (r. 1576-1577) and Khudabandah (1578-1587).
These left the polity vulnerable to Ottoman and
Uzbeg invasions and, accentuated by Isma’il IPs
flirtation with Sunnism in an effort to bolster his
own position, engendered considerable domestic spir-
itual unrest. The alliance that deposed Khudabandah
and enthroned ‘Abbas in 1587 collapsed soon there-
after as key Turk and Tajik elements coalesced
around other Safavid princes, including ‘Abbas’ two
younger brothers. Further foreign invasions resulted,
and certain Sufi (and especially Nuqtavi and
other) elements openly challenged ‘Abbas’ spiritual
legitimacy.

‘Abbas’ 1 590 purchase of peace with the Ottomans
by ceding them key territories allowed him to move
successfully against internal rivals and, thereafter,
commence a series of campaigns that by the end of
his reign regained territories lost to the Ottomans and
Uzbegs since Tahmasp’s death.

These military-political victories were achieved by
forces composed of both tribal elements but also ghu-
lam or qullar forces — non-Qizilbash Arab and Persian
tribal volunteers and captured Georgian, Circassian,
and Armenian youth converted to Islam whose
presence in smaller numbers predated ‘Abbas — who
were now incorporated at the central and provincial
military and political levels, albeit in positions subor-
dinate to existing Qizilbash and Tajik elites and, more
importantly, elements of Kurdish, Lur, and Chagatay
tribes whose presence attests to the widening of the
Qizilbash confederation.

Like his predecessors, ‘Abbas further strengthened
his personal position by using marriages to cement

alliances with Qizilbash tribal elements, local political
notables, and especially and more so than earlier
shahs, prominent Tajik sayyids. The latter, including
some of ‘Abbas’ relatives by marriage, were parti-
cularly prominent at the central and provincial
administrative levels.

‘Abbas’ reign also witnessed a reinvigorated
effort to identify the shah with the agendas and dis-
courses of each of the realm’s key component consti-
tuencies and project himself as transcendent ruler
over all. Isfahan, which ‘Abbas designated the capital
soon after his accession, was home to many manifes-
tations, including more secular projects such as
Naqsh-i Jahan Square, whose construction created a
new city center southwest of the traditional one.
Isfahan’s more spectacular religious projects included
the 1599 ‘Abdallaah Shushtari school and the
Lutfallah Maysi (1602 to 1618-1619) and Shah mos-
ques (1611 to 1630-1631), the latter two both on
‘Abbas’ new square, but the provincial cities of
Mashshad, the former capital Qazvin, and Kashan
received similar attention. ‘Abbas’ special identifi-
cation with Twelver Shi‘ism was further attested to
by his close association with such prominent
philosopher-clerics as Mir Damad (d. 1630-1631),
Mulla Sadra (d. 1640), and Shaykh Baha’i (d. 1621),
the capital’s shaykh al-Islam, his patronage of the
Shi‘i shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala after their
1624 capture, and his patronage of the Hijazi Shi‘a.
‘Abbas also carefully cultivated his image as head of
the Safavid Sufi order and associated himself with
such manifestations of “popular” religious feeling as
the Muharram ceremonies, commemorating the mar-
tyrdom in 680 of the third Shi‘i Imam Husayn, and
the commemoration of the 661 martyrdom of Imam
‘Ali. He also sponsored public, displayed clashes be-
tween the Nihnati and Haydari factions, which were
Iran’s traditional urban factions. The commission of
a never-completed, illustrated Shahnama attests to the
center’s atttentiveness to traditional Tajik Persian
cultural discourse.

The development of Isfahan and the realm, aided
by the center’s restoration of road security, facilitated
marked economic expansion, the more so in the
aftermath of the forced importation to Isfahan of
Armenians from war-torn eastern Anatolia beginning
circa 1604, including many long-distance merchants
who dominated the east-west trade routes through
Iran, and the appearance in the Gulf of the Western
commercial interests interested in expanding trade
with the East, particularly in Iranian silk. These,
with Western missionaries and political envoys, were
welcomed by ‘Abbas in his effort to construct an
anti-Ottoman alliance.

Andrew J. Newman

725

SHAH ‘ABBAS 1 (1571-1629), FIFTH SHAH OF IRAN’S SAFAVID DYNASTY (1501-1722)

SHAHNAMA

Further Reading

Clinton, Jerome W. The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam
from the Persian National Epic, The Shahname of
Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi. Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1987.

. In the Dragon’s Claws. The Story of Rostam &

Esfandiyar from the Persian Book of Kings by Abolqasem
Ferdowsi. Washington, DC: Mage, 1999.

Davidson, Olga M. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of
Kings. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1 994.
Davis, Dick. The Legend of Seyavash. London: Penguin,
1992.

. Epic and Sedition. The Case of Ferdowsi’s

Shahnameh. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas
Press, 1992.

. Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. 3 vols.

Vol. 1, The Fion and the Throne (by Ehsan Yarshater,
transl. Dick Davis); vol. 2, Fathers and Sons; vol. 3,
Sunset of Empire. Washington, DC: Mage, 1998, 2000,
and 2004.

Hillmann, Michael C. Iranian Culture: A Persianist View.
Lanham, NY and London: University Press of America,
1990, 13-41.

Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal. “Ferdowsi, Abu’l-Qasem i.
Life.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 9. New York,
1999, 514-523.

Meisami, Julie Scott. Persian Historiography to the end of
the Twelfth Century. Edinburgh: University Press, 1999,
37-45.

Meskoob, Shahrokh. Iranian Nationality and the Persian
Language, transl. Michael C. Hillmann, 78-79.
Washington, DC: Mage, 1992.

Robinson, B.W. The Persian Book of Kings: An Epitome of
the Shahnama of Firdawsi. London and New York:
Routledge Curzon, 2002.

Shahbazi, A. Shapur. Ferdowsi: A Critical Biography. Costa
Mesa, CA: Mazda, 1991.

Yarshater, Ehsan. “Iranian National History.” In The
Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3. Cambridge: University
Press, 1983, 359M77.

SHAJAR AL-DURR

Shajar al-Durr, a Turkish slave and concubine of the
Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, al-Salih Ayyub (d. 1249),
became his wife after bearing him a son. The son,

729

SHAJAR AL-DURR

Khalil, soon died, but Shajar al-Durr retained the
sobriquet Umm Khalil (Mother of Khalil) for the
remainder of her life. Her name can be rendered in
English as “Spray of Pearls.”

Shortly before al-Salih Ayyub’s death in 1249,
during the Fifth Crusade’s invasion of Egypt, he
appointed his wife and two others to safeguard the
transition to the sultanate of al-Mu’azzam Turanshah,
his son by another woman. Shortly after his arrival in
Egypt and assumption of rule, Turanshah was mur-
dered by his father’s Bahri mamluks (military slaves),
whom he had alienated. This murder took place on
May 2, 1250, and two days later, Shajar al-Durr
was proclaimed sultana (the feminine form of sultan)
of the Ayyubid dominions, although this was not
recognized by the Syrian Ayyubid princes. Shajar
al-Durr subsequently ruled Ayyubid Egypt in her own
name for a period of three months. The legends on
coins minted in her name bore the legend malikat
al-muslimin (“Queen of the Muslims”). Her claim
to royal authority was buttressed by her status as
widow of al-Salih and as mother of his son. Shajar
al-Durr’s assumption of rule was a rare occurrence
within the medieval Dar al-lslam. Although women
had exercised positions of power, usually as wives
of rulers or as regents (such as the Ayyubid Dayfa
Khatun, regent for her grandson al-Nasir Yusuf — see
later in this entry — during his minority in Aleppo), only
Radiyya, the sultana of Dehli (r. 1236-1240), preceded
Shajar al-Durr as an autonomous head of a state.

Her short reign came to an official close by the end
of July 1250, when she abdicated in favor of a leader
of her husband's Mamluks, the amir Aybak al-
Turkumani. This move was likely taken in the face
of increasing Syrian Ayyubid pressure, most notably
from al-Nasir Yusuf, ruler of Damascus and Aleppo.
Aybak himself abdicated shortly thereafter in favor
of a young Ayyubid prince named al-Ashraf Musa.
Both Shajar al-Durr and Aybak, who had married at
some point after al-Ashraf Musa came to the throne,
were the true powers behind the child. By 1254, Aybak
deposed al-Ashraf Musa and assumed the sultanate in
his own name. When Aybak took steps to strengthen
his position by marrying a daughter of Badr al-Din
Lu’lu, the ruler of Mosul, this exacerbated his already
estranged marriage with Shajar al-Durr. She arranged
Aybak’s murder on April 10, 1257. In the power strug-
gle that ensued, the forces loyal to al-Mansur ’Ali,
Aybak’s son by another wife, emerged victorious.
Shajar al-Durr was arrested, and her corpse was
subsequently found lying outside the Cairo citadel
on April 28, 1257. Tales of her life and death were
later embellished with myriad details not found in the
earliest accounts.

Warren C. Schultz

See also Ayyubid, Mamluks, Sultan
Primary Source

Al-Maqrizi. A History of the Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt.
Transl. R.J.C. Broadhurst. Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1980.

Further Reading

Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from
Eleventh Century to 1517. London: Longman, 1986.

SHAWKANI, AL-, MUHAMMAD
IBN ‘ALI

A Yemeni scholar, judge, and reformer, Muhammad
Ibn ‘Ali al-Shawkani was born in the village of Hijrat
Shawkan in 1760 and died in Sanaa in 1834 CE.
Shawkani saw himself as the heir of the Sunni- and
hadith-oriented school that arose in Yemen with
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Wazir (d. 1436 CE) and
came to full prominence with Shawkani himself in
the late eighteenth century. Drawing heavily on the
teachings of the Sunni Traditionists (ahl al-hadith),
Shawkani was a prolific author (more than two hun-
dred words are attributed to him) in virtually every
field of the Islamic sciences. The thrust of his reform-
ist message was to inveigh against the evils of strict
adherence to the teachings of the established schools
of law (sing, madhhab ) — a practice he labeled taqlid.
Instead, Shawkani argued that Muslims had to re-
form themselves by reverting to an unmediated inter-
pretation of the sources of revelation, namely the
Qur’an and the Sunna (the latter being encapsulated
in the canonical Sunni hadith collections). His inter-
pretive approach stresses the practice of independent
judgment (ijtihad) and focuses on the explicit mean-
ing of the texts (strict constructionism). He rejected
most forms of analogical reasoning, as well as the
principle of juristic consensus ( ijma‘). This amounted
to a radical revamping of the traditional system of law
with the claim of obtaining greater certainty of God’s
will. Shawkani’s most influential book is his multivol-
ume Nayl al-awtar fi shark muntaqa al-akhbar
(Attaining the Aims in Commenting on the Choicest
Traditions) . This consists of a legal manual based on
the Prophet Muhammad’s traditions (hadith) and is
the principal source for Sayyid Sabiq’s Ficjh al-sunna,
perhaps the most widely used legal text among modern
Sunnis. Other works by al-Shawkani that have
attained prominence include his commentary on
the Qur’an, entitled al-Fath al-qadir (Victory of the
Almighty ); his work on the principles of jurisprudence,

730

SHIT LAW

entitled Irsliad al-fuhul ( Guidance to the Luminaries ) ;
a legal work entitled cd-Sayl al-jarrar (The Raging
Torrent)', and a biographical dictionary entitled
al-Badr al-taJi‘ (The Rising Moon). His works, espe-
cially on the Qur’an and on hadith-based law, are
taught widely throughout the Islamic world today.
For modern Muslim reformers, al-Shawkani is a
towering figure, not only because of his clear and
synthesized writing style but also because he was
successful with his reformist project in Yemen. The
dominant sect and school of law in eighteenth-century
highland Yemen was Zaydism, one of the branches of
Shi‘ism. Al-Shawkani attacked the Zaydis in his
writings, arguing that many of their theological and
legal teachings had no basis in revelation and there-
fore had to be rejected. The aforementioned work,
The Raging Torrent, is a point-by-point critique
of the Zaydis’ principal legal text, the Kitab al-azhar
( The Book of Flowers ) by the fifteenth-century imam
al-Mahdi Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Murtada (d. 1436
CE). The Qasimi imams, who ruled Yemen from
1635 until the 1850s CE, had by the mid-eighteenth
century established a dynastic state and began patron-
izing scholars like Shawkani. The Qasimis saw in
Shawkani a jurist who would both legitimize their
rule and lead a centralized judicial system. This is
because Shawkani advocated a quietist political view
that rejected the Zaydi teachings that rulers had to be
exemplary men who satisfied rigorous qualifications
for the position of imam and that unjust rulers had to
be removed, by force if necessary. Shawkani was
appointed to the position of chief judge of the state,
a post he held from 1795 until his death in 1834 CE. As
chief judge, he was able to push through his reformist
agenda and teach several generations of like-minded
scholars and jurists, many of whom were given posts
in the state’s bureaucracy. Shawkani’s success was
such that the Zaydis were never able to recover, intel-
lectually or politically, from the onslaught waged
against them by these Sunni-oriented reformers. The
Zaydis claimed that Shawkani’s efforts amounted to
nothing more than the founding of a new school of
law, with him as the ultimate authority, and that they
preferred to follow their own imams, who as members
of the Prophet’s family (cdd al-bayt) were more
worthy of emulation. The most forceful exponent of
this position was Muhammad ibn Salih al-Samawi
(d. 1825), who was executed by the Qasimi state for
his criticism of the conjuncture of knowledge and
power that was represented in the alliance between
Shawkani and Qasimi imams. Shawkani’s life and
work are perhaps best appreciated if they are under-
stood as forming a key link between premodern and
modern Islamic reformist thought and action.

Bernard Haykel

Further Reading

Al-‘Amri, Husayn ‘Abdullah. The Yemen in the 18 th and 19 th
Centuries: A Political and Intellectual history. London:
Ithaca Press, 1985.

Haykel, Bernard. Revived and Reform in Islam: The Legacy
of Muhammad al-Shawkani. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.

SHPI LAW

The juristic traditions of the three Shi‘i groups (the
Zaydis, the Imamis, and the Ismailis) are best treated
separately; although their traditions did influence
one another, the jurists of each tradition perceived
themselves as quite different from their fellow
Shi‘is. In general terms, however, the Zaydis and the
Imamis concentrated more of their intellectual effort
on the elaboration of the Shari‘a, and consequently,
their legal structures were more sophisticated than
those of the Ismailis. All Shi‘is trace the beginnings
of their juristic heritage to the sayings of ‘Ali, the
cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.
For Shi‘is, ‘Ali was not merely the rightful leader
of the Muslims, he was also the supreme interpreter
of Islam. His decrees hold the same authority as
those of the Prophet. Indeed, except for a section of
the Zaydis, Ali’s decrees have a quasi-revelatory sta-
tus, not being a book (like the Qur’an) but equal to
the sunna of the Prophet.

Imami and Ismaili jurists have also reserved a
pioneering role for Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. AH
148/785 CE), a fifth-generation descendant of ‘Ali
and a widely respected scholar. Ja‘far supposedly
“founded” the Shi‘i legal school, and his legal state-
ments are taken by Imamis, Ismailis, and even some
Zaydis as indicators of the Shari‘a. For example, most
of the legal positions in Qadi al-Nu‘man’s (d. 363/974)
Dcda’im al-Islam concur with the reported positions
of Imam Ja‘far. This work, together with the same
author’s Ikhtilaf usul al-madhahib (a work of legal
theory) represent the major Ismaili legal sources.
For two reasons, there is little Ismaili legal scholar-
ship after this date. First, the Ismaili Fatimid dynasty
collapsed in 567/1171 and the Ismailis had already
become less interested in the implementation of the
law, and more interested in philosophical and mysti-
cal enquiry. Second, the Fatimid descendants led the
Ismailis as present Imams, who could answer all legal
questions due to their perfect legal knowledge. There
was no need for jurisprudence because theoretically
all legal issues could be answered by the Imam.

Imamis, on the other hand, believed their Imam
to be in occultation since 329/941, and hence there
was plenty of scope for scholars to study and develop
legal arguments in defense of their own opinions. In

731

SHIT LAW

the tenth century, Muhammad al-Kulayni (d. 328 or
329/940 or 941) collected al-Kafi, the first significant
compendium of Imami Shi‘i hadith. This was supple-
mented soon after by Ibn Babuya’s (d. 381/992) Man
la yahduruhu al-faqih and then by al-Shaykh al-Tusi’s
(d. 460/1067) two works, al-Istibsar and al-Tahdhib.
Together these became known as “the four books”
and were used as the sources for the legal manuals
(fiqh) written by subsequent Imami jurists. Ibn
Babuyah himself wrote a legal manual (entitled
al-Muqm), and was followed in this by a succession
of Imami scholars in the eleventh century. Around
this time, there emerged Imami works of legal theory
(usul al-fiqh), the earliest extant being al-Sharif
al-Murtada’s (d. 436/1044) al-Dhari'a.

The centers of Imami learning were Baghdad and
Qum. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the town
of Hilla in southern Iraq also became an important
center of Imami scholarship. Two jurists in particular
further developed a distinctive Shi‘i usul al-fiqh. In
Shi‘i usul, as in Sunni legal theory, there were four
sources. The first was al-Kitab ( The Book , that is, the
Qur'an), though it was best understood when inter-
preted by the Imams. The second was Sunna (the
example of the Prophet), though this included the
example of the Imams, since they were the embodi-
ment of the Prophet’s will. The third was ijma ‘ (con-
sensus), though this was only valid if the Imam’s
opinion was included. The final source was al-‘aql
(reason), the natural human faculty that recognizes
good and evil. The Imamis rejected the Sunni princi-
ple of qiyas (analogy), labeling it a “tool of Satan.”
Early Imamis also rejected ijtihad, the exegetical effort
of the individual jurist to find an answer to a legal
problem. There was no need to perform ijtihad, be-
cause there were sufficient statements of the Imams
(akhbar) to guide the community. As time passed,
Imami jurists realized that the akhbar were not really
sufficient for developing the law, and so they intro-
duced al- ‘aql as the fourth source of law and legiti-
mized ijtihad. The jurists could not do without these
tools in their search for the law. Imami law manuals
( mukhtasars and more expansive works of fiqh ) out-
lined the law in a manner very similar to that found in
Sunni works. There are some significant differences
though. The fact that Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter,
was the line through which the Prophet’s descent was
traced meant that the agnate and cognate relatives
were considered equal in Imami inheritance law. The
Imamis permitted a form of temporary marriage
(/ nut ‘a, the “marriage of pleasure”) disallowed by
the Sunnis. There was to be no jihad during the occul-
tation, as there was no Imam to lead it. The validity of
Friday prayers, the collection of taxes, and the im-
plementation of legal punishments were matters of

dispute among Imamis well into the modern period.
In the fourteenth century, al-Shahid al-Awwal (“the
First Martyr,” d. 786/1384) wrote his al-Lum‘a, an
extremely brief summary of Imami law. His advocacy
of juristic authority and the right of scholars to inter-
pret the revelatory texts was challenged by Imamis in
the seventeenth century, but his approach continues
to dominate Imami legal curricula today.

The Zaydis also developed a sophisticated tradi-
tion of legal literature. In particular, the Yemeni
Zaydi state, formed by al-Hadi ila al-Haqq in the
late ninth century, served as a center for Zaydi legal
development. Al-Hadi was the grandson of the great
Zaydi scholar al-Qasim b. Ibrahim (d. 246/860), and
he developed his grandfather’s teachings into a school
of law, himself writing works of fiqh. The “Hadawi”
school, as it became known, remains authoritative for
Yemeni Zaydis today, and central to its teaching is
the work of fiqh Kitab al-Azhar by Ibn al-Murtada
(d. 840/1437). This latter work and its commentary
serve as reference points for Yemeni law, even after
the end of the Imamate in 1962. For Zaydis, any
member of the ahl al-bayt who is a scholar can rise
up and become Imam. The Imam is a legal authority
because he has had political success. This is in con-
trast to the Ismaili and Imami views, for whom the
Imam is a legal authority whether or not he holds
political power.

Robert Gleave

See also al-Allama al-Hilli; al-Tusi; Ja‘far al-Sadiq;
Muhammad b. al-Hasan; Qadi Nu’man; Shi‘i Thought;
Shi'ism

Further Reading

Hossein Moddarressi Tabataba’i. An Introduction to Shi'i
Law. London: Ithaca, 1984.

Kohlberg, Etan. Belief and Law in Imami ShVism. London:
Variorum, 1991.

Stewart, Devin. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy. Salt Lake City:
University of Utah Press 1998.

SHPI THOUGHT

It is commonly said that Twelver Shifism is based on
five principles. The first three, called “principles of the
religion,” are fully shared with the Sunnis: to believe
in the uniqueness of God; to believe in the mission of
the prophets and, in particular, in the mission of
Muhammad; and to believe in the existence of reward
and punishment in the afterlife. The two remaining
principles, the so-called principles of the school (that
is, of Twelver Shi‘ism), are to believe in Divine Justice
and to believe in the principle of the imamate. This

732

SHH THOUGHT

list, however, comes not only from a later date (sev-
enteenth or eighteenth century) but is also extremely
reductive. A look at ancient texts and at the founding
sources of Shi‘ism shows that things are far more
complex.

Scriptural Sources

Like the Sunnis, Shi’is recognize two scriptural
sources: the Qur’an and the Hadith, but definitions
differ greatly in both trends. In Sunnism, the Hadith
is what is called “the prophetic tradition” (that is, the
sayings, sentences, and, at times, behaviors attributed
to Muhammad), conveyed through texts of varying
lengths and transmitted via a chain of transmitters
made up essentially by the Companions of the
Prophet. These traditions are collected in a number
of compilations, which the Sunnis concluded to be
“authentic.”

For Shi‘is, the Hadith is not limited to the Prophet.
It is made up of the sayings and attitudes attributed to
the “Fourteen Impeccables,” that is, Muhammad, his
daughter Fatima, and the Twelve Imams. Thus the
Shi‘i Hadith is broader than the Sunni Hadith.
Further, when it comes to transmitting the hadith,
Shi’is heed no one but the Impeccables. They there-
fore reject the testimony of the Companions and the
authenticity of the Sunni compilations. The hadith
can be transmitted only by an Impeccable, particular-
ly an Imam. Moreover, the Shi'is began to create their
own compilations of hadith; the oldest to reach us
were written between AH 250 and 350/864 and 961
CE. The corpus thus created is enormous, with
thousands of pages and hundreds of thousands of
traditions. Obviously, the hadith collections played a
key role in the creation, consolidation, and develop-
ment of the doctrines. Their authors are regarded as
champions of the faith and are highly respected. It is,
for the most part, thanks to them that Shi‘ism was
able to become one of the most powerful religious
trends of Islam. It is worth noting that the majority
of these ancient compilers came from the two great
Iranian cities of Qumm and Rayy: al-Barqi, Saffar
al-Qummi, ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qummi, al-Kulayni
al-Razi, al-Nu‘mani, and Ibn Babawayh al-Razi.

As for the Qur’an, Sunnis recognize as official
vulgate the Qur’an we know today, the one that
Muslim tradition eventually introduced as having
been written under the reign of the third caliph
‘Uthman (r. 24-35/644-656).

For the Sunni “orthodoxy,” this “‘Uthman Col-
lection” represents (chronology of the revelations
aside) the faithful and complete reproduction of the

divine Word “descended” upon Muhammad. For
Shi’is, however, as shown through texts as sacred as
the hadith of the Imams, the ‘Uthmanian vulgate is
but a falsified, altered, and censored version of the
Revelation made to Muhammad. The original, com-
plete version, which was three times bigger than the
known vulgate, included explicit passages on the ho-
liness of ‘Ali’s rank and the Imams who descended
from him. Those who pushed him away from power,
in this case the first three caliphs and their followers,
could not tolerate this original version, which they
rejected because they denied ‘Ali to be the only legiti-
mate successor of the Prophet. The “integral Qur’an”
thus stayed with ‘Ali and was secretly transmitted
from Imam to Imam, up to the last one who took it
with him in his Occultation. Therefore it will only be
revealed to all, as will the original version of the other
Holy Scriptures, with the coming of the Mahdi at the
End of Times.

Following the definitive introduction of Islamic
orthodoxy and orthopraxy by the end of the third/
ninth century, and the fact that from rite to institu-
tions, including basic dogma, the foundations of the
religion were from then on justified by the ‘Uthmanian
vulgate, the belief in its falsification was becoming
truly dangerous. Indeed, from the mid-fourth/elev-
enth century, Shi’is would start abandoning the falsi-
fication doctrine ( tahrif) by questioning the
authenticity of the traditions that supported it and
by adopting a stance similar to that of the Sunnis
with regard to the official Qur’an. Ibn Babawayh
(d. 381/991) seemed to have been the first great author
to have adopted this stance, which would become the
prevailing one in Shi‘ism. Yet there still were some
important but isolated authors who supported the
veracity of the hadith about the falsified nature of
the vulgate, from Ibn Shahrashub and Tabrisi in the
sixth/twelfth century, Majlisi and Sharif ‘Amili in the
eleventh to twelfth/seventeenth to eighteenth centu-
ries, up to the great religious authority of modern
times, Mirza Husayn Nuri (d. 1902).

Doctrinal Specificity of Shi‘ism

What is the doctrinal specificity of Shi‘ism, as it
appears through the teachings going back to the
Imams or through the citations of the “complete
Qur’an,” which is found in the enormous corpus of
the hadith? What makes Shi’ism stand out within the
many religious trends of Islam? Its characteristic lies
in the notion of the person of the “guide” represented
by the Imam. The person of the Imam is the true hub
around which revolves the entire Shi’i doctrine. From

733

SHH THOUGHT

theology to ethics, from law to Qur’anic exegesis, and
from cosmology to rites and eschatology, all the arti-
cles of faith are determined and given meaning only
by the Imam. Shi’ism specifically developed around a
double vision of the world. The person of the Imam,
in its many meanings, is ubiquitous.

Dual Vision

Any reality, from the highest to the most trivial, has
two levels: a manifest, exoteric level (zahir) and a
secret, esoteric level (batin), which is hidden under
the manifest level. This fundamental creed operates
within the different religious disciplines. First, in the-
ology: God Himself has two levels of being. First is
the level of the Essence, forever elusive. This is the
absolute Unknowable, the forever hidden face of
God. If things were to remain on that level, no rela-
tion would ever be possible between the Creator and
the created. So God, in his Goodness, hatched anoth-
er level within His own Being: that of the Names
and Attributes through which He reveals Himself.
This is the exoteric level of God, of the Unknown
that yearns to be known. The Divine Names act in
creation through “vehicles,” “divine Organs” that are
as many places of God’s manifestations, as many
theophanies.

The theophany par excellence, the highest point of
the revelation of the Names of God, is a metaphysical
being that Shi‘i literature (depending on authors and
eras) has called Imam in heaven, ‘Ali in heaven, Imam
of Light, Cosmic Man, among others. It is the Imam
(with a capital letter) in its full and universal ontolog-
ical meaning. Knowing its reality is thus equivalent to
knowing what can be known in God, since the true
revealed God, that which manifests all that can be
manifested in God, is the cosmic Imam. In turn, he
too has a hidden dimension and a manifest level. His
esoteric level is precisely his metaphysical, cosmic
aspect. His exoteric, or apparent level, his point of
manifestation, is the historical imams (with a lower
case letter) from the different cycles of the Sacred
History. Here we are getting into prophetology.

For Shi‘is, each great prophet is accompanied in
his mission by one or more Imams. They all make up
the long chain of the Friends of God ( wall, pi.
awliya’), who carry and transmit the divine Covenant
(walaya), a key word in Shi’ism that refers among
other things to the nature and function of the
Imamate. They are the points of manifestation of the
cosmic Imam, his revealed face. Knowledge of God
thus begins with knowledge of the man of God or,
more precisely, of the Man-God because theophanic
man, the ultimate mystery of the Shi‘i doctrine.

The Word of God, the Revelation, also has a dou-
ble dimension. Its exoteric dimension, its letter
(tanzil), is brought by the Prophet to the faithful.
Its hidden, esoteric dimension, its spirit, or, more
exactly, its spiritual hermeneutics (ta’wil), is taught
by each prophet’s Imam to a minority of initiates.
Those initiates of the Imam’s teachings thus make
up the “Shi‘is” of each religion. The historical Shi’is,
in Islam, are therefore presented as the last link of a
long initiatory chain that goes back to Adam, first
man and first prophet.

Dualistic Vision

Next to this dual vision of the world also lies a dual-
istic vision of History. The history of creation is that
of a cosmic battle between the forces of knowledge
and the forces of ignorance. Since the primeval battle
between the cosmic Intelligence and the cosmic Igno-
rance described in the cosmogonic traditions, this war
has been waged from age to age, opposing the
imams and their initiates on one side to the “enemies
of the imams” and their followers on the other. This
universal fight will end only with the coming of the
Mahdi at the End of Times and his definitive victory
over the powers of Evil. Indeed, according to the Shi‘i
Hadith, because of the usurpation of power by the
“imams of injustice,” the birth of each religion is
accompanied by the formation in each community
of a “majority” that, while being subjected to the
letter of this religion, refuses even to believe in a spirit
hidden behind the letter. This majority, ruled by ig-
norant people, thus amputates the religion from its
most profound element. The enemy is then not neces-
sarily the pagan or the nonbeliever, but the pseudo-
faithfuls who reject the esoteric of the religion, the
People of the exoteric (ahl al-zahir) who reject the
initiatory teachings of the Imam. Complex cyclical
reasons mean that contemporary humanity is still
ruled by the forces of ignorance and that the initiates
are but a threatened minority. This explains the need
for discretion, for “keeping the secret” (taqiyya),
canonical duty for the Shi‘i initiate, to protect the
mysteries of the teachings from those who are not
worthy.

These two visions of the world determine the two
constants of Shi‘i thought: the permanent initiation,
provided by the Imams of each era to their faithful,
and the perpetual fight between the Imams and their
initiates on one hand and the forces of ignorance on
the other. The first constant shows the spirituality
of humanity; the second characterizes its history.
The role of the Imam proves to be fundamental
everywhere.

734

SHH THOUGHT

These doctrines are ubiquitous in the ancient
corpus of the hadith and the different doctrinal chap-
ters. They are inevitably tinged with esotericism, ini-
tiatory and mystical teachings, and even magical
themes. They characterize what could be called the
“nonrational original esoteric tradition,” the prevail-
ing tradition in Shi‘ism up to the fourth/tenth century,
which marked a great turning point in the histor-
ical evolution of Twelver Shi‘ism. This century was
indeed a crossroads for Islam in general and for
Shi‘ism in particular, because of two great events.
The first great event is that it became the “Shi‘i
century” of Islam. With the Buyids in Baghdad
(then the center of the ‘Abbasid empire), the Fatimids
in Egypt and in North Africa, the Hamdanids in
Iraq and Syria, and the Qarmatians in Arabia and in
the South of Iran, the most important regions of the
Islamic empire were under Shi'i rule. To keep the then
largely Sunni public opinion on their side, Shi‘is
(particularly the Buyids, who kept the ‘Abbasid
caliphs in place) attempted to move closer to Sunni
orthodoxy, expunging or at least redefining the Shi‘i
doctrines deemed “heretic” or “heterodox.” The sec-
ond great event is that the fourth/tenth century was
the century of the “rationalization” of Islam. Greek
and Alexandrine works translated in Arabic during
the third/ninth century were now assimilated by
Muslim intellectuals seduced mostly by the logic and
dialectical reason of Aristotelian tradition. Theolo-
gians and lawmakers found in it the best “weapon”
for their endless arguments. The Shi‘is, left without an
Imam since the Occultation of the twelfth and last
imam in 329/941, and with their sacred texts having
many doctrines now deemed “irrational,” were in
an embarrassing position. Consequently, Shi‘i theolo-
gian-jurists of the Buyid era, such as Shaykh al-Mufid
and his followers al-Radi, al-Murtada, and Shaykh
al-Tusi (fourth to fifth/tenth to eleventh century), who
were inspired by the Mu‘tazili (see Mu‘tazilites)
thought and collaborated more or less closely with
the power in place, slowly took their distance from the
original esoteric tradition up to its marginalization and
the creation of the “rational, theologico-judicial tradi-
tion.” It is within this tradition that the theologian-
jurist, the Doctor of the Law, would gradually fill the
empty space left by the imam, acquiring the privileges
that were until then exclusive to the imam or his named
delegate (that is, to lead collective prayers, apply legal
sanctions, collect some religious taxes, and also declare
holy war). This increasing power of the theologian-
jurist on the political, social, and economic levels
was done through the elaboration of three basic
doctrines: the criteriological science of the hadith
(which allowed them to do away with the ideologi-
cally embarrassing traditions by accusing them of

inauthenticity), the practice of ijtiliad (personal inter-
pretation of matters of faith by the jurist, a concept
explicitly forbidden by the Imams but rehabilitated by
the scholars from the school of al-Mufid), and the
concept of “collaboration with authority” (al-‘amal
ma'a l-sultan, theological definitions and justifications
that allowed political activity also forbidden by the
imams). This rationalist trend would be further devel-
oped by the scholars from the School of Hilla in Iraq,
before and after the Mongol invasion of the seventh
and eighth/thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It
would reach its peak with the Shi‘i “clergy” set up
in Iran during the Safavid era (tenth/sixteenth centu-
ry) and the proclamation of imamate Shi‘ism as state
religion. The doctrine of the “charismatic power of
the jurist” (walayat al-faqih), the central thesis of
Khomeynism and the Iranian Islamic revolution,
can thus be considered as the issue of a millennial
process going from the rationalization of the Buyid
era to the ideologizing of the modern era.

The original esoteric tradition was marginalized
but did not disappear. Many of its doctrinal elements
can be found in Ismailism, as well as in other Shi‘i
esoteric trends or even in Sufism. In Twelver Shi‘ism,
it had isolated important representatives during the
Middle Ages: Ibn Shahrashub, Ibn Tawus, Irbili,
Rajab al-Bursi, the philosophers from the school of
Bahrayn, and the jurists from the traditionalist
School (Akhbariyya). The Safavid era also saw the
emergence of several trends of thought that pro-
claimed themselves to be faithful to the ancient tradi-
tion: some great names from the philosophical School
of Isfahan and Shiraz (Mir Fendereski, Mulla Sadra,
Muhsin Fayd Kashani), from the traditionalist theo-
logians (al-Jaza'iri, al-Bahrani), and from the masters
of the great mystical Shi‘i brotherhoods, which are
still alive and active (Ni‘matullahiyya, Dhahabiyya,
Khaksr, Shaykhiyya).

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

Further Reading

Amir-Moezzi, M.A. Le Guide divin dans le shVisme originel.
Aux sources de I’esoterisme en Islam. Paris, 1992. English
translation: The Divine Guide in Early Shiism. Albany,
NY, 1994.

Amir-Moezzi, M.A. et C. Jambet. Qu’est-ce que le ShVisme.
Paris, 2003.

Bar-Asher, M.M. Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imami
Shiism. Leiden, 1999.

Corbin, H. En Islam iranien. Paris, Vols. I, II, et IV,
1971-1972.

. Histoire de la philosophic islamique. Paris, 1974, esp.

Chap. 2.

Friedlaender, I. The Heterodoxies of the Shiites According to
Ibn Hazm. New Haven, 1909.

735

SHPI THOUGHT

Halm, H. Die Schia. Darmstadt, 1988.

Kohlberg, E. Belief and Law in Imami Shi'ism. Aldershot,
1991.

Lalani, A.R. Early Shi'i Thought. The Teachings of Imam
Muhammad al-Bdqir. London, 2000.

Le shi’isme imamite. colloque de Strasbourg (6-9 mai 1968),
Paris, 1970.

Madelung, W. Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran.
Albany, NY, 1988. Modarressi, H. Crisis and Consolida-
tion in the Formative Period of Shiite Islam. Princeton,
1993.

Newman, A.J. The Formative Period of Twelver Shi'ism.
Richmond, 2000.

Sachedina, A. A. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi
in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany, NY, 1981.

Sander, P. Zwischen Charisma und Ratio. Entwicklungen in
der friihen imamitischen Theologie. Berlin, 1994.

Shi'ism. Ed. E. Kohlberg. Ashgate (The Formation of the
Classical Islamic World), 2003.

SHPISM

Shi‘ism is the oldest religious trend of Islam, given
that what can be considered its early core goes back to
the time when the problem of Prophet Muhammad’s
succession arose. The main minority of Islam, it
is considered by the Sunni majority — also called
“orthodox” — as the main “heterodoxy,” if not “her-
esy,” of the religion. Shi‘is, on the other hand, regard
their doctrine as the “orthodoxy” par excellence.

The Arabic term shi'a (party, members, faithfuls)
got increasingly applied by antonomasia to what
would have been the first of the religious-political
parties of Islam, a party that was made up of those
who claimed for ‘All b. Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-
law of Muhammad, and for ‘All’s descendants, the
exclusive right to guide the community, on the spiri-
tual level, as well as on the secular level. Indeed, after
the death of the Prophet in AH 11/632 CE, two
conflicting views of the crucial question of his succes-
sion clashed. A majority of Muslims, claiming that
Muhammad never clearly named anyone to succeed
him, resorted to the ancestral tribal tradition of elect-
ing a chief by which a counsel, made up of a few
Companions of Muhammad plus the influential mem-
bers of the most powerful Meccan tribes, chooses a
wise man of respectable age. The choice fell on Abu
Bakr, old Companion and one of the Prophet’s
fathers-in-law, who thus became the first caliph of
the new community. His followers became the ances-
tors of those who would later be called Sunnis.

Opposite the Sunnis were the Alids, followers of
‘Ali (Shi at ‘Ali), who claimed that Muhammad had
clearly and often named him as his successor, both by
alluding to it and explicitly. They believed it could not
be otherwise: How could the Prophet have left the
question of his succession unsolved? Is it conceivable

that he would have been so indifferent to the direction
of his community to the point of leaving it in a state of
hazy confusion? It would be contrary even to the
spirit of the Qur’an, in which the great prophets of
the past had their successors elected among the closest
of their kins, those with the most privileged blood ties
and who were initiated to the mysteries of their reli-
gion. It is true that the Qur’an calls for consultation in
some cases, but never when it comes to the succession
of the prophets, which remains an election of divine
order. For those who would later be called Shi‘is, ‘Ali
was the chosen heir, named by Muhammad and sup-
ported by the Qur’an. In this case, his youth, which
was a dissuasive handicap for the beholders of the
ancestral tribal customs, was of no importance. ‘Ali
is thus seen by the Shi‘is as their first imam (leader,
commander, chief). Referring to the true leader of the
community, even if he does not hold the power, the
person of the imam would become the key concept of
the Shi‘i religion, which never used the word “caliph”
to refer to their Guide.

Shi‘ism is thus as old as the dispute about the
succession of the Prophet. Still, it cannot be reduced
to it. Alid legitimism can only be seen as the beginning
of vast doctrinal developments during which the key
concept of the imamate as “prophetic legacy” would
find multiple, complex meanings and would lead to
the creation of varied branches within Shi‘ism. These
branches are characterized mostly by the line of his-
torical imams, descendants of ‘Ali, whom they regard
as legitimate. New schisms and divisions would ap-
pear almost every time an imam died, and more than
one hundred Shi‘i sects and trends appeared during
the first centuries of Islam. Three of them, still active
today, can be thought of as the main spiritual families
of Shi‘ism: Zaydiyya, Isma’iliyah, and Twelver
Shi‘ism, which is by far the main branch.

Twelver Shi‘ism (with twelve imams) is first of
all based on the doctrine of the holiness of the
Fourteen Impeccables ( ma'sum , as in “pure of sin,”
“infallible”): Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, and
the twelve imams. This group is where the Cosmic
Imam manifests, as he himself manifests the Names
and Attributes of God. The line of imams of the
Twelver Shi‘is is as follows. (The presumed sites of
their grave are mentioned only to present the main
holy places of Shi‘ism.)

1. ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (d. 40/661; mausoleum in

Najaf, Iraq)

2. Al-Hasan b. ‘Ali (d. 49/669; mausoleum in

Medina, destroyed by the Wahhabites)

3. Al-Husayn b. ‘Ali (d. 61/680; emblematic

martyr of Shi‘ism; killed and buried in

Karbala, Iraq)

736

SHITSM

4. ‘All Zayn al-‘Abidm b. al-Husayn (c. 95/174;

mausoleum in Medina, destroyed by the
Wahhabites. Zayd, eponym of the Zaydiyya,
was the son of the fourth imam)

5. Muhammad al-Baqir (c. 115/732; mausoleum

in Medina, destroyed by the Wahhabites)

6. Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 146/765; mausoleum in

Medina, also destroyed. The fifth and sixth
imams played a key role in the creation and
development of Shi‘ism. Ja‘far is the father of
Isma’il, eponym of the Isma’iliyya)

7. Musa al-Kazim (d. 183/799; mausoleum in

Baghdad)

8. ‘Ali al-Rida (d. 203/818; mausoleum in

Mashhad, Iran)

9. Muhammad al-Jawad (d. 220/835; mausoleum

in Baghdad)

10. ‘Ali al-Hadi (d. 254/868; mausoleum in

Samarra, Iraq)

11. Al-Hasan al-‘Askari (d. 260/874; mausoleum

in Samarra)

12. Muhammad al-Mahdi, the hidden imam and

expected Savior of the End of Times.
(According to the tradition, he occulted a
first time after his father’s death in 260/874.
During this “Minor Occultation,” which
lasted until 329/941, he communicated with
his faithfuls via four “representatives.” At
this latter date, he declared in a letter that
he would never again have a representative
and that the time of the “Major Occultation”
had begun. For the Twelvers, this
Occultation is still going on and will last
until the eschatological coming of the
hidden imam, the living imam of our time.)

There are four great eras in the history of Shi'ism,
as follows:

1. The first era, from the first to fourth/seventh to

tenth centuries, is that of the historical
imams, who succeeded each other from
father to son, and of their disciples — some
of whom were the first Shi‘i thinkers. It ends
with the beginning of the major Occultation.
The end of this era is marked by the
beginning of the systematic compilations of
the hadith in the main “hadith schools” / dar
al-hadith) of Qumm, Rayy (Iran), Kufa, and
Baghdad (Iraq), and especially by the
compilers from the two Iranian cities.

2. A second era extends from 329/941 (end of the

historical imams’ era) to the Mongol invasion
in the mid-seventh/thirteenth century. The
beginning of this era sees the continuation
of the production of the great compilations

and the development of the School of
Baghdad, that of the rationalist jurist-
theologians of the Buyid era: al Shaykh
al-Mufid and his disciples (Sharif al-Radi
and al-Murtada, al-Shaykh al-Tusi). It is
also the era of the great scholars of the sixth
and seventh/twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
such as Ibn Shahrashub, Fadl al-Tabrisi, and
Ibn Tawus. It ends by the time of the great
Iranian philosopher Nash al-Din al-Tusi
(672/1273) and his disciple, al-‘Allama
al-Hilli (726/1326), key figure of the
theologico-judicial school of Hilla in Iraq.

3. The third era begins with Nasir al-Din al-Tusi,

during the Safavid era, and the proclamation
of Shi‘ism as state religion in Iran, and ends
at the very beginning of the tenth/sixteenth
century. The development of many schools
of thought during this era heralded what
would be called the Safavid Renaissance:
the continuators of the school of Hilla, the
philosophers from the School of Bahrayn,
and also the great mystic thinkers,
nourished by a Shiism enriched with classic
Sufism and the mysticism of Ibn ‘Arabi (Sa‘d
al-Din Hamunyi, Haydar Amuli, Rajab
al-Bursi, and Ibn Abi Jumhur al-Ahsa‘i).

4. The fourth and last era extends from the

accession of the Safavids to today. This era
saw the creation of a Shi‘i theocracy,
gradually organized into a true “clergy,”
initially set up by the Doctors of the Faw
invited from Syria or Bahrayn to legally
justify Safavid power. Members of this clergy
came from the ancient rationalist school of
jurists (mujtahid usuli). They slowly gained
great social, political, and economic powers
through the gradual exercise of privileges
traditionally reserved exclusively for the
imams and their delegates namely
designated (religious justice and enforcement
of legal sanctions, leading of collective
prayers, declaration of holy war, and
collection of some religious taxes such as
kharaj and khums). The 1978 victory of
Khomeynism in Iran and the effective rise to
power of the jurist-theologian is the direct
consequence of this evolution.

In parallel, the Safavid Renaissance led to the emer-
gence of powerful philosophy schools in the main
Iranian cities (Isfahan, Shiraz, Sabzewar, Tehran)
represented by eminent thinkers, such as Mir
Damad (1041/1631) or Mulla Sadra, and continuing
until the thirteenth/nineteenth century. The traditional

737

SHPISM

philosophy still has a few notable representatives
today: Ha’iri Yazdi, Mutahharf, Abdol Karim
Sorush, and Mujtahid Shabistari.

This is also the time of the compilation of the
famous and enormous encyclopedia of Shi'i hadith,
Bihar al-anw&r, by Majlisi the Second (d. 1111/1699)
and of the emergence of the traditionalist judicial
school of the Akhbariyya in the twelth/eighteenth
century. Lastly, mystic Shi‘i societies began to devel-
op in the eleventh/seventeenth century. First came
the Ni’matullahiyya and the Dhahabiyya, followed
by the Khaksar and the Shaykhiyya in the thir-
teenth/nineteenth century. Out of the schisms of the
latter school came Babisrn, which in turn, after some
division, led to the Baha’i faith. Despite the repression
they endured during the first years of the Islamic
revolution of 1978 in Iran, these societies still remain
popular and active.

Today, Twelver Shi‘is amount to about 120 or 150
million people, an uncertain number due to the un-
reliability of statistics in Sunni countries. Still, an
estimate is not too difficult to assess: There are more
than sixty million in Iran and almost as many, if not
more, on the Indian subcontinent across India and
Pakistan, who at times hide their doctrinal allegiance
and are almost absent from official statistics. They
also form a majority in Azerbaijan, Iraq, and
Bahrayn. Communities of varied sizes can be found
in almost all Sunni countries, especially in the Near
and Middle East, Central Asia, and Afghanistan.
Thus one can see that the number of 100 million
touted by the media as being the total number of
Shi‘is, all faiths included, does not rest on solid
ground. To obtain the total number of Shi' is, one
would have to add to the Twelvers not only the
Isma’iliyah and the Zaydiyya but also all other Shi'i
groups that do not always reveal their names:
Nusayris-Alaouites from Syria, Bektashis and Alevis
from Turkey, and Kurdish Ahl-i Haqq. The correct
number would seem to approximate 200 million.

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

See also Imam; Shi‘i Thought
Further Reading

Amir Arjomand, S. The Shadow of God and the Hidden

Imam. Chicago, 1984.

Amir-Moezzi, M.A., et C. Jambet. Qu’est-ce que le Shi'isme?

Paris, 2003.

Corbin, H. Histoire de la philosophic islamique. Paris, 1964.
Gobillot, G. Les Chiites. Turnhout (Belgique), 1988.

Halm, H. Die Schia. Darmstadt, 1988.

Jafri, S.H.M. The Origins and Early Development of Shi’a

Islam. London, 1979.

Laoust, H. Les schismes dans I’Islam: introduction a une

etude de la religion musulmane. Paris, 1965.

Momen, M. An Introduction to Shi’i Islam. New Haven, 1985.

Richard, Y. Le Shi’isme en Iran. Imam et revolution. Paris,
1980.

. L’Islam Shi’ite. Paris, 1991.

Shi’ism. Ed. E. Kohlberg. Ashgate (the Formation of the
Classical Islamic World), 2002.

SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING

The ship occupies a unique position in the Islamic
tradition. The Qur’an counts it among the ay at
(miracles) of God and devotes twenty-eight verses
enumerating its benefits to mankind. The generic
Arabic words for “ship” that appear invariably in
the classical Arabic sources are markab (lit., a convey-
ance or riding vessel), safina, and law (lit., a board or
plank of wood); fulk (Ark), which is another term to
denote a ship, is Qur’anic. It may be surmised that
some of the variations are more linguistic than physi-
cal and that professional sailors and experienced sea
travelers could appreciate the actual sailing character-
istics of each type of vessel. A typical seagoing mer-
chant vessel had to carry on board many anchors,
appropriate hawsers and ropes, canvas and/or cotton
sails, masts, oars, rudders, and draw bridges (for
greater ease in embarking and debarking), in addition
to nautical instruments, pilot books, and charts.
Oversized vessels had to have service boats on board
for the transport of goods to the quayside. Identical
rules applied to ship sales and purchase contracts.
Both parties to the contract had to specify the vessel’s
tackle and navigational instruments in the bill of
sale. When signing a contract to lease a specific vessel
for the conveyance of cargo, shippers were most
concerned with the seaworthiness of the ship, besides
other considerations such as the freight tariff. Sea-
worthiness of a ship was associated with the equip-
ment and amount and proficiency of the crew it was
required to carry. The design, structure, condition,
and equipment of the ship had to be suitable for
carrying goods of a particular kind and bringing
them safely to their destination. Meaning, it had to
be technically able to encounter the ordinary perils of
the voyage. Concerning the crew, bringing the car-
riage into completion required a lessor to recruit a
competent master and professional complement to
navigate the vessel under various circumstances; a
ship that was powered by unskilled mariners could
certainly be regarded as unseaworthy.

The office of Islamic muhtasib (market superinten-
dent) supervised, among other duties, the construc-
tion of ships at the shipyard and carriage by sea. The
muhtasib was helped by assistants called ‘urafa’
al-sina‘a (arsenals’ inspectors), whose main task was
to insure the shipwrights’ observance of technical
standards and prevent them from using inferior and

738

SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING

Anonymous. Turkish ship with passengers. Codex Cicogna. Credit: Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/ Art Resource, NY.

inadequate raw materials. Exacting and thorough
inspections were carried out to avoid human and
financial losses. Whoever violated these regulations
was punished. While the ship was still in the yard, a
comprehensive technical inspection had to be carried
out by the muhtasib ( see Markets), the captain, and
the ship’s scribe. Islamic law entitled sailors and les-
sees to not honor a leasing contract if a technical
defect was discovered in the ship. The working
hours of carpenters, including shipwrights, began
late in the morning and ended before evening. Thus
the inspection of commercial ships took place be-
tween sunrise and sunset, but not in the evening and
prior to the loading processes. The amount of cargo
the ship could properly carry was determined by the
muhtasib. When the cargo was stowed and placed
appropriately and the ship was ready to depart, an
official examination to prevent overloading was
requested by the muhtasib, or his representative, and
the captain. The hisba manuals plainly state that “a

ship can be freighted with cargo as long as the water-
line (plimsoll) alongside the outer hull is visible.”
Islamic law requires that each ship be marked with a
load line to indicate how deeply the ship could legally
be submerged. The waterline mark along the outer
hull could not he more than a certain depth below the
surface of the water. The provision against overload-
ing was intended to prevent not only sinking but also
the overexertion of the rowers.

Types, dimensions, and technical constructions of
ships varied in accordance with their purposes and
bodies of waters they plied. Nukhayli counts more
than 1 50 nautical crafts, including river crafts, coast-
ers, and oceangoing and seagoing vessels that differed
in their structures. Recent underwater archaeological
excavations off the Palestinian, Turkish, and French
coasts have shed further light on the Islamic tech-
nology of shipbuilding from the seventh century CE
onward. Material and written evidence show that the
length-to-beam ratios of a typical size of commercial

739

SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING

vessel were usually 3:1 or 4:1, with a shallow keel and
rounded hull; the wide beam relative to the length
aimed to provide maximum storage for cargo. Ship-
wrights in the Islamic Mediterranean employed the
skeletal-building method in all stages of the hull’s
construction. All the frames were in place before the
wales and upper side planks were added. At some
point after side planking began, the open area be-
tween the bottom and sides was covered with an odd
configuration of strakes, at least three of which did
not run the full length of the hull. When planking was
completed, they were caulked with a mixture of pitch
or tar. After all the floor timbers were in place, the
keelson was bolted between the frames and through
the keel at irregular intervals with two-centimeter-
diameter forelock bolts. Then stringers were added to
the floor of the hold, on which a removable transverse
ceiling was placed. Next came the side ceiling, clamps,
and deck beams. The major difference in the construct-
ion techniques and methods between the Islamic
Mediterranean and the eastern part of the empire is
in reference to planking. The ship’s planks in the Red
Sea and Indian Ocean were sewn together with ropes,
while in the Mediterranean, iron nails were used.
The lateen sail was a distinctive feature of the rig of
Islamic ships in the Mediterranean.

The materials needed for shipbuilding were found
within the Islamic domain. For instance, Egyptian
shipwrights used different types of timber — lebek,
acacia, fig, palm, and lotus, which were abundantly
found in Egypt — in their arsenals. Later, and due to
deforestation processes, cedar, pine, and other tim-
bers were imported from Palestine, Lebanon, Asia
Minor, and Europe. Furthermore, a closer look at
the arsenals’ locations prove that beyond strategic
considerations, they were situated near forests and
areas rich in mining.

Hassan Khalileh

Further Reading

Baghdadi, ‘Abd al-Latif (557-629/1162-1231). Al-Ifada wa’l
I'tibar. Translated into English and edited by Kamal H.
Zand et al. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1965.

Bass, George, and Frederic H. van Doornick. “An 11th
Century Serge Liman, Turkey.” The International Jour-
nal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration
7, no. 2 (1978): 119-132.

Christides, Vassilios. "Byzantine Dromon and Arab Shini:
The Development of the Average Byzantine and Arab
Warships and the Problem of the Number and Function
of the Oarsmen.” Tropis 3 (1995): 111-122.

. “New Light on the Transmission of Chinese Naval

Technology to the Mediterranean World: The Single
Rudder.” In Intercultural Contacts in the Medieval Med-
iterranean !, edited by Benjamin Arbel, 64-70. London:
Frank Cass, 1996.

Constable, Olivia R. Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain:
The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula
900 — 1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994.

Delgado, Jorge L. El pooler naval de Al-Andalus en la epoca
del Califato Omeva. Granada: Universidad de Granada,
1993.

Dickson, H.R.P. The Arab of the Desert. London, 1959.

Fahmy, Aly M. Muslim Naval Organisation in the Eastern
Mediterranean from the Seventh to the Tenth Century
A.D. Cairo: National Publication & Printing House,
1966.

Flecker, Michael. “A Ninth-Century A.D. Arab or Indian
Shipwreck in Indonesia: First Evidence for Direct
Trade with China.” World Archaeology 3, no. 32
(2001): 335-354.

Goitein, Shelomo D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish
Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the
Documents of the Cairo Geniza, Economic Foundations.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Hocker, Frederick M. “Late Roman, Byzantine, and Islam-
ic Galleys and Fleets.” In The Age of the Galley: Medi-
terranean Oared Vessels since pre-Classical Times , edited
by Robert Gardiner, 86-100. London: Naval Institute
Press, 1995.

Hornell, James. “A Tentative Classification of Arab Sea
Craft.” The Mariner’s Mirror 28, no. 1 (1942): 11M0.

Ibn ‘Abdun, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Tujibi (12th cen-
tury CE). Seville Musulmane au debut du Xlf Siecle.
Traduit avec une introduction et des notes par: E. Levi-
Provenpal. Paris, 1947.

Ibn Bassam al-Muhtasib, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad (d. 884/
1479). Nihayat al-Rutba fi Talab al-Hisba. Baghdad:
Matba‘at al-Ma‘arif, 1968.

Ibn al-Ukhuwwa, Muhammad Ibn Muhammad (648-729/
1250-1329). Ma’alim al-Qurbafi Ahkam al-Hisba. Cairo:
Al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1976.

Joncheray, M.J.P. “Le navire de Bataiguire.” Archeologia
85 (1975): 42-48.

Kahanov, Yaakov. “The Tantura B Shipwreck: Preliminary
Hull Construction Report.” In Down the River to the
Sea, edited by Jerzy Litwin, 151-154. Gdansk: Polish
Maritime Museum, 2000.

Kaplan, Marion. “The History and Construction of the
Dhow.” Available online at http://nabataea.net/ships.
html, 2002.

Kindermann, H. “Safina.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995, vol. 8, 808-809.

Kreutz, Barbara M. “Ships, Shipping and the Implications
of Change in the Early Medieval Mediterranean.” Viator
1 (1976): 79-109.

Lichtenstadter, Ilse. “Origin and Interpretation of Some
Qur'anic Symbols.” In Studi Orientaliststici in Onore di
Giorgio Levi Della Vida. Roma: Instituto per l’Orient,
1956, vol. 2, 58-80.

Makrypoulias, Christos G. “Muslim Ships through Byzan-
tine Eyes.” In Aspects of Arab Seafaring: An Attempt to
fill in the Gaps on Maritime History. Ed. Yacoub Y.
al-Hijji & Vassilios Christides. Athens, 2002: 179-190.

Manguin, Pierre-Yves. “Late Mediaeval Shipbuilding in
Indian Ocean: A Reappraisal.” Moyen Orient and
Ocean Indien 2 (1985): 1-30.

Moreland, W.H. “The Ships of the Arabian Sea about
A.D. 1500.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland (1939): 63-74 and 173-192.

740

SIBAWAYHI

Nicolle, David. “Shipping in Islamic Art: Seventh through
Sixteenth Century A.D.” The American Neptune 49
(1989): 168-197.

Nukhayli, Darwish. Al-Sufun al-Islamiyya ‘ala Huruf
al-Mujam. Alexandria: Alexandria University Press,
1974.

Pryor, John H. “From Dromon to Galea: Mediterranean
Bireme Galleys A.D. 500-1300." In The Age of the Gal-
ley: Mediterranean Oared Vessels since pre-Classical
Times, edited by Robert Gardiner, 101-116. London:
Naval Institute Press, 1995.

Rezq, ‘Assem M. “The Craftsmen of Muslim Egypt and
Their Social and Military Rank during the Medieval
Period.” Islamic Archaeological Studies 3 (1988): 3-31.

Saqati, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Abu Muhammad.
Un manuel hispanique cle Hisba (Adah al-Hisba). Ed. G.
S. Colin and E. Levi-Provenpal. Paris: Librairie E. Ler-
oux, 1931.

Shihab, Hasan S. Al-Marakib al-‘Arabiyya, Tarikhuha
wa-Anwa‘uha. Kuwait, 1987.

Steffy, J. Richard. “The Reconstruction of the 1 1th Century
Serpe Liman Vessel: A Preliminary Report.” The Inter-
national Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater
Exploration 11, no. 1 (1982): 13-34.

Van Doornick, Frederick. “The Medieval Shipwreck at
Serqe Limani: An Early 1 1th Century Fatimid-Byzantine
Commercial Voyage.” Graeco-Arabica 4 (1991): 45-52.

Wachsmann, Shelley and Yaakov Kahanov. “Shipwreck
Fall: The 1995 INA/CMS Joint Expedition to Tantura
Lagoon, Israel.” ThelNA Quarterly 24, no. 1 (1997): 3-18.

Yajima, Hikoichi. The Arab Dhow Trade in the Indian
Ocean. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages
and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1976.

Zayyat, Habib. "Mu‘jam al-Marakib wal-Sufun fi
al-Islam.” Al-Mashriq 43 (1949): 321-364.

SIBAWAYHI

Abu Bishr ‘Aim ibn ‘Uthman ibn Qanbar, known as
Sibawayhi, is the founder of Arabic grammatical sci-
ence. Of Persian origin, he attached himself in the
middle of the second/eighth century to a number of
early authorities on the Arabic language in Basra,
notably al-Khalil ibn Ahmad and Yunus ibn Habib.
The dates of his birth and death are not known: He
died perhaps in his early forties in around AH 180/796
CE, before Yunus (d. 182/798) but after al-Khalil,
who died between 160 and 175/776 and 791.

His untitled treatise on Arabic grammar, known
only as Kitab Sibawayhi ( Sibawayhi’ s Book), or sim-
ply “the Book”, is the first systematic description of
the language, and retains its unsurpassed authority
to this day. It probably owes its survival to one of
Sibawayhi’s few students, al-Akhfash al-Awsat
(d. between 210 and 221/825 and 835), who had his
own copy of the work, which would become the basis
of all subsequent versions, with one possible exception.

The Kitab falls into four sections, a group of
seven introductory chapters setting out the main the-
oretical assumptions, then a long treatment of syntax

(Chapters 8-284, completing the first volume as it is
conventionally divided), with morphology occupying
the bulk of volume two (Chapters 285-564), and con-
cluding with seven chapters on phonetics (Chapter
565-571). The borderline between the last two is not
as precise as it might be in modern linguistics and, in
fact, many earlier chapters deal with what would now
be called morphophonology.

The arrangement of the material, proceeding from
syntax to phonology, is itself a statement of position,
namely that language must first be described in its
surface realization, as connected speech, kalam, be-
fore it can be further decomposed into its constituents
in successively smaller units. Speech is therefore ana-
lyzed pragmatically as a social activity (the word
nahw, “way [of speaking]”, used frequently in the
Kitab, later became the name of the science of gram-
mar, but is ultimately only a synonym of Sunna, or
“the [Islamic] way of behaving”). Hence the criteria
for correctness are ethical in origin: an utterance is
acceptable when it is both well-formed (hasan, lit.
“morally good”) and successfully conveys the
intended meaning ( mustaqim , lit. “morally right”).
Only three parts of speech are formally identified:
noun ism, verb fi‘l, and meaningful particle harf ja’a
li-ma'na, and their syntactical relationship is referred
to as “operation” (‘amal), in binary units consisting
(mostly) of an active element (‘ amil , “operator”) that
assigns case to a passive element (ma'mul fihi,
“operated on”). Sibawayhi names more than seventy
such speech operations, and the concept is entirely
unconnected with the Western notion of “governing.”
His morphological chapters cover the range of word
patterns so thoroughly that scarcely anything has
had to be added since, and his treatment of the artic-
ulation of Arabic sounds remains an invaluable
source for the pronunciation of early Arabic.

Although Sibawayhi’s debt to his masters is clear on
almost every page, his originality is beyond question;
as the first of its kind the Kitab is literally unprece-
dented, and we depend on it for our knowledge of
grammar before Sibawayhi. After his death it took a
couple of generations for the importance of the work
to be recognized, but then its descriptive contents were
quickly adapted for the prescriptive grammars needed
to sustain Arab culture in its Islamic manifestation.

Michael G. Carter

See also Grammar and Grammarians
Primary Sources

Le livre de Sibawaihi. 2 vols. Ed. Hartwig Derenbourg.

Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1881-1889. Reprint, Hilde-

sheim: Georg Olms, 1970.

Kitab Sibawayhi. 2 vols. Cairo: Bulaq Press, 1898-1900.

Reprint, Baghdad: Muthanna, 1965.

741

SIBAWAYHI

Kitab Sibawayhi. 5 vols. Ed. ‘Abd al-Salam Muhammad
Harun. Cairo: Dar al-Qalam et al., 1968-1977; 2d ed,
1977; 3rd ed, 1983.

Further Reading

al-Bakka, M.K. Manhaj Kitab Sibawayhi fi l-taqwim
al-nahwi. Baghdad: Dar al-Shu’un al-Thaqafiyya

al-‘Amma, 1989.

Bernards, M. Changing Traditions. Al-Mubarrad’s Refuta-
tion of Sibawayhi and the Subsequent Reception of the
Kitab. Leiden, New York, and Koln: Brill, 1997.

Bohas, G., J.-P., Guillaume, and D.E. Kouloughli. The
Arabic Linguistic Tradition. London and New York:
Routledge, 1990.

Carter, M.G. “Sibawayhi.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, new
ed, edited by H.A.R. Gibb et al., vol. 9, 524a-531a.
Leiden: Brill, 1960.

. “Patterns of Reasoning: Sibawayhi’s Treatment of

the hal .” In Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the Union
of European Arabists and Islamicists, Part One, Linguis-
tics, Literature, History, edited by K. Devenyi. Budapest,
2002, [The Arabist, vols. 24—25], 3-15.

Humbert, G. Les voies de transmission du Kitab de
Sibawayhi. Leiden, New York, and Koln: Brill, 1995.

Mosel, U. Die syntaktische Terminologie bei Sibawaih. Diss.
Munich, 1975.

al-Nassir, A. A. Sibawayh the Phonologist, London and New
York: Kegan Paul International, 1993.

Reuschel, W. Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, cler Lehrer Sibawaihs, als
Grammatiker. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1959.

Semaan, K.l. Linguistics in the Middle Ages, Phonetic Stud-
ies in Early Islam Leiden: Brill, 1968.

Sezgin, F.M. Geschic.hte cles Arabischen Schrifttums. Leiden,
\984, vol. 9, 51-63, 241-242.

Talmon, R. Eighth-Century Iraqi Grammar. A Critical
Exploration of Pre-Khalilian Arabic Linguistics. Winona
Lake, 2003.

Troupeau, G. Lexique-Index du Kitab de Sibawayhi. Paris:
Klincksieck, 1976.

‘Udayma, M. ‘A. Faharis Kitab Sibawayhi wa-dirasa lahu.
Cairo: Matba‘at al-Sa‘ada, 1975.

Versteegh, Kees C. H. M. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition,
Landmarks in Linguistic Thought III. London and New
York: Routledge, 1997.

Web Editions

Complete text on www.alwaraq.com.

Partied Editions

Matveev, A., M. G. Carter, and L. Edzard (Eds). Chapters
1-7 and 565-571, Oslo, 1999-2002, available online at
www.hf.uio.no/east/sibawayhi/HomePage.

Translation

Carter, M.G. Sibawayhi. Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2004.

Jahn, Gustav. Sibawaihi’s Buch tiber die Grammatik,
iibersetzt und erkldrt. Berlin: Reuther und Reichard,
1895-1900. Reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969.

SIBT IBN AL-JAWZI, SHAMS
AL-DIN ABU’L-MU Z AFF AR YUSUF
B. QIZUGHLI

Sibt was a celebrated preacher and voluminous histo-
rian. He was born in Baghdad in AH 581 or 582/1185
or 1186 CE. His Turkish father was a freedman of
‘Awn al-Din Ibn Hubayra, the long-serving vizier of
the ‘Abbasid caliphs al-Muqtafi and al-Mustanjid.
His mother was a daughter of the famous Iraqi
preacher and writer Ibn al-Jawzi, for whom Sibt
(grandson) was named Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi (grandson
of Ibn al-Jawzi).

Sibt is predominantly associated with Ayyubid
Damascus, where he moved from Baghdad in AH
600/1203 CE, although circumstances sometimes
forced him to leave Damascus for lengthy periods.
In AH 603/1206 CE, he moved to Aleppo, apparently
drawn by the patronage that the Ayyubid ruler
al-Malik al-Zahir extended to religious and literary
scholars. Sibt remained in Aleppo for two years,
breaking his stay in AH 604/1208 CE to make his
first pilgrimage to Mecca via Mosul and Baghdad.

Two years after his return to Damascus, Sibt began
his lengthy and significant association with al-Malik
al-Mu‘azzam ‘Isa, then nominal ruler of the city for
his father, al-Malik al-‘Adil. Sibt’s first meeting with
al-Mu‘azzam took place in the wake of his celebrated
da'wa li’l-jihad (call to holy war), which he delivered
in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on AH Rabi‘
II 5, 607/September 26, 1210 CE. Producing a quanti-
ty of horses’ hobbles made from human hair, he
roused a number of the men present to cut their own
hair, in a conventional gesture of ardent religious
commitment. A military force was raised, with Sibt
in the vanguard. After being met by al-Mu‘azzam
outside Nabulus in Palestine, the Muslims went on
to the coast, where they pillaged some Frankish vil-
lages. Sibt remained in al-Mu‘azzam’s retinue for the
next four years, accompanying him to Egypt in
AH 609/1212 CE.

Sibt was not uncritical of his patron. In AH 615/
1218 CE, after al-Mu‘azzam had become ruler of
Damascus, Central Syria, Transjordan, and Palestine
on the death of al-‘Adil, Sibt had occasion to rebuke
al-Mu‘azzam for his treatment of another scholar
and friend of Sibt’s. Nevertheless, Sibt left the
Hanbali madhhab (Islamic legal school) for the Hanafi
madhhab, which was the madhhab that al-Mu‘azzam
himself promoted. In AH 623/1226 CE, a year before
his death, al-Mu‘azzam appointed Sibt mudarris
(professor) in the (Hanafi) Madrasa Shibliyya
al-Barraniyya in Damascus.

Al-Mu‘azzam was not the only Ayyubid ruler
whose confidence Sibt gained. In AH 612/1215 CE,

742

SIBT IBN AL-JAWZI, SHAMS AL-DIN ABU’L-MUZAFFAR YUSUF B. QIZUGHLI

he went to Akhlat in Armenia, at the request of
al-M u'azzam’s brother al-Malik al-Ashraf, who
deputized for their father east of the Euphrates
River. Al-Ashraf wanted Sibt to look at a work writ-
ten by the ‘Abbasid caliph, al-Nasir. He then sent Sibt
on a mission to al-Zahir in Aleppo. In AH 614-615/
1217-1218 CE, he traveled extensively on behalf of
al-Ashraf, who had tasked him with the supervision
of the khanqahs (Sufi hospices) in his territory.

Sibt did not escape becoming embroiled in the
disputes and rivalries that beset the Ayyubids after
the death of Saladin. In AH 626/1229 CE, the new
ruler of Damascus, al-Mu‘azzam’s son al-Malik
al-Nasir Da’ud, asked Sibt to preach in the Umayyad
Mosque against al-Malik al-Kamil, the ruler of
Egypt, for treatising with the Holy Roman Emperor,
Frederick II, and against al-Ashraf for acquiescing in
al-Kamil’s policy. Sibt delivered a stirring oration and
issued a fatwa (religious ordinance) commanding
the Damascenes to take up arms against the two
Ayyubids. As a result, when al-Ashraf laid siege to
Damascus and ousted al-Nasir from the city, Sibt
followed al-Nasir to al-Karak, which the defeated
prince had been given under the terms of surrender.
He remained there until AH 633/1235 CE, when rela-
tions with al-Ashraf improved, and he was able to
return to Damascus.

More trouble befell Sibt after the death of
al-Ashraf in AH 635/1237 CE, and the accession to
rule in Damascus of his immediate successor,
al-Malik al-Salih Isma'il. The latter saw Sibt as be-
longing to the Egyptian camp, which was opposed to
Damascus. For al-Salih Isma’il believed (erroneously)
that, while in al-Karak, Sibt had persuaded al-Nasir
to release from custody al-Kamil’s son al-Malik
al-Salih Ayyub. Al-Salih Isma‘il was encouraged in
this belief by his vizier, al-Samiri. Sibt left Damascus,
apparently returning to al-Karak, where he remained
for the next four years, with periods in Jerusalem and
Nabulus.

In AH 639/1241 CE, he moved to Egypt, where he
enjoyed good relations with the ruler al-Salih Ayyub,
whom he had met in Jerusalem after al-Salih Ayyub’s
release from prison in al-Karak. Sibt returned to
Damascus two years later, and resided in his adopted
city until his death in AH 654/1256 CE.

While Sibt was soundly schooled in hadith (Prophet-
ic Tradition), Qur’anic reading, and Arabic grammar,
he was particularly esteemed as a wa'iz (preacher), and
it is here that his career sheds revealing light on the
intellectual procedures of the age, as well as on the man
himself. A preacher would hold a majlis al-wa‘z
(preaching session) in the towns through which he
passed, attracting and keeping audiences by means
of a variety of skills: familiarity with the stories of

ascetics and pietists; declamatory skill; ability to
speak in saf (rhymed prose); knowledge of hadith',
knowledge of metonymy; repartee; and above all, a
stirring voice. By all accounts, Sibt was well versed in
each of these. The Damascenes would spend Friday
night in the mosque, so that they might be assured of
a place at the discourse, which Sibt used to deliver a
session early on Saturday morning. His audiences
would frequently be moved to tears by his words.

Sibt’s most important written work is the Mir ’at
al-zaman fi ta ’rikh al-a ‘yan ( The Mirror of Time in the
Matter of the History of Notables). It is a lengthy,
universal chronicle in eight parts. Where possible, the
account of the events of each year concludes with
the obituaries of people who died in that year. In
this, Sibt followed the format of a chronicle written
by his famous grandfather. The Mir ’at is most valu-
able for its coverage of the events of the tenth and
eleventh centuries, for which the sources include
works that have been lost; and for the period of
Sibt’s own lifetime, where it offers an eyewitness
view, especially of events in Ayyubid Syria, in which
the author was often personally involved. The Mir ’at
was much drawn on as a source for subsequent
histories.

The text of the Mir ’at has survived in two ways: in
manuscripts containing or based on parts of Sibt’s
own working draft; and in the manuscript of an
abridgement of the work made by a Syrian historian
of the next generation, al-Yunini. Printed editions
have been published of that part of the Mir ’at cover-
ing the years AH 448-480/1056-1087 CE, and of the
period between AH 495/1101 CE and Sibt’s death.
Part of the latter has been translated into French.

David Morray

See also Ayyubids; Damascus; Historical Writing;
Madrasa

Primary Sources

Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi. Mir 'at al-zaman fi ta’rikh al-a 'van.

1. Edited and and translated in Recueil des historiens des
croisades. Historiens orientaux. Vol. 3. Paris: 1884.
Extracts from years AH 492-532/1099-1137 CE.

2. Hyderabad, 1952. 2 vols. Covers years AH 495-654/
1101-1256 CE.

3. Ali Sevim (Ed). Ankara, 1968. Covers years AH 448-
480/1056-1087 CE.

Further Reading

Ihsan ‘Abbas. Introduction to vol. 1 of Mir ’at al-zaman fi
ta’rikh al-a‘yan, by Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi. Beirut, 1985.
Humphreys, R. Stephen. From Saladin to the Mongols: the
Ayyubids of Damascus, 1193-1260. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1977.

743

SICILY

The history of Muslim Sicily begins at the court of
Ziyadatallah in 827, the autonomous Aghlabid ruler
of Ifriqiyya. Faced with a restless and rebellion-prone
army, opposition from Kharijite Berber tribes, a disen-
franchised urban poor, and a hostile and critical ulema,
Ziyadatallah found a solution to his problems, in the
form of an external enemy. Using information from a
renegade Sicilian Byzantine general (Euphemius)
concerning Muslim soldiers being illegally held captive
in Sicily, and galvanized by his chief judge, Asad Ibn
al-Furat, eminent jurist and politically astute advisor,
Ziyadatallah invaded Sicily with all the legal justifica-
tion and military pageantry of jihad he could muster.

The Muslim era of Sicilian history, until the
Norman Conquest was completed in 1091, was domi-
nated by jihad. The first hundred years witnessed
offensive jihad against the Byzantine forces supported
by the emperors in Constantinople and the local
Christian population. The latter years were marked
by a defensive jihad as the Sicilian Muslims resisted
the armies of the North. Jihad also had a major
impact on the economy. The massive flow of booty,
gold, silver, slaves, horses, and land made Muslim
Sicily a powerful and wealthy state where trade and
local industries, shipbuilding, arms manufacturing,
textiles, and agriculture flourished. Politically, jihad
was the dominant issue in acquiring, maintaining, or
losing the power and legitimacy to rule.

The dynastic history of Muslim Sicily may be
divided into the Aghlabid, Fatimid, and Kalbid
periods. The Aghlabid period (827-909) is character-
ized by the long and difficult process of offensive
jihad and close ties and dependence on the rulers of
Ifriqiyya for manpower, arms, and logistic support.
The invading army, under the command of Asad Ibn
al-Furat, arrived in Mazara in 827 and captured
Palermo in 831. The following decades were spent
consolidating control over the central and southeast
of the island where the Byzantines relocated their
headquarters in Enna and Syracuse. The Northeast
would not fall into Muslim control until after the
fall of the Aghlabids. The Fatimid period of Sicily
(909-944) saw no discernible change in the thrust,
direction, and policies of the jihad movement. The
new Shi‘i rulers of Ifriqiyya expended vast resources
on Sicily as a base to expand their naval and mercan-
tile powers in the Mediterranean. They appointed
trusted servants to rule the island, especially among
the Kutama Berbers, and made efforts to spread the
doctrines of their mission (al-da’wa) to a predomi-
nantly Maliki Sunni Sicilian populace. A violent four-
year insurrection (937-941) launched by the Sicilian
Muslims against their Fatimid governor, Salim Ibn
Rashid, and his Ifriqiyyan-appointed backup, Khalil

Ibn Ishaq, coincided with Fatimid efforts to conquer
Egypt in their quest for the grand prize of Baghdad.
Gradually, the island was granted greater autonomy
in the appointment of al-Hasan ibn ‘All al-Kalbi,
whose father died during the uprisings in Agrigento
in 938. When al-Hasan was recalled to al-Mahdiyya
in 953, he left the duties of ruling Sicily to his
son Ahmad, creating a dynastic process that would
remain intact throughout the rest of the century.

The Kalbid period of Sicily (944—1044) enjoyed
a period of political stability, economic expansion,
cultural florescence (architecture, poetry, and scholar-
ship), and military security. The Byzantines were held
in check and the last Christian strongholds in the
northeast of the island, not to mention fortress
towns in Calabria and Apulia in southern Italy, fell
under Muslim control. Kalbid success reached a high
point in the rule of Abu al-Futuh Yusuf (989-998).
But a stroke left him partially paralyzed in 998, and
the rule of his son and successor, Ja’far, was
challenged by Yusuf’s second son, ‘Ali. with the sup-
port of Kutama Berber factions and the slave corps.
Ja’far crushed the revolt, executed ‘Ali and the slaves,
and expelled the Berbers from the island. As a pre-
caution against further disturbances, Ja’far rebuilt his
military forces conscripting only Sicilian troops.
Ja’far’s harsh policies, his illegal taxation on Muslim
land and produce, and his mistreatment of members
of his own family — princes themselves who were
supported by entourages of wealthy and influential
clients — eroded his base of support in Palermo. The
Sicilians deposed him and would have executed him
had it not been for the intercession of Yusuf.

A third son, Ahmad al-Akhal, pitted the Sicilians
against each other, reopening festering wounds be-
tween the Arabs of Palermo and the Berbers of Agri-
gento on the one hand, and the old-guard “Sicilian”
landed gentry against the more recent generations
of “North African” immigrants on the other. This
wrought devastating results, drawing energy and
resources away from the jihad and tearing the threads
of unity that held the Muslim Sicilians together. The
political fragmentation of the island paved the way
for the Norman invasion. Despite attempts by the
Zirid Court in Ifriqiyya to rescue Muslim Sicily
from the clutches of the Christian Reconquest, the
enmity among the island’s petty warlords was too
strong. Abu al-Futuh Yusuf’s fourth son, Hasan
al-Samsan, was deposed in 1044, and in 1055, Ibn
al-Thumna, warlord of Syracuse and Noto, offered
the Normans a deal to deliver the island to them in
exchange for their assistance in avenging his enemies.
This final act of treason, reminiscent of the Byzantine
renegade Euphemius two centuries earlier, who
opened the way for the Muslim entry into Sicily,

744

SILK ROADS

paved the way for the Normans to take their turn as
Sicily’s new rulers.

The intellectual and cultural history of Islamic
Sicily developed along the lines of those in Ifriqiyya
and al-Qayrawan. Sicilian religious life was predomi-
nantly of the Sunni-Maliki sect, and its secular culture
imitated the Arabo-Islamic mainstream, sharing
features with both North African and Andalusian
cultures. An “indigenous” Sicilian Islamic specificity
came into its own and flourished at the Kalbid court
in the middle of the tenth century. The academic
journey ( al-rihla rQ played a pivotal role in Sicilian
Muslim scholarship and, along with commerce, war,
and pilgrimage to Mecca, was instrumental in the im-
port and export of knowledge and cultural influences
to and from the island. The later Norman synthesis,
the historical appellation for the great cultural eclecti-
cism of the courts from Roger II to Frederick II in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, sprouted in good part
from the seeds of Arabo-Islamic institutions that were
sown in this period.

The education of Sicilian Muslims was based upon
a tripartite of Arabic language, religion and ethics,
and Islamic law. Sicily resembled Ifriqiyya in the
composition and diversity of its religious and scholar-
ly life. As military society evolved into a more civilian
society, Sicily’s institutions developed in new direc-
tions. It expanded beyond the fortress or fortified
monastery to include private homes with extended
mosque complexes for worship and education, plea-
sure palaces, and government complexes with adjoin-
ing shops and factories. Islamic legal studies, as
elsewhere, evolved into a complex of subjects including
methodological literature and speculative theology
that assumed a degree of rationalist thinking. The
study and practice of piety and asceticism gave way
to a more sophisticated Sufism as a field of inquiry.

Language studies branched out into its many sub-
sets, and poetry as entertainment became the subject of
linguistic, historical, and aesthetic investigation. In
the tenth and eleventh centuries, Arabic language
and linguistic studies (Ibn al-Birr, Ibn Makki, Ibn
al-Qattafi), as well as poetry and belles-lettres, com-
peted with the traditional Quranic disciplines. This
cultural florescence owes a great deal to the Fatimids
who, through political acumen, tolerance, farsighted-
ness, and patronage of learning, allowed the natural
processes of Sicilian Islam to follow natural courses.

William Granara

Further Reading

‘Abbas, Ihsan. al-‘Arab fi Siqilliya. Cairo: Dar al-M’arif,

1959.

Ahmad, Aziz. A History of Islamic Sicily. Edinburgh:

University Press, 1975.

Amari, Michele. Biblioteca arabo-sicula. Lipsia: Brockhaus,
1857.

. Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. 2d ed. Ed. C. A.

Nallino. Catania: Romeo Prampolini, 1933.

Granara, William. “Islamic Education and the Trans-
mission of Knowledge in Medieval Sicily.” In Law and
Education in Medieval Islam: Studies in Honor of George
Makdisi. London: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2004,
150-173.

Rizzitano, Umberto. Storia e Cultura nella Sicilia Saracena.

Palermo: S. F. Flaccovio, 1975.

Talbi, Mohamed. L’Emirat Aghlabide. Paris: Librairie
d’Amerique et d”orient Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1966.

SILK ROADS

Silk Roads was a popular name for the premodern
system of trade routes by which goods, ideas, and
people were exchanged between major regions of Eur-
asia, mainly between China, Central Asia, the Middle
East, and Europe. The name can denote both land
and sea routes, but this survey concentrates on the
land routes (for sea routes, see Trade, Indian Ocean).

More specifically, the term Silk Roads denotes the
roads leading from North China via the Gansu corri-
dor westward. In the Gansu corridor the road is
divided in two — the northern route, passing north of
the Tianshan to Semirechye, and the southern route,
leading from south of the Tianshan via the Tarim
basin, again splitting into two routes passing north or
south of the Taklamakan Desert. The northernmost
route went either west to Khwarazm and Eastern
Europe, or southwest via Transoxiana to Khurasan
and Iran. Of the southern routes, one led via Farghana
to Transoxiana and Iran, and the other through Balkh
to India or Iran. From Iran the Silk Roads continued
either to Iraq and the Middle East or to the Black Sea,
Anatolia, and Western Europe.

Silk was a major good carried along these roads,
due to its high value and small weight, but many other
goods also traveled along the way. These included
other kinds of cloth and clothing; precious metals
and stones; furs, hides, and animals; porcelain; glass
vessels; foods of various kinds; spices; exotica; and
slaves. While the lucrative items often traveled the
whole route, an important segment of the trade was
in necessities, usually carried for shorter distances,
often along north-south routes between nomads and
sedentaries. This was made possible as the commerce
was normally one of multiple resales, and up to the
Mongol period individuals rarely traversed the whole
route. A major part in the trade was therefore taken
by people living not in its ends (China, Europe, the
Middle East) but along the way, mainly in Central
Asia. With the gradual political and religious expan-
sion of Islam into Central Asia, Muslim merchants

745

SILK ROADS

became major actors in the Silk Roads trade, sup-
planting the Soghdians, Jews, and Uighurs who were
active in the early centuries of Islam. The profit was
lucrative enough to bring prosperity to the medieval
cities of Central Asia and to cause numerous wars for
control of the region.

Despite the importance of the Silk Roads exchange
to the history of the civilizations bordering it and to
world history in general, we know little about the actu-
al commerce, as both literary and archaeological
sources are scanty. Yet camels were the main vehicles
of the merchant caravans, who traveled at a pace of
12-30 kilometers per day, staying the night in the car-
avanserais, which supplied lodging, food, and a place
for negotiations. The building and maintenance of
the routes and the caravanserais was often the work
of individuals, but sympathetic governments who
helped to secure the roads did much to enhance the
trade. While barter was not unknown, most of the trade
was monitarized, and credit letters and cheques were
highly developed, at least from the tenth century. Most
traders worked as individuals but enjoyed connections
with their coreligions or coethnics along the roads.
Some used different kinds of partnership to secure
capital and minimize the risk to their investments.

Chronological Survey

The Silk Roads had been active long before Islam
appeared in the Middle East. The rise of Islam coin-
cided with one of the flourishing periods of the Silk
Roads, initiated by the rise of the Turkic empire (sixth
to eighth centuries), and accelerated with the consoli-
dation in China of the Tang dynasty (618-906), known
for its cosmopolitanism. Tang China, whose elite was
enthusiastic for Iranian and Central Asian foodstuff,
clothing, furniture, and entertainment, maintained
close connections with the Sasanid empire. Indeed,
the last Sasanid rulers tried to find refuge there when
the Arabs conquered Iran in the mid-seventh century.
In the seventh to mid-eighth centuries, Tang China
also controlled important segments of the Silk Road,
mainly the Tarim basin and Semirechye, and extended
certain sovereignty even to Transoxiana, mainly on the
expense of the Western Turks. Yet most of the com-
mercial relations by the rise of Islam were conducted
by the Soghdians, an Iranian people originating in
Soghd (Transoxiana), who at least from the fourth
century AD built trade diasporas along the roads:
in Semirechye, the different oasis of the Tarim basin,
in China proper, and even in North India.

Islamic expansion into the Silk Roads began with
the campaigns of Qutayba b. Muslim, the Umayyad

governor of Khurasan (705-715), who conquered
Transoxiana and Farghana with their commercial
centers. It is uncertain whether Qutayba tried (but
failed) to reach Kashgar, one of Tang’s westernmost
strongholds and a major station on the Silk Roads,
but apparently he initiated the sending of embassies
to China, which continued throughout the Umayyad
period. Though probably not initiated by the caliphs
themselves, these embassies had both commercial
and diplomatic functions. The mid-eighth century
saw the one military clash between China and Islam.
The battle of Talas (near modern-day Awlia-Ata, in
Kazakhstan) in 751, a skirmish initiated by local
interests of the governors of the newly established
‘Abbasid empire and of Tang China, became in retro-
spect a turning point that determined the future
orientation of Central Asia as part of the Muslim
and not of the Chinese world. Whether paper arrived
to Central Asia earlier with Buddhist missionaries, or
only with the paper makers the Muslims took captives
in Talas, certainly the battle was influential in ini-
tiating a paper industry in Samarqand. The diffusion
of this Chinese technology contributed significantly
to the expansion of culture and knowledge in the
Muslim world and, since it rendered bookkeeping
much easier, it also promoted all branches of trade
and banking.

The establishment of the ‘Abbasid dynasty (750-
1258), whose center was in Iraq (as opposed to Umay-
yad Syria), combined with a growing demand for
luxuries in Baghdad and Samarra, enhanced the im-
portance of the eastern trade in the Muslim empire,
though much of it was conducted by sea. The eighth
and ninth centuries were also the time of the mysteri-
ous Rahdaniya, Jewish merchants who allegedly
traveled along the whole Silk Routes from Europe
to China but specialized in connecting Europe and
the Near East. Another profitable channel of this age
was the commerce via Khwarazm with the Rus and
Khazars in Eastern Europe, where Muslim silver dir-
hams were traded for northern furs, foods, and slaves.
The demand for (mostly Turkic) slaves, who from the
ninth century onward played an ever-growing role in
Muslim armies, enhanced the land route traffic again.
Its height was under the Samanids (888-999), who,
from their capital in Bukhara, conducted trade net-
works that reached both China and Scandinavia. The
Samanids closely controlled the extremely profitable
slave markets, licensed slave traders, and levied dues
on all sales. Muslim geographical works describe the
fruitful commerce with Baghdad, the Turks north of
the Jaxartes, and Eastern Europe via Khwarazm.
Trade further East seemed to have been still con-
ducted mainly by Soghdians or Uighurs (Turks who
after 840 migrated from Mongolia to Gansu and the

746

SILK ROADS

Caravan crossing the Silk Road. Detail of the map of Asia, from the Catalan Atlas. Spain, Majorca. Fourteenth century CE.
Photo: Dietmar Katz. Credit: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Tarim basin), though there is evidence of several
embassies from the fringes of China that reached the
Samanid court. Samanid military, economic, and cul-
tural prestige, combined with their missionary efforts,
also resulted in the expansion of Islam eastward into
the Silk Roads, and in the mass conversion of whole
Turkic tribes, later known as the Qarakhanids and the
Seljuks.

The fall of the Samanids, and the division of their
territory between the Qarakhanids and Ghaznavids,
is usually considered the beginning of a decline in the
Silk Roads trade, which continued until the rise of the
Mongols. Yet cross-cultural contacts continued dur-
ing this period, and with quite a significant scope,
though the political fragmentation and the nature of
the sources make it harder to follow them closely. The
Qarakhanids (ca. 992-1213), who now ruled over
significant parts of the trade routes (from Transoxiana
to the Tarim Basin), maintained commercial and dip-
lomatic relations with the contemporary Sinitic states,
which rose after the fall of the Tang, especially with

the Northern Song dynasty (960-1 127), to which they
sent a first commercial mission already in 1008, and
with the Khitan Liao dynasty (907-1 125), with whom
in the early eleventh century they even concluded
matrimonial relations (unlike the Ghaznavids, who
refused a similar offer of the Liao). Khotan, a city
on the southern Silk Road in the Qarakhanid realm,
also took an important part in the trade with the
Tangut Xi Xia dynasty (1038-1227), who took over
the Gansu corridor. It was in this period that Muslim
merchants replaced the Soghdians as the dominant
Silk Road traders. Under the rule of the non-Muslim
Qara Khitai (1124-1218), fugitives from the Liao dy-
nasty who took over Central Asia and became the
Qarakhanids’ and Uighurs’ overlords, the commercial
relations with the Xi Xia improved, and certain con-
nections existed also with the more eastern states in
China, among which at least the Southern Song dy-
nasty (1127-1279) also had maritime connection with
the Middle East. Central Asian Muslim traders also
had contacts with Genghis Khan’s forefathers in

747

SILK ROADS

Mongolia, and many gained considerable wealth
from the long-range trade.

The rise of the Mongol empire in the early thir-
teenth century begins the most flourishing and best-
documented period in the history of the Silk Roads.
The Mongols united the whole Silk Roads under their
rule and protected them, but their contribution to its
prosperity went much further. As shown by Thomas
Allsen, the process of state formation among the
nomads in itself stimulates trade through an increased
demand for luxuries, especially fine cloth, needed to
assert the new empire’s authority. Genghis Khan was
certainly aware of the benefits of commerce (which
initiated his invasion into the Muslim world), and
Muslim merchants were among his earliest suppor-
ters. Moreover, after the early conquests, Mongol
elites, the main benefactors of the conquests’ booty,
became extremely wealthy. They provided both en-
thusiastic consumers for the best products of the sed-
entary world and major investors, who recycled their
wealth by entrusting it as capital in the hands of their
mostly Muslim commercial agents ( ortogh ) . The es-
tablishment of a Mongol capital, Qara Qorum, also
promoted trade as the resources of Mongolia could
hardly support such a big city (in Mongolian terms).
It also led to the growing importance of the northern
route of the Silk Roads, now shifted to include
Qara Qorum. Even after the dissolution of the empire
into four khanates in 1260, Mongol governments
continued to promote both local and international
trade, which provided taxes, markets, profits, and
prestige. The khanates competed for commerce spe-
cialists, provided infrastructure for transcontinental
travel, sometimes even by building new cities, and
were actively involved in the manipulation of bullion
flow. Yet traders were only part of the lively traffic
along the Silk Roads in Mongol times. The formation
of the empire, its continued expansion, and the estab-
lishment of its administration required a huge mobili-
zation of soldiers and specialists throughout the
empire. Mongol policy of ruling through strangers
(for example, bringing Muslims to China and Chinese
to Iran), originating in Mongol numerical inferiority
and in their fear of potential local resistance, also
promoted mobilization and cross-cultural exchanges.
To secure the loyalty of these foreign strata, the
Mongols aspired to give them “a taste of home,”
and therefore brought foreign food, medicine, and
entertainment into different parts of their empire.
Moreover, the Genghisids regarded human talent as
a form of booty, and the different khanates competed
for specialists and exchanged them to enhance their
kingly reputations. The wide-range mobilization and
the expanding trade led to frequent and continuous
movement of people, goods, ideas, plants, and viruses

throughout Eurasia. This in turn not only encouraged
integration but also created means that facilitated
further contacts, such as maps, multilingual diction-
aries, and travel literature, and helped the diffusion of
information and technologies, such as gunpowder
and alcohol distilling. In the Muslim world the fruit-
ful exchange of commodities, scientific knowledge,
and artistic techniques, mainly between Iran and
China, was widely felt. Mongol policies led to a con-
siderable infiltration of Muslims into China, creating
a firm basis for the modern Chinese Muslim commu-
nity. Moreover, the Islamization of the Mongols in
Iran, South Russia, and Central Asia brought about a
massive expansion of Islam and made it by far the
dominant religion along the Silk Roads.

With the collapse of the Mongol khanates from
the mid-fourteenth century, the Silk Roads never
regained their former importance. Indeed, they
strived again under Tamerlane (r. 1370-1405), who
from his base in Transoxiana tried to revive the
Mongol empire and made concerted efforts to shift
the trade routes into his realm (mainly on the expense
of the more northern routes passing through the
Golden Horde). Spanish, Ottoman, Mamluk, and
Chinese ambassadors reached Timur’s Samarqand,
and the gunpowder technology was brought back
to the East from Europe and the Ottomans. Yet the
new political boundaries of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, combined with the opening of a direct sea
route to India and China by Western Europeans, the
rise of Europe in general, and the waning of the
nomads’ power, initiated the decline of the Silk
Roads. The land routes between China and the Middle
East were marginalized, though new channels, mainly
on the north-south axis connecting India, Central
Asia, and Russia, as well as a fruitful regional trade,
retained certain importance until the eighteenth
century.

The Silk Roads were a major channel through
which the medieval Muslim world enriched itself
by purchasing Eurasian — but mostly East Asian —
goods, knowledge, and technologies, most important
among which were paper and gunpowder. They were
also a major path for the expansion of Islam, which
became the dominant religion along the Silk Roads.

Michal Biran

See also Bukhara; Camels; Cartography; Central Asia;
China; Genghis Khan; Merchants, Christian; Mer-
chants, Jewish; Merchants, Muslim; Mongols; Nomad-
ism and Pastoralism; Road Networks; Samarqand;
Slaves and Slave Trades, Eastern Islamic World;
Spices; Tamerlane; Trade, African; Trade, Indian
Ocean; Trade, Mediterranean; Transport; Transoxi-
ana; Travel; Turkestan; Turks

748

S1NAN (1490-1588)

Primary Sources

Anonymous. “Hudiid al-”alam.” Ed. M. Sitiidah. Tehran,
1340/1961; The Regions of the World. Translated and
annotated by V. Minorsky. 2d. ed. London, 1970.
Gardlzl, Abu Said, ‘Abd al-Iayy. Zavn al-akhbdr. Ed. ‘A.
Iablbl. Tehran, 1347/1968.

Ibn Khurdadhbah. Kitab al-masalik wa’l- mamalik. Ed. M.

J. de Goege. BGA, 6. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1889.

MarwazI, Sharaf al-zaman. Oaba’f al-Iayawdn. Edited
and translated by V. Minorsky as Sharaf al-Zaman
Tahir Marvazi on China, Turks and India. London, 1942.
Al-MuqaddasI, Muammad b. Almad. Kitab alsan
al-taqasTm fi ma c rifat al-aqdlTm. Ed. M.J. de Goege.
BGA, 3. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1877. Transl. Basil A. Collins
as The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions.
Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing Limited, 1994.

Rashid al-DIn, FaAlallah Abu al-Khayr. Jami’u’t-tawarikh
[sic] Compendium of Chronicles. Transl. W.M. Thack-
ston. Cambridge, MA: 1998-1999. 3 vols.

Yaqut al-Ruml. Mu jam al-buldan. 5 vols. Beirut, 1955-1958.
Yule, H. (Tr). The Book of Ser Marco Polo. 2 vols. London,
1903.

Yule, H. (Tr and comp). Cathay and the Way Thither. Rpt.
Taibei, 1966. 2 vols.

Further Reading

Allsen, Thomas T. “Mongolian Princes and Their Merchant
Partners, 1200-1260.” Asia Major 3d series, 2 (1989):
83-127.

. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

. “Ever Closer Encounters: The Appropriation

of Culture and the Apportionment of Peoples in the
Mongol Empire.” Journal of Earlv Modern History 1
(1997): 2-23.

. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Ashtor, Eliyahu. A Social and Economic History of the Near
East in the Middle Ages. London: Collins, 1976.

Bentley, Jarry H. Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural
Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1993.

Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and
Mongolia,. Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

.“Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads

in World Elistory.” Journal of World History 1 1 (2000):
1-26.

De La Vaisserie, Ettiene. Histoire cles marchands sogdiens.
Paris: College de France, 2002.

Gunder Frank, Andre. “Central Asia’s Continuing Role in
the World Economy to 1800.” Toronto Studies in Central
and Inner Asia 3 (1998): 14—38.

Noonan, Thomas F. The Islamic World, Russia and the
Vikings 750-900: The Numismatic Evidence. Aldershot,
Elampshire: Ashgate, Variorum, 1998.

Richards, Donald S. (Ed). Islam and the Trade of Asia.
Oxford: Bruno Cassirer Ltd., 1970.

Rossabi, Morris. “The Decline of the Central Asian
Caravan Trade.” In Ecology and Empire, edited by
G. Seaman, 81-102. Los Angeles, 1989.

The Silk Road Foundation website: www.silk-road.com.

SINAN (1490-1588)

Sinan was the chief architect of the Ottoman court
from 1538 until his death in 1588. He is known to
have designed more than 450 buildings throughout
the Ottoman empire, although the majority of build-
ings cluster around the imperial Ottoman capital of
Constantinople (Istanbul).

Although other Ottoman architects are known
by name, the number and quality of buildings attrib-
uted to Sinan make him preeminent not only among
Ottoman architects but also a major figure in the
history of world architecture. Sinan’s significance as
an architect was greatly enhanced by the fact that for
most of his career he worked for the most famous
Ottoman sultan, Sulayman the Magnificent (r. 1520-
1566), whose career saw the expansion of the Otto-
man empire throughout the Middle East and North
Africa, and saw the Eastern Mediterranean becoming
effectively a Turkish lake.

In view of Sinan’s undoubted significance for the
Turkish and Muslim culture, it is ironic that he was
born in Salonika and brought up as a Greek Christian
until the age of twenty-one, when he was recruited
into the Janissary core. Nevertheless, it is clear that
he embraced Islam wholeheartedly once he had en-
tered Ottoman service. During these early years of
service Sinan worked as a military engineer building
and repairing bridges, forts, aqueducts, and cisterns.
During the winter and when he was not on military
campaigns, Sinan was involved in the construction of
mosques, madrasas, and other religious buildings in
the Ottoman capital. From the early 1530s, it is clear
that Sinan had become an architect, and from 1538,
the main architect of the Ottoman court. The list of
buildings attributed to Sinan comes principally from
three sixteenth-century works; Tadhkirat al-bunyan
and Tadhkirat al-abniya by Mustafa Sa‘i, and an
anonymous work, Tuhfat al-mimarin, that may have
been written by Sinan himself. It is likely that for
some of the buildings in this list, Sinan supplied no
more than drawings and written instructions and
that he did not oversee the work himself. It is unlikely
that he was directly involved in the construction of
Sulayman’s pilgrimage complex (1554-1555) in
Damascus and the Melek Ahmad Pasha in Diyarbakir.

Sinan’s first major work was the construction of
a mosque and turbe (mausoleum) commemorating
Sulayman’s son Mehmed, who died in 1543. The
most remarkable part of the complex was the mosque,
which, though employing traditional Ottoman forms
based on a square domed box and derived ultimately
from Orthodox churches, was revolutionary in its
construction. The most notable feature of the
Shehzade mosque was that it was flanked by four

749

SIN AN (1490-1588)

Sinan the Great (1489-1588). Exterior. 1550-1577. Credit: Vanni/Art Resource, NY: Suleymaniye Camii (Mosque), Istanbul,
Turkey.

semidomes instead of the usual two seen in mosques,
such as the Bayazid II mosque (1501-1505), also in
Constantinople. The Shehzade Cami was not the first
mosque to use four semidomes, as this formula had
been used previously by the Fatih Pasha Mosque
(1516-1520) in Diyarbakir. However, the Shehzade
was a different order of scale and sophistication. In
the first place, Sinan pierced the supporting walls with
successive tiers of arched windows, compensating for
this with thick internal and external buttresses. This
created a large, light, interior space that marked a
departure from the mysterious dark interiors of
many earlier Ottoman mosques. The change in archi-
tecture was also apparent on the exterior where the
roof has a pyrimidical appearance with a high central
dome flanked by semidomes, which in their turn are
supported by smaller semidomes, each one tier lower.
The massing of the domes is complemented by the
four corner towers or minarets, which enhance the
upward thrust of the building and detract from the
heaviness of the roof system. Other early works by
Sinan were the Mirimah Sultan Mosque at Uskudar
( 1 540-48 ) and another mosque dedicated to Mirimah

Sultan at Edirnekapi, also built during the 1540s. All
three mosques share the same basic design principle of
a central dome descending in curved surfaces (domes
and semidomes) to near ground level, presenting a
hierarchical order. Also, all three mosques have mul-
tiple fenestration set between tall relieving arches that
admit plentiful light to the interior and on the exterior
reduce the heavy appearance of the roofing system.

These three early mosques (the Shehzade, Edirne-
kapi, and Uskudar Mirimah Sultan mosques) may be
seen as a preparation for Sinan’s most famous build-
ing, the Suleymaniye, which was built between 1550
and 1567. The vast complex, built on a high hill over-
looking the harbor, comprised more than fourteen
different buildings arranged around the mosque,
which still dominates the skyline of Istanbul. Sinan’s
first problem was to produce a design that overcame
the sloping nature of the site without compromising
the unity and order required in a complex of this size.
The fact that Sinan was able to accomplish this is a
testament not only to his architectural abilities but
also to his skills as a civil engineer acquired during his
earlier military career. The mosque that forms the

750

SINDH

centerpiece of the complex was built to rival the former
cathedral of Hagia Sophia, which had served as the
architectural nucleus of Constantinople/Istanbul for
more than a thousand years. Sinan’s mosque adopted
the same principle of a large central dome flanked on
two sides by a series of smaller (and lower domes),
though semidomes are used on the north and south
(qibla) axis. Although the span of the central dome is
slightly less than on the Hagia Sophia (twenty-six
meters instead of thirty-two meters), the internal area
appears larger because of the size of the flanking
domes, which produce a vast covered area only inter-
rupted by the corner piers supporting the main dome.

While the Suleymaniye is probably Sinan’s most
famous building, his masterpiece is probably the
Selimiye in Edirne, built between 1564 and 1575. Like
the Shehzade and the Suleymaniye mosques, the de-
sign of the Selimiye was characterized by the desire to
achieve the maximum interior space. With the Seli-
miye, Sinan adopted a novel approach to increasing
the internal space by supporting the vast central dome
(thirty-six meters) on an octagonal system of eight
piers. Sinan had already experimented with hexagonal
plans in buildings such as the Sinan Pasha mosque
in Besiktash (1555), the Semiz Ali Pasha mosque at
Basaeski (1561-1565), and the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha
Mosque (1570-1571) at Kadirga in Istanbul. The main
advantage of the octagonal plan was that it was possi-
ble to build a larger dome spreading the downward
thrust on eight piers instead of four. The other advan-
tage of this system was that the weight resting on the
curtain walls could be reduced, allowing an even larger
number of windows creating a vast area lit by natural
light. One of the problems of this design was that it
reduced the emphasis on the qibla axis. Sinan compen-
sated for this by setting the mihrab within a deep
recess. The exterior of the mosque is equally impres-
sive, with its four slender minarets, which attain a
height never surpassed in Ottoman architecture. Also
notable is the polychrome stonework of the exterior (in
particular, the projecting mihrab recess), which pro-
vides a change from the somber stonework of the
Sulemaniye.

The Selimiye was Sinan’s last major work, al-
though he continued to build a number of mosques
that are evidence of his continuing architectural crea-
tivity. Examples of Sinan’s later mosques include the
Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Mosque at Azakapi (1578) and
the Mesih Mehmet Pasha (ca. 1580), both of which use
the octagonal base first used in the Selimiye.

Although from the 1540s, Sinan’s name is mostly
associated with mosques, he is also known to have
designed secular and functional buildings such as the
aqueduct at Maghlova that, with its two-tier design
and diamond-shaped piers, displays unusual elegance.

Sinan is buried in a small plot decorated with a
small, domed monument near the Suleymaniye
mosque in Istanbul.

Andrew Petersen

Further Reading

Goodwin, G. A History of Ottoman Architecture. 1971.

. Sinan. Ottoman Architecture and Its Values Today.

1993.

Kuran, A. Sinan, the Grand Old Master of Ottoman
Architecture. 1987.

O’Kane, B. “Sinan.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed.
629-630.

SINDH

The word Sindh comes from the Sanskrit sindhu, with
the meaning of “river, ocean.” In the Middle Ages,
Sindh was the southern part of the valley of the Indus
River, which included the present-day province
of Sindh, as well as the southern part of Punjab.
Sindh was the first Indian territory to be conquered
by a Muslim army led by Muhammad bin Qasim in
710-711.

When Muhammad bin Qasim invaded Sindh, he
defeated Raja Dahir, son of the Hindu usurper
Chach. According to architectural remains and
Chinese pilgrims, southern Sindh was dominated by
the Buddhists, while the north was under the control
of the Shivaite school of the Pashupatas. The history
of medieval Sindh is usually divided according to
the different dynasties who ruled it. Up to the elev-
enth century, Sindh was ruled by governors sent
by the ‘Abbasids from Baghdad, and after 372/983,
by Fatimid governors from Cairo who settled in the
city of Multan.

In 1010, a Somra leader, apparently from the
Rajput stock, put an end to the Arab rule. The
Somra dynasty, which may have converted to Isma’i-
lism, was succeeded in 1352 by the Sammas, another
Rajput clan. The resistance of both the Somras and
the Sammas opposed to the sultans of Dihli, for in-
stance, ‘Ala’ al-Din Khalji in 697/1297, was to be the
core of Sindhi literature. The sultan Muhammad
Shah Tughluq, while in pursuit of a rebel governor,
arrived in Sindh in 1351, where he died. He was
buried in the darbar of La‘l Shahbaz Qalandar. His
cousin and successor Firuz Shah Tughluq (d. 1388)
invaded Thatta twice, in 1365 and 1367. In the
fifteenth century, after Tamerlane’s (see Tamerlane
[Timur]) invasion of the Indian subcontinent, Sindh
was ruled by Central Asian dynasties, the Arghuns
and the Tarkhans. The sixteenth century saw many
disturbances in Sindh. First is the sack of the wealthy

751

SINDH

city of Thatta by the Portuguese in 1555. Secondly,
the Mughul emperor Akbar (1556-1605) sent his
army to secure his control on Sindh, which was
achieved in 1593. It is only in the seventeenth century
that a new Sindhi dynasty seized power, the Kalhoras,
replaced in 1783 by a Baluch dynasty, the Talpurs,
which was to be defeated by the British in 1843.

There is no evidence the population of Sindh con-
verted to Islam before the thirteenth century, when
the Sufi tariqas became well organized and efficient.
More relevant is the question as to whether the people
really converted to Islam when one knows that many
Hindus were still affiliated to Muslim pir at the time
of the British colonization. The main cleavage was
more between Sharif (from external origin) and Desi
(indigenous), than between Muslims and Hindus.
The study of Lad Shahbaz Qalandar’s pilgrimage, a
thirteenth-century Sufi saint, in Sehwan Sharif, gives
evidence that a consensus based on the qalandar’s
charisma was reached among the different com-
munities of Sindh, including the Hindus and the
Muslims, as well as the Animists, and also the Sayyids
and non-Sayyids. The Sufis, following the Ismailis,
can be named as the great integrators who gave
birth to Sindhi culture.

Persian was the language used by the chroniclers
in Sindh. Vernacular literature appeared through the
devotional poetry of Qazi Qazan (d. 1551 ). Even if the
Ismailis claimed their own pir have composed their
canticles (ginan) in the fourteenth century, Sindhi
literature really began to flourish with Shah ‘Abd al
Karim (d. 1624), and his great-grandson Shah ‘Abd al
Latif (d. 1753). In his compiled work Shah jo Risalo,
‘Abd al Latif uses Sindhi folk narratives for symboliz-
ing the mystical quest. For him, there is no difference
between the Hindu yogis and the Sufis, who are both
seekers on the path of God. Makla, located in the
neighborhood of Thatta, can be seen as a conservatory
of the cross-cultural legacy of medieval Sindh. The
mausoleums built by the different dynasties give a
last evidence of the location of Sindh at a crossroads
among Persia, Central Asia, and India.

Michel Boivin

Further Reading

Boivin, Michel. “Le pelerinage de Sehwan Sharif: terri-
toires, protagonistes, rituels.” In Les pelerinages dans le
monde musulman, edited by S. Chiffoleau and A.
Madoeuf. Damas: IFPO, 2004.

Chachnama (ca. third/ninth century). Translated from
Arabic into Persian in the year 613/1216 by ‘Ali ibn
Hamid al-Kufi. Ed. Umar ibn Muhammad Da’udpota.
Delhi: Matba‘at Latif, 1939. Chachnama (the), an An-
cient History of Sind, Giving the Hindu Period Down to
the Arab Conquest. Translated from the Persian by

Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg, Karachi: Commissioner’s
Press, 1900.

Cousens, Henry. The Antiquities of Sind with Historical
Outline. Karachi: Department of Culture, Government
of Sindh, 1998 [first ed„ 1929],

Kervran, Monique. “Entre l’lnde et l’Asie Centrale: les
mausolees islamiques du Sind et du sud Penjab.” Cahiers
d’Asie Centrale 1-2 (1996): 133-171.

Khan, Ansar Zahid. History and Culture of Sind. Study of
Socio-Economic Organization and Institutions during the
16 th and 17 th centuries. Karachi: Royal Book Company,
1980.

MacLean, Derryl. Religion and Society in Arab Sind.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1989.

Shah ‘Abd al Latif. Shah jo Risalo. Kalam Shah ‘Abd
al-Latif Bhita ’i. Ed. ‘Allama Mustafa Qasmi. Shikarpur:
Mehran Akademi, 1999 [first ed. 1951].

SINGING

The voice has always been central in Middle Eastern
music. Very little is known about prelslamic singing
or the songs of the common people, but early medie-
val Arabic texts describe the contemporary elite
(court) tradition of vocal music in detail. Eegal texts
on the permissibility of singing and music and on the
regulation of markets provide glimpses of the musical
practices of the common people. (In Islamic tradition,
recitation of the Qur’an and the call to prayer fall
outside the category of “singing.”)

The origins of the court tradition of music-making
go back to pre-Islamic Bedouin songs (such as camel-
drivers’ chants) and other types of folk singing on the
one hand, and to a lighter, more refined urban style
performed by slavegirls on the other. In the Umayyad
period, singers from the Hijaz assimilated elements of
Sasanian, Byzantine, and possibly other traditions felt
to be compatible with the Arabic musical idiom and
the Arabic poetry, which furnished the lyrics. Singing
became an art practiced by men and women, general-
ly slaves or of humble origin, and appreciated by
members of the ruling elite, including some caliphs.
Vocal technique became more sophisticated, and sing-
ers took to accompanying themselves on the lute.
Light-hearted love poems like those of ‘Umar ibn
Abi Rabi‘a (ca. AH 23-93/644-712 CE) provided
ideal lyrics for songs, and singers and poets often
associated closely with each other.

With the music-loving caliph al-Mahdi’s (158-169/
775-785) invitation to singers to perform in Baghdad,
vocal music acquired an established place at court.
The singer, or mughanni (a term that also includes
composition and accompanying oneself on an instru-
ment), was expected to have an all-around culture
and, in particular, to be well versed in the Arabic
language and poetry, as well as being an agreeable
and entertaining companion. He should possess a

752

SINGING

fine, trained voice, have a good grounding in the
theory of rhythmic and melodic modes, and be thor-
oughly familiar with the repertoire of songs. One key
to success was the capacity to improvise; the modes of
a setting were given, but skill in improvising on them
and inducing a feeling of ecstasy ( tarab) among the
audience was an individual gift. The training of sing-
ers was very demanding, as can be seen from Ishaq
ibn Ibrahim al-Mawsili’s (150-235/767-850) account
of his education. Some members of the governing elite
were noted amateur singers and composers, as were a
few rulers; the first such royal music-maker was the
Umayyad caliph al-Walid ibn Yazid (d. 126/744 CE),
the last the Ottoman sultan Selim III (d. 1808 CE).

Whereas most leading singers in the ‘Abbasid
period were men, a few women were also famous
composers. Most women singers, however, belonged
to the category of singing-girls ( qaynas ) , who simply
performed other people’s songs. The best women
musicians were acquired by the caliph, governors, or
eminent dignitaries and lived a secluded life at court;
less gifted ones entertained music lovers of humbler
status. The owners of qaynas often derived profit not
only from the girls’ musical skills but also from their
physical charms, and the dividing line between sing-
ing-girl and prostitute was not always clear. Women
singers played an important role in preserving and
handing down the repertoire.

Songs were performed in contexts from the highly
ritualized to the informal. Singers might be sum-
moned to the caliph’s formal audience and asked to
perform in turn; often a prize would be offered for the
song that most appealed to the caliph. Or a singer
would be expected to attend court on one particular
day each week. The most informal gatherings, by con-
trast, were those of singers entertaining themselves and
their friends. While many songs celebrated love, poems
of praise and congratulation, elegies, wine poems,
descriptions of nature, and even the occasional satires
were also set to music. Regardless of theme, however,
the lyrics never exceeded more than a handful of lines.

From the ‘Abbasid period on, singing was a part of
court culture, with rulers and their ministers patron-
izing singers and writers of music. Some dynasties,
such as the Fatimids, were particularly noteworthy
for their patronage of singers. Where a class of
wealthy merchants emerged, they, too, often encour-
aged forms of art music and singing. Regional tradi-
tions developed, for instance, in al-Andalus, where a
suite form, the nuba, evolved with vocal pieces incor-
porating strophic muwashshahat and zajals. In the
East the ‘Abbasid and Mongol court musician and
theoretician Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (d. 693/1294 CE)
was the author of an authoritative compendium on
music, reflecting practice in Iraq and Persia, which

was translated into Persian and Turkish. He mentions
different kinds of songs, simple and more sophisticat-
ed, the latter being combined in suites ( naxvbas ) . Safi
al-Din’s writings became the basis for musical prac-
tice in Persia and later the Ottoman court, which
developed differently from that found in Egypt and
Syria. One can thus speak of Persian and related
Turkish traditions of singing distinct from the Arabic
one in the later medieval period.

Besides the court and wealthy urban classes, cer-
tain Sufi brotherhoods that appeared from the twelfth
century on preserved, transmitted, and contributed
to the elite musical tradition. Mystical poetry, or
poetry that lent itself to mystical interpretation —
whether anonymous or by poets such as Ibn al-Farid
(576-632/1181-1235 CE), Hafiz, Saadi, Rumi, or the
Turkish Yunus Emre (d. 720/1320-1321 CE), was set
to music and sung during dhikr ceremonies or “spiri-
tual concerts,” with the aim of inducing in the hearers
a state of mystical ecstasy, the hah the most famous
ceremonies were and still are those of the Mevlevis.
This Sufi musical tradition guaranteed continuity
in the art of singing even during times of political
instability, and in the Ottoman empire the Mevlevis
played a role comparable to that of the court in
fostering art music.

Finally, a specifically Iranian phenomenon was the
chanting of Ferdowsi’s Shahnama during physical-
training sessions in what became known as the
Zurkhana, or “house of strength.”

Hilary Kilpatrick

See also Adab; Ferdowsi; Music; Musical Instruments;
Mystical Poetry; Poetry; Women Poets

Further Reading

Al-Hasan ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Katib. La perfection des
connaissances musicales. Kitab kamal adab al-ooind’.
Translation and commentary by Amnon Shiloah. Paris:
Paul Geuthner, 1972.

Farmer, Henry George. A History of Arabian Music To the
Xlllth Century. [1929], Repr. by London: Luzac & Co.,
1973.

Feldman, Walter. “Ottoman Turkish Music: Genre and
Form.” In The Middle East. The Garland Encyclopedia
of World Music Volume 6, edited by Virginia Danielson
et al. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Guettat, Mahmoud. “The Andalusian Musical Heritage.”
In The Middle East. The Garland Encyclopedia of
World Music Volume 6, edited by Virginia Danielson
et al. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Sawa, George Dimitri. Musical Performance Practice in the
Early Abbasid Era 132/320 A.H./750-932 A.D. Toronto:
Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1989.

Shiloah, Amnon. Music in the World of Islam. A socio-
cultural study. Aldershot: Scholar Press 1995.

Wright, O. “Music and Verse.” In Arabic Literature to the
end of the Umayyad Period , edited by A.F.L. Beeston
et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

753

SIRA

Sira, meaning “the way,” is, for the student of Islam,
synonymous with biography, and particularly the bi-
ography of the Prophet Muhammad. The Kitab sir at
rasul Allah , which tells of the life of Muhammad from
birth to death, is the title given by Ibn Hisham (d. AH
218/834 CE) to his edition of three compilations of
traditions regarding ancient legends, Muhammad’s
birth, early life and mission, and the expeditions of
Muhammad (d. 1 1/632) right up to the moment of his
death, that had been brought together by the greatest
compiler of ‘Abbasid times Muhammad ibn Ishaq
(d. 150/767) under the titles, Mubtada’, Mab'ath, and
Maghazi. On the other hand, biographical narratives
on other historical personalities, such as Sirat Mu'a-
wiya, were also written, but these postdate the Sirat
rasul Allah by Ibn Hisham and have never commanded
as much interest.

Orientalists have disputed the exact meaning of the
term sir a. Writing in 1899, Hartmann concluded that,
“Ibn Ishaq hat keine sira geschrieben.” Nevertheless,
they were Ibn Ishaq’s compilations that were brought
together by Ibn Hisham as Sirat rasul Allah. Impor-
tantly, the Maghazi portion of the Prophet’s bio-
graphy is considered most significant, for it is this
portion that tells us, through more recognized tradi-
tions, of Muhammad’s last years and his achieve-
ments in Yathrib/Medina. Indeed, the earliest
traditions concerning the life of the Prophet are be-
lieved to come from Maghazi works, those compiled
by ‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 643/710) and Wahb ibn
Munabbih (d. 654/728): In this regard, the Kitab al-ma-
ghazi by al-Waqidi (d. 207/823) has won a considerable
reputation, as is indicated by the fact that the two most
significant sources cited by al-Tabari (d. 310/923) for
his narrative concerning the life of the Prophet, in his
History of Prophets and Kings, come from the compila-
tions of al-Waqidi and Ibn Ishaq. It seems to me that
the title Sira, first used by Ibn Hisham, applies, in
particular, to biographical material that progresses
from birth to death. It does not take away from the
premise that Maghazi compilations tell of the life of
the Prophet, as well, albeit only the last ten years after
his emigration from Mecca.

The significant issue raised by biographical litera-
ture on the Prophet concerns its reliability. Is this
information historical and verifiable? Does it, for in-
stance, provide the necessary context for understand-
ing the Qur’an? Importantly, such compilations are
based on a system of transmission that communicates
both the piece of information ( matn ) and the names
of those who communicated it (isnad). Regarding the
traditions communicated by Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hanbal
(d. 241/855) is reported to have condemned his
handling of isnads; Ibn Hanbal’s denunciation of

al-Waqidi as a liar is probably based on the same
grounds. Yet, several of these traditions are found
among the exegetical compilations on the Qur’an.

Modern historians such as I. Goldziher, J. Schacht,
and J. Wansbrough have rejected the majority of
early Islamic traditions as unreliable: They suggest
that these are the prejudiced creation of a later gener-
ation of believers. More recently, Marsden Jones has
exposed the numerous chronological discrepancies
that exist in Sira-Maghazi , while P. Crone opines
that many of these narratives are the result of a desire
to explain Qur’anic verses. As obvious are the paral-
lels to the New Testament stories of miracles per-
formed by Jesus. Nevertheless, scholars such as
Montgomery Watt, Alford T. Welch, and H. Motzky
continue to insist that these materials may be used
to extract a basic biography of Muhammad. On
the other hand, significant Muslim scholars, such as
W. N. Arafat, have objected to the notorious tales
concerning the expulsion and execution of the Jews of
Medina that form an integral part of the Maghazi as
“unislamic.”

Tradition informs us that the compilations of Pro-
phetic traditions were first arranged by Ibn Ishaq in
response to a command from the ‘Abbasid caliph
al-Mansur. Concerned to explain the practices of the
Prophet of Islam as based on teachings of the Qur’an,
Ibn Ishaq informs us through his compilations that
these Qur’anic revelations came to Muhammad as
inspiration, from the time of his Prophethood, after
his fortieth year, and especially in moments of crisis.
According to Ibn Ishaq, the final verses of the Qur’an
were communicated during Muhammad’s pilgrimage
to Mecca. The compilations include legalistic tradi-
tions, poetry, and genealogical information con-
cerning the Prophet’s Companions. Carefully
learned and transmitted by his students, the books
of Ibn Ishaq were soon to spread throughout the
empire to be accepted and acclaimed by the Muslim
community.

Rizwi Faizer

Further Reading

Arafat, W.N. “New Light on the Story of Banu Qurayza
and the Jews of Medina.” JRAS (1976): 100-110.

Cook, M. Muhammad. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation
of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. 9th ed. Oxford Univeer-
sity Press, 1990.

SIRHINDI, AHMAD (ca. 1564-1624)

The eponymous founder of the Mujaddidi branch of
the Naqshbandi Sufi order named after his title,
known to posterity, ‘Mujaddid-i alf thanr (the reli-
gious renewer of the second millennium), Shaykh

754

SLAVERY, MILITARY

Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Ahad Faruqi Sirhindi was born in
the Punjab in around 1564. From an ashraf family
claiming descent from the second caliph ‘Umar, he
was given a firm education in the literary and religious
sciences in Sialkot and Agra, where he joined the
court, disputing with Abu’l-Fadl and collaborating
with Fayzi on literary projects.

In 1600, Sirhindi met the Naqshbandi Khwaja
Baqi billah and became committed to the discipline
and didactic method of that order, which he now
promoted at court and beyond. He became a leading
master of the order, and his writings were influential
in defining a new Naqshbandi path of critical en-
gagement with the Mughal rulers and contemptuous
attack upon the heterodox (such as the Shi‘is) and non-
Muslim Indians. Although there is a historiographical
debate concerning the “Naqshbandi reaction” and his
role in establishing Jahangir as the successor to
Akbar, no doubt because Sirhindi (and the Naqsh-
bandis) was hostile to Akbar’s religious innovations,
it is clear that Jahangir failed to live up to Sirhindi’s
expectations of an orthodox ruler. Following conspir-
acies at court, Jahangir had him imprisoned in 1619;
the Naqshbandi hagiographies blamed his treatment
on the Shi‘i notables at court. Released the following
year, Sirhindi continued preaching until his death
in 1624. After his death, his son Khwaja Ma’sum
succeeded him as head of the Naqshbandiyya.

The historiography pits the inflexible Naqshbandis
associated with Sirhindi against the peaceable
Chishtis in the “battle” for Sufism in India. But such
a picture is misleading. Although Sirhindi did write
polemics such as Radd-i rawafid against the Shi‘is,
attack non-Muslims in his letters, and criticize the
Sufi doctrine of the unity of being (wahdat al-wujud)
attributed to Ibn ‘Arabi and his followers, a careful
reading of his letters suggests a more nuanced picture.
His own doctrine of wahdat al-shuhud, a critique of
the ontological monism of wahdat al-wujud that in-
stead considers there to be a unity in mystical vision,
is not far removed from Ibn ‘Arabi’s views. His opi-
nions on the continuing need for the role of the heirs
of the Prophet are not dissimilar to Shi‘i doctrines. As
a thorough-going elitist, he considered all issues and
texts to be read at two distinct hermeneutical levels:
At the exoteric level, there could be no compromise
on persecuting non-Muslims and attacking “deviant”
monist Sufis; however, on the mystical level, Islam
and infidelity were no longer pitted against each
other but different levels on the path to God. These
two levels became two trends opposed to each other
in his legacy.

Sajjad H Rizvi

Further Reading

M. Abdul Haq Ansari. Sufism and Shari' ah: A Study of
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi’s Efforts to Reform Sufism.
Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1986.

Damrel, D. “The Naqshbandi Reaction Reconsidered.” In
Beyond Turk and Hindu, edited by D. Gilmartin and
B. Lawrence, 176-198. Gainesville: University of
Florida Press, 2000.

Faruqi, B.A. The Mujaddid’s Concept of Tawhid. Lahore:
Institute of Islamic Culture, 1989 [1940].

Friedman, Y. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi: An Outline of His
Thought and a Study of His Image in the Eyes of Posterity .
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000 [1971],
Rahman, F. Selected Letters of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi.

Karachi: Institute of Islamic Studies, 1968.

Rizvi, S.A.A. Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern
India in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. New
Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1993 [1965],

Ter Haar, J.G.T. Follower and Heir of the Prophet: Shaykh
Ahmad Sirhindi as Mystic, Leiden: het Oosters Instituut,
1992.

SLAVERY, MILITARY

Forms of military slavery have existed in the Islamic
world since the early ninth century, and variations of
this institution were found in many Muslim countries
at different times up to the beginning of the nineteenth
century. Military slaves, known variously as ghulams
(lit. “youths”), mamluks (“owned ones”), and janis-
saries (from Turkish yeni cheri, “new army”), had a
tremendous impact on the military and political life,
as well as economic and social aspects, of the societies
in which they were found.

There is still a significant debate among scholars as
to the origins of this institution, and the reader is
referred to the studies later in this entry for opinions
different from that presented here. Military slavery
had its origin in the convergence of factors: the with-
drawal of the Arab tribes from military service (a
process encouraged by the government); the perceived
lack of dependability of troops from Khurasan, hith-
erto the bulwark of the ‘Abbasid state; the precedent of
hundreds, perhaps thousands of clients of slave prove-
nance or freed prisoners of war, known as mawali, in
the court and army, many from eastern Iran, Trans-
oxiana, and even the Eurasian Steppe region; and con-
tact with the Turks of the Eurasian Steppe, with their
well-known military qualities, including hardiness,
horsemanship, and archery. The first unit of military
slaves, composed mainly of Turks, was founded by the
future caliph al-Mu‘tasim (r. 833-842), during the
reign of his brother al-Ma’mun. Soon after his ascen-
sion to the throne, al-Mu‘tasim decided to move his
formation from Baghdad to Samarra, about two hun-
dred kilometers to the north, to limit tension with other
units and to keep his new formation isolated. This unit

755

SLAVERY, MILITARY

was originally envisioned as a guard corps but soon
began participating in campaigns in the empire and on
the frontier. It soon became the mainstay of the
‘Abbasid regime. Al-Mu‘tasim’s son and second suc-
cessor, al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861), eventually became
disenchanted with these Turkish guardsmen, their
commanders (also Turks), and the power that they
wielded at court, and moved to weaken them. The
Turkish commanders moved first and assassinated
the caliph, setting a pattern for future officers, not
only of slave origin. The Turkish slave soldiers and
officers played a significant role in the political unrest
that characterized Iraq in the next several generations,
at least until the coming of the Buwayhids in 944, and
sometimes afterwards. In spite of the problems inher-
ent in importing new Turkish slaves from the Steppe,
the expenses involved, and the problems of discipline,
the institution of military slavery spread throughout
the eastern Muslim world. The quality of the Turkish
soldiers and the loyalty, at least accorded to their
original patron, evidently had enough to commend
them to various rulers and generals. The basic idea of
the military slave, which we will henceforth call
Mamluk for convenience, if somewhat anachronisti-
cally, was that they were more or less cut off from the
local population and its political and religious con-
cerns, and therefore loyal primarily to their patron
who bought and educated them (and continued to
support them), and to each other. We have here a
classic client-patron relationship, institutionalized
through the mechanism of slavery.

Over the generations, we can see that this institu-
tion developed several principles, most of which were
articulated in various forms by Muslim historians and
other writers (see the famous statement by the four-
teenth-century historian Ibn Khaldun in the transla-
tion by B. Lewis, Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad
to the Capture of Constantinople [New York: Walker
and Company, 1974], 1:97-99), as follows:

1. Young slaves (mainly Turks) were brought

from pagan areas to the north of the Islamic
world, mainly the Steppe region.

2. These slaves were converted to Islam and

underwent several years of military training
(and often religious education) in the barracks.

3. On completing training and reaching manhood,

the slaves were enrolled in the army of their
patron (often they were formally manumitted),
mainly as mounted archers.

4. In theory, and usually in practice, this was a

one-generation system, meaning that the sons
of military slaves could not themselves be
such slaves, but rather new military slaves
had to be brought continually from the

Steppe. The idea behind this principle was
that the descendants of Mamluks would not
have the same toughness and military
qualities as their fathers, as well as the lack
of connections to the surrounding society.

5. Military slaves were to be loyal to their patrons,
who educated and supported them, as well as
to their comrades, slaves of the same patron.

It is interesting to note that the Turkish Seljuks,
who came to power in the eleventh century with the
assistance of the Turcoman tribesmen, soon set up a
large formation of Turkish Mamluks. They realized
that with all due respect to the emotional ties to the
Turcomans, and their clear military skills as mounted
archers, they could not always be depended upon, and
therefore an alternative force that was both loyal and
effective was needed. This use and dependence on
Turkish Mamluks was passed on to the various suc-
cessor states of the Seljuks, including that of the
Ayyubid established by the Kurd Saladin. From the
beginning of Saladin’s reign, Turkish Mamluk units
played the major role in the war against the Crusa-
ders. The role of the Mamluks was increased by his
great-nephew al-Salih Ayyub (r. 1238-1249), who
established the famous Bahriyya regiment, which
first came to prominence at the victory at Mansura
over the Crusaders under Louis IX of France. Sub-
sequently, this unit and other Mamluks took over the
rulership directly, establishing the Mamluk sultanate,
which ruled in Egypt and then in Syria until the
Ottoman conquest of 1516-1517. The Mamluks
gained renown for their victories over the Mongols
in a war lasting more than sixty years, from the battle
of ‘Ayn Jalut (1260) onward, as well as eradicating the
Crusader presence in Syria (1291). Even after their
subjugation by the Ottomans, Mamluks continued
to play an important role in Egyptian politics until
they were eliminated by Muhammad ‘Ali at the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century. It should be men-
tioned that the Ottomans also erected an institution
based on military slavery, the aforementioned Janis-
saries, although this was somewhat different from the
classical Mamluk institution.

Reuven Amitai

See also ‘Abbasids; ‘Ayn Jalut; Ayyubids; Mamluks;
Mongols; Ottomans; Warfare

Further Reading

Amitai, Reuven. “The Mamluk Institution: 1000 Years of
Military Slavery in the Islamic World.” In Arming Slaves,
edited by Philip Morgan and Christopher Brown. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, forthcoming.

Ayalon, David. “Preliminary Remarks on the Mamluk
Military Institution in Islam." In War, Technology and

756

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE, EASTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

Society in the Middle East, edited by V.J. Perry and
M. E. Yapp. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Reprint, D. Ayalon, The Mamluk Military Society:
Collected Studies. London: Variorum Press, 1979, article
no. IX.

. "Mamluk.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Newed.

6:314-321.

Beckwith, Christopher I. “Aspects of the Early History of
the Central Asian Guard Corps in Islam.” Archivum
Eurasiae Medii Aevi. 4 (1984): 29-43.

Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the
Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1980.

Gordon, Matthew S. The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A
History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (A.H. 200-
275/815-889 C.E.). Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2001.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates:
The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh
Century. London: Longman, 1986, 158-171.

. The Armies of the Caliph. London: Routledge,

2000 .

Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An
Historical Enquiry. New York and Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1990, esp. Chap. 9 (“Slaves in Arms”).

Pipes, Daniel. Slave Soldiers and Islam: The Genesis of a
Military System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1981.

Shaban, M.A. Islamic History: A New Interpretation. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge Press, 1976, 63-65.

Sourdel, Dominique et al. “Ghulam.” In The Encyclopaedia
of Islam. New ed. 2:1079-1091.

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE,
EASTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

As in the Roman Empire, the slave (’ahd) was the
cornerstone of the domestic workforce in medieval
Islam and provided a lucrative source of revenue for
Islamic infrastructure. The Prophet Muhammad ac-
cepted slavery as a fact of life, but he mitigated it by
insisting upon kindness to slaves. According to the
Qu’ran, anyone who mistreated his slave would be
damned, something that Muhammad’s early fol-
lowers took seriously. The early caliph Abu Bakr,
for example, ransomed slaves.

Methods of Enslavement

Muslims practiced slavery freely during the Middle
Ages. Slaves were an important element in the Islamic
world, one that required constant replenishment
through trade, war, raids, and the birth of new slaves
to old ones. A large segment of the urban population,
they could also be found working the fields in some
places. However, they did not make up a large section
of the agricultural workforce. Slaves in Islam, as in
Christian lands, tended to be skilled labor.

Legally, slaves were supposed to be war captives or
the children of already existing slaves, though reality
did not entirely reflect theory. Like Christianity and
Judaism, Islam frowned upon enslaving coreligio-
nists, but in practice, Muslims did occasionally
enslave each other. Under Sunni law, a man could
be enslaved for defaulting on his debts. Muslims
enslaving Muslims, however, most frequently oc-
curred during wars between hostile sects, or rebellions
against civil authority, where women and children
spared from death were sold into slavery instead, as
an example to other potential rebels. In 1077 CE, for
example, the women of a Berber tribe were sold in
Cairo as punishment for the tribe’s revolt. Frontier
raiders tended not to scruple over their captives’ reli-
gion either, enslaving whomever they caught in their
razzias (raids).

A great source of Christian slaves came from these
razzias into the Dar al-Harb, the “Land of War.” In
the East this area was usually the Byzantine empire or
Eastern Europe. The Dar al-Harb provided the
source of the most famous Muslim slaves of the Mid-
dle Ages — the Mamluk slave-soldiers of Egypt. These
were Christian boys kidnapped mainly from Eastern
Europe or the Steppes and raised to fight in private or
state armies. Through them the slave trade had con-
siderable influence upon local political dynasties,
since slave-soldiers sometimes overthrew their masters
and ruled in their place. The Mamluks, for example,
overthrew the Ayyubid Egyptian sultanate in 1250
and ruled as sultans in Cairo until 1517. Another
large group of male slaves (frequently Slavs from Rus-
sia) were castrated and made into eunuchs. These were
usually employed as domestic servants and some
wielded considerable power. Not all eunuchs lost sex-
ual function completely. Some were able to marry and
occasionally, depending on the nature and skill of the
operation, could still father children.

The Slave Trade

Piracy and privateering also supplied slaves from as
far west as the Iberian Peninsula. Muslims frequently
found themselves enslaved by Christians, particularly
in Spain, Latin Palestine, or in the Byzantine empire.
In the tenth century, the Byzantine emperor had a
ritual of inviting Muslim slaves to his banquet. How-
ever, increasing numbers of slaves came from Africa in
the late Middle Ages. The trans-Saharan slave trade
with West, Central and East Africa was the precursor
to the later trans-Atlantic slave trade. This differed
from that in the northern Mediterranean trade in sig-
nificant ways. While some of the trans-Saharan trade

757

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE, EASTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

resulted from raiding, much of it came from peaceful
trade in slaves and other goods with local, slave-
raiding tribes. These tribes sold off criminals, war
captives, and debtors — the latter two categories
being the same criteria for enslavement as in the
Islamic world — but the desire for profit fueled the
trade on both sides. Similarly, the Venetians traded
lucratively in Christian slaves to the Muslim world
from the eighth century onward, despite papal cen-
sure about selling coreligionists to the infidel.
Christians and Muslims were not the only groups
engaging in the slave traffic. Some Jewish merchants
were also instrumental in the trade of Slavs (who were
favored for becoming eunuchs) via Eastern and
Central Europe, though how involved they were —
particularly later on in the early Modern era — is
subject to academic controversy.

Types and Functions of Slaves

Not all slaves had the same value. White slaves were
considered more valuable than black slaves, for ex-
ample, though it is difficult to say how strong this
prejudice was, particularly in how it influenced the
origins of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Different
slaves from different regions were favored for different
functions. Women, particularly if they were young,
beautiful, well educated, and skilled, were favored
over men because they made good housekeepers, nur-
semaids, and concubines. Men could be slave-soldiers,
eunuchs, bodyguards, field workers, officials, or do-
mestic slaves. They might also transact the master’s or
mistress’s business outside of the house, as merchants
and representatives of the master’s affairs, sometimes
with considerable freedom. Some male slaves served
their masters or mistresses sexually, just as female
slaves did. This practice could be extremely dangerous
for male slaves, however, since a mistress was usually
committing adultery when she took a slave as a lover
and the penalty was death for both partners.

Manumission

There were several roads to manumission. Muslims,
Christians, and Jews all ransomed coreligionists from
slavery in hostile territory. Ransoming was a lucrative
by-product of the slave trade for slave owners. A slave
might buy his freedom, or win it through negotiation
with his master or if his master mutilated him, or if he
contracted blindness, leprosy, or paralysis. A slave’s
master might also free and marry the mother of his

child, but this was not automatic upon the birth of the
child. However, if she and her child survived her
master, she won her freedom at the price of her sale,
taken out of her child’s inheritance.

Conversion to Islam did not automatically win
freedom either. The concubines of the Ottoman
sultans, for example, were converted to Islam upon
their sale to their royal master but remained slaves.
Almost all of them were originally Christians from
Central and Eastern Europe, or Russia. The frequen-
cy and acceptability of relations between masters and
slaves introduced a not-inconsiderable ethnic mixing
into all levels of slave-holding society, even the high-
est. Because the child of a slave and a free person was
born free, a slave’s son could therefore inherit the
throne. Muslim slaves were more likely to find manu-
mission than Christians or Jews, and conversion
tended to precede freedom, particularly in the case
of concubines who were freed for bearing heirs to
their masters. As with so many other aspects of his
or her life, the freedom of a slave depended on the
whim of the master.

Paula R. Stiles

See also Mamluks; Slaves and Slave Trade, Western
Islamic World; Slavery, Military; Trade, African

Further Reading

Ayalon, David. Islam and the Abode of War: Military Slaves
and Islamic Adversaries. Aldershot and Brookfield, VT:
Variorum, 1994.

Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the
Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1980.

Goldenberg, David M. The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery
in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2003.

Pipes, Daniel. Slave Soldiers and Islam : The Genesis of a
Military System. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale
University, 1981.

Savage, E. “Berbers and Blacks: Ibadi Slave Traffic in
Eighth-Century North Africa.” The Journal of African
History 33, no. 3 (August 1992): 351-368.

Segal, Ronald. Islam’s Black Slaves: The Other Black Dias-
pora. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Willis, John Ralph. Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa:
Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement ( Slaves & Slavery in
Muslim Africa). Portland, OR: International Specialized
Book Services, 1986.

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE,
WESTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

Legal texts are the greatest, most precise, and biggest
sources of information about slavery. The predomi-
nant legal school in the Islamic West was the Maliki,
providing a wealth of works of different genres: legal

758

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE, WESTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

practice, compilations of legal opinions, legal rulings,
record of notaries, and so on. These works have a
great abundance of information in the chapters
devoted specifically to slavery — often called Law
of Slavery — whose main focus was the issue of
manumission. But they also contain a number of refer-
ences scattered in the other chapters that form the
book.

In addition to these sources, whose contents deal
with the domestic slave, more news is dispersed in
historical chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and
literary works. Although they are not long stories,
nor is the aim of the author to describe the slave,
those passages help to enhance the information
about what slavery was actually like. It must be
emphasized that, despite all bibliographical sources,
theoretical information about slavery in the Western
Islamic world during the Middle Ages and the Re-
naissance is far richer than the references to legal
practice of this subject.

Slaves: Types and Circumstances

According to all the legal schools, anybody born as a
slave, being a son of a female slave, could be consid-
ered a slave no matter whether or not he was Muslim.
A war prisoner could also be enslaved given that he
was not a free Muslim, but professed another faith.
However, it was forbidden to enslave a member of
another religion who lived in Islamic territory and
therefore enjoyed the protection of the dhimma status.
This privilege was obtained by means of paying a tax.
Only if this status was lost by any reason, such as
cooperating with the unfaithful enemy in a battle,
might the dhimmi become a slave. Nor was abandon-
ment considered a valid origin of slavery: If anybody
found a deserted child (manbudh) and took him in,
that child was considered a free person. In fact, there
were Muslim slaves, both born in such condition, as
well as those who wished to convert to Islam after
having acquired that status. Conversion was not a
reason to obtain freedom.

The Maliki school considered the same kinds of
slaves as other legal schools: a common slave (‘abd,
jariya, ama) ; concubines (milk al-yamin, jariya, ama);
a concubine who gives a son to her master (umm
walad ) ; a slave having completed the conditions for
a manumission contract ( mukatab ); and the slave to
be released after his master’s death (mudabbar).
Moreover, it included a new kind, the slave who was
authorized to trade (ma’dhun bi-l-tijara) , who needed
to have free movement and certain economic means to
conduct business. The possibility of being manumitted

in the future provided some of these slaves with a
number of rights and legal obligations that placed
them close to the status of free persons, thus acquiring
an intermediate status between slavery and freedom.

In the Islamic world a slave could be married
legally and create his own family structures with pre-
vious authorization of his master. Still, in order to
perform the legal act of marriage he had some limi-
tations that the free man lacked. According to Maliki
law, a slave could have four legal wives, the same as a
free man, whereas for the other legal schools, only
two were allowed. On the other hand, the slaves’
capacity to form their own families was restricted to
the servants of very rich people, or else to those slaves
who paid their manumission in installments by means
of a contract signed up with their master. Both kinds
of slaves had a right to enjoy a certain degree of
independence in order to have a job that enabled
them to pay for their freedom.

A master was not allowed to marry one of his
concubines legally. However, if one of them became
pregnant, she acquired a new status that provided her
with certain rights common to a free woman. These
ummahat al-awlad, or mothers with child, might not
be sold and acquired freedom after their master’s
death. On the other hand, their children were free
according to the principle on which nobody may be
his father’s slave, despite slavery being a condition
inherited from the mother.

A slave was not considered an object of law by
himself, like in Roman law, but a subject of legisla-
tion. Consequently, he had civil and criminal rights,
as well as obligations. His master could not kill him
nor impose any arbitrary penalty on him, although
there are examples of this being made in practice.
Likewise, a slave was subject to penalties that were
half the amount of those imposed on a free person,
because his responsibility was considered to be less.

As for property rights, law provided that the goods
belonging to a slave pertained to his master, so that
the slave was the usufructuary only as long as the
master permitted it. Nor had he rights to inherit,
even from free relatives. Nevertheless, Maliki law
emphasized that a slave’s manumission had to include
enough possessions for the slave to survive with dig-
nity; otherwise, to give him freedom would not be a
generous deed but a concealed abandonment. When
the slave was released, a client bond was established
between him and his master. Although he acquired all
the rights and duties of a free person, his former
master and his agnates preserved the right to become
heirs to the slave. Consequently, slaves were not only
members of the medieval Islamic family — and must
be included in every study concerning it — but after
their manumission, they continued to be bound to the

759

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE, WESTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

master’s family unit through a client bow (wala’). In
such a way, they contributed to perpetuate its patri-
lineal structure, a fact that had important social and
economic consequences.

Maliki jurists established a number of legal prin-
ciples concerning slave property, trade, and their lib-
eration that were considered when dealing with the
matters of law. First, the rights of a free person —
especially property rights — were secured because, as
texts repeated once and again, “slaves are goods, just
as cattle is.” Respect for the property of a free person
might have priority over the religious element. Like-
wise, it was important that a manumission or sale did
not damage the interests of any free person. Secondly,
there were the fundamental rights of the slave to be
considered: respect for his legal condition as an in-
dividual and therefore for the rights applying to that
particular type of slave. Other aspects were his manu-
mission and kind treatment; the concession of an
amount of money for his use after liberation; and
some sexual rights of female slaves, as the forbiddance
to be rendered, rented, and so on, to another person.

Slave Trade

The most common way of acquiring slaves must
have been, on the one hand, by birth at home of the
children of other slaves. On the other hand, captivity at
war, particularly in places such as al-Andalus, where
there was continuous struggle against Christian terri-
tories throughout many centuries, provided prisoners.
Since the tenth century there was an institution created
for the release of captives, the redeemer ( al-fakkak ) .

Captives, such as other slaves imported from
diverse places, were sold in the market. Their transac-
tion was subject to controls in which the fulfillment of
the legally established criteria were secured, the same
as with other goods (cattle, luxury items). Among the
many questions Maliki jurists dealt with, two were
worth special attention: the slave’s possible physical
defects or blemishes — where the possibility of selling a
pregnant female slave was included, since it might
give rise to claims and conflicts between the parties
involved — and possible frauds related to the legal
status of the slave, which would result in the annul-
ment of the sale once it had been carried out. The
texts dealt extensively with the question of slaves
owned by several masters, because the lack of whole
property of a slave restricted the rights of the masters
over that person. For example, during a sale or rent,
there had to be a unanimous agreement among all the
proprietors; or, in the case of female slaves, they could
not have sexual intercourse with her.

Up to the twelfth century there existed an intense
slave trade between al-Andalus and the Christian
kingdoms, in which Jews living in the Christian
lands played an active role. During this period, differ-
ent commercial products were exported from
al-Andalus to other Islamic countries, either in the
West or in the East. Among the products that were
in great demand Christian slaves stood out. Since the
ninth century, Radhanite merchants had traded with
“Andalusian slave women,” who had become very
popular in North Africa and the Orient. The Verdun
merchants are also referred to in the sources as people
trading slaves between both territories.

The drastic territorial withdrawal of al-Andalus in
1212 brought about a radical change in the commer-
cial relationships of all the products. Al-Andalus
stopped being an importer, and most of the trade is
addressed to the north of the peninsula from the
thirteenth century onward. In the case of Muslim
slaves, the Nasrid sultans were forced to prohibit
their sale to the Christians.

Most of the slaves were destined for domestic use,
although their numbers are unknown. The different
genres of written sources refer to privileged social
groups living in an urban environment, without any
information about the rural world and other urban
contexts, so it is difficult to determine the absolute
social and economic weight of the slave population.
The use of slaves was infrequent in the armies of
Western Islam, both in al-Andalus and North Africa.
As for some high-ranking officers of the army whose
status as slaves has been assumed, it is difficult to say
whether they were so, or else they had slave origins but
had been enjoying freedom for several generations
already, so they would rather be clients than slaves.

Eunuchs should also be mentioned briefly. Their
existence is known by means of historical chronicles.
Their destination, according to these sources, was
only the royal palace and some very wealthy families.
They were mainly assigned to manage the harem, but
some of them had high positions in the administra-
tion, and even in the army of the Umayyad court of
al-Andalus.

Nowadays, one of the most debated issues in the
field is the ethnic origins of the slaves in Western
Islam. The confused state of terminology at some
point when, for instance, the term saqaliba — which
was used to designate only slaves of Slavic origins —
started to be used to call any palace slave, makes a
systematic revision of Arabic sources very necessary.
It seems that the sources indicate that slaves came
mainly from captivity, so in al-Andalus, Christians
from the Northern Iberian Peninsula must have
been abundant. On the other hand, a great number
of black slaves of sub-Saharan Africa must have been

760

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE, WESTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

acquired in North Africa, especially since the ex-
pansion of the Berber dynasties of Almoravids and
Almohads, in the eleventh century. On their part, the
treatises on market rules and the very few treatises
of slave trade allude to ethnic origins in a merely
theoretical way.

Cristina de la Puente

See also Andalus; Concubinage; Eunuchs; Human
Geography; Land Tenure and Ownership; Law and
Jurisprudence; Malikism; Markets; North Africa;
Slavery, Military; Trade

Primary Sources

Al-Jaziri, ‘Ali ibn Yahya (m. 585/1189). Al-Maqsad al-mah-
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de formulas notariales). Ed. Asuncion Ferreras. Madrid,
1998.

Al-Muktabis. III. Chronique du regne du calife umaiyyade
Abd Allah a Cordoue Al-Oism al-thalith min kitab
al-Muqtabis fi ta 'rikh rijal al- Andalus. Edited and intro-
duction by M. Martinez Antuna. Paris, 1937.
Al-Muqtabas ( Al-Juz’ al-khamis) . Ed. P. Chalmeta, F. Cor-
riente, and M. Subh. Madrid, 1979.

Al-Muqtabas II-2. Ed. Mahmud ‘Ali Makki. Beirut, 1393/
1973.

Al-Muqtabas VII. Ed. ‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Ali al-Hajji,
al-Muqtabas fi akhbar balad al-Andalus. Beirut, 1965;
Spanish translation by E. Garcia Gomez, El Califato de
Cordoba en “al-Muqtabis” de Ibn Hayyan. Anales pala-
tinos del califa de Cordoba al-Hakam II, por ‘Isa b.
Ahmad al-Razi (360-364 H./97 1-975 J.C.), Madrid,
1967.

Al-Muwatta, Imam Malik. Transl. ‘A’isha ‘Abdarrahman
al-Tarjumana and Ya‘qub Johnson. Norwich, 1982.

Ibn Abi Zayd Al-Qayrawani (m. 386/996). Risala/ La Risala
on Epitre sur les elements du dogme et de la loi de I’Islam
selon le rite malikite. Texte arabe et traduction frangaise
avec un avant-propos, des notes et trois index par Leon
Bercher. Alger, 1968.

Ibn Al-‘Attar (m. 399/1009). Kitab al-watha’iq wa-l-sijillat.
(Formulario notarial hispano-arabe por el alfaqui y
notario cordobes Ibn al-' Attar [s. X]). Ed. P. Chalmeta
y F. Corriente. Madrid, 1983.

Ibn Hayyan. Muqtabis II-l (Al-Safar al-thani min Kitab
al-muqtabas) . Ed. Mahmud ‘Ali Makki. Riyad, 1424/
2003.

Ibn ‘Idhari Al-Marrakushi. Histoire de VAfrique du Nord
et de VEspagne musulmane, intitulee Kitab al-bayan
al-mughrib, et fragments de la chronique de ‘Arib. Vol.
I— II. Ed. G. Colin and E. Levi-Provengal. Leiden, 1948
1951; Vol. III. Histoire de VEspagne musulmane au
Xleme siecle. Edited by. E. Levi-Provengal. Paris, 1930.

. Al-Bayan al-mugrib fi akhbar al-Andalus wa-l-

Magrib. Al-Juz’ al-rabV: qit'a min ta’rikh al-murabitin.
Nouvelle edition publie d’apres l’edition de 1848-1851
de R. Dozy par G. S. Colin and E. Levi-Provengal.
Beirut, 1967, 4 vols.

Ibn Mugith, Ahmad b. Mugith al-Tulaytuli (m. 459/1067).
Al-Muqni' fi ‘ilm al-shurut. ( Formulario notarial) . Intro-
duction and edition by F.J. Aguirre Sadaba. Madrid,
1994.

Ibn Rushd al-Hafid. Abu ’1-Walid Muhammad (Aver-
roes) (m. 595/1198). Bidayat al-mujtahid wa-nihayat
al-muqtasid. Beirut, 1409/1988, 9th ed., 2 vols.

Ibn Rushd. The Distinguished Jurist 's Primer. Transl. Imran
Ahsan Khan Nyazee. London, 1994 (vol. I) and 1996
(vol. II).

Malik Ibn Anas. Kitab al-Muwatta’- Al-Suyuti, ls'af
al-Muwatta, bi-rijal al-Muwatta’. Edition by Faruq
Sa‘d. Beirut, 1401/1981.

Muwatta’ al-imam Malik (riwayat al-Shaybani) . Ed. ‘Abd
al-Wahhab ‘Abd al-Latif. Beirut, [1984],

Sahnun, ‘Abd al-Salam ibn Sa ‘id. Al-Mudawwana al-kubra.
Cairo, 1323/1905.

Cronica del califa Abdarrahman III An-Nasir entre los ahos
912 y 942 (al-Muqtabis V). Spanish translation by M.J.
Viguera and F. Corriente. Zaragoza, 1981.

Kitab al-Muqtabas fi ta’rikh al-Andalus: ‘ahd al-Amir ‘Abd
Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hakam
ibn Hisham. Ed. Isma‘il al-’Arabi. Casablanca, 1411/
1990.

Further Reading

Abd Elwahed. Contributions a une theorie sociologique de
Vesclavage. Paris, 1931.

Aguirre Sadaba, Francisco Javier. “Notas acerca de la
proyeccion de los “kutub al-wata ’ iq ” en el estudio social
y economico de al-Andalus." Misceldnea de Estudios
Arabes y Hebreos 49 (2000): 3-30.

Ayalon, D. “On the Eunuchs in Islam." Jerusalem Studies
in Arabic and Islam 1 (1979): 67-124.

. “On the Term Khadim in the Sense of ‘Eunuch’

in the Early Muslim Sources." Arabica XXXII (1985):
288-308.

Blanc, F.P., and A. Lourde. “Les conditions juridiques de
faeces au statut de concubine-mere en droit malekite.”
Revue de I’Occident Musulman et de la Mediterranee 36
(1983): 163-175.

Bonnassie, P. “Survie et extinction du regime esclavagiste
dans l’Occident du haut Moyen Age (IV e -XI e siecles).”
Cahiers de Civilisation Medievale XXVIII, no. 4 (1985):
307-343.

Bresc, H. Politique et societe en Sicilie, Xlle-XVe siecles.
Aldershot, 1990.

. (sous la direction de) Figures de I’esclave au Moyen-

Age et dans le monde moderne. Paris, 1996.

Brockopp, Jonathan E. Early Maliki Law. Ibn ‘Abd
al-Hakam and His Major Compendium of Jurisprudence.
Leiden, Boston, Koln, 2000.

Cilardo, A. The Slave’s Inheritance. A Reconsideration
(Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies, Univ. of
St. Andrews, Scotland, 31st July-5 th August 1989),
Annali Istituto Universitario Orientale Suppl. 1990.

Coello, P. “Las actividades de las esclavas segun Ibn Butlan
(s. XI) y al-Saqati de Malaga (ss. XII-XIII).” In La
mujer en al- Andalus. Reflejos historicos de su actividad y
categorias sociales, edited by M.J. Viguera, 201-210.
Madrid, 1989.

Constable, Olivia Remie. Trade and Traders in Muslim
Spain. The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian
Peninsula: 900-1500. Cambridge, 1994.

Fischer, Allan G.B., and Humphry J. Fisher. Slavery and
Muslim Society in Africa. The Institution in Saharan and
Sudanic Africa and the Trans-Saharan Trade. London,
1970.

761

SLAVES AND SLAVE TRADE, WESTERN ISLAMIC WORLD

Fischer, Rudolf. Gold, Sah und Sklaven. Die Geschichte der
grossen Sudanreiche Gana, Mali, Songhai. Tubingen
(Germany), 1982.

Gordon, M. Slavery in the Arab World. New York, 1989.

Graham, C. “The Meaning of Slavery and Identity in
al-Andalus: The Epistle of Ibn Garcia.” Arab Studies
Journal/Majallat al-dirasat al-'arabiyya 3i (1995): 68-79.

Granja Santamaria, F., de la. “La venta de la esclava en el
mercado.” Revista del Instituto Egipcio de Estudios
Islamicos (Madrid) XIII (1965-1966): 119-136.

Handler, Andrew. "The ‘abid Under the Umayyads of
Cordova and the muluk al-tawa’if’ , Occident and Orient.
A Tribute to the Memory of A. Scheiber. Budapest and
Leiden, 1988, 229-238. '

Harvey, L.P. Islamic Spain. 1250 to 1500. Chicago and
London, 1992.

Koningsveld, P.S., van. “Muslim Slaves and Captives in
Western Europe During the Late Middle Ages.” Islam
and Christian-Muslim Relations VI. 1 (1995): 5-24.

Lovejoy, P.E. Transformations in Slavery: A History in
Slavery in Africa. Cambridge, London, New York,
New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney, 1983.

. “Concubinage and the Status of Women Slaves in

Early Colonial Northern Nigeria.” Journal of African
History 29.2 (1988): 245-266.

Marin, Manuela. Mujeres en al-Andalus ( Estudios Onomas-
tico-Biogrdficos de al-Andalus XI) . Madrid, 2000.

Meillassoux, C. (Ed). L’esclavage en Afrique pre-coloniale.
Paris, 1975.

Meouak, Mohamed. Pouvoir souverain, administration
centrale et elites politiques dans TEspcigne Umayyade
(IF-lV’v VIIF-X* siecles ) . Helsinki, 1999.

Miller, J.C. “Muslim Slavery and Slaving: A Bibliogra-
phy.” Slavery and Abolition 13 (1992): 249-271 and
296-297.

. Slavery and Slaving in World History: A Bibliogra-
phy, 1900-1991. Millwood (New York), i993.

Muller, H. “Zur Erforschung des islamischen Sklavenwe-
sens.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesell-
schaft, suppl. 1, Teil 2, 611-622 ( Vortrage der Deutscher
Orientalistentag vom 21-27. Juli 1968, Wurzburg, ed.
W. Voigt).

. “Sklaven.” En Hanclbuch der Orientalistik

( Wirtsc.hafsgeschichte des vorderen Orients in Islamischer
Zeit. Teil 1), edited by Bertold Spuler, 53-83. Leiden,
1977.

Philips, J.E. “Some Recent Thinking on Slavery in Islamic
Africa and the Middle East.” Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin, 27 (1993): 157-162.

Phillips, W.D. Slavery from Roman Times to the Early
Transatlantic Trade. Manchester, 1985.

Puente, Cristina, de la. “Esclavitud y matrimonio en la
Mudawwana al-kubra de Sahnun.” Al-Qantara xvi
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. “Slavery and the Fulfilment of the Five Pillars of

Islam in Early Maliki Works.” In Law, Christianity and
Modernism in Islamic Society. Proceedings of the
Eighteenth Congress of the Union Europeenne des
Arabisants et Islamisants held at the Katholieke Univer-
siteit Leuven (September 3-September 9, 1996), special
issue of Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Ed.
U. Vermeulen and J.M.F. van Reeth. Leuven, 1997,
61-70.

. “Juridical Sources for the Study of Women: An

Example of the Limitations of the Female’s Capacity

to Act According to Maliki Law.” En Writing the Feme-
nine. Women in Arab Sources, edited by M. Marin and
R. Deguilhem. London, 2002.

. “Entre la esclavitud y la libertad: consecuencias

legales de la manumision segun el derecho maliki.”
Al-Qantara XXI (2000): 339-360.

Raghib, Yusuf. “Les marches aux esclaves en terre
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1’Area euroasiatica e 1'area mediterranea ( Settimane di
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Third Islamic Century: Agriculture and the Role of
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Watson, J.L. (Ed). Asian and African Systems of Slavery.
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. Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa. 2 vols.

London, 1985.

SOCIALIZING

Socializing outside the family was not mixed. Socia-
lizing took place either in a context where one person
played host to a number of guests, or else in a place
where people gathered spontaneously. Examples of
the former are the tribal leader’s council, the ruler’s
court, and the prominent official or scholar’s literary
or academic salon; the most common Arabic term for
these institutions is the majlis. Very little information
exists about women’s socializing, although it was ap-
parently organized partly on the same lines as men’s;
some princesses, for instance, are known to have had
their own salon.

Rules of correct behavior in social gatherings
existed; they included showing proper respect to the
host and to older and more important people present.
Thanks to this formal etiquette, sensitive and contro-
versial subjects, including religion, could be discussed
with considerable freedom. The majlis were also
places where reputations were made and unmade.
Young secretaries (see Bureaucrats) who favorably
impressed a ruler with their eloquence or technical
knowledge, and budding poets whose odes received
a patron’s praise or a philologist’s stamp of approval
(see Poetry), could find themselves launched on a
successful career after attending majlis. However,
someone who betrayed ignorance, failed to parry a

762

SONGHAY EMPIRE

rival’s attack, or allowed himself to be made a laugh-
ingstock might lose his position and standing (see
Adab).

The character of the gathering was determined by
the host’s interests and mood; a ruler could discuss
affairs of state with his courtiers and then invite
musicians to sing. The host set the tone; the ‘Abbasid
caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. AH 232-247/847-861 CE),
for instance, was known for his barrack-room sense
of humor and enjoyed humiliating his courtiers. Intel-
lectually minded rulers, such as al-Ma’mun (198-218/
813-833), sometimes invited experts in various fields
to give short talks on subjects they wanted to learn
more about. Al-Tawhidi’s (d. 411/1023) account of
evenings of conversation with the vizier Ibn Sa’dan,
Delight and Entertainment, gives an idea of the intel-
lectual level and breadth of interests that were current
in some courts.

A scholar’s salon — whether at his home or in a shop
or mosque — was often the setting for more or less
formal teaching. Hence the existence of a genre of
books, sometimes termed majalis (salons, or sessions),
recording the pronouncements of prominent philolo-
gists on linguistic topics. The subjects of less specialized
conversations among cultured people have been pre-
served by the Baghdadi judge al-Tanukhi (d. 384/ 994)
in his Table-Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge.

Socializing served more than to affirm one’s status,
advance one’s career, or improve one’s mind. Friends
would invite each other to spend a pleasant time
together; this almost always involved the recitation
of poetry and often, singing, with musicians being
invited if necessary. Such gatherings could be accom-
panied by wine, and the more attractive the setting
and attendants the better.

The second (spontaneous) type of socializing took
place in mosques, bathhouses, or taverns. The mosque
was, and is, a kind of community center where people
gather not only to pray but also to chat and discuss
matters in neutral surroundings, without anyone hav-
ing to play host. In medieval times a stranger arriving
in a city where he knew no one would make some first
contacts at the mosque. Conversations were usually
dignified and serious in the mosque’s tranquil, medita-
tive atmosphere, but they were not necessarily devoted
to religious matters; in his Book of Misers, al-Jahiz
(d. ca. 255/869) portrays a group of men who regular-
ly gathered in a mosque in Basra to exchange tips on
how to save money.

The public baths, too, were a socially acceptable
place to meet, although unlike the mosque they were
not free and therefore seldom became a regular ren-
dezvous for friends. They offered physical relaxation,
and their informal atmosphere encouraged conversa-
tion. Since ritual purification accompanies Islamic

rites, including important stages in the life cycle such
as weddings (see Marriage), a visit to the baths was
an integral part of many celebrations. Women had
far fewer opportunities than men of socializing out-
side the house, and for them in particular going to
the baths was often synonymous with a party to
which they brought their own food. Baths were (and
are) not mixed; they were open to women and men on
separate days.

The third meeting-place, the tavern, was reprehen-
sible from the religious point of view since it sold
wine; it was also associated with gambling, sexual
immorality, and unseemly behavior. Yet taverns
counted poets and singers among their customers,
and they offered a setting for creative artistic activity.

The coffeehouse appeared at the end of the medie-
val period (see Beverages), first in Yemen and the
Hijaz and then in the wider Ottoman empire and
Iran. Offering the advantages of the tavern (food
and conversation) without its drawbacks, it rapidly
became popular.

Hilary Kilpatrick

See also Adab; Baths and Bathing; Bureaucrats;
Courtiers; Gambling; Al-Jahiz; Al-Ma’mun; Marriage;
Poetry; Al-Tawhidi

Further Reading

Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and Cofeehouses. The Origins of a
Social Beverage in the Medieval near East. Seattle and
London: University of Washington Press, 1985.
Lazarus- Yafeh, Hava, Mark R. Cohen, Sasson Somekh,
and Sidney H. Griffith, (Eds). The Majlis. Interreligious
Encounters in Medieval Islam. Wiesbaden: Otto Harras-
sowitz Verlag, 1999.

Margoliouth, D.S. (Trans). The Table-Talk of a Mesopota-
mian Judge. London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1922.
al-Tanukhi, Nishwar al-muhadara. Ed. ‘A. al-Shalji
(Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1971-1973), translated by D.S. Mar-
goliouth, The Table-Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge , part
I (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1922), parts VIII and
II, Islamic Culture 3-6 (1929-1932).
al-Tawhidi, Abu Hayyan. al-Imta' wa-l-Mu’anasa. Ed.
Ahmad Amin and Ahmad al-Zayn. Cairo: Lajnat al-Ta‘-
lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr, 1953.

SONGHAY EMPIRE

Origin

Islam began to spread in the Songhay empire some
time in the eleventh century CE, when the ruling Za
or Dia dynasty first accepted Islam. It was a prosper-
ous region with a booming trade from the city of Gao.

763

SONGHAY EMPIRE

In fact, a Songhay kingdom in the region of Gao had
existed since the eleventh century, but it had come
under the control of Mali in 1325. After the decline of
Mali, the kingdom of Gao reasserted itself as the
major kingdom in the Sahel. By the late fourteenth
century, Gao reasserted itself as the Sunni dynasty,
the other name of the Songhay empire.

Songhay would not fully eclipse Mali until the
reign of Sunni ‘Ali Ber, who reigned from 1464 to
1492. He aggressively turned the kingdom of Gao into
an empire under his leadership, and the most impor-
tant towns of the Western Sudan came under the
Songhay empire. The great cities of Islamic learning,
such as Timbuktu (captured from the Tuaregs) and
Jenne, also came under his power between 1471 and
1476. The empire stretched across the Niger valley,
west to Senegal and east to Agades (modern-day
Niger). With his cavalry and a highly mobile fleet of
ships, ‘Ali Ber pushed the Berbers who had always
played such a crucial role in the downfall of Sahelian
kingdoms, far north.

The Sunni Kings

The ‘ulama have condemned Sunni ‘Ali, the first real
founder, in spite of his contribution in founding the
Songhay empire. They claimed he was a nominal
Muslim and compromised between paganism and
Islam, although he prayed and fasted. Once he pun-
ished the famous scholar Al-Maghili — to whom is
attributed the introduction of the Qadiriyya fraternity
of Sufis in Africa — by calling him “a pagan.” He
believed in magical practices and local cults. This,
however, was not something new in the Songhay
only. Almost the same practice continued in other
parts of West Africa until the time that various reviv-
alist movements took place in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.

Sunni ‘Ali’s syncretism was soon denounced by the
eminent Muslim scholars in Timbuktu. Timbuktu had
an established reputation as a center of Islamic
learning and civilization of West Africa. Members of
the famous Aqit family of Berber scholars were enjoy-
ing the post of the Grand Qadi (Chief Justice) at the
time and were known for their fearless oppositions
to the rulers. Sunni ’Ali did not take such criticism
lightly. In his lifetime he suppressed the scholars of
Timbuktu, but after his death the situation completely
changed and the Muslim scholars triumphed.
Muhammad Toure, a military general, asked his suc-
cessor, Sunni Barou, to make a public appearance
and make a confession of his faith in Islam. When
Barou refused to do so, Muhammad Toure ousted

him and established a new dynasty in his own name,
called the Askiya dynasty. Sunni ’Ali may be com-
pared with Sundiate of Mali and Askiya Muhammad
Toure to Mansa Musa, a champion for the cause of
Islam.

An ardent Muslim, when Muhammad Toure
(r. 1493-1528) came to power, he established Islamic
law and extensively drew upon the expertise of his
Timbuktu scholars in matters of the state. He also
arranged for a large number of Muslims to be trained
as judges (qadis) and he replaced native Songhay
administrators with Arab Muslims in a bid to stabilize
the empire. Timbuktu gained fame as an intellectual
center rivaling many others in the Muslim world. It
had the credit of establishing the first Muslim univer-
sity — Sankore University — in West Africa, the name
of which is commemorated still today in Ibadan
University, where a certain staff residential area is
named Sankore Avenue. Eearners from various
parts of the world came to study a wide array of
sciences, ranging from language and politics to law
and medicine (apart from the city’s more than 180
madrasahs where one could undertake strictly Islamic
studies). Medieval Europe sent emissaries to the
University of Sankore to witness its excellent libraries
with manuscripts and to consult with the learned
mathematicians, astronomers, physicians, and jurists
whose intellectual endeavors were said to be paid for
out of the king’s own treasury.

Muhammad Toure continued Sunni Ali’s imperial
expansion by seizing the important Saharan oases and
conquering Mali. From there he conquered Hausa-
land. He also further centralized the government by
creating a large and elaborate bureaucracy to oversee
his extensive empire. Merchants and traders traveled
from Asia, the Middle East, and Europe to exchange
their exotic wares for the gold of Songhay. As in Mali,
there was a privileged caste of craftsmen, and slave
labor played an important role in agriculture. Gold,
kola nuts, and slaves were the main exports, whereas
textiles, horses, salt, and luxury goods were the main
imports.

Toure also standardized weights, measures, and
currency so that culture throughout the Songhay
began to homogenize. These programs of conquest,
centralization, and standardization were the most am-
bitious and far-reaching in sub-Saharan history until
the colonization of the continent by the Europeans.
Songhay reached its greatest territorial expansion
under Askia Dawud (r. 1549-1582), when the empire
stretched all the way to Cameroon. With literally
several thousand cultures under its control, Songhay
was the largest empire in African history.

Toure, on his pilgrimage to Makkah, came into
close contact with various Muslim scholars and rulers

764

SOUTHEAST ASIA, HISTORY AND CULTURE

in the Arab countries. He visited the caliph of Egypt,
who proclaimed him caliph of the whole of Sudan.
Sudan, at the time, was a loose term for a large area in
sub-Saharan Africa usually embracing Mali, Chad,
northwest Nigeria, and Niger. In Makkah, the King
accorded him great respect, turbanned him, and gave
him a sword and the title of Khalifah of western
Sudan. On his return from Makkah in 1497, he
proudly used the title of cd-Hajj. Askiya took such a
keen interest in the Islamic legal system that he asked
a number of questions on Islamic theology from his
personal friend, Muhammad al-Maghili. Al-Maghili
wrote down the answers in detail, which Askiya
circulated in the Songhay empire. The questions per-
tained to the fundamental structure of the faith that
later served as the chief source of 'Ut liman Dan
Fodio’s revolution in Hausaland a few years thereafter.

Although most of the people in urban areas had
turned Muslim, the majority of those living in the
rural areas still followed African traditional religion.
Some aspects of traditional religion have been pre-
served to this day, including the sacred drum, the
sacred lire, and the old types of costume and hairstyle.

Overall, the appearance of Islam in western Sudan
was important for much more than religious reasons.
It introduced the culture of scholarship to countries
beyond Egypt and the Maghrib and stabilized trade
between her and the lands beyond the Sahara. It also,
however, left terrible religious conflicts between the
various tribes who did or did not accept Islam, and
created a different kind of unrest.

Decline

After Askiya Muhammad Toure, the empire began to
crumble. His sons who had shared power with him
deposed him since there was no fixed law of succession
to the throne. During a period of sixty years (1528-
1591), eight Askiyas came to power consecutively.

Songhay had gotten too large by this time; it
encompassed too much territory to control. After
the reign of Askia Dawud, subject peoples began to
revolt, even though Songhay had an army of more
than thirty five thousand soldiers. The first major
region to go was Hausaland. In 1590, al-Mansur,
the powerful and ambitious sultan of Morocco, de-
cided that he wanted control of the West African gold
trade badly enough to send his army all the way
across the Sahara. The spears and swords of the
Songhay warriors were no match for the cannons
and muskets of the Moroccan army. The Moroccan
invasion destroyed the Songhay empire. It contri-
buted, along with such other phenomena as the

growing Atlantic trade, to the decline of the trade
routes that had brought prosperity to the region for
hundreds of years.

Trade routes fell under local control and deterio-
rated beyond recovery. The Moroccans also took
Timbuktu in 1591 and ruled over the city until about
1780, supervising its ultimate decline. During the early
nineteenth century, Timbuktu passed into the hands of
a variety of West African groups, including the
Tuaregs and the Bamabra, who founded the Bamabra
kingdom of Segou farther to the south. In the late
nineteenth century, as European powers invaded
parts of Africa, French colonizers took over the city.

In 1612, the remaining cities of Songhay fell into
anarchy and the greatest empire of African history
came to a sudden close. No African nation since has
risen to prominence and wealth as did the mighty
Songhay.

Khalid Dhorat

Further Reading

Caillie, Rene. Travels Through Central A frica to Timbuctoo;
and Across the Great Desert to Morocco Performed in the
Years 1824-1828. Colburn and Bentley, 1830.

Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Dubois, Felix. Timbuctoo the Mysterious. Transl. Diane
White. Heinemann, 1897.

Gardner, Brian. The Quest for Timbuktu. Cassell, 1968.

Jackson, John G. Introduction to African Civilizations. Cit-
adel Press, 1994.

Robinson, D., and D. Smith. Sources of the African Past.
London: Heinemann, 1979.

Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. St. Martin’s Press,
1995.

Shinnie, Margaret. Ancient African Kingdoms. Edward
Arnold, 1965.

SOUTHEAST ASIA, HISTORY
AND CULTURE

Although never conceived of as a unitary region in
Arabic accounts, Southeast Asia was a maritime con-
tact zone for Indian Ocean trade with China from
antiquity. The shippers who plied this route, such as
Ibn Khurradadhbih, recorded the names of several of
the harbors at which they called for water, victuals,
and trade. The most famous of the trading ports were
located in the vicinity of the Isthmus of Kra (Kalah),
in the locales of North Sumatra (Ramni), East Suma-
tra (Zabaj), Tioman Island (Tiyuma), and the coasts
of Cambodia (Qmar) and Champa (Sanf) — the last
being the collective name for the Austronesian king-
doms once located in central Vietnam.

The majority of the Southeast Asian ports gained
advantage from this passing India trade, and their

765

SOUTHEAST ASIA, HISTORY AND CULTURE

organization and culture reflected Indie modes. The
Buddhist (or at times Saivite) kingdoms of Java;
Angkor in Cambodia; the Cham cities in Vietnam;
and Srivijaya in the Straits of Malacca all maintained
cults of divine kingship and the use of Sanskrit for
official proclamations. Because of this, most medieval
accounts placed Southeast Asian toponyms in general
descriptions of India.

The region was not always a stable constellation of
states. Eleventh-century attacks by the Tamil Cholas
weakened Srivijaya and may have led the Khmers to
play a stronger role on the peninsula. Further, the
Mongol conquests of the twelfth century saw a reori-
entation of Southern Song networks involving Java as
a more active agent of inter oceanic trade. The Java-
nese state Singasari, and then its thirteenth-century
successor Majapahit, exercised hegemony over Suma-
tra. The general view of a Java-dominated island
world seems to have led to the nascence in the Arabic
texts of this toponym, as in the encyclopedia of
Yaqut, who stated in his Mujam al-buldan that
Java was one of the first of the kingdoms of China.
Ibn al-Mujawir also made reference, in his Ta’rikh
al-mustabsir (ca. 1228), to rough passage to “the re-
gion of Jawa.” When Marco Polo visited the region in
1292, he referred to Sumatra as Java Minora. Similar-
ly, when Ibn Battuta returned from China circa 1345,
he named Sumatra as a part of Jawa.

The Mongols had also invaded mainland Burma in
1258, and their impact in Asia was a catalyst for the
southward movement of the Tai peoples at the
expense of the mainland Mon and Khmer popula-
tions. After slow beginnings on North Sumatra, and
between the exertions of Singasari and Majapahit,
Islamization would spread westward to other parts
of the Malay Peninsula and the spice islands before
the arrival of the Portuguese, who took the port of
Malacca in 1511 and attempted to monopolize the
collection of spices in the region. This allowed for
the rise of the Sumatran state of Aceh under ‘Ali
Mughayat Shah (r. 1514-1530). Whereas the Portu-
guese apothecary Tome Pires, stationed in freshly con-
quered Malacca between 1512 and 1515, could write of
a largely non-Muslim Java, by 1527, Majapahit had
been defeated by the coastal sultanate of Demak,
ushering in a long-term process of Islamization from
above.

Muslims were also an increasingly notable pres-
ence in mainland Southeast Asian courts, such as
Siam and Cambodia, but their influence was short-
lived. With the rise of Atlantic commercial power in
the seventeenth century, Sumatran Aceh and West
Java’s Banten constituted the leading Muslim compe-
titors for trade in the region. Their territories, like
those of many Southeast Asian states, were slowly

being eaten away over the course of the coming cen-
turies by Western colonialism. At the same time, Islam
became ever more linked with many of the cultures of
the archipelago while Theravada Buddhism became
ever more entrenched as that of the mainland.

Michael Laffan

See also Ibn Battuta; Ibn Khurradadhbih; Java; Silk
Roads; Southeast Asia, Languages and Literatures;
Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula; Yaqut

Further Reading

Aubale-Sallenave, Franeoise. “Parfums, epices et condi-
ments dans l’alimentation arabe medievale.” In La ali-
mentation en las culturas isldmicas , edited by Manuela
Marin and David Waines, 217-249. Madrid: Agencia
Espanola de Cooperation Internacional, 1994.

Dietrich, A. “Afawlh.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed.
Supplement, fasc. 1-2. Leiden: Brill, 1980. 42-43.

Rodinson, Maxime, A.J. Arberry, and Charles Perry. Me-
dieval Arab Cookery. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books,
2001 (see general index s.v. caraway, cardamom, cinna-
mon, cloves, coriander, cumin, mace, mustard, nutmeg,
pepper, pickles, spice bread, spice mixture, spice trade,
spices; and see index of foreign words, especially s.v.
kamakh, murri.)

SPORTS

Engagement in various types of sports was undoubt-
edly a favorite pastime of medieval Muslims through-
out Islamic territories. However, given both the
extremely scattered data and the relatively poor re-
search on this subject the information that follows is
bound to be incomplete. In addition, since our sources
report next to nothing on the sport activities of the
common people, this entry deals with a limited number
of sports and of the medieval Islamic elite in particular.

We first learn of horseracing, an expensive pastime
and a sport of princes, in the Umayyad period, al-
though it stands to reason that it took place also in
pre-Islamic Arabia. It appears from our sources that
its apogee was in the eighth century CE, in the reigns
of the Umayyad Hisham to the ‘Abbasid Harun
al-Rashid. Probably at some point after the ninth
century, it went into decline, although it certainly
did not disappear altogether. Being also part of equi-
tation (furusiyya), horseracing was always essential
for military training and an object of entertainment
for the rulers, dignitaries, and others. Long hippo-
dromes (may dan), sometimes stretching for several
kilometers, were set apart for this purpose in major
Islamic towns. Horses that participated had to under-
go a period of training that lasted a few weeks.
According to the rules, a race could take place only
between horses of the same class, age, and other
defined criteria. Prizes for winners were part of this
sport activity. As for the defeated competitors, some
sources tell of the custom of placing a monkey on the
back of their horses with a whip to lash the horse,
thus putting the masters to shame. Due to the high
costs of horse breeding for competition, the common
people had to satisfy themselves with alternative sorts
of races, such as camel, donkey, or dog races. Espe-
cially popular was pigeon racing.

Polo (sawlajan and jukan, from Persian Chawgan),
originally a Persian sport, was another pastime limited

768

SPORTS

to the higher echelons of the society that became
favorable under the early ‘Abbasids and contempo-
rary local dynasties. Some of the caliphs are reported
playing polo with their boon companions. In later
periods, polo was exercised on festive occasions such
as the visit of foreign ambassadors. This was the case
in AH 660/1262 CE, when the Mamluk sultan
Baybars I received a Mongol delegation. When, in
the last years of the Mamluk reign in Egypt, Sultan
Qansuh al-Ghawri received Ottoman and Safavid
delegates, he entertained them with polo games. The
status of polo in the Mamluk court is demonstrated in
the establishment of the post of the jukandar, a high
official in charge of supervising polo exercises.

The wide practice of polo games among the Mam-
luk elite was based on the assumption that it was
suitable for keeping soldiers and horses in good phys-
ical condition. Polo was usually played on horseback.
Players were divided into two teams, each carrying a
long-handled stick with one end bent back. One of the
players started by throwing a leather ball (but some-
times a ball of silver) high into the air, another player
struck it, and thereafter the ball passed from player to
player. Each team tried to get the ball between two
posts defended by the opponents, the posts being
located at the end of a pitch so large that it gave
ample freedom of movement for the mounted parti-
cipants. The polo game is repeatedly reported for
the Ayyubid and Mamluk courts, where it was played
in special hippodromes constructed for that purpose.
It appears that in the Mamluk state, at least under
the reign of Barsbay (825-841/1422-1437), a special
season of polo games was fixed. The favor that polo
gained in the Mamluk state can be gauged from its
recurrence as a theme in artistic objects. Similar to
polo, and also a favorite pastime of the early ‘Abba-
sids, was the sport of tabtab, which was played on
horseback with a broad piece of wood or a racket to
hit the ball.

Qabaq, or gourd game, entailed shooting arrows
from a moving horse at a gourd target at the top of a
high pole, where a pigeon was placed. It was popular
in the early Mamluk period and was occasionally
played during feasts for the birth of a Mamluk prince,
or his circumcision. Sultan Baybars I constructed for
it the grounds known as Maydan al-Qabaq, which
were used till the reign of al-Nasir Muhammad ibn
Qalawun (ca. 700/1300).

Finally, on equestrian sports, one should mention
archery competitions. These simulated a duel between
mounted horsemen with the use of imitations to shoot
at from a distance of a few hundred yards. Betting
was part of the game. Many manuals were written to
guide participants through the numerous techniques.
Shooting with the crossbow was known as bunduq.

Flight and target shooting with arrows was a sport as
much as a basic part of military proficiency.

Wrestling matches took place at Islamic courts.
A fragmentary lustre plate, probably from eleventh-
century Egypt, has a painting of a wrestling match,
most likely serving as a royal theme. We laconically
know of popular wrestling matches in Cairo during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their referees
were versatile entertainers and street performers. In
the same vein one should mention weightlifting.

A report about the ‘Abbasid al-Mu‘tasim
(218-227/833-842) notes that he lifted weights during
exercise. Fencing, riverboat racing, swimming, and
games with lances were also in vogue, due to their
low costs. Among the sports of the ‘Abbasid period,
contests of animals and bird fighting were notable.
The rulers and the common people alike favored
them. Dogs, rams, and cocks, among others, were
used in competitions, and thus Ma’mun’s (198-218/
813-833) servants were on one occasion busy watch-
ing cock fighting at the court. A duel of lions and
buffaloes is reported for al-Mu‘tasim’s court.

Also related to the present discussion is the
subject of falconry (hunting with trained falcons),
an ancient sport practiced in different parts of the
world, which was introduced into Arabia many cen-
turies before the Christian era. It seems to have been
of special appeal there. It was sanctioned in the
Qur’an and after the conquests became a favorable
pastime with the ruling elite and a symbol of high
status. It is first associated with the Umayyad Yazid
(680-683 CE) and later the ‘Abbasids maintained
falconers on official posts with lavish expenses.
When Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveler,
visited the Mongol Khan Kublai in 1275 CE, he was
astonished to see as many as ten thousand falconers.
All that enormous interest resulted in sanctuaries
for falcons and hawks and a flourishing literature on
falconry.

One of the best descriptions of hunting practices is
provided by the “aristocrat” Usama ibn Munqidh
(1095-1188 CE), who was a member of an Arab
petty dynasty from northern Syria. In his memoirs
he describes some hunting expeditions in which he
himself participated.

Boaz Shoshan

Further Reading

Hunwick, John O. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-
Sa'di’s Ta’rikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and Other Contem-
porary Documents. Leiden: Brill, 1999, 2003.

. Shari ‘a in Songhay: The Replies of al-Maghili to the

Questions of Askia al-Hajj Muhammad. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1985.

Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali. London:
Methuen, 1973.

. “Islam in the Bilad al-Sudan to 1800," and “The

Juula and the Expansion of Islam into the Forest." In
The History of Islam in Africa , edited by N. Levtzion and
Randall L. Pouwels, 63-116. Athens: Ohio University
Press, 2000.

Levtzion, Nehemia, and J.F.P. Hopkins (Eds). Corpus
of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Lewicki, Tadeusz. “Traits d’histoire du commerce transsa-
harien. Marchands et missionnaires ibadites en Soudan
occidental et central au cours des viiie-xiie siecles.” Etno-
grafici polska viii (1964): 291-311.

SUFFERING

Various discussions that relate to the theme of
suffering can be found in several genres, including
discussions of pain, evil, misery (shaqa’), affliction
(tala’), and torment (‘adhab). Traditionally, humans
(including prophets), animals, and jinn are liable to

suffer, to the exclusion of God and angels. As with
pleasure and happiness, suffering may be experienced
in this world and the hereafter; and it is generally
accepted that “the torment of the hereafter is greater”
(Q 68:33). The entry discusses this-worldly suffering
only.

The Qur’an and hadith literature approach
suffering in various ways. Some suffering is explained
as punishment deserved by those who commit unbe-
lief or disobedience, and is cited to draw people to-
ward piety. The worst cases involve the violent and
humiliating annihilation of an individual or a people
(for example, the peoples of Noah and Lot), leading
to more severe torment in the hereafter. Those with
greater prudence should perceive these cases as a
warning and as lessons through example. Where the
sufferer survives, he or she will have the opportunity
to recognize his or her own suffering as a directive to
mend his or her ways.

Equally, suffering may be cathartic and thus a
reason to rejoice. It may redeem the sufferer by purg-
ing him or her of sin, bringing relief from greater
torment in the hereafter. According to one hadith ,
any Muslim who suffers harm, even the prick of a
thorn, will have his or her sins expiated, “shedding
from him as a tree sheds its leaves.” Suffering may
also draw one nearer to God (Q 7:94), or serve as an
ordeal that tests the individual’s faith (Q 2:155-157).
Another hadith describes the plague as representing
divine punishment upon some people, and divine
mercy upon the believer, who will be rewarded for his
or her patience in enduring a plague-ridden town. The
Qur’an presents Prophet Job as the patient believer
par excellence, who passed the test of severe adversity.

As regards the moral and spiritual virtues asso-
ciated with the experience of suffering, the main reli-
gious traditions in Islam are in general agreement but
differ on details. The central cathartic virtue empha-
sized throughout the Qur’an is patience, which (in
contrast to stoic endurance) should be based on
faith in, and reliance on, God’s goodness and power.
This basis is explained in various ways, for example,
by reference to the eventual happiness that the patient
should expect, or the insignificance of mundane pain
to the believer, who is absorbed in his or her relation
with God. To be truly patient, one should also
conceal one’s suffering, turning to none but God.

A spiritually advanced person will go beyond
patience and reach the station of acquiescence and
approval (rida) of whatever God decrees. This stance
led some Sufis to take the non-mainstream view that,
at this stage, one should not supplicate God to relieve
suffering, which would imply disapproval.

Certain rituals — most notably fasting — induce
moderate suffering in the believer and are thus

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SUFFERING

considered cathartic. Ascetics typically went further
by undertaking forms of mortification, which serve a
similar purpose. In Imami Shi'ism, great importance
is attached to commemorations of the events of
‘Ashura’, partly as means to participating in the
suffering of al-Husayn and his supporters in the battle
of Karbala.

Theological Tradition

The rise of rational theology witnessed the develop-
ment of systematic solutions to the problem of evil,
which is essentially as follows. God is good, and good
beings do not perform evil acts; yet God created the
world, including at least some of the evil it contains.

According to the Mu'taxila, evil is justified ratio-
nally in the framework of their moral realism, where-
by moral value can be intrinsic to acts and knowable
to unaided reason. We are therefore able to make
moral judgments in relation to both human and di-
vine acts, for example, God is obligated to omit bad
acts, including those that harm creatures. However,
they argued, the act of creation is good, since it allows
humans to attain great reward in the hereafter. Human
suffering in this world, though prima facie bad,
becomes good on account of afterlife compensation
that God will provide. As for unjustified harm caused
intentionally by other humans, it is their own moral
responsibility (as they have free choice), not that of
their Creator. It is thus incumbent upon God to de-
liver retributive justice by punishing wrongdoers.
Though Mu’tazilism did not survive as a school, this
theodicy was adopted in Zaydi and Imami Shi‘ism.

By contrast, most Sunni theologians took an anti-
realist metaethical stance. Members of the Ash’ari
school advanced an increasingly sophisticated criti-
cism of Mu’tazili ethics and argued that ordinary
moral judgments stem from emotion and social con-
vention, rather than reason. God, therefore, is not
obliged to adhere to any moral rules or duties. Though
He creates everything, including human suffering and
its causes, none of His acts are bad or morally justifi-
able. Yet God is compassionate and, out of favor,
promises reward to believers who suffer patiently.

The Philosophical Tradition

According to Abu Bakr al-Razi (d. 313/925), an early
maverick philosopher, pain is real, whereas pleasure,
being mere relief from pain, is unreal. In reality,
therefore, creatures experience only pain and anguish.

Al-Razi argues that God, being absolutely good,
could not have produced such a wretched creation.
Rather, this world came into being when the preeter-
nal Soul, out of sheer ignorance, desired to unite with
matter (also, in his view, preeternal). Having wit-
nessed the result of this union, God ameliorates it as
much as possible and introduces reason, which serves
to emancipate the Soul from matter, gradually as it
advances through metempsychosis.

By contrast, Ibn Sina (d. 429/1037), the most influ-
ential Muslim philosopher, advances a Neoplatonic,
purely ontological analysis of the problem of evil,
which aims to prove that God, the absolutely good
First Cause, produces a good world. Evil, he argues,
refers either to imperfection in an entity (such as
blindness), in which case it is nonexistent, or to a
cause thereof, which is a quality in another entity
(such as burning in fire). Such qualities are necessary
features of the best possible cosmic order and serve
greater good than the harm they cause accidentally.
Pain, for Ibn Sina, is ontologically insignificant and
deserves little justification; time, after all, erases most
memories of pain from the mind. God, therefore,
should not be judged morally on account of creature-
ly suffering — higher causes never act for the sake of
lower beings. Ibn Sina lambastes the Mu‘tazila who
fail to comprehend this and take the subjective human
experience of pain at face value in their theodicy.

This standard Neoplatonic theodicy became in-
fluential on later philosophical Sufis, most notably
Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 638/1240). But Ibn Sina was seriously
challenged by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1210),
who argues that a theodicy that disregards the
human experience of suffering merely circumvents
the real problem of evil, which concerns the ordinary
understanding of evil in terms of pain. This world, he
retorts, contains much more pain than pleasure. Yet
(reiterating the prevalent Sunni view) this has no
moral bearing on God.

Ayman Shihadeh

See also Afterlife; Ash‘aris; Ethics; Mu‘tazilites
Further Reading

Austin, ‘Umar. “Suffering in Muslim Religious Thought.,
Islamic Quarterly 26 (1982) 27-39.

Ayoub, Mahmoud M. “The Problem of Suffering in
Islam.” Alserat, 8, no ii (1982) 11-21; and 8, nos. ii-iv
(1982) 26-35.

. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devo-
tional Aspects of Ashura in Twelver Shi'ism. The Hague:
Mouton Publishers, 1978.

Bowker, John. “The Problem of Suffering in the Qur’an.”
Religious Studies 4 (1968): 183-202.

. Problems of Suffering in Religions of the World.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970, esp.
Chap. 3, “Islam.”

772

SUFISM AND SUFIS: SOUTH ASIA

Heemskerk, Margaretha T. Suffering in Mu'tazilite
Theology. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.

Ormsby, Eric L. Theodicy in Islamic Thought: The Dispute
over Al-Ghazali’s “Best of All Possible Worlds. ” Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

SUFISM AND SUFIS: SOUTH ASIA

Sufism, or the mystical component of Islam, in South
Asia constitutes a critical component of Muslim
society in the medieval period. Alongside the religious
learned class (‘ulama’), Sufis had developed sophis-
ticated institutions of learning, networks for mer-
chants, charitable organizations, and contributed
immensely to scholarship. In South Asia, just as
their counterparts in the Middle East and North
Africa, Sufis were scholars of law, philosophy, theol-
ogy, literature, medicine, mathematics, and astrono-
my. Sufis obtained prominent political positions as
advisors to statesmen on jurisprudence and on policy
decisions, and they also were influential members in
all of the major Islamic Sunni and Shi'i legal schools.
Sufi scholars in South Asia were responsible for
developing major intellectual trends, philosophical
schools of thought, and devising legal interpretations
that were historical in nature.

Many of the major educational institutions that
taught traditional Quranic, legal, linguistic, and ha-
dith and seerah studies had incorporated Sufi studies
into their curriculum. As scholars, Sufis developed new
ways of defining and transmitting spiritual knowledge
and authority and simultaneously devised their own
methods of legitimation. By the medieval period,
Sufism evolved as the main expression of Islamic
piety by being patronized either by the Delhi sultanate
or the Mughal dynasty. Their popular religious appeal
simultaneously was connected to the intellectual
growth and exuberance of Muslim scholarship.

Emperor Akbar’s erudite historian, Abu Fazl,
recorded in A 'in-i Akbari that there were fourteen
major Sufi orders in South Asia. In Abu Fazl’s analy-
sis of Sufism, he outlines the subbranches of each of
the orders, the founding Sufi masters, the genealogies,
and their primary areas of influence. The fourteen
Sufi orders that were dominant in the medieval period
were: ChishtI, Hubairl, ZaidI, HabibI, Karkia, Suhra-
wardl, Taifurl, JunaidI, Firdausi, Tasuia, GazrunI,
TyazI, AdhamI, and Saqatia. Each Sufi order consti-
tuted its own rituals, meditation practices, prayer
manuals, literature on Sufism, and independent insti-
tutions that lodged members and senior Sufi masters.

A review of two major Sufi orders, the Chishtis and
Suhrawardls, will illustrate the major religious prac-
tices of Sufis in South Asia. Mu 'In al-dln ChishtI,
commonly called Khwaja Gharib Nawaz (“The Patron

Saint of the Poor”) established the Chishti Sufi order
in India. MuTn al-dln Chishti was born in Sijistan, an
eastern province of Persia, was forced out of his town
by invasions, and became itinerant until he settled in
Ajmer, India. Chishti studied in a variety of presti-
gious Islamic colleges (madaris) in Baghdad, Samar-
qand, Tabriz, and Bukhara, where he mastered
languages, philosophy, law, and ethics and then con-
centrated on an internal mystical approach to reli-
gion. It is recorded that Chishti met prominent
Sufis, such as 'Abdu'l Qadir JilanI, Najm ud-dln
Kubra, and Abdul Qadir al-Suhrawardl, and studied
under the eminent Usman Baghdadi for twenty years.
MuTn al-dln Chishti reached Delhi in 1193, and then
settled in Ajmer to establish his teachings and the
Sufi order. Like earlier prominent Sufi masters before
him, MuTn al-dln Chishti implemented a hierarchical
master-disciple (pir-murid) structure for spiritual
training, and he also successfully assimilated local
customs into the order. Chishti understood the bene-
fits of cross-religious exchanges and shared many
Hindu yogi practices, such as bowing before an
elder, shaving the head of new members, presenting
water to guests, and the use of devotional music
(samcf) for worship. The distinguishing features of
MuTn al-dln Chishtl’s teachings and practices are
assimilating Sufi practices within the Indian religious
context, while other contemporary Sufis and legal-
minded scholars were interested in maintaining
boundaries between Islam and the Hindu tradition.

MuTn al-dln Chishtl’s beliefs were a combination
of Islamic mystical beliefs with an emphasis on social
reforms. Chishti Sufi mystical practices are rooted in
the theory of the unity of being (wahdat al-wujud),
which stressed that the presence of the Divine is man-
ifested in everything in the universe and one is able
to access the divine through spiritual exercises. In
contrast to the legal-minded scholars or ‘ulama ’ who
claimed they had the exclusive rights to interpreting
divine knowledge through the laws of the Qur’an, Sufi
masters like MuTn al-dln Chishti emphasized that
the ability for each individual, regardless of class
and educational training, was to be able to experience
the ecstasy of divine union. MuTn al-dln Chishtl’s
esoteric path involved a disciple in relentless sacrifice
and love to God. Like many Sufis before him, MuTn
al-dln Chishti believed that the individual needed to
be guided by a master in order for the disciple to be
completely immersed in living for God and cultivate a
special kind of inner love (muhabbat-i khass). This
involved striving to a higher spiritual level where the
disciple developed an emotional and spiritual rela-
tionship between himself or herself and the Divine.
At this ideal state nothing else existed but a complete
spiritual union.

773

SUFISM AND SUFIS: SOUTH ASIA

The difficult social and political conditions under
which Mu‘In al-dln ChishtI lived influenced his
emphasis on incorporating social services with his
Sufi theosophy. With a corrupt sociopolitical and
economic system under the Delhi sultanate, Chishtl’s
rejection of all worldly material (tark-i dunya) was
the foundation of his ideology. Any possession of
property was considered a compromise of faith.
According to Mu‘In al-dln ChishtI, “The highest
form of worship to God was to redress the misery of
those in distress, to fulfill the needs of the poor and to
feed the hungry.” ChishtI Sufis lived on charity
(futuh ) and practiced several mystical breathing tech-
niques, engaged in spiritual confinement in a cell for
meditational purposes, and involved themselves in
devotional music gatherings (sama‘). The more ad-
vanced Sufis tied a rope around their feet and lowered
their bodies into a well for forty days for prayer
(chilla-i ma'kus). Mu‘In al-dln ChishtI preached that
fasting from food was a good method for increasing
one’s faith, and if one desired food it should be a
vegetarian diet. The Chishtls had a reputation of
having a large section of lower classes and the dispos-
sessed in society as members. Since the Chishtls ac-
cepted any member without discrimination of
religion, class, ethnicity, and gender, the order rapidly
became eclectic. When an individual became a mem-
ber of the ChishtI Sufi order, which did not require
religious conversion, he or she needed first, to choose
an elder as a spiritual guide and second, to commit
themselves to maintain the grounds of the shrine
(dargah). Muin al-dln Chishtl’s blend of a mystical
life and social services for the poor profoundly
changed the Islamic mystical institutions in the Indian
subcontinent. His Sufi order served as an alternative
form of popular spiritual expression because it
empowered individuals to develop a spiritual disci-
pline within a meaningful framework.

Another significant Sufi order in South Asia during
the medieval period was the SuhrawardI Sufis, mainly
located in Punjab and Sind. Baha’ al-dln Zakariyya
MultanI (1181-1262) was Shihab al-dln ‘Abu Hafs
‘Umar al-Suhrawardl’s (d. 1234) primary successor
(khalifa) to establish the Sufi order in Multan.
Zakariyya successfully made his Sufi center (kha-
naqdh ) an important center for both secular and reli-
gious activities as prominent royal families would visit
and attend SuhrawardI rituals. A well-known poet
and disciple of Zakariyya was Faqr al-dln ‘Iraqi,
who wrote on the experience of divine union in his
book Lama ‘at ( Divine Flashes ) . Zakariyya’s son and
primary khalifa, Sadr al-dln ‘Arif (d. 1285), continued
the SuhrawardI order’s mission, and his conversa-
tions were recorded by his successor, Zia al-dln.
Another important SuhrawardI successor of ‘Umar

al-Suhrawardl was QadI Hamid al-dln Nagauri, who
was based in Delhi. Nagauri wrote on the principles
and practices of Sufism in Usui ut tariqat ( The Prin-
ciples of the Sufi Path), which was widely used in
most SuhrawardI centers in the Indian subcontinent.
Nagauri served as Shaikh-al-Islam for the Delhi
sultanate and was considered a leading scholar in his
period. An extensive tafsir is attributed to Nagauri
called Tafsir-i Para-i ‘Amma. Works pertaining to
Nagauri’s ideas on mystical experiences connected to
the larger cosmos. Another eminent SuhrawardI mas-
ter and teacher was Jalal al-dln Bukhari (d. 1291),
who wrote Siraj al Hidayah (Rays of Guidance) in
which he discussed the establishment of the Suhra-
wardI order in Ucch and in the Sind province. Most of
this information is recorded by one of the major
SuhrawardI chroniclers, Hamid ibn Fazl Allah Jamal!
(d. 1536), author of Siyar al ‘Arifin.

Since its early history in Baghdad, the SuhrawardI
Sufi order maintained the principle of embracing
the world with the esoteric practices of Sufism. That
is, the early theosophist of the Sufi order, ‘Umar
al-Suhrawardl, emphasized the necessity of becoming
politically active and building networking alliances in
order to be active members of the community. Part of
al-Suhrawardl’s basic creed was to adhere to and
fully recognize the caliph’s rule, or perhaps to obey
general state authority, because this authority was a
manifestation of divine authority on earth.

Suhrawardls understood the Sufi path as the way
to perfect one’s devotion and the journey where one
can fully embrace divine beauty; at the heart of the
SuhrawardI Sufism was the reconnection with the
divine the human soul had previously experienced in
a preexistent time. This did not mean that Suhrawar-
dls could not lead a practical life; rather, they were
encouraged to enjoy the benefits of this world and to
not reject the world. They understood that the Pro-
phet Muhammad established a balanced code for Suf
living, and this example was the model for Suhra-
wardls. According to the Suhrawardls, there were
only a few advanced devotees who were able to pray
all night and work all day. The majority of believers
needed to maintain prayers and specific Sufi practices,
such as meditational spiritual exercises (dhikr), as
part of their daily routine. On the controversial issue
of whether Sufis should maintain a celibate lifestyle,
Suhrawardls argued that only advanced Sufi masters
were qualified to judge whether their disciples were
spiritually equipped to take on that challenge. But
there was a consensus that the lifestyle of the antino-
mian nomadic begging Qalandars was not acceptable
in the Islamic tradition.

The overwhelming stress on proper moral conduct
(adab) is mainly connected with his concern that

774

SUHRAWARDI, AL-, SHIHAB AL-DIN ‘UMAR (1145 1234)

Sufis develop an internal and external discipline
that mirrored the Prophet’s life. For the Suhrawardls
the physical world is very much related to the spiritual
world, and in order for Sufis to perfect their spiritual-
ity their physical customs must reflect their internal
condition. Most South Asian SuhrawardI masters
connected adab as way to obey the law completely
because it was a manifestation of divine order. Some
suggested that in the process of creating a perfect
harmonious society, it required an intensely stru-
ctured model. Adab was a critical element in this
ideal world because all the minute details of an indi-
vidual’s behavior could be controlled. However,
Suhrawardls believed they were practicing more than
spiritual purity, but in the larger scheme, SuhrawardI
Sufis were attempting to reunite with the divine, and
this required them to uphold Islamic law. One needed
to be prepared to carry out this extraordinary res-
ponsibility by having one’s thoughts and actions
planned for every moment.

Qamar-ul Huda

Further Reading

Akhtar, Mohd. Saleem. “A Critical Appraisal of the Sufi
Hagiographical Corpus of Medieval India.” Islamic
Culture 52 (1978): 139-150.

Buehler, Arthur. Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Naqshban-
diyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh. Colum-
bia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.

Currie, Paul. Muin al-din Chishti of Ajmer. Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1989.

Ernst, Carl. Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History and Politics
at a South Asian Sufi Center. Albany: State University of
New York, 1992.

Ernst, Carl, and Bruce Lawrence. Sufi Martyrs of Love: The
Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Dihlavi, Akhtar. Tazkirah-o Auliyci’-yi Hind-o Pakistan.

Lahore: Kimiraj Printers, 1972.

Haq, Muhammad Enamul. A History of Sufism in Bengal.
Asiatic Society of Bangladesh Publication, 30. Dacca:
Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 1975.

Haeri, Muneera. The Chishtis: A Living Light. Karachi:
Oxford University Press, 2000.

Huda, Qamar-ul. Striving for Divine Union: The Spiritual
Exercises for SultrawardT Sufis. London and New York:
Routledge Curzon, 2003.

Jotwani, Motilal. Sufis of Sind. New Delhi: K. S. Printers,
1986.

Martin, Grace, and Carl Ernst (Eds. Manifestations of
Sainthood in Islam. Istanbul: Editions Isis, 1994.

Nabi, Mohammad Noor. Development of Muslim Religious
Thought in India from 1200 A.D. to 1450 A.D. Aligarh:
Aligarh Muslim University Press, 1962.

Nizam Ad-Din Awliya’. Morals for the Heart. Recorded
by Amir Hasan Sijzi. Transl. Bruce Lawrence. Classics
of Western Spirituality, 74. New York: Paulist Press,
1992.

Nizami, Khaliq Ahmed. Some Aspects of Religion and Poli-
tics in India in the Thirteenth Century. 2d ed. New Delhi:
Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1978.

Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt. Sufi Music of India and Paki-
stan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Rasool, Ghulam. Chishti Nizami Sufi Order of Bengal till
mid 15th Century and its Socio-religious Contribution.
Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-Delli, 1990.

Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbas. Early Sufism and its History in
India to 1600 A.D. Vol. 1. New Delhi: Munshiram Man-
oharlal Publishers, 1978 and, A History of Sufism in
India, from 16th Century to Modern Century. Vol. 2.
New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1983.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent .
Handbuch der Orientalistik. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980.

. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: Univer-
sity of North Carolina Press, 1975.

Siddiqui, Iqtidar Husain. “Resurgence of Chishti Silsila in
the Sultanate of Delhi during the Lodi Period (A.D.
1451-1526).” In Islam in India: Studies and Commentar-
ies. Vol. 2, Religion and Religious Education, edited by
Christian Troll, 58-72. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House
Pvt Ltd, 1985.

Troll, Christian (Ed). Muslim Shrines in India: Then-
Character, History and Significance. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1989.

Valiyuddin, Mir. Contemplative Discipline in Sufism.
London: East-West Publications, 1980.

SUHRAWARDI, AL-, SHIHAB AL-DIN
‘UMAR (1145-1234)

Shihab al-Din Abu Hafs ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi
belonged to a prominent Persian Sufi family and was
responsible for officially organizing the Suhrawardi
Sufi order. At an early age he was initiated into
Islamic mysticism by his renowned uncle, Abu Najib
al-Suhrawardi (d. 1168), and he studied jurispru-
dence, philosophy, law, logic, theology, Quranic
studies, and hadith studies. He studied theology
under the eminent scholar and Sufi teacher ‘Abd
al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166), and at a young age
al-Suhrawardi mastered the Hanbali and Shafi‘i
branches of Islamic law in Baghdad.

The ‘Abbasid caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah desig-
nated al-Suhrawardi the Shaykh al-Islam or Minister
of Religious Affairs to supervise political and reli-
gious affairs for the ‘Abbasid administration. As a
political theorist, al-Suhrawardi advocated the
supremacy of the caliph because he was the capstone
who mastered the Islamic sciences, who commanded
knowledge of law, and who was the mediator between
God and creation. For al-Suhrawardi, since humanity
was incapable of returning to God on its own, the
caliphate was the temporal overseer and the represen-
tative of God on earth. His political theories did invite
their share of criticism from legal scholars of his time,
who felt he was too closely connected to legitimizing
the policies of the state.

Al-Suhrawardi’s legacy is primarily within
Sufism, where he asserted that living according to

775

SUHRAWARDI, AL-, SHIHAB AL-DIN ‘UMAR (1145-1234)

Sufi principles and beliefs was the perfect way for
devotion and to enjoy divine beauty. According to
al-Suhrawardi, the Sufi tradition was rooted in the
life of the Prophet Muhammad, who embodied
human perfection and divine guidance. It is the goal
of Sufis to mirror the Prophet in order to discipline
their entire inner and outer selves. His Sufi theosophy
stressed proper moral conduct (adab) because the
physical world is very much related to the spiritual
world, and in order for Sufis to perfect their spiritual-
ity to meet the divine their physical customs must
reflect their internal condition. Al-Suhrawardi’s
ideas on proper moral conduct stem from the belief
that it is necessary to obey the law completely because
it is a manifestation of divine order. Adab was a
critical element in his ideal world because all minute
details of an individual’s behavior could be con-
trolled, a practice the Sufi novice needed to master.
For al-Suhrawardi, Sufis were practicing more than
spiritual purity, but in the larger scheme, Sufis were
attempting to reunite with the divine in their lifetime,
and this required them not to abandon or neglect the
law. According to al-Suhrawardi, one needed to be
prepared to carry out this extraordinary responsibility
by having one’s thoughts and actions planned for
every moment, at every place.

One of al-Suhrawardi’s best extant Sufi texts,
‘ Awarif al-Ma‘arif (The Knowledge of the Spiritually
Learned), was one of the more popular Sufi books of
his time, and posthumously it became the standard
preparatory text book for Sufi novices around the
Islamic world. One of the many reasons for its
esteemed reputation in the Sufi world was that the
manual attempted to reconcile the practices of Sufism
with the observance of Islamic law. To later genera-
tions of Sufis and to a wide cross-section of Sufi
orders, al-Suhrawardi’s Sufi treatise became one of
the most closely studied and memorized texts in the
tradition. Al-Suhrawardi’s contribution to Sufi
thought, to Islamic piety, and to living a holy life
was to ensure that Sufis fully comprehended adab as
a transformative medium between the inner and outer
worlds. For him, adab was grounded in theology that
is less about the physical, psychological, and temporal
dimensions of moral conduct; rather, it is more
concerned with accentuating the constant opening of
the heart that inspires a real journey toward encoun-
tering God.

Qamar-ul Huda

See also ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani; Sufis and Sufism
Further Reading

Ali Suhrawardi, Seyyed Abu Fez Qalandar. Anwar-e Suhra-
wardiyya. Lahore: Markarzi Majlis Suhrawardiyya, n.d.

Gramlich, Richard (Trans). Die Gaben der Erkenntisse des
‘Umar as-Suhrawardi. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1978.

Haartmann, Angelika. An-Nasir li-Din Allah. Berlin: Walter
de Gruyter, 1975.

Huda, Qamar-ul. Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exer-
cises of Suhrawardi Sufis. London: Routledge Curzon,
2003. '

Kalam, Muhammad din. Suhrawardi ‘Auliya’. Lahore:
Maktaba Tarikh, 1969.

Manai, Aishah Yusuf. Abu Hafs ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi: hay a
tuhu wci-tasawwuf. Cairo: Dar al-Thaqafa, 1991.

Maqbul, Nur Ahmed. Khazina-yi Karam. Karachi: Kirman-
wala Publishers, 1976.

al-Suhrawardi, ‘Abu Hafs ‘Umar. ‘ Awarif al-Ma’arif.
Cairo: Maktabat al-Qahira, 1973.

"The Light beyond the Shore in the Theology of Proper
Sufi Moral Conduct (Adab).” Journal of the American
Academy of Religion 72, no. 2 (2004): 461-484.

"The Remembrance of the Prophet in Suhrawardi’s ‘Awarif
al-Ma‘arif.” Journal of Islamic Studies 12, no. 2 (2001):
129-150.'

SULAYHIDS

The Sulayhids, a Yemenite dynasty in close relation-
ship with the Fatimid caliphate of Egypt, ruled
Yemen between AH 439/1047 CE and AH 532/1138
CE. The earliest Fatimid base had been in Yemen
when the Isma’ili da‘i Ibn Hawshab Mansur
al-Yaman declared his mission at Mt. Masar near
San‘a’ in 268/881 and started conquering many parts
of northern Yemen in preparation for the advent of the
Fatimid caliphate there. However, the Fatimid
al-Mahdi chose North Africa for the establishment of
his caliphate, and Yemen, on purpose, was abandoned
politically, although a mission (da‘wa) continued to
exist there. When, in the eleventh century, to face the
Seljuk challenge, the Fatimids entered into a thick
confrontation with the ‘Abbasid caliphate, their inter-
est in Yemen was revived as a base for its trade with
India to compete with that of the ‘Abbasids in that
region, and also because the Fatimid Mediterranean
trade declined because of the Zirid defiance in North
Africa in league with the ‘Abbasid-Seljuk entente.
This brought the Sulayhids into prominence, helped
by the Fatimids, to establish themselves in Yemen on
their behalf.

‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali, of the Sulayhi fami-
ly, belonging to the Yam branch of the Hamdan tribe,
was the son of a Shafi‘i qadi in the Haraz region west
of San‘a’. He was converted to Ismailism by the then
incumbent of the Fatimid da'wa in Yemen, Sulayman
ibn ‘Abd Allah of the Zawahi family. In 429/1038, at a
pilgrimage at Mecca, ‘Ali gathered enough followers
to declare his mission on behalf of the Fatimids and
to embark on a campaign of conquests that culmi-
nated in the taking of San‘a’ in 439/1047 from the
Yu‘firids. By 455/1063, he had conquered all of

776

SULAYH1DS

Yemen. About this the near-contemporary historian
Umara wrote: “By the end of 455 H. he had con-
quered all the plains and mountains; all the lands
and waters of Yemen, the like of which had not
been seen either in the Jahiliyya or Islam.”

Exactly at that time, Fatimid Egypt was pass-
ing through a great crisis because of a long-drawn-
out famine ( al-shidda al- ‘uzma ) and the ravages of a
soldier of fortune, Nasir al-Dawla. ‘Ali sent a pro-
longed embassy under his da'i Lamak ibn Malik
al-Hammadi from 454/1062 to 459/1067 to the court
of the Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir bi-Allah (427-487/
1036-1094) at Cairo. Lamak was lodged at the Dar
al-‘Ilm ( Academy of Science), the headquarters of the
Chief Da‘i al-Mu’ayyad fi al-din al-Shirazi (d. 470/
1077). It seems that this embassy was responsible for
many decisions. ‘Ali wanted to visit the Fatimid court
as a savior from its crisis, but he was prevented from
doing so. ‘Ali had wanted to control Mecca and its
Sharifate. He was dissuaded from it and was instead
encouraged to conquer Hadramawt. ‘Ali wanted that
his family would be confirmed in the da‘wa as dab-
kings. This was agreed upon, but an autonomous
da'wa was set up under the Sulayhid sovereigns. It is
possible that the process of transferring the da'wa
literature to the Yemen began at this time, and so
also the strengthening of the da‘wa in India under
Yemeni control, thus securing the Egypt-Yemen-
India trade route.

Without waiting for the Imam’s permission, ‘Ali
started on his journey to Egypt via Mecca, where he
went for pilgrimage at the end of 459 (early 1067). He
was assassinated there by the forces of Sa‘id, the
Najahid king of Zabid. ‘Ali’s wife, Asma bint Shihab,
was taken prisoner.

‘Ali was succeeded by Ahmad al-Mukarram, his
second son. His first son, Muhammad al-A‘azz, had
predeceased him by a year. Al-Mukarram rescued his
mother by defeating the Najahid Sa‘id in a battle that
also resulted in his paralysis. In 467/1074, he had to
retire to Dhu Jibla near Ibb, leaving the affairs of the
state in the hands of his wife, al-Sayyida al-Hurra
al-Malika Arwa, who resided probably in Haraz,
while San‘a’ was put under the charge of ‘Imran ibn
al-Fadl al-Yami, along with Abu 1-Su’ud ibn As‘ad
ibn Shihab, the brother of queen-mother Asma. Asma
died later in the same year (467/1074).

That year also saw the establishment of the abso-
lute power of the Armenian military leader Badr
al-Jamali in Egypt. From then until his death in 470/
1078, the Chief Dab al-Mu’ayyad fi 1-din al-Shirazi
was probably responsible for bringing Badr al-Jamali
and Queen Arwa in close collaboration with each
other. Badr needed the adherence of Yemen, and the
queen needed her autonomy. The maintenance of

this Egypt-Yemen entente explains the acceptance
by the Yemeni da'wa of the caliphate of al-Musta‘li,
the nominee of Badr’s son al-Afdal after the death of
the caliph al-Mustansir. The older son of al-Mustan-
sir, Nizar, was bypassed in Fatimid succession but
was supported by the Dab Hasan ibn Sabbah who
established a rival Nizari Da‘wa at Alamut in Iran.

When al-Mukarram died in 477/1084, the queen
faced a rivalry between the two Qadis — ‘Imran ibn
al-Fadl and Lamak ibn Malik. Imran was stationed in
San‘a’ and was the commander-in-chief of the
Sulayhid army. However, he once insulted the memo-
ry of al-Mukarram’s father and fell out of grace of the
king and the queen, although he later fought with
the Sulayhids against the Najahids and was killed in
battle. ‘Imran’s family would later control San‘a’ and
found a Hamdanid kingdom there. The queen, on the
other hand, was supported by the da ‘wa under Lamak
and then under his son, Yahya. Although the queen
was the sole de facto ruler, the official ruler was her
minor son, ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Mustansir. However, she was
at this time given by Imam al-Mustansir the title of
Hujja, making her the highest religious leader in her
region. The queen was supported by two military
chiefs — Amir Abu Himyar Saba ibn Ahmad of the
Sulayhid family and Amir Abu 1-Rabi‘ ‘Amir ibn
Sulayman of the Zawahi family — both in constant
conflict with each other, thus weakening the Sulayhid
state. In the years 491-492/1098-1099, the two Amirs
died. The dab Lamak ibn Malik and the queen’s two
sons, ‘Ali and al-Muzaffar, also died about this time,
leaving the queen at the mercy of another Amir,
al-Mufaddal al-Himyari, who guarded her treasure
at the fortress of Ta‘kar but was also responsible for
creating many enemies against her by his constant
warfare. On his death in 504/1110, Egypt sent an
Armenian commander, Ibn Najib al-Dawla, as a da'i
to reign in the chaotic situation in Yemen. Soon the
local tribes revolted against him and the authority of
the queen was much constrained by him. In any case
he was drowned in the Red Sea, probably at the
unavowed instigation of the queen. Another adminis-
trator was appointed at this time from the Sulayhid
family, ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd Allah, with the title of Fakhr
al-khilafa. The queen, however, relied on the Da'wa
under Yahya ibn Lamak and its military arm, Sultan
al-Khattab ibn al-Hasan al-Hamdani, the baron of
Jurayb in the Hajur district. He is also called a da'i,
for many works of the Yemeni da'wa were authored
by him. He became the queen’s defender of faith
and the protector of her realm. He never attained
the position of a Da'i mutlaq under the queen as a
Hujja, which went to his mentor — the Dab Dhu’ayb
ibn Musa al-Wadib — on Dab Yahya’s death in
520/1126.

777

SULAYHIDS

In the meantime, in Egypt, the imam-caliph
al-Mustansir was followed by al-Musta‘li (487-495/
1094-1101), and then by al-Amir (495 524/1 101
1130), who was assassinated by the Nizaris. On
Amir’s death, Queen Arwa recognized his minor son
Tayyib as imam, thus severing her ties with the new
Fatimid ruler al-FIafiz and his successors. Tayyib, in
hiding, was then never heard from. Two years later, in
526/1132, the Tayyibi da‘wa was declared in Yemen
with da‘i Dhu’ayb as the first da'i Mutlaq — a rank
that continued to signify the headship of the da'wa in
Yemen and India, independent of the Fatimid caliph-
ate. The last years of Queen Arwa saw the disintegra-
tion of her empire. She died in 532/1138, leaving in
her will a large fortune to the absent Imam Tayyib,
that is, to the da’wa. Soon after, in a year’s time, her
chief military supporter, the da‘i Khattab, also died.

The Hamdanid dynasty of San‘a’ and the Zuray’id
dynasty of Aden supported the Hafizi da’wa of the
Fatimids till all three of them were terminated by
the Ayyubid conquest of Egypt and Yemen during
567-569/1171-1173. Under Ayyubid rule, the Tayyibi
Ismailis remained as a community, not involved in
politics, and thus survived till today in Yemen and
India, preserving the Da'wa structure and the Fatimid
literary heritage.

Abbas Hamdani

Further Reading

Al-Hamdani, Husayn. Al-Sulayhiyyun. Cairo: Maktabat
Misr 1955 (now the standard source for the period).
Daftary, Farhad. The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Hamdani, Abbas. "The Da‘i Hatim b. Ibrahim al-Hamidi
(d. 596/1199) and his book Tuhfat al-qulub Oriens,
23-24 (1970-1971): 258-300.

Kay, H.C. Yaman: Its Early Medieval History. London:
India Office, 1892. (English translation from several
Arabic sources with copious historical notes.)

Krenkow, F. “Sulaihi.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. Old ed., 4
(1954): 515-517.

Stem, S.M. “The Succession of the Fatimid Imam al-Amir,
the Claims of the Later Fatimids to the Imamate and the
Rise of Tayyibi Isma’ilism.” Oriens 4 (1951): 193-255.
(The chronology of the last two titles was corrected in
works published after 1954 when Fatimid sources began
to be fully used.)

"The Letters of al-Mustansir bi llah.” The Bulletin of the
School of Oriental Studies 7 (1933-1935): 307-324.

"The Tayyibi-Fatimid Community of Yaman at the time of
the Ayyubid Conquest of Southern Arabia.” Arabian
Studies 1 (1985): 151-160.

SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE

The architect Sinan (AH 895/1490 CE-996/1588) built
the great Suleymaniye kiilliye (socioreligious complex)
for his patron Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent
(926-974/1520-1566) in the years 957 965/1550
1557. The mosque complex dominated the eastern
skyline of Istanbul, occupying the third of its seven
hills. The choice of such a site was intended to en-
hance the building’s grandeur, so that the mosque,
and by identification its patron, had visual promi-
nence in the Ottoman capital. Moreover, it com-
manded dramatic panoramic views from its elevated
platform, which on its eastern side was raised so high
that one could gaze over the rooftops of the Salis and
Rabi Medreses to the Golden Horn and the Sea of
Marmara below.

The architectural construction, maintenance, and
the huge support staff of 748 needed for the daily
running of the complex was financed, as typical for
such enormous imperial Ottoman commissions, by an
extensive waqf endowment of farms and other
income-producing properties, taxes on villages, and
the rents produced by the assorted shops and cafes
around the perimeter of the site. The seven-hectare
complex consisted of a centrally placed mosque, a
courtyard, and a cemetery enclosed within a walled
esplanade that was surrounded by six medreses (col-
leges), a Koran school (mekteb), soup kitchen (ima-
ret), hospital (daru§§ifa), baths, a Sufi hostel
(tabhane), and various coffeehouses and shops. The
medreses were self-contained schools with small
rooms for students, residences for the academic direc-
tors, and lecture halls organized around large open
courtyards. A residence for Sufis was a central feature
of earlier cmv/va-mosque complexes, but here, its
position outside the walls of the main mosque pre-
cinct was a sign of the diminished importance of Sufi
sheikhs and the imperial subordination of the Sufi
orders to the orthodox and increasingly centralized
Sunni state.

The centerpiece of the hilltop complex is the great
domed mosque, erected on sloping ground artificially
leveled at great expense. The prayer hall and mosque

778

courtyard together form a rectangle, with a sec-
ond courtyard beyond the mosque’s qibla wall that
contains the simple yet imposing, double-shell-
domed, octagonal tomb of the sultan. The location
of the founder’s tomb here firmly and permanently
attached his identity to the great kiilliye. Off center
stood the smaller tomb of his favorite wife, the Haseki
Hurrem Sultan (d. 1558). Surrounded by a roofed
colonnade and adorned with inscriptions referring to
paradise and tile panels with garden themes, Suley-
man’s tomb bore a resemblance to the late-seventh-
century Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and by
extension evoked an association with Solomon’s
Temple, which was particularly appropriate since the
sultan was sometimes called “The Solomon of the
Age.” Although earlier Ottoman complexes, such as
the Ulu Cami in Manisa (776/1374), included the
founder’s tomb beside the mosque, its placement
directly beyond the mihrab at Suleyman’s mosque
followed the example of the Fatih Cami (867-875/
1463-1470), an ideologically important mosque built
just after the conquest of Constantinople, that trum-
peted the realization of the Ottoman imperial dream.

Visually dramatic and mathematically rational, the
Suleymaniye mosque is one of the sublime achieve-
ments in Islamic architecture. A peristyle (revak)
with twenty-four domes runs around the interior of
the courtyard (forty-four by fifty-seven meters), which
has a central ablution fountain. The courtyard is
marked by four minarets that vertically extend its
dimensions, the sharp spikes contrasting and compet-
ing with the majestic dome of the prayer hall. The
minarets at the courtyard’s outer wall have two bal-
conies, whereas those at the juncture of the courtyard
and prayer hall are taller, with three balconies. The
change in height and elaboration contributes to a
sense of acceleration that culminates in the dome, a
huge fifty-three-meter-high half sphere that rises
above a host of smaller and lower half and full
domes. The central dome is raised on a high drum
buttressed at the north and south ends by great half
domes, which are, in turn, supported by smaller half
domes fitted neatly into the corners of the rectangle
thus formed by the great central and half domes. The
dome rests on four massive piers that inscribe a cen-
tral area of 26.5 square meters, a dimension that is
exactly half of the dome’s height. To the east and west
sides of the central dome, galleried secondary spaces
are vaulted by a rhythmic succession of large and
small domes. The result is not so much an accumula-
tion of discrete domical units but a single, continuous
space that crescendoes at its apex. Goodwin, who has
traced the relative proportions of the domical units,
the interior volumes of the prayer hall, and the mos-
que’s plan, asserts that Sinan had a sophisticated

SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE

understanding of mathematical and geometrical har-
mony: “These measurements conform absolutely to
the symbol of the perfect circle in the perfect square
and it is so satisfactory a definition of space that it
dominates the complexities which modulate the rigid
form of the rest of the mosque ” (p. 213).

The mosque was built with luxurious materials:
marble, porphyry, glazed tile, gold, richly hued
paints, and even ostrich eggs. The interior furnishings
once included crystal mosque lamps, handsomely in-
laid wooden chests, and carpets. The mihrab wall
was the first of Sinan’s works to be extensively deco-
rated with red and blue Iznik tiles. The brilliantly
colored glass windows on the qibla wall were the
work of Sarho§ Ibrahim. The bright painting of the
mosque’s interior seen today is largely the work
(recently retouched) of the Fossati brothers in the
mid-nineteenth century. Between the dome’s immense
piers, four massive red granite columns form lateral
screens that run perpendicular to the qibla wall. Their
provenance was charged with territorial and political
symbolism, for according to reports, one each
came from the old Ottoman palace (the site on
which the Suleymaniye was built), Kizta§i in Istanbul,
Alexandria (Egypt), and Baalbek (Lebanon), which
itself was associated with a palace built by Solomon.
However, modern historians point to the impossibi-
lity of obtaining four perfectly matched columns of
such prodigious size from such disparate sources;
although architectural spolia (reused material) was
no doubt extracted from those places, it is more likely
that all four of the columns were specially commis-
sioned for the mosque from the same quarry and
workshop.

If the Suleymaniye mosque made sophisticated
reference to numerous earlier buildings at the symbol-
ic level, it also was clearly the architectural progeny of
the Hagia Sophia. Both are enormous religious build-
ings with expansive interior spaces that, through the
careful massing of domes and half domes, had elon-
gated axes in which vision was unimpeded by vertical
supports. The concentration of architectonic support
on corner piers liberated the walls so that they could
be filled with windows, flooding the interior with
light. Sinan had plenty of opportunity to study the
great sixth-century Byzantine church that had been
converted to a mosque immediately after the conquest
of Constantinople of 857/1453, and appears to have
deliberately striven to equal and eventually exceed the
venerable monument. The Hagia Sophia’s patron
Justinian was reputed to have proclaimed, “Solomon,
I have surpassed you!” at the church’s inauguration,
but a thousand years later Suleyman could claim to
have surpassed Justinian.

D. Fairchild Ruggles

779

SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE
See also Istanbul; Madrasa; Sinan

Further Reading

Barkan, Omer Liitfi. Suleymaniye Cami ve Imareti In^aati
( 15550-1557). 2 vols. Ankara: Turk Raih Kurumu Basi-
mevi, 1972-1979.

Bates, Ulku. “The Patronage of Sultan Suleyman: The
Suleymaniye Complex in Istanbul.” In Memoriam
A. L. Gabriel, Edebiyet Fakultesi A raytirma Dergisi
Ozel Sayisi. Ankara: Erzurum Atatiirk Universitesi
Yaymlan, 1978, 65-76.

Goodwin, Godfrey. A History of Ottoman Architecture.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.

Kuban, Dogan. “The Style of Sinan’s Domed Structures.”
Muqarnas 4 (1987): 72-97 .

Kuran, Aptullah. Sinan: The Grand Old Master of Ottoman
Architecture. Washington, DC, and Istanbul, 1987.

Mainstone, R. “The Suleymaniye Mosque and Hagia
Sophia.” In Uluslararas Mimar Sinan Sempozyumu Bil-
dirileri: Ankara, 24-27 Ekiin 1988, edited by Azize
Aktas-Yasa (Atatiirk Kultiir Merkezi Yayin, 83; Kongre
ve Sempozyum Bildirileri dizisi, 3). Ankara: Turk Tarih
Kurumu Basimevi, 1996, 221-229.

Necipoglu-Kafadar, Gulru. "The Suleymaniye Complex in
Istanbul: An Interpretation.” Muqarnas 3 (1985): 92-1 17.

Rogers, J.M. “The State and the Arts in Ottoman Turkey:
The Stones of Suleymaniye.” International Journal of
Middle East Studies 14 (1982): 71-86, 283-313.

SULTAN

The Arabic word sultan is derived from the noun
sulta, defined as authority in medieval Arabic diction-
aries such as Ibn Manzur’s (d. 1312) Lisan al-'Arah or
al-Fayuzabadi’s (d. 1414) al-Qamus al-muhit. A sultan
is thus one who holds authority. In the Qur’an, the
word sultan is linked to the concept of spiritual
power, but use of the term sultan soon spread to
other aspects of the medieval Islamic world, most
notably in governmental and nongovernmental
areas. Thus, for example, a master of poetry or a
Sufi shaykh could receive the honorific appellation
of sultan from his devotees. However, it is the use of
sultan in the political and governmental spheres with
which this entry is concerned.

In political spheres the term was given to (or
claimed by) rulers, primarily derived from the military
classes, who achieved independent power and control
over the regions they ruled. Its use in this context
emerged during the periods of Buyid (c. 932-1062)
and Seljuk (c. 1038-1194) domination of the Central
Islamic lands of Iraq and Iran, although after the
Seljuks it was used primarily in regions where the
rulers were Sunni. A representative list of the polities
who used this title for their preeminent ruler would
include the Ayyubid (1169-1250), Delhi (1206-1555),
Ghaznavid (977-1186), and Mamluk (1250-1517)

sultanates. It was the highest title such a military
warlord could claim, as titles such as caliph or imam
were reserved for those who possessed religious au-
thority. It is worth noting that while it is common-
place to mention that there is no Islamic precept
similar to the Christian idea of “rendering unto
Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that
which is God’s,” the regnal titles (laqab, alqab)
adopted by many of these sultans often took the
form of a phrase such as “ sayf al-dawla wa-l-din.”
While sayf is easily translated as sword, translations
of both daw la and din are heavily dependent on con-
text and difficult to translate into only one English
word, but in a context such as this, sayf al-dawla wa-
l-din may be rendered as “sword of the polity and the
faith.” Thus while sultans would not have the author-
ity to rule on matters of faith, they would be charged
with upholding Islamic belief and defending and
ensuring justice for the Muslims they ruled.

In many cases, while sultans were the de facto
rulers of their regions, they often sought the de jure
recognition of their authority from the ‘Abbasid ca-
liphs. The decline of the actual power of the ‘Abbasid
caliphate and the rise of military leaders as sultans
did not go unnoticed by medieval Islamic jurists. Al-
Ghazali (d. 1111), al-Mawardi (d. 1058), Nizam
al-Mulk (d. 1092), Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), and
Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Jama‘a (d. 1333), to
name but five, wrote normative treatises on govern-
ment that discussed, among other things, the rise
and power of sultans, and the impact this had on
Sunni principles of Islamic government. The reader
is referred to the respective entries for the first four;
the remainder of this entry will briefly discuss the
ideas of the last.

Prior to the Mongol sack of Baghdad and murder
of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Musta‘sim in 1258, most
Sunni political thought had been concerned with
maintaining the primacy of the caliph (the title
“imam” is often used). Normative thought legiti-
mized the authority of sultans by arguing that while
the sultans held power, the caliph was suzerain, al-
though it is probable that most jurists recognized that
such suzerainty was theoretical only. After 1258, and
despite the creation of the oft-called “Shadow”
‘Abbasid caliphate in Cairo by the Mamluk Sultan
Baybars — whose authority few jurists recognized —
this theoretical suzerainty was abandoned by jurists
such as Badr al-Din ibn Jama‘a. In his work Tahrir
al-ahkam fi tadbir aid al-islam, whose title echoes
the Ahkam al-sultaniyya of al-Mawardi, Ibn Jama‘a
instead “was prepared to transfer to the de-facto
ruler the constitutional theories worked out by earlier
jurists and to recognize [the de facto ruler] as
imam, holding that the seizure of power itself gave

780

SUNNI AL1, SONGHAY RULER

Sixteenth century CE. Courtyard. Built around 1570 by Sultan Mulay Abdullah. Credit: Erich Lessing/ Art Resource, NY.
Madrasa Ben Yusuf, Marrakesh, Morocco.

authority” (Lambton, p. 139). Even the seizure of
power by a bad ruler, according to Ibn .lama'a (al-
though the idea is not unique to him), was preferable
to the absence of a government. In order to provide
just rule and protection to his subjects, however, Ibn
Jama‘a wrote that the sultan should by necessity con-
sult with the ‘ulama’. In this, of course, Ibn Jama‘a
was following a well-developed line of Islamic
thought.

Warren C. Schultz

See also ‘Abbasid Caliphate; Ayyubids; Baybars;
Buyids; Al-Ghazali Ghaznavids; Ibn Taymiyya; Mam-
luks; al-Mawardi; Nizam al-Mulk; Seljuks

Primary Source

Kofler, Hans (Ed and trans). “Handbuch des islamischen
Staats- und verwaltungsrechtes von Badr-ad-DIn Ibn
Gama’a.” Islamica 6 (19332934): 34914; 7 (1935): 164.

Further Reading

Lambton, Ann K.S. State and Government in Medieval
Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Rosenthal, E.I.J. Political Thought in Medieval Islam. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958.

Watt, W. Montgomery. Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1968.

SUNNI ALI, SONGHAY RULER

In the thirteenth century, Mali extended its sovereign-
ty to include the Songhay area and, according to the
chronicles (most of them by African writers of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), took two noble
hostages. One of them, Ali Kolon, escaped and
returned to found the Sunni (Sonni) dynasty. Ali
Kolon’s far descendant, Sunni Ali (Ber), is known as
a powerful and combative Songhay ruler who laid
the foundations of an extensive empire, among others
by conquering Timbuktu during his reign from 1463
to 1492. Islam’s influence in the area, with a flourish-
ing base in Timbuktu, appeared as an obstacle to
Sunni Ali Ber’s plan to exert more complete control
over the entire region. According to the chronicles, he
was a lukewarm Moslem at best. However, there is
good reason to consider such descriptions as either

781

SUNNI ALI, SONGHAY RULER

biased by political points of view from regions with
growing links to Islamic Northern Africa or as the
product of a literary model, since both these chroni-
cles and present-day oral traditions picture Sunni
Ali in contrast to his illustrious successor Askia
Muhammad.

Jan Jansen

See also Askia Muhammad; Mali; Songhay Empire
Further Reading

Hale, Thomas A. Scribe, Griot, & Novelist — Narrative Inter-
preters of the Songhay Empire. Gainesville: University of
Florida Press/Center for African Studies, 1990.
Hunwick, John O. Timbuktu & the Songhay Empire — Al-
Sa'dis Ta’rikh al-sudan down to 1613 and Other Contem-
porary Documents. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003.

SUNNI REVIVAL

The Sunni revival occurred during the eleventh cen-
tury when the ‘Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad and the
Turkish-Seljuk Sultans actively supported Sunnism.
During this period Sunni Islam became the dominant
branch in the Muslim east. Sunni Islam is based on
the approved standard or practice introduced by the
Prophet Muhammad, as well as the pious Muslim
forefathers. Sunnism first gained prominence during
the eighth century when reports on the sayings and
deeds of the Prophet were collected. During its early
days, Sunnism stood in opposition to the ‘Abbasid
caliphate, which favored more rationalist schools of
thought, like the Qadarites, Murji’ites, or Mu‘tazilites.
The most prominent figure of early Sunnism, Ahmad
ibn Hanbal (d. 855), withstood the persecution of
prominent Sunni leaders during the mihna, the “inqui-
sition” instituted by the Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-
833). After the end of the mihna in 848, ‘Abbasid
caliphs are said to have paid homage to Ahmad ibn
Hanbal and his followers, but they still did not support
their traditionalist Sunni views. As the ‘Abbasid
caliphs became more and more marginalized during
the ninth and tenth centuries, the real power came into
the hands of the emirs and grand-emirs of the Buyid
family, who openly supported Shi‘ism in Iraq and Iran.

During the beginning of the eleventh century, the
twenty-fifth ‘Abbasid caliph, al-Qadir, who reigned
the long period between 991 and 1031, managed to
pursue a religious policy in Baghdad that became
increasingly independent of the Buyid grand-emir in
Shiraz. Al-Qadir found support among the well-
organized group of traditionalist Sunni scholars of
the Hanbali school and their local militias (‘ayyarun).
In 1018, al-Qadir published the so-called Qadiri Creed,
in which he attempts to set a standard for Muslim

orthodoxy. The Qadiri Creed, inspired by Hanbali
Sunnism, is the very first document of its kind and
it was repeatedly read in public throughout the elev-
enth century. In it, al-Qadir condemns Shi‘is and
Mu‘tazilites and declares that rationalist theological
positions such as the belief in the createdness of the
Qur’an are unbelief (kufr) and liable to punishment
by the state authorities. The open alliance of the
Caliph al-Qadir and his grandson and successor,
al-Qa’im (r. 1031-1075), with the conservative
Hanbali branch of Sunni scholars led to violent ten-
sions between the equally powerful Sunni and Shi‘i
militias in Baghdad that often exploded in outbursts
of civil war.

The arrival of the Seljuks in Baghdad in 1055
completely changed the balance of power in favor of
the caliph and his Sunni allies. The Seljuks were
Turkish nomads from the plains of Central Asia (in
today’s Kazakhstan) who had adopted Islam and
crossed the border to the Muslim empire in about
1025. With their superior horsepower they destroyed
the Buyid principalities one by one and aimed to estab-
lish amicable relations with the ‘Abbasid caliph in
Baghdad. In 1055, they rescued the Caliph al-Qa’im
from what was almost a successful Shi‘i-supported
coup d’etat by an Iraqi military leader. Under the
leadership of their Sultan Toghilbeg (d. 1063) and
his Grand Vizier al-Kunduri (d. 1065), a Hanafi jurist
from Nishapur in northeast Iran, the Seljuks pursued
a religious policy that favored the conservative
branches of Sunnism, who were loyal to the caliph.
In Baghdad and Iraq they followed a middle way that
acknowledged the rights and customs of the moderate
Shi‘i population and made a halt to the excesses of the
radical Shi‘i and Sunni militias.

The politics of a middle path in order to establish
moderate Sunnism as the dominant way of Islam was
most forcefully pursued by al-Kunduri’s successor,
Nizam al-Mulk (r. 1019-1092). He served as grand-
vizier over a period of almost thirty years, between
1063 and his violent death in 1092. Second in power
only to the Seljuk Sultans Alp Arslan (r. 1063-1072)
and Malikshah (r. 1072-1092), both of whom he
served, Nizam al-Mulk formulated the religious poli-
cy for an area that stretched from Asia Minor to
Afghanistan. In the big cities he founded religious
madrasas (so-called Nizamiyyas ) that institutionalized
the teaching of Sunni jurisprudence and theology. In
theology, he favored the Ash’arite school tradition of
Nishapur and mentored such outstanding scholars as
al-Juwayni (1028-1085) and al-Ghazali (1058-1111).
His religious policy was successful because it com-
bined tolerance toward the moderate groups of
Shi‘ism with intolerance toward the radicals in all
camps. Under the leadership of Nizam al-Mulk, the

782

SURGERY AND SURGICAL TECHNIQUES

Seljuks continued to persecute Ismaili Shi‘is, who
often acted as agents of the Shi‘i Fatimid caliphate
in Cairo. Some Sunni groups, such as the populist
Karramites, who were powerful in the province of
Khorasan in Northeast Iran until the end of the
eleventh century, lost much influence during Nizam
al-Mulk’s reign, while particularly the Ash’arites
came to dominate the scholarly activities in the
Muslim east.

Frank Griffel

Further Reading

Bulliet, Richard W. Islam: The View from the Edge. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1993, 145-168.
Glassen Erika. Der mittlere Weg: Studien zur Religion-
spolitik und Religiositdt der spdteren Abbasiden-Zeit .
Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1981.

Juynboll, G.H.A. “Sunna.” In Encyclopeadia of Islam. 2d
ed. Vol. 9, 878-881. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Makdisi, George. “The Sunni Revival.” In Islamic Civilisa-
tion 950-1150, edited by D.S. Richards, 155-168.
Oxford: Cassirer, 1973.

. Ibn ‘Aqil: Religion and Culture in Classical Islam.

Edinburgh: University Press, 1997.

SURGERY AND SURGICAL
TECHNIQUES

The art of healing wounds, djiraha, was derived from
the Arabic root djurh , meaning injury or wound. The
term ‘ilm al-djiraha was used from the ninth century
on, meaning knowledge of wounds, operation of ill
organs, and surgical treatment and instruments. Sur-
gical operation, ‘amaliyya djirahiyya, was expressed as
‘amal bi'l-yad or ‘amal al-yad, that is, work performed
by hand. The one who treated wounds was named
djarrah, while the bonesetter and bonehealer (Ar.
mudjabbir ) and simkci (in Turkish) and the oculist
kahhal were both regarded as practitioners of special
fields of surgery.

Surgical development started in the ninth century
following the translation of the ancient Indian,
Greek, and Roman surgical works into Arabic.
Hunain ibn Ishaq (d. 874) highly contributed to
Arabian surgery by translating works of Hippocrates,
Galen, and above all Paulus Aegineta (d. 690). We
find chapters on surgery in the books of known phy-
sicians, for example, al-Mansuri, al-Jami, and al-Hawi
of Zakariya’ ar-Razi (d. 925); Kamil as-sina'a of
‘Abbas al-Madjusi (d. 994); Qanun fi’t-tibb of Ibn
Sina (980-1037); Tadhkirat al-kahhalin (about 1000)
of ‘Ali ibn ’Isa; Dhakhira of Ismail al-Jurjani
(d. 1136); and al Mujiz and Shark Tashrih al-Qanun
of Ibn an-Nafis (d. 1288). The first known monograph

on surgery, titled al-‘Umda fi sina’ at al-djiraha, was
compiled by Ibn al-Quff (1233-1286) in the thirteenth
century.

The greatest surgeon of the medieval ages was
Abu’ 1-Qasim az Zahrawi (d. 1010), a most important
representative of the Andalusian school. Called
Albucasis in Europe, Zahrawi is mainly known for
the thirtieth chapter on surgery, fi'amal al-yad in his
encyclopedic book at-Tasrif liman ajiza. The sources
of Zahrawi were classical Greek and Latin authors,
Paulus Aegineta being the immediate source. How-
ever, Zahrawi inserted his own experiences, not fol-
lowing any author in the description of some new
pathological conditions and methods of treatment,
for example, ptosis and its method of cure; removal
of ranula beneath the tongue; removal of a leech
sticking in the throat; treatment of fracture of male
and female private parts; hunchback; wounds of
the neck; various pathological conditions affecting
the adult uterus; and lithotomy incision in the female
case; and the designs and ways of using various
instruments, such as the tonsil guillotine and its use,
the concealed knife for opening abscesses, the trocar
for paracentesis, vaginal speculum, and obstetric for-
ceps. The illustrations of surgical instruments and the
sketches of several incision and excision techniques
are the earliest addition of these operative elements to
a book. In the second half of the twelfth century,
Gerard of Cremona translated the chapter on surgery
into Latin as Liber Alsaharavi de cirurgia. Zahrawi’s
surgery was utilized as a main source in the Islamic
and European worlds through eight centuries.

From the fourteenth century on, Arabic and
Persian medical books started to be translated into
Turkish; consequently, Turkish medical literature
began to develop. In the fifteenth century a compre-
hensive chapter in Dhakhira-i Muradiye (1437) of
Mu’min b. Mukbil, and the exhaustive book Murshid
(1483) by Mehmed ibn Mahmud of Shirvan were
assigned to ophthalmology. The Turkish book on
surgery, Jarrahiyatu’l Khaniye (1465), of Sharafaddin
Sabunjuoghlu, the head physician of the Amasya
Hospital in central Anatolia, is mainly a translation
of Zahrawi’s work Kitabu’t- Tasrif, specifically the
thirtieth chapter on surgery. However, he introduced
his own experiences as well, and added two new
chapters. Sabunjuoghlu was the earliest in illustrating
surgeons treating patients. Certain spots of cauter-
ization marked on the patients illustrated are
similar to those used in acupuncture and moxa.
Fifteenth-century Turkish surgical monographs
Kitab-i djarrahnama by an unknown writer (Siileyma-
niye Library, No. 814); Tarcama-i hulasa fi fenni'l-
ciraha by Djarrah Mesud; and Alaim-i djarrahin by
Ibrahim b. Abdallah are also notable.

783

SURGERY AND SURGICAL TECHNIQUES

The main surgical instruments and techniques of
medieval Islamic surgery were, for example, kayy
(cauterization by fire) used with the objective of surgi-
cal excision or as a stimulating remedy; the mismariya
(cautery ) of several forms, such as claviform, crescen-
tic, ring, quill, and so on; the mibda' (scalpel) with
numerous shapes and sizes for incision, scraping, ex-
traction, separation, and opening; fasd (bleeding) ap-
plied by a phlebotome, the al-fa ’s, an edged and sharp
pointed scalpel; hadjm (cupping) without or after
scarification, practiced with mahajim (cupping ves-
sels); miqass (scissors) invented for surgical purpose;
miqdah (needles) for eye operations; several probes
( barid, misbar, mirwad ) and the fine trocar ( midass )
as exploring instruments; sinnara (hook) for picking
up and holding tissues; instruments for circumcising,
the musa (razor) and falka (spindle whorl); anbuba
(tube) for drainage; zarraqa (syringe) both for aspira-
tion and for irrigation; mihqan (clyster) for irrigating
sinuses; kasatir (syringe); al-qam (funnel) for fumiga-
tion and irrigation; and mus’ut (dropper) for irrigat-
ing the nose. A great variety of minshar (saw), mijrad
(raspatory), miqta‘ (osteotome), mithqab (trephine),
kalalib (forceps), jabira (splint) devices to reduce
dislocations or displace fracture ends and plaster
cases were used to treat fractures and dislocations.
Several instruments such as minqash, mibrad, mis-
hdakh (lithotrites), and mish'ab (lithotriptor) were de-
veloped for extracting stones. Various kinds of suture
materials for surgical purposes were utilized, such as
ants’ nippers; gut sutures; wool, linen, ox, or horse
hair and silk in connection with the ligature (rabt);
gold or silver wire for wiring in the teeth. Drugs called
muhaddir or murkid, such as opium, henbane, man-
drake, hemlock, Indian hemp, and yellow alison, were
used as anesthetics by snuffing or inhaling, especially
as a soporific sponge or as local anesthetics in surgical
operations.

Surgery was regarded as an art necessitating
skill and experience. Though authors like Zahrawi
noted anatomy as a necessary knowledge for sur-
geons, dissection of dead bodies as a means of train-
ing was not practiced, though there is no religious
prohibition of it. Surgeons were trained by the
master-apprenticeship method, usually as a family
profession; they were employed as primary or second-
ary surgeons at hospitals, palaces, military service, or
offices, and some were itinerant. The head of surgeons
was called ser-djarrahin. Information and hints
about the requirements and expectations of morality
regarding surgery is found in surgical manuscripts
and the deed of trusts of hospitals. The reflection of
Muslim morality to surgical practice is found in judg-
es’ registries, for example, a patient’s or guardian’s

written consent taken before surgical operation and a
contract signed to certify this in order to withhold a
suit for compensation against the surgeon in case of
death or injury.

Nil Sari

See also Abbas al-Madjusi; Abu’ 1-Qasim az Zahrawi;
‘Ali ibn ‘Isa; Hunain ibn Ishaq; Ibn an-Nafis; Ibn
al-Quff; Ibn Sina, or Avicenna; Kahhal; Medical Liter-
ature, Turkish; Paulus Aeginata; Zakariya’ ar-Razi

Further Reading

Hau, Friedrun R. “Die Chirurgie Und Ihre Instrumente
in Orient und Okzident Vom. 10. Bis 16. Jahrhundent.”
Paper presented at the Internationaler Kongress Krems
An Der Donau 6. Bis 9. Oktober 1992. Osterreichische
Akademie Der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische
Klasse Sitzungsberichte, 619. Band. Wien, 1994: 307-352.
Jhonstone, Penelope (Ed). Max Meyerhof Studies in Me-
dieval Arabic Medicine Theory and Practice. London,
1984.

Oncel, Oztan. “Anesthesia in Turkish-Islamic Medicine.”
Ph.D dissertation. Istanbul University, Istanbul Medi-
cal School, Medical Ethics and History Department.
Istanbul, 1982.

San, Nil. “Ethical Aspects of Ottoman Surgical Practice.”
Turkiye Klinikleri. 8, no. 1 (April 2000): 9-14.

Sarton, George. Introduction to the History of Science. 3
vols. Baltimore, 1927-1947.

Spink, M.S., and Lewis, G.L. Albucasis on Surgery and
Instruments. London: The Welcome Institute of the
History of Medicine, 1973.

Uzel, liter. Sharafaddin Sabunjuoghlu Jarrahiyatu 7 Khaniye.

2 vols. Ankara: Turkish History Society, III/15, 1992.
Yildinm, Nuran. “A Fifteenth Century Turkish Book of
Surgery.” Ph.D dissertation. Istanbul University,
Istanbul Medical School, Medical Ethics and History
Department. Istanbul, 1981.

SUYUTI, AL-, ‘ABD AL-RAHMAN

Al-Suyuti, the celebrated erudite Egyptian savant, is
recognized today as one of the most prolific authors
of all Islamic literature.

The family of al-Suyuti, of Persian origin, settled
during the Mamluk period in Asyut, in Upper Egypt
(from where they derive their name). His father,
however, was established in Cairo, and it is there
that al-Suyuti was born on October 3, 1445. The
child followed a very thorough course in various
Islamic sciences. It is shown very early on, as of
eighteen years of age, that he teaches Shafifi jurispru-
dence and the science of Hadith; in addition, he deli-
vers fatwas (legal consultations) in various sciences.
In parallel, he writes prolific works: Before al-Suyuti
reached the age of thirty, his works came to be re-
quired reading throughout the whole of the Middle

784

SUYUTI, AL-, ‘ABD AL-RAHMAN

East and then soon circulated in India until they
reached Tekrur in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Egypt, on the other hand, he evokes much jeal-
ousy and polemic because he claims to have reached
the status of mujtahid (that is, a legal scholar posses-
sing independent authority in interpreting the sources
of the law) in the Shaffi school of jurisprudence.
Moreover, al-Suyuti affirms that his ijtihad, far from
being limited to Islamic law, also applies to the
sciences of Hadith and the Arabic language. Finally,
al-Suyuti is announced as the mujaddid (renewer of
Islam) (see Renewal, or Tajdid) for the ninth century
of the hijra, two or three years before the year 900/
1494. At the age of forty, al-Suyuti withdraws from
public life to his house on the island of Rawda, in
Cairo. He dies on October 18, 1505. The reasons that
he calls upon in connection with his withdrawal are
the corruption of the institution of the ulema and
the ignorance that prevails among them; in fact, the
decline of the cultural level at the end of the Mamluk
era is manifest.

The assurance, even the claim, to which al-Suyuti
testifies, comes initially from the awareness that he
has of his own gifts: He has an extraordinary memo-
ry, a remarkable spirit of synthesis that enables him to
write or to dictate several works at the same time. He
is convinced to be invested with a mission, which
prevails over any other consideration and, in particu-
lar, over the opinion that others have of him. This
mission consists of gathering and transmitting to the
future generations the Islamic cultural inheritance,
before it disappears following the neglect of his con-
temporaries. In fact, he quotes in his works many old
texts now lost, particularly in the field of the Arabic
language. Al-Suyuti precedes the modern time by
certain aspects: for example, he is partly an autodi-
dact, and herewith to a public that he wishes to reach
out to with handbooks centered on precise topics. In
the same spirit of popularization, he summarizes the
works of others and makes them clean. One cannot
regard al-Suyuti as only a compiler. Indeed, he
approaches topics usually neglected in the Islamic
literature; he is the first to have introduced Sufism
into the field of the fatwa.

Al-Suyuti wrote approximately one thousand
works (981 according to a 1995 study). Hardly three
hundred were published, but his manuscripts are
nowadays a great success in published editions. The
scientific versatility of al-Suyuti illustrates the Islamic
ideal, according to which there is no really profane
science; he explores geography, as well as lexico-
graphy, pharmacopoeia, dietetics, erotology. More
profoundly, his approach to a subject is often multi-
disciplinary, and he often employs several sciences to
cover a subject.

This versatility allowed al-Suyuti to free himself
from a determined axis through his attachment to
the Prophet ( see Muhammad the Prophet) and his
Sunna. He includes in his field of vision the most
scattered sciences as long as they do not contradict
the Revelation descended on Muhammad; this is why
he condemns al-mantiq (Hellenistic logic). Among the
disciplines that he says to control, that of Hadith
prevails because it permeates the greatest part of his
work. Sciences having been imbued with the Arabic
language represent, according to him, his subject of
predilection, but one very clearly notes the influence
of the science of Hadith in his major work on lan-
guage, Al-Muzhir fi ‘Ulum al-Lugha wa Amva'iha. In
his other “linguistic” works, al-Suyuti follows the
method of religious sciences like usul al-fiqh (foun-
dations of jurisprudence) or the fiqh (jurisprudence).
Qur’anic sciences constitute another axis of
al-Suyuti’ s work (approximately twenty works). “Al-
Itqan fi ‘Ulum Al-Qur’an” makes the beautiful share
with the language and rhetoric, but the principal
commentary of al-Suyuti, Al-Durr al-Manthur fi
al-Tafsir bi-al-Ma’thur, is exclusively based on
Hadith and the words of the first Muslims. In this
field, it is also necessary to mention the very practical
Tafsir al-Jcdalayn , a Qur’anic commentary started
with al-Suyuti’s professor, Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli,
and completed by him.

If the discipline of Hadith represents in al-Suyuti’s
eyes the noblest “of sciences,” it is imbued with the
prophetic model, which for him is the only way that
leads to God. In this field, al-Suyuti’s working model
is undoubtedly Tadrib al-Rawi fi Shark Taqrib
al-Nawawi, which pertains to the terminology of
Hadith. The aforementioned prophetic model could
not be transmitted by book science alone; it must be
experienced interiorly. Al-Suyuti, who affirms to have
seen the Prophet more than seventy times while in a
waking state, ensures that he can maintain during a
vision the validity of Hadith directly from the Pro-
phet. As a Sufi (see Sufis and Sufism), al-Suyuti found
in the tariqa Shadhiliyya (Shadhili order) the right
balance between the Law and the Way. Moreover,
he benefited besides from his notoriety as a scholar
and jurisconsult to carry out a perspicacious apology
for Sufism and its Masters: He sees in the dhikr (invo-
cation of God) the highest form of worship, showing
that it is necessary to interpret the words of the Sufi,
and to defend the orthodoxy of Ibn ‘Arabi.

Finally, al-Suyuti wrote much in the fields of his-
tory and biography, including a number of works on
the theory of history (for example, al-Shamarikh fi
‘Ilm al-Ta’rikh), in its various fields of application:
the history of the caliphs, to which he was very at-
tached (Ta’rikh al-Khulafa’) , about the history of

785

SUYUTI, AL-, ‘ABD AL-RAHMAN

Egypt (Husn al-Muhadara) , and a great number of
biographical collections by specialty (specialists in
Hadith, grammarians, poets, and so on).

Eric Geoffroy

See also Caliphs; Ibn ‘Arabi; Renewal; Sufism; Usui
al-fiqh

Primary Sources

AI-Hdwi lil-fatawv. recueil de toutes les fatwas d’al-
Suyuti (droit, langue, histoire islamique, soufisme, etc.),
Beyrouth, s. d.

Al-Itqdn fi ‘ulum al-Qur’an , maintes editions : reste un ouv-
rage de reference pour aborder les sciences coraniques.
Al-Tahadduth bi-ni'mat Allah : autobiographie, ed. en arabe
par E. M. Sartain. Cambridge, 1975.

Husn al-muhddara fi akhbar Misr wa l-Qdhira, Le Caire,
1968: sur f histoire de l’Egypte et du Caire.

Tdrikh al-khulafd’, Le Caire, 1964: sur l'histoire des califes
de l’islam, depuis Abu Bakr.

Further Reading

E. Geoffroy, E. art. al-Suyuti dans 1’ Encyclopedic de l’islam
II, tome IX, 951-954.'

Garcin, J. Cl. “Histoire, opposition politique et pietisme
traditionaliste dans le Husn al-muhadarat de Suyuti.”
Annales Islamologiques VII, IFAO, Le Caire, 1967,
33-88.

Kaptein, N.J. Muhammad’s Birthday Festival. Leiden, 1993:
presente et traduit la fatwa d’al-Suyuti validant la pra-
tique du mawlid nabawi (celebration de l’anniversaire du
Prophete).

Sartain, E.M. Jaldl al-din al-Suyuti, Biography and Back-
ground. Cambridge, 1975: reste l’etude la plus complete
en langue occidentale.

SYNAGOGUES

There were Jewish communities scattered throughout
Arabia in Muhammad’s time. Mecca, his hometown,
does not seem to have had an organized Jewish com-
munity, but the oasis of Yathrib, to which he emi-
grated in 622, housed a large and well-organized
community. Now known as al-Madina (from madinat
al-nabi, or “the city of the Prophet” ), it had two tribes
of Kohanim, that is, of Priestly ancestry, a third Jewish
tribe, and possibly other clans. The synagogue there
was called Midras; the word is from the Hebrew Bet
Midrash, or “House of Study.” Islamic tradition has
preserved some details about the Midras of the Jews in
Yathrib, enough to suggest various conclusions about
the building, religious services, administration, and
theology, but unfortunately not to secure them.

The Qur’an itself has several terms that refer to
Jewish houses of worship. It most likely refers to the
Temple in Jerusalem, with the term Masjid. While the
reference of 17:1 ( al-masjid al-aqsa, “the farther place

of prostration”) is open to some controversy, the
reference to the twofold destruction of the Israelites,
alluding to destroyers entering the masjid as they had
before (17:7), can hardly refer to anything else. Places
of monotheistic prayer before Islam are called
sawami, bi’a, salawat, and masajid, roughly trans-
lated as “cloisters,” “places of petition and prayer,”
and “places of prostration” (Q 22:40). Bid (sing, bi’a)
and kanisa (pi. kana’is) — a term not used in the
Qur’an — came to be the most usual appellations for
synagogue and church, although some authors say the
one or the other ought to be used only for houses of
prayer of Christians or Jews; others use both as syno-
nyms. Jewish sources generally referred to the syna-
gogue as kanis or kanisa in Arabic, and bet knesset in
Hebrew. Some geniza sources use the term majlis (as-
sembly) to refer to certain synagogues, especially those
clearly postdating Islam.

Islamic expansion quickly brought the largest cen-
ters of Jewish life into its orbit; indeed, for several
centuries, most of the world’s Jews resided in areas
ruled by Muslims. Islamic provisions about the status
of non-Muslims in Islamic lands, including the status
of their synagogues and churches, reached full expres-
sion in the form of the document usually known as
the Pact of Umar. The framework of the Pact reflects
reports of agreements made with non-Muslims by
Umar b. al-Khattab or his generals during the Islamic
conquests. The early pacts indicate that non-Muslims
were allowed to retain their religion and places of
worship, although the part of their houses of worship
facing the qibla could be used by the Muslims as a
place of prayer. Many more limitations are found in
later legal works, such as Kitab al-Umm by al-Shafi‘i,
and the regulations do not appear in the form of the
Pact of Umar earlier than the tenth century. Accord-
ing to this document, Jews and Christians stated:

"We shall not found in (the town) or in the land sur-
rounding it, a new monastery, church, cloister or monas-
tic cell. Nor shall we renew whatever has been destroyed
of them, nor revive any of them which are in Muslim
quarters. We shall not prevent any Muslims from staying
in our churches at night or during the day, and we shall
open their gates wide to passers-by and wayfarers."

The legal prohibition of the construction of new
churches and synagogues applied particularly to
Muslim areas, and some of the legal traditions had no
objections to synagogues in neighborhoods where there
were no Muslims, or which had been Jewish prior to
becoming Muslim. So, too, in the early days, establish-
ment of synagogues to serve the Jewish community
seems to have been less of a problem: Kairawan,
Cairo, Baghdad, Fez, and other places established
by Muslims all had synagogues, although often in

786

SYRIA, GREATER SYRIA

neighborhoods considered to antedate Islam. A
report that Umar himself established seventy Jews in
Jerusalem was cited to support the synagogue there.

By the twelfth century, opinions about this became
more settled, and the Pact of Umar came to be ap-
plied more stringently. Synagogues were closed in
North Africa and Cairo, and there was discussion
and occasional violence concerning whether synago-
gues in Cairo and Jerusalem were allowed to be
retained or repaired; in early-fourteenth century
Cairo, continuing riots led to the closure of numerous
synagogues and churches and the intervention of the
king of Aragon and the Byzantine emperor to reopen
them. These restrictions continued into the nineteenth
century, until reform attempts by Muhammad Ah
and his successors in Egypt and in Palestine, by the
Ottomans, and by European protectorates.

We have little information about the layout and
procedures in synagogues of the Islamic world.
Nathan the Babylonian gives a particularly vivid de-
scription of one synagogue service in Baghdad from
the tenth century. Geniza records confirm that in
addition to meeting for prayer it was the center for
many other community functions. Lawsuits were
brought there and persons, including women, could
delay services to seek redress. Sometimes, funerals
would stop outside or in the courtyard. In some, a
women’s entrance indicated that women attended ser-
vices. Many cities had multiple synagogues, reflecting
differences in custom between the traditions of the
Jews of Babylonia (Iraq) and Palestine, or Rabbanite,
Qaraite, and Samaritan Jews. Some synagogues were
built primarily in locations of pilgrimage, such as the
Dammuh synagogue in Egypt; travelers’ descriptions
of sacred tombs also suggest these were sometimes the
locations of synagogues, although in many cases
graves associated with figures from biblical history
were also sacred to the Muslims and Christians, and
the buildings associated with these sites could not be
considered synagogues.

In some cases the few structural details of which we
are aware suggest that the buildings continued the
pre-Islamic basilica style, and may even have been
converted from churches; in other cases, as, for exam-
ple, in Benjamin of Tudela’s description of the syna-
gogue in Baghdad, the colonnaded hall and open
courtyard suggest similarities to early Islamic mos-
ques, although synagogues in Muslim areas would
necessarily have had modest facades.

Seth Ward

Further Reading

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society. Vol II. University

of California Press, 1971, 143-170.

Ward, Seth. “Taqi al-Din al-Subki on Construction, Con-
tinuance and Repair of Churches and Synagogues in
Islamic Law.” In Studies in Islamic and Judaic Traditions
II, edited by W. Brinner and S. Ricks, 169-188. Atlanta:
Scholars Press, 1989.

SYRIA, GREATER SYRIA

Syria, specifically Greater Syria (Ar. Bilad al-Sham),
is a historical term denoting a region that comprises
modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the West
Bank of Palestine, and the southwestern borderlands
of Turkey. Geographically, Greater Syria can be
divided into two sections: the mountainous coastal
region in the west, which in the medieval period in-
cluded Antioch (modern Antakya in southern Tur-
key), and the Mediterranean ports of Tripoli, Beirut,
Tyre, and Acre; and the steppe and desert region in
the east, of which the leading centers were Aleppo,
Hama, Hims, Damascus, and Jerusalem.

Greater Syria played a major role in the develop-
ment of Islam from the earliest period. The decisive
battles of the futuh (Islamic conquests) against the
Byzantines were fought there; Damascus was the cap-
ital of the first Islamic dynasty, the Umayyads; and
Jerusalem quickly became the Muslims’ third most
important religious center after Mecca and Medina.
A degree of religious and linguistic pluralism persisted
in spite of Islamization: Christianity survived, al-
though at times under duress; and neither Greek nor
Aramaic was completely abandoned for Arabic.

By the start of the medieval period, the political
predominance that Greater Syria had enjoyed under
the Umayyads had long since gone. ‘Abbasid rule
over the region from Baghdad had given way succes-
sively to Tulunid and Ikshidid control, successor
dynasties of the weakening 'Abbasids. In the middle
of the tenth century, the decline of Ikshidid power
resulted in northern Syria being given to the Bedouin
Arab Hamdanids, under whom Aleppo enjoyed a
period of literary and artistic inflorescence.

Even before Hamdanid rule in Aleppo had come to
an end in AH 394/1004 CE, the Egyptian Fatimids
had conquered Palestine and Syria. Fatimid rule over
Greater Syria was weak, however, especially in the
north, where a revived Byzantium regained some of
its old territory, and another Bedouin dynasty, the
Mirdasids, established themselves in Aleppo.

The situation in Greater Syria was altered by
the advance of the Seljuk Turks during the second
half of the eleventh century. By the eve of the Cru-
sades, often mutually hostile Seljuk amirs (princes)
ruled in Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, and Hims.
In AH 477/1084 CE, the Byzantines lost Antioch,
their last possession in Syria. An independent Arab

787

SYRIA, GREATER SYRIA

family of qadis (Islamic judges) ruled in Tripoli, while
the Fatimids remained in control of some of the coast.

There was a tension between the strongly Sunni
Seljuks and the existing Shi‘is and Shi‘i-influenced
sects. The latter included people in sympathy with
the (Ismaili Shi‘i) Fatimids, and more heterodox ele-
ments, such as the Nusayris and the Druze of the
coastal montagne. To these would later be added the
Syrian Assassins.

The map of Greater Syria changed again in the
wake of the arrival of the Crusaders before Antioch
in AH 491/1098 CE. By 1130, much of the region was
under Frankish control: the principality of Antioch
and the county of Edessa (modern Urfa in southern
Turkey ) in the north; the county of Tripoli in the cen-
tral maritime region; and the kingdom of Jerusalem to
the south. Many of the military fortifications that the
Crusaders built to protect their possessions have sur-
vived, such as the impressive Krak des Chevaliers in
the west of modern-day Syria. Much of the Muslim
interior, meanwhile, maintained a precarious inde-
pendence, with the Turkish amirs of Aleppo and
Damascus among others paying tribute to the Crusa-
ders in return for peace.

The Frankish possessions shrank almost as rapidly
as they had grown. The Crusaders were isolated,
and weakened by their unwillingness to make com-
mon cause with their coreligionists in the East, the
Byzantines and the Armenians. ‘Imad al-Din Zanki, a
Turk who had risen to prominence in the service of
the Seljuks and made himself independent of his for-
mer masters, pushed the Crusaders back west of the
River Euphrates. In the middle of the twelfth century,
his equally able son, Nur al-Din Mahmud, became
ruler of both Aleppo and Damascus. Nur al-Din
continued and emphasized the Seljuk Sunni Muslim
tradition by founding madrasas (Islamic schools) in
which an orthodox curriculum was taught.

Outdoing the Zankids in their opposition to the
Crusaders was a Kurdish lieutenant of Nur al-Din’s,
Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Having
declared himself ruler of Egypt on the death of the
last Fatimid caliph, Saladin proceeded to seize
Damascus from Nur al-Din’s heirs. He then turned
on the Crusaders. By the time of Saladin’s death in
AH 589/1193 CE, only Antioch, Tripoli, Tyre, and
Acre remained in Frankish hands.

The following century saw the increasing domi-
nance of Egypt as the center of the Ayyubid empire,
at the expense of Greater Syria, particularly of Damas-
cus. In AH 642/1244 CE, the Egyptian Ayyubids
defeated a prudential alliance of central Syrian
Ayyubids and Crusaders in southern Palestine.
Aleppo, meanwhile, bought its continued indepen-
dence from Egypt by helping the Egyptians to capture

Damascus. Jerusalem was also brought under Egyp-
tian control, after a brief period in the hands of the
Crusaders, to whom the Syrians had given the city in
return for cooperation against the Egyptians. In AH
648/1250 CE, the Ayyubids of Egypt were ousted by
the Mamluks, originally Turkish slave soldiers who
would found their own dynasty. Aleppo seized the ad-
vantage and occupied Damascus. It was a short-lived
triumph: Within ten years the Mongols had overrun
Greater Syria and put an end to Ayyubid rule.

The Mamluks would eventually absorb Greater
Syria into their empire. In AH 658/1260 CE, they
defeated the Mongol armies at ‘Ayn Jalut in Pales-
tine. Damascus and Aleppo were occupied by the
Mamluks, although the Mongols remained a threat
to Greater Syria until the beginning of the fourteenth
century. Before the end of the thirteenth century, the
Mamluks had taken all the Frankish colonies still
remaining in Greater Syria. It was the end of an era
marked by ambivalent relations between Muslims and
Crusaders: hostility punctuated by accommodation,
and mutual destruction contrasting with thriving
commercial links between East and West.

Mamluk rule lasted until AH 922/1516 CE, when
they were defeated by the Ottomans at Marj Dabiq
near Aleppo in a decisive battle that marks the end of
the medieval period in Greater Syria. Damascus and
Aleppo were leading cities of the Mamluk empire.
Both took years to recover from the effects of the
plague pandemic of the mid-fourteenth century, and
of Tamerlane’s ravages in AH 803/1400 CE, when
they were pillaged and emptied of their populations.
This notwithstanding, and in spite of the depredations
of some of the governors of the Syrian niyabas
(Mamluk provinces), industry and trade at times
resulted in a degree of prosperity that allowed
intellectual and artistic life to flourish.

David Morray

See also Architecture, Secular: Military; Black Death;
Byzantine Empire; Earthquakes; Excellences Litera-
ture; Madrasa; Merchants, Christians; Dome of the
Rock; Muslim-Byzantine Relations; Muslim-Crusader
Relations; Muslim-Mongol Diplomacy; Silk Roads;
Sunni Revival; Trade, Mediterranean; Umayyad
Mosque (Damascus)

Further Reading

Gabrieli, Francesco. Arab Historians of the Crusades.

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969.

Hitti, Philip K. History of Syria: Including Lebanon and

Palestine. 2d ed. London: Macmillan, 1957.

Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the

Eleventh Century to 1517. London: Longman, 1986.

Le Strange, Guy. Palestine under the Moslems. London,

1890.

788

SYRIAC

Syriac is the name that came to be given to the Late
Aramaic dialect of Edessa (modern-day Sanliurfa,
southeast Turkey). The earliest texts (in Old Syriac)
are pagan inscriptions of the first to third century CE,
and three legal documents on skin from the early
240s. Syriac, with its own distinctive script, soon
became the literary language of Aramaic-speaking
Christians, both in the Eastern provinces of the
Roman Empire and in the Parthian and Sasanian
empires to the east. Syriac literature, which covers
many secular and religious topics, constitutes by far
the largest body of Aramaic literatures, spanning
from the second century to the present day. Many of
the earliest writings are preserved in manuscripts of
the fifth and sixth centuries.

Syriac script takes on three main forms: the oldest,
estrangelo, is the norm in manuscripts till at least the
end of the eighth century, when it was largely replaced
by serto in the west (based on an earlier cursive) and a
distinctive “eastern” script. It is disputed whether
Arabic script has its roots in Syriac or Nabataean
script.

Syriac literature can most conveniently be divided
into three main periods, second to mid-seventh cen-
turies, mid-seventh to thirteenth centuries, and the
thirteenth century onwards. Although some names
are known from the second and third centuries, only
a few texts survive, and it is not until the fourth
century that major authors emerge: Aphrahat, writing
in the Sasanian empire around 345, and the poet
Ephrem (d. 373) in the Roman empire. Subsequent
important prose writers of this first period include the
historian John of Ephesus (d. ca. 589). Poetry is par-
ticularly well represented, with Narsai (d. ca. 500) and
Jacob of Serugh (d. 521), as well as many fine anony-
mous authors. Among the genres developed is one
that continues the ancient Mesopotamian precedence
dispute; thus Syriac provides the bridge between an-
cient Mesopotamia and the Arabic munazara (debate
or contest in verse or prose). A remarkable number of
translations from Greek were made during this peri-
od, especially in the latter part, and include medical
and philosophical texts. A few translations were also

made from Middle Persian, among them the oldest
version of Kalila wa-Dimna.

A distinctive feature of the second period is the
more learned and encyclopedic character of its writ-
ings. Despite the political upheavals of the time, the
seventh century witnessed a great flowering of Syriac
literature, both in the Syrian Orthodox Church (nota-
bly with the scholar Jacob of Edessa, d. 708) and in
the Church of the East, where several monastic
authors flourished, among whom Isaac of Nineveh
was to prove particularly influential (he, in fact, ori-
ginated from Qatar). In the late eight and ninth cen-
turies, Syriac scholars (the most notable being
Hunayn ibn Ishaq) played an important role in the
‘Abbasid translation movement, especially early on
when it proved more practical to translate Greek
texts first into Syriac (a task that had the benefit of
several centuries of experience) and only then into
Arabic. The second period comes to an end with the
encyclopedic writings of the polymath Gregory Abu
’1-Faraj, better known as Bar Bar Hebraeus (Bar
‘Ebroyo, d. 1286). Whereas authors of the sixth and
seventh centuries had come to be greatly influenced
by Greek literary culture, Bar Hebraeus draws freely
on both Arabic and Persian sources.

The third period is the least known, and most texts
remain unpublished. Syriac literature, however, has
continuously been produced right up to the present
time. Poetry in Modern Syriac is known from the
seventeenth century onward, and prose from the mid-
nineteenth century.

Sebastian Brock

See also ‘Abbasids; Aramaic; Hunayn ibn Ishaq; Kalila
wa-Dimna

Further Reading

Baumstark, Anton. Geschichte der syrischen Literatur.

Bonn: Marcus und Weber, 1922.

Brock, Sebastian. A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature.
Kottayam: St Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute
(SEERI), 1997.

Reinink, G.J., and H.L.J. Vanstiphout (Eds). Dispute
Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Medieval Near
East. Leuven, 1991.

789

TABARI, AL-

Ab-Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarar al-Tabari (d. AH 310/
923 CE) was the most important scholar of his gener-
ation. His works exerted a profound influence on
future Muslim scholarship, because of both their vo-
luminous content and their meticulous methods of
inquiry. Although many of his works have not sur-
vived, his two most famous works, his History
(Ta’rikh al-Rusul Wa’l-mul-k) and his Qur’an com-
mentary (Tafsir), remain standard references today.

Al-Tabari was born in 224-225/839 in or near
Amul, in Tabaristan near the Caspian Sea. He then
spent most of his life in Baghdad, where he composed
most of his works. He left his birthplace at a young
age to pursue studies in Rayy and then in Baghdad,
where he arrived in 241/855, shortly after the death of
Ibn Hanbal, with whom he had hoped to study. His
scholarly travels subsequently took him to most of
the major intellectual centers in the Muslim world,
including Bara, Kufa, Damascus, Beirut, and Egypt.
Unlike many scholars, al-Tabari does not appear to
have studied in the Hijiz, with the exception of brief
pilgrimage visits. Ultimately, he returned to Baghdad
around 256/870 to write and teach.

Although income from his family’s estate in
Tabaristan spared him the poverty many scholars
suffered, he did occasionally find himself in dire finan-
cial circumstances. For a time he served as a tutor
to the son of al-Mutawakkil’s vizier, ‘Ubaydallah
b. Yahya, probably because of his own economic
difficulties. Despite many later offers, this was his
only stint of government employment. Payments

from his many students (supplemented by income
from his family’s estates) sufficed to meet his modest
needs.

Reports about al-Tabari’s lifestyle typically em-
phasize his piety and moderation. Although he was
not an ascetic, he did not live extravagantly or indulge
in food, drink, or other diversions. He never married,
and he apparently committed himself to a life of
celibacy. He spent his days teaching, worshipping
at the mosque, and writing. His scholarly works
attracted both admirers and enemies. He condemned
the usual heretical groups, including Mu'tazilitcs,
Shi’is, Zahiris, and others. He attracted unusual enmi-
ty from the followers of Ibn Hanbal, who reportedly
rioted in front of his house on at least one occasion.
His dispute with the Hanbalis reportedly centered on
two issues. The first was al-Tabari’s decision to ex-
clude Ibn Hanbal from his Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha’; this
was done because of his opinion that Ibn Hanbal was
a great muhaddith but not a jurist. Ibn Hanbal’s
followers naturally took offense and reacted violently.
The second focus of al-Tabari’s feud with the
Hanbalis was his interpretation of the praiseworthy
position (maqaman mahm-d’an) that God had prom-
ised the Prophet Muhammad. Al-Tabari rejected the
Hanbali interpretation that this meant Muhammad
would sit on God’s throne. Some reports suggest that
Hanbali hostility toward al-Tabari was so extreme
that, when al-Tabari died in 310/923, he had to be
buried secretly at night to prevent Hanbali mobs from
disrupting his funeral. Most reports, however,
describe a peaceful daylight funeral instead.

791

TABARI, AL-

Al-Tabari’s works covered a broad range of topics,
including law, history, Qur’anic exegesis, and hadith
(tradition). His most famous and influential works are
his History and his Tafsir. The History presents a
complete history of the world from creation until
just before al-Tabari’s time. In the History, al-Tabari
applied the methods of the hadith scholars to histori-
cal reports, emphasizing proper isnads and including
divergent versions of events to allow the reader to
decide which interpretation was most valid. His me-
ticulous methods profoundly influenced the way in
which later Muslim historians approached their
craft. Modern scholars have emphasized al-Tabari’s
objectivity and his reluctance to impose his own inter-
pretations on material or to insert his own narrative
voice in any way. The work is also praised for al-
Tabari’s skillful incorporation of pre-Islamic narra-
tives into a master narrative that places Islam at the
center of world history. Although al-Tabari skillfully
concealed his own agenda in his History, careful anal-
ysis of his treatment of pivotal events suggests that he
did adhere to a theory of historical causation accord-
ing to which calamity befell the Muslim community
when tribal rivalries and personal greed were not
sufficiently suppressed. His History is essentially a
salvation story in which the advent of Islam is
situated in God’s larger plan and proper adherence
to Islam raises human society to its pinnacle.

In his Tafsir, al-Tabari was more willing to express
his own opinions about particular disputes about
Qur’an interpretation. He relied extensively on gram-
matical analysis of the text and included divergent
interpretations of particular verses. However, he ulti-
mately offered his own judgment about which inter-
pretation was most viable, relying on ijtihad to an
extent that his Hanbali rivals could not accept. As a
legal scholar, al-Tabari initially adhered to the Shafi’i
madhhab, which he probably embraced during his
travel to Egypt as a young man. Later, however, his
followers began to consider themselves to be a sepa-
rate madhhab, usually called the Jariris. His madhhab
did not survive long, and its principles were apparent-
ly not far removed from the Shafi’i school from which
it sprang.

Al-Tabari’s influence on later scholarship cannot
be understated. His History became the model for
many later works, some of which were merely poorly
disguised abridgments. The hadith methodology he so
carefully applied to historical reports became the
standard procedure for scrutinizing and reporting
historical akhbar. His Tafsir remains a crucial work
for understanding the development of Qur’anic exe-
gesis and for insight into the debates about variant
readings of the Qur’anic text. In addition, his Ikhtilaf
offers thorough comparisons of the legal theories of

the orthodox madhhabs (with the exception of the
Hanbalis). His reputation as a pious and exemplary
scholar survived the extreme hostility of his Hanbali
foes and the accusations that he was in fact a Shi‘i,
which stemmed from his unwillingness to condemn
‘Ali with sufficient vigor. His meticulous work ulti-
mately withstood his critics’ venom and remains a
vital part of Muslim scholarship to this day.

Steven C. Judd

Primary Sources

Ibn ‘Asakir. Ta’rukh Madinat Dimashq. Beirut, 1995-1999.
al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarar. Ta’rikh al-Rusul Wa-I-
mul-k, ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901.
al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir. Tafsir (Jami’ al-Bayan 'an
ta’Wil ay al-Qur’an). Cairo, 1905.

Yaq-t. Irshad al-Arib ila ma’Rifat al-Adib. Cairo, 1936.

Further Reading

Gillot, Claude. “La Formation Intellectuelle de Tabar.”
Journal Asiatique 276 (1988).

Khalidi, Tarif. Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical
Period. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1994.

Rosenthal, Franz. The History of Tabari. Vol. 1. General
Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood. Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press, 1989.

TAJ MAHAL

During the first decade of his rule, the Mughal
Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1627-1658 CE) embellished
the imperial capital of Agra with stunning white mar-
ble buildings that were metaphors of the hierarchy and
order supporting the state. That huge architectural
programs of this sort could be undertaken not only in
Agra but also in Delhi, Lahore, Ajmer, and Allahabad
reflects the wealth, artistic talent, and administrative
acumen available to the Mughal rulers. They projected
a developed classic style, reproducible in its elements
and clear in its symbolic content. When the emperor’s
favorite wife Arjumand Banu Begam (or Mumtaz
Mahal) died in 1631 giving birth to their fourteenth
child, the grieving ruler added another massive project
to those already underway, the construction of her
tomb, now known as the Taj Mahal.

Built over an eleven-year period from 1632 to 1643,
the tomb’s form came from a rich tradition of Mughal
sepulchral architecture, beginning with the tomb of
the second Mughal emperor, Humayun, whose tomb
was built in Delhi under the patronage of his son
Akbar from 1562 to 1571. In the center of a cruciform
(four-quadrant) garden (chahar bagh), Humayun’s
tomb was a huge octagon faced in red sandstone

792

TAJ MAHAL

with marble outlining the main structural elements. It
supported a high double dome that glistened in white
marble and reflected the influence of architecture
from the Mughals’ Timurid heartland in Central
Asia. For the builders of the Taj Mahal, the tomb of
Humayun, along with the 1636 tomb of the Khan
Khanan in Delhi, was a direct prototype.

The Taj Mahal and its extensive gardens were
surrounded on the east, south, and west sides by red
sandstone walls measuring 305 by 549 meters in
length. The main gate was on the south side and was
preceded by an extensive bazaar (Mumtazabad or city
of Mumtaz), the income of which, along with that
from thirty neighboring villages, was assigned to the
maintenance of the tomb. The gate not only controlled
access to the complex; it also had a specific meaning.
Its great arch is framed by white marble inlaid with a
black marble inscription from the Qur’an that
describes the Last Judgment and the joys awaiting
the blessed who can enter Paradise; this is seen as
visitors enter the tomb’s garden.

Once inside the gate, visitors left behind the every-
day life of Mumtazabad and entered a place of
ordered quiet. A formal four-part garden stretched
from the gate north to the actual tomb and provided
a structured space intended to replicate paradise.
Movement was controlled by paved walkways that
outlined beds of flowers, flowering shrubs, and trees
fed by streams of water from bubbling fountains.

The name Taj Mahal first appears in the writings of
visiting Europeans during the seventeenth century. To
the Mughals, it was known simply as “the illumined
tomb.’’ Begun in 1632, it was almost entirely complete
by 1643, and much of its construction took place at
the same time as the rebuilding of the Agra Fort. It
was the single largest building project underway in the
Mughal state, and some twenty thousand workers
from India, Iran, and Central Asia were employed at
the enormous cost of forty million rupees. The overall
project was supervised by two distinguished archi-
tects, Makramat Khan and ‘Abd al-Karim; a third
architect, Ustad Ahmad, appears to have been re-
sponsible for the design of the actual tomb. Passion-
ately interested in architecture, Shah Jahan must have
carefully watched over the design and its implementa-
tion. Imprisoned by his son Awrangzeb in the Agra
Fort from 1658 until 1666, he could look east to view
the Taj.

The mausoleum itself is a square with chamfered
corners that rests on a marble plinth that is seven
meters high. Each side is dominated by a thirty-three-
meter-high pishtaq (niche arch) that is flanked to the
east and west by two smaller pishtaqs and topped by a
domed and arcaded pavilion at each corner. At each
corner of the plinth stands a three-storied minar. This

elaborate structure of repeating identical elements is
dominated by a twenty-meter-high drum and double
dome. The outer dome provides the dramatic profile
that defines the sky around it; the inner dome is low
and comforting. Directly under its peak was the ceno-
taph of the deceased empress, beside her the cenotaph
of Shah Jahan. Both grave markers are enclosed by an
intricate marble screen inlaid with precious stones, as
are the cenotaphs themselves.

The great calligrapher Amanat Khan designed
inscriptions that frame the great pishtaqs, the smaller
arched entrances into the tomb, the eight interior
pishtaqs, the inner frieze of the drum, and the two
cenotaphs themselves. Written in a majestic cursive
style of script known as thuluth, they are inlaid in
black marble into the white marble. A number of
inscriptions give us completion dates, the name of
the scribe, and other historical information. Most,
however, are Qur’anic: admonitions to follow Islam;
warnings of hell to those who do evil; evocations of
the Fast Judgment; references to the Resurrection;
and descriptions of the joys of paradise for the righ-
teous. The inscriptions were selected to fit the purpose
of the tomb and to reinforce an image: the Taj
Mahal was designed to replicate one of the houses
of paradise.

Family and adherents were expected to make for-
mal visits on birth and death anniversaries. To the
tomb’s west was a red sandstone and marble mosque
with three glistening white domes. Its exact counter-
part ( jawab; answer) was on the east side. Mughal
designers laid out gardens and buildings according to
precise grids that preserved predictable proportions.
A formal garden replaced natural chaos with order;
although buildings might inspire awe, they should
avoid surprises. The great south-north garden is
divided into identical quadrants; the mausoleum cre-
ates balance through repetition, and a visitor’s expec-
tations are rewarded by dazzling elements that have
already been seen before. One must remember, how-
ever, that harmony has variations, and, in its interac-
tion with its natural setting, the tomb provides a
multitude of them. The white marble facing is minute-
ly inlaid with precious stones that only reveal their
variety when a visitor is close. The marble is translu-
cent, and the great dome absorbs and responds to
every change in the sky over Agra.

Anthony Welch

See also Agra Red Fort; Akbar; Architecture,
Religious; Architecture, Secular: Civil; Architecture,
Secular: Palaces; Babar; Baraka; Beauty and Aes-
thetics; Burial Customs; Dara Shikoh; Death and
Dying; Delhi; Festivals and Celebrations; Funerary
Practices, Muslim: Sunni; Gardens and Gardening;

793

TAJ MAHAL

God; Hadith; Horticulture; Hindus; Humayun; India;

Irrigation; Lahore; Love; Mughals; Nur Jahan; Per-
sians; Pilgrimage; Prayer; Qur’an; Scriptural Exegesis,

Islamic; Timurids; Turks; Waqf; Water

Further Reading

Asher, Catherine B. “Architecture of Mughal India.”
In The New Cambridge History of India, vol. I, 4.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Begley, W.E., and Z.A. Desai. Taj Mahal: The Illumined
Tomb. Cambridge, Mass: The Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture; and Seattle: University of

Washington Press, 1989.

Brandenburg, Dietrich. Der Taj Mahal in Agra. Berlin:
Verlag Bruno Hessling, 1969.

Crowe, Sylvia and S. Haywood. The Gardens of Mughal
India. London: Thames & Hudson, 1973.

Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls. New York: Harper
& Row, 1971.

Koch, Ebba M. Mughal Architecture. Munich: Prestel-
Verlag, 1992.

. Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology: Collected

Essays. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Nath, R. The Taj Mahal and Its Incarnation. Jaipur, 1985.

Pal, P., S. Merkel, J. Leoshko, and J.M. Dye. Romance of
the Taj Mahal. W.W. Norton, 1989.

Wescoat, James L., and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn.
Mughal Gardens: Sources, Places, Representations, and
Prospects. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research
Library, 1996.

TALISMANS AND TALISMANIC
OBJECTS

The term talisman refers in its widest sense to an
object made to protect the owner, to avert the power
of evil, and to promote well-being. Talisman is used
interchangeably with amulet, although Savage-Smith
(1997) has drawn a distinction between an amulet,
which is made from durable materials such as hard
stones and which can function over time, and a talis-
man, which is made from more ephemeral materials
such as paper and kept in amulet cases. Talismanic
objects, which, by association, include magic bowls
and talismanic shirts, belong therefore in the realm of
magic (sihr). In Arabic, this is a term that has a
variety of connotations, from “that which entrances
the eye” to “actions effected through recourse to
demons” (Fahd, 1996). In the sphere of healing and
well-being, this magic is beneficent; for the present
context Dols (1992) has aptly described it as a “force-
ful method of supplication or a supercharged prayer.”
What links talismanic objects together, irrespective
of what material they are made from, is a particular
vocabulary of inscriptions and designs. The most im-
portant of these elements are verses from the Qur’an,
which in itself is considered the most powerful of all

talismans (Hames, 1997; Porter, 2002). Particularly
powerful in talismanic contexts are, for example, the
opening of the Qur’an (Fatiha), which has been used
in oral incantations from the time of the Prophet
against the evil eye and for healing (Hames, 1997),
and Qur’an 2:255, the “throne verse” ( ay at al-kursi),
also known as the “verse of seeking refuge” or the
“verse for driving out Satan” (Canaan, 1937). The
short chapters (suras) known as the Four Declara-
tions (suras 109, 112, 113 and 114) and the last two
suras (113 andll4) are additionally known as al-
mu 'awwidhatan (the verses that provide the antidote
to superstition and fear) (Ali, 1975). In addition, there
are verses that are deemed to have specific powers: for
example, those that contain the Arabic root word
sh-f-y (to heal) were used for curing sickness (Porter,
1998); those with the victory verse (61:13) were used
for help in battle.

In addition to these, the names of God ( asma ’ al-
husna j feature prominently, particularly on amulets,
as do the names of or invocations to the cherished
figures in Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and the
twelve imams revered by the Shi’is. The archan-
gels — Jibrail, who revealed the Qur’an to the Prophet
and the others, such as Izrafil, Mikail, Israfil, and
Uzrafil — also appear, as do the Seven Sleepers of
Ephesus, whose story is told in Qur’an 18:9-26 (Por-
ter, forthcoming).

Other important elements of the magical vocabu-
lary — which, although they appear more esoteric, are
still deeply rooted in the Qur’an — serve to strengthen
the supplication (Savage-Smith, 2004). They include
individual Arabic letters, which are often repeated
and which are believed to be particularly powerful
when written in isolated form. The “Mysterious let-
ters of the Qur’an” (which appear singly or in groups
at the beginning of twenty-nine suras of the Qur’an)
are also widely used. Magic squares ( wafq), in which
religious phrases, names of God, and so on appear are
represented numerically in the abjad system (an al-
phanumeric system based on the old order of the
Semitic alphabet) within a square. At their simplest,
they are three by three, but they can extend at least as
high as twenty by twenty or more, as is seen by the
talismanic chart in the Khalili collection (Savage-
Smith, 1997). Symbols such as the “seven signs” (see
below) also feature, as well as the five- or six-pointed
star known as “Solomon’s seal.” Solomon had power
over the jinn, and it is to him that, according to the
writer of the Fihrist (written 987 to 1010 CE), Ibn al-
Nadim, licit magic can be traced (Dols, 1992). Other
symbols include scorpions, lions, and magical scripts
that include invented alphabets (these appear from as
early as the mid-ninth-century text of Ibn Wahshiya;
Savage-Smith, 2004). There are strings of numbers,

794

TALISMANS AND TALISMANIC OBJECTS

meaningless Kufic letters sometimes combined with
numbers, and the so-called “lunette” script, which is
characterized by a group of Arabic letters with long
looped forms attached (Canaan, 1937 and 1938).

Depending on the object, these elements sometimes
appear on their own or in combinations: for example,
Qur’anic verses with magic squares or the seven signs
with magical letters. Many of these elements are first
found in the influential text of Abu’l ‘Abbas Ahmad
ibn ‘Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni (d. 1225), author of the
Shams al-Ma‘arif al-Kubra, a treatise that draws on
Hellenistic, Jewish, and other pre-Islamic magical
practices. Al-Buni focuses in large part on the “beau-
tiful names of God” and their magical properties,
creating elaborate magic squares made up of the nu-
merical value of the names. He also includes charms
using the lunette script and the seven signs, which he
believed denoted the “greatest name of God.” As a
result, it is through the proliferation of this text
throughout the Islamic world that these symbols
start to appear regularly on medieval talismanic
objects; this practice continues to this day.

The range of objects covered by the terms talisman
and talismanic in their broadest sense includes amu-
lets, about which the largest body of material is avail-
able. Amulets are objects that are worn as protection
or for warding off the evil eye, a practice that entered
the life of the early Muslims (Henniger, 2004) and
that was tolerated in Islamic theology. The practice
continues today, although it is more prevalent in
some parts of the Islamic world (e.g., North Africa,
Egypt) than others. These small objects, which are
made to either be worn around the neck or on a
ring, are made from hard stones or metal. The mate-
rial from which they are made can be significant,
because particular beneficial properties are often tra-
ditionally ascribed to certain stones and are cited in
textual sources. Carnelian, for example, was said by
the medieval gemologist Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Tifaschi
to control fear in battle and to stop hemorrhages
(Tifaschi, 1998). It was also popular because it was
the stone most favored by the Prophet Muhammad.
These objects are most frequently inscribed positively,
although there are some that are inscribed negatively
that are “activated” when they are stamped onto
something.

Another important category of talismanic objects
are the magic-medicinal bowls used to cure sickness,
continuing a pre-Islamic tradition found in Aramaic
bowls. Among the earliest datable Islamic examples
are bowls made for Nur al-Din Zangi (1146-1174;
Savage-Smith, 1997). These bowls can be inscribed
with Qur’anic verses and invocations; very frequently
magic squares are used, and they are often inter-
spersed with strings of meaningless Kufic-style letters;

some examples have toggles attached to them that
bear the Names of God. In an associated tradition,
the water used to clean the wooden writing boards
used by children to learn the Qur’an is believed to be
rendered efficacious, and it is used to cure sickness
because it contains the words of the Qur’an. Talis-
manic shirts made from linen or cotton and covered
with magic squares, Names of God, and passages
from the Qur’an were worn beneath armor in battle
for protection; these are found in Ottoman, Safavid,
and Mughal contexts. One of the finest is an example
made for Ottoman Sehzade Selim in AH 972/1 564
1565 CE (Rogers and Ward, 1988). Talismanic charts
are associated with the shirts in style and are generally
covered with magic squares, Qur’anic and other
inscriptions, and strings of letters and numbers;
these are made to carry around in times of need or
to be displayed in the home.

Another powerful talismanic object is the hand.
Made from brass and other materials or inscribed
on paper (in the western Islamic lands), it symbolizes
the hand of Fatima, the Prophet Muhammad’s
daughter, and it often has a blue bead in the center
to ward off the evil eye. In Shi‘i contexts, it symbolizes
the hand of Abbas, Imam Husayn’s uncle who was
also killed at Kerbela. A final group of objects to be
mentioned are mirrors. Magical inscriptions start to
appear on the shiny side of twelfth- and thirteenth-
century mirrors from Iran and Anatolia. These
inscriptions were probably engraved later than the
object itself. They consist of elements of the magical
vocabulary mentioned above and were probably asso-
ciated with a specific type of magic requiring shiny
surfaces (Savage-Smith, 1997). In the case of an ex-
ample in the British Museum, the names of the Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus are combined with magic squares,
the seven signs, letters, and numbers.

Venetia Porter

Further Reading

Ali, Abdallah Yusuf. The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an.
London: Nadim & Co., 1975.

Canaan, T. “The Decipherment of Arabic Talismans.”
Berytus IV (1937): 69-110; V (1938): 369-97. (Reprinted
in Savage-Smith, Ernilie, ed. Magic and Divination in
Early Islam. The Formation of the Classical Islamic
World, vol. 42. Ashgate Publishing, 2004.)

Dols, Michael W. “The Theory of Magic in Healing.” In
Majnun: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society, ed.
Diana E. Immisch. Oxford, UK, 1992. (Reprinted in
Savage-Smith, Ernilie, ed. Magic and Divination in
Early Islam. The Formation of the Classical Islamic
World, vol. 42. Ashgate Publishing, 2004.)

Fahd, Toufic. “Sihr.” In The Encyclopeadia of Islam, New
Edition, vol. IX, 567-71. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

795

TALISMANS AND TALISMANIC OBJECTS

Hames, Constant. “Le Coran Talismanique.” In Religion et
Pratique de Puissance, ed. A. de Surgy, 129-60. Paris,

1997.

Henniger, Joseph. “Belief in Spirits Among the Pre-Islamic
Arabs.” In Magic and Divination in Early Islam. The
Formation of the Classical Islamic World, vol. 42. Ash-
gate Publishing, 2004.

Ibn al-Nadim. The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, transl.

B. Dodge, 2 vols. New York, 1970.

Porter, Venetia. “Islamic Seals: Magical or Practical?” In
University Lectures in Islamic Studies, 2nd ed., ed.
A. Jones, 135-51. Altajir: World of Islam Trust, 1998.
(Reprinted in Savage-Smith, Emilie, ed. Magic and Divi-
nation in Early Islam. The Formation of the Classical
Islamic World, vol. 42. Ashgate Publishing, 2004.)

. “Amulets Inscribed with the Names of the ‘Seven

Sleepers’ of Ephesus in the British Museum.” Proceed-
ings of the Conference Word of God Art of Man. The
Institute of Ismaili Studies, forthcoming 2005.

Porter, Venetia, and Robert Hoyland. “Seals and Amulets”
in “Epigraphy.” In Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, vol. 2.
Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Rogers, J.M., and R.M. Ward. Suleyman the Magnificent.

London, British Museum Publications, 1988.
Savage-Smith, Emilie. Science Tools and Magic. The Nasser
D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. XII., Part One.
London, 1997.

. “Introduction: Magic and Divination in Early

Islam.” In Magic and Divination in Early Islam, The
Formation of the Classical Islamic World, vol. 42, ed.
Emilie Savage-Smith. Ashgate Publishing, 2004.

Tifaschi, Ahmad ibn Yusuf. Best Thoughts on Best of
Stones, transl. Samar Najm Abul Huda as Arab Roots
of Gemologv. Lanham and London: Scarecrow Press,

1998.

TAMERLANE, OR TIMUR

Tamerlane, or Timur, (ca. 1336-1405 CE), was the
last of the great nomadic conquerors and the founder
of the Timurid dynasty, which ruled in Transoxiana
and eastern Iran (1405-1507). A member of the Turco-
Mongol Barlas tribe, Timur was born in Transoxania
and rose to power among the Ulus Chaghatay, a
nomadic tribal confederation that formed the western
region of the Mongolian Chaghadaid khanate. Stories
about Timur’s early life are rife with legend and
share too-striking similarities with those of Genghis
Khan; therefore, it is hard to estimate the credibility
of the descriptions of his lowly beginnings. He ad-
vanced in the tribal arena through personal valor and
brigandage, gathering a nucleus of supporters and
offering his services to the local rulers. During one
of his early battles in Iran, he got the limp that
became part of his name (Persian: Timur-i leng,
“Timur the lame”). His military genius and charis-
matic personality in combination with his clever ma-
nipulation of tribal politics led to his rise first to the
leadership of his tribe (1361/1362) and then to the
head of the whole ulus (1370). Not being a descendant

of Genghis Khan, Timur could not bear the title khan
and thus was known only as amir (commander). To
legitimate himself, he married Genghisid princesses,
took the title kiiregen (Mongolian; “son-in-law”), and
appointed a puppet Genghisid as khan. He also col-
lected a host of princes of the different Genghisid
branches, portraying himself as their patron.

Another important component of Timur’s legiti-
mation was Islam. Timur respected and patronized
Sufi sheikhs and ulama, with whom he often debated,
and he built religious monuments. The third facet of
his legitimation was his own charisma and success:
Timur stressed his intimate connection with the su-
pernatural, consciously imitated Genghis Khan, and
used monumental building and court historiography
to magnify his name.

From 1370 onward, Timur fought almost immi-
nently at the head of his troops, unwilling to entrust
their command to anybody but himself. He started
with a series of raids into Moghulistan, the eastern
part of the Chaghadaids, and into Iran, and this
occupied him between 1370 and 1385. During the
next decade, he was active mainly against the Golden
Horde Khan and his former protege Toktamish, in
south Russia and Ukraine, achieving his major victo-
ry at 1395 when he ruined Sarai, the Golden Horde
capital, thereby encouraging the rise of Muscovy. In
1398 and 1399, Timur raided India, inflicting a deci-
sive blow on the Delhi Sultanate. In 1400, he turned
westward, defeating the Mamluks in 1401 in Damas-
cus (where he met Ibn Khaldun) and the Ottomans in
1402 at Ankara, capturing their sultan and enabling
Byzantium to survive for another fifty years. In 1405,
Timur was on his way to attack China, but he died
near Utrar before completing his campaign.

Although Timur raided the territory between Mos-
cow and Delhi, he established permanent administra-
tion only in Iran, Iraq and Central Asia. These
sedentary territories, governed by his sons and com-
manders, provided him with a rich tax base and a
reserve of manpower. Unlike Genghis Khan, Timur
did not try to subjugate the nomads whose domains
he invaded. While Timur’s capital, Samarqand,
became a cosmopolitan imperial city that flourished
as never before, Iran and Iraq suffered devastation at
a greater degree than that caused by the Mongols.

Because Timur’s campaigns were a mass of unco-
ordinated raids, he often conquered one place more
than once. However, the constant fighting enabled
Timur to engage and reward his troops, thereby pre-
venting them from turning against him. Timur’s con-
quests also consciously aimed to restore the Mongol
Empire, and the deliberate devastation that accompa-
nied them was a conscious imitation of the Mongol
onslaught. The third aim of the conquests was the

796

TAMERLANE, OR TIMUR

Exterior of Tamerlane’s (Timur’s) mausoleum. Timurid dynasty. 1405 CE. Credit: Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY.
S. Isidro el Real, Leon, Spain.

revival of the Silk Roads, shifting their main routes
into his realm, mainly at the expense of the more
northern route that passed through the Golden
Horde’s lands.

Timur’s conquests were a high time for Transoxi-
ana, but they weakened — although did not eliminate —
nearly all of the Muslim forces of his time (Ottomans,
Mamluks, Golden Horde, Chaghadaid Moghuls,
Delhi Sultanate). They also led to the spread of the
gunpowder weapon back eastward, from the Otto-
mans to China and India, thereby contributing to
the subsequent decline of the nomads.

Timur’s empire, which was mainly based on his
personal charisma and lacked a strong institutional
basis, did not survive intact after his death. However,
his descendants, the Timurids, ruled over a smaller
realm that was composed of eastern Iran and Trans-
oxania for another century (1405-1501), presiding
over a period of cultural brilliance. With the Uzbek
conquest of Transoxiana, one Timurid prince,
Babur, escaped into India, where he founded the
Mughal dynasty (1526-1858), the rulers of which
called themselves Timurids. Under the Timurids,

Timur had become a source of legitimacy in his own
right and was used as such by different rulers in
Central Asia and Iran up to the nineteenth century.
He was also well known in Renaissance Europe. Dur-
ing the late twentieth century, Timur also became the
father of independent Uzbekistan, even though the
Uzbeks had expelled his descendants from the territo-
ry that later became Uzbekistan.

Michal Biran

See also Architecture, Religious; Architecture, Secular:
Civil; Central Asia; China; Genghis Khan; Iran; Iraq;
India; Khurasan; Mongols; Mughals; Nomadism and
Pastoralism; Raids; Samarqand; Silk Roads; Timurids;
Turks; Warfare and Techniques

Further Reading

Primary Sources

de Clavijo, Ruy Gonzales. Narrative of the Spanish Embassy
to the Court of Timur at Samarkand in the Years 1403 -
1406, transl. G. Le Strange. London, 1928.

797

TAMERLANE, OR TIMUR

Ibn ‘Arabshah. Tamerlane or Timur the Great Amir, transl.

J.H. Sanders. 1936; Reprint 1976.

Ibn Khaldun. Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane, ed. and transl.
W.J. Fischell. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Berkeley
University Press, 1952.

Khwandamir. Habib al-Siyar, ed. and transl. W.M.
Thackston., 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass: Department of
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard
University, 1994.

Shami, NiUam al-Din. Zafar Namah, ed. F. Tauer. Mono-
graphic Archivu Orientalniho 5. Beirut, 1937.

Yazdi, Sharaf al-Din. Zafar Namah, ed. Urunbaev. Tashk-
ent: Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR, 1972.

Studies

Manz, B.F. “Tamerlane and the Symbolism of Sovereign-
ty.” Iranian Studies 21 (1988): 105-22.

. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane . Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press, 1989.

. “Tamerlane Career and Its Uses.” Journal of World

History 13 (2002): 1-25.

Woods, John E. “Timur’s Genealogy.” In Intellectual
Studies on Islam, Essays Written in Honor of Martin B.
Dickson, eds. M.M. Mazzaouni and V.B. Moreen,
85-126. Salt Lake City: Utah University Press, 1990.

TAWHIDI, AL-, ABU HAYYAN

Abu Hayyan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-‘Abbas al-
Tawhidi was an essayist, philosopher and one of the
greatest masters of the Arabic style. According to
sources, his name (Tawhidi) probably derives from
the variety of date ( tawhid) that his father traded.

Al-Tawhidi was probably born in Iraq or Fars
sometime between AH 310/922 CE and AH 320/932
CE, and he died in Shiraz (Iran) in 414/1023. It is not
known whether he was of Arab or Iranian descent or
what his mother tongue was, but he did not under-
stand Persian. He spent his childhood in Baghdad,
which was rife with clashes between the Sunnite and
the Shi‘i populations; despite this, it offered an intel-
lectually rich life. In Baghdad, he studied grammar,
law, the Qur’an, hadith (the traditions of the Proph-
et), mathematics, rhetoric, theology, and Sufism. Al-
Tawhidi was familiar with Ismaili doctrines and Greek
philosophy, both of which were in vogue in the intel-
lectual circles of the time. One of his masters was in fact
the Christian philosopher and theologian Yahya ibn
‘Adi, follower of the famous al-Farabi and translator
and commentator of Aristotle, whose lectures he
attended in 361/971.

In 350/961, al-Tawhidi decided to dedicate himself
to literature and began writing Insights and Treasures,
which took him fifteen years to complete. This first,
rather modest work is an anthology of anecdotes and
aphorisms. The didactic aim and its sometimes serious,
sometimes humorous style are typical of the adab
literature of which al-Jahiz was a master. Al-Tawhidi,

inspired by the latter’s writings, adopts his style
and later dedicates In Praise of Jahiz to him. For a
living, he worked as a copyist, a job that was fairly
common among men of learning without private
means. The influence of this activity is reflected in
On Penmanship, which talks about different handwrit-
ing techniques and tools of the trade and contains the
aphorisms and sayings of famous copyists and
scribes.

Al-Tawhidi, like many of his colleagues, spent
much of his life in search of a patron. For this reason,
he twice set out to find his fortune in Rayy (southern
Iran), but he did not meet with success. He first pre-
sented himself to the Buyid vizier Abu ’1-Fadl ibn al-
‘Amid and later to his son, Abu ’1-Fath, who died
soon after. In 367/ CE, his successor, the vizier al-
Sahib ibn ‘Abbad, who was also a refined man of
letters, hired al-Tawhidi as a copyist. Unsuited to
life at court and frustrated by his lack of intellectual
success, al-Tawhidi reacts badly to the continuous
humiliation that his employer inflicted on him; three
years later he lost his job. He got his revenge by
writing The Characters of the Two Viziers ( al-Sahih
ibn al-‘ Abbad and Abu ’l-Fadl ibn al-'Amid), a virulent
pamphlet that is stylistically brilliant despite its often
obscene tone and that portrays al-Sahib ibn ‘Abbad
in a very bad light.

On his return to Baghdad, al-Tawhidi was taken
under the wing of Abu ’1-Wafa’ al-Muhandis, the
mathematician, politician, and man of science, who
introduced him to Ibn Sa‘dan, a high-ranking civil
servant. With him, al-Tawhidi finally found an intel-
lectual equal who can offer him the type of intellectual
relationship he had been looking for. He dedicated Of
Friendship and Friends to him; this is an anthology of
poems, prose, aphorisms, and sayings about friend-
ship which took him thirty years to write. This en-
counter marks the beginning of a period of intense
intellectual activity. Al-Tawhidi became a close friend
of the logician Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani al-Mantiq,
another philosopher formed at the school of al-Farabi
and by whom al-Tawhidi was greatly influenced. The
debates held under the guidance of al-Sijistani and
Yahya ibn ‘Adi in the circle of intellectuals that al-
Tawhidi frequents are reproduced in Conversations,
which contains 106 conversations about religious,
philosophical, ethical, factual, and literary topics.
This work is a precious record of the discussions be-
tween men of learning of different beliefs and origins,
and it is also the main extant source of al-Sijistani’s
thoughts.

When, in 373/983, Ibn Sa‘dan became vizier to
the Buyid Prince Samsam al-Dawla, al-Tawhidi
remained at his court and took part in his cultural
evenings. Here, the vizier presented a wide range of

798

TECHNOLOGY, MILLS: WATER AND WIND

philological, philosophical, and literary topics that al-
Tawhidi discussed, often reflecting Abu Sulayman al-
Sijistani’s viewpoint. This inspired Delight and Enter-
tainment, which is a detailed record of these evenings
compiled at al-Muhandis’ request. The work is a mine
of information about intellectual life in Baghdad dur-
ing the tenth century, especially with regard to the
thoughts of the most important philosophers of that
period. Searching [Questions] and Compendious
[Answers] is of similar documentary value and was
written together with the Persian philosopher-histori-
an Miskawayh; it is a collection of questions put
forward by al-Tawhidi about matters of philosophy,
natural science, ethics, and linguistics, and it contains
detailed answers given by Miskawayh. After Ibn
Sa‘dan’s death (374/984), al-Tawhidi seeks refuge in
Shiraz (central Iran) at the home of the vizier of the
Buyid prince, Samsam al-Dawla. Little is known
about the later years of al-Tawhidi’s life other than
that he burns his life works in the throes of a spiritual
crisis or perhaps as a result of disappointment in the
poor consideration of his writings during the preced-
ing twenty years.

He is undoubtedly a master of style: his crystalline,
elegant prose deliberately imitates that of his great
predecessor and model, al-Jahiz. His encyclopedic
knowledge is reflected in the layout of a brief treatise
entitled Of the Branches of Knowledge, which deals
analytically with the different sciences. Al-Tawhidi
does not seem to have followed a specific doctrine,
although he showed very obvious sympathy toward
Sufism. This is particularly evident in Divine Intima-
tions, which was written when he was older and con-
tains homilies, prayers, and some technical references
to the doctrine. A follower of the Shafhte school
of Islamic law, he was opposed to Mu'tazilism and
Shi‘ism, but he never explicitly belonged to any theo-
logical school of thought. His varied and sometimes
controversial beliefs led many Muslims to view him
suspiciously: Ibn al-Jawzi (twelfth century) says that
al-Tawhidi is an example of zandaqa (heresy), and his
contemporaries probably ignored him for this reason.
This was something that much surprised the biogra-
pher Yaqut al-Hamawi (thirteenth century), who
describes him as “the philosopher of cultured men
and a man of culture among philosophers.” During
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scholars redis-
covered him and appreciated the variety of his works,
the wide range of his interests, and his love of literary
activities, which al-Tawhidi saw as having a noble
function. Al-Tawhidi’s double personality (polyhedric
intellectual and refined man of letters on the one
hand, hypochondriac and pessimistic on the other) is
reflected in the opinions of the scholars: if some con-
sider him to be a worthy representative of humanism,

endowed with great intellectual honesty, others con-
sider him to be a disappointed and intellectually
embittered courtier as a result of his failure at climbing
the social ladder.

Antonella Ghersetti

See also Adab; Baghdad; Buyids; al-Farabi; Heresy
and Heretics; Ismailis; al-Jahiz; Mu‘tazilites; Shiism;
Sufism and Sufis; Viziers

Further Reading

Berge, Marc. Pour un Humanisme Vecu: Abu Hayyan
al-Tawhidi. Damascus, 1979.

. “Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi”. In The Cambridge His-
tory of Arabic Literature. ‘Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed.
J. Ashtiany et al., 112-24. Cambridge, 1990.

Keilani, Ibrahim. Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (in French).
Beirut, 1950.

Kraemer, Joel. Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam,
212-22. Leiden, 1986.

. Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam. Leiden, 1986.

TECHNOLOGY, MILLS: WATER
AND WIND

Water and wind mills in Islam were part of a general
technology involving the transport and use of water in
irrigation and for power. Muslim science took great
interest in hydraulic technology, particularly mills.
This interest reflected the importance of irrigation in
the dry climates of many Muslim regions. Reliable
irrigation systems and a plentiful supply of hydraulic
power were critical, because Muslim agriculture fo-
cused heavily on intensively cultivated crops such as
dates, citrus fruit, and olives. In addition to structures
like mills, Muslims also perfected reservoir technolo-
gy, dams, above-ground irrigation systems, and un-
derground systems like qanats (filtration galleries),
which exploited water tables using vertical wells, and
cimbras (riverbed galleries), which used covered
trenches to transport water.

Mills provided an important source of industrial
power, both for local agriculture and for more far-
reaching trade products. Mill wheels refined impor-
tant raw materials by grinding them down, and this
made them critical machines for several industries,
not all of which were food related. They were used
to grind wood pulp for paper, sugarcane for sugar,
grain and corn for flour, and flax for cloth. The
papermaking technology fostered the explosion in
Muslim books and libraries during the eighth century.
Paper quickly replaced papyrus in the Islamic world
and made the creation of relatively cheap and nu-
merous books possible. This revolution was so impor-
tant in al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia) that, after the

799

TECHNOLOGY, MILLS: WATER AND WIND

Christian King James I of Aragon conquered Muslim
Valencia (with its paper mills) in southeastern Spain
in 1238, the Aragonese production of documents
increased exponentially.

Sugar mills were an important part of the Meccan
trade in early Islam, as were grain mills. Unlike
Christian European mills, which were often owned
and tightly controlled for lucrative tax purposes by
a feudal lord, Muslim mills were privately owned
businesses in many areas. However, in al-Andalus,
Muslim ownership of mills tended to be communal
in nature; the mills were owned and managed by local
groups. This system, called a “tribal system,” allowed
for more local and decentralized control. When power
became more centralized in a more stratified society
(e.g., in the taifa kingdoms of eleventh century al-
Andalus; in the post-conquest Christian kingdoms of
the next century), horizontal mills gave way to more
efficient mill designs like vertical mills and windmills.
This increased production but restricted the benefits
of such progress to fewer people in the society.

Also important to Islamic agriculture were wind-
mills, which date back to the time of the caliph
‘Umar in the seventh century. These were used for
drawing water for irrigation (like norias) and for
grinding corn. The sails (six or twelve to a windmill)
turned a large wheel inside the windmill house, which
then turned the millstone; the system could also be set
up with multiple mill wheels. Windmills were built on
a height — on top of a hill or on the top of a fortress or
substructure — to maximize the availability and power
of the wind. Early windmills were built in two stories,
with the mill wheels in the top story and the sails
attached to the lower story. The sails consisted of
bundles of palm leaves and resembled the sails of a
European-style windmill.

Mills came in three types based on their sources of
power: water-, wind-, or animal-driven. In some agri-
cultural machines, one source was used to gain anoth-
er. For example, in a noria, an animal drove a cup
wheel that transported water from a river or stream to
an irrigation tank or channel. Animal-driven mills
were most useful in areas that lacked enough water
to power a mill and in which a windmill was not
feasible. Whatever the power source was, it drove a
large hydraulic wheel that turned a millstone that
ground raw agricultural materials into refined pro-
ducts. Mills could differ greatly in complexity,
depending on how the power was transferred to the
wheel. In the simpler horizontal mill, the water drove
a current wheel that directly turned the mill wheel. In
the more efficient — but also more expensive — vertical
mill, the power transferred to the mill wheel via a set
of gears. The advantages of the horizontal mill over
the vertical were that it could be set on smaller rivers

or even irrigation channels, that it was cheaper and
easier to build, and that it could be used to drive
multiple mill wheels. Also, in Islamic systems, the
delivery tank and millrace were separate, so water
could be diverted for irrigation before entry into the
mill. This shows the importance of water in Islam as
an agricultural tool for both harnessing power and
transferring water. The separate tanks and the possi-
bility of having multiple mill wheels also facilitated
ownership and use by groups rather than individuals.

Despite the clearly industrial uses for power, a
primary use was always in agricultural irrigation, of
which mills were a major component. Set up on rivers,
they were usually connected to a system of irrigation
canals and were used to grind the products of that
system. Streams or rivers often had multiple mills on
them, particularly horizontal mills. The nature of
ownership heavily influenced the placement of a
mill. In single-owner or post-Islamic feudal systems,
the mill came at the head of the agricultural system,
getting the first part of the water. In communally
owned systems, the mill was built downstream at the
bottom of the network of irrigation channels, at a
point after the water had been diverted for irrigation
use; this maximized the availability of the water for
both irrigation and power. Another way to maximize
use was to have water schedules in which water was
allocated to different parts of the system at different
times. This extended to the allocation of water to the
mill. In the case of a community mill, co-owners had
shares (i.e., rights to use the mill at different times).
Attempts to feudalize or otherwise centralize the man-
agement of such extensive systems often failed. Their
structure was too inherently collective to make cen-
tralization practical, and such attempts generated
hostility among those working within the older sys-
tem. When centralization succeeded, older owners
found themselves marginalized, losing their collective
rights to irrigation and milling.

Paula R. Stiles

See also Agriculture; Andalus; Irrigation; Land Tenure
and Ownership

Further Reading

Glick, Thomas F. From Muslim Fortress to Christian Cul-
ture: Social and Cultural Change in Medieval Spain.
Manchester and New York: Manchester University
Press, 1995.

Irrigation and Hydraulic Technology: Medieval

Spain and Its Legacy. Aldershot: Variorum, 1996.

Hill, D.R. Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press. 1993.

Long, Pamela O. Technology and Society in the Medieval
Centuries: Byzantium, Islam, and the West, 500-1300.
Washington, DC : American Historical Association, 2003.

800

TEXTILES

Watson, A.M. Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic
World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1983 .

TEXTILES

Much of the study of early Islamic textiles is over-
shadowed by the prominence of studies on medieval
tiraz textiles that carry inscriptions following an offi-
cial caliphal protocol, similar to that on coins and
other official documents, with historically identifiable
content referring to the patrons, places, workshops,
and the year of manufacture. Scholars have tended to
focus on this group of material, because it is provides
a distinct and narrow enough field for historical in-
vestigation. This goes hand in hand with a general
scholarly focus on Egypt, because most medieval Is-
lamic textiles that are extant today were found there,
and many of them were produced there or had been
exported there from other parts of the Islamic world.
Furthermore, most medieval literary sources discuss
the textile industry of early Islamic Egypt rather than
that of other parts of the Islamic world. Therefore,
the present view of the medieval Islamic textile indus-
try is very much dependent on what is known about
Egypt and how its network of trade was linked to the
Mediterranean region on the one hand and the Indian
Ocean on the other.

Egypt, the Mediterranean, and the
Indian Ocean

Studies Based on Literary Evidence

The first serious study of the concept of tiraz is Josef
von Karabacek’s Die Arabischen Papyrusprotokolle of
1908, which links the contents of protocolary inscrip-
tions on papyri to those on coins and textiles.

One of the earliest studies of the literary sources of
the Egyptian textile industry is Ah Bey Baghat’s “Les
Manufactures d'Etoffe en Egypte au Moyen Age,”
which was published in 1903. It contains a number
of literary references relating to the ‘Abbasid and
Fatimid periods, and these focus on the products
and centers of the textile industry rather than the
structure of its administration.

Adolf Grohmann’s article about the term tiraz in
the Encyclopaedia of Islam of 1934 adopts the concept
of tiraz as a protocolary inscription, but he applies it
exclusively to textiles. He lists the contents of a large
number of tiraz textile inscriptions, but he also intro-
duces an institutional and industrial dimension
by using several historical literary sources. As a

papyrologist, Grohmann also uses the documentary
evidence of papyri to supplement and test the histori-
cal information contained in the inscriptions.

Gaston Wiet can be credited with raising tiraz
textiles from obscurity to wider scholarly interest.
He assembled the massive tiraz collection of the Mu-
seum of Islamic Art in Cairo and masterminded the
publication of approximately 1140 inscribed textiles
in the RCEA. In 1935, Wiet also planned a large
exhibition of the collection at the Musee des Gobe-
lins. It is to his credit that any significant scholarship
of tiraz textiles exists. However, Wiet treated tiraz
textiles as historical documents and did not see them
as textile products, a methodology that owed debts to
a scholarly interest in epigraphy since the nineteenth
century and is the basis for a number of related
publications (Michele Angelo Lanci’s Trattato Delle
Simboliche Representanze Arabiche Della Varia Gener-
azione de ’ Musulmani Carrateri Sopra Differenti Mate-
rie Operati of 1 845-1 846; A.R. Guest’s series of articles
in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society between
1906 and 1931; Kendrick’s catalog of the tiraz textile
collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum; Carl
Johan Lamm’s articles about Swedish tiraz collections;
Nancy Pence Britton’s catalog of the tiraz collection at
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts). The early publica-
tions of Ernst Kuhnel also show a clear interest in
epigraphy and documentation rather than the artifacts
themselves.

Two early attempts to study the organization of
tiraz institutions were written by Muhammad Abd
al-Aziz Marzouk and Etienne Combe. Both authors
see textile inscriptions as historical documents with-
out giving any consideration to the fabrics on which
they are found. Their studies of the institutions rely
almost exclusively on known textual sources; neither
use the textile evidence in a convincing manner to
support their theses.

Ugo Monneret de Villard has been one of the only
scholars to devote a study to the production of court
textiles in Palermo under the Normans; this was also
largely drawn from literary sources. His study sug-
gests that, until the arrival of the Normans, a tiraz
workshop did not exist in Sicily despite a thriving
textile industry, which is suggested by the lack of
surviving specimens from Sicily, in Egypt, and in
Italy and the silence of contemporary literary sources.
The Arabic inscription on the coronation robe of
Roger II states that it was made in the khizana al-
malikiyya, suggesting that, when the Normans took
control of the island, they organized a workshop
within their palace. By contrast, a recent study based
on the evidence of another surviving inscribed frag-
ment from Palermo that stated in Latin that it was
made in a royal workshop (“Operatum in Regio

801

TEXTILES

Ergast”) suggests that the Palermitan workshop was
ultimately based on the ergasterion (the Byzantine
court workshop).

R.S. Serjeant’s Islamic Textiles, Material for a His-
tory up to the Mongol Conquest, reveals an entirely
different approach, because it functions very much
like a historical source book for textile historians.
It draws from histories, administrative works, works
of hisba, geographical works, dictionaries (both
biographical and geographical), and agricultural trea-
tises. The material is arranged in parts chronological-
ly, geographically, and by subject. Encyclopedic in
approach, Serjeant’s work covers all main areas of
the Islamic world between Spain and India.

Yadida Stillman’s doctoral dissertation, Female
Attire of Medieval Egypt: According to the Trousseau
Lists and Cognate Material from the Cairo Geniza, is
an important contribution to the current understand-
ing of medieval textile terminology, both in terms of
fabrics and materials but also in terms of fashion.
Drawn on surviving documents from the Cairo
Geniza, it puts into order and defines the meanings
of the often very confusing usage of medieval Arabic
terms for textiles, and it expands on the previous
scholarship by S.D. Goitein.

Maurice Lombard, in his study Les Textiles dans le
Monde Musulman, also adopts a purely literary ap-
proach, albeit with a different aim than Serjeant’s
work. Lombard presents an interpretative history of
Islamic textiles, with particular reference to manufac-
ture, society, and trade. It is divided into sections that
deal with the materials and techniques of manufacture,
aspects of the administration and patronage, and the
social and economic issues of labor and technology. A
large section of this work is devoted to Egypt, particu-
larly the textile manufacturers of the Delta region and
the structure and role of the textile institutions.

Irene Bierman’s doctoral dissertation entitled Art
and Politics: The Impact of Fatimid Uses of Tiraz
Fabrics presents an interpretative study of the court
context of inscribed textiles and their political signifi-
cance, a study that takes tiraz inscriptions beyond
their documentary, epigraphic, or semantic value by
attempting to establish their semiotics.

Another interpretative work is Gladis Frantz-
Murphy’s article “A New Interpretation of the Eco-
nomic History of Mediaeval Egypt: The Role of the
Textile Industry 254—567/868-1171,” which follows
the tradition of scholarship on Egyptian economic
and administrative history. Hers differs, however,
from these earlier studies in that it focuses on the
role of the textile industry in the economic develop-
ment of Egypt under the Tulunids, a time when taxes
were withheld from the central ‘Abbasid authorities in
Baghdad and reinvested into Egyptian agriculture to

boost the production of raw materials and finished
products for export.

Studies Based on the Evidence of Textiles

Although their epigraphy, decorative style, and his-
torical and administrative contexts have been studied
in some depth, the technical issues presented by tiraz
textiles have hardly been addressed. Tiraz textiles have
been subjected to taxonomic analysis relatively rarely.
The studies by R. Pfister, Carl Johan Lamm, Louisa
Bellinger, Veronika Gervers and Lisa Golombek,
Mary Ballard, and Georgette Cornu are pioneering
works in this area, but their value has been limited by
the fact that they have drawn their evidence largely
from single collections. This is also the case with
Anna Contadini’s study of the Fatimid textiles at
the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is a relatively
small collection. Although Contadini touches on vital
questions such as manufacture, administration, and
commerce, her findings are not checked against larger
samples. Lamm was the only scholar who based his
research on several collections.

Lamm’s Cotton in Mediaeval Textiles in the Near
East was one of the first studies that focused on one
material that was important during the early Islamic
period and traced it through the literary sources as well
as the extant textile evidence. He presented a wide range
of textiles from Sasanian, Umayyad, ‘Abbasid, and
Indian importers, most of which were found in Egypt.
The material was arranged by decorative method, the
technicalities of which were given great attention. A
gazetteer of places that produced cotton and relevant
textual sources was included as an appendix.

Lamm’s contemporary, R. Pfister, was working on
a series of articles that were, like Lamm’s, novel in
their approach and methodology. His two articles,
“Materiaux pour Servir au Classement des Textiles
Egyptiens Posterieurs a la Conquete Arabe” and
"L'lntroduction du Coton en Egypte Musulmane,”
were, like Lamm’s work, concerned with materials
and techniques. The first of the two articles evaluated
the Islamic contribution to the development of Egyp-
tian textiles. For this Pfister had the color dyes of
a number of Coptic and Islamic textiles analyzed
and found that, during the Islamic period, a lac dye
was used; this was an insect-based substance that had
reached Egypt via the Indian Ocean route from India.
In his other article, Pfister linked the introduction of
Z-spinning (i.e., twisting the yarn to the left) into
Egypt during the ‘Abbasid period to the concurrent
import of Iraqi cotton textiles. The trade between
Egypt and India (another important eastern trading
partner of Egypt) has been the basis of a massive

802

TEXTILES

study by Ruth Barnes of the Newberry Collection of
medieval Indian block-printed textiles.

The catalog of the tiraz collection at the Textile
Museum Washington published in 1952 by Ernst
Kiihnel and Louisa Bellinger is to this day one of
the most comprehensive surveys of early Islamic tex-
tiles available. Its trendsetting quality lay in the coop-
eration of an Islamic art historian with a textile
specialist. While Kiihnel interpreted the historical
data, Bellinger analyzed materials, fabrics, and deco-
rative techniques by using taxonomy; this correlation
of historical and technical data allowed for contextu-
alizing. Bellinger showed convincingly the various
trends and developments in the making of tiraz tex-
tiles from Iran, Yemen, and Egypt, and she was able
to distinguish several centers of production and put
forward theories about the transmission of materials
and techniques from East to West. Lisa Golombek
and Veronica Gervers followed Kiihnel and
Bellinger’s approach in their 1977 study, “Tiraz
Fabrics in the Royal Ontario Museum.” Although
Gervers’ contribution was largely a reevaluation of
the theories put forward by Lamm, Pfister, and
Bellinger, Golombek attempted an interpretation of
the sociological implications of materials, patronage,
and the uses and significance of tiraz textiles, which
were areas that had not been touched upon seriously
before. However, rather than taking the literary
sources as her stepping stone, Golombek decided to
raise questions on the basis of the textile evidence
itself. This led her to investigate what kinds of gar-
ments could be reconstructed from the textile frag-
ments, the kinds of fabrics used, the degree of foreign
influence in Egypt, and who made and ordered these
textiles. Rather than providing answers, Gervers’ and
Golombek’s article provides a forum for discussion.

Mary Ballard, a textile conservator at the Freer
and Sackler Galleries in Washington, has contributed
to the field a technical study of tiraz textiles based on
the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. By ana-
lyzing mostly materials and weaving methods, she
documents the technical peculiarities of this sample.

The most recent studies of tiraz have been published
by Georgette Cornu. Her study “Wasi Yemenite des
IXe-Xe Siecles au Musee Historique des Tissus de
Lyon,” published in 1991, presents a new approach,
because it traces one particular extant textile type
through available textual sources, making constant ref-
erence to existing textiles. Perhaps more prominent —
but not as ingenious in its approach as her previous
article — is Cornu’s catalog of the Pfister Collection
of tiraz textiles held at the Bibliotheca Apostolica
Vaticana in Rome. Massive in scale, this work
continues the approach introduced by Kiihnel and
Bellinger, although it is less interpretative with regard

to the historical implications of technological issues.
However, every item in the catalog is meticulously
recorded; each entry includes the inscription, technical
data, and comparisons. In an appendix, the fabric struc-
tures of several textiles are explained with schematic
drawings. Cornu’s exhibition catalog of 1994, Tissus
d'Egypte, Temoins du Monde Arabe VIIIe~XVe Siecles,
Collection Bouvier, continues this approach.

The recent doctoral dissertation Tiraz Textiles from
Egypt: Production, Administration and Uses of Tiraz
Textiles from Egypt Under the Umayyad, ‘Abbasid and
Fatimid Dynasties has tried to overcome the existing
rift between historians and textile specialists, by
approaching the subject in a more unified way, taking
into account the interrelationships among production,
administration, and use. Rather than relying on one
collection (as most previous authors have done), sam-
ples from all of the major museum collections are
examined here and have been arranged in a database
of 1823 items, which made it possible to analyze the
properties of textiles taxonomically. By using taxo-
nomic analysis, both material and historical informa-
tion are combined, and emerging trends are tested
against the historical evidence of literary sources. A
major discovery lies in how the textile evidence reflects
administrative changes in control of the textile indus-
try and the wider administrative relationship between
Egypt and Iraq under the ‘Abbasids. Despite agree-
ment by both textile specialists and historians that
tiraz textiles were produced for court consumption,
neither have considered addressing why tiraz textiles
were used in burials; graves are the sources from
which most surviving tiraz textiles have in fact been
recovered archaeologically. This thesis approaches
that subject by considering both material and literary
evidence and suggests that tiraz textiles were regarded
as a source of blessing for the deceased because of the
caliphal association recorded in their inscriptions.

Iran

The finds of medieval Buyid silks at Rayy in Iran,
which were supposedly made in tombs at Naqqareh
Khaneh and Kuh-i Sorsoreh at the foot of the moun-
tain of Bibi Shahr Banu (Aminabad), are what appear
to be the only other known major Islamic burial finds
of textiles outside of Egypt and have therefore aroused
enormous attention from scholars and textile dealers
alike. Fora long time there existed a controversy about
the authenticity of these finds; it is now clear that a
good number of textiles that were claimed to have
come from Rayy are in fact forgeries, particularly
those that came on to the art market after 1930.

803

TEXTILES

Some textiles, however, have been found to be genu-
ine, particularly those that came on the market
around 1925, when the tombs were excavated. Many
of this latter group are now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London and have been compared with the
scant descriptions by those excavators, dealers, and
scholars present in Iran in the 1920s. The Rayy tex-
tiles are, however, fundamentally different from those
textiles found in Egypt with regard to materials, tech-
nique, and historical context. They are compound-
woven silks (rather than linen, cotton, or wool like
those found in Egypt), and there is very little con-
temporary literary information about the historical
context in which they were produced and used.

JOCHEN SoKOLY

Further Reading

Baghat, A.B. “Les Manufactures d’Etoffes en Egypte au
Moyen Age.” Bulletin de I’Institut Egyptien IV (1903):
351-61.

Ballard, M. Paper given at the CIETA conference in Sep-
tember 1983. Typescript, personal communication.

Barnes, R. “From India to Egypt: The Newberry Collection
and the Indian Ocean Trade.” In Islamische Textilkunst
des Mittelalters: Aktuelle Probleme, vol. V, 79-92.
Riggisberg (Bern): Abegg-Stiftung, 1997.

. Indian Block-Printed Textiles in Egypt: The New-
berry Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ,
2 vols. Oxford, UK, 1997.

Bierman, I.A. Art and Politics: The Impact of Fatimid Uses
of Tiraz Fabrics. PhD dissertation. Chicago: University
of Chicago, Department of Near East Languages and
Civilisation, 1980.

Blair, Sheila, Jonathan Max Bloom, and Anne E. Wardwell.
“Reevaluating the Date of the ‘Buyid’ Silks by Epigraph-
ic and Radiocarbon Analysis.” Ars Orientalis 22: 1-42.

Bouvier. Tissus d Egypte, Temoins du Monde Arabe VI lie
XVe Siecles, Collection Bouvier. Geneva and Paris, 1994.

Britton, N.P. A Study of Some Early Islamic Textiles in The
Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Boston, 1938.

Combe, E. “Une Institution de l’Etat Musulman: Le Dar al-
Tiraz, Atelier de Tissage.” Revue des Conferences Fran-
coises en Orient XI (1947): 85-92.

Cornu, G. “ Wasi ; Yemenite des IXe-Xe Siecles au Musee
Historique des Tissus de Lyon.” Archeologie Islamique II
(1991): 47-70.

. Tissus Islamiques de la Collection Pfister. Vatican

City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1992.

Contadini, A. Fatimid Art at the Victoria and Albert Muse-
um. London, 1998.

Goitein, S.D. A Mediterranean Society, I, Economic Foun-
dations. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967.

. A Mediterranean Society, III, The Family. Berkeley,

Los Angeles, and London, 1978.

. A Mediterranean Society, IV, Daily Life. Berkeley,

Los Angeles, and London, 1983.

. A Mediterranean Society, V, The Individual: Por-
trait of a Mediterranean Personality of the High Middle
Ages as Reflected in the Cairo Geniza. Berkeley, Los
Angeles, and London, 1988.

Golombek, L., and V. Gervers. "Tiraz Fabrics in the
Royal Ontario Museum.” In Studies in Textile History
in Memory of Harold B. Burnham , 82-125. Toronto, 1977.

Grohmann, A. “Tiraz.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol.
IV, 785-93. 1934.

Guest, A.R., “Arabic Inscriptions on Textiles at the South
Kensington Museum.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society (1906): 387-99.

. “Further Arabic Inscriptions on Textiles.” Journal

of the Royal Asiatic Society (1918) 263-5.

. “Further Arabic Inscriptions on Textiles (II).”

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1923): 405-8.

.“Further Arabic Inscriptions on Textiles (III).”

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1930): 761-6.

. “Further Arabic Inscriptions on Textiles (IV).”

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1931): 129-34.

Lamm, C.J. “Egyptiska Tekstiler I Nationalmuseum.”
National Musei Arsbok III (1933): 1-11.

. “Five Egyptian Tapestry-Weavings in Swedish

Museums.” Ars Islamica I (1934) 92-8.

. “Arabiska Inskrifter Pa Nagra Textilfragment fran

Egypten.” Rhosska Konstslojdmuseets Arstryck (1935):
3-11.

. “Egyptiska Dukagangsvavnader.” Kulturen En

Arsbok (1936): 258-74.

. Cotton in Medieval Textiles in the Near East. Paris,

1937.

. “Jordfundne Tekstiler fra Aegypten." Tilskueren

(1938): 333-50.

. “Dated or Datable Tiraz in Sweden.” Le Monde

Oriental XXX 11 (1938): 103-25.

Lombard, M. Les Textiles dans le Monde Musulman du Vile
au X He Siecle, Etudes d’Economie Medievale III. Paris,
1978.

von Karabacek, J. Zur Orientalischen Altertumskunde, II.
Die Arabischen Papyrusprotokolle. Vienna, 1908.

Kendrick, A.F. Catalogue of Muhammadan Textiles of the
Medieval Period. London: Victoria and Albert Museum,
1924.

King, D. “The Textiles Found Near Rayy About 1925.”
CIETA Bulletin 65 (1987): 34-59.

Kiihnel, E. “Tirazstoffe der Abbasiden.” Der Islam XIV
(1925): 82-8.

. Islamische Stoffe aus Agyptischen Grabern in der

Islamischen Kunstabteilung und in der Stoffsammlung
des Schlossmuseums. Berlin, 1927.

. "Zur Tiraz-Epigraphik der Abbasiden und Fatimi-

den.” In Aus Funf Jahrtausenden Morgenldndischer Kul-
tur, Festschrift Max Freiherrn von Oppenheim zum 70,
59-65. Berlin: Geburtstage, 1933.

Kiihnel, E., and Bellinger, L. Catalogue of Dated Tiraz
Fabrics, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid. Washington, DC:
The Textile Museum, 1952.

Marzouk, M.A.A. “The Evolution of Inscriptions on
Fatimid Textiles.” Ars Islamica X (1943): 164-6.

. “Alexandria as a Textile Centre 331 B.C.-1517

A.D.” Bulletin de la Societe d Archeologie Copte XIII
(1948-1949): 111-35.

. "The Turban of Samuel Ibn Musa, The Earliest

Dated Islamic Textile.” Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts
Cairo University XVI (1954): 143-51.

. “Four Dated Tiraz Fabrics of the Fatimid Khalif

az-Zahir.” Kunst des Orients II (1955): 45-51.

. “The Earliest Fatimid Textile.” In Akten des Vier-

undzwanzigsten Internationalen Orient alisten-Kongresses

804

THEATER

Munc.hen, 28. August bis 4. September 1957, ed. Herbert
Franke, 356-7. Wiesbaden, 1957.

. “The Earliest Fatimid Textile (Tiraz al-Mansuriya).”

Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts Alexandria University XI
(1957): 37-44.

. “Five Tiraz Fabrics in the Volkerkunde-Museum

of Basel.” In Alts der Welt der Islamischen Kunst,
Festschrift fur Ernst Kuhnel zum 75. Geburtstag am 26.
10. 1957, 283-9. Berlin, 1959.

. “The Tiraz Institutions in Medieval Egypt.” Stud-
ies in Islamic Art and Architecture in Honour of Professor
K.A.C. Creswell, 157-62. Cairo, 1965.

Monneret de Villard, U. “La Tessitura Palermitana Sotto I
Normanni e i Suoi Rapporti con FArte Bizantina.” In
Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati, Volume III. Letteratura
e Storia Bizantina, 1-26. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apos-
tolica Vaticana, 1956.

Pfister, R. “Materiaux pour Servir au Classement des Tex-
tiles Egyptiens Posterieurs a la Conquete Arabe.” Revue
des Arts Asiatiques X (1936): 1-16, 73-85.

. “L’lntroduction du Coton en Egypte Musulmane.”

Revue des Arts Asiatiques XI (1937): 167-72.

. “Toiles a Inscriptions Abbasides et Fatimides.”

Bulletin d’ Etudes Orientates XI (1945-1946): 47-90.

Piazza, R. V. “La Produzione di Manufatti Tessili nel Palazzo
Reale di Palermo: “Tiraz” o “Ergasterion”.” In I Nor-
manni, Popolo dEuropa 1030-1200 , 288-90. Venice, 1994.

Serjeant, R.B. Islamic Textiles: Material for a History up to
the Mongol Conquest. Beirut, 1972.

Sokoly, J.A. “Towards a Model of Early Islamic Textile
Institutions in Egypt.” In Islamische Textilkunst des
Mittelalters: Aktuelle Probleme, vol. V, 115-22. Bern:
Riggisberger Berichte, 1997.

. "Between Life and Death: The Funerary Context of

Tiraz Textiles.” In Islamische Textilkunst des Mittelal-
ters: Aktuelle Probleme, vol. V, 71-8. Bern: Riggisberger
Berichte, 1997.

. Tiraz Textiles from Egypt: Production, Administra-
tion and Uses of Tiraz Textiles from Egypt Under the
Umayyad, ‘Abbasid and Fatimid Dynasties (A Thesis
Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the
University of Oxford.) Oxford, UK: Faculty of Oriental
Studies, University of Oxford, 2001. Typescript.

Stillman, Y.K. Female Attire of Medieval Egypt: According
to the Trousseau Lists and Cognate Material from
the Cairo Geniza. PhD dissertation. University of Penn-
sylvania, Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts
and Sciences, 1972. (Ann Arbor, Mich: University
Microfilms, 1973.)

Exposition des Tapisseries et Tissus du Musee Arabe du
Caire (du Vile au X Vile Siecle), Periode Musulmane.
Paris: Musee des Gobelins, 1935.

THEATER

General Features

The answer to the question of whether live theater
existed in the medieval Arab world lies in understand-
ing the exact meaning of the terms used to describe

various kinds of performances and performing artists
during a long process of development.

There were no special buildings for theatrical per-
formances in the medieval Islamic world. Troupes of
actors and performing artists were invited to perform
with music and dancing during feasts such as the
Nawruz, the Feast of the Nile, the month of Rama-
dan, holy days, mawlids, weddings, and circumcision
ceremonies. These performances were held in public
places, markets, courtyards, rulers’ palaces, orchards,
taverns, inns, near the walls of citadels, on top of a
hill, or on a platform.

The audience, who took an active part in the per-
formances, would form a circle (halqa) around the
performers, who were called by various terms in dif-
ferent Islamic regions and centuries (see Performing
Artists). The audience would exchange sharp retorts
with the performers, slapping them on the neck for
amusement and lavishing coins upon them as a sign of
approval. Performances took place by day with danc-
ing and music or at night with torches or by moon-
light (in medieval Egypt, actors who performed by
moonlight were called samir). Male and female actors,
comedians, and farce players used makeup with kohl
on their eyes and facial makeup made of lime, soot, or
flour, sometimes wearing masks (samaja) or false
beards of various colors according to the age of the
dramatis personae. They either improvised or per-
formed memorized or written texts copied from vari-
ous writers and poets (a method called talfiq;
“patching pieces together”). In literary and historical
works, few live theatrical plays are mentioned, and
fewer still are extant in manuscript, because perfor-
mers depended mainly on memorizing existing poems
and literary works and on improvisation.

The main themes of plays and farces were criticism
and the mockery of rivals and religious functionaries,
such as Muslim scholars (fulama'), judges (qadi; pi.
qudat), and rulers. Actors and comedians pleased their
patrons by censuring their rivals and enemies. Those
actors who dared to criticize rulers by mocking their
appearance, manner of speech, and behavior were
sometimes severely punished, flogged, or banished to
another town; some even had their houses demolished.
Some comedians, jesters, and buffoons served in rulers’
courts, received monthly wages, and were employed in
various professions in the household besides being
drinking companions to their patrons (see Wine).

Historical Development

The ruins of Greek and Roman theaters around
the Mediterranean basin are clear evidence of the

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THEATER

important role that theater played in the region dur-
ing the Hellenistic period. Its influence was felt not
only among pagans but also among Jews, Christians,
and later on by the Muslim population in the East.
Both Syriac and Hebrew employed the Greek term
for theater ( te’atron and teatron, respectively). Arab
historians and geographers rarely used the term tiva-
tir and preferred the Arabic term maVab. On the eve
of Islam, impersonators, clowns, and buffoons had
replaced the classical theater in the Near Eastern
provinces of the Roman Empire. The original signifi-
cance of the pagan religious dramas had been long
forgotten, and they became seasonal folk theater,
tending toward parody and mockery of former cus-
toms and fertility rituals. Muslim scholars considered
them to be ceremonies commemorating legendary or
historical events.

Orientalists and Arab scholars have been divided
on the issue of whether, after the Islamic conquests,
there was an Arab theatrical tradition before the
Arabs came into close contact with the European
imperialist powers in the Middle East. There are two
main schools of thought: (1) scholars who presume
that the Arabs must have found their way to an oral
popular entertainment with improvised mimicry per-
formed in colloquial Arabic (however, unable to veri-
fy the exact meaning of the complicated Arabic
theatrical terminology, they fail to give solid proof
of the existence of Arab theater before the nineteenth
century); and (2) scholars who deny that Arabs had
profane live theatre in the sense of a live actor or
actors reconstructing a real or legendary incident
that occurred in the past, giving the audience the
illusion that it is happening in the present. The under-
lying assumption is that theatrical performance
deserves to be considered drama only if it conforms
to the conventions of the ancient Greek dramatists
and modern European theater. These scholars argue
that there are no extant Arabic manuscripts of dra-
mas in classical Arabic literature; that the Arabs knew
only popular entertainment such as shadow plays,
marionettes, storytelling and the ritual Shi‘i theater
known as ta'ziya; that Islam is a puritan religion that
forbids jesting, folly, mimicry, and imitation; that
Arabs in the strict sense were Bedouin (i.e., nomadic
pastoralists) and theater can thrive only in urban
society; and, finally, that Islam, unlike Greek pagan-
ism and modern European culture, is a monotheist
religion that requires total submission to Allah’s will
and forbids conflict between man and his Creator —
between the believer and his predestination.

During the first century after the rise of Islam,
there is evidence — albeit sparse — of Arab awareness
of theatrical performances in the Byzantine Empire.
Hassan ibn Thabit (d. ca. 674 CE), the poet of the

Prophet Muhammad, mentions the “may amis
Ghazza,” where mayamis seems to be used in the
Greek sense of mimos rather than alluding to the He-
brew term meyumase ‘Azza, in the sense of Maiumas,
the orgiastic festival celebrated on the Syrian coast
from ancient times. Further evidence is found in the
story of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As (d. 663), a rich merchant who
knew Egypt well during the Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic)
period from traveling there with his merchandise. In
Alexandria, he attended a Byzantine theatre (maVab),
and he advised the Caliph ‘Umar (d. 644) to occupy
Egypt and make it the granary of Islam. There is also
the story of the Jewish actor and magician from Jisr
Babil near Kufa in Iraq that provides evidence that
parody and mimicry continued to be performed during
the Muslim caliphate. He was said to have performed
“various kinds of magic, illusionistic tricks and acts of
buffoonery” during the time of the third caliph,
‘Uthman (d. 655), according to the tenth-century
historian al-Mas‘udi (Moreh, 1986).

Arabic theatrical performance was, in most cases,
not based on the use of written texts (scripts), because
it was an oral art and in colloquial Arabic, tending
toward mockery and jest, a genre that was ignored
and despised by Muslim scholars. E.W. Lane (1836),
in his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians,
and other European travelers to the Middle East
described theatrical performances that they witnessed
as being similar to those played in Europe. A few
Arabic theatrical plays are extant in manuscript, al-
though some scholars assign them to narrative and
not to theatrical genres. The most famous are the
“Play (Hikaya) of Abu ’1-Qasim al-Baghdadi,” com-
posed about 1009 or 1010 by Abu ’1-Mutahhar
al-Azdi; the “Short Assembly on Fifty Women”
(“al-Maqama al-Mukhtasara fi 1- Khamsin Mar ’a")
by Muhammad ibn Mawlahum al-Khayali (thirteenth
century); and “The Discourse of Umm Mujbir”
(“Munadamat Umm Mujbir”) by ‘Abd al-Baqi al-
Ishaqi (d. 1660). Among the most interesting surviv-
ing plays are those of Ahmad al-Far, published by
Woidisch and Landau (1993) in Arabisches Voksthea-
ter in Kairo, im Jahre 1909, Ahmad il-Far und Seine
Schwanke, which shed light on the development of
Arabic theater since the ‘Abbasid period as a result
of the terminology used for actors and plays in popu-
lar Arabic theater. The actor al-Far is called Ibn
Rabiya (the son of Rabiyya), a nineteenth-century
nickname for actors (pi. Awlad Rabiyya). He per-
forms the role of khalbus (comedian or/and assistant
to female dancers, who were known as ‘awalim [sing.
’alima]). In the introduction of one of these plays, the
actor is described as a man who is invited by the
Egyptian riffraff to celebrate their sons’ weddings.
He is accompanied by a band of musicians, such as

806

THEATER

a popular drummer and a flautist, and by a torch
holder. Later on, the actor who plays the role of
khawal (male dancer) performs (yakhruj) in the role
( sifa ) of a woman and starts dancing.

The Egyptian Sufi scholar of the sixteenth century,
‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani (d. 1565), in his book
Lata’if al-Minan (The Subtle Blessings), uses the
same terms of khalbus and khawal (an actor who per-
forms a scene of a live play [babat al-khayalj) (1903).
These terms suggest the continuity of Arabic live
theatre during the sixteenth through nineteenth cen-
turies. According to al-ShaTani, the khalbus performs
plays (khayal) with itinerant actors (muhabbazun) .
The phrase “muhabbaz of the Devil” is attested in
thirteenth-century Egypt by the writer of shadow
plays (khayal al-zill) Muhammad Ibn Daniyal
(1248-1311) when, in one of his poems, Ibn Daniyal
curses his wife for forcing him to entertain his child by
performing plays and watching actors playing in
taverns with pimps and prostitutes.

Although the term muhabbaz continued to be used
from the time of Ibn Daniyal up to that of E.W. Lane
to denote itinerant actors of farces, the earlier terms
for actors in medieval Islamic civilization were quite
different. The notorious scurrilous poet Ibn al-Hajjaj
(ca. 940-1001) used the term mukhannathun to denote
actors in a period when the term muhabbazun had not
yet been coined. Since the time of the Prophet
Muhammad, live performance had been called hikaya
(live play or imitation) before the word acquired the
restricted meaning of “story,” and only then was it
replaced with the term khayal. In Arabic literature,
the term mukhannath was used from the rise of Islam
to denote a live actor, musician, dancer, entertainer,
or performer on the hobbyhorse (kurraj) (see
Performing Artists, Arab). In a poem composed by
the Umayyad poet Jarir (d. 733) to ridicule his oppo-
nent al-Farazdaq, he described him with his
moustache looking like a masked actor riding on a
hobbyhorse wearing a fur like a monkey, which might
be an allusion to a kind of theatrical performance.
However, the Prophet Muhammad allowed hobby-
horse performances not as entertainment but as train-
ing for combat, despite the fact that the hobbyhorse
had originally been used in Persian shamanism
to achieve contact with spirits through ecstasy. In
Syriac, the Greek term mimos is given as mimas and
mimsa with the corresponding Arabic meaning of
al-mukhannath al-muhaki al-maskhari (the imitating
comedian mimic; see Payne Smith, R. Thesaurus
Syriacus, vol. II, col. 2093. 1879-1901). Another
performance of pre-Islamic origin is the Nawruz
or Nayruz, which was celebrated up to the nine-
teenth century with masks, hobbyhorse, and the
play of Amir al-Nayruz (The Lord of Nayruz) in

carnival processions of the Feast of Fools in Medieval
Islam.

Arabic Theater in al-Andalus

The term for hobbyhorse in Maimonides’ (d. 1204)
Mishna Commentary is the Arabic faras al- ‘ud (horse-
headed stick) “with which the players of wind instru-
ments and actors play; it is well known among enter-
tainers” (Maimonides, 1903). In addition to actors on
the hobbyhorse, Maimonides refers to the actress
whom he calls in Hebrew yotset ha-huts (“the
woman who goes out”); in Arabic, takhruju means
“she sets out” (i.e., performs). She performs khayal
with masks and live plays using a gown made of fine
net fabric for comical purposes, as many actors used
to do at this time (Maimonides, 1903). This usage
might shed light on the Arabic term kharijat used by
Ibn Shuhayd (922-1035) in his Risalat al-Tawabi wa-
l-Zawabi' ( Epistle of Good and Evil Spirits; see Moreh,
1986). This is the first highbrow literary work that
might have been performed by actors. The author
tells us of his rival, Ibn al-Iflili (b. 963), who was so
miserly that “he does not try to bribe students of
mosques and actresses who dwell in the caravansary
(kharijat al-khanat) to perform his poems and plays
(rasa ’il; “epistles”) by brackish ponds and heaps of
dung” as their stage. This hint might indicate that Ibn
Shuhayd, a generous and rich man, could employ
actresses to perform his own poems and plays in
orchards by brimming lakes. Ibn Shuhayd says that,
failing to find respectable actresses, Ibn al-Iflili used
to perform by himself “the play of the Jew” ( la ‘bat al-
Yahudi) and that “when he hobbled about, slightly
advancing, then retreating, with staff in hand and
sack on shoulder, he was the most skillful person at
performing the play of the Jew.” On the other hand,
David ben Abraham al-Fasi (tenth century) uses the
Syriac term for actor, mutamaymis (Greek mimos).

Pedro de Alcala’s Vocabolista Aravigo en Lietra
Castillana (Granada, 1505) contains various Arabic
terms for theatrical performance that are still in use in
modern Arab world, such as khiyal, maVab, and mas-
rah for theater and la”ab and mumaththil for actor;
this is a clear indication that Arabic theater existed
in Muslim Spain. Moreover, the Andalusian poet
Ibn Quzman (d. 1160), who composed a zajal (po-
pular Arabic strophic verse) describing troupes of
actors performing variety shows, is typical of what
Alcala termed in Castilian representador de comedias/
tragedias and in Arabic sha'ir (“poet”). Further evi-
dence for the existence of live theater in Muslim
Spain is the fact that, after the expulsion of the Jews

807

THEATER

from Spain (1492) and their settlement in the terri-
tories of the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II, they played
an important role in Ottoman popular entertainment
and the Turkish commedia deU’arte known as
Ortaoyunu.

Shmuel Moreh

See also Dancing; Maimonides; Music; Nawruz;
Performing Artists; Shadow Plays; Stories and Story-
telling

Further Reading

Al-A‘raji, Muhammad Husayn. Farm al-Tamthil ‘inda al-
‘Arab. Baghdad: 1978.

Al-Azdi, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Abu ‘1-Muthhar. Abulk-
asim ein Bagdader Sittenbild, mit Anmerkungen Heraus-
gegeben, ed. Adam Mez. Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s
Universitats-Buchhandlung, 1902.

Al-Far, Ahmad Fahim. Arabisches Volkstheaer in Kairo, im
Jahre 1909, Ahmad il-Far und Seme Schwanke, Heausge-
geben, Ubersetzt und Eingefuhrt, eds. M. Woidisch und
J. Landau. Beirut: Franz Steiner Verlag; Stuttgart:
Bibliothca Islamica, 1993.

Al-Hajjaji, A.Sh.-D. The Origins of Arabic Theater. Cairo:
General Egyptian Book Organization, 1981.

Al-Talib, ‘Umar Muhammad. Malamih al-Masrahiyya al-
Arabiyya al-Islamiyya. al-Maghrib, 1987.

And, M. Drama at the Crossroads, Turkish Performing Arts
Link Past and Present, East and West. Istanbul: The Isis
Press, 1991.

. Culture, Performance and Communication in Tur-
key. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and
Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1987.

‘Arsan, ‘Ali ‘Uqla. Al-Zawahir al-Asrahiyya ‘inda al-‘Arab,
3rd ed. Damascus: 1985.

‘Aziza, M. Le Theatre et Vlslam. Algeri.

Brakel, C., and Shmuel Moreh. “Reflections on the
Term Baba: From Medieval Arabic Plays to Contemp-
orary Javanese Masked Theatre.” In Edebivat, vol. 7,
21-39.

Burgel, J.C., and S. Guth, eds. Gesellschaftlicher Umbruch
und Historie im Zeitgenossischen Drama der Islamischen
Welt. Beirut-Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1995.
Chelkoviwski, P.J., ed. Ta'ziyeh, Ritual and Drama in Iran.
New York: NYUP, 1979.'

Corrao, Francesca M. II Riso, il Comico e la Festa a! Cairo
nel XIII Secolo. Rome: II Teatro Delle Ombre di Ibn
Daniyal, 1996.

Horovitz, J. Spuren Griechischer Mimen in Orient. Berlin,
1905.

Ibn Shuhayd al-Andalusi. Risalat al-Tawabi' wa-I-Zawabi‘
(The Treatise of Familiar Spirits and Demons by Abu
Amir ibn Shuhaid al-Ashja‘i, al-Andalusi) , ed. and transl.
J.T. Monroe. Los Angeles, 1971.

Jacob, G. Geschichte des Schattentheaters im Morgen- und
Abendland. Osnabruck, 1972.

Landau, J. “Popular Arabic Plays, 1909.” Journal of Arabic
Literature 17 (1986): 120-5.

Lane, E.W. The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyp-
tians. London, 1836.

Maimonides. Commentaire de Maimonide sur la Mischnah ,
ed. J. Derenbourg Berlin, 1903.

Malti, Habib Abla. The Quick-Tempered Simpleton , eds.
S. Moreh and M. Shawarba. Haifa: Universiy of Haifa,
Al-Karmil Publications Series 7, 1997.

Moreh, S. “Live Theatre in Medieval Islam.” In Studies in
Islamic History and Civilization in Honour of Professor
David Avalon , ed. M. Sharon, 565-611. Jerusalem and
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986.

. “The Meaning of the Term Kharja of the Arabic

Andalusian Muwashshah.” In Litterare Judaerum in
Terra Hispanica, ed. Y. Ben-Abou. Jerusalem, 1991.

. Live Theatre and Dramatic Literature in the Medie-
val Arab World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
1993.

. “Acting and Actors, Medieval.” In Encyclopedia of

Arabic Literature , eds. J.S. Meisami and P. Starkey, vol.
I, 52-4. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

. “Theatre and Drama, Medieval.” In Encyclopedia

of Arabic Literature, eds. J.S. Meisami and P. Starkey,
vol. II, 766-9. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Moreh, S., and P. Sadgrove. Jewish Contributions to Nine-
teenth-century Arabic Theatre. Plays from Algeria and
Syria, a Study and Texts. Manchester and Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, JSS Supplement 6, 1996.

Priifer, C. “Drama (Arabic).” In Encyclopaedia of Religion
and Ethics, vol. IV, 872-8. New York: C. Scribner’s &
Sons, 1914.

al-Sha‘rani. Lata’if al-Minan. Cairo, 1903.

Shoshan, Boaz. Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

THEOLOGY

Islamic theology consists the following: (1) Qur’anic
teachings, (2) theological schools, (3) sectarianism, (4)
philosophical theology, and (5) Sufi theology. This
article focuses on Qur’anic theology and the Sunni
theological schools; there are separate articles in this
encyclopedia devoted to the Miftazila, most sectarian
groups, numerous Imami Shi‘i theologians, the major
philosophers, and the Sufi theologians Ibn ‘Arabi and
Jami. Those readers interested in the complex origins
of Islamic theology should consult W. Montgomery
Watt’s The Formative Period of Islamic Thought
(1998).

Qur’anic Theology

Qur’anic theology revolves around a merciful, singu-
lar God named Allah who is omniscient, omnipotent,
and possesses a host of additional qualities. Allah
created the heavens and the earth in six days and
created Adam, the first human, as his vicegerent (kha-
lifa) on earth out of wet clay. After God “taught
Adam the names,” He commanded the angels to
prostrate to him, which they did, save for Iblis
(Satan), who was one of the creatures created from
fire (jinn). God allowed Satan to descend to earth and

808

THEOLOGY

serve as the “manifest enemy” of humans until the
end of time. God also sent prophets, such as Noah,
Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, with the same essential
message to obey Him, act righteously, and believe in
the Hereafter. The “seal of the prophets” is Muham-
mad, to whom God revealed the Qur’an via the angel
Gabriel. The Qur’an informs Muslims that on the
Last Day there will be two blasts as the world is
destroyed and all humans are brought forth from
their graves to be judged by God and sent to either
the gardens of Paradise or the blazing Hellfire. There
is widespread consensus among Sunnis that the
Prophet Muhammad will intercede for members of
his community and that none of them will be in the
Hellfire eternally, although the Qur’anic support for
these beliefs is somewhat ambiguous.

Sunni Theological Schools

The major Islamic theological schools are the Mu'ta-
zila, Ash‘aris, Maturidis, and the hadith scholars (tra-
ditionalists). Most Imami and Zaydi Shi‘is embraced
Mu’tazili dogma, whereas most Sunnis considered
only the latter three schools as orthodox. The M u'ta-
zila, Ash‘aris, and Maturidis are distinguished from
the hadith scholars through their employment of ra-
tional argumentation and adoption of philosophical
concepts, such as atoms and accidents, that form the
theological discourse known as kalam. The primary
topics addressed by all four of these theological
schools concern the relationship between God and
His attributes (sifat) and between God and human
agency (qadar). The general Mu‘tazili opinions
(rejected by most Sunni theologians) about both of
these topics were the denial of essential divine attri-
butes that were “neither God nor other than God”
and robust affirmation of each human’s ability to
create their own actions. Other topics found in theo-
logical works include the nature of prophecy, the
question as to whether faith increases or decreases
according to one’s deeds, epistemology, the believers’
vision of God in Paradise, and leadership of the
community ( imama ) .

The Ash'aris, who derive their name from Abu
1-Hasan al-Asli'ari (d. 935), distinguished themselves
through the affirmation of seven eternal attributes
that are “neither God nor other than God”: (1)
knowledge, (2) power, (3) life, (4) will, (5) seeing, (6)
hearing, and (7) speech. The Maturidis, who derive
their name from Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944),
regularly added the attribute of creating ( takwin,
takhliq) to these seven attributes. The popular creed
of the Maturidi theologian al-Nasafi (d. 1142)

includes the attributes of desiring, doing, and sustain-
ing, and it states that “[God] has attributes from all
eternity subsistent in His essence. They are not He nor
are they other than He” (Elder, 1950). Later Ash‘ari
scholars, such as al-Juwayni (d. 1085) and his pupil al-
Ghazali (d. Ill 1), reconciled the dogmatic position of
the seven eternal attributes and the prophetic hadiths
that enumerate God’s ninety-nine names by means of
the construction of categories of names, such as those
names that signify God’s essence or the eternal attri-
butes and those names that relate to actions (al-
Juwayni, 2000). The hadith scholar theologians, such
as Ibn Khuzayma (d. 923), scrupulously affirmed all
of the names and attributes by which God describes
Himself in the Qur’an and in sound prophetic hadith
while simultaneously insisting that none of these attri-
butes — including God’s hands, eyes, and face — is
truly anthropomorphic because of the vast gulf be-
tween the natures of temporal humans and the infinite
deity. Most Ash’ari and Maturidi theologians did
not hesitate to apply metaphorical interpretations
to Qur’anic verses that mention God’s hands, eyes,
and face.

Sunni theologians insisted that all human actions
are created by God on the basis of the rational argu-
ment that God’s omnipotence is void if additional
creators exist and on the basis of Qur’anic verses
such as 6:101-2 and 37:96. They also insisted that
humans lack the capacity to perform any action
until the action is brought into existence by God.
Despite these unwavering dogmatic positions, both
Ash‘aris and Maturidis argued that humans are re-
sponsible for their actions through a form of acquisi-
tion, which is called kasb (acquisition) by the former
school and ikhtiyar (choice) by the latter one. Daniel
Gimaret (1980) has articulated the three positions
adopted by Sunni theologians concerning human
acts: (1) “Radical Ash‘arisim” in which God creates
the individual’s power (qudra), will, and the actual
act; (2) God creates the power and will in a human,
who acts as an agent for the divinely created act; and
(3) God creates the act, but man “adds specific qua-
lifications” to the act, which are uncreated. Gimaret
identifies al-Ghazali as an advocate of the first posi-
tion, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1209) and the hadith
scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) as supporters of the
second one, and Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (d. 1013) and
later Maturidis as champions of the third one. The
Hanafi hadith scholar Abu Ja‘far al-Tahawi (d. 933)
affirmed that “human acts are the creation of God
and the acquisition of the human beings” in his fa-
mous creed, along with the comment “the principle of
predetermination (or predestination) is God’s secret”
(Watt, 1994).

Scott C. Lucas

809

THEOLOGY

See also Al-‘Allama; Al-Farabi; al-Ghazali; Al-Hasan
al-Basri; Al-Hilli; Al-Jahiz; Al-Kindi; Al-Kulayni; Al-
Majlisi; Al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din Afterlife; Al-Shaykh
Al-Mufid; Al-Tusi, Muhammad ibn Hasan; Al-Tusi,
Nasir al-Din; Angels; Ash‘aris; Caliphate and Imam-
ate; Druze; Eschatology; God; Hassan-i Sabbah; Here-
sy and Heretics; Ibadis; Ibn ‘Arabi; Ibn Babawayh; Ibn
Hanbal; Ibn Rushd (Averroes); Ibn Sina (Avicenna);
Ibn Taymiyya; Ibn Tumart; Ismailis; Ja‘far al-Sadiq;
Jami; Kharijis; Muhammad al-Baqir; Mu‘tazilites;
Mulla Sadra; Nusayris; Polemics and Disputation; Pre-
destination; Qur’an; Shi‘ism; Shi‘i Thought; Sunni Re-
vival; Zaydis

Further Reading

Al-Ghazali. The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God- al-
Maqsad al-Asna fi Shark Asma ’ Allah al-Husna, transl.
David B. Burrell and Nazih Daher. Cambridge: Islamic
Texts Society, 1995.

Al-Juwayni, Imam al-Haramayn. A Guide to Conclusive
Proofs for the Principles of Beliefs, transl. Paul E. Walker.
Reading: Garnet, 2000.

Elder, Earl Edgar. A Commentary on the Creed of
Islam: Sa‘d al-Din al-Taftazani on the Creed of Najm
al-Din al-Nasafi. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1950.

Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition. Leiden: Brill, 1960.
Gimaret, Daniel. Theories de L’Acte Humain en Theologie
Musulmcine. Paris: J. Vrin, 1980.

Goldziher, Ignaz. Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law,
transl. Andras and Ruth Hamori. Princeton, NJ: Prince-
ton University Press, 1981.

Kholeif, Fathalla. A Study on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and His
Controversies in Transoxiania. Beirut: Dar al-Machreq
Editeurs, 1966.

Madelung, Wilferd. Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval
Islam. London: Variorum Reprints, 1985.

Makdisi, George. Ibn Quclama’s Censure of Speculative The-
ology. London: Luzac & Company, Ltd., 1962.

Martin, Richard, Mark Woodward, and Dwi Atmaja.
Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mu'tazilism from Medieval
School to Modern Symbol. Oxford, UK: Oneworld, 1997.
McCarthy, Richard. The Theology of al-Ash‘ari. Beirut:
Imprimerie Catholique, 1953.

Morewedge, Parviz, ed. Islamic Philosophical Theology.

Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1979.
Shahrastani, Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Karim. Muslim Sects
and Divisions: The Section on Muslim Sects in Kitcib al-
Milal wa ’l-Nihal, transl. A.K. Kazi and J.G. Flynn.
Boston: Kegan Paul International, 1984.
van Ess, Josef. “Mu‘tazila.” In The Encyclopedia of Reli-
gion, ed. Mircea Eliade, vol. X, 220-9. New York: Mac-
millan Publications, 1987.

Watt, W. Montgomery. The Formative Period of Islamic
Thought. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 1998.

. Islamic Creeds: A Selection. Edinburgh: Edinburgh

University Press, 1994.

Wensinck, A.J. The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and Histori-
cal Development. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1932.
Wolfson, Harry Austryn. The Philosophy of the Kalam.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1976.

TIME, CONCEPTS OF

Classical concepts of time confronted philosophers
with perplexing paradoxes. Some wondered whether
time altogether was nonexistent, whereas others
doubted the reality of its divisibility into parts by
arguing that the past ceased to be, the future does
not yet exist, and the present as a moment/now that is
without magnitude (i.e., like a mathematical point is
not part of time). In addition, it was unclear whether
time progressed smoothly or proceeded by way of
discontinuous and divisible leaps.

Although inquiries about the nature of time were
integrated within physical theories of motion, their
broad cosmological and metaphysical bearings had
an impact on speculations about creation and causa-
tion. In Plato’s Timaeus (37d; 38a) time (khronos)
was pictured as a moving image (eikona) that imi-
tated (mimoumenon) eternity (aiona) by circling
around according to number (arithmos) and came
into existence with the generation of the heavens. In
the earliest systemic investigation of the essence and
existence of time, which was contained in Aristotle’s
Physics (219b3-4; 220a25-b20; 222b20-23), khronos
was defined as the number ( metron ) of a continuous
(sunekhes) motion (kinesis) with respect to the ante-
rior (proteron) and the posterior (husteron). Reject-
ing the claim that time was the movement of the
whole (holos), Aristotle argued that the circular,
uniform, and continuous motion of the celestial
sphere (sphaira) acts as the measure (metron) of
time ( Physics , 223b21). His theory subsequently
received numerous responses by Neoplatonist and
Hellenist exegetes; these are grouped in a monumental
edition titled Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca.
Damascius argued that time was a simultaneous
whole, Plotinus grasped it as the changing life of the
soul ( Enneads , 3.7.11-13), and Simplicius defended
the thesis of the eternity of the world against doubts
raised by the grammarian Philoponus, who adopted
a Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. As for the
author of the Confessions, Augustine of Hippo, he
noted that tempus (time) was created when the world
came to be while affirming that the existential reality
of time is grounded in the present (praesens), which
in itself is what tends not to be ( tendit non esse ) , given
that only eternity was stable (semper stems).

On the basis of a belief in the linear directionality
of time, from Genesis to Judgment, Augustine argued
that the present of things past was preserved in mem-
ory, the presence of present things was confirmed by
visual perception, and the presence of things future
was secured through expectation. Accordingly, the
reality of time depended on an anima who remembers,
perceives, and expects events; this is similar to

810

TIME, CONCEPTS OF

Aristotle’s claim in the Physics (218b29-219al-6,
223a25) that khronos required psukhe to compute its
numbering (arithmein). Ishaq ibn Hunayn’s trans-
lation of Aristotle’s Physics (al-Tabi’a) secured the
transmission of the Aristotelian conception of khro-
nos into Arabic, which subsequently inspired
variegated philosophical interpretations of time in
Islam. Al-Kindi held that al-zaman (time) had a be-
ginning and an end and that it measured motion
according to number (Tempus ergo est numerus
numerans mo turn), whereas al-Farabi and Ikhwan al-
Safa’ affirmed that time resulted from the movement
of the created celestial sphere ( al-falak ) . Abu Bakr al-
Razi claimed that the dahr (perpetuity) was absolute
( mutlaq ) , while taking al-zaman (time) to be a flowing
substance (jawhar vajri) that is bound (mahsur) as
well as being associated with the motion of al-falak.

In Kitab al-Hudud, Ibn Sina defined al-zaman (time)
as that which resembles the created being ( yudahi al-
masnu’) and acts as the measure of motion (miqdar
al-haraka ) in terms of the anterior and the posterior
(mutaqaddim wa muta'akhkhir) . He also noted that
al-dahr (supratemporal duration) resembled the
Creator (yudahi al-san’i) insofar that it was stable
throughout the entirety of time. In the Isharat wa’l-
Tanbihat, he linked time to physical inquiries about
motion; in ‘Uyun al-Hikma, he construed it as a quan-
tity (kamiyyat) of motion that measures change
(yuqaddir) and whose perpetuity ( dahr al-haraka )
generated temporality. Time also played a notable
role in Kitab al-Manazir (Optics; II. 3, II. 7, III. 7) by
the polymath Ibn al-Haytham, who argued that the
propagation of light rays was subject to time and
consequently inferred that the velocity of light ( al-
daw’) was finite despite being immense in magnitude.
Moreover, he held that acts of visual discernment and
comparative measure (al-tamyyiz wa’l-qiyas) were
subject to the passage of time even if not felt by the
beholder, and he cautioned that, if the temporal
duration of contemplative or immediate visual percep-
tion fell outside of a moderate range, it resulted in
optical errors. In addition, he listed al-zaman as one
of the known entities ( ma ’lumat ) , while taking dura-
tion ( mudda) to be its essence ( mahiyya ) and the scale
(miqyas) of its magnitude (miqdar) and quantity
(kamiyya) that become knowable in reference to the
motion of the celestial sphere (al-falak) .

Opposing the views of the peripatetic philosophers
in Islam, the exponents of kalam (dialectical theolo-
gy) articulated alternative conceptions of time that
rested on physical theories inspired by Greek atom-
ism. Time was grasped by the mutakallimun (dia-
lectical theologians) as being a virtual (mawhum)
phenomenon of changing appearances and renewed
atomic events (mutajaddidat) whereby a discrete

moment ( waqt ) replaced the concept of a continuous
zaman. Motivated by this theory — although resisting
its thrust — al-Nazzam believed in the divisibility of
particles ad infinitum , which entailed that a spatial
distance with infinitely divisible parts requires an infi-
nite time to be crossed unless its traversal proceeded
by way of leaps ( tafarat) ; this echoes the Stoic views
regarding the Greek notion of halma (leap). When
doubting the doctrine of the eternity of the world in
Tahafut al-Fcdasifa, al-Ghazali attempted to show
that duration (mudda) and time (zaman) were both
created, and he argued that the connection between
what is habitually taken to be a cause and an effect
was not necessary given that observation only shows
that they were concomitant. Consequently, he pro-
claimed that the ordering relation of an antecedent
cause with a consequent effect does not necessarily
rest on an irreversible directionality in time.

In defense of causation, Ibn Rushd argued in
Tahafut al-Tahafut that the refutation of the causal
principle entailed an outright rejection of reason while
asserting that the eternal ( al-qadim ) was timeless and
that the world was subject to the workings of a
continuous zaman. Affirming the truth of Genesis,
Maimonides asserted in Dalalat al-Ha’irin the belief
that time was created, given that the celestial sphere
and the motion on which it depended were both gen-
erated. Although speculations about time continued
with scholars of the caliber of Nasir al-din Tusi,
Fakhr al-din al-Razi, Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra,
Abu’l-Barakat al-Baghdadi, al-Iji, and al-Jurjani,
the elucidation of its uncanny reality remained
inconclusive.

Nader El-Bizri

Primary Sources

Aristotle. Physics, ed. W. David Ross. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1998.

Augustine. Confessions, ed. James O’Donnell. Oxford, UK:
Clarendon Press, 1992.

Ghazali. Tahafut al-Falasifa, transl. Michael Marmura.

Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.
Ibn al-Haytham. Kitab al-Manazir, ed. Abdelhamid I.
Sabra. Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts and
Letters, 1983.

. The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, transl. A. I. Sabra.

London: Warburg Institute, 1989.

Ibn Rushd. Tahafut al-Tahafut, ed. Muhammad ‘Abid al-
Jabiri. Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wihda al-‘Arabiyya,
1998.

Ibn Sina. Kitab al-Hudud, ed. A.-M. Goichon. Cairo: Insti-
tut Frangais d’Archeologie Orientale du Caire, 1963.

. al-Isharat wa 7- Tanbihat, 3 vols., ed. Sulayman

Dunya. Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif bi-Misr, 1957-1960.
Ikhwan al-Safa’. Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ wa Khullan al-
Wafa’, vol. II, ed. Butrus Bustani. Beirut: Dar Sadir,
1957.

811

TIME, CONCEPTS OF

Maimonides. Dalalat al-Ha’irin, The Guide for the Per-
plexed, transl. M. Friedlander. New York: Dover, 1956.
Philoponus. Corollaries on Place and Void; Simplicius.
Against Philoponus on the Eternity of the World, transl.
David Furley and Christian Wildberg. London: Duck-
worth, 1991.

Plato. Tinmens, transl. R.G. Bury. Cambridge, Mass: Har-
vard University Press, 1999.

Simplicius. Corollaries on Place and Time, transl. J.O.
Urmson. London: Duckworth, 1992.

Further Reading

Dhanani, Alnoor. The Physical Theory of Kalam. Leiden:
Brill, 1994.

Mallet, D. “Zaman.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. XI.
Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Massignon, Louis. “Le Temps dans la Pensee Islamique.”
In Opera Minora, vol. II, ed. Y. Moubarak. Beirut: Dar
al-Ma’arif, 1963.

Rashed, Roshdi. Les Mathematiques Infinitesimales clu DC
au XT siecle, vol. IV. London: al-Furqan Islamic Heri-
tage Foundation, 2002.

Sorabji, Richard. Time, Creation and the Continuum. Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Walzer, Richard. Greek into Arabic: Essays in Islamic Phi-
losophy. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South
Carolina Press, 1962.

TIMURIDS

The Timurids were a dynasty of Central Asian no-
madic origin that dominated the Middle East and
Central Asia in the AH eighth/fourteenth CE and
ninth/fifteenth centuries. The founder, Timur Leng,
was a Chagatai Turk of the Barlas tribe in the region
of Kish, Western Turkestan. The significant period of
his career began in 771/1370, when he embarked on a
series of campaigns in Transoxiana that involved the
Chagatai khanate in Eastern Turkestan, the Blue
Horde, and the Golden Horde. In 782/1380-1301, he
began his conquests in Persia, subduing the local
dynasties that had assumed power after the disinte-
gration of the II Khanate, including the Sarbadars
in northwestern Khurasan, the Karts in Herat, the
Muzzafarids in central and southern Persia, and the
Jalayarids centered on Baghdad. He also campaigned
against the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and defeated
the Ottoman sultan Bayazid Ilderim at the battle of
Ankara in 804/1402.

Timur’s conquests brought about the removal of
large numbers of artists and artisans to his capital,
Samarqand, as a workforce to embellish and enrich
his court. The lavish results of this are perhaps most
vividly portrayed in the account by the Spanish
ambassador, Clavijo, who visited Samarqand and
Timur’s palace at Aq Sarai in 1404—1406. Timur’s
legitimacy was established on two bases, apart from

conquest and his control of the Chagatai tribes, by his
marriage to a Chingissid princess that gave him the
concomitant title of guregen (royal son-in-law [of the
puppet Chingissid khan he installed in Samarqand])
and by his claim to be the true protector and upholder
of Islam. It was on this basis that his campaigns in
Persia, Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia were justified in
contemporary accounts. He made effective use of
the Chagatai nomads and their traditional military
skills in his campaigns, and initially the areas that
resisted him suffered considerably. Like Chingiz
Khan, he punished any opposition or rebellion ruth-
lessly and speedily. For instance, virtually all of the
Muzzafarids were executed when one of them, Shah
Mansur, attempted to re-establish independent rule.
Direct Timurid control of conquered territories in
Persia and Khurasan was based on installing military
governors (usually Timurid princes) along with garri-
sons of Chagatai soldiery in various cities and pro-
vinces. At the time of his death in 807/1405, Timur
was embarking on the conquest of China.

After Timur’s death, a series of conflicts broke out
between his sons and grandsons that ended with the
victory of his son Shah Rukh. The latter did not
attempt any fresh conquests and indeed during the
war of succession certain peripheral territories, such
as those in the Caucasus, were lost. However, the
heartlands of the empire remained untouched, and
Shah Rukh consolidated his control of the regions
of Persia (most of what is now Afghanistan and Cen-
tral Asia) from his capital in Herat, with a series of
Timurid princes and Chagatai khans as governors of
the various provinces; the most important of these
was his son, Ulugh Beg, who was the ruler of Trans-
oxania throughout his father’s reign. Both of these
rulers were patrons of the arts, architecture, and liter-
ature, and Ulugh Beg was an able mathematician who
drew up mathematical tables and built an observatory
in Samarqand; likewise, Shah Rukh’s wife, Gauhar
Shad, who in particular created religious foundations,
built the great mosque in Mashad, northern Persia,
one of the surviving monuments of the Timurid age.
Iskandar b. Umar Shaikh, who ruled Fars and was
eventually imprisoned and blinded for his rebellious
activities in 816/1413, was a notable patron of paint-
ing and the arts of the book. The development of
historical writing under the Timurids is one of the
most important intellectual aspects of the period.
For example, Hafiz Abru employed different
approaches to the history of the age. First, he wrote
the continuation (zayl) of the World History of Rashid
al-Din Tabib, then a series of provincial histories and
dynastic studies, and finally the Majma, a general his-
tory of which the last section, the Zubdat al-Tawarikh ,
presents a dynastic history of the Timurids, all

812

TITLES

comprising a unique achievement of sophisticated and
detailed historical literature. Current knowledge about
the political history of the period is based on these and
other works, such as Sharaf al-Din ‘Ali Yazdi’s bio-
graphy of Timur, the Zafarnama, the Matla ‘al-Sa ‘dain
of 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Samarqandi, and the works of
Mir Khwand and Khwand Amir.

Shah Rukh died on campaign in Western Persia in
850/1447 and once again conflict broke out between
the Timurid princes. Other powers in the region, such
as the Turkoman confederacies in Azarbaijan, also
became involved in the struggle with the result that
the empire was further fragmented and diminished.
Timurid rule in the west was effectively ended, and, by
the late fifteenth century, Transoxania had suc-
cumbed to the advances of the Uzbek Muhammad
Shaibani. However, in Khurasan, the Timurid capital
Herat enjoyed what was to be a final efflorescence
under Sultan Husain Baiqara as a center of learning
and the arts. When Shah Ismail Safavi captured
the city in 916/1510, the artists of the royal ateliers
were transported west to serve the Safavid court, thus
perpetuating the artistic traditions that had been
developed under the Timurids.

Isabel Miller

Further Reading

Barthold, W. Ulugh Beg. In Four studies on the History of
Central Asia, transl. V. and T. Minorsky. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1958.

Jackson, Peter, and L. Lockhart, eds. Cambridge History of
Iran, Vol. 6, The Timurids and Safavids. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Lentz, Thomas W., and Glenn D. Lowry. Timur and the
Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth
Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Country Museum of
Art; Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1989.

Manz, Beatrice. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane . Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Thackston, W.M., ed. and transl. A Century of Princes.
Sources on Timurid History and Art. Cambridge, Mass:
Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989.

TITLES

The sudden introduction of the nascent Arab Islamic
community to older, more complex societal structures
contained in the Sasanian and Byzantine empires of
the Irano-Mediterreanean world had a profound ef-
fect on Islamic political taxonomies. Ostensibly an
egalitarian sociopolitical community that eschewed
privilege and rank, the politically naive Muslim
umma would undergo considerable transformations
as it intermingled with Syriac, Berber, Byzantine,
Persian, Turkic, Indian, and Mongol traditions. By

the height of the medieval period, Islamic civilization
had embraced hierarchy and social stratification, and
with this is seen the emergence of a rich panoply of
official titles in use by different Islamic states, from
Andalusia to India.

Arabic Titles

The oldest and most important of the Arabic political
titles was khalifa (caliph), which came into use after
the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Initially, kha-
lifa was understood as successor, or deputy, and the
comportment of the first four caliphs — the Rightly
Guided ones (Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ’Uthman, and
‘Ali) — suggests that they did not interpret this title
as anything other than this. However, the beleaguered
Umayyad dynasty subtly altered this title to confer a
sense of “God’s Caliph” (khalifat Allah) while also
openly circulating their status as amir al-mu’minin
(Commander of the Faithful). The perception of kha-
lifa to signify divine regent on earth was aggrandized
by the ’Abbasids as they sought to diminish rival
claims from the Shi‘is and their veneration of the
imams (see Caliphate and Imamate). Likewise, the
title of amir dates back to the earliest days of Islamic
expansion, originally denoting an all-inclusive office
(imarat) with military and bureaucratic duties. With
time, the amir was devolved of most administrative
responsibilities and was expected to function solely in
a military capacity. This title would develop a sense of
sovereignty when ’Abbasid caliphs began conferring
amir ships on the various upstart dynasts appearing
on the periphery during the tenth and eleventh cen-
turies CE; however, by the thirteenth century, amir
had lost its sense of political preeminence. Another
important Arabic title that emerged in the medieval
period was sultan, which denoted power or dominion,
and it would be the Seljuk dynasty (1038-1 194) which
embraced sultan enthusiastically. Contemporary po-
litical theorists and scholars — often in the pay of the
Seljuks themselves — understood this to be the most
prestigious title possible for a non-caliphal Muslim
ruler. Timur would use this Arabo-Islamic title in
conjunction with the Turkish khan as well as amir
gurgan (son-in-law), the latter referring to his diplo-
matic marriage to the Mongol Chingizid line. By the
time of the Ottomans’ zenith during the sixteenth
century, sultan denoted absolute political indepen-
dence, but Salim the Grim dispelled any ambiguity
when he decided to appropriate the title of khalifa
after conquering the holy cities of Mecca and Medina
during the early sixteenth century. Likewise, after
Mehmed II defeated the Byzantine Greek Palaeologi

813

TITLES

and assumed control of Constantinople in 1453,
qaysar (Caesar) was added to the ever-expanding list
of Ottoman appellations. The other Arabic title of
note, malik (king), was not especially popular among
the Arabs during the early centuries, but it would gain
currency under the Buyids (932-1062) in western Iran
and the Samanids (819-1005) in Transoxiana. The
adoption of this particular Arabic title is not
surprising considering these dynasties’ location and
their familiarity with ancient pre-Islamic notions of
absolute kingship.

Persian Titles

The most enduring and important Persian title — shah
(king) — dates back to the Achaemenian and Sasanian
periods, as does another related title, shahanshah
(king of kings). These titles were not appropriated
by the Arab caliphs during their initial invasions of
the seventh century, but the incorporation of Persian
bureaucrats in the ’Abbasid administration and the
proximity of Baghdad to former centers of pre-Islam-
ic government allowed for the revival of this title by
the Buyid dynasty, specifically Adud al-Daula (d. 983)
in his khutba and on his minted coins. Sultan, howev-
er, was the title of choice during the Turkic and Mon-
gol eras, but shah would enjoy renewed importance in
the courts of the Timurids, Safavids, Mughals, and
Ottomans. A hybrid term — padishah (emperor) — was
the principal sovereign title for the Timurid Mughal
dynasty in India in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The other principal Persian title which
emerged during the fifteenth century was mirza,
which was derived from amir-zada (son of an amir).
This was the appellative term for royal members of
the Timurid household (e.g., Shah Rukh Mirza,
Mirza Baysanqur), and this practice was continued
by the Aq Qoyunlus, Safavids, Mughals, as well as
local independent dynasties such as the Kar Kiyas in
Lahijan. Interestingly, however, mirza was also con-
ferred by Safavid shahs during the sixteenth century
on high-ranking Persian viziers (e.g., Mirza Shah
Husain Isfahani, Mirza ’Ata Allah Isfahan!).

Turkish Titles

The ascendancy of Turco-Mongol political culture
during the late medieval period saw an infusion of
Turkic titles into Islamic political nomenclature. The
most significant of these was khan, introduced by the
Qarakhanid dynasty (992-1211) and continued by

Seljuk and Khwarazmian rulers. Khan was also a key
titular feature in the Mongol political tradition, and it
was appended to the names of those direct descen-
dants of Chingiz Khan who were in control of an ulus
(appanage), whereas a derived title of khaqan referred
to the Great Khan based in Qara Qorum. Khaqan
would continue to denote imperial sovereignty in the
Timurid, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal traditions,
whereas khan would lose much of its distinction and
was only awarded to Turkic military men of interme-
diate status. Pasha, which is more than likely derived
from the Persian padishah , was a title of considerable
political prestige with the Seljuks and their Ottoman
successors. Akin to the Safavid understanding of the
title mirza, pashas in the Ottoman empire were either
military provincial governors or palatial viziers.
Lastly, the title beg — derived from the Turkish bag
and comparable to the Arabic title of amir — was
introduced by the Qarakhanids and enjoyed healthy
representation in the Seljuk empire. Other titular deri-
vations — beglerbeg and atabeg — would be used con-
sistently throughout the medieval period until the end
of the Ottoman and Safavid empires.

Colin Paul Mitchell

See also Caliphate and Imamate; Political Theory

Further Reading

Ando, Shiro. Timuridische Emire Nach dem Mu’izz al-
Ansah: Untersuchung zur Stammesaristokratie Zentrala-
siens ini 14. um 15. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1992.

Ashtiany, Julia, ed. ’Abbasid Belles Lettres. Cambridge,
199(1

al-Azmeh, Aziz. Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in
Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Polities. London, 1997.

Black, Antony. The History of Islamic Political Thought:
From the Prophet to the Present. New York, 2001.

Bosworth, C.E. “The Titulature of the Early Ghaznavids.”
Oriens 15 (1962): 210-33.

Lambton, A.K.S. Continuity and Change in Medieval Per-
sia: Aspects of Administrative, Economic and Social His-
tory, llth-14th Century. Albany, 1988.

. State and Government in Medieval Islam. Oxford,

1981.

. Theory and Practice in Medieavel Persian Govern-
ment. London, 1980.

Lewis, Bernard. The Political Language of Islam. Chicago,
1988.

Madelung, Wilferd. “The Assumption of the Title
Shahanshah by the Buyids and the Reign of Daylam
(Dawlat al-Daylam).” Journal of Near Eastern Studies
28 (1969): 84-108.

Mottahedeh, Roy. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Is-
lamic Society. London, 2001.

Richter-Bernburg, L. “ Amir-Malik-Shahanshah : Adud
al-Dawla’s Titulature Re-examined.” Iran 18 (1980):
83-102.

Rohrborn, K.M. Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im
16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1966.

814

TRADE, AFRICAN

Rosenthal, Franz. Political Thought in Medieval Islam.
Cambridge, 1968.

Siddiqui, A.H. Caliphate and Sultanate in Medieval Persia.
Karachi, 1969.

Woods, John. The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire ,
new and revised ed. Salt Lake City, 1999.

TRADE, AFRICAN

With the possible exception of North Africa, the
adoption of Islam in Africa was largely as a result of
trade networks. For convenience, the Islamic trade
network in Africa may be divided into four regions:
North Africa, West Africa, The Nile/Red Sea Corri-
dor, and East Africa. Each of these is characterized by
certain physical features and possesses a degree of
cultural homogeneity expressed either in terms of
language, ethnic composition, or historical ties. How-
ever, this division should not obscure the fact that
there was a large volume of inter-regional trade
and also a significant amount of trade with the non-
Muslim world, particularly in pagan Africa, medieval
Europe, China, and India.

Physically, North Africa may be defined as that
part of Africa between the Mediterranean and the
Atlas mountains and that contains a mixed Arabic
and Berber population. In many ways, the trade net-
work of North Africa continues the pattern estab-
lished when the region was under Roman rule, with
trans-Saharan caravan routes connecting it to West
Africa and sea routes linking it into a wider Mediter-
ranean network. As with much of Africa, the trade
was dominated by precious metals, particularly gold
from West Africa. For example, the power of the
Fatimids (tenth and eleventh centuries) was based
on the wealth derived from the trade in gold with
sub-Saharan Africa, and its conquest of Egypt
would have been inconceivable without this financial
base. The trade of North Africa was also linked, via
Egypt, to the Middle East, particularly during the
Umayyad and ‘Abbasid periods, when both regions
formed part of a unified political entity. An interest-
ing example of this long-distance trade can be seen in
the Mosque of Qayrawan, where polychrome luster
tiles made in Baghdad are incorporated into the dec-
oration of the Great Mosque. Historical accounts
indicate that marble for the mihrab and teakwood
for the minbar were also imported from Baghdad at
this time. Although it may be certain that the luster
tiles were made in Baghdad, both the teakwood and
the marble came from further afield, perhaps from
India or Turkey.

For the purposes of this discussion. West Africa
may be described as that part of sub-Saharan Africa
dominated by the Niger and Senegal rivers and

extending northward into the Sahel. The trade of
West Africa was always dominated by trans-Saharan
caravan routes leading to North Africa, and there is
no substantial evidence for sea-borne Atlantic trade.
Although it is possible that there may have been a
certain amount of Roman trade with West Africa, it is
likely to have been small as compared with the vol-
ume of trade during the medieval Islamic period. The
principal commodity was gold from the Bambuk,
Bure, and Akan areas of the rainforest. The gold
trade is thought to have provided the impetus toward
the development of cities and the formation of states
(e.g., Ghana, Mali). The other major commodity was
salt from the central Sahara, which enabled the Tua-
reg to exchange salt for gold, which could more easily
be sent by caravan to North Africa. Other important
commodities include goods such as hippopotamus
teeth, which were imported to Europe via Ifriqiyya
and used as ivory in Sicily.

The Nile/Red Sea Corridor links Egypt and the
Mediterranean with sub-Saharan Africa, Arabia,
and the Indian Ocean. The trade networks of this
area are of great antiquity and precede the advent of
Islam by many centuries. Despite frequent assertions
concerning the difficulty of navigating from north to
south in the Red Sea, it is clear that at least some
trade was carried on in this way, particularly from
Egypt to Yemen. One frequently used trade route
involved transporting goods by boat up the Nile and
then transferring them to camel caravans, which
would cross the desert to one of the Red Sea ports
from where they could be shipped elsewhere.

The coming of Islam had major implications for the
economy and trade of this region. In the first place, the
institution of the Hajj meant that thousands of African
pilgrims would annually cross via the Red Sea to
Arabia. In addition, the increased importance of
Mecca and Medina meant that there was an increased
demand for food and other commodities in the Hijaz,
which could be supplied from Egypt and other parts of
Africa. However, one major difference between this
region and other parts of Africa is the presence of
Christianity, which acted as a block to the southern
extension of the Muslim overland trade networks.

In many ways, the trade of East Africa can be seen
as an extension of the Red Sea trade network, al-
though there are significant differences. Whereas the
Red Sea is located in the heart of the Islamic world,
the Muslim presence in East Africa is restricted to a
narrow band of coast and small islands along the
coast from Mogadishu in Somalia to Sofala in
Mozambique. Also, the East African coast shares a
common Swahili culture, which, although Muslim, is
distinct from the predominantly Arabic culture of the
Red Sea region.

815

TRADE, AFRICAN

Although Roman ceramics have been identified
from as far south as Zanzibar, it is evident that the
high point of East African maritime trade was during
the Islamic period. East Africa’s trade with the Islam-
ic world was not restricted to Egypt and the Red Sea,
and there were direct connections with Oman in
southeast Arabia as well as more distant places such
as Iraq via the Persian/ Arabian Gulf and the Muslim
communities of India via the Indian Ocean. As with
West Africa, one of the principal trading commodities
was gold, which came from the region of Zimbabwe
in southern Africa. The gold trade contributed to the
growth of Muslim trading cities such as Kilwa in
southern Tanzania as well as inland non-Muslim set-
tlements like Zimbabwe. Slaves were another highly
valued commodity, and it is known that large num-
bers of East African slaves were imported to work in
the marshes of southern Iraq during the 'Abbasid
period (eighth and ninth centuries). Other precious
export commodities included elephant ivory and
spices such as cloves. Imports to East Africa included
ceramics from Mesopotamia, Iran (Makran), India
(Gujarat), and China. In some cases, these ceramics
would be set into the fabric of a building, probably
indicating prestige and contacts with long-distance
trade.

Andrew Petersen

Further Reading

A good insight into the workings of Islamic trade in Africa
is given in the writings of Ibn Battuta, who traveled
extensively throughout Africa.

Horton, M. Shanga: The Archaeology of a Muslim Trading
Community on the Coast of East Africa. Nairobi: British
Institute in Eastern Africa, 1996.

Insol, T. The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cambridge, 2004.

Lunde, P., and A. Porter, eds. Trade and Travel in the Red
Sea Region. Oxford, UK: BAR International Series
1269, 2004.

TRADE, INDIAN OCEAN

The Indian Ocean during the medieval centuries
became drawn into the sphere of Islamic civilization,
generating a dynamic economic zone, expanding the
faith far beyond its Arab homeland, and consequently
producing a tremendous variety of cultural forms.
The extension of Islam across the Indian Ocean was
a product of commerce and conversion rather than
conquest. Some have argued that this area repre-
sented a nonhierarchical world system before the
fifteenth-century penetration of Europeans into the
ocean. The Indian Ocean is commonly thought of as
a route between east and west, complementing the

transcontinental Silk Road north of the Himalayas.
However, routes south along the East African coast
and penetrating into Southeast Asia were equally
important for long-distance trade and the spread of
Islam’s religion and cultures. These regions, which
encompassed tremendous cultural diversity, neverthe-
less obtained their unity from constant economic and
cultural contact.

The basis for that unity is the monsoon weather
system that governs virtually the entire ocean. The
seasonal monsoon winds (monsoon is derived from
the Arabic mawsim, which means season) enabled mar-
iners to travel long distances more efficiently with
relatively simple maritime technology. The regularity
of the winds also facilitated extensive contact between
people of different cultures, because sailors often had
to wait in distant ports for the monsoon to shift and
carry them homeward. Unity is also evident in the ship
technology used there until well past the arrival of
European vessels. Although there were a great variety
of crafts — as indicated in the description of the four-
teenth-century traveler Ibn Battuta — Indian Ocean
vessels all shared the characteristic that they were con-
structed without iron nails, because this metal was
unavailable in sufficient quantities; instead, ship
planking was “sewn” or “stitched” together with co-
conut coir rope and caulked with palm shavings, and
the hulls were greased with castor or shark oils. These
ships carried a large variety of goods, the markets for
which bound the ocean’s littorals in numerous eco-
nomic relationships. A few of the commodities of Indi-
an Ocean trade were the following: from southern and
eastern Asia, silk, ceramics, sandalwood, black pep-
per, and other spices; from western Asia, horses, tex-
tiles, metal goods, frankincense, and products from the
Mediterranean; from eastern Africa, ivory, gold, tim-
ber, and slaves. More significantly, beyond these basic
features of material life, by the end of the medieval
period Islam had touched virtually all of the Indian
Ocean’s shores. In recent years, researchers have
started to investigate more intensively the role of
Islam and Muslims in the complex world of the Indian
Ocean; although many questions remain unanswered,
the broad outlines of medieval Islamic civilization in
the Indian Ocean are clear.

Historical sources about the medieval Indian
Ocean are varied and include geographies, travelers’
accounts, anecdotes and tales, navigational hand-
books, and occasional references found in chronicle
and documentary sources. Much evidence is in Ara-
bic, but there also exist sources in the languages of the
other imperial actors in Indian Ocean history, from
Persia to India to China. Conceptions of the Indian
Ocean are indicated by the variety of names used to
identify the ocean and its parts. In Arabic, it was

816

TRADE, INDIAN OCEAN

called both the Great Sea and the Sea of India, where-
as in Persian it was called the Green Sea and in
Chinese the Western Ocean. The view from the Indian
subcontinent bifurcated the ocean into the Sea of Lar
(the Arabian Sea) and the Sea of Harkal/Harikela, or,
from tenth-century CE evidence in Bengal, the Sea of
Vanga. In the Arabic geographical literature, the
ocean was also identified with other adjacent lands:
it was known variously as the Sea of Persia, the Sea of
East Africa, and the Sea of Ethiopia, reflecting per-
haps Arab scholarship’s greater familiarity with the
western half of the ocean. Further afield, as one
would expect, the medieval Arabic conception
becomes increasingly vague. To the east, the Indian
Ocean merged with the Sea of China, which included
what is now called the South China Sea as well as the
waters on both sides of insular southeast Asia; be-
yond the Sea of China as well as to the far south the
ocean merged into the Surrounding Ocean, also
known as the Green Sea or the Sea of Darkness.

The spread of Islam and developments in medieval
Indian Ocean commerce are processes that are diffi-
cult to separate. The initial Muslim penetration of the
Indian Ocean world was through the expansion of
the newly found Islamic empire into Yemen and
Oman in the seventh century and Sind in the early
eighth century. From these footholds, however, com-
merce, immigration, and missionary activity became
the primary means of the spread of Islam and its
resultant cultural forms and the basis for relationships
across the Indian Ocean. The impact of the Islamic
empire (whose capitals in Damascus and then, starting
in the eighth century, Baghdad fueled demand for
luxury goods) on the Indian Ocean was matched by
the expansion of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (608-907),
which generated a burst of commercial activity across
the ocean. During the earliest Islamic centuries, the
Arabic sources give the impression of direct trade by
Muslim Arab and Persian merchants from such ports
as Siraf on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast and Sohar on the
Arabian Peninsula’s coast, with south and east Asia
ports, most notably Canton (Khanfu), which was
known for its large community of foreign traders,
including Muslims, who constituted a large enough
presence to have pillaged the city in 758. Arabic
chronicle sources refer to “the Chinese ships” in Mus-
lim harbors, probably referring to ships with Chinese
merchandise. Routes across the ocean are documen-
ted as early as the ninth century by the geographer
Ibn Khurradadhbih and as late as the fifteenth centu-
ry in the much more thorough navigational handbook
of Ibn Majid, which provided detailed nautical
instructions for all the major sectors of the ocean.
During the ninth century, the route eastward from
such ports as Siraf to the eastern terminus in Canton

included stops in Muscat or Sohar (in modern
Oman), Daybul (near modern Karachi), and Calicut
or Quilon/Kulam Malay on the Malabar (southwest-
ern) coast of India. From here the ships would round
the subcontinent and Sri Lanka and head directly
across the Bay of Bengal, stopping at the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands before passing through the Strait
of Malacca (Melaka) into the South China Sea and
on to Canton. Alternatively, vessels might sail from
Malabar to al-Ma’bar (“the Crossing Place”),
corresponding roughly with India’s Coromandel
(southeastern) coast, either proceeding northward to
Bengal or eastward across the Bay of Bengal.

The evidence for this trade is most vividly apparent
in the Chinese stoneware and porcelain that litter
archaeological sites on the coast of east Africa (e.g.,
Sofala, Kilwa, Mogadishu) as well as the sites men-
tioned above in Arabia and Southeast Asia. This
transoceanic pattern shifted slightly in 879, when a
Chinese rebel general captured Canton and expelled
members of the foreign merchant community; the
Muslims then established themselves in the Hindu-
Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya in Sumatra. Despite
the activity of Muslim merchants in eastern Asian
trade, southern and southeastern Asian Buddhists
and Hindus probably dominated the carrying trade
in the eastern half of the Indian Ocean during the first
Islamic centuries. However, Muslim seamen were the
primary carriers of long-distance trade in the western
half of the ocean, operating between the coasts of
Arabia, Africa, and, especially in the eleventh centu-
ry, the growing number of Muslim settlements on the
western coast of India.

The activity of southwest Asian Muslims in the Far
East continued until roughly the tenth and eleventh
centuries, when trading patterns became oriented
around emporia clustered in three interlinking
regions: on the coasts of Southwest Asia and East
Africa, on the Gujarat and Malabar coasts of west
India, and in Southeast Asia’s Sumatra and the
Malay Peninsula, which formed the edge of an eastern
zone of trade north across the South China Sea. This
pattern shift may have been encouraged by the entry
of the Chinese into Indian Ocean trade when the Sung
Dynasty (960-1279) started to promote commerce
and established direct trading relations with Sri
Lanka. By the following century, Chinese ships domi-
nated the trade of the eastern Indian Ocean. At
roughly the same time, the Fatimid Dynasty (in
Cairo, 969-1171) established its capital in Cairo and
began to sponsor commercial activity in the Red Sea
and western Indian Ocean; consequently, Cairo and
neighboring Fustat became a dynamic emporium
serving as a link between the two trading worlds of
the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, a role the

817

TRADE, INDIAN OCEAN

metropolis continued to hold through the medieval
period. The role of Egypt in long-distance trade is
vividly documented in the Judeo-Arabic Geniza let-
ters, found in Fustat, which provide numerous details
about commerce that extended from the western
Mediterranean to India. It is also during this time
that the Karimi merchants are first mentioned; these
are a poorly defined group of merchants that played a
prominent role in the long-distance trade of luxury
goods until they seemed to dwindle in importance
during the fifteenth century.

Also, starting in the eleventh century, Sunni and
Ismaili Muslim communities began to flourish in
coastal western India, often in the context of Hindu
states, and from here these populations spread to East
Africa and to Southeast Asia. Concerning the latter,
the Khoja (derived from Persian; “master”) communi-
ty of western India is known to have established exten-
sive commercial contact with East Africa. At about
this time, such East African trading centers as Malindi,
Mombasa, and Zanzibar became prominent. Howev-
er, the links were by no means exclusively economic.
Until the mid-sixteenth century, the leader of the
Ismaili Bohra (derived from Gujarati; “trader”) com-
munity, also of western India, resided in Yemen; mem-
bers of the community traveled there on a regular basis
for pilgrimage, directed their tithes there, and appealed
to the leader for adjudication. Contacts were also
established eastward so that, by the thirteenth century,
Muslims dominated commercial activity in the eastern
Indian Ocean. Although Arab and Persian merchants
had been the first Muslims to establish contact with
East and Southeast Asia, Indian and Southeast Asian
Muslim merchants and missionaries spread Islam into
insular Southeast Asia and the Philippines. The estab-
lishment of the systems of trading emporia culminated
in the fifteenth century with the rise of the Malacca
(Melaka) on the coast of the Malayan peninsula from
an obscure fishing village to a dynamic commercial
emporium. The success of the Sultanate of Malacca
(c. 1403-1511 ) has been associated with the alliance of
its Hindu Javanese founder with the neighboring Mus-
lim sultan of Pasai and his subsequent conversion to
Islam as well as the growing commercial activity of the
Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). During the first
decades of the fifteenth century, the Ming authorities
also undertook a series of commercial expeditions, led
by a Chinese Muslim named Cheng Ho, across the
Indian Ocean to Calicut and then to Hormuz in the
Persian Gulf, and a small detachment are said to have
ventured as far as Mecca. Although of renowned
size — Chinese junks could have as many as four
decks and crews of a thousand — this was a foray
of ultimately limited impact, because no permanent
trading relations were established.

The economic relationships of Asia and the Indian
Ocean have been characterized as a net of interlinking
systems or, alternatively, as a unitary world system,
particularly during the century after about 1250,
when the Mongols imposed economic unity across
the Asian land mass that may have been integrated
into the Indian Ocean system. Political power is cen-
tral to the notion of a world system, and, in the
history of the medieval Indian Ocean, further investi-
gation is needed into the role of states in transoceanic
connections. However, it is uncontested that Islam
brought to the Indian Ocean cultural hegemony, rein-
forcing its geographical and economic unity. The im-
pact of Islam established during the medieval period
is manifest in the modern world, from Mindanao to
Zanzibar. However, this hegemony was far from a
uniform and static phenomenon; rather, it engendered
the cultural diversity of manifold types of Islam
and the syntheses that these created with indigenous
cultures.

John L. Meloy

Further Reading

Abu-Lughod, Janet. Before European Hegemony: The
World System A.D. 1250-1350. New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1989.

Adas, Michael, ed. Islamic and European Expansion: The
Forging of a Global Order. Philadelphia: Temple Univer-
sity Press, 1993.

Chaudhuri, K.N. Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean:
An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Parkin, David, and Ruth Barnes, eds. Ships and the Devel-
opment of Maritime Technology in the Indian Ocean.
London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.

Ray, Himanshu Prabha, and Jean-Franeois Salles, eds.
Tradition and Archaeology: Early Maritime Contacts in
the Indian Ocean. New Delhi: Manohar, 1996.

Risso, Patricia. Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce
and Culture in the Indian Ocean. Boulder: Westview
Press, 1995.

Tibbetts, G.R.. ed. and transl. Arab Navigation in the Indian
Ocean before the Coming of the Portuguese, Oriental
Translation Fund, New Series, vol. XLII. London:
Royal Asiatic Society, 1981.

Wink, Andre. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic
World , 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1990, 1997, 2004.

TRADE, MEDITERRANEAN

During the first century of Muslim domination in the
eastern, southern, and western parts of the Mediter-
ranean, freedom of navigation and overseas com-
merce continued despite the wars and naval raids
between Muslims and Christian countries. The Islam-
ic military expansions in the Middle Sea were, howev-
er, not destructive and did not create an abrupt

818

TRADE, MEDITERRANEAN

change in the material culture of the occupied
countries. Instead, cultural continuity remained dis-
cernible in various life aspects for centuries despite
gradual Arabization and Islamization processes.
Non-Muslim subject populations retained their own
socioeconomic and judicial institutions. There is no
evidence to prove that the Arabs in the seventh or
eighth centuries CE desired to reduce the maritime
commerce in the Mediterranean to their territorial
domain only. However, to what extent early Muslim
merchants were involved in the Mediterranean trade
remains vague. All that can be said is that, on the eve
of the Islamic expansions, shipping in the Mediterra-
nean regions was primarily controlled by the church,
state, rich merchants, and middle-class entrepreneurs,
including Jews. For example, the commercial ships of
the church of Alexandria sailed eastward to India and
Ceylon and westward to Marseilles at the time when
the Byzantines still preserved maritime supremacy
over the Mediterranean, and the commerce of the
Mediterranean world was largely in the hands of
Syrians and Egyptians. The patriarch of the church
hired sailors, maintained a commercial fleet and a
dockyard, and regulated maritime laws. However,
written evidence about Islamic maritime trade in
the Mediterranean comes from the ninth century CE
onward.

The existence of a transcontinental trade, from
China to the eastern and western Mediterranean,
gave the countries of the Indian Ocean (see Trade,
Indian Ocean) an economic unity and brought a new
impetus to sea trade. The Arab achievements made it
possible to unite the two arteries used since antiquity
for the long-distance trade between the Indian Ocean
and the Mediterranean. The twin routes of the trans-
continental trade from Asia — the sea-borne traffic
through the Red Sea and the combined sea, river,
and overland journey across the Persian Gulf, Iraq,
the Syrian desert, and Egypt — were brought under
political control of a single authority: first that of
the Umayyad caliphs and later that of the ‘Abbasids.

The year AH 212/827 CE constitutes a turning
point not only in the naval history of the Mediterra-
nean but also in the history of maritime commerce.
The establishment of the Sicilian and Cretan Arab
emirates marked a new era in the Christian-Islamic
international trade. Meanwhile, the breakup of Islam-
ic Mediterranean territories into fragments motivated
the ruling dynasties to found commercial hubs and
ports of call to attract local and foreign merchants
and expand the interregional and international com-
merce. Among the major Andalusian seaports on the
Mediterranean were Tortosa, Valencia, Denia, Carta-
gena, Malaga, Algeciras, Seville, Silves, Almeria, and
Pechina; of western Maghrib they were Ceuta and

Badis; for Central Maghrib they were Hour, Dellys,
Djidjelli, Bijaya, Bone, and Marsa al-Kharaz; for Ifn-
qiyya they were Tabarqa, Bizerta, Tunis, Monastir,
Susa, al-Mahdiyya, Sfax, Gabes, and Derna; and for
the eastern Maghrib they were Tripoli, Lebda, Surt,
Bernik, Barqa, Ra’s al-Tin, and Tubruk. In addition,
seaports of Islamic Mediterranean islands, especially
those on Sicily — Palermo, Trapani, Mazara, Messina,
and Syracuse — linked Christian Europe with most
Islamic territories. In these commercial centers gath-
ered together merchants of different races, religions,
and languages — indigenous and foreign Muslims,
Jews, and French, Italian, Greek, and Slavic Chris-
tians — to exchange their views as well as their wares
despite the prevalent enmities among the various
powers. With a few exceptions, political boundaries
never formed an obstacle to the freedom of movement
of either persons or goods. Only during wartime and
political disturbance were the visits of foreigners lim-
ited in time or confined to certain localities. The
Mediterranean, divided as it was between a Christian
north and a Muslim south, eventually recovered
much of its economic unity through the activity of
merchants and traders. Although Muslims main-
tained some sort of superiority at sea, neither they
nor Christians could call the Mediterranean “ mare
nostrum’’ (“our sea”).

The Islamic Mediterranean maintained direct and
very frequent commercial relations with Christian
Europe. Although Jews played an integral role and
acted as intermediaries between Islamic coastal fron-
tiers and Christian seaports, as early as the tenth
century CE, Byzantine and Islamic sources indicate
that Muslim merchants carried out commercial trans-
actions in Christian Mediterranean trade centers.
Traders from the Islamic east, including Arab
Christians, were, for instance, a constant feature of
the Constantinopolitan landscape throughout the late
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. Their stay in
the Byzantine capital was ordinarily limited to three
months, although some of them resided in Constan-
tinople for longer periods. Similarly, foreign mer-
chants entered dar al-Islam (the realm of Islam) by
virtue of a valid pledge of security ( aman ) and were
allowed to conduct commercial transactions in any
part of Islamic territories if they carried such a pledge.
Sources also show that more than a masjid (mosque)
had been built in the capital city; one of the earliest
masjids was constructed during the reign of Constan-
tine VII (913-959). Meanwhile, their commercial net-
works exceeded beyond the realm of Byzantium and
included the Slavic territories in Eastern Europe.

Geographically, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian mer-
chants operated within separate but overlapping com-
mercial spheres. They all took part in Mediterranean

819

TRADE, MEDITERRANEAN

international commerce and all did business in Syrian,
Egyptian, North African, and Spanish markets, but
each group was subject to different constraints. It was
characteristic throughout the medieval Mediterranean
world to find Jews and Christians trading with all
regions, whereas Muslim merchants generally res-
tricted their sphere of operation to Islamic markets;
Muslim merchants traded freely throughout the realm
of Islam. Why Muslim itinerant merchants were ab-
sent from the hinterland markets of Latin Europe has
been explained by two factors. First, perhaps they
found Christian cities uncongenial to their needs in
terms of facilities for bathing and eating. Second,
Islamic law discouraged them from trading with non-
Islamic lands. Third, the hinterland markets of Latin
Europe might have been less favorable to Muslim
merchants.

The boom of Islamic trade in the Mediterranean
was made possible as a result of the innovation of
commercial techniques (see Merchants, Muslim) and
the establishment of shipping laws and responsa. It
was during the first third of the tenth century when
the Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun wa-al-Niza' Bayna Ahliha
(Treatise Concerning the Leasing of Ships and the
Claims Between Their Passengers and Sailors) was
promulgated. Written in the form of responsa, the
core text of the treatise, as composed by the original
author Muhammad Ibn ‘Umar al-Kinani al-Andalusi
al-Iskandarani (d. 310/923), consists of only nine
chapters; an appendix of six jurisprudential inquiries
from a later period was apparently supplemented by
the compiler Khalaf Ibn Abi Firas or a later Maliki
jurist. The first chapter deals with the hiring of sailors
on ships. Chapter two treats the leasing of ships,
forms of hire, and the freight charges. Problems that
may emerge between the parties to the contract after
concluding the charter agreement and preventing
them from carrying out their transaction and bringing
it to completion are discussed in the third chapter.
However, the fourth chapter establishes the payment
arrangements between the contracting parties if a
technical malfunction to a ship should occur in the
port of origin, en route, or after docking in the final
destination. The fifth chapter is the longest, and it
covers jettison, salvage, and contribution. Liability
of ship owners for what they carry and for what
they are not liable is addressed in the sixth chapter.
The author of the treatise devotes the seventh chap-
ter to discussing the procedures of the loading and
unloading of goods. Partnership in a vessel is inade-
quately treated in the eighth chapter. The concluding
chapter refers to profit-sharing with the person who
operates the vessel. Finally, the appendix, the legal
inquiries of which are dated between the second half
of the tenth century and first half of the eleventh

century CE, concerns itself with the calculation of
freight charges, overloading, liability of the shipowner
for the transport of fixed goods to the intended desti-
nation, collision, and jettison and general average.
The Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun is, thus, not precisely a
collection of maritime laws that treats ownership and
possession of ships, methods of acquisition, rights of
co-owners, the relations of master and crew, and so
on but rather a maritime treatise that exclusively
treats mercantile and shipping matters. Despite the
substantial legal data that can be derived from this
unique treatise, it does not enable economic historians
to draw a global view on Christian -Islamic maritime
commerce in the Mediterranean region. Additionally,
its geographical scope does not cover the entire Islam-
ic Mediterranean; rather, it is confined to the major
ports of Egypt, Ifriqiyya, Sicily, and Andalusia. How-
ever, the Moroccan, Syrian, and Cretan ports are not
mentioned at all.

Mediterranean merchants handled an enormous
range of commodities: expensive luxury goods and
mundane everyday necessities, raw and manufactured,
bulky and compact. Spices, medicinal drugs, aro-
matics, lac, brazilwood, indigo, dyestuff, and textiles
were imported from the East, whereas metals, miner-
als, timbers, ceramics, leather, furs, and slaves arrived
in Islamic ports from Christian Europe.

Hassan Khalileh

See also Navigation; Merchants, Muslim; Trade,
Indian Ocean

Further Reading

Citarella, Armando O. “Merchants, Markets and Merchan-
dise in Southern Italy in the High Middle Ages.” In
Mercati e Mercanti NeU'Alto Medioevo: L’Area Euroa-
siatica e L’Area Mediterranea, 239-84. Spoleto: Centro
Italiano di Studi sull'alto Medioevo, 1993.

. “The Relations of Amalfi with the Arab World

before the Crusades.” Speculum 42 (1967): 299-312.
Constable, Olivia R. “The Problem of Jettison in Medieval
Mediterranean Maritime Law.” Journal of Medieval
History 20 (1994): 207-20.

. Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commer-
cial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula 900-1500.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Christides, Vassilios. “Raid and Trade in the Eastern Med-
iterranean: A Treatise by Muhammad bn. ‘Umar, the
Faqih from Occupied Moslem Crete, and the Rhodian
Sea Law , Two Parallel Texts.” Graeco-Arabica 5 (1993):
61-102.

Delgado, Jorge L. El Poder Naval de Al-Andalus en la Epoca
del Califato Omeva. Granada: Universidad de Granada,
1993.

Goitein, Shelomo D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish
Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the
Documents of the Cairo Genizci: Economic Foundations.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

820

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO HEBREW

. Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders. Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1973.

. “Mediterranean Trade in the Eleventh Century:

Some Facts and Problems.” In Studies in the Economic
History of the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to
the Present Day , ed. M.A. Cook, 51-62. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, 1970.

. Studies in Islamic History and Institutions. Leiden:

E.J. Brill, 1968.

Hammam, Mohammed. “La Peche et al.. Commerce du
Poisson en Mediterranee Ocidentale (X e -debut XVI e ) In
L' Occident Musulman et L’ Occident Chretien ait Moyen
Age, ed Mohammed Hammam, 151-78. Rabat, 1995.

Imamuddin, S.M. Muslim Spain 711-1492 A. D. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1981.

Khalilieh, Hassan S. Islamic Maritime Law: An Introduc-
tion. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998.

Kreutz, Barbara M. Before the Normans: Southern Italy in
the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Labib, Subhi. “Egyptian Commercial Policy in the Middle
Ages.” In Studies in the Economic History of the Middle
East from the Rise of Islam to the Present Day, ed. M.A.
Cook, 63-77 . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Lagardere, Vincent. “Le Commerce des Cereales Entre al-
Andalus et le Maghrib aux XI e et XII e Siecles.” In
L' Occident Musulman et L’ Occident Chretien au Moyen
Age, ed. Mohammed Hammam, 123-50. Rabat, 1995.

Lewis, Archibald. “Mediterranean Maritime Commerce:
A.D. 300-1100 Shipping and Trade.” In La Navigazione
Mediterranea Nell’ Alto Medioevo, 481-501. Spoleto:
Centro Italiano di Studi sulfalto Medioevo, 1978.

. Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean A.D.

500 to 1100. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1951.

Lombard, Maurice. Espace et Reseaux du Haul Moyen Age.
Paris: La Haye, 1972.

Lopez, Robert S. The Commercial Revolution of the Middle
Ages, 950-1350. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1994.

. “The Role of Trade in the Economic Readjustment

of Byzantium in the Seventh Century.” Dumbarton Oaks
Papers 13 (1959): 69-85.

. “The Trade of Medieval Europe: The South.” In

The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, eds.
M. Postan and E.E. Rich, 257-354. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1952.

. “Mohammed and Charlemagne: A Revision.”

Speculum 18 (1943): 14-38.

Lopez, Robert, and Irving Raymonds. Medieval Trade in
the Mediterranean World. New York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 1990.

Monks, George R. “The Church of Alexandria and the
City’s Economic Life in the Sixth Century.” Speculum
28 (1953): 349-62.

Nazmi, Ahmad. Commercial Relations between Arabs and
Slavs. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie, 1998.

Pirenne, Henri. Medieval Cities: Their Origins and Revival
of Trade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1974.

. Mohammed and Charlemagne. New York: Meridian

Books Inc., 1957.

Pleguezuelo, Jose Aguilera. Estuclios de las Normas e Insti-
tuciones del Derecho Islamico en Al-Andalus. Seville:
Guadalquivir Ediciones, 2000.

. “El Derecho Mercantil Maritimo en Al-Andalus.”

Temas Arabes 1 (1986): 93-106.

Reinert, Stephen W. “The Muslim Presence in Constanti-
nople, 9th-15th Centuries: Some Preliminary Observa-
tions.” In Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the
Byzantine Empire, eds. Helene Ahrweiler and Angeliki
E. Laiou, 125-50. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks
Research Library and Collection, 1998.

Taher, Mustafa Anwar, ed. “Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun wa-al-
Niza‘ Bayna Ahliha.” Cahiers de Tunisie 31 (1983): 5-54.

Udovitch, Abraham L. “An Eleventh Century Islamic
Treatise on the Law of the Sea.” Annales Islamologiques
27 (1993): 37-54.

Whitehouse, David. “Abbasid Maritime Trade: The Age of
Expansion.” In Cultural and Economic Relations between
East and West: Sea Routes, ed. Takahito Mikasa, 62-70.
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1988.

Yusuf, Muhsin. “Sea Versus Land: Middle Eastern Trans-
portation during the Muslim Era.” Der Islam 73 (1996):
232-58.

TRANSLATION, ARABIC
INTO HEBREW

During a period of about three hundred years, from
around 1 100 to 1400 CE, several dozen translators ren-
dered more than four hundred Judeo-Arabic, Arabic,
and Greco-Arabic works of grammar, law, theology,
philosophy, medicine, and literature into Hebrew.
The translators, who were often refugees from Islamic
Spain or descendants of refugees, produced a variety
of texts for patrons, students, and colleagues. Jews
worked with other Jews and also collaborated with
Christians, often producing Hebrew versions of the
same texts that they would help render into Latin.
The main centers of translation were Toledo, where
Avendaut (probably Abraham Ibn Daud) worked
together with the Christian Dominicus Gundissalinus;
Barcelona, where Abraham Bar Hiyya collaborated
with Plato of Tivoli; Southern France (Lunel, Bezier,
Narbonne, Montpellier, Marseilles), where Judah Ibn
Tibbon, the “father of translators,” established a
dynasty of translators, followed by his son Samuel,
grandson Moses, and great grand-son Judah b.
Makhir; and Naples, where a long line of Jewish trans-
lators found patronage, from Jacob Anatoli in the
thirteenth century to Qalonymus b. Qalonymus in
the early fourteenth century.

The first works translated into Hebrew were Jewish
works of grammar and theology, including the writ-
ings of Isaac Israeli, Dunash b. Tamim, Sa’adyah
Gaon, Judah Ibn Hayyuj, Jonah Ibn Janah, Solomon
Ibn Gabirol, Bahya Ibn Paquda, Moses Ibn Ezra,
Judah Halevi, and Moses Maimonides. Then the
translators shifted their attention to Arabic and
Greco-Arabic works of philosophy, medicine, and

821

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO HEBREW

literature. Among the classical authors rendered from
Arabic into Hebrew were Aristotle, Alexander, The-
mistius, Hippocrates, Galen, Archimedes, Euclid, and
Ptolemy; lesser-known authors such as Appolonius,
Autolycus, Geminus, Menaleus, and Theodosius; and
pseudoepigraphical works of Neoplatonic or Hermet-
ic orientation, such as the Book of the Apple, the Book
of Causes, and the Book of Istimakhus. Al-Razi, ‘Ali
ibn Ridhwan, al-Majusi, Ibn al-Jazzar, Ibn Zuhr,
Abu ’1-Salt, Ibn al-Muthanna, Ibn al-Haytham, al-
Farghani, Jabir ibn Allah, Ibn al-Zarqalluh, Ibn
al-Saffar, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, al-Ghazali, al-Bata-
lyawsi, Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl, Averroes, and al-Bitruji
were translated from among the Arabs, along with
popular works such as Kalila wa-Dimna , Bilawhar
wa-Yudasaf and even al-Hariri’s Maqamat. The
most influential author translated was Averroes,
many of whose writings survive only in Hebrew. Avi-
cenna, by contrast, was made available only in his
medical Canon and Canticum and in a late anthology
of texts excerpted from the Najat and Shi fa

From the very beginning of the translation move-
ment, there were two established approaches: literary
and literal. Philosophical and scientific works were
generally translated word for word, producing cai-
ques and loanwords and following the original text
closely even in terms of word order. Literary works,
such as Kalila wa-Dimna and al-Hariri, on the other
hand, were translated more loosely, often using para-
phrases and replacing citations from the Qur’an and
hadith (tradition) with verses from the Bible and rab-
binic dicta. However, there was not always this neat
division into different specialties and disciplines. Two
famous controversies among the early translators
helped to shape the development of the different
ideologies: both Judah Ibn Tibbon and his son Samu-
el criticized their rival translators for subordinating
meaning to language and style, failing to accurately
reproduce difficult philosophical notions in their
paraphrastic translations. The Hebrew terminology
of the Ibn Tibbon family in particular became the
standard language of philosophy and science. Their
“Arabized Hebrew,” as it has been called, became the
accepted terminology used in original compositions as
well, even by Jewish scientific authors who did not
know Arabic.

The Jewish communities of Europe were changed
dramatically by the translations. The traditional ye-
shivah student, who had previously studied only the
Bible and rabbinic literature, now had access to the
vast riches of the classical tradition. As a result, sci-
ence and philosophy influenced every area of rabbinic
Judaism. Philosophical commentaries were written
about biblical texts and rabbinic legends. Legal codes
and commentaries were introduced with theoretical

discussions of ethics and political philosophy. Ser-
mons with philosophical and scientific content
became a common occurrence in the synagogues,
whereas liturgy was framed by philosophical poems
praising wisdom and describing the soul’s ascent to
the supernal realm or conjunction with the active
intellect. The translations also stimulated the emer-
gence of a Hebrew scientific tradition, represented by
such outstanding philosophers as Gersonides, whose
original astronomical investigations were recorded
primarily in Hebrew. The translations served as the
basis for commentaries, supercommentaries, abridg-
ments, encyclopedias, and original compositions.
They satisfied a practical need as well, creating a
medical library for aspiring physicians, who were
not allowed to enter into the Christian medical
schools. In fact, the extensive Hebrew medical library
produced during the thirteenth century made Jewish
education even superior to Christian and Jewish phy-
sicians more highly sought after.

However, not every Jew was enamored of the
new sciences made available through translation.
From the very beginning of the translation move-
ment, there was opposition expressed by traditional
scholars and legal authorities who recognized a dan-
ger in a “foreign wisdom” that contradicted religious
doctrines and presuppositions. This opposition led to
three major communal controversies, which resulted
in a ban on the study of philosophy and the public
burning of Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed. The
opposition to science and translation continued into
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as well, when
the Jewish study of Greco-Arabic philosophy in He-
brew translation was even blamed for the persecu-
tions in Spain in 1391 and the expulsion of 1492.
However, the reaction to Greco-Arabic science and
philosophy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centu-
ries led to a renewed interest in translation as well:
works of Arabic anti-Aristotelianism such as Ghaza-
li’s Incoherence of the Philosophers were translated
into Hebrew for the first time. During the fifteenth
century, Jews began to turn to Latin rather than
Arabic sources, not out of scientific curiosity but
polemical necessity: to know how to respond to the
Christians. Thus, the medieval period of scientific and
philosophical renaissance among the Jews began and
ended with translation.

James T. Robinson

See also Andalus; Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Astrol-
ogy; Astronomy; Botany; al-Farabi; Geometry; al-
Ghazali; Grammar and Grammarians: Hebrew and
Judeo- Arabic; Hunayn ibn Ishaq; Ibn Ezra; Ibn
Gabirol; Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen); Ibn Rushd (Aver-
roes); Ibn Sina (Avicenna); Ibn Tufayl; Ibn Zuhr;

822

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO PERSIAN

Judah al-Harizi; Judah ha-Levi; al-Kindi (Historian);
Maimonides; al-Majusi; Maqama; Mathematics; Med-
ical Literature, Arabic; Medical Literature, Hebrew;
Medicine; Meteorology; Plato and (Neo)Platonism;
Provence; Ptolemy; al-Razi (Rhazes); Sa‘adyah Gaon;
Sicily; Translation, Arabic to Persian; Translation,
Pre-Islamic Learning into Arabic

Further Reading

Berman, Lawrence. "Greek into Hebrew: Samuel b. Judah
of Marseilles, Fourteenth-Century Philosopher and
Translator.” In Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Stud-
ies, ed. Alexander Altmann, 289-320. Cambridge, UK:
Harvard University Press, 1967.

Bos, Gerrit, ed. and transl. De Anima, Translated into He-
brew by Zerahvah b. Isaac b. She’altiel Hen. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1994.

Bos, Gerrit, and Charles Burnett, eds. and transl. Scientific
Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages : The Writings of
Al-KindT. London: Kegan Paul International, 2000.

Drossaart-Lulofs, H.J., and R.L.J. Poortman, eds. and
transl. Nicolaus Damascenus, De Plantis: Five Transla-
tions. Amsterdam, 1989.

Filius, L.S., ed. and transl. The Problemata Physica Attrib-
uted to Aristotle: The Arabic Version of Hunayn b. Ishaq
and the Hebrew Version of Moses Ibn Tibbon. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1999.

Fontaine, Resianne. Otot ha-Shamayim: Samuel Ibn Tib-
bon’s Hebrew Version of Aristotle’s Meteorology. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1995.

. “Samuel Ibn Tibbon’s Translation of the Arabic

Version of Aristotle’s Meteorology.” In The Ancient
Tradition in Christian and Islamic Hellenism, eds.
Gerhard Endress and Remke Kruk, 85-100. Leiden,
1997.

Freudenthal, Gad. “Les Sciences dans les Communautes
Juives Medievales de Provence: Leur Appropriation,
Leur Role.” Revue des Etudes Juives 152 (1993): 29-136.

. “Science in the Medieval Jewish Culture of South-
ern France.” History of Science 33 (1995): 23-58.

Goldstein, Bernard, ed. and transl. Ibn al-Muthcmnas Com-
mentary on the Astronomical Tables of al-Khwarizmi,
Two Hebrew Versions. New Haven, Conn: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 1967.

, ed. and transl. Al-Bitruji: On the Principles of As-
tronomy Vol. 1. Analysis and Translation: Vol. 2, The
Arabic and Hebrew Versions. New Haven: Yale Univer-
sity Press, Yale Studies in the History of Science and
Medicine 7, 1971.

. “The Survival of Arabic Astronomy in Hebrew.”

Journal for the History of Arabic Science 3 (1979): 31-9.

. “The Heritage of Arabic Science in Hebrew.” In

Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, 3 vols., ed.
Roshdi Rashed, 276-83. London: Routledge, 1996.

Harvey, Steven. “The Hebrew Translation of Averroes’
Prooemium to his Long Commentary on Aristotle ’s Phys-
ics. ” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish
Research 52 (1985): 55-84.

. “Did Maimonides’ Letter to Samuel Ibn Tibbon

Determine Which Philosophers Would be Studied by
Later Jewish Thinkers?” Jewish Quarterly Review 83
(1992): 51-70.

, ed. The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science

and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publish-
ers, 2000.

Levy, Tony. “The Establishment of the Mathematical
Bookshelf of the Medieval Hebrew Scholar: Transla-
tions and Translators.” Science in Context 10 (1997):
431-51.

Lieber, Elinor. “Galen in Hebrew.” In Galen: Problems and
Prospects, ed. V. Nutton. London: Wellcome Institute
for the History of Medicine, 1981.

Schiffman, Yair. “The Differences between the Translations
of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed by Falaquera,
Ibn Tibbon, and al-Harizi and their Textual and Philo-
sophical Implications.” Journal of Semitic Studies 44
(1999): 47-61.

Shatzmiller, Joseph. Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Sirat, Colette. “Les Traducteurs Juifs a la Cour des Rois de
Sidle et de Naples.” In Traduction et Traducteurs au
Moyen Age, ed. G. Contamine, 169-91. Paris, 1989.

Steinschneider, Moritz. Die Hebraischen Ubersetzungen des
Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher . Berlin, 1893;
Reprinted Graz, 1956.

Stern, Samuel Miklos. “Ibn Hasday’s Neoplatonist: A Neo-
platonist Treatise and Its Influence on Isaac Israeli and
the Longer Version of the Theology of Aristotle.” Oriens
13-14 (1961): 58-120.

Twersky, Isadore. “Aspects of the Social and Cultural His-
tory of Provenpal Jewry.” Journal of World History 1 1
(1968): 185-207.

Wolfson, Harry Austryn. “Plan for the Publication of a
Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem.” Spec-
ulum 36 (1961): 88-104.

Zonta, Mauro. La “ Classficazione Delle Scienze” di Al-
Farabi Nella Tradizione Ebraica. Torino, 1992.

. La Filosofia Antica nel Medioevo Ebraico: La Tra-

duzioni Ebraiche Medievali dei Testi Filosofici Antichi.
Brescia, 1996.

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO
PERSIAN

From the early Islamic centuries onward, translations
have played an important role in the interaction be-
tween the Arabic and Persian languages and literatures.

Translations of the Samanid Period

The first known translations of Arabic writings into
(New) Persian were produced in Eastern Iran and
Transoxiana under the patronage of the Samanids
(AH 204-395 CE/819-1005), who promoted extensive
literary activity in both languages. Among the earliest
recorded examples, Abu’l-Fadl Bal’ami (d. 329/940),
vizier of Nasr II b. Ahmad (r. 301-331/914-933), trans-
lated Ibn al-Muqaffa”s Arabic version of the Kalila
wa-Dimna, a collection of animal fables, into Persian
prose, and the poet Rudaki (d. 329/941-942) rendered
it into Persian verse. Some two centuries earlier, Ibn

823

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO PERSIAN

al-Muqaffa’ (d. ca. 139/757) had himself translated the
work from Middle Persian into Arabic, and his render-
ing served as the basis for numerous later versions in
prose and verse in both Arabic and Persian.

The most ambitious translations sponsored by the
Samanids, however, belong to the reign of Mansur I
b. Nuh (350-365/961-976), who commissioned his
vizier Abu ‘Ali Bal’ami (d. 382-387/992-997, the son
of Abu’l-Fadl) to translate the universal history of al-
Tabari (d. 310/923) into Persian and also ordered a
translation of al-Tabari’s Qur’anic commentary. Dur-
ing a period of increasingly tense relations between
the Samanids on the one hand and the ‘Abbasids and
the Buyids on the other, Mansur’s initiative was al-
most certainly intended to strengthen the legitimacy
of Samanid rule in the eastern regions. Bal’ami, who
added some materials and omitted others, reworked
al-Tabari’s History into a continuous narrative that
presents Islamic history from an Iranian point of
view. The Persian Tafsir (Commentary) likewise
omits portions of al-Tabari’s work and introduces
several elements that are not found in the Arabic
original; it was perhaps intended to undermine the
teachings of the many heterodox and sectarian groups,
especially the Isma’ilis and Karramis, that flourished
in Khurasan and Transoxania at the time and to ap-
peal to non-Muslim communities as well. Both “trans-
lations” were probably also designed to foster the
acculturation of the Turkish military elite created by
the Samanids (Daniel, 1990; Meisami, 1999).

Although the Samanid period is associated with
the earliest translations from Arabic into Persian,
such works continued to appear throughout the pre-
modern period across the Iranian-speaking world and
indeed beyond it. For the patrons who commissioned
them, translations of Arabic works could enhance
legitimacy and confer prestige. At the same time,
many translations served practical and instructional
purposes. The range of subject matter covered by the
recorded translations shows that there was a signifi-
cant demand among Persian speakers for some access
to the scholarship and scientific learning expressed in
Arabic. Several Persian translators of the fourth/tenth
and fifth/eleventh centuries stated in their prefaces
that their purpose was to make their Arabic sources
available to the elites and the common people alike
(Lazard, 1975; Bosworth 1978-1979).

Translations of Works on Religious Subjects

Despite disagreement among religious scholars about
the permissibility of translating the Qur’an, many

translations into Persian appeared throughout
the medieval period. Interlinear translations were
especially common. When Mansur b. Nuh com-
missioned his translation of al-Tabari’s Tafsir,
he consulted a group of Transoxianan scholars,
who declared it permissible for those did not know
Arabic to read and write the Qur’anic commen-
tary in Persian ( Tarjuma-yi Tafsir-i Tabari, ed. H.
Yaghma’i. Tehran, 1988. 1:5). From the fifth/eleventh
century onward, many commentators on the Qur’an
chose to write in Persian so as to reach a broader
audience.

Although Arabic never lost its status as the preem-
inent medium for the expression of religious thought
and scholarship, Persian rapidly developed as an im-
portant secondary language into which works about
religious subjects, including jurisprudence, theology,
and mysticism, could be translated and in which,
eventually, original works were written. The Sawad
al-A ’zam, a catechism formulated by the Hanafi
scholar Abu’l-Qasim al-Samarqandi (d. 342/953),
was translated into Arabic at the behest of the Sama-
nid ruler Nuh II b. Mansur (r. 365-387/976-997).
Among the most popular Persian translations of Ara-
bic works were those that recorded the sayings and
speeches of ‘Ali, the first imam, those of the later
imams, and commentaries on these materials. Arabic
collections of the imams’ utterances and communica-
tions included the Hundred Words of ‘Ali, compiled in
Arabic by al-Jahiz (d. 255/868-869), and the Covenant
of Ashtar, ‘Ali’s letter to his governor, al-Ashtar (d.
38/658), itself also contained in the Nahj al-Balagha,
the anthology of ‘Ali’s homilies and letters compiled
by al-Sharif al-Radi (359-406/970-1016). Numerous
Persian translations of these works were produced,
including Husayn b. Muhammad Avi’s version of
the Covenant of Ashtar (ca. 729/1329) and the versions
of the Covenant and of the Risala al-Ahwaziyya of
Ja’far al-Sadiq, the sixth imam, recorded in the A dab
al- Wulat of the eminent Shi‘i scholar of Safavid times,
Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1111/1699). The estab-
lishment of Shi‘ism as the religion of the state in Iran
under the Safavids stimulated a particularly large
number of translations from Arabic, especially of
Shi‘i works.

By the fifth/eleventh century, Iranian Muslim
writers frequently composed works about religious
subjects in both languages. Among such bilingual
scholars were the Sunni intellectual Abu Hamid
al-Ghazali (450-505/1058-1111), the Shi‘i theologian
and scientist Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 672/1273),
and several Sufi thinkers, such as ’Abdallah Ansari
(d. 481/1088), Shah Ni’matallah Wali (d. 834/1431),
and ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami (d. 898/1492).

824

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO PERSIAN

Translations of Works on Scientific Subjects

As in the case of the religious sciences, Arabic
remained the primary — but not the exclusive — lan-
guage for the expression of scientific thought in Iran.
Ibn Sina (ca. 370-428/980-1037) and Biruni (362-ca.
442/973-ca. 1050) wrote their principal works in Ara-
bic, despite the fact that they spent their lives in
Persian-speaking regions. Both scholars, however,
expressed a portion of their oeuvres in Persian. Ibn
Sina wrote two introductory Persian works: a short
medical text, Andar Danish-i Rag, and a philosophical
anthology, the Danishnama-yi ’Ala’i, both composed
for his last patron, the independent ruler at Isfahan,
’Ala' al-Dawla Muhammad b. Dushmanziyar b.
Kakuya (r. 398 433/1008 1041). As a further illustra-
tion of the porous nature of the two literatures even
in scientific fields, the Danishnama was effectively
rendered into Arabic in the Maqasid al-Falasifa of
al-Ghazali. In the case of Biruni’s Kitab al-Tafhim
(420/1029), which deals with geometry, arithmetic,
astronomy, and astrology, it is unclear whether the
Arabic or the Persian version of the work appeared
first.

Translations of Ethical and Political Works

Among the types of writing that were frequently cho-
sen for translation from Arabic into Persian (and into
other languages as well) were works dealing with
statecraft, books of advice for rulers, and collections
of wisdom literature. Selected sayings of Plato appear
in several Persian works. The Sirr al-Asrar ( Secretum
Secretorum ) ascribed to Aristotle was translated into
Persian. A selection of the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-
Safa’ appeared in Persian translation in a work enti-
tled Mujmal al-Hikma. Many Persian translations
were made of Aristotle’s letter to Alexander; among
these translations was that of Muhammad b. Ahmad
Zawzani, which was prepared during the fifth/elev-
enth century. In southern Iran, during the reign of
the Muzaffarid Shah-i Shuja’ (r. 765-786/1364-1384),
al-Raghib al-Isfahani’s widely-read treatise the
Dhari'a ila Makarim al-Shari’a was rendered into
Persian, with added counsels drawn from Islamic,
Greek, and Iranian materials. In 901/1495, Yusuf b.
Hasan Husayni Shafi’i Rumi (d. 922/1516) translated
al-Mawardi’s famous work on government, the Ahkam
al-Sultaniyya, into Persian for Rustam Bahadur
Aqquyunlu (r. 898-901/1492-1495). In India, the
Arabic mirror for princes the Siraj al-Muluk of
al-Tartushi (451-520/1059-1126) was translated into

Persian for the Mughal commander and potentate
‘Abd al-Rahim Khan Khanan (d. 1036/1627).

Translations of Works of Historiography

Adaptations of Arabic historiographical works, espe-
cially those that concerned Iran, found a ready audi-
ence among Persian-speakers. The anonymous author
of the Mujmal al-Tavarikh va-l-Qisas, compiled
around 520/1126, translated some of his materials
from Arabic into Persian. In 603/1206-1207, Jarbadh-
qani produced a Persian translation of the Arabic
history of the Ghaznavids, the Ta’rikh al-Yamini of
’Utbi (350-427 or 31/961-1036 or 1040). A decade
later, Ibn Isfandiyar, journeying in Khvarazm, came
across a copy of the Letter of Tansar, a Sasanian work
reportedly rendered into Arabic from Middle Persian
by Ibn al-Muqaffa’; Ibn Isfandiyar translated the
Arabic text into Persian and incorporated it into his
History of Tabaristan (ca. 613/1216-1217). Ibn al-
Tiqtaqa (d. ca. 709/1309), author of the two-part
Arabic Kitab al-Fakhri (701/1301), revised his book
after the execution in 702/1303 of its first dedicatee,
Fakhr al-Din ’Isa, governor of Mosul; the second,
historiographical half of the revised version was
translated with significant modifications into Persian
around 714/1314 as the Tajarib al-Salaf of Hindushah
b. Sanjar Nakhjavani and dedicated to the Hazaras-
pid ruler Nusrat al-Din Ahmad b. Yusufshah (r. 696-
730 or 733/1296-1330 or 1333). Avi translated not
only the Covenant of Ashtar (see above) but also the
Arabic Mahasin Isfahan as the History of Isfahan in
729/1329 under the patronage of the vizier Ghiyath
al-Din (d. 736/1336), for whom a number of other
Arabic works were translated into Persian. A manu-
script dated 789/1387 and entitled Tajarib al-Umam fi
Akhbar Muluk al- 'Arab wa-l-’Ajam purports to be the
Persian translation of an Arabic history composed in
75/694-695; it covers the period from Sam b. Nuh to
Yazdagird III, and it is said to have been in the
possession of a succession of rulers until such a time
that it could no longer be read and the ruler of the age
had it translated into Persian.

Bilingualism

The exchange between the Arabic and Persian litera-
tures took several forms, not all of which involved
freestanding translation-adaptations. Many authors
of poetry and prose wrote in both languages; some
composed independent works in each language, and

825

TRANSLATION, ARABIC INTO PERSIAN

some rendered their own Arabic works into Persian
(and, occasionally, vice versa). The literary antholo-
gies of al-Tha’alibi (350-429/961-1038) and his stu-
dent al-Bakharzi (d. 467/1075) attest to a considerable
number of poets and writers in Iran and Transoxiana
who wrote equally fluently in Arabic and Persian.
Another literary feature of the fourth/tenth and
fifth/eleventh centuries are patchwork poems (mulam-
ma’at), which are either Arabic poems that include
Persian words or poems in which verses in the two
languages alternate. The twelfth-century Khvaraz-
mian poet Rashid al-Din Vatvat (d. 573 or 578/1177
or 1182) composed verses in Arabic and Persian and
sometimes employed both languages in a single poem,
and the celebrated Persian poets Sa’di (d. 691/1292)
and Rurni (604—672/1207-1273) likewise wrote in
Arabic as well as Persian.

Authors of prose works display a similarly high
degree of bilingualism. Among many other writers,
al-Ghazali wrote some works in Persian as well as
many in Arabic. Although he composed his vast com-
pendium, the Ihya’ ’Ulum al-Din, in Arabic, al-
Ghazali wrote a modified abridgment of it, the
Kimiya-yi sa ’Adat, in Persian, for the benefit of ordi-
nary people who were unschooled in Arabic. In the
Akhlaq-i Nasiri, his acclaimed work on ethics and
political philosophy, Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 672/1273)
includes a Persian summary of the Tahdhib al-Akhlaq
of Miskawayh (d. 421/1030), who had himself
brought together Greek, Iranian, Arab, and Islamic
traditions in his (Arabic) writings. The Akhlaq-i
Nasiri became a model for later writers, including
Davvani (d. 908/1502), whose Akhlaq-i Jalali likewise
includes a Persian epitome of Miskawayh’s treatise.

The sizable number of translations that are known
to have been prepared undoubtedly constitute only a
small portion of those that were actually undertaken.
Moreover, very few works are extant in both their
original Arabic and their translated versions, so the
relationship of one to the other is often difficult to
assess. In some instances, especially when the subject
matter concerned religion, precision was essential. In
other cases, it seems that translators were not neces-
sarily required to provide complete or accurate ver-
sions of the original work but were expected to adapt
the text, especially by omitting and adding materials,
to suit the needs and interests of the new audience; the
surviving translations of historiographical works
often display a particularly free relationship with
their Arabic sources, and, in several cases, they explic-
itly incorporate later materials to extend the narrative
beyond the period covered by the original. However,
the process of translation was only one medium for
the reception of Arabic materials in Persian; the high
frequency of bilingualism among educated Iranian

Muslims facilitated various other forms of interaction
between the two literatures, including abridgement
in Persian, commentary in Persian, quotation, and
compositions involving both languages.

Louise Marlow

Further Reading

Baygi, Sh.M. “The First Available Persian Interpretation of
the Qur’an Known as the Tarjumah Tafsir-i-Tabciri’.”
Hamdcird Islamicus 19 (1996): 31-44.

Bosworth, C.E. “The Interaction of Arabic and Persian
Literature and Culture in the Tenth and Early Eleventh
Centuries.” al-Abhath 27 (1978-1979): 59-75.

Daniel, E. “Manuscripts and Editions of Bal’ami’s
Tarjamah-i Tarikh-i Tabari’.” JRAS (1990): 282-321.

Danishpazhuh, M.T. “Fihrist-i Para-i az Kitabha-yi
Akhlaq va-Siyasat bi Farsi’.” Nashriyya-yi Kitabkhana-yi
Markazi-yi Danishgah-i Tihran 1 (1961 ): 21 1-28.

. “Chand Athar-i Farsi dar Akhlaq'.” Farhang-i

Iran-zamin 19 (1973): 261-84.

. “An Annotated Bibliography on Government and

Statecraft,” transl. Andrew Newman. In: Authority and
Political Culture in Shi'ism , ed. S.A. Arjomand, 213-39.
Albany, NY, 1988.

Lazard, G. “The Rise of the New Persian Language.” In
The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4, The Period from
the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs, ed. R. N. Frye, 595-632.
1975.

Lewis, F. “Persian Literature and the Qur’an.” In Encyclo-
paedia of the Qur'an, ed. J.D. McAuliffe, vol. 4, 55-66.
2004.

Meisami, J.S. Persian Historiography to the End of the
Twelfth Century. Edinburgh, 1999.

Tajarib al-Umam ft Akhbar Muluk al-’Arab wa-l-’Ajam.
Istanbul: MS Aya Sofya 31 15, Siileymaniye Kiitiiphanesi.

TRANSLATION, PRE-ISLAMIC
LEARNING INTO ARABIC

According to the historian and man of letters Ibn
Khallikan: “Nobody could have had access to the
writings of the ancient Greeks, because nobody
among the Arabs knew the Greek language.” The
same declaration could be made about the Persian
legacy in other realms of knowledge, such as mirrors
for princes. Presented here are only translations from
the Greek legacy.

Several Arabic authors have given accounts at dif-
ferent periods about the knowledge of the Arabs
about Greek legacy: al-Ya‘qubi (d. ca. AH 292/905
CE) in sixty five pages of his History; the Christian
physician and translator Ishaq b. Hunayn (d. 299/
911) in his History of the Physicians and Wise Men
(philosophers, above all, before Islam); the Baghdadi
logician Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani (d. ca. 375/985) in
his Cabinet of Wisdom , of which only an abridgment
is extant and published; the bookseller and copyist of

826

TRANSLATION, PRE-ISLAMIC LEARNING INTO ARABIC

Baghdad Ibn al-Nadim (d. 380/990 or 385/995), in his
Index of books and disciplines; the Corduvan Ibn
Juljul (d. c. 354/994), in the Classes of Physicians and
Wise Men; Sa'id al-Andalusi (d. 462/1070-1071 in
Egypt) in his Categories of Nations, written in Toledo;
the Syrian physician Ibn Abi Usaybi‘a (d. 668/1269)
in the Classes of Physicians, parts of which have been
translated into French, German, and English; and Ibn
Khaldun (d. 808/1406) in his Introduction to History.
Information is also found scattered in the huge
Arabic biobibliographical productions, in marginalia
of manuscripts, in commentaries, and in glosses.

The Syriac-speaking Christians have played a great
role as a result of their technical skill in translation of
Greek works into Syriac and Arabic. The major
translators who flourished during al-Ma’mun’s reign
include the (probably Melkite) Christian Yahya b. al-
Bitriq, who is credited with translating into Arabic
Plato’s Timaeus, Aristotle’s On the Soul, On the Hea-
vens, and Prior Analytics, the Book of Animals, and
the Secret of Secrets (Sirr al-Asrar), an apocryphal
political treatise of unknown authorship that was
attributed to Aristotle.

However, the great translator of this caliphate was
the Nestorian Hunayn b. Ishaq (d. 264/873), who was
born in Hira in Iraq and, together with his son Ishaq
b. Hunayn, his nephew Hubaysh, his pupil ‘Isa b.
Yahya, and others placed the translation of Greek
medieval and philosophical texts on a sound scientific
footing. The chief interests of Hunayn himself were
medical, and he translated the complete medical cor-
pus of Hippocrates and Galen. Hunayn and his
associates were also responsible for translating
Galen’s treatises on logic, his Ethics (the Greek origi-
nal of which is lost), and his epitomes of Plato’s
Sophist, Parmenides, Cratylus, Euthydemus, Timaeus,
Statesman, Republic, and Laws, of which only the
epitomes of the Timaeus and the Laws have survived
in Arabic. The logical and ethical writings of Galen
played an important role in the development of Arabic
thought, and they have influenced moral philosophers
from Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes) (d. 313/925) to
Miskawayh (d. 421/1030).

Of the works of Aristotle, Ishaq b. Hunayn is
responsible for translating the Categories, De Inter-
pretatione, On Generation and Corruption, Physics, On
the Soul, Nicomachean Ethics, and the spurious De
Plantis, which was written by the peripatetic philoso-
pher Nicolaus of Damascus (first century). However,
the most important Aristotelian treatise to be trans-
lated into Arabic during this period is the Metaphys-
ics, which is known in the Arabic sources as the Book
of Letters or the Theologica ( al-Ilahiyat ). According
to reliable authorities, a little-known translator named
Ustat (Eustathius) translated the twelve books

(excluding M and N) for al-Kindi, as did Yahya ibn
‘Adi a century later. However, Ishaq, Abu Bishr
Matta, and others are also credited with translating
some parts of the Metaphysics.

Equally important is the translation by Ibn Na‘ima
al-Himsi (d. 220/835) of a treatise allegedly written by
Aristotle and referred to in the Arabic sources as
Uthulugia or Theologia Aristotelis. It consists of a
paraphrase of Plotinus’ Enneads IV-VI made by an
anonymous Greek author (who could very well be
Porphyry of Tyre); together with Proclus’ Elements
of Theology, known as the Pure Good ( al-Khayr al-
mahd) or Liber de Causis, it was largely responsible
for the whole development of Arab-Islamic Neopla-
tonism. Al-Kindi is said to have commented on the
Theologia Aristotelis as did Ibn Sina and others,
and al-Farabi refers to it as an undoubted work of
Aristotle. A series of other pseudo-Aristotelian works
also found their way into Arabic, including Secret of
Secrets, De Plantis, Economica, and the Book of
Minerals.

Among other translators of Greek philosophical
texts, the Harranean mathematician and astronomer
Thabit b. Qurra (d. 288/901) should be mentioned. He
translated, among other things, the Arithmetical In-
troduction of Nicomachus of Gerasa (a masterpiece of
translation) and Archimedes’ The Sphere and the Cyl-
inder. He further revised many translations made by
others, such as Euclid’s Elements and Ptolemy’s Al-
magest. Abu ‘Uthman al-Dimashqi (d. 298/910) trans-
lated directly from Greek the Topics of Aristotle,
which was translated again by Yahya b. ‘Adi (d.
363/974), this time from Ishaq b. Hunayn’s previous
Syriac version. The Syro-Palestinian Greek physician
Qusta b. Luqa (d. 300/912) was commissioned for the
translation of mathematical and astronomical works,
like the Spherics of Theodosius, the Rising and Setting
( of Fixed Stars) by Autolycus, and the Lifting Screw
by Hero of Alexandria. The Nestorian Abu Bishr
Matta b. Yunus (d. 328/940), a skilled logician and
the founder of the Aristotelian school in Baghdad,
made his translations from Syriac: The Analytica Pos-
teriora, with the commentary of Alexander of Aphro-
disias and the paraphrase of Themistius; the book
Lamda of Metaphysica with the commentary of
Alexander (which was used by Averroes); and the
Ars Poetica. His disciple the Jacobite Yahya b. ‘Adi
stands out as the best-known writer about Christian
theological questions and ethics in Arabic. He trans-
lated logical works of Aristotle and also passages of
his Physics and Metaphysics, with ancient commen-
taries. His translation of Themistius’ paraphrase
of De Caelo is extant in a Hebraic version. His Chris-
tian disciple ‘Isa b. Ishaq b. Zur‘a (d. 395/1008) was
also active in translation. Such was the case also for

827

TRANSLATION, PRE-ISLAMIC LEARNING INTO ARABIC

Ibn ‘Adi’s pupil Ibn al-Khammar al-Hasan b. Suwar
(d. 407/1017).

Claude Gilliot

Primary Sources

al-Andalusi, Sa‘id. Science in the Medieval World, Book of
the Categories of Nations , transl. I. Salem Semaan and
Alok Kumar. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.

Ibn al-Nadim. The Filirist of Ibn al-Nadim A Tenth-Century
Survey of Muslim Culture , 2 vols., ed. and transl. Bayard
Dodge. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History,
3 vols., transl. Franz Rosenthal, vol. Ill, 111-70. New
York: Bollingen Foundation; Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1967.

Ya‘qubi. Ibn Wadih qui Dicitur al-Ja’qubi Historiae, 2 vols.,
ed. M.T.H. Houtsma, vol. I, 106-71. Leiden: Brill, 1883;
reprinted, 1969. (Translated, annotated, and corrected
by Klamroth, Martin. “Ueber die Ausziige aus
Griechischen Schriftstellern bei al-Ja’qubi.” ZDMG 40
(1886): 189-233, 612-38; 42 (1888): 1-44.)

Further Reading

Ayalon, Ilai. Socrates in Medieval Arabic Literature. Jeru-
salem: The Magnes Press; Leiden: Brill (IPTS, X), 1991.

Burnett, Charles, ed. Glosses and Commentaries on Aristote-
lian Logical Texts. The Syriac, Arabic, and Medieval
Traditions. London: The Warburg Institute, 1993.

De Zenon d’Elee a Poincare. Recueil cl’ Etudes en Hommage d
Roshi Rashed, eds. Regis Morelon and Ahmad Hasnawi.
Louvain-Paris: Peeters (Les Cahiers du MIDEO, 1),
2004.

Endress, Gerhard. “Die Wissenschaftliche Literatur.” In
Grunclriss der Arabischen Philologie, vol. II, ed. Helmut
Gatje, 400-506; vol. Ill, ed. Wolfdietrich Fischer, 3-152.
Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert, 1987 and 1992.

Fakhry, Majid. A History of Islamic Philosophy. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2004.

Fraenkel, Gutas Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture.
The Greco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad
and Early ‘Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centu-
ries). London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Hugonnard-Roche, Henri. “Les Traductions du Grec au
Syriaque et du Syriaque a l’Arabe (a propos de
l’Organon d’Aristote).” In Rencontres de Cultures,
131M7.

Morelon, Regis. “Une Proposition de Lecture de l’Histoire
de l’Astronomie Arabe.” In De Zenon d’Elee a Poincare,
237M9; Rencontres de Cultures dans la Philosophic Mecl-
ievale. Traductions et Traducteurs de TAntiquite Tardive
au XIV* Siecle. Actes du Colloque International de Cas-
sino, 15-17 Juin 1989, eds. Jacqueline Hamesse and
Marta Fattori. Louvain-la-Neuve and Cassino, 1990.

Richter, Gustav. Studien zur Geschichte der Alteren Ara-
bischen Fiirstenspiegel. Leipzig: J..C. Hinrischs’sche
Buchhandlung (Leipziger Semitische Studien, N.F.,
III), 1932.

Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttum, Vol. VI,
Astronomie, 83-96. Leiden: Brill, 1978.

Steinschneider, Moritz. Die Arabischen Ubersetzungen aus
dem Griechischen. Graz: Akademische Druck und
Verlagsanstalt, 1969.

"Religion, Learning and Science in the ‘Abbasid Period.”
In The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, 3rd ed.,
eds. M.J.L. Young et al., Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.

TRANSOXIANA

The historical core of Central Asia was a region
known as Transoxiana, a term that was coined by
scholars to describe the location of this region beyond
the River Oxus as one approached it from the classical
world of Iran (more specifically from its northeastern
province of Khorasan). The Oxus (or Oxiana) River,
a Latinized form of an ancient Iranian word, was
known to the Arabs as Jayhun. It is known today as
the Amu Darya (the Amu River); this is based on a
local variant, Amu, and the Persian word for lake or
sea, darya, borrowed by Central Asian Turkic and
with the connotation of river. Beginning east of the
Oxus, Transoxiana extended even further eastward to
meet the second — although relatively minor — lifeline
of Central Asia, the Jaxartes or the Syr Darya. How-
ever, despite the connection of the Amu and Syr
Darya with the term Transoxiana and the enormous
significance of the two rivers in sustaining the culture
of the region since ancient times, the historical center
of gravity of Transoxiana lay elsewhere. This was
along a third river called the Zarafshan, which origi-
nates far to the east in the Pamir Mountains, flows
further to the west through the Turkestan and Zaraf-
shan ranges, and then flows through the central low-
lands of present-day Uzbekistan. Although it
ultimately appears to head for a junction with the
Amu Darya itself, instead it disappears into the
sands of the Kyzyl Kum desert. Irrigation derived
from the Zarafshan has supported dense agricultural
and urban settlements in Transoxiana since antiquity,
and existing cities like Samarqand and Bukhara
(Uzbekistan) and archaeological sites such as Penjik-
ent (Tajikistan) are only the best-known examples. In
addition to the Zarafshan, several smaller streams such
as the Kashka Darya also rise in the southern water-
shed of the Zarafshan range, flowing southwest and
westward, somewhat parallel to the Zarafshan, toward
the Bukharan oasis but again disappearing before
reaching it. The Kashka Darya has, in turn, nourished
historical places such as the Timurid Shahrisabz
(Kesh) and Mongol Karshi (Nasaf). In cumulative
effect, through the combination of pockets of great
fertility (oases) created by the Oxus, the Jaxartes, the
Zarafshan, and their smaller tributaries, Transoxiana
was a fertile and important region — a literal gateway,
bridge, and bottleneck — that led to the three
fascinating worlds beyond: Greater Eurasia, China,
and India.

828

TRANSOXIANA

In addition to demarcating the southern limit of
Transoxiana, historically the Oxus River also repre-
sented a strong physical border separating Iran from
Central Asia; this was a point of concern for all
those who desired to cross to the other side, including
Alexander the Great, the Sasanian nronarchs, the
Turks and Arabs, and even the units of the Red
Army during the early nineteenth century. It is from
this river that the entire surrounding tract, extending
from the Amu to the Syr Darya (the Oxus to the
Jaxartes), appears to have received its name. It was
recorded by Darius in his inscriptions as Sugdam or
Sugda, with the Avestan and Greek equivalents as
Sughdha or Sogdiana. Likewise, the people who
inhabited the area came to be known as the Sogdians,
whereas the Zarafshan River itself came to be called
the Soghd.

The Sogdians had resided in Transoxiana for sev-
eral centuries before the Arab conquests. They spoke
an Iranian tongue, because Sogdia, like much of Cen-
tral Asia before these invasions, was an Iranian-
speaking region. Although their language (called Sog-
dian by some scholars) is now extinct, scholars believe
that traces of the rich Sogdian culture still survive in
the toponomy of the several towns in the region,
whose names end in -kent, -hand, -kat, or other var-
iants of this Iranian word, which means “town.”
Appropriate examples are Penjikent, Uzgend, Samar-
qand, Numijkat (the original name for Bukhara),
Tashkent, and Yarkand. In addition, a sizable com-
ponent of the population of certain pockets of Central
Asia still speaks Iranian or speaks both Iranian and
Turkic (although some time after the Islamic conquest
a shift occurred from Sogdian to Farsi, the language of
Fars, a province in southern Persia, which developed
into modern Persian). That the Sogdian culture was
still intact in the tenth century and to some degree
assimilated into the practices and beliefs of Islam is
attested to by the accounts of contemporary Muslim
geographers who called the country (Sogdiana) the
Bilad al-Sughd (Land of the Sogdians) and the Zaraf-
shan river the Wadi al-Sughd (Sogd river). As men-
tioned earlier, the Arabs used the term Mawarannahr
(“that which is beyond the river [Jayhun]”), for the
region of Transoxania, also following the same psy-
cholinguistic process. Employing the Syr Darya as a
demarcation line marking the northern limit of Trans-
oxania, all of the land that lay outside of this domain
was the Turkestan or the Bilad al-Turk — the abode of
the Turkic nomads.

If Transoxiana was the geographical and cultural
core of Central Asia, then southeast of it lay the
historical territory of Bactria, home to a sophisticated
urban culture, including several urban foundations
established by Alexander the Great. Of these, most

prominent was the capital of ancient Bactria (the
Balkh of early Islamic centuries), which flourished as
an important urban center until its destruction by the
Mongols in 1221, briefly recovering only to yield
primacy to the funerary sanctuary of Mazar-i Sharif.
Today Bactria corresponds to northern Afghanistan,
southern Tajikistan, and southeastern Uzbekistan
and Turkmenistan.

Northwest of Transoxiana and bordering the Aral
Sea lay Khwarazm, comprising the lowermost course
of the Amu Darya and its sprawling delta estuary
fringing the southern shore of the Aral Sea. Khwar-
azm had since ancient times been home to a flourish-
ing agricultural and urban civilization, typically
Iranian in style and character. Medieval Khwarazm
functioned as an important commercial link between
Eurasia, the Middle East, and Russia, controlling the
most important trade routes between the three worlds
and stimulated by the Islanrization of Central Asia
and the rise of Urgench as the chief city in the region
from the tenth century onward.

Two other regions, Ferghana and Khorasan,
which also surrounded Transoxiana, should be men-
tioned here. The Ferghana Valley, located east of the
expanded region of Transoxiana, has been a land of
an ancient agricultural civilization, colonized early by
Sogdian merchants. Today most of Ferghana lies
within the easternmost province of the republic of
Uzbekistan, except for fringes shared by neighboring
Kyrgystan and Tajikistan. To the south of Transoxi-
ana lies the province of Khorasan. In pre-Islanric and
early Islamic times, it comprised a large area, includ-
ing central Turkmenistan and northwestern Afghani-
stan and the cities of Nisa, Merv, Nishapur, and
Herat. By the Middle Ages, several of these cities lay
on the Silk Road’s trunk routes linking Sinkiang
through Samarqand as well as routes going to Bactria,
India, Khwarazm, and Russia. Khorasan was
the focus of the Arab invasions before Transoxiana,
and, in several ways, it set the stage for sociocultural
developments elsewhere.

Manu P. Sobti

Further Reading

Barthold, Wilhelm. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion.
London: Porcupine Press, 1928.

Frye, Richard. The Heritage of Central Asia — From Antiq-
uity to the Turkish Expansion. Princeton: Markus Wiener
Publishers, 1998.

Jacobson, Henry. An Early History of Sogdiana. Unpub-
lished Masters thesis. Chicago: University of Chicago,
1935.

Knobloch, Edgar. Beyond the Oxus: Archeology, Art and
Architecture in Central Asia. London: Ernest Benn Ltd.,
1972.

829

TRANSOXIANA

Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate.

London: Frank Cass & Co, 1966.

Pumpelly, Richard, ed. Explorations in Turkestan — Expedi-
tions of 1904, Vols. 1 and 2. Washington, DC: Carnegie
Institution of Washington, 1908.

Soucek, Svat. A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Tucker, Jonathan. The Silk Road: Art and History.
Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2003.

TRAVEL

By 750 CE, the era of the conquerors and empire
builders was over in Islam. A new historical figure,
as mobile but more peaceful, began to roam around:
the traveler. A multifaceted figure, he may have been
a merchant, a scholar, an ambassador, a missionary,
or an adventurer. To this, one must add the ritual
wanderer, such as the mystic. This new figure was a
creation of the cities. He was a city dweller, either by
choice or by origin, and, when the city was not his
starting point, it became his horizon.

One traveled in the medieval Muslim world by foot
or by horse, individually or collectively, by caravan
as well as by boat. Some of these medieval travelers
seem like true athletes. After finishing their “grand
tour” (jawla), they earned — deservedly — the name of
“tourist” (jawwcil). Such travelers did not hesitate to
seek out physical challenges even if it meant risking
their lives. The Iranian Abu Hatim from Rayy (died
AH 277/890 CE), who was destined to a prestigious
career as transmitter of hadith, is one such example.
In the travelogue transmitted by his son, he narrates:
“The first time I traveled, 1 did it for seven years. I
walked for more than one thousand parasangs [5700
kilometers] before I stopped counting. After I left Bah-
rayn, I walked to Egypt, from which I left on foot to
Syria [...]. I did all this when I was not yet twenty
years old.” One of his contemporaries, an Andalusian
who had accomplished a grand tour under the same
circumstances, was also proud to repeat to anyone
who cared to hear, “All the masters toward whom I
traveled, I went to meet them on foot.” Touring the
central lands of Islam, the Persian philosopher poet
Nasir-i Khusru reached Jerusalem in 1047, accompa-
nied by his brother and a young slave via the caravan
of Harran. From the third of all holy places of Islam,
he decided to go to the first two and undertook the
trip on foot in the company of other travelers who
shared the same resolve. The group’s guide was “an
energetic man, good walker, and with an agreeable
physiognomy.” (Safar-nama, 106). The trip to Mecca
took thirteen days. The Persian scholar seems to have
undertaken this walking journey as a challenge. This
was not always the case for him or for the other

trekkers mentioned earlier. When the same scholar
set out to travel by foot across the Arabian Peninsula
to go to Basra, that was because he had no other-
choice; he and his brother did not have enough
means to rent two camels. After having paid the
guide who was to lead them, they could only afford
to pay for one camel: “the Bedouin loaded my books
on the camel that my brother would ride, and as for
me, I followed on foot” (223). To cover more than
eighteen hundred kilometers under such conditions
could only make the crossing of desert lands, already
perilous in itself, only more arduous: “When we
reached Basra, we were in such a state of destitution
and misery that we looked like madmen; we had not
untied our hair for three months. Who would let us
into a bath in the state we were in?” (237).

In vast territories, such as those of Islam, that are
covered by some of the world’s largest deserts and
vast steppes, the camel is the best means of transpor-
tation. Travelers who do not depart alone or within a
small group travel with a caravan. The caravan is
indeed the surest link between cities. Like a city in
motion, the caravan has its own emir to guide and
manage it and its own troop to protect it, especially
against robbers. According to Nasir-i Khusru, during
the mid-eleventh century, the caravan that left from
Cairo for the great pilgrimage (hajj) required so many
soldiers that the daily expense to cover their needs and
fodder was one thousand Maghribi dinars, not includ-
ing the twenty dinars spent for each soldier’s pay.
Multiply these daily thousands of dinars by the twen-
ty-five days it took to reach one’s destination (and as
many to return), add sixty thousand dinars to cover
provisions for pilgrims and travelers, and it becomes
clear that a caravan is a vast economic undertaking
before being a means of transporting goods from one
town to another or from one country to another.

One did not only travel by land, but also by sea.
The traveler at times had to use a ship to go from one
point to another, although it was the most feared
means of transportation. The medieval Muslim
world was a land-loving one that kept its back turned
to the sea for most of the time. Only a few regions had
established maritime traditions, including the Persian
Gulf and the Gulf of Aden (al-Andalus). Everywhere
else, the thought of crossing the sea conjured up
images of terror and the throes of a horrible death.
The great Iraqi traveler and encyclopedist, Mas‘udi
(d. 345/956) experienced it firsthand with sailors from
Oman during his crossing of the Gulf of Aden on his
way to Zanzibar: “I sailed on this sea leaving Sinjar,
capital of Oman, in the company of Sirafian captains
[from Siraf, the main harbor of the Persian Gulf],
including Muh. B. Zaydabud and Jawhar b. Ahmad,
also called Ibn Sira — who later perished with his

830

TRAVEL

entire crew. My last sea crossing, going from the
island of Qanbalu [Zanzibar] to Oman, goes back to
304/916. 1 was on board a ship owned by Ahmad and
‘Abd’l-Samad b. Ja‘far al-Sirafi [. . .]. These two
brothers later disappeared body and soul in the very
same sea [. . .]. I may have sailed on many a sea, the
China Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea,
the Red Sea, and the Sea of Yemen, yet 1 have known
none more perilous than this Sea of Zanzibar” ( The
Meadows of Gold, I, 94). All those who encountered
the fortune of the sea said the same thing about their
own place of peril. Thus, the other great traveler of
the year 1000, the Palestinian geographer Muqaddasi,
said it about the Mediterranean Sea in more apoca-
lyptic terms: “It is a difficult, tumultuous sea that
continually roars, especially during the night of
[Thursday to] Friday.” That is because it was thought
that the sea was hostile toward Muslims. This revolt
from the sea of the infidels can be explained by the
following tradition: “[. . .] When He created the sea of
Sham (Syria), God made this revelation: ‘I created
you, and I will hand you over my servants who,
wishing to obtain some favor, will say “Glory be to
God!” or “God is Holy!” or “God is great!” or “there
is no other divinity but God!” ‘How will you treat
them?’ — ‘Well, Lord, answered the sea, I will drown
them!’ — ‘Away from me! In truth I curse you! I will
make you less beautiful and less bountiful!’ ” ( Ahsan
al-Taqasim, 43). All of the medieval travelers who
have left behind tales of their “going into the sea”
have compared it to a cemetery (or, more exactly, to a
coffin) from which they miraculously escaped. Yet,
despite all of the dread and terror (for one must add
to the misdeeds of nature those of men, especially of
pirates who hounded each and every sea), the travelers
did not hesitate to board a ship; they had little choice
if they wanted to go to India or China for commercial
reasons. At times they did not hesitate to board infidel
ships, as did the Andalusian Ibn Jubayr (d. 614/1217)
to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The ulemas from al-
Andalus had endorsed traveling on board of Christian
ships as early as the eleventh century, although one
could have gone from al-Andalus to the Orient by way
of land, through the Maghreb. The reading of al-
Bakri’s (d. 487/1094) Description, however, shows
the chronic insecurity that ruled over itineraries
such as those linking the Maghreb to Egypt, making
it clear why the Andalusian geographer’s compatriots
saw traveling by sea — even aboard infidel ships — as a
lesser evil.

This information about traveling during medieval
times comes via writings composed mostly by the
travelers themselves, especially the most learned
ones. The latter, however, took a long time before
deciding to write down their travel experiences. This

attitude would not change until the end of the ninth
century, even if the oldest travel description goes back
to 851, it being the work of an Iraqi merchant who
was familiar with India and China.

Why is it that the scholars of the eighth and ninth
centuries, who traveled often and extensively, did not
think of putting their experiences down in writing?
One theory is that they did not think that the story
was the prime condition of the trip. To travel and to
write about it is a motion that took time to develop in
Islam. Nonetheless, a look at the great traveling scho-
lars of the ninth century shows that their travel
accounts were heavily circulated within their own
milieu. A chain of learned solidarity perpetuated the
travelers’ oral souvenirs from mouth to ear. Here and
there, an attempt at literalizing oral narratives was
made. Still tentative, this literary shaping borrowed
its narrative expression from the khabar. Thus, the
Iraqi Abu Khuzayma (d. 243/857) was able to pre-
serve in his Book of Science fragments of the travel
account from one of the first — if not the first — peri-
patetic scholars of Islam, Mak’hul (d. 112/730). He
had obtained the account from one of his Syrian
masters, who himself had acquired it from a direct
disciple of the traveler who had died in Syria (this is
factually known). Other travel accounts were
obtained in a similar fashion, by trusting the scholarly
memory or even the family memory.

The travel khabar offers the dual characteristic of
being, in its organizing principle, a reported and frag-
mented narrative in which the author-transmitter is
not confused with the traveler-narrator. Because it is
in bits and pieces, it must dramatize in a few words or
sentences the entire arc of a trip; it therefore must be a
story worth telling. To achieve this, it must stir strong
emotional feelings that will make up for its fragmen-
tary aspect. Where can such emotions be found? In the
realm of the extraordinary and the wonderful. In
the same way that the ‘aj’ih (wonders), which were
part of the Islamic knowledge, had been feeding the
instructive as well as the entertaining literature since
the ninth century, the travel khabar ran into their
writing since its inception. Moreover, many travel
accounts of this type are ‘aja’ib (tales of wonder). The
‘aja’ib found a place in the travel account as processes
of the similar and dissimilar rhetoric, because they act
as translators of the difference. As figures of the ex-
traordinary, however, they do not imply that one
leaves the space of Islam to go experience them and
then recover them through travel writing. Similarly,
the ancient Greeks did not have to leave their cultural
world to go meet with the thoma (the wonder-curiosi-
ty), nor did the men of the medieval western world to
go discover the mirabilia. Thus, it is understandable
that a travel account that does not include any ‘aja’ib is

831

TRAVEL

not really a travel account. The medieval Muslim read-
er always expects from the person who is relating his
travels that he will tell about what he has seen and/or
heard that was the most ajib — the most curious, the
most extraordinary, the most wonderful. Thus, the
pseudo-Shaffi tells in his travel story — a work from
the tenth century — about his having seen in Yemen
conjoined twin sisters united within “the one body of
a normal woman who, instead of having one trunk,
had two distinct ones, with four hands, two heads,
and two faces.” After one died, “[her body] was sol-
idly tied, from the top to the bottom, with a rope and
thus kept until it rotted away; after which it was cut
and buried.” As for the “body left alive,” she kept on
“coming and going through the souks.”

By the end of the ninth century, the travel account
still had not found a stable and lasting literary frame.
It would borrow that of the epistle, a literary genre
that appeared toward the mid-eighth century and that
would be its host for about two centuries. Unfortu-
nately, the most ancient travel epistles are known to
us only through allusions, citations, or fragments
snatched out of oblivion and waste by the hazards
of the compilation. For example, the epistle written
by an Andalusian scholar at the turn of the ninth and
tenth century is known only because mention is made
of it in the biographical dictionaries of the Muslim
west. Of its contents, only one recommendation sur-
vived from the writer who had endured many hard-
ships away from his country and that he transmitted
to his fictional, or real, addressee: never undertake a
long trip! The epistle by a Hamadhan judge from the
Seljuq era is also known as a result of a biographical
dictionary compiled during the twelfth century. Writ-
ten in 1040, this epistle allowed its writer to depict
what he saw, such as the great mosque of Damascus,
and the men he met. Fortunately, some travel epistles
have reached us in their entirety. One of them is the
epistle that the physician Ibn Butlan (d. ca. 455/1063),
a Christian from Iraq, devoted to describing his itin-
erary from Baghdad to Cairo. Most of these travel
epistles articulate their writing around what was seen
and heard. The two epistles from Abu Dulaf, who
traveled across India and China around 942, are the
most representative of this writing with the eyes. An
entire trend of travel epistle, however, kept on render-
ing, as was done in the ninth century, what the travel-
er-writer had heard. One representative epistle of this
trend is that of Ibn ‘Abbad (d. 385/995) to a scholar
from his hometown of Rayy, destined as he was to a
political career as a vizier. During a studying trip to
Baghdad around 958, the young Ibn ‘Abbad fre-
quented the intellectual circles and the literary salons
of the ‘Abbasid capital. This epistle did not survive in
its entirety, but its literary success was such that a

contemporary succeeded in reconstituting it by reas-
sembling most of its membra dijecta.

When back home in Seville, after his return from
the Orient, Abu Bakr b. al-‘Arabi (d. 534/1 148) wrote
a rihla (account) and thus started a revolution in
travel writing at the dawn of the twelfth century.
Born four centuries earlier, the rihla, which had
been sheltered until then by the inventory of masters
(mashyaka or fahrasa), the biographical dictionary
(tabaqat), the epistolary narrative (risala), and the
diary (ruznamja), could finally abandon them and
move into a genre in its own name: that of the travel
rihla. From then on, the way is paved for the great
travel narratives in which the Muslims of the Muslim
west would more than excel, from Ibn Jubayr (d. 614/
1217) to Ibn Battuta (d. ca. 770/1368).

Houari Touati

Further Reading

Bulliet, R. The Camel and the Wheel. Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1975.

Charles-Dominique, P. Voyageurs Arabes: Ibn Fadlan, Ibn
Jubayr, Ibn Battuta et un Auteur Anonyme. Paris, 1995.

Eikelmann, D., and Piscatori, J. Muslim Travellers: Pilgrim-
age, Migration, and the Religious Imagination. Berkeley
and Los Angeles, 1990.

Fernand, G. Relations de Voyages et Textes Geographiques
Arabes, Persons et Turcs Relatifs a l’ Extreme-Orient,
du Vllle au XVIIIe Siecle, 2 vols. Paris, 1913-1914.
(Reprint, Frankfurt: F. Sezgin, 1996.)

Goitien, S.D. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Commu-
nities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of
the Cairo Geniza, 5 vols. Berkeley, 1967-1986.

Hadj-Sadok, M. “Le Genre de la Rihla.” Bulletin des Etudes
Arabes 40 (1948): 196-206.

Kratchkovskii, I.J. Arabskaia Geografitcheskai'a Literatura,
3 vols. Moscou-Leningrad, 1957.

M’Ghirbi, S. Les Voyageurs de TOccident Musulman du
Xlle au XlVe Siecle. Tunis, 1996.

Miquel, A. La Geographie Humaine du Monde Musulman
Jusqu’au Milieu du Xle Siecle, 4 vols. Paris, 1967-1975.

Netton, I.R. Thought and Travel in the House of Islam.
Richmond, Va, 1996.

Netton, J.R., ed. Golden Roads. Migration, Pilgrimage, and
Travel in Medieval and Moderne Islam. London, 1993.

Picard, Ch. La Mer et les Musulmans d'Occident au Moyen
Age. Paris, 1997.

Salih al-Din and ‘U. Hashim. Tarikh al-Adab al-Jughrdfi, 3
vols. Beirut, 1987.

Touati, H. Islam et Voyage au Moyen Age. Paris, 2000.

Udovitch, A. “Time, the Sea and Society: Durations of
Commercial Voyagers on the Southern Shores of the
Mediterranean During High Middle Ages.” Princeton
Near Eastern Papers 31 (1981): 503-63.

TRIBES AND TRIBAL CUSTOMS

Tribal societies have played a continuous and crucial
role in shaping Islamic civilization. Not only did

832

TRIBES AND TRIBAL CUSTOMS

Islam first emerge among the tribal societies of the
Arabian peninsula, but also, among others, Berber
tribes in North Africa and Turkic tribes from Central
Eurasia were instrumental in the founding of impor-
tant medieval empires. The term tribe generally refers
to a group or sociopolitical organization claiming
descent from a common ancestor and sharing com-
mon values, customs, and a sense of identity and
solidarity. In medieval Arabic and Persian historical
texts, one finds the terms qawm and qabila frequently
used to refer to such groups; the terms il and oymak
are similarly used in Turkic Muslim texts. Anthropol-
ogists and historians use the term tribe to refer to a
diverse variety of social organizations. Although this
term is generally associated with nomads, not all
tribes were nomadic, and not all nomads were tribal.
Furthermore, whether nomadic, semi-nomadic or set-
tled, tribes maintained strong connections with urban
areas. For example, Arab tribes participated in trade
with the Roman and Sasanian Empires, and Central
Asian nomads engaged in long-distance trade along
the Eurasian land route.

Despite their diversity, tribal societies share certain
common characteristics. Chief among these is a belief
in a common line of descent, whether fictional or real.
In tribal societies, lineage functioned as a crucial
source of identity and a focus of loyalty; kinship ties
were political ties. In most tribal societies, wealth was
acquired for distribution rather than accumulation.
One’s position within a tribe was not determined by
how much one owned but rather by how much one
shared. Wealth was more a source of tribal solidarity
than a source of authority. Despite a tendency toward
decentralization and egalitarianism, it should be
noted that some tribes were more centralized and
hierarchical than others and that, over time, tribal
societies adapted to changing political and economic
circumstances. Tribal nomadic societies maintained
rich traditions of oral literature in the form of poetry
and epics. Such literature functioned to strengthen
kinship ties and provide legitimation for a tribe’s
social and religious identity. For example, in Central
Asia, the common ancestor of the tribe was
often recast as the bringer of Islam after the tribe’s
conversion.

From its inception, there was a close connection
and interaction between tribal society and Islam. In
the seventh century CE, the Arabian peninsula was
largely populated by Arabic-speaking peoples
organized into tribes that were themselves composed
of smaller clans. Clan loyalty was the paramount
principle by which society was organized. Arab tribal
society was relatively decentralized, lacking authori-
tarian structures like jails and courts. Order was
maintained largely by familial pressure and, when

necessary, blood wit. However, as a result of involve-
ment in global trade, there was an influx of wealth,
which led to sedentarization and urbanization, partic-
ularly in Mecca, which resulted in increasing economic
stratification. Islam arose as an explicit challenge and
alternative to an increasingly anachronistic and un-
wieldy tribal system. Converts to Islam gave alle-
giance to the Prophet Muhammad and the ummah
(Muslim community). As a member of the ummah,
devotion and allegiance to one God and Islam were to
become one’s primary source of identity, transcending
any existing tribal loyalties.

However, although Islam tended to weaken or
subordinate tribal identity, it also incorporated tribal
values and customs. The Prophet’s success was due in
part to his effectiveness within the tribal system. The
Prophet Muhammad was born into the respected clan
of Banu Hashim of the dominant Meccan tribe, the
Quraysh. His lineage provided him protection, espe-
cially in the form of support from his uncle Abu
Talib, the leader of Banu Hashim. As a young man,
Muhammad gained a reputation as a mediator of
tribal disputes, earning him the title of al-Amin (the
trustworthy). He exemplified the tribal virtues of hos-
pitality, forbearance, and courage, all of which were
incorporated into Islam. Even the central religious
ritual of the polytheistic Arabs, the Hajj, was ulti-
mately Islamicized. Furthermore, the early Islamic
state did not eradicate tribal institutions; initially it
brought non-Arabs into the Islamic polity by incor-
porating them as clients of Arab tribes. Additionally,
many of the early conflicts in Islam were rooted in
lingering tribal animosities.

Although the earliest Islamic empires were
founded by Arabs, from the tenth century onward,
Turkic and Turco-Mongolian tribes dominated the
political life of Islamic civilization, especially in Eur-
asia. By the end of the tenth century, the Qarluk tribal
union established their regime in Transoxiana, where-
as the Oghuz tribal union under the leadership of the
Seljuk family established the Seljuk dynasty in Iran
and Khurasan during the eleventh century. Another
Seljuk dynasty was also established in Anatolia,
which was succeeded by the Turkic Ottoman Empire.
Similarly, the Safavid Empire in Iran and the Mughal
Empire in India were originally founded by members
of Turkic tribes.

The Turkic and Turco-Mongol tribes of Central
Asia during the medieval period were mainly pastoral,
nomadic, or semi-nomadic in background. They were
organized into families, clans, and tribes, with each
clan claiming descent from a common ancestor. The
fifteenth-century Book of Dede Korkut consists of
earlier oral stories produced by the nomadic Oghuz
Turkic tribes, and it provides a vivid description of

833

TRIBES AND TRIBAL CUSTOMS

their tribal life and customs. In Deck Korkut, it is
demonstrated that social hierarchies were reflected
not in material terms but rather in ideological ones.
In other words, one’s lineage was the primary indica-
tor of one’s status within the tribe. Certain individual
qualities such as generosity and military prowess were
also sources of authority and status. Tribal leadership
emerged from the most prestigious clans. The elders
of the tribe stood as arbiters and mediators among the
different members or subdivisions within a tribe or
among tribes, and their authority depended more
on consensus than coercion. Women also had author-
ity and status based on their lineage and played
important roles in family and tribal affairs.

Although the political structures of these dynasties
initially reflected their tribal backgrounds, once estab-
lished, they had to deal with the centrifugal tendencies
of the tribes from which they came. In Central Asia,
for example, the tension and conflict between the
ruling khan who represented central state authority
and the begs who were the local tribal leaders was
crucial. Islamic institutions played an important role
in facilitating the sedentarization of nomadic tribes
and integrating tribes into the state. Rulers increas-
ingly used Islam to legitimize their authority and to
transcend the limitations placed on their power by the
decentralizing tendencies of the tribal system. They
thus gave increasing attention to Islamic institutions
by supporting the Islamic scholars, establishing Is-
lamic schools, constructing Sufi tombs, and seeking
the support of the Sufi elite. This balancing act be-
tween tribal and Islamic sources of authority in many
ways defined the political culture of Eurasian Islam
during the medieval period.

Nurten Kilic-Schubel

See also Epics, Turkish; Nomadism and Pastoralism;
Safavids; Trade; Transoxiana; Turkish and Turkic;
Turks

Further Reading

Barfield, Thomas J. The Nomadic Alternative. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.

DeWeese, Devin. Islamization and Native Religion in the
Golden Horde. University Park, Penn: The Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1994.

Donner, Fred W. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Khoury, Philip S., ed. Tribes and State Formation in the
Middle East. London: Tauris, 1991.

Manz, Beatrice F. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Togan, Isenbike. Flexibility and Limitation in Steppe For-
mation. Leiden: Brill, 1998.

The Book of Dede Korkut , transl. Geoffrey Lewis. London:
Penguin Books, 1974.

TULUNIDS

The Tulunids were a semi-autonomous Turkish dy-
nasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from approximately
868 to 905 CE. These rulers served officially as ‘Ab-
basid governors but, in fact, wielded broad authority
and sometimes came in conflict with the caliphs whom
they claimed to serve. They followed in this manner
the example of other semi-independent families of
governors, such as the Aghlabids and the Tahirids,
who previously ruled in North Africa and Khurasan,
respectively.

Ibn Tulun, the founder of this dynasty, came to
Egypt in 868 as part of the entourage of his stepfather
Bakbak, the 'Abbasid governor of Egypt. He survived
the assassination of his stepfather and outmaneuvered
his rivals shortly afterward to gain control of the
province. He took advantage of disturbances in
Syria to create a powerful personal army and cam-
paigns against the Byzantines to extend his authority
eastward. His administrative skill, moreover, estab-
lished firm foundations for his successors at the time
of his death in 884.

Ibn Tulun’s son, Khumarawayh, who succeeded
him, was able to extend the dynasty’s dominions to
include the Jazira. However, a reinvigorated ‘Abbasid
caliphate, internal dissension among his ministers,
and financial exhaustion undermined his military
achievements. Khumarawayh was assassinated in
896, as was his son and successor, Jaysh. Another
son, Harun, ruled until 905. The ‘Abbasids shortly
afterward seized control.

The Tulunids mark the rise of non- Arab groups to
power in the Near East and, in particular, a Turkish
military elite in Egypt. The family descended from a
military slave who served at the court of al-Ma’mun.
Turkish military slaves were not only renowned for
their fighting skills but were considered very loyal.
They owed their position and privileges entirely to
the caliph. They lacked the ties of kinship that divided
the sympathies of Arabs and Persians.

The decline of the ‘Abbasid caliphate allowed the
Tulunids to establish themselves. Intrigue at the
court, revolts of the Zanj in southern Iraq and the
Saffarids in eastern Iran, and general financial ex-
haustion during this period dissipated the caliphate’s
energy. Ministers and generals often intervened in
caliphal succession by supporting weak candidates
for the benefit of their interests. Caliph al-Mu‘tamid’s
brother, al-Muqaffaq, emerged as the predominant
force behind the caliph in the 870s, but he remained
preoccupied with suppressing the Zanj until the 880s.

The Tulunids posed a fundamental problem for
the legitimation of government. Originally proteges
of the caliph, they lacked an ethnic and ideological

834

TURKISH AND TURKIC LANGUAGES

constituency upon which they could draw immediate
support. They countered this weakness by maintain-
ing nominal allegiance to the caliph in Baghdad, ally-
ing themselves carefully with local commercial and
religious interests and recruiting slave soldiers. They
inscribed the name of the caliph on their coinage,
appointed important Egyptians to ministerial posts
and consulted others, and bought large numbers of
Sudanese slaves. In addition, they promoted cam-
paigns against Byzantiun under the auspices of holy
war against the infidel.

The quickness with which the Tulunids succumbed
to ‘Abbasid forces probably resulted from their in-
herent political weakness. However, although the
‘Abbasids eventually recovered and reestablished
their authority over Egypt and Syria, the precedent
of the Tulunids remained for a later Turkish dynasty
of semi-independent governors, the Ikhshidids, who
came to power in Egypt in 935.

Egypt and the Levant appear to have prospered
under the Tulunids. It has been suggested that this
prosperity reflected the expenditure of taxes locally
rather than their remittance to Baghdad. Ibn Tulun
established an efficient bureaucracy that earned
the respect of local Arabs. He also established a
new quarter near Fustat, where he erected a famous
congregational mosque that still stands today.

Stephen D. Sears

Further Reading

Johanson, Lars, and Csato, Eva, eds. The Turkic Lan-
guages. London: Routledge, 1998.

Lewis, Geoffrey. The Turkish Language Reform : A Cata-
strophic Success. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,
1999.

TURKS

The name Turks generally applied to various Turkic-
speaking peoples living between Eastern/Chinese Tur-
kistan (Sinkiang) and the Balkans. The first mention
of the ethnonym Turk may date from Herodotus’ (c.
484-425 BCE) reference to Targitas (IV. 5), the first
king of the Scythians, or to the Iyrcai people (IV.22).
During the first century CE, Pomponius Mela refers
to the Turcae (1.1 16) in the forests north of the Sea of
Azov, and Pliny the Elder (Natural History, VI. 19)
lists the Tyrcae among the people of the same area.
The first definite references to the Turks come mainly
from Chinese sources in the sixth century. In these
sources, Turk appears as T’u-chiieh and referred to a
diverse group of nomadic Turkic speakers who lived
north and west of Chinese territory.

Seventh-century Chinese sources preserve the ear-
liest legends of the origins of the Turks, saying that
they were a branch of the Hsiung-nu (Huns) and living
near the “West Sea” (perhaps the Caspian) or that
they were from the country north of the Hsiung-nu,
were descended from a man born of a wolf, and first
came to the Chinese border to trade for silk. Modern
research tends to indicate that their ancestors in-
deed lived within the state of the Hsiung-nu in the
Trans-Baikal area and that they later, during the fifth
century, migrated to the southern Altay.

The Turks first appear in history in 552 CE, when
Burnm established the Turk Empire, a kind of tribal
state, that stretched from the northern marches of
China west to the Central Asian territories of Sasanid
Iran. Eventually, this empire and the Sasanids clashed
over control of the silk trade. In the 580s, internal
strife resulted in a rift between the Eastern and West-
ern Turks. During the first half of the seventh century,
both nominally submitted to Chinese authority. In
682, the Eastern (Gok/Blue) Turks established a new
empire in Mongolia and attempted to include the
Western Turks, but by 711 the latter had broken
away. The heartland of the Western Turks was be-
tween the Eastern Karatau Mountains and Jungaria.

The oldest extant Turkish texts, the Orkhon
inscriptions found in Mongolia and dating from the
mid-eighth century, shed light on these events.

On the eve of the Islamic penetration of their
region, the Western Turks were overwhelmingly
nomadic but had a strong interest in trade. Most
were probably shamanists, whereas others were
adherents of Manichaesim, Nestorian Christianity,
or, especially, Buddhism. Having destroyed the Sasa-
nian Empire (see Sasanians, Islamic Traditions) in
642, the Muslim Arab armies reached the Oxus
(Amu Darya), the traditional border between Iran
and Turan, by 674 and began raids into Central
Asia. In 751, these armies reached Talas, near modern
Dzhambul, where they defeated a Chinese army and
firmly established Islam as the major political and
cultural force in the area.

Although initiated by the Arabs, the conversion of
the Turks to Islam was filtered through Persian and
Central Asian Iranian culture. Most Turks converted
through the efforts of missionaries, Sufis, and mer-
chants. At the same time, Turks entered the Muslim
world proper as slaves, the booty of Arab raids and
conquests. Under the Umayyads, most were domestic
slaves; under the ‘Abbasids, increasing numbers were
trained as soldiers. By the ninth century, Turkish
commanders were leading the caliphs’ Turkish troops
into battle, and the caliphs’ Turkish guards were
making and unmaking the caliphs themselves. As
the ‘Abbasid caliphate declined, Turkish officers as-
sumed more and more military and political power.
They took over or established provincial dynasties
with their own corps of Turkish troops. Ibn Tulun
(868-884) made himself virtually independent in
Egypt and Syria. This process culminated when the
Turkish commander Sebuktigin (977-997), who was
born a pagan, established the Ghaznavid Sultanate
controlling Afghanistan, eastern Iran, and northern
India.

Meanwhile, Islam made great strides among the
Turks in Central Asia. Around the mid-tenth century,
the Qarakhanids, a Turkish dynasty that arose from a
tribal confederation in the ninth century and ruled the
region from Eastern Turkistan to Transoxania,
became, at least nominally, Muslim. They promoted
a Turkish cultural consciousness and the first Muslim
Turkish literature. Also around the mid-tenth centu-
ry, a certain Seljuk, the leader of the Oghuz confeder-
ation who came from the steppes north of the Caspian
and Aral seas, came to Jand on the Jaxartes (Syr
Darya). Subsequently, Seljuk and the Oghuz adopted
Islam. In 1040, his grandsons Chaghn; and Toghnl
defeated the Ghaznavids at Dandanqan near Merv,
establishing the Seljuk Empire and opening the Mid-
dle East to the first massive immigration of Turks.

837

TURKS

Henceforth, until the fall of the Ottoman Empire,

almost every major ruling dynasty in the Muslim

world was to be of Turkish origin.

Gary Leiser

See also Epics, Turkish; Khurasan; Nomadism and

Pastoralism; Ottoman Empire; Samanids; Sasanians,

Islamic Traditions; Silk Roads; Slavery, Military;

Slaves and Slave Trade, Eastern Islamic World

Further Reading

Barthold, W. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, 3rd
ed. London: Luzac, 1968.

Bazin, L. et al., “Turks.” In El 2 .

Bosworth, C.E. The Ghaznavids, 2nd ed. Beirut: Librairie
du Liban, 1973.

. “Barbarian Incursions: The Coming of the Turks

into the Islamic World.” In Islamic Civilization, 950-
1150, ed. D.S. Richards, 1-16. Oxford, UK: Cassirer,
1973.

Gibb, H.A.R. The Arab Conquests in Central Asia. New
York: AMS Press, 1970.

Golden, Peter B. “The Karakhanids and Early Islam.” In
The Cambridge History of Inner Asia, ed. Denis Sinor,
343-70. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1990.

. An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples.

Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992.

Sinor, Denis. “The Establishment and Dissolution of the
Turk Empire.” In The Cambridge History of Inner Asia,
ed. Denis Sinor, 285-316. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.

TUS

Tus is the name of a valley district and a town near
Mashhad in Khurasan in northeast Iran. Already in
pre-Islamic times, several towns existed. In early Is-
lamic times, the main towns were Tabaran, which
changed into the later town of Tus, Nawqan, and
Radkan. Nawqan was integrated in the growing vil-
lage of Sanabad, later called Mashhad, and since
203 AH/818 CE the burial place of the eighth Shi‘i
imam ‘Ali al-Rida. The town of Tus was finally
destroyed in AH/1389. The waters that supplied it
were diverted to Mashhad, which became, in Safavid
times (1501-1736), the capital of the district of Tus
and of all Khurasan. However, the name of Tus was
mentioned still in the seventeenth centuries on Persian
astrolabes.

In the sources about Tus, it is not always clear if
the authors are speaking about the district or the
town. According to the historian al-Baladhuri, the
Sasanian governor of Tus invited the Arab governors
of the Iraqi towns Kufa and Basra to Khurasan; Tus
was then conquered by the latter one. During Arab
and Samanid times, Tus was involved in some civil

wars but did not constitute a significant local center.
The ‘Abbasid Caliph Harun ar-Rashid died during
one of these uprisings in Sanabad in 193/809, and he
was buried near the tomb of imam ‘Ali al-Rida. His
tomb has vanished but was still mentioned by the
traveler Ibn Battuta in the fourteenth century. The
main town in Samanid times was Tabaran. The Arab
geographer al-Muqaddasi mentioned in 985 its cita-
del, main mosque, large market, and subterranean
water pipes. According to him, the Muslim people
were following the Shafi’i rite. Tus was also men-
tioned by the later geographers like Idrisi (1154),
Yaqut (d. 1229) and Ibn Battuta (fourteenth century),
who did visit it.

After 995, the district of Tus became part of the
Ghaznavid empire, but after 1030 the Turk Seljuks
penetrated into it. Tus was conquered in 430/
1038-1039, and, in 1072, it was given as a fief to the
Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk, who had been born
there. During the second half of the twelfth century,
Tus was ruled by a local dynasty, the al-Mu’aiyad
family. The Mongols arrived in Tus by 1220 and
raided it one year later, killing most of the inhabi-
tants. The Mongol governor of Tus, a Buddhist by the
name of Kiirkuz, ordered the rebuilding of the city in
1239.

In 497, the sources mention a Nestorian bishop of
Tus and Abarshahr (Nishapur), but, for Islamic
times, there is little information available about the
plight of Christianity in that district. Only from the
Mongol period is there some news about Christians:
the future Jerusalem patriarch Yahballaha visited Tus
during his travel to Jerusalem in 1278 and was saved
by the monks and the bishop in the cloister Mar
Sehyon. One year later, the bishop of Tus was
ordained as the metropolitan of China. In 1381,
Timur came to Tus. After revolts, the town was rav-
aged completely by the Timurid Miran Shah in 791/
1389, and it is said that ten thousand people were
killed. Although the town was ordered rebuilt by
Shah Rukh in 1405 (and again by Ulugh Bek in
1407), it never did recover, and it was reduced to a
small village. This decline was mainly connected with
the uprising of Mashhad as a main pilgrim town for
the Shi‘is.

The district of Tus was the birthplace of the Per-
sian poet Firdausi. In the town of Tus itself, Nizam
al-Mulk, the polymath and astronomer Nasir ad-Din
at-Tusi, and also the Shi‘i scholar Muhammad bin
al-Hasan at-Tusi (d. 1065 or 1067) were born.

The district of Tus was producing wheat, stone
vessels, mats, and special striped clothes. It was fa-
mous for its special trouser bands, which were
regarded as well as the most famous Armenian ones.
During the thirteenth century, the stone vessels are

838

TUSI, AL-, NASIR AL-DIN (1201-1274 CE)

still mentioned, and Idrisi also mentions mines for
turquoise, silver, copper, iron, and rock crystal.
Only a few archaeological monuments of the town
of Tabaran/Tus survived. The city walls made from
mud brick enclose an area of approximately one kilo-
meter across, sporting nine gates and more than a
hundred towers. North of the city lies the citadel,
with twelve towers, and a castle with nine towers
inside.

Within the city walls is the tomb of Firdausi (the
modern tomb was constructed during the early twen-
tieth century, during the Pahlavi period), and a mon-
ument with a central dome and minor cupolas
remained, the so-called Haruniya Mausoleum. Its
architectural and stucco decoration style recall the
Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum in Merv (built 1157).

Gisela Helmecke

See also ‘Ali al-Rida; Khurasan; Nizam al-Mulk
Further Reading

Minorsky, V., and C.E. Bosworth. “Tus.” In The Encyclo-
paedia of Islam , vol. 10, Leiden, 1999.

Pope, Arthur U. A Survey of Persian Art, vol. 2, 1072M;
tome 5, plate 380. 1939.

“Haruniya Mausoleum.” Available at: http://archnet.org/
library/images.

TUSI, AL-, MUHAMMAD IBN HASAN

Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Tusi, Shaykh al-Ta’ifa (d.
AH 460/1067 CE), was a Baghdad-based Twelver
Shi‘i jurisprudent and compiler of two well-known
collections of the imams’ traditions, Tahdhib al-
Ahkam (The Rectification of Judgments) and the
later al-Istibsar ft ma Ukhtulifa Fihi min al-Akhbar
(The Consideration on Those Traditions Which are
Disputed), which, together with al-Kulayni’s al-Kafi
and Ibn Babawayh’s al-Faqih, have come to be called
“the four books” that are the key compilations of the
imams’ traditions that were compiled after the disap-
pearance of the twelfth imam in 260/873-874.

Despite the tolerance of the Buwayhid regents,
during this period Baghdad was experiencing yet an-
other resurgence of Sunni traditionism and, specifical-
ly, anti-Shi‘i feeling and a wave of Sunni-Shi'i
“incidents.” At the same time, the small Twelver
community itself, one of many contemporary Shi‘i
groups, was accepting that the Imam’s absence (oc-
cupation) from the community would be prolonged.
Al-Tusi himself had studied with key rationalist and
traditionist scholars who, respectively, favored in-
creasingly less and increasingly more reliance on
the imams’ hadith (tradition) to adjudicate issues of

doctrine and practice in the interim (until the imam’s
return).

Al-Tusi, through these two hadith collections as
well as other key works of theology and fiqh, charted
a middle course between these two extremes. In the
process, he commenced the process of devolving to
the faqih (the jurisprudent), whom he postulated as
trained in both the rationalist and traditionist
sciences, and increasing responsibility for a growing
number of the imam’s theological and practical duties
during the occultation. The latter process culminated
in the doctrine of wilayat al-faqih (deputy-ship of the
jurisprudent) as enunciated by the late Ayatallah
Khomeini (d. 1989).

Andrew J. Newman

Further Reading

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Twelver Shiism ,

79-80. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1985.

TUSI, AL-, NASIR AU-DIN (1201-1274 CE)

The continuity of philosophical and scientific inquiry
in medieval Islam coupled with the material resources
offered to it by official patronage owe much to the
role and efforts of the Shi‘i philosopher, scientist, and
polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi during the thirteenth
century. He defended Ibn Sina from the criticisms
leveled against him from the direction of theology
(most notably by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi), he made a
significant contribution to the acceptance of meta-
physical argumentation and terminology in Twelver
Shi‘i theology, he brought the ethical tradition of Ibn
Miskawayh and the philosophers into the center of
Islamic ethical discourse, and he had a lasting effect
on the study of the exact sciences in Islam through
both his original contributions to mathematics and
astronomy and the observatory at Maraghah, which
the Mongol Khan Hiilegii established for him.

Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Tusi
was born in Tus in Khurasan in northwest Iran in
1201 into a Twelver Shi‘i learned family. Along with
his studies in jurisprudence, he developed an interest
in philosophy and was attached to the Nizamiyya
madrasa in Nishapur, studying with Farid al-Din
Damad al-Nisaburi (d. ca. 1221 ), a thinker whose phil-
osophical lineage stretched back to Ibn Sina. Damad
had been a student of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi as well,
and so al-Tusi became acquainted with the ideas of
the famous Sunni theologian. The Mongol sack of the
city in 1221 forced him to move. He proceeded to
Mosul, where he studied mathematics, astronomy,

839

TUSI, AL-, NAS1R AL-D1N (1201-1274 CE)

and logic with Kamal al-Din Musa ibn Yunus al-
Shafi’i (d. 1242). As a result of his studies, in 1233
he wrote A sas al-Iqtibas, a pioneering work of Avi-
cennan logic in Persian. His intellectual and spiritual
curiosity and growing renown drew him to the atten-
tion of the Nizari Isma‘ilis of Quhistan. He attached
himself to the court of ‘Ala’ al-Din Muhammad and
wrote major works of Isma’ili theology and mysticism
(e.g. Rawdat al-Taslim, Sayr va Suluk), a pioneering
work of ethics entitled Akhlaq-i Muhtashami (later
edited and renamed during his post-Isma‘ili period),
and his influential commentary on Ibn Sina’s
al-Isharat wa-l-Tanbihat (Pointers and Reminders) .

For about twenty years, he remained a faithful
follower and contributor to the cause, despite his
later allegation that he was held against his will in
the fortress of Alarnut. The Mongol defeat of the
Isma’ilis in 1256 brought this to an end. He became
a negotiator and advisor to the Mongol conquerer
Hiilegii at the sack of Baghdad in 1258 and was
later put in charge of religious endowments. At this
point, he reverted back to Twelver Shi‘ism. The Mon-
gols had a great observatory and library at Maraghah
in Azerbaijan built for al-Tusi, where he led a team of
scientists and mathematicians. It is clear that immense
resources were put at his disposal for this project,
where the teaching and study of philosophy went on
hand in hand with that of the exact sciences. The
codices that have survived from that period testify
to the intimate complementarity of philosophy and
science in the curriculum and intellectual curiosity of
the time. He signaled his change of religious affiliation
by writing a critique of the crypto-Isma‘ili theologian
al-Shahrastani (d. 1153) entitled MusarV al-MusarV
(Wrestling With the Wrestling) and penned a short
but influential metaphysical exposition of Twelver
theology, Tajrid al-Ptiqad (Sublimation of Belief).
He trained a number of important thinkers, including
the illuminationist philosopher and scientist Qutb
al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1310) and the Twelver theologian
al-‘Allama al-Hilli (d. 1325). He died in Baghdad
in 1274, and, in accordance with his wishes, was
buried in the precinct of the shrine of the seventh
Imam Musa al-Kazim in Kazimayn on the southern
outskirts of the city.

He made a wide-ranging contribution to the pur-
suit of knowledge. His commentary on Ibn Sina’s
al-Isharat was the basis of his philosophical reputa-
tion, and it was in part a refutation of the hostile
commentary of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. His major ethi-
cal work was a manual that developed from an early
draft dedicated to precepts to a major work of philo-
sophical ethics that was divided into three parts: (1)
ethics (akhlaq), (2) domestic economics ( tadbir-i man-
zil), and (3) politics (sivasat-i mudun). This scheme

set the pattern for subsequent works about practical
philosophy in the Islamic tradition. The first part on
ethics is modelled on Ibn Miskawayh’s Tahdhib al-
Akhlaq (Cultivation of Morals), of which the work
was initially commissioned to be merely a Persian
translation. The sources of the second part about
domestic economics are the Arabic translation of
Bryson’s Oikonomikos and a text by Ibn Sina, Kitab
al-Sivasa (Book of Politics), whereas the third part,
about politics, goes back to al-Farabi’s Kitab al-
Siyasa al-Madaniyya (The Politiccd Regime) and
Fusul al-Madani (Aphorisms of the Statesman) . The
concern with justice and love in this work illus-
trates his continuing affiliation with and interest in
mysticism and Twelver theology.

Throughout his life, al-Tusi was a prolific writer in
mathematics and the natural sciences, and he made
advances in trigonometry, mathematics, and astrono-
my. This aspect of his intellectual endeavor was even-
tually rewarded with the foundation of the Maraghah
observatory. The result of the astronomical observa-
tions and calculations made there was the famous
tables of the Zij-i Ilkhani (in Persian, but also trans-
lated into Arabic). The setting up of the observatory
and the institutionalization of the rational sciences
created a demand for teaching materials; al-Tusi was
himself the author of a number of recensions ( tahrir)
of scientific texts as well as summaries and abridg-
ments of theological, logical, and philosophical texts,
which were clearly intended to supply this teaching
need. Al-Tusi’ s lasting influence can be seen in the
subsequent surge of activity in the rational sciences
in the Islamic east as well as in their absorption
into religious education, which in turn affected the
development of theology, particularly among Shi‘i
scholars.

Sajjad H. Rizvi

Primary Sources

Akhlaq-i Nasiri (The Nasirean Ethics), transl. G.M.
Wickens. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1964.

"Rawdat al-Taslim (The Garden of Submission)”, transl. C.
Jambet. In La Convocation d’Alamut: Somme de Philo-
sophic Ismaelienne ( Rawdat al-Taslim: Le Jardin de
Vraie Foi.). Paris: Editions Verdier and Editions
UNESCO, 1996.

Sayr wa Suluk ( Contemplation and Action), ed. and transl.
S.J.H. Badakhchani. London: I.B. Tauris in association
with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 1997.

al-Tadhkira fi ‘Ilm al-Hay’a (Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Memoir
on Astronomy), 2 vols., ed. and transl. F.J. Ragep. New
York: Springer Verlag, 1993.

The Metaphysics of al-Tusi (Including Risala dar Ithbat-i
Wajib, Risala dar Jabr va Qadar, Risala dar Qismat-i
Majwudat), transl. P. Morewedge. New York: Society
for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science, 1992.

840

TUSI, AL-, NASIR AL-DIN (1201-1274 CE)

Further Reading

Dabashi, H. “Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi: The Phi-
losopher/Vizier and the Intellectual Climate of His
Times.” In History of Islamic Philosophy , eds. S.H.
Nasr and O. Leaman, vol. I, 527-84. London: Routle-
dge, 1996.

. “The Philosopher/Vizier: Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-

Tusi and the Isma'ilis.” In Medieval Ismaili History and
Thought , ed. F. Daftary, 231-46. Cambridge, UK: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1996.

Madelung, W. “Nasir al-Din Tusi’s Ethics Between Philos-
ophy, Shfism, and Sufism.” In Ethics in Islam, ed. R.G.
Hovannisian, 85-101. Malibu, Calif: Undena, 1985.

Morewedge, P. “The Analysis of ‘Substance’ in Tusi’s Logic
and in the Ibn Sinian tradition.” In Essays on Islamic
Philosophy and Science, ed. G. Hourani, 158-87. Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Pourjavady, N., and Z. Vesel, eds. Nasir al-Din Tusi:
Philosophe et Savant du XHIe Siecle. Tehran: L’lnstitut
Franpais de Recherches en Iran, 2000.

841

‘UMAR IBN ‘ABD AL-‘AZIZ

‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz was the Umayyad caliph
who ruled from 717 until 720 CE. His popularity
with his subjects and his pious persona make him a
unique figure in the Umayyad dynasty. Before becom-
ing caliph, he served as governor in Medina and in
Mecca and Ta’if from 706 to 712. Here his leniency
toward his subjects brought objections from harsher
Umayyad officials, particularly al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf,
the governor of the East. He became a confidant to
his predecessor as caliph, Sulayman ibn ‘Abd al-
Malik, who overturned his father’s wishes by naming
‘Umar instead of his brother Yazid as his successor.
The circumstances of ‘Umar’s appointment were
quite unusual. Sulayman conveyed his deathbed
wish to substitute ‘Umar for Yazid to his trusted
advisor Raja’ b. Haywa, who then convinced the
assembled Umayyad leaders to accept Sulayman’s
choice without actually revealing whom he had desig-
nated. The peculiar rise of ‘Umar has brought specu-
lation that Raja’ orchestrated a coup d'etat, or that
the Umayyad family was uncomfortable empowering
the more wanton Yazid.

As caliph, ‘Umar instituted significant policy
changes. He severely curtailed military operations on
the frontiers and abandoned the expensive and unsuc-
cessful siege of Constantinople that was begun by
Sulayman. Whether these choices reflect a different
philosophy about expansion or a recognition of fiscal
realities is debated. ‘Umar also restructured the
empire’s tax regime, lightening the tax burden on
new, predominantly non-Arab converts to Islam.

His “fiscal rescript” is often cited as evidence of his
pious insistence that all Muslims be treated equally,
regardless of financial consequences for the treasury.
The ambiguity of both the existing taxation system
and ‘Umar’s reform make it difficult to assess the
degree of tax relief he provided. Some modern studies
suggest that his objective was to standardize and cen-
tralize taxation rather than to lessen the burden on new
converts.

Although ‘Umar’s reforms were short-lived, his
image as a pious leader continued to grow after his
death. Later ‘Abbasid historians treated him as the
single exception to the Umayyad tendency toward
depravity and even elevated him to the ranks of the
Rashidun (the Rightly-Guided Caliphs). Hints of mes-
sianic expectations of ‘Umar also appear in the
sources; the unusual nature of his rise to power, his
uniquely pious persona, and the fact that he reigned
during the centennial of the hijra certainly contributed
to such speculation.

Steven C. Judd

Primary Sources

Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam. Sirat ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, ed.
Ubayd. Cairo, 1983.

al-Tabari, Muhammad b. Jarir. Ta’rikh al-Rusul wa-l-
Muluk, ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901.

Further Reading

Hawting, G.R. The First Dynasty of Islam. London: Croom
Helm, 1987.

843

‘UMAR IBN ABD AL-‘AZIZ

Wellhausen, Julius. The Arab Kingdom and its Fall, transl.
Margaret Weir. Calcutta, 1927.

‘UMAR IBN AL-FARID

Ibn al-Farid is one of the greatest mystical poets of
Islam. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1181 CE, and
was raised by his father, who was a respected farid (an
advocate for women in legal cases), hence ‘Umar’s
title Ibn al-Farid or “son of the women’s advocate.”
Ibn al-Farid studied Sufism and Arabic literature,
and he memorized the traditions of the prophet
Muhammad (hadith) with al-Qasim ibn ‘Ali Ibn
‘Asakir (d. 1203). Like his father, ‘Umar was a mem-
ber of the Shafi‘i school of jurisprudence. As a young
man, Ibn al-Farid went on pilgrimage to Mecca, where
he stayed for about fifteen years. He then returned to
Cairo, where he taught the traditions of the Prophet
Muhammad and poetry at the al-Azhar congregational
mosque.

Ibn al-Farid married and had at least two sons and
a daughter. He died in Cairo in 1235 CE. Ibn al-
Farid’s diwan (collected poems) is composed of
more than a dozen poems, including love poems and
odes, together with several dozen quatrains and rid-
dles. The spiritual dimension of this verse is suggested
by Ibn al-Farid's frequent allusions to God, the
Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, and Sufi doctrines.
His al-Khamriyya ( Wine Ode ) in particular has been
regarded for centuries as one of the finest Muslim
allegories about mystical love. However, even more
celebrated has been Ibn al-Farid’s Nazm al-Suluk
( Poem of the Sufi Way), also known as the al-Ta’iyya
al-Kubra ( Ode Rhyming in T-Major) , the longest and
most famous Arabic mystical poem. Within this
poem’s 760 verses, Ibn al-Farid addressed a number
of religious and, especially, mystical themes centered
on the love between human beings and God. Often
taking the role as a guide for the perplexed, the poet
offers instruction and advice on such matters as un-
selfish love, spiritual intoxication and illumination,
the pains of separation from the beloved, and the
indescribable joy of union.

Ibn al-Farid portrays creation as intimately
involved with its divine creator. Thus, when seen
aright, everything in life reveals a ray of supernal
light. This mystical view is mirrored in the refined
and sophisticated beauty of Ibn al-Farid’s verse,
which strongly influenced later generations of medie-
val Arab poets and led to his veneration as a saint
known as sultan al-‘ashiqin (“the sultan of lovers”).

Th. Emil Homerin

See also Al-Azhar; Sufism; Schools of Jurisprudence

Further Reading

Homerin, Th. Emil. From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn
al-Farid, His Verse, and His Shrine, rev. ed. Cairo: Amer-
ican University in Cairo Press, 2001.

Ibn al-Farid. Diwan, ed. ‘Abd al-Khaliq Mahmud. Cairo:
Dar al-Ma c arif, 1984.

. The Mystical Poems of Ibn al-Farid, 2 vols., transl.

A.J. Arberry. London: Emery Walker, 1952-1956.

. The Poem of the Way, transl. A.J. Arberry.

London: Emery Walker, 1952.

. ‘Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verse, Saintly Life, transl.

Th. Emil Homerin. New York: Paulist Press, 2001.
Nicholson, R.A. Studies in Islamic Mysticism. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1921.

‘UMAR IBN AU-KHATTAB

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab was the second ruler of the
Islamic state after the death of Muhammad, reigning
from 634 to 644 CE. Before becoming caliph, ‘Umar
was a close advisor to his predecessor, Abu Bakr. In
fact, some sources suggest that he (rather than Abu
Bakr) exercised real authority after Muhammad’s
death. When the ailing Abu Bakr named ‘Umar his
successor, there was little objection from the commu-
nity. Some Shi‘i sources, however, suggest that Abu
Bakr and ‘Umar colluded to deprive ‘Ali ibn Abi
Talib of power.

‘Umar’s reign was pivotal for the young Islamic
polity. With much of the Arabian peninsula subdued
during Abu Bakr’s reign, ‘Umar turned his attention
outward, embarking on a series of successful military
campaigns against the Byzantine and Sasanian
empires. By the end of his reign, Muslim forces had
wrested Syria and Egypt from the Byzantines and had
taken the Sasanian capital at Cteisphon. ‘Umar him-
self did not lead the troops into battle but instead
directed his generals from Medina. His only foray
into the field was his visit to Jerusalem in 638, when
he accepted the surrender of the city personally. His
refusal to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
for fear that his followers would subsequently trans-
form it into a mosque is frequently cited as evidence
of his tolerance toward other faiths. Scholars debate
the extent to which ‘Umar coordinated the conquests.
Some argue that ‘Umar merely allowed the con-
quests as an outlet for ambitious tribal leaders to gain
spoils; other scholars have found evidence of signifi-
cant centralized planning, suggesting that ‘Umar
firmly controlled the Muslim forces.

Regardless of the extent to which ‘Umar directed
the conquests, the task of administering the newly
created empire fell to him. His choices about the
disposition of conquered lands and the treatment of
non-Muslim subjects shaped the Muslim polity for

844

UMAYYAD MOSQUE, DAMASCUS

centuries to come. Rather than distributing land to
the troops as spoils, ‘Umar opted to retain communal
control over much of the conquered land, using the
land’s revenue to fund soldiers’ stipends. He estab-
lished the diwan (registry) to fix stipends for soldiers
based on how early they had converted to Islam. The
soldiers were housed in newly established garrison
towns (the most notable of which were Kufa and
Basra in Iraq) to ensure that the Muslim forces did
not disperse and that they remained ready for com-
bat. ‘Umar also began to clarify the rights and
responsibilities of the dhimmi (the non-Muslim
natives who had submitted to his authority).

‘Umar’s reign was cut short when he was mortally
wounded by a disgruntled slave. Before succumbing
to his wounds, ‘Umar selected a committee of six
trusted followers to choose his successor. After their
shura (consultation), they settled on ‘Uthman ibn
Affan as the next caliph. This process of consultation
is cited in modern times as a precedent for democratic
institutions in Islam.

Some historical sources suggest messianic under-
tones to ‘Umar’s reign, a theme some modern scho-
lars have pursued as well. In particular, his epithet
al-Faruq, which is similar to the Syriac term for sav-
ior, and his visit to Jerusalem have been the focus of
such speculation. In addition, ‘Umar appears quite
frequently in Islamic legal texts as an exemplar. The
fact that his conduct — rather than that of Abu Bakr
or Muhammad — is often cited as a precedent reflects
his role in shaping Islamic law and administration.
Whether this is evidence of messianic adoration or
simply a reflection of the many new issues he con-
fronted as the leader of a larger and more complex
community is difficult to ascertain.

Steven C, Judd

See also Abu Bakr; Polity (Umma); Consultation
(Shura); ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib; Dhimma

Primary Sources

al-Baladhuri, Ahmad ibn Yahya. Futuh al-Buldan, ed. M.J.
de Goeje. Leiden, 1866.

al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir. Ta’rikh al-Rusul wa-l-
Muluk, ed. M.J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901.

Further Reading

Cook, Michael, and Patricia Crone. Hagarism. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Donner, Fred. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1981.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates.
London: Longman, 1986.

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Shaban, M. Islamic History : A New Interpretation, vol. 1.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1971.

UMAYYAD MOSQUE, DAMASCUS

Built between 705/706 and 715 CE, the Umayyad
Mosque in Damascus was considered one of the won-
ders of the medieval Islamic world. The mosque was
the epitome of an architectural program sponsored by
the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705-715), son of
‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705), who built the Dome of
the Rock in Jerusalem (692). The mosque appro-
priated the site of the Christian cathedral of St.
John, which had itself replaced a temple of Jupiter
Damascenus; some of the columns reused in the
mosque bear inscriptions attesting to different phases
of use in temple and church.

Despite frequent fire damage and multiple restora-
tions, the basic details of the eighth-century mosque
have been preserved. The church, which probably
stood at the center of the pre-Islamic sanctuary, was
demolished, but the massive rectangular outer stone
walls of the sanctuary were retained, as were its two
southern corner towers, which formed the bases of
two minarets. Access was via three monumental gates
located in the centers of the eastern, western, and
northern walls of the sanctuary. The space enclosed
by the walls was occupied by a hypostyle mosque
consisting of a courtyard surrounded on three sides
by a narrow riwaq (arcade), which led to a prayer hall
about 120 meters long that was built against the south
side of the ancient enclosure wall. The facade of the
prayer hall was distinguished by a monumental ga-
bled entrance similar to the facades of earlier Syrian
basilicas but comparable also to the entrance to the
palace of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople.

The prayer hall consisted of three bays running
parallel to the south wall, which was approximately
aligned toward Mecca, its superstructure borne on a
double arcade. The aisles were bisected at their center
by a wide axial nave leading from the courtyard fa-
cade to a monumental dome that preceded the mihrab
(a concave niche). A private entrance by the mihrab
led directly into the Umayyad palace, which lay be-
hind the southern wall. The two were also connected
by an extensive arcade that led from the Bab al-
Ziyada, a gate at the eastern end of the south wall of
the mosque that contained a monumental water clock
that featured automata.

In its original form, the mosque was lavishly deco-
rated with gilded carved marble, including a famous
vine scroll and epigraphic bands. It was embellished
throughout with glass mosaics, the surviving portions
of which depict pastoral scenes, multitiered buildings,

845

UMAYYAD MOSQUE, DAMASCUS

pavilions, bridges over rivers, and gigantic trees. Their
high quality and references in the medieval sources
to assistance from the Byzantine emperor have led
to speculation about the involvement of craftsmen
from Constantinople in the mosaic decorations. Their
meaning has long been a matter of contention, with
scholars split between a paradisal interpretation and
one that sees them as continuing a tradition of topo-
graphic representation known from the floor mosaics
of Jordanian churches.

The Damascus mosque witnesses a reconfiguration
and reformulation of formal and decorative elements
drawn from a local Syrian as well as an imperial
Byzantine repertoire, continuing a trend begun a gen-
eration earlier in the Dome of the Rock. The intro-
duction of common features such as the axial nave,
mihrab, dome, and glass mosaics in the mosques
rebuilt by al-Walid in Arabia, Syria, and North
Africa amounts to the dissemination of an imperial
architectural style designed to project both the ascen-
dancy of the new religion and the political aspirations
of the Umayyad dynasty.

Even after 750 CE (when the seat of the caliphate
moved to Iraq), in places as diverse as Cordoba in
Andalusia and Ghazna in Afghanistan, the Damascus
mosque provided the standard against which many
medieval mosques were measured. Moreover, its
characteristic three longitudinal aisles and gabled fa-
cade set the tone for medieval mosque architecture in
Syria and the Jazira. During the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries, the mosque inspired the decoration
of a series of monuments built by the Mamluk sultans
of Egypt and Syria.

Finbarr Barry Flood

See also ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan; Damascus; Dome
of the Rock, Mosaics; Umayyads; Syria, Greater Syria

Further Reading

Brisch, Klaus. “Observations on the Iconography of
the Mosaics in the Great Mosque at Damascus.” In
Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic
World, ed. Priscilla P. Soucek, 13-20. University Park
& London: The Pennsylvania State University Press,
1988.

Creswell, K.A.C. Early Muslim Architecture, Volume 1,
Part 1: Umayyads A.D. 622-750, 151-210. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1969.

Flood, Finbarr Barry. The Great Mosque of Damascus:
Studies on the Making of an Umayyad Visual Culture.
Leiden: Brill, 2001.

Georgopoulou, Maria. “Geography, Cartography and the
Architecture of Power in the Mosaics of the Great
Mosque of Damascus.” In The Built Surface, Volume 1:
Architecture and the Pictorial Arts from Antiquity to the
Enlightenment, ed. Christy Anderson, 47-74. Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2002.

Grabar, Oleg. “La Grande Mosquee de Damas et les Ori-
gins Architecturales de la Mosque.” In Synthronon: Art
et Archeologie de la fin de TAntiquite et du Moyen Age,
ed. A. Grabar, 107-14. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck,
1968.

Rabbat, Nasser. “The Dialogic Dimension in Umayyad
Art.” Res 43 (2003): 78-94.

UMAYYADS

The Umayyad dynasty of caliphs ruled all of the lands
conquered by the Arab Muslims from 661 until 749/
750 CE. Following the overthrow of the dynasty and
the killing of several members of the Umayyad family,
‘Abd al-Rahman, a grandson of the caliph Hisham
(724-743), established himself as ruler of Islamic
Spain (al-Andalus). He became the ancestor of a
long line of Umayyad rulers of al-Andalus, who,
between 929 and 1027, used the title of caliph.

Origins

According to the Islamic genealogical tradition, the
Umayyad family was a part of Quraysh, the clan that
dominated Mecca before Islam and to which the
Prophet Muhammad and many other prominent
early Muslims belonged. The Umayyads descend
from a certain Umayya, son of ‘Abd Shams of
Quraysh. ‘Abd Shams was the brother and rival of
Hashim, the ancestor not only of the Prophet but also
of the ‘Abbasid family that seized the caliphate from
the Umayyads in 749/750. The Umayyad family had
become rich and powerful during the lifetime of the
Prophet and was prominent in the Meccan opposition
to him. The leaders of the family only submitted to
the Prophet and entered Islam toward the end of
Muhammad’s life, when it had become clear to them
that he was going to be victorious.

Mu‘awiya, the first of the line, was generally ac-
cepted as caliph after the killing of ‘Ali in 661. ‘Ali,
the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, had himself
claimed the caliphate after the murder of the caliph
‘Uthman in 656. Like his cousin Mu‘awiya, ‘Uthman
had been a grandson of Umayya, and there are some
grounds for seeing him as the first Umayyad caliph,
although the historical tradition only begins the line
with Mu‘awiya. The latter had been governor of Syria
since 636, and he refused to accept ‘Ali’s claims to the
caliphate. He put himself forward as having the right
to seek vengeance on those who had murdered his
cousin, and a period of civil war (the fitna) followed
the killing of ‘Uthman. Mu‘awiya and ‘Ali fought
against each other indecisively, but, when ‘Ali himself

846

UMAYYADS

Interior view of the Great Mosque. Umayyad caliphate (Moorish). Tenth CE. Credit: Art Resource, NY. Mosque, Cordoba,
Spain.

was assassinated in 661, Mu‘awiya was best placed to
take over the caliphate.

For the next ninety years or so, all of the caliphs
were descendants of Umayya, and Muslim tradition
contrasts this introduction of the dynastic principle
unfavorably with the pre-Umayyad caliphate, when,
it claims, caliphs were chosen according to merit and
after some consultation. The Umayyad caliphs are
divided traditionally into two branches. The first
three caliphs (Mu‘awiya, his son Yazid I, and the
latter’s short-lived son and successor Mu‘awiya II)
are referred to as Sufyanids, after Mu‘awiya’s father,
Abu Sufyan. After the death of Yazid I in 683, anoth-
er period of civil war saw the caliphate pass into the
hands of Marwan I, the leader of a collateral branch
of the Umayyad family. All of the remaining Umay-
yad caliphs were descendants of Marwan and are
therefore referred to as Marwanids.

Significance

The Umayyads ruled at the crucial time when impor-
tant cultural developments arising from the Arab
Muslim conquest of the former Byzantine and Sasa-
nid territories were taking effect. Those developments
may be summarized as the emergence of Islam as the
religion and culture of the region extending from
Central Asia through North Africa into parts of
southern Europe. That process was certainly not com-
plete by the time the Umayyad caliphate was over-
thrown, but, in general, the period of the Umayyad
caliphate can be understood as one that saw the tran-
sition from the world of Late Antiquity to that of
Islam.

Essentially, the period saw the formation of a new
society with an Islamic and Arabic identity in which

847

UMAYYADS

the original separation of Arab Muslim conquerors
from the non-Arab, non-Muslim subjects was broken
down. Arabs and non-Arabs began to be assimilated
so that the majority of people identified as Muslims,
and Arabic became the dominant language of both
high culture and everyday communication. That did
not happen everywhere to the same extent or at the
same speed, but by the end of the Umayyad period
the process was under way. Its outcome was the emer-
gence of a distinctive Arabic and Islamic civilization,
many aspects of which were developed from the pre-
conquest Middle East and the Mediterranean world.

Much of that occurred independently of — and
even in contradiction to — the intentions of the Umay-
yad rulers. Originally the Arab empire had assumed
the more or less complete separation of the Arab
Muslim conquerors from the subject peoples; the lat-
ter were expected to contribute the taxes that would
support the Arab elite. Islam was viewed as the pre-
rogative of the Arabs, and it was not expected that
many non-Arabs would enter it; however, right from
the start, there were some who did.

The mechanism by which they could do so was that
of clientage ( wala’). Islam and Arab identity were so
closely tied together that, in order for a non-Arab to
become a Muslim, he in effect had to become an Arab.
He did that by becoming the client ( mawla ) of an Arab
patron and thus acquiring an Arab identity. Both the
patron and the client assumed certain duties to one
another and obtained certain advantages. For the
client, those advantages included protection from
the fiscal demands of the Umayyad authorities and
employment; naturally that would make the status
attractive to those among the conquered who lacked
social status and economic power. As the idea grew
that Islam should be open to all, regardless of ethnic
origin, the attempts by the Umayyads to prevent the
movement into Islam of their non-Arab subjects came
to be seen as un-Islamic, and that has much to do
with the reputation for impiety that they have in the
Muslim historical tradition.

Alternatively, the Umayyads did much to establish
the conditions necessary for the development of the
new Arab Muslim civilization. When Mu‘awiya took
over the caliphate, Arab rule did not reach much
beyond Libya in the west and the eastern parts of
Iran in the east, and even much of that territory
must have been held only insecurely. By the end of
their caliphate, it had been extended, as a result main-
ly of centrally organized campaigns, from central
Asia to the Atlantic. In the armies of the Umayyads,
the Arabs were supported by increasing numbers
drawn from the non-Arab subjects.

The territories thus conquered were controlled
by an administrative system that was centered on

governors and tax collectors and that intended to
funnel revenues from the provinces to the center.
Much of the administrative system had been taken
over from the two empires that the Arabs had dis-
placed, but, by the time of the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik
(685-705) and his son al-Walid (705-715), a signifi-
cant Arab and Muslim character was evident. It was
around that time that Arabic was adopted as the
official language of the administration (although the
situation did not change overnight), and a new and
distinctive Islamic coinage was introduced. Those two
caliphates also saw the first major achievements of a
new style of architecture, with the Dome of the Rock
and the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and the Mosque of
the Prophet in Medina.

Downfall

The Umayyad caliphs saw themselves as the absolute
leaders of Islam, subject only to God. The caliphal
title for them meant “Deputy of God” (khalifat
Allah), and obedience to them was a religious duty.
Their opponents, too, usually expressed their pro-
tests in religious terms, and both Kharijite and Shi‘i
rebels rejected the legitimacy of the Umayyads. Their
overthrow, which was facilitated by rivalries within
the family and factionalism in the army, was brought
about by a Shi‘i revolt that began in Khurasan in
northeastern Iran and that aimed to establish the
caliphate in the family of the Prophet. The Sunni
tradition of Islam also grew out of circles that had
been opposed to the Umayyads. The result, therefore,
is that the Islamic historical tradition, which cry-
stallized after the overthrow of the Umayyads, tends
to look upon them with disfavor, ranging from the
complete rejection of them by the Shi‘is to a more
ambiguous disapproval on the part of most Sunnis.
This attitude has often led to the view that their rule
was not a real caliphate but merely a kingship.

Gerald R. Hawting

Further Reading

Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the
Islamic Polity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1980. '

Hawting, G.R. The First Dynasty of Islam, 2nd ed. London
and New York: Routledge, 2000.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates:
The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh
Century. London and New York: Longmans, 1986.

Wellhausen, Julius. Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz.
Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1902. (English translation: The
Arab Kingdom and Its Fall. Calcutta, 1927.)

848

URBANISM

The Muslim conquest occurred in two stages. The
first one was led by Arab armies, assisted by Islamized
Iranians or Berbers, and began in 635 CE. Within a
century, Islam spread all over western Asia (with the
exception of Anatolia), reaching the edges of Indian,
Chinese, and Turkish territories; it also spread over
the whole of northern Africa and the largest portion
of the Iberian Peninsula. After 750, the massive quest
to expand slowed, and then it stopped for three cen-
turies. The second conquest, led predominantly by
Turkish armies, began in about 1040 in Armenia,
Caucasus, and Anatolia. It continued for live cen-
turies, alternating between successes and failures,
until the sixteenth century, when the Ottoman Empire
controlled Anatolia, the Balkans, and the greatest
part of the Arab-speaking countries around the
Mediterranean Sea (except for Morocco). At the same
time, Safavid rule dominated Persia, and the Mughals
ruled the Indian Peninsula. Conversely, the Arab and
the Jewish populations were driven away from the
Iberian Peninsula by the Catholic kings of Castilla.

In this immense Muslim area that stretched from
the Atlantic Ocean to the deserts of Central Asia, the
climate was relatively homogenous: quite hot and dry.
Numerous towns thrived; most of them were more or
less devoted to trade. Ancient cities were Islamized or
new cities were established by the Muslims; all of
these were suitable to the climatic environment and
moving toward a model that was unique for the time.

Usually the towns that were grouped together were
protected with fortification, with convenient access to
water, rivers, underground canals, springs, wells, or
tanks. Until the twelfth century, towns were often
protected by a great wall, but this was more symbolic
than effective against invasions. A green belt of orch-
ards, market gardens, and kitchen gardens irrigated
by shrewd hydraulic techniques enclosed most of the
urban territory; this ensured city dwellers a large
part of their sustenance and offered them a shaded
paradise for their leisure time during summer.

The town’s layout was haphazard, and the most
frequent layout was a great intersection of narrow
lanes that crossed at the center of the town, near the
Friday mosque. Between these radiating streets,
which were often lined by the souk (market) stalls,
each inside quarter was inhabited by extended patri-
archal families living in single-story houses (although
occasionally the houses had two or three floors) built
around open courtyards. The local community was
homogeneous, closely linked by blood, tribal, ethnic,
linguistic, or religious relationships. Strict politeness
protocols dictated the notables’ inter-quarter visits to
avoid clashes between passionate youth.

Close attention was paid to a family’s honor, the
result of a strict endogamy that forbade women to go
outside of the close community neighborhood. A
wooden screen (mushrabiyya) of intricate geometric
lattice work on windows allowed a woman inside to
see out without being seen. Only dead-end streets with
semi-private status led from the main streets inside
the quarter; this prevented anyone from crossing the
quarter from one radiated lane to another. Thus, one
wishing to travel from one quarter to another had to
cross through the center of the town.

The inside courtyard, open to the sky, was the
domain of women; here grew flowers and ornamental
or fruit trees. A pond with fish provided an image of
nature in the countryside. A staircase allowed a
woman to climb to the flat roof (sath), where she
could speak to neighboring females. In the rainy
countries, ridge roofs (saqf) were often built. In
Yemen, high tower houses were devoid of this type
of courtyard. In overcrowded harbors (e.g., Eastern
Tripoli) and large towns (e.g., Baghdad, Basra,
Mamluk Cairo), a lack of space forced inhabitants
to build many-storied buildings with independent
flats (Egyptian mb').

In the streets, there were no carts; huge bundles
were carried on camels from outside to the large
khans set up near the doors in the city walls. Donkeys
then carried goods from the khans to the shops, stalls,
or houses. Although the lanes were tortuous, with reed
hurdles, pedestrians could enjoy cool shade, and there
was no dusty desert wind. Ancient Roman avenues,
broad and straight, were not so suited to this dry and
hot climate. As seen by a pedestrian, the city looked
like a labyrinth inside blank walls; however, upon
ascending a minaret, one could see many open spaces,
the courtyards of mosques and houses, and dark green
vegetation enveloping nearly every building.

Unlike Italian medieval towns, the street facades
outside of the houses of nobles were neither high nor
monumental. The owner’s fortune was measured by
the expanse of the plot, allowing a large family to live
with an extensive household staff; this is why a long
distance between the main entries of houses on a
street was the sign of a wealthy quarter. In these little
palaces, there were many courtyards, some being
strictly domestic (haramlik), whereas others were
open to visitors (salamlik). According to the local
supplies and customs, builders used stone, mud,
wood, cob, and crude or baked bricks. The frame of
the building was fitted more to the comfort of the
inhabitants than to an orthogonal, geometric, and
symmetric pre-established drawing. Changing with
the seasons, furniture (trays used as portable tables,
mats, rugs, or mattresses) could be carried easily from

849

URBANISM

one room to another. Roofed spaces with three walls
(iwan) gave everyone shelter from sun or wind and
opened onto the courtyard, with free access to the
view, the light, and the fresh air. On the walls, one
could see many kinds of artistic decorations: carved
stones or stuccoes, colorful frescoes or ceramic
tiles, and sometimes skillful games created with plain
building materials.

The vast public square inside a city, around which
was organized the Italian medieval town, was gener-
ally absent from the Muslim medieval town (apart
from the courtyard in the Friday mosque). Outside
of the city, near the external walls, the maydan was an
empty area devoted to military training for the caval-
ry that was also suitable for the weekly animal mar-
kets and to set up camps for the caravans for a few
days. This area was often located at the confluence of
wadis’ valleys; this area was wet and of easy use,
unless an unexpected flood devastated everything.
During the first centuries of Islam, this danger was
sometimes forgotten, and, because of the quick ex-
pansion of cities, permanent structures were erected.
Arab historians report that hundreds of inhabitants
drowned during the first huge rainstorm in this type
of suburb.

The nobles’ houses were generally in the center,
near the Friday mosque. In the souks nearby, one
could find Christian or Jewish jewellers or money
changers; Muslim manuscript copyists and binders;
and merchants of precious goods such as medical
drugs, scents, fine leather slippers, and books. In the
area of town closer to the external walls, the social
status was lower; cheaper goods or objects that were
considered unpleasant because of the noise or the
stench and pollution linked with their production
were offered in these remote souks. Near the city’s
gates or in the suburbs, one may find prostitutes,
rowdies, poor villagers, army deserters, and also
Bedouins without tribe or slaves without masters.
They lived in huts around large clay courts (hawsh)
that were used for livestock farming. Near the city’s
doors, city inhabitants were buried in cemeteries,
according to their family, tribal, religious, or Sufi
affiliation. The Qarafas (vast areas allocated to the
tombs around Fustat and Cairo) were often colonized
by provincial families looking for work in the capital.
Everywhere, nearby suburbs and cemeteries were
built when the growth of the number of inhabitants
forced to the walls of the city to come down and
urban territory to spread.

The primary duties of a Muslim sovereign were to
protect the community from outside enemies and to
maintain Islamic law and public order. Alternatively,
there were also minimal edilitary duties, such as water
irrigation and mending the lanes and the sewage

systems, which allowed city dwellers to wash them-
selves. These duties began to be put in the control of
the private sector; the nobles held them financially
through the waqf system. Out of their purses, they
built schools ( kuttab for little children, madrasas for
students), hospitals (bimaristcin ) , convents for Sufis
(khanaqah ) , drinking fountains (sabil), baths (ham-
mam ) public hostels for travelers, and warehouses for
goods (funduq, khan, wikala). In addition, they
rented out houses, shops, and gardens to pay the
expenses for the waqf s work. Often a waqf monu-
ment distinguished itself by having a finely wrought
fagade and a huge carved wood door. Until recent
times, the numerous Zankid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk
waqf buildings lent their charm to the ancient town
centers in Damascus, Aleppo, and the Arab part of
Jerusalem.

From the seventh to the seventeenth century, Mus-
lim towns evolved significantly. During the twelfth
century, political power was in the hands of the mili-
tary. Huge citadels dominated towns and symbolized
a new order, violent and unequal. In Cairo, under
the Mamluk dynasty (thirteenth-sixteenth century),
the palaces of the emirs show a beautiful fagade with
a high door that one can cross without coming down
from his or her horse. The Friday mosque was no
longer a symbol of the unity of a city’s people; now,
even Friday at noon, most male inhabitants prayed in
their quarter mosque.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Muslim
territories were divided into three major groups. The
Turkish Ottoman Empire dominated the Balkans in
Europa, Turkish-speaking Anatolia, and all Arab-
speaking countries around the Mediterranean Sea
(except Morocco). Here the greater mosques were
built in stone and covered by high domes that were
modeled on the Byzantine tradition. Slim pencil
minarets dashed toward the sky; courtyards were
external, around the mosque.

The Iranian Sasanian Empire overcame the
Persian-speaking territories and some neighboring
Turkish-speaking provinces. Here greater mosques
were built with mud bricks but decorated with mar-
velous glazed tiles. Four high pishtaq iwans opened
onto a vast inside courtyard. Minarets were as high as
the Ottoman ones but quite larger and not so strictly
cylindrical.

The Indian Peninsula was for the most part under
the rule of the Mughal sultans. In their beautiful
mosques, they skillfully mixed Persian and Indian
decorating styles. Despite these differences, many
of the characteristics of Muslim cities continued
throughout the whole of Dar al-Islam until the middle
of the nineteenth century.

Thierry Bianquis

850

USAMA IBN MUNQIDH

See also Primary Schools (Kuttab); Madrasa

Further Reading

Beg, M.A.J. Historic Cities of Asia. Kuala Lumpur, 1986.

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris, ed. The Cairo Heritage. Papers in
Honor of Layla Ibrahim. Cairo, 2000.

Bonine, M., et al., eds. The Middle Eastern City and Urban-
ism. Bonn, 1994.

Creswell, K.A.C. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols.,
reprint. New York, 1978.

Garcin, Jean-Claude, dir. Etats, Societes et Cultures du
Monde Musulman Medieval. Paris: PUF, 1995 and 2000.

. Grandes Villes Mediterraneennes du Monde Musul-
man. Rome: Ecole Frangaise de Rome, 2000.

Gaube, H., Wirth, Eugen. Aleppo. Wiesbaden, 1984.

Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah, 2 vols., transl. Franz
Rosenthal. Princeton, NJ, 1967.

Lapidus, Ira, ed. Middle Eastern Cities. Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 1969.

Nicolet, Claude, dir. Megapoles Mediterraneennes, Geogra-
phic Urbaine Retrospective. Rome: Ecole Frangaise de
Rome, 2000.

Serjeant, R.B. The Islamic City. Paris, 1980.

Wirth, Eugen. Die Orientalische Stadt, 2 vols. Mainz. 2000.

USAMA IBN MUNQIDH

A twelfth-century Syrian Muslim warrior and man of
letters, Usama ibn Munqidh was best known for
his poetry and, above all, for his autobiographical
anecdotes and his observations about the customs of
the Frankish Crusaders who settled in the Levant.

Born on July 4, 1095 CE at the family castle of
Shayzar in northern Syria, Usama ibn Munqidh (or
Usama ibn Murshid ibn ‘Ali ibn Munqidh) was the
most famous member of the Banu Munqidh, a small
Arab clan that became influential in the affairs of
northern Syria starting in the middle of the eleventh
century. Usama’s early years were some of the most
momentous decades in Syrian history, a period that
saw the arrival of the First Crusade (1097-1099), the
consolidation of Seljuk authority, and the spread of
the Nizari lsnra‘ilis into Syria. These first decades at
Shayzar were for Usama his golden years, when he
learned to acquire all the manly polish expected of an
amir of his day, fighting Muslim and Crusader ene-
mies, hunting, and trying his hand at poetry. Unfor-
tunately, Usama’s uncle later exiled Usama from
Shayzar in 1131, seeing in him a rival to his plans to
place control of Shayzar solidly in the hands of his
own sons.

After leaving Shayzar, Usama sought service in the
nearby principality of Homs, which was just then
under attack by the ambitious atabeg of Mosul, the
warlord Zanki (see Zankids). When Homs finally fell
to Zanki, Usama was captured, and it appears that he

entered the service of the atabeg. In 1137, however,
Usama was obliged to return to Shayzar first upon
news of his father’s death and later in 1138 to
help defend his family home from a joint Byzantine-
Crusader siege.

It was at this point, after the siege had lifted, that
Usama left the service of Zanki and made for Damas-
cus and the court of Mu‘in al-Din Unur, the atabeg of
the Burid prince Mahmud. One of Unur’s principal
concerns was establishing a truce with the Latin King-
dom of Jerusalem so that he might better focus his
resources on the growing threat of Zanki in the north.
As part of that goal, Usama and Unur made many
visits into Crusader territory, and these form the
background of his celebrated observations about the
Frankish character in his later “memoirs.” Usama
eventually found himself caught up in the intrigues
of the court in Damascus, however, and, by 1144, he
had fled the city for the more sophisticated world of
Fatimid Cairo.

Usama’s decade of service (1144-1154) to the Fati-
mid caliphs of Egypt was the pinnacle of his political
career. While there, his skills as a soldier, boon com-
panion, and adviser were richly rewarded, and Usama
himself experienced a level of personal influence that
he had never before tasted. His diplomatic skills were
also of use, as in the (failed) Fatimid attempt to enlist
the support of Zanki’s son and heir Nur al-Din in
Damascus to fight a joint war against the Crusaders
of Ascalon. However, Usama’s rise to power ended in
an equally abrupt fall, when, implicated in the plot to
murder of the caliph al-Zafir in 1154, Usama fled with
his family into the desert, abandoning most of his
property to rioting troops in Cairo. After narrowly
escaping capture by Crusaders, Usama made his
way to Damascus, where he enlisted in the service of
Nur al-Din.

In Damascus, Usama found a new patron in Nur al-
Din and a position from which to reconstitute his life
as best he could. He settled into a new home, served his
master on campaign, ransomed captive family mem-
bers, carried on poetic correspondence with friends in
Egypt, and even reopened communications with his
cousins at Shayzar, humbly asking them to bury old
family squabbles and to have him back. As it hap-
pened, however, Usama could never return to Shayzar,
because, in 1157, a massive earthquake struck north-
ern Syria and leveled the castle; almost every member
of the Banu Munqidh household was killed. Usama,
exiled in Damascus, could only mourn for his kin and
decry the vicissitudes of fate. In 1164, Usama joined his
lord Nur al-Din in a victorious campaign against the
Franks and, for reasons that remain unclear, promptly
took up with one of Nur al-Din’s allies, Qara Arslan,
Lord of Hisn Kayfa.

851

USAMA IBN MUNQIDH

Although next to nothing is known about his time
spent under Qara Arslan at Hisn Kayfa, it was during
this decade (1164-1174) that Usama produced most
of his literary works. For Usama, Hisn Kayfa was a
terribly provincial place in far northern Iraq, and his
literary activity may have been some attempt to stay
connected to the more urbane worlds with which he
was more familiar. Of the many works that Usama
composed there, only a few have survived. He seems
to have specialized in topical anthologies: collections
of anecdotes, poetry, hadith, and other lore organized
around common themes, such as his entertaining
Book of the Staff, devoted to famous staves and walk-
ing sticks; his Kernels of Refinement, a manual of ideal
conduct (adab); and his Creator of High Style, a
manual about poetic criticism. He also composed
works (now lost) about women, castles, dreams, riv-
ers, and old age. His massive examination of the
erotic prelude in classical Arabic poetry, the Book of
Dwellings and Abodes, could well be considered his
masterpiece.

For modern readers, Usama’s greatest fame stems
from his collection of poetry and above all his auto-
biographically inclined Book of Learning by Example,
often inaccurately called his “memoirs.” These he
finished at the end of his unusually long life in
Damascus, where, in 1174, he returned at the sum-
mons of his last patron, Saladin. The book is remark-
able by any standards. Ostensibly a reflection upon
the inevitability of fate, the work artfully uses exam-
ples drawn almost entirely from Usama’s long and
adventurous life and so is filled with details of daily
life, high politics, and witty observations of the men
and women of Usama’s world. It is a compelling
testament of one medieval Muslim’s presentation of
his world and the manner in which God’s will has
intersected with it.

Usama ibn Munqidh died in 1188 at the age
of ninety-three, and was buried in Damascus.

Paul M. Cobb

Primary Sources

Usama ibn Munqidh. Kitab al-I‘tibar (Book of Learning by
Example). Ed. Philip K. Hitti. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1930. (Translated by Hitti as An Arcib-
Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Cru-
sades. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929. [rep-
rinted 2000].)

. Kitab al-‘Asa (Book of the Staff), ed. Hasan

‘Abbas. Alexandria: al-Hay’at al-Misrya al-‘Amma li’l-
Kitab, 1978. (For translated excerpts, see Cobb, Book of
the Staff.)

. Lubab al-Adab (Kernels of Refinement), ed. A.M.

Shakir. Cairo: Maktabat Luwis Sarkis, 1935. (For trans-
lated excerpts, see Cobb, Kernels of Refinement . )

. Kitab al-Manazil wa’l-Diyar (Dwellings and

Abodes), ed. Mustafa Hijazi. Cairo: Lajnat Ihya’ al-
Turath al-Islami, 1968.

. Al-Badi' fil-Bacli '( Creator of High Style), ed. A. A.

Muhanna. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Tlmiya, 1987.

. Diwan Usama ibn Munqidh, eds. A.A. Badawi and

H. ‘Abd al-Majid. Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Amiriya, 1953.

Further Reading

Cobb, Paul M. Usama ibn Munqidh: Warrior-Poet of the
Age of Crusades. Oxford: Oneworld, 2005.

. “Usama ibn Munqidh’s Book of the Staff ( Kitab al-

‘Asa): Autobiographical and Historical Excerpts.” Al-
Masaq 17 (2005): forthcoming.

. “Usama ibn Munqidh’s Kernels of Refinement

(Lubab al-Adab ): Autobiographical and Historical
Excerpts.” Al-Masaq 18 (2006): forthcoming.

Derenbourg, Hartwig. Ousama ibn Mounlidh. Un Emir Syr-
ien au Premier Siecle de Croisades (1095-1188), 2 vols.
Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1889.

Irwin, Robert. “Usamah ibn Munqidh: An Arab-Syrian
Gentleman at the Time of the Crusades Reconsidered.”
In The Crusades and Their Sources. Essays Presented
to Bernard Hamilton, eds. J. France and W.G. Zajac,
71-87. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.

USURY AND INTEREST

Usury and interest were initially identified with the
levying of exorbitant fees for the borrowing of capital
but later included more generally the taking of any
unfair advantage in transactions and any unearned
gains resulting from chance. These concepts are
known in Arabic sources as riba. Islamic law prohibits
it generally, but different jurists interpret the circum-
stances to which it applies in different ways. Many
Muslim merchants engaged in usury or, more fre-
quently, entered into contracts that circumvented
the specific legal restrictions while serving the same
purpose.

The practice was well established in Mecca during
pre-Islamic times. Money lenders often offered the
use of their capital at interest rates as high as twenty-
five or fifty percent for periods of just a few months.
Moreover, they usually forced borrowers to agree to a
doubling of the interest if the capital was not repaid in
time. Important companions such as ‘Uthman b.
‘Affan, ‘Abd al-Raiman b. ‘Awf, Khalid b. al-Walid,
and ‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib earned a large part of
their wealth in this way.

The Qur’an first criticizes and later bans these
practices. In verse 30:39, which dates to the late Mec-
can period, the Qur’an counsels against usury but
does not forbid it. The verse declares, “What you
give from usury increases in proportion to people’s
wealth but does not increase with God. What you
give in alms seeking the countenance of God [will

852

USURY AND INTEREST

increase]. These are the ones who double their
wealth!” Later verses condemn it unambiguously. In
3:130, which belongs to the Medinan period, the
Qur’an declares: “O You who believe do not consume
usury, compounding in doubles! Fear God! Perhaps
you will prosper.” This is stated more strongly in
2:275-80, which also belongs to the Medinan period.
The first part of this passage reads, “Those who con-
sume usury will not stand except like one whom Satan
knocks around with that touch....” It goes on to
mention the collection of usury as a pretext for righ-
teous war: “O you who believe, fear God! Give up
what remains of usury — if you are true believers/If
you do not, take notice of war from God and His
messenger....”

Prophetic tradition contains additional prohibitions.
However, many of these are not authentic and, where
they are, are imprecise or contradictory. The most
famous is in the prophet’s “Farewell Sermon,” given
on the occasion of his last pilgrimage to Mecca. Much
of this sermon, however, is of questionable authentic-
ity. Another widely quoted tradition states the follow-
ing: “Gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat,
barley for barley, dates for dates, salt for salt, the
same thing for the same thing, like for like, measure
for measure; but if these things are different then sell
them as you please if it is (only) done measure for
measure.” Other traditions prohibit any contract
promising an increase over a fixed period, but they
differ regarding whether the same increase would be
allowable in an immediate sale.

Although they never doubted the general prohibi-
tion, jurists disagreed about many of the exact cir-
cumstances that qualified as usury. Legal schools
differed, for example, with regard to the enumeration
and classification of objects that are liable to usury.
The (Eahiri school limited these objects to the six
enumerated by the prophet; its refusal to accept the
principle of analogy did not allow it to speculate
further. Other legal schools took the specified objects
as representative of categories of objects but differed
when it came to the characterization of these cate-
gories. Maliki and Shafi‘i jurists judged them to be
precious metals and foodstuffs. Hanafis and Zaydis
described them as objects transacted by weight and
measure. Although most legal schools considered the
exchange of unequal quantities of the same object to
be usury regardless of the term of the contract, this
was not always the case. For example, the Maliki
school did not object when the transfer of possession
took place immediately.

A significant part of the confusion and difficulties
has to do with the fact that various pre-Islamic prac-
tices subsumed under usury continued to be an inte-
gral part of commerce in the Muslim world for many

years after the Prophet. For instance, the use of muza-
bana contracts (where unripe fruit on trees is bartered
for dried fruit of the same kind) was widespread.
Jurists, in fact, tolerated them when they stipulated
the exchange of unripe dates on the palm for dried
dates. The use of checks or receipts also technically
contravened the prohibition against usury, because
they gave an advantage to the party that carried the
check rather than the goods. Checks, nevertheless,
continued to serve as essential financial instruments
for many centuries afterward.

Moreover, legal proscriptions became more rigid
over time as piety-minded scholars conceived of Is-
lamic law more idealistically. Although they were
cognizant of ethical problems, many early discussions
show ignorance of specific legal prohibitions for
the collection of interest. These scholars sometimes
describe contracts where “nine-tenths of the permit-
ted amount is renounced”; later discussions do not
entertain this possibility.

Jurists, in any case, developed numerous legal eva-
sions that allowed merchants to circumvent these
proscriptions. They defended them as legitimate,
because man, they argued, could not know the divine
wisdom behind a specific law; he needed only to ob-
serve its letter. The (Eahisris were among the biggest
proponents of these evasions, although the ShaPis
and later the Hanifis and Imamis recognized them as
well. One of the most popular evasions was the dou-
ble contract of sale. With this contract, the borrower
purchased an article from the lender, agreeing to pay
at a future date a sum equal to the cost of
the borrowed capital and interest. Simultaneously,
the borrower sells the lender the same article for the
immediate payment of a sum equal to the capital he
wishes to borrow. Maliki, Hanbali, and Zaydi
schools, in general, rejected these circumventions.

Stuart D. Sears

Primary Sources

Anis, Malik b. al-Muwaooa.

Hubayra, Yahya b. Muiammad b. al-Ifsah ‘an Ma'dni al-
Sihai.

Isma’il al-San‘ani, Muiammad b. Subul al-Salam al-Musila
ila Bulugh al-Maram.

Wensinck. A Handbook of Early Muiammadan Tradition.
Leiden, 1971.

Further Reading

Coulson, N. A History of Islamic Law. Delhi, 1997.

Hallaq, W. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cam-
bridge, UK, 2005.

Ibrahim, M. Merchant Capital and Islam. Austin, Tex, 1990.
Schacht, J. “Riba.” In The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed.,
vol. VIII, 491-3.

853

‘UTHMAN IBN ‘AFFAN

‘Uthman was the third caliph (644-656 CE). Flis per-
sonality and actions are controversial, and different
groups in Islam formed conflicting views of him. Fie
was a descendant of Umayya of the clan of Quraysh,
but, unlike most of the other Umayyads, he was an
early follower of the Prophet Muhammad and one of
the inner circle of the Prophet’s Companions. He
became caliph after the deliberations of the small
consultative group (shura) set up by the previous
caliph, ‘Umar, when he was dying.

As caliph, ‘Uthman is best known for two things.
First, he is generally regarded as the one who ordered
the collection of the revelations made to Muhammad
and the establishing of the text of the Qur’an as it has
been known ever since. Second, his caliphate saw the
beginning of divisions among the Muslims that were
to lead to a civil war (fitna) upon his death. ‘Uthman
was killed by a group of Arab Muslim warriors who
came to Medina from the garrison town of Fustat in
Egypt with various grievances.

Their immediate grievances probably concerned
pay and the allocation of land and booty, but the
historical tradition preserves lists of complaints
against ‘Uthman of a more general sort. He is accused
of favoring his Umayyad relatives when making
appointments to governorships and other offices, of
failing to apply Islamic law properly, and of the mis-
treatment of pious individuals like Abu Dharr, who
warned of corruption in high places. Even what he did
regarding the scripture alienated some.

For the Sunnis, ‘Uthman is one of the Rightly
Guided Caliphs (khulafa’ rashidun). He was one
of ten of the Prophet’s Companions to whom the
Prophet promised entry into paradise, and his death
was an unjustifiable murder that warranted his desig-
nation as a martyr (shahid). For the Shi‘is, ‘Uthman
was an illegitimate caliph who had usurped the office
that rightly belonged to ‘Ali and whose personal
weakness opened the way for the takeover and cor-
ruption of Islam by the Umayyads. For the Kharijis,
he was an unrighteous ruler whose killing was entirely
justified.

Those views were mainly retrospective ones. Mod-
ern historians have argued that ‘Uthman’s policies
and personality may have been open to criticism,
but he was unfortunate in that he was caliph at
a time when the swift conquests achieved under
his two predecessors had begun to slow down and
frustrations and tensions that had previously been
suppressed came to the surface.

Gerald R. Hawting

Further Reading

Hinds, Martin. “The Murder of the Caliph ‘Uthman.”
International Journal of Middle East Studies 3 (1972):
450-69. (Reprinted in Hinds, Martin. Studies in Early
Islamic History, eds. J. Bacharach, et al. Princeton, NJ:
Darwin Press, 1996.)

Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

854

VIZIERS

The term vizier is derived from the Arabic term wazir,
the core meaning of which refers to “bearing a load.”
This is an apt definition, because the viziers were
those that headed the administrations of caliphs,
amirs, and sultans throughout the continuum of me-
dieval Islamic history. The modern studies of viziers
have focused on a number of key questions: the ori-
gins of the office and its early duties; the varied roles
played by viziers over the centuries; and case studies
of important families of viziers ranging from the ‘Ab-
basid period through the Ottoman era. One theme
that runs throughout the history of the vizierate in
Islamic history is the personal nature of the power
dynamics in Islamic administrations. Viziers could
rise from humble secretarial posts or even slavery to
the extreme heights of wealth and power, only to be
removed from office and/or killed by the whims of
caliphs or sultans. This “hire and fire at will” nature
of the post did not deter many from seeking it for
themselves and their family members. As is seen in the
examples of the Barmakids and the Banu ’1-Furat of
the 'Abbasid period and the Candarh and Kopriilii
families of the Ottoman Empire, the personal nature
of the vizierate also helped create dynasties of capable
administrators.

The origin of the vizierate in Islam is hard to
pinpoint accurately, because the sources are vague
regarding the development of early Islamic adminis-
tration. From the rudimentary structure of the diwan
system during the Islamic conquests through the
Umayyad dynasty, the officials who helped the

caliphs with the running the government were often
typified as being freedmen, boon companions, or
aides-de-camp. It is not until the ‘Abbasid period
that clear references to the term vizier are found;
even then key questions remain regarding whether
the use of the word stemmed from traditional Persian
practices or from other cultures and when exactly the
‘Abbasids began to use the term exclusively. By
the end of the eighth century, however, viziers were
the central component of ‘Abbasid administration,
taking on the important tasks of overseeing the vari-
ous ministries (e.g., chancellery, tax, mazalim [courts
of justice]). The Barmakids, a Persian family who had
converted to Islam from Buddhism, rose to promi-
nence during the late eighth century and played a
variety of roles: patronizing scholars, tutoring princes
and caliphs, overseeing ‘Abbasid affairs, and creating
their own cadre of supporters within the government.
By the beginning of the ninth century, it appeared
that the Barmakids were indispensable elements of
the ‘Abbasid system, but their famous fall from
grace in 803 CE, replete with arrests, confiscation of
wealth, and executions, underscored the fact that
they, as was true of all government officials, were
working at the will of the caliphs. The example of
the Barmakids’ rise and fall would become a staple
in many works written about the nature and duties of
the vizierate for centuries to come.

As the ‘Abbasid caliphs began to weaken in
power during the ninth century, the viziers took
stronger roles within the government, often rivaling
the caliphs when it came to determining policies or

855

VIZIERS

even succession issues. Such regional dynasties as the
Fatimids, Buyids, and Saljuqs, which arose during the
tenth and eleventh centuries, had strong vizierates of
their own, although the personal power dynamics
between the ruler and his viziers in these cases were
similar to those of the earlier ‘Abbasids. Ibn Killis
was a key vizier for the Fatimids during the ninth
century, whereas Nizam al-Mulk, who worked for
the Seljuk sultans Alp Arslan and Malikshah, would
become the most famous vizier in Islamic history.
Nizam al-Mulk, who was Persian by birth, was in-
strumental in developing the administrative structure
of the Seljuk system in addition to helping found the
state-sponsored madrasa educational institution. His
ideas about government and rule are found in his
work titled Siycisat-name (The Book of Government ) ,
a “Mirror for Princes” guide that is akin to Machia-
velli’s The Prince. Nizam al-Mulk uses historical
examples to argue his points on justice, effective
rule, and the role of government in Islamic society.
After his assassination in 1092 at the hands of assas-
sins, members of his bureaucratic entourage, the
Nizamiyya, played key stabilizing roles in the chaos
that accompanied the gradual breakup of Seljuk con-
trol in Iraq and Iran. Another notable development in
eleventh- and twelfth-century vizierial history is that
there was a blending of administrations that involved
viziers who would work for the revitalized 'Abbasid
vizierate at one point and then work for other region-
al dynasties. Because viziers would often work for a
variety of regional powers throughout their careers,
the idea of separate or parallel administrations is un-
dermined, whereas the personal, individualized nature
of the administrative system is again underscored.

During the Ottoman period of expansion, the roles
of viziers remained largely unchanged from the past;
they were tutors, administrators, military figures, and
confidantes. In addition, the grand viziers would
often be linked to the Ottoman family through mar-
riages to Ottoman princesses. This familial tie was not
unprecedented, however; numerous examples abound
from earlier centuries of viziers marrying into regional
dynasties’ families. The most famous vizierial families
of the Ottoman eras include the Gandarh family, who

aided the fifteenth-century Ottoman sultans until the
reign of Mehmed II, and the Koprulii family, who
were instrumental in stabilizing Ottoman rule during
periods of crisis during the late seventeenth century.
Individual viziers also made their mark in history;
Ibrahim Pa§a rose from slavery to become the boon
companion of Suleyman (r. 1520-1566) and eventually
to become Grand Vizier until his fall from grace in the
1530s; Sokollu Mehmet Pa§a, who at the end of
Suleyman’s reign attempted to stabilize the govern-
ment, fought against rival factions within the imperial
courts of Suleyman’s successors. Their careers and
those of the viziers before them clearly show that,
however bureaucratized and formalized the system
of Islamic administration would become, at its core
the nature of the administration and delegation of
power and authority from caliphs and sultans was
highly personal in nature.

Eric Hanne

See also Bureaucrats; Courts; Diplomacy; Madrasa;
Mirrors for Princes; Nizam al-Mulk; Political Theory;
Scribes; Ya’qub ibn Killis

Further Reading

Bravmann, Meir M. “The Etymology of Arabic Wazir.” In
Islam 37 (1961): 260-3.

Fodor, P. “Sultan, Imperial Council, Grand Vizier: The
Ottoman Ruling Elite and the Formation of the Grand
Vizieral Telkhis.” Acta Orientalia (Budapest) 47 (1994):
67-85.

Imad, Leila S. The Fatimid Vizierate, 969-1172. Berlin:
Schwarz, 1990.

Kennedy, Hugh. “Central Government and Provincial
Elites in the Early ‘Abbasid Caliphate.” Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 44 (1981 ): 26-38.
. “The Barmakid Revolution in Islamic Govern-
ment.” In History and Literature in Iran: Persian and
Islamic Studies in Honour of P. W. Avery, ed. C. Melville.
London: British Academic Press, 1990.

Lambton, A.K.S. Continuity and Change in Medieval Per-
sia: Aspects of Administrative, Economic and Social His-
tory, ll-14th Century. London: Tauris, 1988.

Sourdel, Dominique. Le Vizir at ‘Ahbaside de 749 d 936, 2 vols.

Damascus: Institut Frangais de Damas, 1959-1960.

Tyan, Emile. Institutions du Droit Public Musulman, 2 vols.
Paris: Recueil Sirey, 1954—1957.

856

WAQF

A waqf is trust-like instrument created by a Muslim
who designates the principle of property that he or
she owns as an endowment that henceforth may not
be sold, gifted, or transmitted through inheritance,
with the result being that the property becomes in-
alienable in perpetuity. The terms of an endowment
are recorded in an endowment deed (waqfiyya) that
is drawn up with great care in an effort to eliminate
any ambiguity; in the deed, the founder announces
the purpose of the endowment, specifies the benefici-
aries, and makes provisions for its administration.
These deeds are important sources for the history of
Muslim societies.

Revenues generated by endowment property are
distributed among beneficiaries according to the
rules specified by the founder in the endowment
deed. The beneficiaries are generally of two types:
(1) the founder’s children and lineal descendants
(i.e., a family endowment) or (2) religious institutions
(e.g., a mosque or madrasa) or public endowments
(e.g., a drinking fountain). Not infrequently, a found-
er creates a joint or shared endowment in which half
of the revenues are assigned to the founder’s children
and descendants and half are assigned to a religious
or public institution. The endowment property itself is
placed in the hands of an administrator, whose duties
include maintaining the property and ensuring its
proper exploitation, supervising repairs, and distri-
buting the revenues to the beneficiaries. If the purpose
for which the endowment was created ceases to exist
(e.g., the line of beneficiaries comes to an end or the

institution to which the revenues originally were
assigned is destroyed or ceases to function), the rev-
enues revert to some charitable purpose (e.g., the poor
or travelers).

Although endowments are not mentioned in the
Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have
sanctioned the use of the institution in response to an
inquiry from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab relating to valu-
able land acquired by the latter. When ‘Umar asked
the Prophet what he should do with the property,
Muhammad is said to have replied, “If you wish,
sequester its principle and distribute the usufruct as
alms.” It is believed that ‘Umar did in fact create an
endowment and that he stipulated that the principle
“may not be sold, given away as a gift, or inherited.”
The revenues were used to support “the poor, kin
relations, slaves, the Holy War, travelers, and guests,”
and guidelines were established for the use of the
revenues by the endowment administrator.

The waqf is a distinctive Islamic institution that
emerged during the course of the AH first/seventh
century CE. It was in large part the creation of Mus-
lim jurists who, drawing on a range of existing cus-
toms (e.g., Byzantine, Sasanian, Jewish) relating to
both piety and property, brought clarity and order
to this area of the law by creating the legal terms and
principles that became the defining features of the
system. By the end of the first century, the Umayyads
had created a central waqf administration that no
doubt kept registered copies of endowment deeds.
By the middle of the third/ninth century, the system
was fully formed, and sophisticated waqf treatises had

857

WAQF

been written by scholars such as al-Khassaf and Hilal
al-Ra’y.

Endowments are a special kind of sadaqa (an act
pleasing to God intended to bring the founder closer
to Him). A key motivation for the creation of endow-
ments is the founder’s concern for salvation. The
establishment of an endowment is a two-way transac-
tion: the founder provides a regular source of income
for his descendants or the means for the establishment
and upkeep of a public institution, and, in return, the
beneficiaries of his largesse are instructed to perform
certain duties on his behalf (e.g., saying prayers,
performing the pilgrimage), the reward for which is
credited to the deceased. Thus, these endowments
contributed to the memorialization of the founder
and to the safeguarding of his or her memory, in
perpetuity, by ensuring that good deeds would be
performed in his or her name even after death.

The endowment system has many practical func-
tions. By creating a family endowment, a founder
removes part or all of his patrimony from the atomiz-
ing effects of the Islamic law of inheritance, shields it
from taxation and confiscation by the state, and pro-
vides a regular income for children and descendants.
Beginning during the twelfth century, Muslim rulers
such as Salah al-Din, and, later, the Mamluk and
Ottoman sultans, used the endowment system to
transform the urban landscape of cities like Cairo,
Damascus, Jerusalem, and Istanbul by creating
madrasas for jurists, khanaqahs for Sufis, hospitals,
public kitchens, arsenals, and military fortifications,
to name just a few. The assets dedicated to the support
of these institutions included both urban properties
(e.g., apartments, shops, ovens, food stalls, bath-
houses, warehouses, caravansaries) and rural proper-
ties (e.g., gardens, orchards, villages [or part thereof]).
Rulers also created ribats on the frontiers of the Is-
lamic state in which Sufis and other Muslims worked
the land and contributed to the spread of Islam. The
waqf system was an important source of income for
scholars, Sufis, administrators, workers, and the poor.
Slowly but inexorably, the volume of urban and rural
properties dedicated to endowments increased great-
ly; at the time of the Ottoman conquest of Egypt
in 1516, for example, fifty percent of Egypt’s agricul-
tural resources reportedly had been designated as
endowments.

The endowment system was dynamic and diverse,
responding to the changing needs of families, com-
munities, and the Muslim state. Although endow-
ment properties are in principle inalienable, Muslim
jurists developed mechanisms for the exchange
of endowment properties in response to the needs
of the market. At any given point in time, large num-
bers of Muslims were affected by — or benefited

from — endowments. The system provided Muslim
society with stability; in some cases, endowments
created a thousand years ago continue to function
today. It also created an important connection be-
tween the beneficiaries and employees of a particular
institution and the properties that were the source of
its revenues.

David S. Powers

Further Reading

Amin, M.M. Catalogue des Documents d’Archive du Caire
de 239/853 a 922/1516. Cairo, 1981.

Baer, Gabriel. “Women and Waqf. An Analysis of the
Istanbul Tahrir of 1546.” Asian and African Studies 17
(1983).

Bakhit, M.A. “Safad et sa Region d’Apres des Documents
de waqf et des Titres de Propriete 780-964 (1378-1556).”
Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Mediterranee
lv-lvi (1990): 101-23.

Barkan, O.L. “Les Fondations Pieuses Comme Methode de
Peuplement et de Colonisation.” Vaklflar Dergesi
2 (1942): 59-65.

Cahen, Claude. “Reflexions sur le Waqf Ancien.” Studia
Islamica xiv (1961): 37-56.

Catten, H. “The Law of Waqf.” In Law in the Middle East ,
vol. 1, eds. M. Khadduri and H. Liebesny, 203-22.
Washington DC, 1955.

Deguilhem, Randi. Le Waqf dans I’Espace Islamique. Outil
de Pouvoir Socio-politique. Damascus, 1995.

Hennigan, Peter C. The Birth of a Legal Institution: The
Formation of the Waqf in Third-Century A.H. Hanafi
Legal Discourse. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2004.

Hoexter, Miriam. Endowments, Rulers, and Community.
Waqf al-Haramayn in Ottoman Algiers. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1998.

McChesney, Robert D. Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred
Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480-1889.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Pahlitzsch, J. “The Concern for Spiritual Salvation and
Memoria in Islamic Public Endowments in Jerusalem
(XII-XVI C.) as Compared to the Concepts of Christen-
dom.” In Egypt and Syria in the Fatimicl, Ayyuhid and
Mamluk Eras, vol. 3, eds. U. Vermeulen and J. Van
Steenbergen, 329-44. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2001.
Petry, Carl F. “A Geniza for Mamluk studies? Charitable
Trust (Waqf) Documents as a Source of Economic and
Social History.” Mamluk Studies Review 2 (1998): 51-60.
Powers, David S. “The Maliki Family Endowment: Legal
Norms and Social Practices.” International Journal of
Middle East Studies 25 (1993): 379-406.

Rabie, Hassanein. “Some Financial Aspects of the Waqf
System in Medieval Egypt.” al-Majalla al-Ta’rikhiyya
al-Misriyya 18 (1971): 1-24.

Verbit, Gilbert P. The Origins of the Trust. XLIBRIS, 2002.

WAQIDI, AL-

Born in Medina during the reign of the Umayyad
caliph al-Marwan ibn Muhammad (AH 26/744-133/
750 CE), just before the ‘Abbasid Revolution (130/
747), Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn ‘Umar was

858

WEATHER

better known as al-Waqidi, after his grandfather al-
Waqid, mawla (client) to ‘Abd Allah ibn Burayda of
the Banu Aslam of Medina. According to Abu Faraj
al-Isfahani, al-Waqidi’s mother was the daughter of
Tsa ibn Ja‘far ibn Sa’ib Khathir, a Persian, and the
great granddaughter of Sa’ib, who introduced music
to Medina.

These is no information about al-Waqidi’s early
education. Yaqut tells us that al-Waqidi was
appointed judge over eastern Baghdad by the caliph
Harun al-Rashid. In around 204/819, al-Ma’mun, son
and heir to al-Rashid, appointed him to the position
of qadi over the military camp of the prince al-Mahdi
at Rasafa. Here he was able to accumulate a con-
siderable collection of books and even to produce a
large volume of writing, aided by his well-known
amanuensis, Ibn Sa‘d (d. 230/845).

Ibn al-Nadim gives a long list of the numerous
works authored by al-Waqidi. The majority of his
writings are devoted to excerpts from the history of
Islam after the death of the Prophet, and, although
none of these are extant, quotations from these works
have been preserved in the works of later historians:
accounts of the murder of "Uthman are cited by both
al-Tabari and Ibn Hubaysh (d. 584/1188) from the
Kitab al-Dar; accounts from Ta'rikh al-Kabir, in
which Waqidi listed all of the important events of
history in the form of annals up to the year 179/795,
have been cited by other scholars. As for his Kitab al-
Tabaqat, it served as the basis of Ibn Sa‘d’s biograph-
ical dictionary and provided information about the
Companions of the Prophet and their descendants.

Al-Waqidi is best known for his compilation, the
Kitab al-Maghazi, which is his only work that sur-
vived. It tells of the last ten years of the Prophet’s life
and is an important source for the historical writings
of al-Baladhuri (d. 279/892) and al-Tabari (d. 310/
923), entitled Futuh al-Buldan and Ta’rikh al-Rusul
wa-l-Muluk, respectively. Al-Waqidi wrote his Kitab
al-Maghazi roughly a generation after Ibn Ishaq had
composed his. According to al-Tabari, al-Waqidi had
read Ibn Ishaq's biography of the Prophet and had
gone so far as to commend his knowledge of the
maghazi and ayyam al-‘Arab. Nevertheless, al-
Waqidi never cites even one of Ibn Ishaq’s traditions
in his compilation.

Sadly, al-Waqidi was a spendthrift by nature and
generous to a fault. He died a pauper during the
fourth year of his judgeship at the age of seventy-
eight, in Baghdad, in the year 207/822 or 823, and
he was buried at the Khayzuran cemetery. It is said
that even the shroud for his burial had to be pur-
chased by the caliph al-Ma’mun, whom al-Waqidi
had appointed as executor of his will.

Rizwi Faizer

Further Reading

Abbas, Ihsan, et al., eds. The History of al-Tabari, vols. 6-9.
SUNY Press, 1985.

Rippin, Andrew. Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Prac-
tices. Routledge, 2001.

WEATHER

One of the most neglected aspects of medieval Islamic
and Middle Eastern history is the role of the physical
environment in economic and demographic issues im-
portant to the affected societies. In any serious study
of the environment, weather and the fluctuations of
the weather can be regarded as an obvious issue for
the researcher or the analyst. Even the most cursory
examination of the chronicles — whether Syriac, Ara-
bic, or Persian — offers ample evidence of the role
played by weather events or disturbances in the
Near East and in neighboring Islamic lands, such as
Spain and North Africa.

The evidence afforded by these sources describes
damage or destruction that was wrought by four
major types of weather disturbance: (1) damaging
winds and/or dust storms; (2) severe cold and/or freez-
ing precipitation in the form of hail, sleet, or snow; (3)
rainstorms or inundations; and (4) droughts and ex-
cessive heat. The remainder of this article will address
the nature and effects of such inclement weather.

Numerous windstorms, occasionally bearing dam-
aging dust, struck at the core lands in the Middle
East, such as Iraq, Egypt, and greater Syria, through-
out the period from 600 to 1500 CE In some cases,
hot, dusty winds withered crops, disrupted cultivation
and commerce, and uprooted valuable trees (e.g., in
Iraq and Iran in 848-849). In other instances, strong
winds even sank boats (e.g., on the Tigris) and
destroyed buildings (e.g., Iraq in 1051). The great
windstorms thus ruined goods and infrastructure
and thoroughly disrupted normal life, even causing
apocalyptic reactions (e.g., end of the world or Res-
urrection fears in Mosul in 931 and in Egypt in 1038)
among the affected populations.

Although popular perceptions of the Middle East
have focused on desert heat and associated aridity,
the fact is that one can find numerous examples of
devastating hailstorms, damaging cold outbreaks,
and even of snow and sleet (especially in Iraq in
748/49, Iran in 1014, and greater Syria in 682/83).
The hailstorms could be especially dangerous, be-
cause they destroyed crops, damaged houses, and
occasionally killed people and animals. Freezing
temperatures and ice or snow wrought havoc on agri-
cultural enterprises (e.g., in the case of ruined vine-
yards and olive groves in Syria in 748/49), killed

859

WEATHER

animals, and caused mortality from apparent hy-
pothermia or cold-related maladies (e.g., in Syria
in 768).

The rain associated with severe thunderstorms also
contributed to loss of life and property. Flooding
rains, which could cause tremendous damage, rav-
aged houses, shops, orchards, and crops. In particu-
larly severe downpours, people were killed by raging
waters (e.g., in Khuzistan in 904), collapsing build-
ings, or even by mud slides (e.g., in Mecca in 894).
Water, which was always a precious commodity in the
Middle East, became a deadly foe when severe storms
battered such areas as Iraq, Arabia, and Egypt. Not
surprisingly, the destruction from these storms was
compounded by lightning strikes, wind, and hail (e.g.,
lightning damage in Mosul in 1130).

Less-surprising weather-related disasters in the
context of the Middle East were, of course, the nu-
merous episodes of excessive heat and severe drought
that swept through the region and occasionally
through Andalusia. The most obvious consequence
in these instances was food shortage and, in severe
cases, famine. Although numbers of people perished
at times from heat exhaustion or thirst, the most
common form of mortality associated with drought
was either outright starvation during famines or mor-
tality associated with epidemics sparked by drought-
related food shortages. As is indicated elsewhere (see
Secondary Sources below), nutritional deficiencies
can be especially dangerous, subverting health and
causing sickness or death. In this respect, one sees
an important feature of climatic and other disasters:
they tend to frequently occur in clusters and in related
sequences — the common nexus of drought, food
shortage, and famine, followed by disease epidemic.

More than thirty years ago, the French social his-
torian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie published the sem-
inal work Times of Feast, Times of Famine: A History
of Climate Since the Year 1000, in which he amply
demonstrated the importance of climate and weather
disturbances throughout human history. Obviously,
much of Le Roy Ladurie’s work specifically addressed
French climate history and thus had a more limited
applicability for Middle Eastern societies. However, it
clearly demonstrated the decisive role of environmen-
tal conditions in shaping the evolution of human
societies, whatever the region.

William F. Tucker

Primary Sources

Anonymous. Tarikh-i Sistan, transl. Milton Gold. Rome,
1976.

Bar Hebraeus, Gregory. Chronograph}’, transl. E.A.W.
Budge. London, 1932.

Dionysus of Tell-Mahre. Chronique, transl. J.B. Chabot.
Paris, 1895.

Ibn al-Athir, ‘Izz al-Din. al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh , VIII. Beirut,
1966.

Ibn al-Dawadari. Kan - al-Durar wa Jami’ al-Ghurar , VI.
Cairo, 1961.

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Inha’ al-Ghumr bi-Abna al-'Umr.

Bibliotheque Nationale Ms. Arabes, 1602.

Ibn lyas. Histoire des Mamlouks Circassiens, II. transl.
Gaston Wiet. Cairo, 1945.

Ibn al-Jawzi. al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-MuIuk wa al-Umam,
V. Beirut, 1967.

Ibn Kathir. al-Bidayat wa al-Nihayat , XII. Cairo.

Michel le Syrien. Chronique , transl. J.B. Chabot. Beirut,
1963.

al-Nuwayri, Muhammad. Kitab al-Ilman. Hyderabad, 1970.
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi. Mir ’at al-Zaman. British Library Ms. Or.
4619.

al-Suyuti. Husn al-Muhadara fi Akhbar Misr wa al-Qahira,
Pt. 2. Cairo, 1981.

al-Tabari. Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, X. Cairo, 1965.

Secondary Sources

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. Times of Feast, Times of Fam-
ine: A History of Climate Since the Year 1000, transl.
Barbara Bray. New York, 1971.

Melville, Charles. “Meteorological Hazards and Disasters
in Iran: A Preliminary Survey to 1950.” Iran 22 (1984):
113-50.

Rabie, Hassanein. “Some Technical Aspects of Agriculture
in Medieval Egypt." In The Islamic Middle East, 700 -
1900: Studies in Social and Economic History, ed. A.L.
Udovich. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, Inc., 1981.

Tawwa, Fadi Ilyas. al-Manakh wa al-As’ar wa al-Amrad fi
Bilad al-Sham fi ‘Ahd al-Mamalik (642-922 H. 71250-
1516 M.). Beirut, 1998.

Tucker, William F. “Natural Disasters and the Peasantry in
Mamluk Egypt.” JESHO XXIV (1981): 215-24.

. “Environmental Hazards, Natural Disasters, Eco-
nomic Loss, and Mortality in Mamluk Syria.” Mamluk
Studies Review III (1999): 109-28.

WINE

The Arabic word for wine, khamr/khamra, is very
common in early Arabic poetry and is probably a
loanword from Syro-Aramaic (hamra). Arabia and
the Syrian desert — as opposed to Palestine and Meso-
potamia — are not composed of soil that is fit for the
growing of grapes. However, there are some excep-
tions, such as the Ta’if and several parts of Yemen,
and wine is also referred to Medina. Usually wine was
imported from Syria and Iraq, and, in early Arabic
poetry, the wine trade is chiefly connected with Jews
or Christians.

Wine is praised in the Qur’an (16:67): “And of the
fruits of the date-palm, and grapes, whence ye derive
an intoxicant (sakar) and a provision fair. Lo! there-
in is indeed a portent for people who have sense.”

860

WOMEN, JEWISH

However, the configuration of the poetic genre of the
wine song (khamriyya) of the Islamic period is be-
lieved to have originated in the town of Hira, from
such sources as the Christian Tamimite ‘Adi b. Zayd.
In The Cheery Companion, On the Prohibition of Old
Wine, the lexicographer al-Firuzabadi (d. 817/1415)
collected an alphabetical list of approximately 357
“names of the wine,” the majority of which are de-
scriptive or allusive terms, like “golden,” “cock’s
eye,” “mother of vices,” and a qualification taken
from a tradition attributed to Muhammad, “the one
which is drunken in the morning.”

However, the intoxicant that the Arab of the Pen-
insula drank most was the nabidh (liquor, “spirit of
wine”), a designation that does not appear in the
Qur’an as a name for intoxicating drinks, several of
which were produced in early Arabia from barley,
honey, spelt, or different kinds of palms. Muhammad
is said to have drunk nabidh, but he put water from
the sacred source of Zamzam in it. In modern Syria,
Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and other Arabic
countries, the word nbid (dialectal pronunciation) is
used to refer to any kind of intoxicating drink (espe-
cially wine), whereas, in Egypt, khamr and nibid have
the same meaning.

The legal status of wine in the Qur’an has seen an
evolution (2:219): “They question thee about strong
wine [or strong drink] (khamr) and game of chance.
Say: In both is great sin, and (some) utility for men;
but the sin of them is greater than their usefulness.”
It is also mentioned in verse 4:43: “O ye who
believe! Draw not near unto prayer when you are

drunken ” Finally came the absolute prohibition

(5:90): “O ye who believe! Wine (khamr) and game
of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an
infamy of Satan’s handiwork. Leave it aside in order
that ye may succeed.” As compensation for abstain-
ing, the believers will enjoy a pure wine in Paradise
(83:25): “They are given to drink of a pure wine
(rahiq), sealed.”

The prohibition of wine did not prevent a members
of the higher classes, caliphs, viziers, men of letters,
poets, and many others from enjoying it (e.g., in
Iraq). The genre of the wine song reached its high
point with poets like the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid
b. Yazid (r. 125-126/743-744) and, above all, Abu
Nuwas (d. ca. 200/815).

Claude Gilliot

Further Reading

Atil, Esin, ed. "Patronage by Women in Islamic Art." Asian
Art 6:2 (1993).

Hambly, Gavin, ed. Women in the Medieval Islamic World:
Power, Patronage, and Piety. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1998.

Humphreys, R. Stephen. “Women as Architectural Patrons
of Religious Architecture in Ayyubid Damascus.”
Muqarnas 11 (1994): 35-54.

Petry, Carl. “Class Solidarity Versus Gender Gain: Women
as Custodians of Property in Later Medieval Egypt.” In
Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries
in Sex and Gender , ed. Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron,
122-42. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

Ruggles, D. Fairchild, ed. Women, Patronage, and Self-
Representation in Islamic Societies. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 2000.

WOMEN POETS

Women poets of classical times were far fewer in
number than their male counterparts, and their poetic
domain was relatively restricted. Women were largely
excluded from the “high” poetic genres of panegyric
and satire, probably because of their social roles:
mandatory seclusion in the case of freeborn women,
and the providing of entertainment in the case of slave
girls. The majority of extant women’s poems are in
the genres of elegy ( ritha ’) by the former group and
of erotic love song ( ghazal ) by the latter. In addition,
there are some Sufi poems composed by women and
sporadic compositions of nostalgia verses, wisdom
verses, and children’s lullabies; these last are often in
the rajaz meter, which is generally not considered
suitable for true poetry. The restriction of genre si-
multaneously denotes a restriction of form, whereby
women’s poetic production has usually been in the
form of the more informal monothematic q it 'a (short
piece) generally used in elegies and love songs rather
than the long, formal, polythematic qasida (ode) that
is reserved mostly for the panegyric. It also denotes
simplicity of language, which is a hallmark of the
genres of elegy and love song.

The poetry composed by pre-Islamic women was
almost wholly limited to marathi (sing, marthiya;
elegy). Suzanne Stetkevych (1993, 161—6) argues that

Woman writing. Courtier of Abbas 1 during a picnic.
Sufavid mural, 1640s. Credit: SEF/Art Resource, NY.
Chihil Sutun (Pavilion of 40 Columns), Isfahan, Iran

this limitation of poetic domain reflects the limitation
of the role played by women in the public (which is
equated with male) ritual life of the tribe, of which it
was the function of poetry to record; this meant that
there was limited occasion — the death of a warrior
kinsman — upon which free women were allowed pub-
lic voice. Indeed, at these occasions, it was their obli-
gation to lament their fallen warriors and incite their
remaining kinsmen to vengeance (tahrid ) ; it was their
duty to shed ritual, poetic tears to redeem their fallen
menfolk, just as it was the men’s duty to redeem the
death of kin by shedding blood.

Al-Khansa’ (d. 24/645) was a preeminent mukha-
drama poetess (one who straddled the pre-Islamic and
early Islamic periods) who excelled in the genre of
elegy. She composed more than a hundred short or
medium-length elegies in which she elegized her
brothers Sakhr and Mu’awiya and incited her tribes-
men to take blood vengeance. A large number of her
opening lines, and, indeed, the opening lines of most
elegies by women, contain the “eyes shedding tears”
motif, often in an exhortation by the poetess to herself
to weep. The medieval anthologist Ibn Sallam al-
Jumahi placed al-Khansa’ second within the four
great poets of ritha’; she was the only woman to

865

WOMEN POETS

make it into his ranks of 110 outstanding poets of
pre-Islam and early Islam.

Layla al-Akhyaliyya (d. ca. AH 85/704 CE) was an
Umayyad poetess whom critics often ranked close to
al-Khansa’. Layla composed almost fifty short
poems, particularly elegies for her slain kinsman and
her lover, Tawba ibn Humayyir. She also composed
an elegy for ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan. However, “challeng-
ing gender-prescribed literary norms” (al-Sajdi, 143),
Layla also exchanged some lewd satires with the poet
al-Nabigha al-Ja‘di and composed a few panegyrics
for the Umayyad governor al-Hajjaj and the Umay-
yad Caliphs Marwan I and ‘Abd al-Malik
ibn Marwan. Her panegyric about ‘Abd al-Malik is
particularly noteworthy for its tripartite nasib-rahil-
madih qasida form, traditionally a form that was
squarely in the male poetic domain but that
was reworked by her into a female version.

The other important genre of women’s poetry was
the love lyric. During the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid
periods, there were large numbers of professional
singing slave girls (. qiyan ; sing, qayna ) who often com-
posed the love songs that they sang to the accompa-
niment of musical instruments. The line between
musical and sexual entertainment was not always
clearly drawn — singing girls were courtesans — and
many eventually became concubines of the ruling
elite. In his treatise about singing girls entitled Risalat
al-Qivan (Epistle of the Singing-Girls) , al-Jahiz
(d. 255/868-869) stated, without referring to compo-
sition of poetry, that an accomplished singing girl had
a repertoire of more than four thousand songs. Abu
al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. ca. 363/972) composed a dif-
ferent kind of treatise about singing girls entitled al-
Ima ’ al-Shawa ‘ir ( Slave-girl Poets ) , in which he fo-
cused on their poetry. On the basis of this text, Hilary
Kilpatrick (1991, 175) explains that three genres of
poetry were preeminent among singing girls: (1) love
poetry ( ghazal ); (2) verse-capping competition with
fellow poets, particularly other singing girls; and (3)
short, informal panegyric verse for their masters.
Three early ‘Abbasid singing girls were particularly
famous for their poetry: ‘Inan (paramour of al-Rashid,
r. 786-809), al-‘Arib (concubine of al-Ma’mun, r. 813-
817), and Fa-dl (concubine of al-Mutawakkil, r. 847-
861). Additionally, literary anthologies attribute some
courtly love poetry (most likely spuriously so) to
Layla, who was the beloved of Majnun.

The ‘Abbasid princess ‘Ulayya (d. 210/825),
daughter of al-Mahdi and half-sister of Harun al-
Rashid, was also a singer-poet, although her social
status was far above that of the singing girls. Her
poetry and songs dealt mostly with the themes of
courtly love and wine. She was trained by her mother,
Maknuna, who, before being purchased by al-Mahdi,

had been a professional singing girl. ‘Ulayya, in turn,
trained singing girls for al-Rashid’s palace.

Also said to have had her origins in the world of
the singing girl was the famous mystic and poet of
Basra, Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya (d. 185/801). She trans-
muted the love poetry of the singing girls to Sufi love
poetry. Rabi‘a is believed to have secured her freedom
through her sanctity and, from that point on, to have
lived an ascetic and teaching-oriented life. Several
short pieces of Sufi love poetry are attributed to her.

Almost eight centuries later in the Mamluk period
flourished another female Sufi master and poet named
‘A’isha al-Ba‘uniyya (d. 922/1517). A’isha, who lived
in Syria and Egypt, belonged to the ‘Urmawi branch
of the Qadiriyya order and came from the distin-
guished Ba‘uni family of judges and scholars. She
composed more than a dozen books in prose and
poetry, and was, according to Emil Homerin, the
most prolific woman author before the twentieth cen-
tury. More than 300 of her long poems have been
collected in a yet unpublished anthology entitled
Fayd al-Fadl wa Jam' al-Shaml. In them, she de-
scribed mystical states and praised variously the
Prophet Muhammad, the founder of her order ‘Abd
al-Qadir Jilani, and her own Sufi shaykhs. She used
technical Sufi terminology and typical Sufi poetic
motifs such as wine and love in her poems, sometimes
in the strophic form and once in an eminent badi‘iyya
(long poem in which each verse uses a different
rhetorical trope to praise Muhammad).

In addition to the East, women poets also com-
posed love lyrics in the Muslim West. One such
Andalusian poet is the Umayyad princess, Wallada
(d. 484/1091), daughter of al-Mustakfi (r. 1024-4) and
lover of the renowned poet Ibn Zaydun. Wallada was
a literary force in Cordoba and hosted an important
literary salon. Her extant oeuvre is made up of two
short love poems for her lover and several obscene
verses of invective addressed to him that were com-
posed after their relationship had ended. Her models
are believed to be not Western but Eastern, particu-
larly Abu Nuwas. Anthologies also contain several
poems by other Andalusian women, such as the cour-
tesan Nazhun bint al-Qala‘i (fifth/eleventh century),
the teacher Hafsa bint al-Hajj (d. 585/1191), and the
Jewish lady Qasmuna bint Isma‘il (sixth/twelfth
century); these were written in a similarly popular
love-lyrical and satirical vein.

The classical Arabic library features three (extant)
anthologies of poetry dedicated to women that
provide their biographies and cite their poetry: Abu
al-Faraj’s above mentioned al-Ima' al-Shawa ‘ir;
al-Marzubani’s (d. 384/994) Ash 'ar al-Nisa’ (Verses
by Women; this volume is partially extant, with works
by thirty-eight mostly obscure ancient women); and

866

WOMEN WARRIORS

al-Suyuti’s (d. 911/1505) Nuzhat al-Julasa’ fi Ash'ar
al-Nisa' (Recreation for Boon-Companions a propos
Poems by Women, a collection of works by forty
“modern” women). The citation of women’s poetry
in the general medieval anthologies is sporadic and
sparse. The earliest anthologists either ignored
women poets or made disparaging remarks about
them (see Ibn Sallam’s upbraiding of Ibn Ishaq for
citing women’s poetry in his Sira — Tabaqat Fuhul al-
Shu'ara’, vol. 1, 8. Cairo, 1974.). Elowever, most of
the later anthologists — such as al-Jahiz, Abu Tam-
mam, Ibn al-Mu'tazz, and Abu al-Faraj in the East
and Ibn Bassam and al-Maqqari in the West — do cite
some poetry by women. In addition, historians such
as al-Tabari, Yaqut, and Ibn ‘Asakir cite verses by
women — such as elegies for the Prophet Muhammad
by his daughter Fatima al-Zahra’ and his aunt Sahyya
bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib — as part of their historical nar-
ratives. Most anthologies of classical women poets
are modern compilations and rather short. In modern
times, Arabic scholars have put together from the
medieval sources several anthologies dedicated to
women’s poetry.

In his introduction to the Nuzhat al-Julasa’, al-
Suyuti refers to a large (at least six-volume) antholo-
gy — now lost — of “ancient” women’s poetry by an
anthologist named Ibn al-Tarrah (d. 720/1320) and
titled Akhbar al-Nisa’ al-Shawa‘ir (Accounts of
Women Poets). It would seem from this that women
poets may have formed a more dynamic part of
the poetic landscape, at least in the earliest classical
period, than is generally believed.

Tahera Qutbuddin

See also Poetry, Arabic; Elegy; Love Poetry; Concubi-
nage; Singing; Women Ascetics and Mystics; Sufism
and Sufis; Mystical Poetry

Primary Sources

Diwan al-Bakiyatayn: al-Khansa’, Layla al-Akhyaliyya, ed.
Yusuf ‘Id. Beirut, 1992.

Diwan Fatima al-Zahra’ , ed. Kamil Salman al-Juburi.
Beirut, 1999.

Diwan al-Khansa’, ed. Ibrahim Shams al-Din. Beirut, 2001.

Diwan Layla al-Akhyaliyya, eds. Khalil al-'Aptiyya and
Ibraim al-‘Atiyya. Baghdad, 1967.

Diwan Rcibi'a al-‘Adawiyya wa Akhbaruha, ed. Muwaffaq
Fawzi al-Jabr. Damascus, 1999.

Al-Isfahani, Abu al-Faraj. Al-Ima’ al-Shawa‘ir, ed. Jalil
al-‘Atiyya. Beirut, 1984.

Al-Marzubai. Ash'ar al-Nisa’, eds. Sami Makki ‘Ani and
Hilal al-Naji. Baghdad, 1976.

Shir-Safiyya bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib, ed. Muhammad
al-Basyuni. Cairo, 2002.

Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. Nuzhat al-Julasa’ fi Ash'ar al-Nisa’,
ed. Salah al-Din al-Munajjd. Beirut, 1984.

Modern Anthologies

Garulo, Teresa, ed. Diwan de las Poetisas de al-Andalus.
Madrid, 1985.

Al-Hayali, Layla Muhammad Nazim, ed. Mujam Diwan
Ash'ar al-Nisa’ fi Sadr al-Islam. Beirut, 1999.

Mardini, Raghda. Shawa'ir al-Jahiliyya: Dirasa Naqdiyya.
Damascus, 2002.

Muhanna, ‘Abd, ed. Mu'jam al-Nisa’ al-Sha‘irat fi al-
Jahiliyya wa al-Islam. Beirut, 1990.

Saqr, ‘Abd al-Badi‘, ed. Slia'irat al-'Arab. Doha, 1967.
Al-Wa’ili, ‘Abd al-Hakim, ed. Mawsu'at Sha'irat al-'Arab
(min al-Jahiliyya hatta Nihayat al-Qarn al-'Ishrin),
vol. 1. Amman, 2001.

Wannus, Ibrahim, ed. Sha'irat al-'Arab. Antelias, Lebanon,
1992.

Further Reading

Di Giacomo, Louis. Une Poetesse Grenadine du Temps des
Almohades: Hafsa bint al-Hajj. Paris, 1949.

Homerin, Th. Emil. “Living Love: The Mystical Writings of
‘A’ishah al-Ba‘uniyah (d. 922/1516).” Mamluk Studies
Review 7 (2003): 211-34.

Khulayf, Yusuf. Al-Shi'r al-Nisa’i fi Adabina al-Qadim.
Cairo. 1991.

Kilpatrick, Hilary. “Women as Poets and Chattels. Abu 1-
Farag al-Isbahani’s ‘al-’Ima’ al-Sawa‘ir’.” Quaderni di
StudiArabi 9 (1991): 161-76.

Nichols, J.M. “Wallada, the Andalusian Lyric, and the
Question of its Influence.” Literature East and West 21
(1977): 289-91.

. “Arabic Women Poets in al-Andalus.” Maghreb

Review 4 ( 1979): 1 14-7.

Al-Sajdi, Dana. “Trespassing the Male Domain: The
Qasidah of Layla al-Akhyaliyyah.” Journal of Arabic
Literature 31:2 (2000): 1 21 — 46.

Shamsi, Mas‘ud Hasan. “ ‘Ulayya: A Less Known ‘Abbasid
Princess.” Islamic Culture 21 (1947): 114—22.

Smith, Margaret. Rabi'a the Mystic and her Fellow Saints in
Islam. Cambridge, 1928.

Stetkevych, Suzanne. “The Obligations and Poetics of Gen-
der: Women’s Elegy and Blood Vengeance.” In The
Mute Immortals Speak: Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poet-
ics of Ritual, 161-205. Ithaca, NY, and London, 1993.

See entries on al-Khansa, Layla al-Akhyaliyya, Rabi‘a al-
‘Adawiyya, ‘Ulayya, and Wallada in the Encyclopaedia of
Islam, 2nd ed., and the Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature.

WOMEN WARRIORS

In pre-Islamic Arabia, women are said to have cus-
tomarily taken part in warfare, infrequently as com-
batants themselves but more often as inciters of the
men of their tribes and as providers of succor and aid
to the wounded. This situation continued through the
early period of Islam. Biographical works document
the presence of women on the battlefield during the
time of the Prophet, including some of his wives. Ibn
Sa‘d (d. AH 231/845 CE), in his famous al-Tabaqat al-
Kubra (The Great Generations) , records the activities

867

WOMEN WARRIORS

of some of these remarkable women, including their
martial exploits in some cases, as does Ibn Hisham (d.
218/833) in his celebrated biography of Muhammad.
More frequently, the women companions accompa-
nied the men to battle to nurse the wounded and feed
the thirsty. For example, Umm Ayman, the nurse and
freedwoman of the Prophet, was present at the battle
of Uhud in 4/625, at Khaybar in 7/628, and at
Hunayn in 8/630, primarily in her capacity as a
nurse. The pre-Islamic custom of goading the men
to battle, especially by uttering imprecations on the
enemy, appears to have been discouraged during the
Islamic period. Ibn Sa'd mentions that, when Umm
Ayman invoked God’s curse on the opposing army,
she was gently reprimanded by Muhammad. Several
other women companions, such as Umm Sinan al-
Aslamiyya and Ku‘ayba bt. Sa'd al-Aslamiyya, are
mentioned as having been present during a number
of battles, primarily to tend to the sick and the
wounded. The latter is said to have set up a tent in
the mosque at Medina to serve as a makeshift hospital
for the wounded.

There were actual female combatants as well:
Safiyya bt. ‘Abd al-Muttalib, for example, is reported
to have descended on the battlefield at Uhud with a
weapon in her hand. However, the most famous fe-
male warrior of the early Islamic period is the Ansari
woman Nusayba bt. Ka‘b, also known as Umm
‘Umara. She was present at Uhud, al-Hudaybiyya
(9/630), Khaybar, Hunayn, and al-Yamama (12/633—
34). At Uhud, she valiantly defended Muhammad
(along with her mother, according to some accounts)
when the tide began to turn against the Muslims. She
fought with a sword and a bow and arrow, sustaining
severe injuries in the process. Her assailant was a man
named Ibn Qumi'a from the opposing Makkan side,
who had loudly declared his intention to kill the
Prophet. Umm ‘Umara would later proudly state
that she had managed to strike at Ibn Qumi'a,
ruing, however, the fact that “the enemy of God had
on two suits of armor.” She would later lose a hand at
al-Y amarna during the battle against the false prophet
Musaylima after the fall of Mecca in 9/630.

The early biographers speak approvingly of these
heroic women; for example, Ibn Sa'd gives a fulsome
and laudatory account of Umm ‘Umara’s martial
feats. The twelfth-century memoirs of Usama b.
Munqidh (584/1188), a Syrian notable, contain refer-
ences to women combatants during his own time,
including his mother, which indicates that this prac-
tice had not become completely extinct during the
later medieval period. However, Mamluk biographers
like Ibn Hajar (d. 852/1449) tend to display ambiva-
lence toward the martial activities of early women
warriors. Ibn Hajar, in fact, considers the case of an
obscure woman companion by the name of Umm
Kabsha, who is said to have been denied permission
to accompany Muhammad to an unspecified battle,
as rescinding the earlier permission given to women to
participate in battles, either as active combatants and/
or as providers of humanitarian services. Ibn Hajar’s
opinion is to be regarded as being in accordance with
the changed sensibilities of the Mamluk period, which
involved a much more circumscribed public role
for women.

Asma Afsaruddin

Primary Sources

An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the
Crusades: Memoirs of Usama ibn Munqidh, transl. Philip
K. Hitti. New York, 2000.

Ibn Hajar, Ahmad b. ‘Ali. Al-Isaba fi Tamyiz al-Sahaba,
vol. 8. Beirut.

Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, vol. 8, ed.
Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qadir ‘Ata. Beirut, 1997.

Further Reading

Afsaruddin, Asma. “Reconstituting Women’s Lives: Gen-
der and the Poetics of Narrative in Medieval Biographi-
cal Works.” The Muslim World 92 (2002): 461-80.

Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical roots
of a Modern Debate. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1992.

Lichtenstadter, Ilse. Women in the Aiyam al- 'Arab: A Study
of Female Life During Warfare in Pre-Islamic Arabia.
London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1935.

868

YA‘QUB IBN KI LLIS

Abu ’1-Faraj Ya'qub ibn Killis — statesman, adminis-
trator, and intellectual — was born a Jew in Baghdad
in 930 CE and died in Cairo in 991. During his youth,
his family settled in Ramie, Palestine, where he
engaged in commerce, achieving the important post
of wakil al-tujjar (representative of the merchants).
Bankruptcy forced him to flee to Egypt, where he
entered the service of the regent Kafur and worked
his way up to chief financial administrator. After
Kafur remarked that, were Ibn Killis a Muslim, he
would be worthy of being vizier, Ibn Killis converted
to Islam in 967 and became an avid student of scripture
and law. However, his patron’s death the following year
and the jealousy of the vizier Ibn al-Furat caused him to
seek refuge in the Maghreb, where he entered the service
of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu‘izz. Ibn Killis’s firsthand
knowledge of Egyptian affairs proved invaluable to the
Fatimids, who were planning an invasion of Egypt.

After the conquest and transfer of the seat of Fati-
mid power to the new capital of Cairo, Ibn Killis
reorganized the financial administration of the coun-
try. He instituted a highly successful monetary reform
that greatly increased state revenues and made the
Fatimid dinar the standard currency of the Mediter-
ranean. In 977, he became vizier under the young
Caliph al-‘Aziz. During his administration, the Fati-
mid Caliphate reached the height of prosperity and
power. On his deathbed, Ibn Killis advised al-‘Aziz to
keep peace with Byzantium and to eliminate the un-
ruly Bedouin in Palestine; this policy was followed.
When Ibn Killis died in February 991, the young

caliph himself led the funeral prayers and openly
wept.

In addition to being an architect of Fatimid
administration, Ibn Killis was a patron of scholarship
and the arts. He conceived of making the Azhar
mosque into a great institution of higher learning and
was himself an expert on Isma‘ili jurisprudence.

Norman A. Stillman

See also Al- Azhar; Fatimids; Ikhshidids
Further Reading

Fischel, Walter J. Jews in the Economic and Political Life of
Mediaeval Islam, 2nd ed. New York: Ktav Publishing
House, 1969.

YAQUT

The word yaqut, via the Syriac Arabicized Greek
(hyakinthos), means corundum. It became the name
of at least five well-known Muslim scholars who were
slaves that were taken into captivity by Muslims dur-
ing the Holy War; two of them became famous. The
first is Yaqut al-Mu‘tasimi (d. AH 698/1298 CE), who
was native of Abyssinia or a Greek of Amasia. His
“noun of relation” (nisba) al-Mu‘tasimi, is derived
from his master, the last ‘Abbasid caliph in Baghdad,
al-Mu‘tasim, who had him educated; he became a
librarian and a famed calligrapher.

The second of these slaves is the celebrated
encyclopedist Yaqut al-Rumi al-Hamawi (575-626/

869

YAQUT

1179-229). He was born in Byzantine territory (hence
his ethnic al-Rumi). He was captured as a boy and
purchased by a merchant of Hama in Syria, who
added to his name the ethnic al-Hamawi. Al-Rumi’s
master sent him to school so that he could help
the master in his trade in the Persian Gulf. After
his master died, al-Rumi settled in Baghdad and
became a bookseller.

Al-Rumi traveled to many lands: Syria, Mosul,
Egypt, Khorasan, and others. He benefited also
from the assistance of important personalities, like
the vizier Ibn al-Qifti in Aleppo. As a result of his
journeys, he met a lot of scholars and came across
many libraries, and he was very active in the copying
of books. Of his numerous works, two should be
mentioned. First, The Dictionary of Learned Men ,
which contains, in alphabetical order, biographies of
grammarians, philologists, men of letters, poets, and
so on. The second one is the Geographic Dictionary ,
which contains not only geographical information but
also, under each place name, historical data, a list
of eminent natives of the place, and other pertinent
information.

Claude Gilliot

Further Reading

Canby, Sheila. “Yakut al-Mu‘tasimi.” In El, vol. XI, 265.
Gilliot, Claude. “Yakut al-Rumi.” In El, vol. XI, 265-66.

YAZIDIS

Yazidiyya is a syncretistic sect, mainly made up of
Kurdish speakers, whose adherents live mostly in Iraq
(in the Jabal Sinjar and Sheikhan regions, north of
Mosul). Small communities of Yazidis live also in
northern Syria, southern Turkey, and Armenia. The
size of the sect is estimated to be around two hundred
and fifty thousand. Apart from Iraq, the derivation of
the sect’s name is obscure; the prevalent view among
Western scholars is that it is related to Yazid ibn
Mu‘awiya, the second caliph of the Umayyad dynasty
(r. 680-683 CE). Others believe the name to have been
derived from the Persian word yazad (“divine being”).

The Yazidis consider the founder of their religion
to be a certain Shaykh ‘Adi b. Musafir (of Umayyad
descent), who is reported to have settled in the
Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq at the beginning
of the twelfth century.

Despite some external resemblance to Islam, the
Yazidi cult shows no real affinity to Muslim beliefs or
rituals. Its terminology and imagery both point to the
mainly Iranian nature of this religion. The Yazidis
believe in one God, who, after having created the

world, delegated it to seven archangels, known also
as “The Seven Secrets” (haft sirr), the most powerful
of whom is the Peacock Angel (ta’us-e malak).
Adversaries of the sect claimed that the latter was
identical to the devil; it is from this that the abusive
appellation “Devil worshippers” (‘abadat al-shaytan)
came to be used by which the sect’s opponents.

The syncretistic nature of the Yazidiyya cult is
reflected in its rich mythology, which is made up of
elements of Iranian, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim
origins.

The sacred scriptures of the Yazidis include two
major books, the Mashaf-a Rash and the Kitab-i
Jilwa. These texts are commonly believed to have been
composed by non-Yazidis who nevertheless relied on
Yazidi traditions.

Meir M. Bar- Asher

Further Reading

Ebied, R.Y., and Young, M.J.L. “An Account of the His-
tory and Ritual of the Yazidis of Mosul.” Le Museon 85
(1972): 481-522.

Guest, J. Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezi-
dis. London and New York, 1993.

YEMEN

Yemen’s early Islamic history continues to suffer
from a dearth of information. During the first two
centuries AH (seventh and eighth CE), the admini-
stration of Yemen was directly dependent on the
central caliphate, first in Medina and then in Damas-
cus and Baghdad. The country was divided into three
mikhlafs (administrative regions), each of which was
overseen by a governor appointed by the caliph (the
senior governor was the one appointed to San‘a’): the
mikhlaf of San‘a’, which included a large part of
highlands from Sa‘ada and Najran in the north to
al-Janad; the mikhlaf of al-Janad, which included
the southern region as well as the coastal plain of
Aden and Lahij; and the mikhlaf of Hadramawt,
which was limited to the district bearing that name,
with Shibam as its principal town.

The weakening of the ‘Abbasid caliphate during
the ninth century led to the rise of several local and
foreign dynasties in Yemen, with conflicting territori-
al, political, and religious interests. The first of these
dynasties was the Ziyadids (819-1012), whose found-
er Muhammad ibn Ziyad was sent by the caliph al-
Ma’mun to quell a rebellion in the Tihama region.
There, he founded the city of Zabid, which became his
capital and that of his descendants. During the same
period, a local dynasty known as the Yu‘furids (847-
997), which was centered in Shibam-Kawkaban and

870

YEMEN

occasionally in control over San‘a’, reigned over the
territory extending south until al-Janad. However,
parts of the northern highlands escaped all control
until the arrival of Yahya ibn al-Husayn in 897, who
came from Tabaristan at the invitation of several
tribes. He chose Sa‘ada in north Yemen as his capital,
where he established the Zaydi imamate. However,
for several centuries, the authority of his descendants
did not go beyond the region of Sa‘ada.

From the beginning of the eleventh century until
the middle of the twelfth century, Yemen continued to
be fragmented among several competing dynasties.
The Najahids (1021-1156), who took over Zabid,
were opposed to the Sulayhids (1047-1138), who
held close relations with their co-religionists, the
Isma‘ili Fatimids of Egypt, and who were able to im-
pose a certain political unity over southern Yemen,
the Tihama, and the Hadramawt. Reigning at first
from San‘a' and then from their new capital in Dhu
Jibla, the Sulayhids were able to restore commerce
between the Orient and the Mediterranean basin,
which became a source of prosperity for the country.
Thus, the port of Aden, which was run by the Zur-
ay‘ids (1080-1173) in the name of the Sulayhids,
became an important center for international com-
merce. The Sulayhids lost control over San‘a’ at the
end of the eleventh century to the sultans of Hamdan,
the local tribal leaders of that region; the Hadramawt
was ruled by a number of local dynasties of tribal
origins (e.g., the Banu Rashid in Tarim, the Banu
Daghar in Shibam, and the Banu Iqbal in the port
of al-Shihr).

The conquest of Yemen in 1173 and 1174 by the
Ayyubids, who were successors of the Fatimids in
Egypt, included the Hadramawt, where they suc-
ceeded briefly in eliminating the mini states of that
region; the inhabitants of the highlands of the north,
who were generally loyal to the Zaydis, rebuffed
them. The Tihama and the southern parts of Yemen
formed a single political unit after their regional
dynasties were eliminated. San‘a’, which fell under
their hegemony for a while, reverted to the control
of Banu Hatim, a branch of the Hamdan, whereas the
north continued to be loyal to the Zaydis. Equipped
with an efficient army and a competent administra-
tion, the Ayyubids introduced numerous reforms,
most notably in the fields of agriculture and com-
merce. They also brought to Yemen the institution
of the madrasa, which their successors, the Rasulids,
developed further in an effort to counter the Zaydi
doctrine. Having arrived in Yemen with the Ayyubid
army, the Rasulids (1229-1454) gained control of the
country and established their authority as far as
San‘a’. They chose Ta'iz in the southern highlands
as their capital, and Zabid became their winter

residence. Under their impetus, the capital of the
Tihama became a major center for the teaching of
the Sunni doctrine.

The weakening of the Rasulids presented the op-
portunity to the Tahirids, the governors of Aden, to
take over and establish themselves as the new rulers
of southern Yemen in 1454. They were also keen
builders (as were their predecessors), allocating
much of their building activity to their capital,
al-Miqrana, and to Rada‘, Juban, and Zabid. The
Tahirids were equally interested in developing the
agriculture of the area, and they established new
palm groves in the irrigated regions of the coastal
plains. They also tried to extend their authority over
the Hadramawt, where political instability continued.
Their hold on that region, much like that of their
predecessors, was short lived, because they were
faced with strong opposition from local dynasties,
who would accept only nominal allegiance. Thus,
the A1 Yamani dynasty that was established in
Tarim in 1224 remained on the political scene until
the sixteenth century (it ended in 1714) before it was
eliminated by the Kathiris. At the beginning of the
sixteenth century, a new political power appeared in
the region: the Yaffis, a large tribe from the northeast
of Aden whose influence extended over the ports of
Mukalla and Shihr. They created a new sultanate,
first under the name of the Qasidis and then under
that of the Qu‘aytis, whose seat of power was in Qatn.

After the demise of the last Tahirid sultan in 1517,
a group of mercenaries from Egypt, known as the
Lewend, became the rulers of lower Yemen during a
brief period (1521-1538) before the Ottomans put an
end to their presence. The arrival of the Portuguese in
the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea also had strong
repercussions throughout the country. Increasingly
worried about the security of the Holy Cities of
Arabia as well as about maintaining control of the
international trade between the East and the Mediter-
ranean, the Ottomans, who had conquered Egypt in
1517, decided to take hold of Yemen in 1538. Howev-
er, their presence there rapidly provoked revolts, led
by the Zaydi imams of the Qasimi dynasty, who were
able to liberate the country in 1635; they then extend-
ed their control to most of Yemen from Najran to the
Hadramawt.

Noha Sadek

See also Aden; Arwa; Sulayhids; Rasulids; Zaydis
Further Reading

Daum, Werner, ed. Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisa-
tion in Arabia Felix. Innsbruck: Pinguin, 1988.

Kay, H.C. Yaman. Its Early Mediaeval History. London:

Edward Arnold, 1882.

871

YEMEN

Al-Mad‘aj, ‘Abd al-Muhsin M. The Yemen in Early Islam, Schuman, L.O. Political History of the Yemen at the Begin-
9-233/630-847: A Political History. London, 1980. ning of the 16th Century. Groningen, 1960.

Serjeant, R.B., and Lewcock, R., eds. Sana’, an Arabian
Islamic City. London: Festival of Islam Trust Founda-
tion, 1983.

872

ZANKIDS

The Zankids were a Turkmen dynasty, several
branches of which ruled in Jazira and Syria between
1127 and 1251 CE. Zanki, the founder of the dynasty,
was the son of Aqsunqur, a military slave of the
Seljuk sultan Malikshah and ruler of Aleppo between
1087 and 1094. In 1127, Sultan Mahmud made Zanki
ruler of Mosul and atabeg (guardian and tutor) for his
two sons. In 1129, the sultan appointed him malik
(king) of the West. Zanki took advantage of the
struggles for succession of the Seljuk sultans and
their problems with the ‘Abbasid caliphs to solidify
his own base of power in Mosul. By 1 128, he controlled
Aleppo and then campaigned in Syria, attacking the
atabeg state of the Burids in Damascus and seizing
territory in southeastern Anatolia. He won his greatest
fame in 1 144, when he conquered the Crusader County
of Edessa, which provoked the Second Crusade.

When Zanki was murdered in 1146, his two sons
divided his realm. Ghazi took Mosul and the terri-
tories in Jazira, whereas Nur al-Din Mahmud took
Aleppo and the territories in Syria. Zanki’s most
renowned descendant was Nur al-Din, in whom he
inspired a Sunni religious zeal against both the Shi‘is
and, especially, the Crusaders. In 1154, Nur al-Din
captured Damascus, putting an end to the Burids and
uniting most of Syria against the Crusaders. His
army entered Egypt several times, and, in 1169, its
commander, Shirkuh, became vizier to the greatly
weakened Fatimid caliph. Shirkuh’s nephew Saladin
abolished the Fatimid caliphate in 1171 and acknowl-
edged the authority of Nur al-Din. Around the same

time, Nur al-Din conquered Jazira and established
suzerainty over Mosul. He died in 1174 at the height
of his power.

Nur al-Din’s state did not long survive him. Saladin
immediately invaded Syria and took Damascus. By
1183, he had conquered all of the Zankid territory in
Syria. The descendants of Ghazi managed to retain
Mosul somewhat longer. Saladin attacked Ghazi in
1175-1176, and he invaded Jazira in 1182-1183 and
1185-1186. This fragmented the Zankid territory into
five principalities that acknowledged Saladin’s suzer-
ainty. Saladin’s Ayyubid successors maintained su-
premacy in that region. In 1209, his brother al-‘Adil
annexed part of Jazira. In 1211, Mas’ud II became
atabeg of Mosul. Mas’ud's father had chosen a mili-
tary slave, Badr al-Din Lu’lu’, to serve as regent. Badr
al-Din eventually became so powerful that he could
depose the Zankid atabegs while keeping the Ayyu-
bids in check. In 1233, the last Zankid claimant to
Mosul died, and the caliph recognized Badr al-Din as
the new ruler of that city. Minor branches of the
Zankids at Sinjar and Jazirat Ibn ‘Umar fell under
Ayyubid dominion in 1220 and 1251, respectively.
The branch at Shahrazur was destroyed by the
Mongols in 1245.

The Zankids did much to encourage the economic
and cultural revival of Jazira and Syria. They rebuilt
cities, established such institutions as hospitals and
madrasas, ensured the supremacy of Sunnism over
Shi ‘ism in their territory, and played a critical role in
repelling the Crusaders.

Gary Leiser

873

ZANKIDS

See also ‘Abbasids; Ayyubids; Fatimids, Jihad;

Muslim-Crusader Relations; Seljuks; Shi‘ism; Slavery,

Military

Primary Sources

Ibn al-QalanisI. The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades,
transl. H.A.R. Gibb. London: Luzac, 1932.

Further Reading

Alptekin, Co§kun. The Reign of Zangi (521-541/1127-
1146). Erzurum, Turkey: Atatiirk University Press,
1978.

Elisseeff, Nikita. Nur ad-Dm, un Grand Prince Musulman de
Syrie au Temps desCroisades, 3 vols. Damascus: Institut
Frangais de Damas, 1967.

Patton, Douglas. Badr al-Dm Lulu’: Atabeg of Mosul,
1211-1259. Seattle: University of Washington Press,
1991.

ZAYD IBN THABIT

Zayd ibn Thabit was a Medinan, bom in 61 1 CE, who
served as the Prophet Muhammad’s scribe after the
Hijra. Since he was only eleven years old at the time of
the Hijra, he must have become Muhammad’s scribe
while he was a mere teenager. Zayd gained this pres-
tigious position in part because of his knowledge of
Hebrew and/or Syriac script.

Zayd played a particularly important role in the
collection and codification of the Quranic text.
Reports vary in their descriptions of when the Qur’an
was first collected and committed to writing. Some
reports assert that the impetus to create a standard,
written text came after the death of many of the qurra’
in the battles of the Ridda wars after Muhammad’s
death. Abu Bakr and ‘Umar feared that the divine
revelation would be lost if too many of those who
knew it were killed in battle; they therefore urged
Zayd to collect and compile the revelation. Other
accounts place the establishment of a standard
Qur’an text earlier, during the last year of Muham-
mad’s life, when he edited a final copy of the
Qur’an that Zayd had written down. Still other reports
suggest that there was not an agreed-upon text until
the reign of ‘Uthman, when the caliph assigned
Zayd and three other companions to collect variant
readings and establish a canonical text. In each of
these versions of the compilation and codification of
the Qur’anic text, Zayd ibn Thabit was the central
figure.

During the strife at the end of ‘Uthman’s reign,
Zayd was one of the few prominent Medinans ( Ansar)
to remain loyal to the caliph and to refuse to support

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib. He had been a loyal servant
to Uthman and remained loyal to his kinsman
Mu’awiya after he came to power in 41/661. Various
reports indicate that Zayd served as a qadi, as head of
the treasury, as keeper of the diwan, and in other
capacities. He was also recognized as an expert in
the distribution of inheritance (far a ’id), which re-
quired both a familiarity with Qur’anic rules and
considerable mathematical skill.

Zayd's young age and the prestige associated with
his position as Muhammad's scribe made him a par-
ticularly important hadith transmitter. He had many
students, and the veracity of his hadith transmissions
was not questioned by later commentators. This is to
be expected, because questioning his competence as a
muhaddith implicitly cast doubt upon the veracity of
his recording of the Qur’an itself. Even pro-‘Alid
sources do not malign Zayd's compilation of the
Qur’an, although some explain his loyalty to Uthman
as a consequence of the considerable wealth he accu-
mulated while serving the caliph. Zayd’s death date is
uncertain, but it is likely sometime between 42/662
and 56/675.

Steven C. Judd

Primary Sources

Ibn ‘Asakir. Ta’rikh Madinat Dimashq, ed. al-‘Amrawi.
Beirut, 1995-2001.

Ibn Sa’d. Kitab al-Tabaqat, ed. E. Sachau. Leiden: Brill,
1904-1940.

Further Reading

Burton, John. The Collection of the Qur’an. Cambridge,
Mass: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Noldeke, Theodor. Gesschichte des Qorans. Leipzig, 1938.

ZAYDIS

Zaydi is a branch of Shi‘i Islam that emerged in
support of the abortive revolt of Zayd ibn ‘Ali in
Kufa against Umayyad rule in 740 CE. Unlike the
Twelver or Imami Shi‘is, Zaydis do not uncondition-
ally condemn the first three caliphs who preceded ‘Ali
ibn Abi Talib to the leadership of the Muslim com-
munity after the Prophet’s death, and they do not
consider Sunni Muslims to be infidels. As such, they
are often considered moderates. In political terms,
however (and again unlike the quietist Twelvers), the
Zaydis are militant and insist on armed rebellion
against unjust Sunni rule as a religious obligation.
They also seek to establish righteous rule under a
qualified imam (supreme leader) from the Prophet’s

874

ZIRYAB, ABU ‘L-HASAN ALI BIN NAFF

family ( ahl al-bavt ) . Thus, the Zaydi doctrine of the
imamate is one of the group’s most distinctive fea-
tures, and their history is dominated by a number of
hugely influential imams.

Zaydi law has set a number of rigorous qualifica-
tions for the imamate, the most important of which
are religious knowledge ( ijtihad ) and descent from
either of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib’s two sons, al-Hasan or
al-Husayn. Zaydis hold that ‘Ali was the most excel-
lent of men after the Prophet and that he and his two
sons were designated by the Prophet as his legatees.
After al-Husayn, the imamate could only be estab-
lished through a summons to allegiance ( da ’wa ) and
the armed rising (khuruj) by a qualified candidate.
Over the course of time, Zaydis were able to establish
several states in two distinct geographical locations:
(1) in the Caspian regions of Tabaristan, Daylam,
and Gilan; and (2) in the highlands of Yemen. The
Zaydis do not follow the legal teachings of the imam
after whom they are named (i.e., Zayd ibn ‘Ali) but
rather those of certain later imams, two of whom
established states. In matters of theology, Zaydis
are antideterminist and anti-anthropomorphist. In
the Caspian, the first Zaydi state was established
in 864 by al-Hasan ibn Zayd, and the last ended in
1526-1527 in eastern Gilan with the conversion of its
ruler to Twelver Shi‘ism. Here two rival schools of
law emerged: the Qasimiyya (followers of al-Qasim
ibn Ibrahim [d. 860]) and the Nasiriyya (followers of
al-Nasir al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali al-Utrush [d. 914]). These
were ultimately reconciled doctrinally through
the adoption of the principle that all mujtahids were
correct regardless of their differences.

It is in the Caspian that Zaydi scholars developed a
theology that was heavily influenced by 1Y1 u'tazilism,
and, through their close connections with the Zaydis
of Yemen, they were able to transmit these to the
latter community. In the Yemen and at the invitation
of the local tribes, Imam al-Hadi Yahya ibn al-
Husayn (d. 911; grandson of the aforementioned al-
Qasim b. Ibrahim) established a state in Sa‘da in 897,
and this lasted, under varying conditions of expansion
and contraction, until 1962, with the emergence of the
modern republic of Yemen. Al-Hadi’s teachings in
law became dominant among the Zaydis of Yemen
and ultimately even among the Caspian Zaydis. Dur-
ing the reign of the last great Zaydi state, the Qasimis
(1635 1850s), dynastic rule became the norm, and a
group of influential Sunni-oriented reformist scholars
emerged under Qasimi patronage, causing a Sunnifi-
cation of the religious and political environment. The
most prominent Sunni-oriented scholar who helped
effect this change was Muhammad al-Shawkani
(d. 1834).

Bernard Haykel

Further Reading

Haykel, Bernard. Revival and Reform in Islam: The legacy of
Muhammad al-Shawkani. Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge
University Press, 2003.

Khan, M.S. “The Early History of Zaydi Shi‘ism in Dayla-
man and Gilan.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlan-
dischen Gesellschaft 125: 301-14.

Madelung, Wilferd. Der Imam al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim und die
Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter,
1965.

. “Zaydi Attitudes to Sufism.” In Islamic Mysticism

Contested, eds. Frederick De Jong and Bernd Radtke.
Leiden: Brill, 1999.

ZIRYAB, ABU ‘L-HASAN ’ALI BIN NAFF

Abu ‘1-Hasan ‘Ali bin Nafi’ Ziryab was an Iraqi
musician born around 790 CE who died in Cordoba
(Al-Andalus) in 852. His figure became the embodi-
ment of the Andalusi classical musical style, and he
was allegedly the arbiter of fashion in Cordoba under
the reign of the Umayyad Emir ‘Abd al-Rahman II
(r. 822-852). He is historically better known by his
nickname Ziryab (“Jay”) than by his full name.

Extant sources tell us that Ziryab was forced to flee
Baghdad after his musical mentor Ishaq al-Mawsili
became jealous of him when Caliph Harun al-Rashid
showed the young musician an esteem that might
jeopardize al-Mawsili’s position in the court. Ziryab
subsequently settled down in Qayrawan, Tunisia,
where he served the Aglabid rulers until he fell in
disgrace. He then gained the Spanish shores and en-
tered the service of the Umayyad emir (the de facto
independent ruler) of Muslim Iberia, ‘Abd al-Rahman
II. Sources indicate that, until Ziryab’s death and that
of the emir himself (which occurred in the same
year), the Andalusi sovereign treated Ziryab with the
highest consideration.

Ziryab has traditionally been credited with intro-
ducing the refinements of the Oriental metropolis of
Baghdad to Cordoba. He is said to have influenced
the spread of cooking, clothing, hairdressing, and
other arts and crafts fashions by introducing Eastern
styles to the western Islamic world. However reliable
this account is, it is true that a whole array of culture
and etiquette principles that formed the bulk of
Andalusi (and, later, North African) sophistication
are ascribed to his merit. Modern scholarship has
contested Ziryab’s real influence, identifying later fig-
ures as initiators of the practices and styles that have
been previously attributed to Ziryab’s influence.

Ziryab is said to have founded a music-teaching
institution in the Andalusi capital, Cordoba, where he
taught the principles of the Baghdadi school to his
sons and daughters. His songs were apparently col-
lected in Kitab fi Agani Ziryab (Ziryab’s Songbook),

875

ZIRYAB, ABU ‘L-HASAN ’ALl BIN NAFF

which is no longer in existence. Ziryab endorsed sev-
eral innovations that had an effect on the fundamen-
tal instrument of Arab music, the lute ( ‘ltd ) . Fie is
reported to have added a fifth, red-colored string to
the lute; this string would correspond with the soul,
following the Arab idea that each string influences
(ta’thir) a particular organ of the human body.
(It has also been claimed that the philosopher and
humanist, al-Kindi, as well as Ziryab’s mentor,
Ishaq al-Mawsili, introduced the five-stringed lute.)

Ziryab’s alleged novelties include exchanging the
traditional wooden plectrum used for plucking the
lute for a vulture quill. He is also said to have made
the two lower strings of his instrument out of wolf
gut, and he may have introduced a new way of clean-
ing the silk of the higher strings. He claimed that his
lute weighed a third less than most other lutes.

More importantly, Ziryab assumed the continuity
of Oriental musical practices in the Islamic Occident.
His performances began with a measured song with
an unmeasured recitative. He closely followed the
modes of the East; his songs increased in lightness
and tempo in lyrics and tune, thereby favoring the
consolidation of the nawba (vocal suite) genre, which
later became the paramount Andalusi musical genre.

More than anything else, it is the Andalusi/Magh-
ribi nawba that justifies the musician’s fame. As pre-
viously mentioned, tradition credits Ziryab with the
composition of the integral collection of Andalusi
nawbas. One must bear in mind that a compilation
featuring all eleven of the Moroccan nawbas requires
a total of seventy three compact discs.

Historical reality does seem to have evolved rather
differently, according to French musicologist Chris-
tian Poche in his work on Andalusi music. A thir-
teenth-century work by al-Tifashi (1184-1253) gives
an account of the evolution of the so-called classical
Arab music through the portrayal of its greatest per-
formers. According to his report, the main figure who
helped this type of music to acquire its structure was
the twelfth-century Andalusi philosopher Ibn Bajja
(Latinized as Avempace). Ibn Bajja was the first to
merge the singing techniques of the East with those of
the western Islamic world. In Al-Andalus and North
Africa, a diatonic scale is used; this is in opposition
with the musical practice of the Orient. Moreover,
Andalusi and Maghribi music does not include the
quarter tones that are featured in Eastern styles. Zir-
yab seems to have historically been used as a narrative
excuse rather than with any regard for his actual
historical integrity.

A nawba is a highly structured vocal and instru-
mental piece based on a principal mode ( tab ’) , along
with some secondary ones. It fuses Arabic rhythms
with ancient Greek music modes. Each nawba adopts

a suite structure, usually in a binary or ternary form,
thereby allowing little scope for rhythmic variation as
compared with music from the East. Every two move-
ments are linked with a brief musical phrase that is
called kursi (chair) in Arabic. A vocal solo can be
substituted for this instrumental link; this style allows
the singer to sing alone and demonstrate his or her
vocal ability. The singer can also take this moment to
move emotions in the audience by interpreting the
most beautiful poetic passage of the lyrics.

A certain mystical content has traditionally been
associated with the Andalusi nawba; this has led to
the idea that each nawba is linked to a certain mo-
ment of the day. Thus, there may be twenty-four
nawbas, one for each hour of the day. Subtle dispa-
rities can be found between the modern musical gen-
res of Morocco’s tarab al-a’la, hawzi, and malhun;
Algeria’s maluf, gharnati, and sana’a; and Tunisia’s
maluf; however, they can all still be recognized as
branches of the single musical form of the nawba.

Jesus de Prado Plumed

See also ‘Abd al-Rahman III; Aghlabids; Al-Farabi (Al-
farabius or Avennasar); Al-Kindi; Al-Maqqari; Andalus;
Harun al-Rashid; Ibn Quzman; Mystical Poetry; Music;
Nawruz; Performing Artists; Poetry, Arabic; Qayrawan

Primary Sources

Al-Makkari, Ahmed ibn Mohammed. The History of the
Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, 1st ed., transl. Pascual
de Gayangos. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.

Further Reading

Greus, Jesus. Ziryab: La Prodigiosa Historia del Sultan
Andaluzy el Cantor de Bagdad, lsted. Madrid: Swan, 1987.
Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal. A Political
History of Al-Andalus, 1st ed. London: Longman, 1996.
Parsons, David, producer. Music of Islam, vol. 7: Al-Anda-
lus, Andalusian Music, Tetouan, Morocco (CD). Tucson,
Ariz: Celestial Harmonies, 1998.

Poche, Christian. La Musique Arabo-andalouse, 1st ed., with
accompanying CD. Arles: Actes Sud, 1995.

ZOROASTRIANISM

Designations

Medieval Zoroastrians referred to their religion by
the Middle Persian or Pahlavi phrase den i Mazdesn
(religion of Mazda), because they regarded Ahura
Mazda (Wise Lord) as the Creator. The expression
Zardushtig den (Zoroastrian religion) was also used.

876

ZOROASTRIANISM

because they regarded their devotions as having ori-
ginated from the preachings of a devotional poet
named Zarathushtra (Middle Persian: Zardukhsht,
Zardusht; New Persian or Farsi: Zardosht). There-
fore, they called themselves Mazdesnan (Worshipers
of Mazda) and Zartoshtiyan (Zoroastrians).

Medieval Muslims writing in Classical Arabic and
New Persian designated all Zoroastrians as al-Majus
(Magians) on the basis of the technical term for Zo-
roastrian priests or magi (Middle Persian: maguk,
mowbed, mowmard; New Persian: mobed). Zoroastri-
an acts of worship customarily were conducted in the
presence of fires on altars inside fire temples (Middle
Persian: atakhshkadag; New Persian: ateshkade), so
the New Persian term atashparast (fire worshipper),
picked up from Christians, become an insult directed
by Muslims at Zoroastrians, despite the latters’
protesting that their actions were similar to Muslims
facing prayer niches and the Ka‘ba. Another New
Persian designation that came to be used by Muslims
to deride Zoroastrians as nonbelievers in God was gabr
(hollow, empty, one lacking faith, infidel), despite the
latter sect’s claim that their scripture — the Avesta —
was a holy book just like the Bible and the Qur’an.

Conversion to Islam, Minority Status, and
Doctrinal Interaction

The Arab Muslim conquest of Zoroastrian Iran and
overthrow of the Sasanian dynasty (224-651 CE) dur-
ing the seventh century came to be associated with
apocalyptic and prophetic expectations. Zoroastrian
apocalypticism alluded to doom and the final days of
humanity. Islamic prophecy highlighted triumph, pre-
senting the Prophet Muhammad (ca. 570-632) and
the Muslim caliphs as successors to Zarathushtra
and the Sasanian monarchs. Because people believed
those statements, they acted on their beliefs. Many
despondent Zoroastrians, concluding that a true deity
would not have forsaken them or their religion, chose
to accept the faith that had demonstrated its ascen-
dance through political victory. Urban Irani Zoroas-
trians adopted Islam between the eighth and tenth
centuries CE, and that faith spread among rural
folk from the tenth through thirteenth centuries CE.
As residents’ confessional alliance shifted to Islam,
there was a diminishment of contributions to pious
foundations that supported the magi. Consequently,
many Zoroastrian ecclesiastical institutions, such
as fire temples and herbedestans (seminaries), were
either transformed into Islamic mosques and Sunni
madrasas, respectively, or abandoned and destroyed
by the fourteenth century. The chahar taq (four arch)

style of the Zoroastrian fire precinct, with its dom-
ed roof, passed into Muslim architecture as domed
mosques.

Zoroastrianism initially represented the dominant
faith numerically — although no longer politically — in
those regions of the Islamic empire that were seized
from the Sasanians and the princes of western Central
Asia. To facilitate peaceful governance, medieval Mus-
lim scholars drew upon hadith (traditions) attributed
to Muhammad and caliphs like ‘Umar I (d. 644) and
‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (598-661) for incorporating Zoroas-
trians into the ahl al-dhimma (protected communities).
Not all Muslims recognized Zoroastrians as a dhimmi
community, but the Umayyad (661-750) and ‘Abbas-
id (750-1258) caliphates did.

Because dhimmi status provided at least nominal
safety to the Zoroastrians as a religious minority,
magi facilitated the Zoroastrian claim to that position
by making copies of the Avesta and its Zand (exege-
sis). Zarathushtra’s hagiography was augmented to
reshape him as a Near-Eastern prophet who had pre-
ceded Muhammad. Ahura Mazda was gradually
transformed into the Zoroastrian God. Angra
Mainyu (Angry Spirit), who had originally been
Ahura Mazda’s spiritual opposite, became the Devil.
Zoroastrianism influenced Islam as well, with Iranian
traditions of afterlife — including the imagery of a
bridge leading to a heaven filled with pleasure and
notions of an apocalypse at the end of time, followed
by an eschaton — entering both Sunnism and Shi‘ism.

Medieval Migrations

The Arab Muslim conquest of Iran triggered migra-
tions by Zoroastrians. Some Zoroastrians, especially
Sasanian nobles and military personnel, immigrated
to China. Zoroastrians survived in China as late as
the middle fourteenth century, after which time they
were completely assimilated into the local population.
The situation proved different for those who went
to India in the tenth century and formed the Parsi
(Persian) community there.

The Zoroastrian migration to India is recorded as
the Parsi community’s founding legend, known as the
New Persian Qessa-e Sanjan (Story of Sanjan).
According to that text, during the reign of the Samanid
kings (892-1005), groups of Zoroastrians left the
northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan to avoid
forced conversion to Islam. Their descendents finally
reached Gujarat in western India via the sea in 936.
About five years after their arrival, the Parsis conse-
crated an dtesh behrdm (victory fire, the highest level
of ritual fire), called Iran Shah (King of Iran), which

877

ZOROASTRIANISM

remained their main flame for more than eight hun-
dred years. Most religious rituals were performed
using dadgah (hearth) fires. The jizya (poll tax) was
imposed on Parsis in 1297, when the Delhi Muslim
sultanate conquered Gujarat. Economic hardship cre-
ated by payment of the jizya, plus the stigma of
designation as dhimmis, resulted in the conversion
of portions of the Parsi population to Islam. Howev-
er, the community persisted in their beliefs and prax-
es, with the result being that early European travelers
began to encounter them; for example, in 1350, the
Dominican friar Jordanus commented on the expo-
sure of Parsi corpses. When their Indian religious
stronghold at Sanjan was sacked by the Muzaffarid
Sultan Mahmud Begath (Begada; r. 1458-1511)
around the year 1465, Parsi magi transferred the
Iran Shah atesh behram to a mountain cave for twelve
years to ensure that it continued to burn unhindered
by Muslims. Eventually, in 1479, the flame was
moved to the Parsi city of Navsari to once again
become the main locus of Zoroastrian piety in India.

Medieval Iran

Between the eighth and fifteenth centuries, the lives of
Zoroastrians as members of a dhimmi community
were governed by religious tenets and by a sectarian
society dominated by Muslim men. Realizing that
cross-communal contacts threatened the traditional
way of life, magi outlawed sex, marriage, and most
forms of interaction by Zoroastrians with Muslims
unless such contact was vital for a Zoroastrians liveli-
hood or safety. Likewise, Muslim jurists such as
Malik ibn Anas (716-795) ruled that Zoroastrians
should not be permitted to marry Muslims unless
Islam was adopted. However, intermarriage across
confessional boundaries became increasingly fre-
quent, with Zoroastrian spouses experiencing rejec-
tion from their co-religionists. In response to this,
they adopted Islam and raised their children as
Muslims. Because Zoroastrians were regarded as
unclean, Muslims initially were not supposed to eat
food prepared by Zoroastrians. Traditions attributed
to various early caliphs, including ‘Ali and an ex-
Zoroastrian companion of the Prophet Muhammad
named Salman al-Farisi (d. 656), developed to over-
come that barrier, eventually resulting in Muslim
jurists such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855)
decreeing that meals prepared by Zoroastrians could
be consumed by Muslims.

Such social interactions between Muslims and Zor-
oastrians notwithstanding, their minority status
resulted in considerable hardship for followers of

Zoroastrianism. For example, the powerful Seljuk
vizier Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092 CE) enjoined that
Zoroastrians, like other dhimmis, should not be
appointed to positions of authority over Muslims,
and he even equated them with Muslim groups that
he regarded as heretical. Even more problematic was
that Zoroastrians’ standing under Islamic law was
secondary to members of the majority confessional
group, thereby affecting the equitable resolution of
commercial and social disputes. The jizya was usually
collected by community leaders rather than paid
directly to Muslim officials by each Zoroastrian;
here, too, however, there was an impact of legal
inequality. Mahmud ibn ‘Umar al-Zamakhshari
(1075-1144), an important Muslim theologian, sug-
gested that Zoroastrians be publicly humiliated each
time the jizya was paid. After 850 CE, Zoroastrians
were required to wear yellow caps, shawls, belts, and
badges so that Muslims could easily identify them,
and the use of horses and saddles by Zoroastrians was
forbidden by Muslim authorities.

Conquest and rule of Iran by the Mongols (1219—
1256), Ilkhanids (1256-1335), and Timurids (1370-
1 507) resulted in violence against urban Zoroastrians
residing in city quarters that had been specifically
designated for them. Those seeking to avoid harm
often sought protection through reaffiliating their
faith to Islam. Those Zoroastrians who survived
sought refuge by moving to out-of-the-way locales
within the Fars, Yazd, and Kerman provinces of
Iran. There the magi attempted to maintain
Zoroastrian rites and beliefs by compiling religious
literature known as the Pahlavi Books in Middle
Persian and the Revayats ( Treatises ) in New Persian.

Jamsheed K. Choksy

Further Reading

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Beliefs and Practices.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.

Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastri-
an Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian
Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

. “Hagiography and Monotheism in History: Doc-
trinal Encounters Between Zoroastrianism, Judaism,
and Christianity.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
14 (2003): 407-15.

Kreyenbroek, Philip G. “The Zoroastrian Priesthood After
the Fall of the Sasanian Empire.” In Transition Periods
in Iranian History, 151-66. Louvain: Peeters, 1987.

de Menasce, Jean. “Zoroastrian Literature After the Mus-
lim Conquest.” In Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 4, ed.
Richard N. Frye, 543-65. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1975.

Morony, Michael G. Iraq After the Muslim Conquest. Prin-
ceton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Shaked, Shaul. From Zoroastrian Iran to Islam. Aldershot:
Ashgate- Variorum, 1995.

878

INDEX

‘AAud al-Dawla, 461
Abagha Ilkhan, 541
Aban al-Lahiqi, 229
Abaqa, 63, 383, 574
Abarshahr, 838
Abazir, 767

‘Abbada ‘1-Mukhannath, 600
‘Abbadid Court, 355
‘Abbas, 521

‘Abbas I, 63, 401, 530, 587, 687, 725-727
‘Abbas II, 63, 687
‘Abbasid(s)
adab under, 13
astronomy by, 77
black banners used by, 178s
civil war among, 2
clothing worn by, 161
Commercial Revolution under, 497
concubines owned by, 169-170
court system, 178-179
eclecticism, 587
in Egypt, 224-225
espionage by, 240
glass mosaics, 516
‘‘Golden Age” of, 1
ideology, 392
Iranians’ role in, 141
in Khurasan, 438
mosques, 520

Nafs al-Zakiyya and, 552-553
name origin of, 1
palaces of, 62, 71 1
Persian societal influences, 1
revolution, 131
ruling period by , 131
scholars, 700
slave-soldiers used by, 2
spying by, 240
thrones used by, 272
viziers, 855

‘Abbasid al-Mu‘tasim, 769
‘Abbasid caliphate, 518, 834
‘Abbasid caliphs

Abu Tammam’s interactions with, 1 1
decentralization of, 304
establishment of, 484

extermination of, by heirs of Genghis Khan, 281

gardens built by, 328

Harun al-Rashid, 51, 838

Ma'mun, al-, See Ma'mun. al-

Mansur, al-, 131, 468

Mongol execution of, 1

Mustadi’, al-, 690

Qarakhanids, 142
titles of, 1
‘Abbasid Dynasty
Arabs during, 59
backgammon during, 89
chess during, 148-149
court dress during, 178-179
description of, 1
diplomacy during, 207
eunuchs in, 243
fay’ during, 598-599
Hijaz during, 54
housing during, 330-331
judges during, 424
love poetry during, 455-456
Nawruz during, 559
performing arts during, 599-600
Silk Roads in, 746-747
Translation Movement during, 336
Yamama during, 55
Abd Abdillah al-Mazeri, 374
Abd Abdillah Muhammad ibn Abdillah ibn
Tumart, See Ibn Tumart
‘Abd al Karim, 752
‘Abd al Latif, 752
‘Abd al-‘Ali al-Karaki, 505
‘Abd al-Gani al-Nabulusi, 23
‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 201
‘Abd al-Hamid, 506, 658
‘Abd al-Hamid al-Katib, 66
Abd al-Hamid ibn Badi, 677
‘Abd al-Haqq, 206
‘Abd al-Jabbar, 107

Abd al-Jabbar Ibn Ibn Hamdis, See Ibn Hamdis

‘Abd al-Karim, 141

‘Abd Allah. 302, 776

‘Abd Allah al-Ma’mun. See Ma’mun, al-

Abd Allah bin Ali, 95

‘Abd Allah I, 720

‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, 54

‘Abd Allah ibn As‘ad al-Yafi‘i, 413, 463

‘Abd Allah ibn Buluggin, 361

‘Abd Allah ibn Burayda, 859

‘Abd Allah ibn Jud‘an, 204

‘Abd Allah ibn Lahi'ah, 474

‘Abd Allah ibn Mubarak, 452, 715

‘Abd Allah ibn Wahb, 476

‘Abd al-Latif ibn Yusuf al-Baghdadi, Muwaffaq al-Din
abu Muhammad, 2-3, 611
‘Abd al-Majid. 676

‘Abd al-Malik, 206, 213, 415, 450, 514, 590, 593, 631, 639.
682, 692, 848

Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Attasli. 317

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, 3, 50, 57, 77, 131, 162,

212, 316, 866

INDEX

‘Abd al-Mashi ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Na'ima al-Himsi. 610

‘Abd al-Mu’mim Bin ‘Ali, 308

‘Abd al-Mu’min, 37

Abd al-Qadir Abu ’1-Mafakhir, 413

‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, 98, 152, 413

‘Abd al-Qadir ibn Ghaybi al-Maraghi, 534

‘Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani, 680

‘Abd al-Qays, 94

‘Abd al-Rahman, 43, 176, 425, 593, 846
‘Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi. 677
‘Abd al-Rahman bin ‘Ali Abu '1-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi, 679
‘Abd al-Rahman I, 176, 328, 720
‘Abd al-Rahman II. 176, 722, 875
‘Abd al-Rahman III
biographical information about, 3-4
Cordoba under, 176
death of, 4

description of, 608, 720, 864
gardens built by, 328
Madinat al-Zahra', 4
military achievements of, 4
‘Abd al-Rahman Jami, 824
‘Abd al-Ra’uf al-Singkili, 466, 665
‘Abd al-Razzaq, 482
‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani, 385
‘Abd al-Razzaq al-San’ani, 166, 701
‘Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji, 531
‘Abd al-Salam al-Qazwini, 451
‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani, 80, 807
‘Abd qinn. 599
‘Abd Shams, 846
Abdallah al-Hasan, 551-552
Abdallah al-Ma’mum, 315
‘Abdallah Ansari, 824
‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abbas, 199
Abdallah ibn Tahir, 402
Abdu 1-Muttalib, 157, 525
Abdul Latif. 620
Abdul Qadir al-Suhrawardi, 773
‘Abdu’l Qadir Jilani, 773
Abdulhaqq Dihlawi, 674
‘Abdullah al-Mahdi, 250, 404-405
Abdullhamid II, 581-582
‘Abdulmu'min al-Kumi, 374
Abgineh, 297
Abi, al-, 335-336, 426
Abimelech, 29
Abjad system, 567

Ab-Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarar al-Tabari, See Tabari, al-

Abode of Islam, 596

Abode of Knowledge, 450, 452

Abode of Wisdom, 450-451

Aboo-Zeyd, 229

Abrabam Ibn Ezra, 618

Abraha, 525

Abraham, 29, 192, 429, 431, 546

Abraham Abu’l-Afiyan, 547

Abraham Ibn Ezra, 710

Abraham ibn ‘Ezra, 301

Abram Abu Rabi‘a he-Iasid, 547

Abridgment on the Physician ’s Science, 489-490

Absolute Truth, The, 460

Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Jaihani, 692

Abu ‘Abd Allah Ja’far ibn Muhammad Rudaki, 693

Abu ‘Abd Allah Mas‘ud ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Jawi, 463

Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn
Idris al-‘Ala bi-Amr Allah, See Idrisi, al-
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn ‘Umar, 858-859
Abu ‘Abd al-Rahhman al-Nasa’i. 440
Abu al-’Ala’ Salim, 506

Abu al-Fadl Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Hamadhani, See
Hamadhani, Badi' al-Zaman
Abu al-Fadl Bal'ami, 121
Abu al-Fadlk Muhammad al-Bal’ami, 692
Abu al-Faraj, 617, 866
Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani, 534
Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, 13, 866
Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, 312
Abu al-Fazl Baihaqi, 605
Abu al-Futuh Yusuf, 744

Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Mas‘udi, 138

Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali Sayf al-Dawla, 313

Abu ‘Ali al-Hafiz al-Nisaburi, 537

Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, See Ibn al-Haytham

Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn Sina, See Ibn Sina

Abu ‘Ali al-Jubba’i, 453, 701

Abu ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Hatimi, 543

Abu ‘Ali ibn ‘Ali al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk, See Nizam al-Mulk
Abu ‘Ali Muhammad, 121
Abu al-Ibar, 600

Abu al-Qasim 'Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn 'Asakir, See Ibn ‘Asakir
Abu al-Qasim al-Qushairi, 562

Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni, 140
Abu al-Wahid Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn
Rushd, See Ibn Rushd
Abu Bahkr, 23

Abu Bakir Muhammad ibn Ahmed al-Shashi, 374
Abu Bakr

in Cyprus, 188

description of, 59, 72, 130, 168, 171, 625, 844
Fatima bint Muhammad’s dealings with, 248
Khalid ibn al-Walid and, 435
Abu Bakr ’Abd al-Qahir ibn ’Abd al-Rahman ibn
Muhammad al-Jurjani, See Jurjani, al-
Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, 809
Abu Bakr al-Baydhaq, 80
Abu Bakr al-Razi, 772, 827
Abu Bakr al-Turtushi, 469
Abu Bakr ibn ’Abd al-Malik, See Ibn Quzman
Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafa, 5, 39, 109
Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi, 832
Abu Bakr Ibn Quzman, 260-261
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Madhara’i, 590
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi, See Razi, al-
Abu Bakr Muhammed, 13

Abu Bishr ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman ibn Qanbar, See Sibawayhi

Abu Bishr Matta, 68

Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus, 827

Abu Dawud, 307

Abu Dhabi, 94

Abu Faraj al-Isfahani, 859

Abu Fazl, 773

Abu Firas, 616

Abu Hafs, 309

Abu Hafs ‘Umar al-Balluti, 494

Abu Hamid al-Andalusi, 287

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, 679, 824

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, See Ghazali, al-

Abu Hamza al-Khariji, 54

Abu Hanifa, 44, 207, 402, 552, 660, 715

INDEX

Abu Hanifa al-Nu‘man
biographical data, 5-6
daily routines of, 5-6
death of, 6
doctrines by, 6
writings by, 6
Abu Hanifah, 165
Abu Harun, See Moses Ibn Ezra
Abu Hatim, 830
Abu Hatim al-Razi, 108, 671
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, 333
Abu Himyar Saba' ibn Ahmad al-Sulayhi, 70
Abu Hurayra, 171
Abu Ibrahim Ahmad, 19
Abu ‘Inan Faris, 352, 479
Abu ‘Isa al-Warraq, 349
Abu Ishaq al-Mu‘tasim, 92
Abu Ishaq Yequti’el ibn Isaac ibn Hasan, 355
Abu Ja‘far al-Khazin, 32
Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, 92
Abu Ja'far al-Tabari, 94, 701
Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi, 809
Abu Ja'far Ibn Sa'id, 308

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn ’Ali. See Muhammad al-Baqir

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, 140

Abu Kalijar, 123, 522

Abu Kamil, 31-32

Abu Khuzayma, 83 1

Abu '1-Abbas, 309

Abu ‘l-’Abbas al-Saffah, 552

Abu l-‘Ala’ Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Ma’arri, 6-7

Abu l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri, 268, 452

Abu 1-Darda, 714

Abu T-Fadl, 798

Abu '1-Fadl al-Bayhaqi. 8-9

Abu '1-Fadl ‘Allarni, 24

Abu '1-Fadl Ibn al-‘Amid, 452

Abu '1-Faraj al-Isfahani, 600

Abu '1-Faraj Ya’qub ibn Killis, See Ya’qub ibn Killis
Abu '1-Fath, 798
Abu '1-Fazl ‘Allami, 9
Abu '1-Hasan ‘Ali, 479

Abu ‘1-Hasan ‘Ali bin Naff Ziryab, See Ziryab

Abu ‘1-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Habib al-Mawardi,

See Mawardi, al-

Abu ‘1-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Musa ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq,

See ‘Ali al-rida
Abu ‘1-Hasan Ibn Sudun, 260
Abu 1-Hudhayl, 544
Abu 1-Husayn Shahid, 671
Abu '1-Tbar, 600

Abu 1-Mawahib al-Tunisi al-Shadhili. 385
Abu 1-Mutarrif Ibn Futays ‘Abd al-Rahman, 452
Abu '1-Qasem Ferdowsi, See Ferdowsi
Abu '1-Qasim, 383

Abu 1-Qasim ‘Abdallah ibn Ahmad al-Ka‘bi, 671

Abu '1-Qasim al-Balkhi, 377

Abu 1-Qasim al-Ka‘bi al-Balkhi, 701

Abu '1-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah, See Ibn Khurradadhbih

Abu '1-Quasim al-Shari‘1, 2

Abu '1-Rabi‘ ‘Amir ibn Sulayman al-Zawahi, 70

Abu '1-Rayhan al-Biruni, 483, 698

Abu Mansur ‘Abd al-Malik al-Tha'alibi, 705

Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, 809

Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ahmad Daqiqi, 693

Abu Ma‘shar, 75

Abu Muhamad Qasim al-Hariri, 312
Abu Muhammad al-Bashir, 374
Abu Muhammad al-Hasan, 312
Abu Nasr al-Farabi, 534

Abu Nasr Hibat Allah Ibn Musa Ibn Abi ‘Imran ibn
Da'ud al-Shirazi, See Mu’ayyad fi al-Din, al-
Abu Nu’aym, 401-402, 409
Abu Nuwas, 10, 27
Abu Qurra, Theodore, 393
Abu Rakwa, 311
Abu Sa‘d al-Tustari, 497
Abu Sahl al-Kuhi, 289
Abu Sa’id, 384, 541, 588
Abu Sa'id ‘Uthman, 308
Abu Shama, 10-11, 80

Abu Shuja' Fanna Khusraw, See ‘Adud al-Dawla

Abu Shuja' Fatik ‘Aziz al-Dawla, 7

Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi, 427

Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani, 826

Abu Tahir al-Qurmuti, 54

Abu Tahir al-Silafi, 31, 716

Abu Talib, 228, 526

Abu Talib al-Makki, 316, 679

Abu Tammam, 11, 229, 543, 616

Abu ‘Ubayd 'Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Bakri,

See Bakri, al-

‘Abu ‘Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, 476
Abu ‘Ubayda, 551
Abu ‘Ubaydah, 707

Abu ‘Umar Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Kindii, See Kindi, al-
Abu ‘Uthman al-Dimashqi, 827
Abu ‘Uthman Al-Jahiz, 46

Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr ibn Mahbub al-Kinani
al-Fuqaymi al-Basri al-Jahiz, See Jahiz, al-
Abu Ya'qub, 328
Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani, 405
Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, 38, 720
Abu Ya'qub Yusuf al-Sakkaki, 680
Abu Yayyan at-Tawhidi, 377
Abu Yusuf

Abu Hanifa’s influences on, 6
description of, 206, 598, 626, 702
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub, 450, 479
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Kindi, 610
Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur, 38
Abu Zakariyya’, 309
Abu Zayd, 462

Abu Zayd ‘Abd al-Rahman Qali al-Din al-Hadrami,

See Ibn Khaldun

Abu Zayd Ahmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, 671
Abu Zayd al-Qurash, 260
Abu Zayd al-Sirafi, 286
Abu Zayn Kahhal, 490

Abu’l ‘Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni, 795

Abu’l-Abas al-Mursi, 546

Abu’l-Fadl Bal’ami, 823

Abu’l-Faraj Harun, 433

Abu’l-Faraj Ibn Asad, 709

Abu’l-Fath Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar, See Akbar
Abu’l-Fath ‘Uthman Ibn Jinni, 543
Abu’l-Fazl, 20
Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash’ari, 640

Abu’l-Hasan ‘ali ibn Abi’l-Hayja’ Sayf al-Dawla, 542
Abu’l-Hasanal-Shadhili, 546

INDEX

Abu'l-Hayyan al-Tawhidi, 114
Abu’l-Ma’ali Rukn al-Din Abd al-Malik ibn
Abdullah al-Juwayni, See Juwayni
Abu'l-Misk Kafur, 543
Abu’l-Qasim, 824
Abu’l-Qasim az Zahrawi, 783
Abu’l-Qasim Mahmud, See Mahmud of Ghazna
Abu’l-Qasim Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, 500
Abu’l-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Ju‘fi
al-Mutanabbi, See Mutanabbi, al-
Abulustayn, 102
Abu’l-Walid, 710
Abu’l-Walid Ibn Janah, 318
Abyssinia, 12-13
Academic degrees, 201-203
Academy of Gundishapur, 451
Accounts of China and India, 548
Accounts of Women Poets, 867
Aceh, 465-466
Achaemenid Empire, 60
Acheh, 665
Active Intellect, 299
‘Ada, 187
Adab

commentary on. 167
definition of, 13, 332, 346
description of, 172
displays of, 13
hippology references, 326
Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ works regarding, 346
as mannerliness, 13
phases of, 13
requirements for, 13
Adab al-katib, 66
Adah al-Katih, 13, 364
Adah al-Muridin, A Sufi Rule for Novices, 1 3
Adah al- Wulat, 824
Adal, 12
Aden, 871

commercial importance of. 1 5
conquests of, 14-15
political history of, 14-15
topography of, 14
urban growth of, 1 5
Zuray’id, 14-15
Adhan, 109

‘Adi ibn Zayd, 641, 861
Adib. 13
‘Adid. al-, 250
Adigranth, 275
‘Adil, al-, 84
‘Adil Shahi dynasty, 108

Addict al-Rasmiyya fi al-Ta'abi al-Harbiyya, al-, 558
Adnanis, 59
Adolescence, 150

Adornment of the God-fearing, The, 460
Adriatic Sea, 556
‘Adud al-Dawla, 16, 123, 296
Adulis, 12

Adultery, 16-17, 280, 646-647
Adventures of Amir Arsalan , 628
Advice for Kings, 507
Adviya-i Mufrada, 492
Adygei, 155
Aegean Sea, 556

Aegineta, Paulus, 783
Aesthetics, 103
Afawih, 767
Afdal, al-, 70, 252
Affection, 279
Affliction, 771
African trade, 815-816
Africanus, Leo, 562
Afterlife, 18-19
Agape, 280
Age of decadence, 200
Agha Cafer Mosque, 189
Aghlabids

description of, 19, 744
in Qayrawan, 650
revolution brought by, 19
ulama. 19
Agra Red Fort
additions to, 20-21
description of, 20
Shah Jahan’s work on, 21
Agra-Lahore Road, 569
Agriculture

alcoholic beverages derived from, 26
botany, 117-118
in Cordoba region, 175
description of, 22-23
floods’ effect on, 259
income from, 472
Nile’s importance for, 561-562
Ahambra, 62
‘Ahd al-umma, 596
Ahiqar, 62

Ahkam ahl al-dhimma, 363

Ahkam al-Mulukiyaa fi Fannal-Qital fi l-Bahr wa-l-Dawabit
al-Namusiyya, a!-, 557

Ahkam al-Mulukiyya wal-Dawabit al-Namusiyaa fi
Fann al-Qital fi al-Bahr, al-, 558
Ahkam al-Sultaniyya, a!-, 132, 486, 507, 825
Ahkam al-taklifiyya, al-, 449
Ahkam al-wad‘iyya, al-. 449
Ahl al-dhimma, 173, 205
Ahl al-Qur’an, 659
Ahl al-shawka, 626
Ahl-i Haqq, 444
Ahl-suffa, 632
Ahmad al-Akhal, 744
Ahmad al-Far, 806
Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi, 450
Ahmad al-Mukarram, 70, 777
Ahmad al-Sharafi al-Safaqusi, 686
Ahmad Amin, 677
Ahmad Badlay, 12
Ahmad ibn Abi Da’ud, 411, 473
Ahmad ibn Abi Ya’qub al-Ya‘qubi, 138
Ahmad ibn al-Mu'adhdhal, 203
Ahmad ibn al-Mu’tasim, 441
Ahmad ibn al-Salt, 6
Ahmad ibn Buya, 92
Ahmad ibn Hanbal. 17, 165, 782, 878
Ahmad ibn Husain ibn Ali Katib, 666
Ahmad ibn Majid, 287

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qasirn al-Sulayhi. 70
Ahmad ibn Nasr al-Khuza’i, See Khuza’i, Ahmad ibn Nasr
Ahmad ibn Sa’di. 394

INDEX

Ahmad ibn Tulun, 224. 517, 591
Ahmad Khwari, 78
Ahmad Muharram, 230
Ahmad Shah, 290, 589
Ahmed I, 407
Ahmed ibn Hanbal, 676
Ahmet III, 330

Ahsan al-taqasim fi mci'rifat al-aqcilim , 158

Aim of the Sage, The , 60

A ’in-i Akhar , 24

A ’in-i Akhari, 9, 773

‘A’isha, 5, 131, 279, 600

‘A’isha al-Ba‘uniyya, 866

‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr, 23-24

‘A’ishah bint Yusuf al-Ba‘uniyah, 203

Aiya‘ al-Din Ibn al-Athir, 229

‘Aja’ib, 831

‘Aja’ib al-Buldan, 651-653

‘Aja 'ib al-Hind , 548

'Aja ' ib al-Makhluqat, 548

Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa ghara’ib al-mawjudat,

139, 651-652
Ajanib, 267
Ajaztuhu, 202
Ajnabi, 267
Ajnad, 590
Ajnadayn war, 59
Ajodhan, 275
Ajurrumiyya , 300
Akbar, 24, 585, 589, 629, 752
Akbarnama , 9, 24
Akham al-sultaniyya, 780
Akhbar al-Nisa’ al-Shawa'ir, 867
Akhbar al-Sin wa 1-Hind, 151, 548
Akhbar al-Zaman , 483
Akhfash al-Awsat, al-, 741
Akhiyat al-Fityan, 305
Akhlaq, 241
Akhlaq-i Jalali , 826
Akhlaq-i Nasiri, 826
Aksaray, 62
Aksum, 12
Al Yamani, 871
‘Ala al-Dim Muhammad, 142
‘Ala al-Din, 666

‘Ala’ al-Din Ibn al- ‘Attar al-Dimashqi, 680

‘Ala al-Din Kayqubad I, 63

‘Ala’ al-Din Khalji, 751

‘Ala al-Din Muhammad, 208, 663

‘Ala Ibn al-Hadramia, al-, 558

‘Ala’-al-Din Da’ud, 2-3

‘Alai Gate, 663

Alaim-i djarrahin, 783

‘Alam al-jabarut, 431

'Akim al-malaha fi ‘ibn al-filaha , 23

‘Alam al-malakut, 431

‘Alam al-mulk, 431

’Alamum li-l-sa’a, 416

Alamut, 383

A'laq al-khatira fi dhikr umara’ al-Sham wa’l-Jazira,
al-, 368-369
Alarcos, battle of, 38
‘Alawite Sharifs, 54
Alchemy, 25-26
Alcohol, 26-27

Alcoholic beverages, 106
Aleppo

Ayyubids' rule of, 28
citadel at, 65
description of, 27, 192
earthquakes in. 219
Hamdanid rule of, 27
Hawrawi, al-, in, 313
madrasas in, 28
Mamluk defeat at, 788
Mongols’ rule of, 28
Muslim conquest of, 27
Ottoman occupation of, 28-29
Saladin’s rule of, 27
Zanki’s rule of, 27-28
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 2
Alexander the Great, 29. 172, 243, 555, 604
Alexandria

Arab rule of, 30-31
Catechetical School in, 172
Christianity in, 30
Coptic Church in, 30
ethnic diversity of, 31
founding of, 30
during Middle Ages, 30-31
Persian capture of, 30
Pharos Lighthouse, 30
port uses of, 30
Roman rule of, 30
Alf Layla wa-Layla , 548, 575
Alfarabius, See Farabi, al-
Alfonso I, 595
Alfonso VI, 594
Alfonso X, 683
Alfonsus, Petrus, 683
Algebra

al-Khwarizmi’s work in, 31
word origin of, 31
Algeciras, 295
Algiers, 581
Alhambra, 278
Alhambra/al-Qasr al-Hamra’
description of, 32-33
Fountain of the Lions, 34
inscriptions, 33-34
Marinid Marocco and, 34
Palace of Charles V, 32
Palace of the Generalife, 33
Palace of the Lions, 33
Palace of the Myrtles, 33
Tower of the Infantas, 32
Alhandega, 4
‘Ali ‘Abd al-Mustansir, 70
‘Ali ‘Adil Shah, 108
‘Ali al-Hadi, 569, 737
‘Ali al-Qummi, 701

‘Ali al-Rida, 35-36, 438, 473, 737, 838

‘Ali al-Tabari, 107

Ali Baba, 577

‘Ali Ber, 764

Ali Bey Baghat, 801

Ali Dede Bosnevi, 97

‘Ali ibn ‘Abd Allah, 777

‘Ali ibn Abi Bakr, 313

‘Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi, 614

INDEX

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib
as caliph. 37

as companion of the Prophet, 36-37
description of, 1. 24, 36, 131, 500, 600, 613-614, 629,
736, 844, 874, 875, 877
Fatima bint Muhammad’s marriage to, 248
intellectual legacy of, 37
spiritual legacy of, 37
‘Ali ibn Abu Talib, 381
‘Ali ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majusi, See Majusi, al-
‘Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Qudayd, 440
‘Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al- ‘Abidin, 505
‘Ali ibn Buya, 124
‘Ali ibn Hilal, 134-135
‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarra’i, 501
‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali, 776
‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sabbah, 316
Ali ibn Muhammad Shah ibn Pahlavan, 666
‘Ali ibn Nafi, 534
‘Ali ibn Rabban, 716
‘Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari, 496
‘Ali ibn Rasul, 668
Ali Ibn Rudhwan, 314
‘Ali Mughayat Shah, 766
‘Ali Qapu Palace, 589
‘Ali Rida, 394
Ali Tegin, 694

Ali Zayn al-Abidin ibn al-Husayn, 737

Alidade, 73

‘Alid-Hashmiyya, 553

Alids, 736

‘Alim, 700

Al-Isharat ila Amakin al-Ziyarat, 614
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn
Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Shafi’i,

See Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-
Allahabad, 194
Allahu akbar, 636
‘Allama al-Hilli, al-, 573, 840
Almagest, 77, 167, 247, 370, 485, 647
Al-Maqqari Ahmad ibn Muhammad Abu "1-Abbas
Shihab al-Din, See Maqqari, al-
Almeria, 593

Almohads, 37-38, 295, 302
Almoravids

Cordoba rule by, 176
description of, 38-39, 105
hypostyle mosques, 520
Seville invasion by, 356
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, 595
Alms, 145

Alp Arslan, 40. 469, 476, 539, 565, 718-719, 782, 856
Alpago, Andrea, 348
Alphabets
Coptic, 172
description of, 40-41
Alphonse VII, 720
Alp-Takin, 142
Alptigin, 293

‘Alqama Ibn Mujazziz, 558
Altan Debter , 667
Alteration of the Eye, The , 578
Aiwa, 771

Alwah al-Tmadiyya, al-, 384
Aly Bahgat, 273

‘Amal, 187

‘Amal ahl al-madina, 703

Aman, 267, 595

Amanat Khan. 793

Amazigh, 104

Ambassadors, 207-208

Ambergris, 601

Amin, al-, 2, 10, 526, 600, 633

Amir, al-, 250, 778

Amir al-bahr, 558

‘Amir al-Khattab, 70

Amir al-Mufaddal al-Himyari, 777

‘Amir al-Mufaddal ibn Abi ’1-Barakat ibn al-Walid al-Himyari, 70

Amir al-Mu’minin, 130

Amir al-Nayruz, 807

Amir Hasan Sijzi. 152, 564

Amir Khosrow, 621

Amir Khusraw, 42, 563-564, 619

Amir Khwurd, 152

Amir Nawruz, 643

‘Amirid dynasty, 593

‘Amiriya Madrasa, 589

Amir-zada, 814

‘Ammar al-Mawsili, 578

Amr bi al-ma'ruf wa al-nahy ‘an al-munkar, al-, 164, 374
‘Amr ibn al-‘As, 30, 224, 273, 435, 806
Amr ibn As, 59

‘Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz, 93-94, 260

‘Amr ibn Dinar, 71

‘Amr ibn Sa‘id al-Asdaq, 3

‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd, 544

‘Amr mosque, 273

Amu Darya, 828

Amuli, al-, 42-43

Anadolu Hisar, 65

Analytica Posteriora, 68

Anan ben David, 433

Anandpal of Waihind, 458

Anas ibn Malik, 5

Anatolia

description of, 40, 102, 330, 836
Manzikert in, 476-477
Saljug conquest of, 521
Seljuk sultanate of, 588
Anatolios, 117
Anbiya, al-, 318
Ancients, 392
Andalus, al-

Abu al-Mu’mim’s occupation of, 38

Almoravid rule of, 38

Arabic theater in, 807-808

astrolabes from, 74

Cordoba, 175-176

definition of, 43

description of, 4

ethnic rivalries in, 105

horticultural stations in, 328

Ibn Gabirol in. 355

Ibn Naghrela, 361

Jewish cultural activity in, 302

music in, 534

poetry in, 616

Romance language in, 43

Seville, 720-722

singing in, 753

INDEX

slave trade, 760
territorial limits of, 43
Andalus, al-, Emir, 720-721
Andalusi Arabic, 57
Andalusia

astronomy in, 78
Hebrew studies in, 710
Karaites in, 433-434
literature, 4
Sufism in, 545
Andalusiyyin, al-, 382
Andar Danish-i Rag, 489, 825
Angels, 44-45
Animal husbandry, 45-46
Animal-driven mills, 800
Annals, 232
Ansar, 228
‘Antar, 153
‘Antara ibn Shaddad

as historical character, 46-47
as poet, 47
Antioch, 539
Anushirvan, 604
Anushtakin al-Dizbiri, 591
Aphorisms, 1 14, 488
Aphorisms of the Statesman , 248, 840
Apocalyptic works, 237-238
Apologia, 672

Apology for the Christian Faith, 393
Apostasy, 47-49, 183
Apprentice

definition of, 49-49
social privileges for, 49
Apprenticeship, 49-49
Aq Sarai, 812
Aqalim. 158
‘Aqd, 597
Aqide, al-, 375
‘Aqila, 183
Aqmar, al-, 480
Aqsa, al-, 50, 212, 415
Aqueducts

in Balkan countries, 52
Bekir Pasha, 52
in Cyprus, 52
definition of, 50-5 1
Hadrian’s building of, 5 1
in Istanbul, 51
Maglova, 51-52
Magra-El-Oyon, 51
Mazul Kemer, 51
noria used in, 5 1
pre-Islamic, 51
renovation of, 51
in Roman period, 51
Sinan’s building of, 51-52
Suleyman the Magnificent’s building of, 5 1
Uzun Kemer, 51
Aqwal al-Dhahabiyya, al-, 442
Arab(s)

during ‘Abbasid Dynasty, 59
in Ajnadayn war, 59
Assyrians and, 58-59
circumcision practices by, 157
classification of, 59

coinage, 162-163
during Umayyid dynasty, 59
word origin of, 58
Arab ‘Aribah, 59
Arab ba'idah, 59
Arab Baqiyyah, 59
Arab Musta'ribah, 59
Arabia, 596

'Adnan group in, 52
camel domestication in. 135
Hijaz

during Abbasid dynasty, 54
during Ayyubids dynasty, 54
description of, 53
during Fatimids dynasty, 54
during Mamluks dynasty, 54-55
during Umayyads dynasty, 54
inhabitants of, 52-53
Islam in, 53
location of, 52
migrations from, 53
provinces of, 53-54
Qahtan group in, 52
Yamama, 55
Arabian Peninsula, 596
Arabic
Andalusi, 57
calligraphy, 132-134
classical, 56-57
definition of, 56
history of, 602
linguistics, 454-455
Middle, 58
neo-, 57

population that speaks, 58
pre-classical, 56-57
proto-, 56
script used in, 57
Semitic language family, 56
sounds used in, 57
structure of, 57
translations of
into Hebrew, 821-823
into Persian, 823-826
vowels in. 133
Arabic archives, 66
Arabic epics, 231-232
Arabic literature, 657-659
Arabic poetry, 229-230, 616-617, 657, 683
Arabic prose, 658
Arabic titles, 813-814
‘Arabiyya, 57
Arabization, 590
Aragon, 594, 595
‘Ara’is al-majalis, 645
Aral Sea, 829
Aram, 60
Aramaeans, 60
Aramaic, 61
Aramaye, 60
Arap Ahmet, 189
Aras ’is al-majalis, 645
Arbab al-‘ama’im, 180
Arbab al-aqlam, 162
Arbab al-suyuf, 162

INDEX

Arbab-i qalam, 606
Arbab-i saif, 606
Arbitrary despotism, 1 72
Archimedes, 32, 289
Architecture

Dome of the Rock, 154, 212-214
in Isfahan, 400-401
military, 64-65
Ottoman influences, 189
palaces, 61-62
Sasanian, 698-699
Archives, 65-66
Ardashir I, 62
Areia, 319
Arghun Aqa, 540
Arghun Ilkhan, 541
‘Arib, al-, 866
Aristotelianism, 67-69, 612

Aristotle, 67-69, 117, 232, 247, 335, 344, 366, 441, 502,
504, 579, 610, 670, 810-811
Arjumand Banu Begam, 792
Armaye, 60
Armenia, 504
Armenian Church, 172

Arrangement of Bodies for Treatment, The. 491
ar-Rusafa, 328
Ars Poetica , 827
Arsacids, 397

Arslan Khan Muhammad, 121
Art

divination in, 210
women as patrons of, 863-865
Artaxerxes, 604
Artaxerxes II, 604
Artha, 549
Arwa, 70
Asabi', 532
Asabi‘ Zaynab, 204
‘Asabiyya, 359, 595
Asad al-Din Shirkuh, 225
Asad Ibn al-Furat. 494
Asad ibn Saman, 141
Asadi. 234
Asceticism, 71-72
Ascetics, 71-72
Asfar al-Arba’a al-, 531
Ashab al-akhbar, 591
Ashab al-aqbiyya. 179
Ashab al-darari, 179
Ashab al-mushahada, 299
Ash ar al-Nisa ’, 866
Ash'ari, al-, 678
Ash'aris, 809
Ash'arism, 241, 350
Ash'arite Virtues, 351
Asher Son of Judah Spoke, 618
'Asltr maqalat fi 'l-'ayn, a!-, 578
Ashraf, al-, 74, 471, 619, 743
Ashraf Barsbay, al-, 226
Ashraf Khalil, al-, 226, 541
Ashraf Khalil ibn Qalawun, al-, 102
Ashraf Qansuhb al-Ghuri, al-, 226
Ashraf Qaytbay, al-, 226
Ashrafi, 163
Ashtar, al-, 824

Ashura, 196

‘Asida, 204

Asik poetry, 251

‘Askar, al-, 129

Askia Dawud, 764

Askiya Muhammad, 770

Askiya Muhammad Touare, 72

Aslilia wa-’l-Atfal. al-, 230

Asma’ al-husna, al-, 209

Asma’ bint Shihab, 70

Asna al-Mafakhir fi Manaqib ’Abd al-Qadir , 413

Asrar al-Balagha, 426

Asrar al-Shari'a , 42

Assasins, 72-73, 383, 512

Assyrians, 58-59

Astrolabes, 73-76, 556

Astrology, 75-77

Astronomers, 567

Astronomy, 67, 77-78, 485

‘Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah. 5

Atabeg Badr al-Din Lu'lu’, 62

Atabegs, 719

Atashparast, 877

Athar al-Bilad wa-Akhbar al-'Ibad, 651-652

‘Atiq, al-, 5

Atlas maps, 139-140

Atsiz ibn Uvaz, 123

Attaining the Aims in Commenting on the Choicest
Traditions, 730
Attainment of Happiness, 248
Attar, 621

‘Attar Farid al-Din, 78-79
Autobiographical writings, 79-81
Avennasar, See Farabi, al-
Averroes, 38, 365-366, 419, 609
Avesta, 602

Avicenna, 347, 385, 453, 461, 506, 607
Avicennism, 490
‘Awarif al-Ma‘arif 776
‘Awfi, 78

Awlad al- ‘Assad, 175
Awlad al-nas, 472
Awraba, 381
Awrangzeb, 91
Awza‘i, al-, 715
Aya Sophia, 81-82, 189, 407
Ayatallah Khomayni, 43
Aybak al-Turkumani, 730
Ayla, 590

‘Ayn Abi Ziyad, 553

‘Ayn Jalut, 82-83, 101, 131, 226, 472, 508, 511, 540, 756
‘Ayn Tamr, 357
Ayyam at- Arab, 232, 630
‘Ayyars, 630
Ayyubids
in Aden, 15
Aleppo rule by, 28
Azhar, al-, under, 85
citadels constructed by, 65
in Damascus, 742
description of, 83-84
in Egypt, 225
Franks’ battles with, 84
Hijaz during dynasty of, 54
in Syria, 331

INDEX

transfer of power by, 129-130
Yemen conquest by, 871
A.Z. Abu Shadi, 230
Azarbarzinnameh, 234
Azariqa, 436
Azd tribal group, 291
Azhar. al-, 84-85, 130, 225, 451, 679
Azhar al-Riyad, 478
Azhar University, al-, 249, 251
‘Aziz, al-, 250, 310, 623
Azraqi, al-, 645
Azud al-Daula, 605
Azyumardi Azra, 466

Bab al-Futuh, 65

Bab al-Hadi Ashar, al-, 325

Bab al-jihad, 597

Bab al-Ziyada, 845

Baba Lai Das, 195

Babar, 87-88

Babur, 20, 80

Baburnama, The, 87-88

Babylon, 556

Babylonian Aramaic, 61

Babylonian Talmud, 61

Backgammon, 88-89, 148, 275-276

Bactrian camel, 135

Badajoz, 593

Badaun, 563

Badi', 11

Badi' al-Zaman, 311

Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, 336. 477
Badis ibn Ziri, 302
Badr, 529

Badr al-Din Lulu, 730. 873

Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Jama'a, 780

Badr al-Jamali, 65, 70, 90, 129, 252, 777

Badr al-tali', a!-, 731

Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, 230

Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, 90-92

Baghdad

‘Adud al-Dawla’s rule of. 16
Arabo-Islamic civilization in, 605
Buwayhis occupation of, 59
Buyids’ involvement in, 93
climate, 158

commercial significance of, 94

description of, 92-93, 605

Farabi, al- in, 247

floods in, 259

founding of, 1, 92, 304

House of Wisdom in, 450-451

Hunayn Ibn Ishaq in, 336-337

Imami learning in, 732

in Islamic history, 93-94

Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-, in, 437

libraries in, 222, 452-453

madrasa in, 345

Malikshah in, 470

Mongol occupation of, 59, 131, 304

papermaking in, 94

police in, 622

prisons in. 641

Round City at, 64-65, 92, 711
Seljuks in, 782
Seljuks’ involvement in, 93
Sunni Revival, 345
Baghdadi, al-, 626
Bagh-i Naw, 62
Baha’ al-Dawla, 123

Baha’ al-Din ‘Abu Hafs ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi. 774

Baha' al-Din Abu'l-Mahasin Yusuf ibn Rafi‘, 368

Baha’ al-Din al-Samuqi, 216-217

Baha al-Din Naqshaband, 122

Bahar, al-, 524

Baharistan, 412

Bahmanids, 290

Bahmannameh, 234

Bahr al-Maghrib, 494

Bahr al-Muhit, al-, 287

Bahr al-Rum, 494

Bahr al-Sham, 494

Bahr al-Shami, al-. 494

Bahrain, 94-95

Bahrayn, 405

Bahri Mamluks, 516

Bahriyya, 101

Baiju Noyen, 442

Bairam Khan, 334

Bakri, al-, 95-96, 291, 650, 831

Baladhuri, al-, 838

Balagha, al-, 679

Balagha wa-husn al-kitaba, al-, 66

Bal’ami, al-, 605

Balat al-Shuhada, 268

Balearic Islands, 556

Balkan Peninsula, 580

Balkans, 96-97

Balkh, 304

Balkhi, al-, 285-286

Balkuwara, 696

Ballard, Mary, 803

Baluchistan, 713

Bandanawaz, 290

Bani Sa’d, 525

Banten, 413

Banu ‘Abbad. 176

Banu ‘Abd al-Wad, 309

Banu ‘Aqil, 591

Banu Hashim, 167, 551, 626, 833

Banu Ha tint. 871

Banu Hilal, 233, 495, 594, 650

Banu Jumah, 109

Banu Kilab, 232

Banu 1-Furat, 855

Banu Muqla, 452

Banu Musa, 288

Banu Said, 5, 308

Banu Salih, 292

Banu Taghlib, 154

Banu Thaqif, 524

Banu Ziri, 33

Banugoshaspnameh, 234

Baqillani, al-, 428, 658, 678

Baqir, al-. See Muhammad al-Baqir

Bar Bar Hebraeus, 789

Bar Kokhba, 590

Barada, 191

INDEX

Baraka, 98, 614
Barani, Zia’ ad-Din, 98-99
Barcelona, 594
Barghwata, 104
Bari’, al-, 611
Barid, 631-632
Barmakids, 304, 315, 855
Barquq, 359, 560
Barsbay, 769
Barsum the Naked, 689
Bashmuric Rebellion. 174
Bashshar ibn Burd, 455
Basil I, 126
Basit, a!-, 708
Basmalah. 704
Basra

description of, 95, 99, 304, 346
Kharijis in, 436
Mu'tazilites in. 544
Basrans, 300
Bassos, Kassianos, 117
Bathing, 99-101
Baths, 99-101, 395, 763
Batinites, 293
Battani, al-, 285
Battle of Alarcos, 38
Battle of al-Zallaqa, 355
Battle of Arsuf, 690
Battle of Badr, 171, 238
Battle of Jaffa, 690
Battle of Marathon, 604
Battle of Nahrawan, 675
Battle of Poitiers, 267
Battle of Salamis, 604
Battle of Siffin, 131, 436, 659, 675
Battle of Talas, 746
Battle of the Camel, 99, 169
Battle of the Ditch, The, 4
Battle of Uhud, 388
Bay an wa-l-Tabyin, al-, 411
Baybars al-Jashnakir, 156, 184
Baybars I

description of, 101-102, 472, 632
Ibn Wasil, 376
Mamluk Sultanate, 226
polo by, 769

Tomb of Abraham restored by, 319
Bayezid 1, 170, 580
Bayezid II. 76, 82, 581
Bayn al-Qasrayn, 255, 561
Baysunghur, 116

Bayt al-Hikma, 116, 138, 533, 610
Bayt al-Maqdis, See Jerusalem
Bayt al-Muqaddas, al-, See Jerusalem
Bayzara, al-, 337
Beauties of Commerce, 498
Beauty, 103, 177
Bedouinization, 713
Bedouins

Abu Tammam’s work about, 11
customary law by, 186
Hamdanids, 312-313
milk consumption by, 106
Mirdasid dynasty, 27
nomadism of, 565-566

Palestine affected by rebellion of, 591
in Ramal, 591
Beer, 26

Beggar’s Bowl, The, 14

Begging, 145

Beit ha-miqdash, 147

Bekir Pasha Aqueduct, 52, 189

Ben Ezra synagogue, 282

Beneficiaries, 857

Beni Mallal, 374

Benjamin I, 173

Berber (language), 103-104

Berbers (people)

customary law of, 187
description of, 105
Idrisids from, 381
Khariji doctrine used by, 436
Maysara’s rule of, 436
Berke Khan, 102
Beverages, 106, 265
Beyhekim mosque, 515
Beylerbeyi, 188
Bezels of Wisdom, 349-350
Bhakti, 120
Bibi Shahr Banu, 803
Bibi Zulaykha, 563
Bible

description of, 107-108
Jewish interpretation of, 708-709
Karaites interpretation of, 709
Pentateuch, 418

Rabbanites interpretation of, 709
Bibliophile collections, 452-453
Bid’, 320

Bidaya walnihaya, al-, 645

Bierman, Irene, 802

Bihar al-anwar, 460, 738

Bijapur, 108-109

Bilad al-Sham, 591. 690

Bilad al-Sudan, 770

Bilad al-Sughd, 829

Bilad al-Turk, 829

Bilal al-Habashi. 109

Bilal ibn Rabah, See Bilal al-Habashi

Bilingualism, 825-826

Bilmece, 262

Bimaristan al-Nuri, al-, 192
Bindings, of books, 115
Biographical works
description of, 110
dictionaries, 110-111
information in, 111-112
onomastic section, 1 1 1
origin of, 110

religious authority and, 1 1 0
structure of, 111-112
Birkat al-Habash, 273

Biruni, Abu Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad, al-, 112-113, 177
Biruni, al-, 78, 118, 286, 555-556, 585, 608, 611
Bisharhah wa-al-Nidharah fi Ta 'bir al-Ru ' ya
wa-al-Muraqabali. al-, 215
Bishr ibn Finhas, 377
Bistami, al-, 431
Bitrawj, 175
Bitruji. al-, 78

110

INDEX

Bizhannameh, 234
Black Death, 113-114, 226, 236
Black Sea, 556
Black Stone, 526

Blessings on the Prophet Muhammad, 637
Blindness, 208-209
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 244
Body hair removal, 177
Body paint, 177
Bohairic dialect, 172
Bolad Chinksank, 384
Book(s)
binding of, 115
copyists, 116
description of, 114
illumination of, 115-116
production of, 116
royal patronage support of, 116
statistics regarding, 453
Book of Animals, The, 326
Book of Antidotes, 583

Book of Argument and Proof for the Despised Faith, The, 422
Book of Brigands, 622

Book of Comparison between the Hebrew Language and
Arabic, The, 301

Book of Conversation and Discussion, 618
Book of Creation, 431

Book of Curious and Entertaining Information, The, 13
Book of Dede Korkut, 833-834
Book of Definitions, 370
Book of Deliverance, 369
Book of Dialectic, 610
Book of Divination, 210
Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, 685
Book of Dreams, The, 18
Book of Earthquakes, 220
Book of Foreigners, The, 266
Book of Foundations Concerning the True Essence
of Medicines, 489

Book of Gifts and Rarities, The, 296

Book of Government, The, 207, 856

Book of Graves, The, 18

Book of Healing, 369

Book of Hebrew Roots, The, 301

Book of Hints and Pointers, 370

Book of Idols, 379

Book of Kings, 233-234, 261, 629-630, 727-729
Book of Knowledge of the World, 490
Book of Learning by Example, 852
Book of Letters, 827

Book of Longitudes and Latitudes of the Persians, The, 483

Book of Misers, The, 658, 763

Book of Musical Modes, 534

Book of Nabatean Agriculture, 329

Book of Phaseis, 648

Book of Planetary Hypotheses, 647

Book of Poetry and Poets, The, 364

Book of Principles of Hebrew Poetry, 618

Book of Relief after Adversity, 369

Book of Religion, 248

Book of Roads and Kingdoms, 139-140

Book of Roger, 380

Book of Routes and Kingdoms, The, 359-360
Book of Songs, 534, 600
Book of Splendor, 431

Book of Spurious Reports, The, 245

Book of Stones, 504

Book of Strangers, The, 1 3

Book of Tahkemoni, The, 314

Book of the Camel, The, 46

Book of the Crown, 507

Book of the Culture of Arable Land, 329

Book of the Emerald, 349

Book of the Excellences of the Qur an, The, 659

Book of the Horse, The, 46

Book of the Itineraries and Kingdoms, 95

Book of the Khazar, The, 422

Book of the Military Campaigns, The, 357

Book of the Preacher ’s Etiquette, The, 680

Book of the Sheep, The, 46

Book of the Sincere Brethren, 68

Book of the Staff, 852

Book of the Storytellers/ Admonishers and Those
Who Remind, 680

Book of the Traps and Hunting Spears, 337
Book of the Two Gardens on the Reports of the
Two Reigns, The, 11
Book of the Wild Animals, The, 46
Book of the Wonders of India, 548
Book of Variegated Flower Beds, 301
Book on Agriculture, 328
Book on Algebra and Almucabala, 31
Book on al-Jabr and al-Muqabala, 3 1
Book on Funerals, The, 198

Book on the Eloquence of the Language of the Hebrews, 301

Book on the Fixed Stars, 583

Book on the Great Art, 441

Books of the Language, 685

Books on Animals, 68

Borids, See Burids

Borzunameh, 234

Botany, 117-118

Bow, 510

Brahui confederation, 713
Bread, 147

Breaking of the Fast, 196

Breast-feeding, 150

Brethren of purity, 118-119

Bridges, 682

Brigandage, 326-328

Bubonic plague, 113-114

Buddhism, 119-120

Buddhizmus Hatdsa a: Iszldma, 120

Bughra Khan, 692

Bughyat al-tala ft ta’rikh Halab, 341

Buhturi, al-, 217, 229

Buka’ ‘ala al-atlal, al-, 618

Bukhara, 121-122, 281, 692

Bukhari, Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Isma’il, al-. 122

Bukhari, al-, 307, 443, 482, 701

Bulus Salama, 230

Bumm, 837

Bunduq, 769

Buraq, al-, 50

Burda, 178

Burhan, a!-, 428

Burhan al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nasafi, 324
Burials, 270-271
Burids, 123

Burning Embers, 505-506

111

INDEX

Burton, Richard, 577
Burzoe, 79-80
Busiri, al-, 31
Bustan al-Na-ura, 328

Bustan al-Salalin fi Dhikr al-Awwalin wa al-Akhirin, 665

Buwayhids, 59, 312-313

Buyid(s)

‘Adud al-Dawla, 16
description of, 2, 92-93, 124
library of, 451-452
Mahmud of Ghazna’s defeat of, 458
Majd al-Dawla, 452
military power of, 399
Sultans during, 780
Buyid Mu‘izz al-Dawla, 255, 452
Buyiik Hamam, 189
Biiyiik Han, 189
Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, 286
Byzantine, 238

Byzantine Book of Agriculture, 329
Byzantine Empire

description of, 125-126
theater productions in, 806
Byzantium

Crete capture by, 495
description of, 125-126
Ghassanids alliance with, 292
Karaites in. 433-434
Muslim-Byzantine relations, 537-539

Cairo

description of, 129-130
expansion of, 1 30
Fatimids in, 451
founding of, 65
housing in, 331

Mu’ayyad fi al-Din, al- in, 522
Nawruz in, 560
quadrants in, 76
Cairo Geniza, 282, 498
Calamus, 705

Calendaric festivals, 254-255
Calendars, 195-196, 485
Caliphates

‘Abbasid, See ‘Abbasid caliphs
in classical Sunni political thought, 132
definition of, 130
Fatimid

description of, 225
founding of, 405

Jewish mercantile class under, 497-498
history of, 813-814
Ibn al-Jawzi’s contributions, 345
Mahdi, al-, 533
Ma’mun, al. See Ma’mun, al
Mansour, al-, 553
Mongol conquest of, 392
Mustansir, al-, 111
Musta’sim, al-, 512, 540
Mutawakkil, al, 411
political theory, 624-625
popular literature about, 629-630
Rashidun, 435

rightly guided, 130-131
Uthman, 443

vestimentary system under, 160-162
Wathiq, al-, 438
Caliphs
‘Abbasid

Abu Tammam’s interactions with, 1 1
decentralization of, 304
establishment of, 484

extermination of, by heirs of Genghis Khan, 281
gardens built by, 328
Harun al-Rashid, 51, 838
Ma’mun, al-. See Ma’mun, al-
Mansur, al-, 131, 468
Mongol execution of, 1
Mustadi 1 , al-, 690
Qarakhanids, 142
titles of, 1
Fatimid

Hakim, al-, 310-311
Mu‘izz, al-, 869

Musta'li Ismailis’ recognition of, 405-406
Usama ibn Munqidh, 851
Zahir, al-, 516
Umayyad

‘Abd al-Rahman, 425
al-Walid ib ‘Abd al-Malik, 50
classification of, 847
division of, 847
establishment of, 304
judges appointed by, 423
Marwan, 506

Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, 50, 423, 450
mujaddid, 678
palaces of, 62

political theory debates, 625
predestination discussions, 639
qadiship used by, 423-424
ruling period of, 131
Suleiman, 525
Walid, al, 520
Walid II, 480
Calligraphy

description of, 114-116
history of, 132-135
Cambodia, 767
Camels, 46, 135-136, 682
Camphor, 601, 705
Canon Medicinae, 461
Canon of Medicine, The, 198, 370
Canterbury Tales, The, 244
Capella Palatina, 588
Carpets, 136-138
Cartography

atlas series, 139-140
Book of Roads and Kingdoms, 139-140
description of, 138, 284, 287-288
origins of, 138-139
traditions, 140
Caspian Sea, 281, 556, 573
Castile, 594

Castilian literature, 683
Castilians, 295
Catechetical School, 172
Catoptrics, 579

112

INDEX

Catrang, 148
Caucasus, 470. 504
Celaled-din-i Rumi, 534
Celebi, Evliya, 647
Celebrations, 255

Celestial Ascent of Lovers, The , 291
Cem Sultan, 210
Central Asia
history of, 140-142
modern, 140
Ceramics, 143-144
Chaghatai, 513
Chahar Bagh, 277, 401
Chahar taq, 877
Chanceries, 65-66

Chancery Secretary ’s Handbook, The , 364
Chandayan , 620

Chapters and Endings, Glorifying Allah and Offering
Words of Warning, 7
Characters of the Two Viziers, The, 798
Charity

Islamic, 145-146
Jewish, 146-148
medical, 147
public. 146-147
Charles V, 581
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 244
Cheng Ho, 818
Chess, 148-149, 275-276
Chihil Sutun, 62
Childhood. 150
Children, 150
China, 151

Genghis Khan's conquering of, 280, 512
Mongols in, 512
Xi Xia dynasty, 280
Chinese ceramics, 143
Chingissid, 812
Chingiz Khan, 87, 694
Chingsang, 667
Chishti, Mu‘in al-Din, 152
Chishti order, 275, 564
Chivalry. 153
Choice of Pearls, 355
Christ, Jesus, See Jesus
Christian saints, 688-689
Christianity

Coptic language and, 172
description of, 154-155
Egyptian church's contributions to, 172
humanism in, 331
313 Edict of Milan effects on, 172
Christians

Crusades by, 184
description of, 154-155
interfaith relations with, 393-395
Monasticism, 507-508
Chronicles, 66

Chronology of Ancient Nations, 113, 585

Church of Alexandria. 172

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 50, 310

Churches, 176

Cinili Kosk, 62

Circassians, 155-156

Circumcision, 156-157, 255, 295

Cirebon, 413

Cisoxiana, 140

Citadel, 273, 399

Clarification, The, 680

Class system, 178

Classes of the Physicians, The, 394

Claudius, 173

Climate

housing based on, 330
theories regarding, 157-158
Clothing

for dhimmis, 206
early, 159-160
for head, 159-160
regional variations in. 1 59
turban. 159-160
T urkish influences, 1 62
veiling, 160

vestimentary system, 160-162
Clysma, 556
Coffee, 106
Coffeehouses, 763
Coins

‘Amr ibn Sa'id al-Asdaq’s creation of, 3
description of, 162-163
in Kilwa, 439

Collection of Histories, The, 667
Collection on the Science of Falconry, 337
Colophons, 475
Combe, Etienne, 801
Comfort of Reason, The, 442
Commanding good and forbidding evil, 164-165
Commenda, 284
Commentary
on Adab, 167
definition of, 165
on grammar, 167
on Hadith, 166
importance of, 165-166
on philosophy, 167
on poetry, 167, 617
on Qur’an, 166, 486
on science, 167
on Sufism, 166
on theology, 166
Comnenus. Alexius, 126
Companions, 167-169
Compass, 556

Compendia of Nicolaus of Damascus, 377
Compendium for the Servants of God, 546
Compendium of Secrets, A, 42
Composite bow, 510
Concubinage. 169-170, 758, 864
Confections, 204-205
Conference of the Birds, 621
Conjunctural poverty, 634-635

Consideration on Those Traditions Which are Disputed, The, 839
Constans II, 125
Constantia, 188
Constantine

Aya Sophia, 81-82, 189, 407
description of, 62
in Istanbul, 407
Constantine IV, 125
Constantine V, 125

113

INDEX

Constantine VII, 819

Constantinople, 125-126, 238, 407, 520, 581
Constantinus, 81

Constitution of Medina, 170-171, 228, 528, 535, 596

Consultation, 171-172

Contagion, 235

Continens , 672

Contradictory Haditli, 724

Copper coinage, 163

Copt(s)

Coptic language used by, 172-173
during Fatimid dynasty, 174-175
festivals by, 561-562
history of, 173-175
Islamic conquest effects on, 173-175
during Marnluk dynasty. 174-175
numbers used by, 567
origins of, 173
protection of, 173
theology of, 173
word origin of, 173
Coptic Church, 30
Coptic language, 172-173
Coptic Orthodox Church, 173
Copyists, 116, 704-706
Cordoba, 175-176, 222, 374, 451
Cordova, 62
Cordovero, Moses, 547
Corduvan Ibn Julul, 827
Cornu, Georgette, 803
Corpse, 198-199
Corpus Aristotelicum, 68
Corpus Hippocraticum, 347
Corpus Platonicum, 615
Cosmetics, 177
Cosmography, 653
Cosmology, 69, 673
Cotton, 802

Council of Chalcedon, 172
Council of Clermont, 184
Court dress

during ‘Abbasid Dynasty, 178-179
during Fatimid dynasty, 179-180
during Marnluk dynasty. 180-181
Court of the Lions, 278, 303, 588
Covenant of Ashtar, 824
Covenant of ‘Umar, 154

Cream of the Milk as Regards the History of Aleppo, 341
Credit, 181-182
Crete, 495

Crime and punishment

description of, 182-183, 622
hiraba, 326-328
Criminal acts, 183
Cronica dos Reyes de Quiloa, 439
Crucifixion, 416
Crusades

Aqsa mosque during, 50
description of, 11, 175, 184
First, 184, 343, 568, 851
Fourth, 580

Ibn al-Althir's writings about, 342
Second, 184
Third, 184
Cteisphon, 844

Cultivation of Morals, The, 615, 840
Currency, 162-163
Cursing, 185
Customary law
approaches to, 186
berber, 187
divorce, 212
documentation of, 186
jurisprudence schools, 187
sources of, 186

terminology associated with, 186
textual basis for, 186
tribal, 187-188
Cypriots, 188-189
Cyprus, 188-189, 494
Cyril of Alexandria, 172
Cyrus, 30

Da'a’im al-Islam, 731
Daftar al-Muzaffari, 1 1 5
Daghal al-'avn, 578
Dahhak ibn Muzahim, al-, 701
Dahis wa al-Ghabra', 47
Dahlak Islands, 12
Da‘i, 252

Da‘i al-Mu’ayyad fi 1-din al-Shirazi, 777

Da‘i Dhu’ayb ibn Musa al-Wadi‘i, 111

Da‘i Lamak ibn Malik, 111

Da‘i Mutlaq. 70

Daibul, al-, 525

Da‘is, 252

Daisaku Ikeda, 120

Dajjal, al-. 239, 415

Dala’il al-nubuwwa, 401

Dala’il i’Jaz al-Qur’an, 426

Dakdat al-Ha’irin, 459, 811

Damascus

Abu Shama’s upbringing in, 1 1

‘Amr ibn Sa'id al-Asdaq's work in, 3

Arab conquest of, 304

Ayyubid, 742

conquest of, 59

Great Mosque in, 520

history of, 191-192

Ibn ‘Arabics burial in, 350

Ibn ‘Asakir in, 351

Ibn Khaldun in, 359

Nur al-Din’s control of, 568

paper manufacture in, 593

Saladin in, 690

Umayyad Mosque in, 191, 514, 845-846
Damask, 192
Damask rose, 192
Dancing, 192-194
Dani, al-, 237, 660
Danishmand Bahadur, 573
Danishnama, 825
Danishnama-yi Jahan, 490
Dante Alighieri, 243-244
Daqiqi, 234
Dar, 330

Dar al-Amma, 695
Dar al-Hadith, 351

114

INDEX

Dar al-Harb, 207, 596-597, 757

Dar al-hikma, 450

Dar al-‘Ilm, 311, 450

Dar al-‘Imara, 129, 649

Dar al-Islam, 207, 596-597, 688, 692, 730, 819

Dar al-Khilafa, 330

Dar al-kutub, 450

Dar al-tiraz, 296

Dara, 330

Dara Shikoh, 194-195

Darazi, al-, 311

Darb Zubayda, 681

Dargah, 774

Dari, 397-398

Darimi, al-, 714

Darius, 604

Darro river, 32

Dates, 195-196, 204

Da’ud ibn ‘Ajabshah, 406

David ben Abraham al-Fasi, 301

David ben Joshua, 546

David ben Zakkai, 685

David II Maimuni, 710

David Maimonides, 547

Da‘wa, al-, 70, 250, 252, 317, 404

Da‘wa al-hadiya, al-, 404

Dawr al-satr, 404

Dawud al-Ta'i, 71

Daylamite Mirdawij, 255

Days of the Arabs , 630

de Alcala, Pedro, 230, 600

De anima, 579

De antidotis, 608

De causis plantarum , 117

De compositione medicamentorum per genera , 607

De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos , 607

De historic! plantarum , 1 17

De materia media, 117, 583, 607-608

De natura hominis, 347

De plantis, 117

de Sacy, A. I. Silvestre, 72

De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis et
facultatibus, 607
De theriaca ad Pisonem , 608
Dealh and dying
corpse after, 198-199
ideal way of, 197-198
instructions before, 197-198
natural, 198
from old age, 197-198
pondering of, 199
Qur’anic themes about, 196-197
unnatural, 198
views on, 199
violent, 197
Dealh penalty, 49
Debt, 636
Debtors, 636

Decadence, notion of, 200-201
Decameron , 244
Deccan, 108
Decius, 719
Decorative arts, 103

Defense of Logicians and Philosophers against the Charge
of Irreligion, 377

Degrees, 201-203
Delight and Entertainment, 799
Deliverer from Error. The, 292
Demak, 412-413
Democritus, 22
Demokritos, 117
Demotic script, 172
Deontological ethics, 241
Despotism, 172
Desserts, 204-205

Determination of the Locations of Cities, The, 483
Devshirme, 155

Dhahabi, al-, 110-111, 352, 372

Dhakhira-i Muradiye, 783

Dhakhira-yi Kliwarizmshahi , 489

Dhamm al-Malalii , 533

Dhari’a ila Makarim al-Shari’a, 825

Dhat al-Himma, 232

Dhayl. Ill

Dhikr, 637

Dhikr akhbar Isfahan, 401

Dhimma, 205-207

Dhimmis, 162, 205, 393, 395, 594

Dhu al-Qarnayn, 29

Dhu ‘1-Fiqar, 98

Dhu ‘1-Hijja, 196, 255, 572

Dhu ‘1-Qa’da, 196

Dhu ‘1-Qarnayn, 239

Dhu Nawas, 688

Dhu’ayb, 70

Dhu’ayb ibn Musa al-Wadi’i, 70
Dhul-hijja, 309
Dia dynasty, 763
Dialectical theology, 154

Dialogue Between a Saracen and a Christian, 393

Dictionary of Men of Adah, 13

Diet, 264-266

Digenes Akrites, The, 538

Dihqans, 599

Dilkusha, 62

Dimashqi, al-, 498

Din al-Urmawi, al-, 753

Dinars, 163

Dinawari, al-, 285

Diogenes, Romanus, 476

Dioscorides, 117-118, 583, 607-608

Diplomacy, 207-208

Dirhams, 163

Disability, 208-209

Disapprobation of Musical Instruments, 533
Dissipater of Anxieties on the Reports of the
Ayyubids, The, 376
Divan-i Lughati’t Turk, 491
Divination, 209-211
Divination by the Qur'an , 210
Divine attribute, 154
Divine Intimations , 799
Divinity, 416
Divorce, 211-212, 480
Diwan, 79, 131, 232, 252
Diwan al-amwal, 252
Diwan al-Hamasa, 167
Diwan al-insha, 65, 252
Diwan al-jaysh, 65, 252
Diya, 183

115

INDEX

Diyarbakir, 384
Djam, 662

Dome of Sultan al-Ashraf, 471

Dome of the Rock, 154, 212-214, 415, 514, 845

Doubts Concerning Galen, 671-672

Dream(s)

function of, 215-216
genres, 214-215
guiding, 215

Prophet Muhammad in, 216
terminology associated with, 214-215
Dream interpretation, 214-215
Dream narratives, 214
Drinks, 265
Dromedary camel, 135
Druze, 216-217
Druze religion, 569
Druzism, 216
du Pont. Alexandre, 244
Ducat, 163
Dul-Qarnayn, 629
Dunash Ben Labrat, 618

Durr wa l-Marjan ft l-Ahadith al-Sihah wa l-Hisan. al-, 325

Diirr-i Meknun, 548

Dying, See Death and dying

Dzhambul, 837

Earthquakes, 219-220
Easy Tables, 648
Ebn Elesam, 234
Ebu’s-suud, 182
Eclecticism, 587
Eclipse prayer, 637
Edessa, 539, 688
Edirne, 717-718
Edirnekapi Mosque, 750
Education

in childhood, 150
elements of, 222

during European Dark Ages, 222
Islamic, 220-222
Jewish, 223-224
during Medieval Period, 222
primary, 222
Qur’anic concepts, 222
secondary, 222
university, 222
Edward I, 573
Egypt

‘Abbasid occupation of, 224-225
Ahmad ibn Tulun’s rule of, 224-225
al-Mu‘izz in, 251
Arab conquest of, 224
Ayyubid sultanate in, 225
codices found in, 172

Fatimid conquest of, 225, 251-252, 425, 538

floods in, 258-259

Forty-Nine Martyrs in, 689

funerary practices by, 270

Fustat, 273-274

Greek language in, 172

history of, 224

Jewish Pietist movement in, 546-547

Karaites in. 433-434
Mamluk sultanate in. 226-227
tax system in, 224
Tulunids in, 447
Egyptian Christians, 224
Egyptian language, 172-173
Eid al-Adha, 196
Eid al-Fitr, 196
El Cid, 594-595
El Libro de Buen Amor, 683
Elegant Garden, The, 314
Elegy, 227-228
Elements, 247, 288, 485
Elvira, 302
Emanationism, 370
Embedding, 577
Emigration, 228-229
Emir of Nawruz, 560
Endowments, 857-858
Enneads , 610

Entertainment for One Desiring to Travel Far, 380

Entertainment of the Audience, 337

Enumeration of the Riders of Egypt, The, 440

Enumeration of the Sciences, 248

Ephemeris, 77

Ephesus, 719-720

Epic poetry, 229-230

Epics

Arabic, 231-232
Persian, 233-235
Sunjata, 466-467
Turkish, 230-231
Epidemics
contagion, 235
description of, 235
modern scholarship about, 236
pestilence, 235-236
plague, 236
Epigram, 620
Epilepsy, 263
Epistemology, 672-673
Epistle, 426, 549

Epistle Against the Pre-Destinarians, 3 1 5—3 1 6
Epistle of the Singing-Girls , 866
Epistle on Companions, 506
Epistle on Divine Science, 610

Epistle on the Kingdom of the Arabs and Its Duration, 441

Epistle to the Prince, 506

Epistles of Salim, 627

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, 355

Epistolography, 9

Epitome of the Key, 680

Era of the Martyrs, 30, 172

Eros, 280

Eschatology, 237-239, 404

Esotericism, 43 1

Espionage, 239-240, 510-511

Essentials of Hebrew Poetry: The Compilation, 301

Eternal Wisdom, 6 1 1

Ethics, 241-242, 673

Ethics, 335

Ethiopia

Habasha Christian polity in. 12
Islam and, 12
Ethiopian Church. 172

116

INDEX

Euclid, 67, 289, 485, 578
Eudaemonistic philosophy, 241
Eunuchs. 180, 242-243, 622, 760
Euphrates, 258
Eurasia, 140-141
Eurasian Steppe, 509
Evkaf, 188
Ewen-namag, 148
Excellenes literature, 244-245
Exegesis

description of, 701
scriptural, 706-711
Exemplar. The, 724
Exhaustive Treatise on Shadows, 78
Exhortation to the Guiders and the Guided. The, 442
Existence, 531

Exposing the Slanderer’s Mendacity against Abu al-Hasan
al-Asli'ari, 351-352
Exposition, The, 647-648
Exposition of Knowledge of Religions, The, 665
Eyvan, 520

Face of God, 386
Fada’il, 244-245, 285
Fada ’il al- Ansar, 245
Fada 'il al- Jihad, 368
Fad 1 ‘Asqualan, 352
Fadl ibn Sahl, al-, 473
Fadl ibn Yahya, al-, 178
Fahlaviyyat, 399

Fahr al-Din al-Razi, See Razi, al-

Fahs al-Ballut, 175

Fa’iz, al-, 250

Fakhkhar, 143

Fakhr al-Din, 573

Fakhr al-Din al-Ma‘ni II, 217

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, 701, 708, 772, 809, 839

Fakhr al-Din Kara Arslan, 607-608

Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Hilli. 42

Fakhr al-khilafa, 777

Fakhr al-Muhaqqiqin, 324

Fakkak, al-, 760

Falasifa, 670

Falconry, 337-338, 769

Fal-i Kalam Allah, 210

Fal-i Musliaf 210

Fal-i Qur’an, 210

Fallah, 598

Falnamas, 210, 410

Falsafa, 610-612

Faludhaj, 204

Fansuri, al-, 465

Faqr al-din ‘Iraqi, 774

Farabi, al-, 2, 68, 241, 247-248, 293, 300, 332, 366,

615, 670, 680, 811
Fara’i al-Qulub, 545
Faramarznameh, 234
Farazdaq, al-, 807
Farewell Sermon, 529-530
Farghana, 746
Farghani, al-, 76, 285, 440
Farhang, 148

Farid al-Din, See Ganj-I Shakar, Farid ad-Din

Farid al-Din Attar, 409

Farid al-Din Damad al-Nisaburi, 839

Farid al-Din Ganj Shakar, 152

Farid Wajdi, 677

Faridun, 384

Farighunids, 458

Farra’, al-, 701, 707

Farrokhi, 227

Fars, 504, 524

Farsakh, 285

Farsi, 397

Faruq, al-, 500

Fas al-Jadid, 257

Fasting, 771-772, 774

Fatawa, 363

Fatawa-yi jahandari , 98

Fatehpur Sikri, 90-91

Path al-qadir, al-, 730

Fath ibn Khaqan, al-Mutawakkil’s Vizier, al-, 25

Fatih Cami, 779

Fatih Pasha Mosque, 750

Fatima al-Zahra’, 867

Fatima bint Muhammad

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib’s marriage to, 248
biography of, 248-249
children of, 248
death of, 249

deathbed instructions by, 198
description of, 109
poetry about, 249
titles of, 249
Fatima Khatun, 274
Fatimi Egypt, 216
Fatimid(s)

al-Hakim’s rule of, 251

Azhar, al-. 84-85, 255

in Cairo, 451

caliphs of, 250-251

central administration of, 252

clothing of, 162

coinage of, 163

colors used during, 178-179

Copts during, 174-175

court dress during, 179-180

description of, 2, 249, 250

diplomacy during, 207

in Egypt, 225, 251-252, 425, 538, 642

foundation of, 250-251

Hijaz during, 54

Idrisids and, 382

Ismailis, 404-405

library of, 450-451

mawlid celebrations, 256

Nawruz celebration by, 559

in North Africa, 250-251

organization of, 252

origins of, 405

paintings, 588

police, 622

in Ramla, 59 1

religious celebrations, 642

ruling period, 179

Shi’i, 650

in Sicily, 744

in Syria, 787

117

INDEX

Fatimid Caliphate
founding of, 405

Jewish mercantile class under, 497-498
Fatimid Caliphs
Hakim, al-, 310-311
Mu'izz, al-, 869

Musta'li Ismailis’ recognition of, 405-406
Usama ibn Munqidh, 851
Zahir, al-, 516
Fatira, 204
Fawa ’id al-fu ’ad, 152
Fawzi Ma’luf, 230
Fay', 447, 598-599
Fayd al-Fadl wa Jam' al-Shaml, 866
Fay sal al-Tafriqa Bayna 1-Islam wa-l-Zandaqa , 321
Feast of Cross, 556
Feast of Ramadan, 295
Feast of Sacrifice, 135, 196
Feast of Submersion, 562
Feast of the Fast-Breaking, 642
Feast of the Martyr, 562
Feast of the Sacrifice, 642
Federico II, 337
Felted rugs, 136
Ferdinand III, 176, 720
Ferdowsi, 234, 253-254, 560, 605, 727
Ferghana, 829
Fermented beverages, 26
Fernando I, 594
Fertile Crescent, 60
Festival; s)

calendaric, 254-255
description of, 254
Irbil. 256
Islamicized, 255
mawlid, 255-256
shi’i, 255

Festival of Ghadir Khumm, 643
Festival of the New Year, 196
Fez

description of, 257-258, 382
Maimonides in, 459
Fezzan, 770
Fidai Khan Koka, 91
Fields of Gold, The, 483
Fihrist, al-, 88, 397, 474, 577, 794
Filaha al-Nabatiyya, al-, 23, 60
Filastin, 590
Fiqh, 449
Fiqh al-Rida, 36
Fiqh al-sunna, 730
Fiqh Kitah al-Azhar, 732
Firdausi, 838

Firdaws al-Hikma fi 1-Tihh. 496
Firdawsi, 62-63

First Crusade, 184, 343, 568, 851
Firuz Shah. 290, 589, 662
Firu: Shah Nameh, 630
Firuz Shah Tughluq, 74, 751
Firuzabadi, al-. 861
Fisherman and the Genie. The, 577
Fityun, 49

Five Books of Cleverness, 432
Five Treasures, 560
Floods, 258-259

Folk literature
Arabic, 260-261
Persian, 261-262
Turkish, 262-263
Folk medicine, 263-264
Tons Vitae, 355
Food

nonconsumption uses of, 265-266
preparation of, 264-265
serving of, 265
types of, 265
Forbidding evil, 164-165
Foreigners, 266-267
Formal prayer, 636-637
Fornication. 280
Fortifications, 64-65
Forty-Nine Martyrs, 689
Fostat, 459

Fountain of the Lions, 34
Four Journeys, 53 1
Fourth Crusade, 580
Fragmentary wall paintings, 588
Frahang, 148
Franks

‘Ayn Jalut battle, 82-83
Ayyubids' battles against, 84
during Crusades, 184
description of, 252, 267-268
Muslim perceptions of, 184
Frantz-Murphy, Gladis, 802
Frederick II, 84, 376
Freethinkers, 268-269
Frescoes, 586-589
Fritware, 143
Fulus, 163
Funeral prayer, 637
Funerary practices
Islamic, 271
Jewish, 269-270
Muslim, 270-272
violations of, 271
Fuqaha, 194, 597
Fuqqa', 106
Furat, al-, 20
Furnishings, 272-273
Furniture, 272-273
Fustat, 273-274, 395, 634
Fustat, al-, 129, 482
Fusul al-Madani, 840

Fusiil wa l-Ghayat fi Tamjid Allah wa l-Mawa’i A, al-, 7

Fusus al-hikam, 349

Futuh al-Buldan, 859

Futuhat al-makkiyya, al-, 349

Futuvvat, 305

Futuwwa, 153, 633

Gabal Yashkur, 273
Gabbai. 147
Gabriel, Albert, 273
Gafiqi, al-, 608

Galen, 67, 80, 578, 607-608, 671
Galland, Antoine, 577
Gambling, 275-276

118

INDEX

Ganjeh, 560

Ganj-I Shakar, Farid ad-Din, 275-276
Garden in Spring, The, 412

Garden of Kings Concerning Beginning and Ending, 665

Garden of Myrtle, The, 478

Garden of the Truth, The, 620

Gardens and gardening, 276-278, 328-329

Gardens’ Flowers, The, AIR

Garuda, 662

Gawhar Shad, 864

Geikhatu, 541

Gelim, 136

Gender, 278-280

Generations, 367

Genghis Khan, 142, 280-282, 508-512, 540

Genghisid principle, 281

Geniza

Cairo, 282, 498
collection of, 282
commerce descriptions in, 284
contents of, 282-283
definition of, 282
description of, 270

Islamic history and culture associated with, 283-284
Jewish history and culture associated with, 282-283
Geographers
Bakri, al-, 95-96
Idrisi, 379-381
Qazwini, al-, 652
Geographus Nubiensis, 379-380
Geography

Balkhi, al-, school of, 286
development of, 284-285
Iraqi school of, 285-286
mathematical, 483-484
Ottoman, 287
Persian influences, 287
Ptolemaic influences on, 285
Qur’an descriptions, 285
reference books, 285
round maps, 287-288
sacred, 686

Umayyad travel records, 285
Geography, 285, 648
Geometry, 288-290, 484
Georgika. The, 22-23, 117
Gerusalemme Liberata, 243
Gesudaraz, 290-291
Ghadar, 143
Ghadir Khum, 94, 255
Ghaliya, 177
Ghana, 291
Gharib, 266
Gharib al-Hadith, 476

Ghars al-Ni‘ma Muhammad ibn Hilal, 452-453

Ghashiyya, 643

Ghassani state, 59

Ghassanids, 291-292

Ghayat al-Hakim, 60

Ghaylan al-Dimashqi, 639

Ghazal, 455, 619

Ghazali, al-, 49, 69, 80, 98, 103, 145, 199, 242, 292-293,

321, 498, 562, 611, 626, 670, 678, 723, 780, 782, 822
Ghazan Khan, 384, 666-667
Ghazi, 873

Ghazna, 121
Ghaznavid Mas'ud, 62
Ghaznavids

Abu ‘1-Fadl al-Bayhaqi’s writings about, 8-9
architecture, 588

description of, 93, 121, 124, 293-294, 387, 747
in Gangetic Plain, 644
Ghitrib ibn Qudama al-Ghassani. al-, 337
Ghiyar, 160, 162
Ghivasi, al-, 428
Ghiyath al-Din Tugluq, 563
Ghiyathiya, 490
Ghulam, 725
Ghulat, 141, 409
Ghurid dynasty, 661
Ghuta, al-, 191
Gibbon, Edward, 200
Gibraltar, 294-295
Gift giving, 295-296
Gifts, 295-296
Gilan, 573
Ginans, 620
Glass mosaics, 516
Glassware, 297-298
Gnosis, 299
God

Face of, 386
idolatry, 378
Qur’an references to, 241
Gog, 239, 548
Gol-angabin, 683
Gold, 503-504
Gold coinage, 163
Golden Book, 667
Golden Horde, 512, 540-541
Golden Sayings, The, 442
Golden Tower, 722
Goldsmiths, 417
Goldziher, Ignaz, 120, 323
Golestan, 412
Gorgani, 560
Goshtaspnameh, 234
Gourd game, 769
Governors of Egypt, The, 440
Grabar, Oleg, 413
Grammar
Arabic, 318
commentary on, 167
Hebrew, 301-302
Islamic, 299-301
Judeo-Arabic, 301-302
Grammarians, 299-301
Granada, 302-303, 593
Grand Book on Music, 534
Grand Commentary, The, 670
Great Generations, The , 867
Great Khan Guyiik, 540
Great Khan Mongke, 512, 540
Great Khan Ogodei, 512-513, 632
Great Khan Qubilai, 512-513
Great Mosque of Qayrawan, 19, 650
Greek language and culture, 303-304
Green Sea, 817
Gregory Abu ’1-Faraj, 789
Guadalquivir River, 175, 720

119

INDEX

Gudab, 204
Guidance, The, 531

Guidance of Those Who Feel Inclined to the Stories
of Julia, The, 426
Guidance to the Luminaries, 731

Guide of the Perplexed, The, 314, 459-460, 547, 710, 822

Guide to Detachment, The, 546

Guide to Knowledge of Pilgrimage Places, 614

Guide to Pilgrimage Places, 313

Guiding dreams, 215

Guilds

apprentice in, 49-49
description of, 304-305
religious orders in, 49
Guildsmen, 49
Gujarat, 878
Gulbarga, 291
Gulf of Aden, 830
Gulkane Khatt-i Humayun, 676
Gul-u-Hurmuz, See Khusraw-Nama
Gur-i Ami, 588
Gwalior, 20

Haha ’ik fi Akhhar al-Mala ’ik, cd-, 45
Habasha, 12
Habbab al-Mundhir, 171
Hadad, 520
Hadd, 183

Hadi ila al-Haqq, al-, 732
Hadi Sabzavari, 43
Hadi Yahya ibn al-Husayn, al-, 875
Hadiqat a-Haqiqat, 620
Hadith(s)
burials, 271

criticisms of, 202, 307-308
definition of, 222, 307, 733

description of, 6, 111-112, 122, 157, 160, 164, 166, 171

dualistic vision doctrines in, 735

early collections of, 307

by Ibn Hanbal, 356-357

by Ibn Umar, 660

Islamic law based on, 307

jewelry references, 416

jihad in, 419

Majlisi’s work in, 460

martyrdom, 197

parts of, 307

Qu'ran understanding and, 222
suffering, 771
Hadith al-Ghadir, 36
Hadith Dawud, 476
Hadramawt, 669, 111 , 871
Hadrian

aqueducts built by, 51
Jerusalem rebuilding by, 413
Hafez, 621

Haffar al-Quhur, 230
Hafirs, 51

Hafiz, al-, 255, 405-406
Hafiz Abru, 8 1 2
Hafiz li-din Allah, al-, 70
Hafizi Da‘wa, 778

Hafsa bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya, 308, 866

Hafsids, 309, 359

Haft Ourang , 412

Haft Paykar, 560

Hagia Sophia, 520, 751, 779

Hai Gaon, 394

Hailstorms, 859

Hair coloring, 177

Hajar al-Aswad, al-, 526

Hajar al-Nasr, 382

Hajj, 309-310. 429

Hajjaj, al-. 524, 647, 866

Hajy Pasha, 492

Hakam, al-, I, 720

Hakam ibn Ali '1-As, al-, 600

Hakam II, al-, 176, 514

Hakim, al-. 130, 175, 250, 251, 310-311, 344, 376, 395,
442, 592, 643

Hakim al-Tirmidhi, al-, 80
Hakim bi-Amr Allah, al-, 216
Hakim Maysari, 489
Hakk Al Din I, 12
Hala Sultan, 52, 189
Hala Sultan Tekke, 188
Halakhic writings, 862
Hallaj, al-. 402
Hallaj ibn Yusuf, al-, 138
Halwa, 204

Hamadhani, Badi' al-Zaman, 311-312

Hamam, 99-101

Hamama, 109

Hamasa, a!-, 11, 229

Hamawi, al-, 870

Hamdalah, 704

Hamdallah Mowstafi, 234

Hamdan ibn Harndun, 312

Hamdan Qarmat, 405

Hamdani, al-, 285

Hamdanids

Aleppo rule by, 27
description of, 312-313
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 405, 406
Hamid Qalandar, 152
Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, 5
Hammarn al-Sarakh, 514
Hamnadhani, al-, 694
Hamriyya, 27
Hamza, 629
Hamza al-Isfahani, 451
Hamza Fansuri, 665
Hamza ibn Abdallah, 552
Hamza ibn ‘Ali, 3 1 1
Hamza ibn ‘Ali al-Zawzani, 216-217
Hamza-nama, 629
Han Kitah, 151
Hanafi jurists, 596
Hanafi madhhab, 703

Hanafi School of Islamic law, 121, 702-703

Hanbali Ibn Taymiyya, 256

Hanbali qadi, 194

Hanbali school, 187, 716

Hanbalis, 345, 447

Hand, 795

Handy Tables, 648

Hanifa tribe, 55

Haqa'iq al-tafsir, 166

120

INDEX

Haqiqa, 410
Haqq al-Din II, 12
Hciqqci al- Yaqin , 460
Haram, 149

Haram al-Ibrahimi, 318-319

Haram al-Sharif, al-, 50, 212

Haramain al-Juvaini, al-, 562

Harawi, al-, 287, 313

Harba, al-, 682

Harem, 170

Hari Rud river, 319

Hariri, al-, 116, 167. 477, 585, 822

Harith al-A’war, al-, 389

Harith ibn Jabala, al-, 292

Harizi, al-, 314, 477

Harran Thabit ibn Qurra, 647

Harun al-Rashid, 19, 51, 92, 206, 240, 268, 314-315, 336,
424, 451, 576, 590, 630, 633, 681, 683, 694, 838, 859
Harun Yahya, 120
Ha-Sallah, 354
Hasan, al-, 109, 124, 295
Hasan al-Askari, al-, 569, 737
Hasan al-Basri, al-, 71, 99, 165, 315-316, 639, 676
Hasan ibn ‘Ali, al-, 736
Hasan ibn Salih ibn Hayy, al-, 71
Hasan ibn Zayd, al-, 875
Hasan Kafi, 97

Hasan-i Sabbah, 316-317, 406

Hasawati. al-, 274

Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, 302, 618

Hasdasy Ibn Shaprut, 223

Haseki Hiirrem Sultan, 779

Hashwi, 396

Hasidim, 546

Hats, 160

Hausaland, 765

Hawi, a!-, 672

Hawi al-Kabir, a!-, 486

Hayat al-Qulub, 460

Haywayhi of Balkh, 685

Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, 372-373

Hazar Afsaneh, 575

He Who has No Jurisprudence with Him, 352
Healing the Person with Wrong Concepts about
Predetermination and Causality, 363
Healing-Mine of Sikandar-Shah, The , 490
Heavenly Percolations, 505
Hebrew

Arabic translations into, 821-823
description of, 3 1 7-3 1 8
grammar used in, 301-302
medical literature, 487-488
Hebrew poetry, 617-619
Hebron, 318-319
Heirs, 389
Hejaz, 581
Henna, 177
Heqdesh, 146-147
Heraclius, 30, 125, 292
Herat, 319-320, 585
Herbalists, 263
Heresy, 320-322
Heretics, 320-322
Hermeneutics, 449
Herodotus, 837

Heroes, 323-324
Heroism, 323-324
Heron of Alexandria, 579
Heterodoxy, 322
Hidaya, al-, 531

Hidayat al-Muta 'Allimim fi l-Tibb , 489

Hijaz, 238, 596

Hijra, 228-229, 528

Hijra calendar, 195-196

Hikaya, 722

Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyya, 767
Hikma, 405

Hikmat al- 'Avn, Idah al-Maqasid fi Shark
Hikmat al- ‘Ayn, 325
Hikmat al-ishraq, 1 66
Hilal al-Sabi’, 296, 643
Hilal ibn Abi Halal al-Himsi, 288
Hilalis, 495
Hilli, al-, 324-325

Hilyat al-awliya’ wa-tabaqat al-asfiya’, 401-402
Hilyat al-Muttaqin, 460
Hims, 192

Hind bint Abi ‘Ubayda ibn Asad ibn ‘Abd al-’Uzza
ibn Qusayy, 55 1
Hindu Kush, 713
Hindu-Arabic system, 567
H.inth, 571
Hippocrates, 67, 266
Hippology, 325-326
Hira, 527
Hira, al-, 292, 435
Hiraba, 326-328
Hisab al-jummal, 209
Hisbah, 164
Hisham I, 176, 720
Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-aalik, 553
Hisham ibn ‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, 552
Hisham II, 593
Hisn Kayfa, 852
Historians
Kindi, al-, 440-441
Maqrizi, al-, 478-479
Mas‘udi, al-, 482-483
Historiography, 825
History, 8-9, 791

History of al-Tabari, The, 645, 679
History of Baghdad, 437

History of Damascus and Its Environs, The, 351

History of India, 267

History of Prophets and Kings, 645, 754

History of Tabaristan, 825

History of the Rechabites, 29

Hitopadesa, 148

Hizb Allah, 595

Hizb al-Shaytan, 595

Holy Sepulchre Church, 413, 592

Homicide, 183

Homosexuality. 17

Honey, 204

Horary quadrant, 76

Horseracing, 768

Horses, 325-326, 565

Horticulture, 328-329

Hospitals, 146

House of Ibn ‘Awkal, 498

121

INDEX

House of Ka‘ba, 109
House of Wisdom, 450-451, 533
Houses, 330-331, 850
Hsi-Hsia, 512
Huda ibn ‘Ali, 55
Hudaybiyya, 597, 868
Hudna, 597-598
Hudud, 326

Hudud al-'Alam, 287, 548

Hujjat al-Siddiq li-Daf al-Zindiq , 665

Hulegu Khan, 82, 383, 510, 512, 541, 606

Hulm, 214

Humanism, 331-333

Humayun, 74, 333-335

Humor, 335-336

Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, 80, 117, 336-337, 578, 607, 610, 789, 827

Hungarians, 581

Hunting, 46, 337-339, 769

Huquq adami, 183

Huquq Allah, 145

Hurr ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi, al-. 175
hurra , 70

Husain, Mahdi, 353
Husain ibn al-Hasan, al-, 54
Husayn, al-, 109, 643, 875

Husayn ibn Ali, 94, 191, 196, 339-340, 434, 523, 613, 614. 736

Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi, al-, 569

Husayn ibn Rawh, al-, 501

Husayn Mosque, al-, 191

Husayniyah, 340

Husbands, 211-212

Hussein, Saddam, 434-435

Hutay, al-, 657

Hyderabad, 122

Hypostyle mosques, 519-520

Hypothesis ton planomenon , 647

Iamblichus, 615
Iasan Ibn Hud, al-, 547
‘Ibadat, 320
Ibadi Imamate, 575
Ibadis, 164, 341-342
Ibadiya, 436
Iberian Peninsula
description of, 154, 534, 585, 849
literature of, 682-683
Party Kingdoms, 593-595
Ibn ‘Abbad, 832
Ibn ‘Abbas, 54, 660, 706, 715
Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam. 192
Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih, 13, 394
Ibn Abi al-Dunya, 18, 199, 215
Ibn Abi 1-Hadid, 37
Ibn Abi Usaybi’a, 347, 827
Ibn Abi'l Dunya, 533
Ibn ‘Ad al-Wahhab, 309
Ibn Ajurrum, 300
Ibn al-Abbar, 309
Ibn al-‘Adim, 80, 341, 352
Ibn al-Althir, 342-343
Ibn al-‘Amid. 452
Ibn al-‘Arabi, 201, 592, 723
Ibn al-Ash‘ath, 99, 315

Ibn al-Athin, 168

Ibn al-Athir, 645, 690

Ibn al-‘Awwam al-Isbili, 23

Ibn al-Azraq, 436

Ibn al-Bawwab, 116, 135

Ibn al-Faqih, 285

Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani, 285

Ibn al-Farid, 201, 723, 753

Ibn al-Farra’, 486

Ibn al-Furat, 343, 869

Ibn al-Haj, 600

Ibn al-Hajib. 300

Ibn al-Hanafiyya, 500

Ibn al-Hawrani, 614

Ibn al-Haytham, 77, 80, 112, 288, 289, 343-344, 579
Ibn al-Hudhayl al-Garnati, 326

Ibn al-Jawzi, 111, 245, 335-336, 345-346, 633, 705, 742, 799

Ibn al-Jayyan, 33

Ibn al-Jazzar, 394

Ibn al-Khammar, 377

Ibn al-Khammar al-Hasan ibn Suwar, 828

Ibn al-Khatib, 33, 302

Ibn al-Mangli, 337

Ibn al-Muhallab, 99

Ibn al-Mujawir, 115, 287, 766

Ibn al-Munadi, 237

Ibn al-Muqaffa, 66, 80, 333, 346-347, 397, 432-433, 506,
583, 627, 823

Ibn al-Murabi‘ al-Azdi, 477
Ibn al-Murtada, 732

Ibn al-Nadim, 25, 115, 397, 426, 474, 577, 716, 827, 859

Ibn al-Nafis, 167, 347-349. 490

Ibn al-Qarih ‘Ali ibn Mansur “Dawkhala,” 7

Ibn al-Quff, 347

Ibn al-Rawandi, 268, 349

Ibn al-Samh, 377

Ibn al-Sarraj, 74, 300

Ibn al-Sha’ar al-Mawsili, 314

Ibn al-Shatir, 78

Ibn al-Washsha’, 177

Ibn al-Zubayr, 3, 214

Ibn ‘Ammar, 310

Ibn ‘Arab, 349-351

Ibn Arabi, 98, 299, 431, 612, 615, 620, 737
Ibn ‘Arafa, 211
Ibn Arafi, 290

Ibn Asakir, 220, 351-352, 867

Ibn ‘Ata‘ Allah, 31, 546

Ibn Babawayh, 35, 307, 352, 393-394

Ibn Babuya, 732

Ibn Badis, 115, 677

Ibn Bajja, 69, 78, 373, 503, 876

Ibn Basam, 394

Ibn Bassal, 328

Ibn Battuta, 15, 352-353, 440, 463, 479, 644, 832, 838

Ibn Buluqqin, 80

Ibn Butlan, 609

Ibn Ezra, 353-354

Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari, 138, 286

Ibn Fadlan, 286

Ibn Faris, 311

Ibn Gabirol, 355

Ibn Gulgul, 608

Ibn Hafsun, 4

Ibn Haggag al-Isbili, 23

122

INDEX

Ibn Hajar, 868

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, 111, 235, 236, 239, 676, 716
Ibn Hajj al-‘Abdari, 192
Ibn Hamdis, 355-356

Ibn Hanbal. 71, 207, 356-357, 403, 702, 715, 754, 791
Ibn Hawqal, 139, 286, 692
Ibn Hawshab Mansur al-Yaman, 404
Ibn Hayyan, 223

Ibn Hazm, 176, 594, 613, 640, 676
Ibn Hijji, 362

Ibn Hisham, 170, 300, 357, 868

Ibn Hubaysh, 859

Ibn Hud, 302

Ibn ‘Idhari, 649

Ibn Isfandiyar, 825

Ibn Ishaq, 157, 170, 357-358, 859

Ibn Iyas, 723

Ibn Jama'a, 780

Ibn Janah, 710

Ibn Jubayr, 287, 358, 832

Ibn Kalbi. 379

Ibn Kamma.na, 385

Ibn Kathir, 239, 362

Ibn Khaldun, 80, 140, 200, 201, 235, 286, 359, 469,

483, 495, 498, 503, 644, 712, 827
Ibn Khallikan, 826
Ibn Khayr, 716

Ibn Khurradadhbih, 285, 359-360, 817
Ibn Khuzayma, 809
Ibn Killis, 856

Ibn Mada’ al-Qurtubi, 300-301

Ibn Ma'dan al-Banna', 402

Ibn Maja, 307

Ibn Majah, 235

Ibn Majid, 556

Ibn Makula, 716

Ibn Malik, 300, 701

Ibn Mammati, 23

Ibn Mankali, 558

Ibn Manzur, 780

Ibn Mas‘ud, 660

Ibn Miskawayh, 615

Ibn Mujahid, 660

Ibn Muqla. 134-135

Ibn Nadim, 88

Ibn Naghrela, 361

Ibn Na'ima al-Himsi, 827

Ibn Naji, 649

Ibn Najib al-Dawla, 70, 111
Ibn Naziar al-Jaysh, 66
Ibn Nujaym, 187
Ibn Qadi Shuba, 362

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, 194, 199, 362-363, 372

Ibn Qutayba, 13, 46, 363-364, 617, 645, 679

Ibn Quzman, 364-365

Ibn Rabiya, 806

Ibn Ra’iq, 382

Ibn Rajab, 362

Ibn Ridwan, 80, 198

Ibn Rushd, 17, 69, 78, 176, 365-366, 503, 609, 612, 680, 811
Ibn Rushd al-Hafid, 38
Ibn Rustman, 341

Ibn Sa‘d. 110, 366-367, 859, 867-868

Ibn Sa’dan, 798

Ibn Sa‘id al-Maghribi, 286

Ibn Sallam, 867

Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi, 865

Ibn Sana’ al-Mulk, 394

Ibn Saqbel, 618

Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, 767

Ibn Shaddad, 368

Ibn Shahin, 369

Ibn Shahrashub, 733

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, 358

Ibn Shuhayd, 658

Ibn Sina

'Abd al-Latif ’s work with. 2

death and dying views, 198

description of, 69, 80, 112, 220, 369-370,

503, 670, 811
epic poetry, 229
ethical works by, 241
Farabi, al-’s influence on, 534
Ghazali, al- and, 293
optics-related works by, 579
pharmacology contributions by, 608
philosophy commentaries by, 611, 772
translations by, 825
Ibn Suraqa, 686

Ibn Suwar ibn al-Khammar, 503
Ibn Taghri Birdi, 371-372
Ibn Tashufin, 39
Ibn Tawus, 453

Ibn Taymiyya, 187, 192, 194, 214, 350, 372, 379, 395-396,
597, 614, 633, 640, 670, 676, 708, 780, 809
Ibn Tibbon, 822
Ibn Tufayl, 69, 372-373
Ibn Tulun, 273, 373-374, 517-518, 834
Ibn Tumart, 37, 105, 374-375
Ibn Umar, 660
Ibn ‘Umar, 54
Ibn ‘Uthman, 614
Ibn Wafid, 328
Ibn Wasil, 376
Ibn Wasmgir, 148
Ibn Yasin. 39
Ibn Yunus, 376-377
Ibn Zamrak, 33
Ibn Zaydun, 66, 308
Ibn Zubayr, 309
Ibn Zur‘a, 377-378
Ibnal-Kalbi, 326

Ibraham ibn Sayyar al-Nazzam, 25

Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah, 108

Ibrahim I, 19

Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, 19

Ibrahim ibn Musa al-Kazim, 54

Ibrahim ibn Sayyar al-Nazzam, 411

Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub, 286

Ibrahim II, 20

Ibrahim Lodi, 87

Ibrahim Rawza, 108

Ibrihim ibn Sinan, 289

‘Id al-Adha, 254

‘Id al-Fitr, 254, 295

‘Id al-Ghitas, 562

‘Id al-Saghir, al-, 254

‘Id al-salib, 556

‘Id al-Shahid, 562

Idah, al-, 680

123

INDEX

Ideology

description of, 391-392
Karaite, 433
Idolatry, 378-379
Idris ibn ‘Abd Allah, 381
Idris II, 257, 382
Idrisi, al-, 286, 379-381, 462
Idrisids, 105, 381-382
Ifiqiya, 497

Ifriqiyya, 19-20, 105, 309, 650
Iggerel ha-Shemmad, 459
Iggerel Kidush ha-Shem, 459
Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din , 166, 293, 498, 826
Ijaza, 201-203

Ijazat al-ifta’ wa’l-tadris, 202-203

Ijazat al-riwayah, 201

Ijazat al-sama‘, 201

Ijazat ‘ammah, 202

Ijma\ 403, 536

Ikhshidids, 382-383, 538, 835

Ikhtilaf al-Fuqalia’, 791

Ikhtilaf al-Hadith, 724

Ikhtilaf usul al-madhahib, 731

lkhtiyarat-i Badi'i , 490

Ikhwan al-Muslimin, 677

Ikhwan al-Safa. 118, 158, 615, 811

Ikhwat Yusuf, 274

Ilhan Basgoz, 262

Iliad, 230, 232

Ilig Nasr ibn, 121

Il-Kahn Abaka, 121

Ilkhan Abaqa, 666

Ilkhan Ghazan, 541

Ilkhan Oljeitu, 324

Ilkhan Tegtider, 541

Ilkhanate, 540

Ilkhanid Mongols, 508-510

Ilkhanids, 383-384, 572

Ilkhans, 102, 443, 606, 666

Ilkhan’s Book of Precious Knowledge, The , 490

Illiberris, 302

Illumination, 115-116

Illumination in Islamic Mysticism, 385

Illuminationism, 384-386

‘Ilm al-balagha, 679

Ilm al-hay’a, 77

‘Ilm al-huduri, al-, 385

‘Ilm al-huruf, 209

‘Ilm al-miqat, 376

‘Ilm al-nujum, 209-210

Iltutmish, 662, 674

Ilya, 413

Ima’ al-Shawa'ir, al-, 13, 866
‘Imad al-Dawla, 123

‘Imad al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Qara Arslan, 384
‘Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, 80
‘Imad al-Din Zanki, 27-28, 448, 539
Imam

‘Ali al-Rida, 438
description of, 299, 386-387
hierarchical access to, 501
Ja’far al-Sadiq as, 409-410
legal theory regarding, 626
Muhammad al-Baqir’s view of, 523-524
Muhammad ibn Abdallah, 553

Mustansir bi ‘Halt, al-, 521
tasks of, 410
Imam, al-, 1
Imam al-A‘zam, al-, 5
Imam ‘Ali, 725
Imam al-Mustansir, 70
Imam Malik, 54
Imam Muizz li-Din Allah, 84
Imam Musa al-Kazim, 35
Imamate, 132, 523, 575
Imami, 185
Imam-i Rabbani, 678
Imamquli Khan, 530
Imazighen, 104

Improvement of the Moral Qualities, 355
‘Imran ibn al-Fadl. 70
‘Inan, 866

Incoherence of the Incoherence, 366
Incoherence of the Philosophers, The , 293, 366, 611
Index, 716

Index of Books and Masters, 716
India, 387
Indian army, 148
Indian Ocean

description of, 555, 581
trade via, 816-818
Indian Peninsula, 850
Indian poetry, 619-621

Indications of the Inimit ability of the Qur’an, 426
Indus River, 751
Industrial Revolution, 581
Inferno, 243-244
Infidels, 321
Informal prayer, 637
Inheritance
definition of, 387
estate division, 389
heirs, 389

Islamic perspective of, 387-390
Western perspectives of, 389-390
Ink, 705

Inlay technique, 502
Inner Secrets of the Path, 42
Insan al-kamil, al-, 350
Insanity, 209, 497
Insights, 798
Intellectual history
definition of, 391
ideology, 391-392
practicality issues, 391
Intellectual humanism, 333
Interest, 852-853
Interfaith relations

with Christians, 393-395
daily level of, 394-395
description of, 393
domestic living patterns and, 396
early views of, 393
intellectual level of, 393-394
in late Middle Ages, 396
in religious practices, 395-396
theological views of, 393
Introduction to the Noble Religious Law, 396
Invocation, 637
Ionia, 604

124

INDEX

'Iqcl, al-, 13
Iqlim, 158
Iqta‘, 447-449, 599
Iqtibas, 657
Iqtisas, al-, 647-648
Iranian languages
classification of, 397
Dari, 398
description of, 397
developments in, 398
regional, 399

Iranian mosques, 520-521
Iraq

Aramaean settlement in, 60
conquest of, 59
Irbil festival, 256
‘Irfan, 37
Irfan Shahid, 590
Iron, 504

Irrigation, 277-278, 561, 800
Irshad, a /-, 428

Irshad al-Adhhan fi Ahkam al-Iman , 325
Irshad al-fuhul, 731

Irshad Man Naha ila Nawadir Julia, 426
Isa Bey, 52

‘Isa ibn Ishaq ibn Zur‘a, 827
‘Isa ibn Musa, 552-553
Isaac ben Solomon Israeli, 488
Isaac Ibn Ghiyath, 710
Isaac Judaeus, 488
Isbahani, al-, 534
Ischariot, Judas, 418
Isfahan, 399-401, 470, 688, 725
Isfahani, al-, 401-402, 617
Ishaq, 68

Ishaq ibn Hunayn, 647, 826, 827
Ishaq ibn Ibrahim. 402-403
Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Mawsili, 753
Ishara alila Mahasin al-Tijara, al-, 498
Isharat, al-, 840

Isharat fi ‘Ihn al-‘Iharat, al-, 215
Isharat wa-l-Tanbihat, al-, 840
Ishraqiyyun, 384-385
Isjalat al-‘adalah, 203
Isjazat al-ijtihad, 203
Iskandar ibn Umar Shaikh, 812
Iskandar II, 465
Islah, 675-678
Islah al-akhlaq, 355
Islam

in Abyssinia, 12
aesthetics, 103
apostasy, 47-49
in Arabia, 53
Buddhism and, 119-120
charity, 145-146
children as viewed by, 150
in China, 1 5 1
description of, 403-404
eschatological dogmas of, 404
Ethiopia and, 12

European literature representation of, 243-244
funerary practices of, 271
Hellenistic revival of, 394
inheritance system, 387-390

jinn in, 421
marriage, 480-481
messianism in, 500-501
in North Africa, 105
oral traditions of, 110
orthopraxis, 321
Persian influences on, 53
philosophy of, 612
popular literature and, 628-629
religious obligations associated with. 403-404
scriptural exegesis, 706-708
teachings of, 403-404
Turks conversion to, 837
Twelver ritual of, 94
Islamic palaces, 62-63
Islamization, 590
Isma'il, 33, 196, 581, 691
Isma'il I, 725

Isma'il ibn Ahmad, 121, 141

Isma'il ibn Naghrila, See Ibn Naghrela

Isma'il ibn Yusuf, 54

Isma'il II, 687, 725

Ismaili Shi’is, 225

Ismailis

‘Abdullah al-Mahdi, 250, 404-405
description of, 250
Fatimid period, 404-405
Mongol defeat of, 840
Musta'li, 405-406
Nizari, 406-407
Isma'iliyya, 132
‘Isn ibn ‘Ali, 377
Isnad, 307
Isogoge, 610
Israel, 418
Israeli, Isaac, 394
Israelites, 517
Isra’i-liyyat, 629
Istabl ‘Antar, 273
Istakhri, al-, 285, 286, 287
Istanbul

aqueducts of, 51
description of, 407
water sources in, 5 1
Istibdad, 172
Istibsar. al-, 732

Istibsar fi ma Ukhtulifa Fihi min al-Akhbar, al-, 839
Istitaba, 49
Istithna, 572

Ithaf al-sada al-muttaqin bi-sharh ihya’ 'ulum al-din, 166

I'tmad al-Dawla, 568

Ittihadiyya, al-. 350

Iussayn ibn ‘Ali, 168

Iwan, 331

Iznik, 144

‘Izz al-Dawla, 16, 95

‘Izz al-Din Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali, 368-369
‘Izz al-Din Abu al-‘Abbas ibn Ibrahim ibn ‘Umar
al-Faruthi al-Wasiti, 324

Jabal Akhdar, 713
Jabal al-Fatih. 295
Jabal Tariq, 294

125

INDEX

Jabariyya , 640
Jabi, 147
Jabiya, al-. 292
Jabr, al-, 3 1
Jacob ben Nissim, 369
Jacob ibn 'Awkal. 497
Jacob of Serugh, 789
Jacobite Church, 172
Jadal, al-, 610
Ja'far, 374
Ja'far al-Hajib. 80

Ja'far al-Sadiq, 404, 409-410, 460, 552, 559, 731, 737

Ja'far al-Tusi, 701

Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, 12

Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki, 114-115

Ja’fari madhhab. 409

Jahangir, 20-21, 24, 568, 589, 755

Jahangiri Mahal, 20

Jahiliyya, 596

Jahiz, al-, 13, 25, 206, 335, 411-412, 426, 507, 617,

658, 679, 763, 799, 824, 866
Jahm ibn Safwan, 639
Jahmiyya, 6, 410
Jahwarids, 176
Jala ad-Din Yaqut, 674-675
Jala al-Din al-Suyuti. 678-679
Jalal al-Asturlabi, 74

Jalal al-Din Abu ’Abd Allah al-Qazwini, 427

Jalal al-Din al-Dawwani, 241

Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli, 166

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, 166

Jalal al-din al-Suyuti. 201

Jalal al-Din Rumi, 290, 442

Jalal al-Hirmani, 74

Jalayirid dynasty, 585

Jamal al-Dawla, 90

Jamal al-Din al- Afghani, 677

Jamal al-Din Husayn ibn Ayaz al-Baghdadi al-Nahwi, 324

Jamhara f 'Ilm al-Bayzara , 337

Jamharat Asli'ar al-‘Arab , 260

Jami, 412, 622

Jami’ al-, 672

Jami' al-Asrar , 42

Jami' al-bayan , 707

Jami' al-mustaqsa fifada’il al-masjid al-aqsa, al-, 352

Jami' al-Muzaffar, 589

Jami al-Sahih, al-, 122, 536

Jami al-Tavarikh, 268, 272, 667

Jami’ ft al-Hadith, 476

Jamil ibn Ma'mar, 455

Jami'l-alfaz, 301

Jamuqa, 280

Janna, 328

Japheth ben Eli, 433, 709
Jar Allah al-Zamakhshari, 427
Jarir, 807
Jarkash, 155

Jarrahiyatu’l Khaniye, 783
Jarrahiyatu l-Haniya, 492
Jasmine Mosque, 591-592
Jausaq al-Khaqani, 587
Java, 412-413, 767
Javidan Khirad , 611
Jawami’ ’ilm al-Musiqa, 229
Jawasaq al-Khaqabi, 62

Jawhar ibn Ahmad, 830
Jawlan, al-, 292
Jawsaq al-Khaqani, al-, 695
Jawziyaa, al-, 362
Jaxartes, 837
Jayy, 399

Jazira, 448, 540-541
Jazirat Ibn 'Umar, 873
Jebe, 509
Jenne, 770
Jericho, 62
Jerusalem

Arab conquest of, 415
arabic documents from, 66
artist renditions of, 414
conquest of, 59

Dome of the Rock in. 154, 212-214. 415, 514, 845
Hadrian’s rebuilding of, 413
history of, 413-415
Islamic, 415
Karaites in. 433
Muhammad’s journey to, 415
pilgrimages to, 415
Saladin’s capture of, 358, 690
sanctity of, 413
word meaning of, 413
Jerusalem Liberated, 243
Jesting, 335

Jesus, 172, 192, 415-416
Jew(s)

baraka beliefs, 98
charity by, 146-148
education practices, 223-224
funerary practices by, 269-270
geniza, 282-283
Karaites, 433-434
marriage among, 481
medical literature, 487-488
merchants, 497-498
persecution of, 418
poverty among, 634-636
Qur’an references to, 107
respect for, 206
synagogues, 786-787
word origin of, 418
Yemenite, 547

Jewel-like Anecdotes, The, 364

Jewelry, 416-418

Jewish mysticism, 545-548

Jewish scriptural exegesis, 708-711

Jewish women, 861-863

Jhalawan, 713

Jihad

definition of, 418

description of, 132, 207, 418, 597

greater, 419

in hadith. 419

historical references to, 420

Islamic law view of, 419-420

lesser, 419

Qur’an references to, 418-419
Jihad: Arba’in fi al-ijtihad fi iqamat al-jihad, 352
Jin, 512
Jinayat, 183
Jinn, 420-421

126

INDEX

Jizya, 393

Jochid Khans, 541

John, St., 191

John of Damascus, 393

John of Ephesus, 292, 789

John the Baptist, 613

John VI Kantakouzenos, 580

Joking, 335

Jonah ibn Janah, 301

Jones, Sir William, 602

Joseph ben Judah Ibn ‘Aqnin, 223

Joseph ha-Yerushalmi, 710

Joseph ibn ‘Aqnin, 545

Joseph Ibn Waqar, 431

Josephus, Flavius, 269-270

Journal of al-Thaqafa, 677

Journey for Seeking Haclith, The , 714

Jubba, 259

Judah, 418

Judah al-Butini, 547

Judah al-Harizi, 314, 421, 618

Judah ha-Levi, 282, 318, 421-422

Judah Hayyuj, 302, 318, 710

Judah Ibn Bil'am, 710

Judah Ibn Malka, 431

Judah Ibn Tibbon. 422, 685

Judas, 418

Judeo-Arabic

definition of, 422-423
grammar, 301-302
Judges

in 'Abbasid dynasty, 424
appointment of. 424
decisions by, 425
early history of, 423-424
responsibilities of, 423
Umayyad Caliphs, 423-424
Judges, The , 440
Judhab, 204
Judicial astrology, 75
Jughrafiya, 285
Juha, 426
Julep, 683
Jullab, 683

Jumada ‘1-Akhira, 196
Jumada ‘1-Ula, 196
Jund Filastin, 590-591
Jund Urdunn, 591
Jurhum, 59

Jurisprudence schools, 187, 702-704
Jurjani, al-, 300, 426-427
Justinian

aqueducts built by, 51
description of, 81, 407, 615, 779
Juwayni, al-, 292, 428, 782

K. al-Muhaddab fi l-kuhl al-mugarrab , 348
K. al-Samil fi l-sina al-tibbiyya, 348
Kaaba, 420-431

Ka'ba, 55, 287, 403, 429-431, 514, 526, 529, 613, 686
Kabbala. 431-432
Kabbalists, 547
Kabira, 49

Kabul

description of, 87, 275
Humayun’s rule of, 334
Kaffara, 145, 572
Kafi, a /-, 443, 460, 505, 732
Kafi fi Ilm al-Din, a /-, 443
Kaftan, 161
Kafur, al-, 383
Kalala, al-, 389
Kalam, 544, 61 1
Kalbi, al-, 701
Kalbids, 744
Kalila and Dimna, 346

Kalita wa Dimna, 229, 432-433, 583, 789, 822

Kalilah wa-Dimmah, 506

Kamabolon ceremony, 467

Kamal al-Din, 579

Kamal al-Din Bihzad, 585

Kamal al-Din Musa ibn Yunus al-Shafi’i, 840

Kamil fi al-ta'rikh, al-, 342

Kamil Muhammad, al-. 540

Kamkha, 181

Kandahar

description of, 194
Humayun’s rule of, 334
Kanem, 770

Kankan Musa, See Mansa Musa

Kanz al-Fawa’id fi Tanwi’ al-Mama ’id, 683

Kara Khitay, 121, 694

Karagoz, 262-263

Karaite community, 282

Karaites. 423, 433-434, 709-710

Karaji, al-, 32

Karbala, 339, 434-435

Karimi, 768

Karirak ud Damanak, 432
Karkh, al-, 696
Kart dynasty, 573
Kasb, 640
Kashf al-Asrar, 396
Kashf al-Mahanij, 366
Kashf al-wajh, 635

Kashf wa-l-bayan ’an tafsir al-Qur’an, al-. 166

Kashka Darya, 828

Kashkul, al-, 14

Kashshaf al-, 544

Kathiris, 871

Katib, al-, 358, 506

Katibi al-Qazwini, al-, 324

Katwan, 694

Kawamikh, 768

Kawkaw, 291

Kay Khosrow I, 442

Kay Khosrow II, 442

Kay Khusraw, 384

Kayrawan, 649

Keter, 431

Key to the Locks of the Talmud, A, 369

Keys to the Unknown, The, 670

Khabar, 831

Khabar al-wahid, 703

Khabisa, 204

Khadija, 167, 526-527

Khadim. 242

Khalaf al-Ahmar, 10

127

INDEX

Khalaf Ibn Abi Firas, 820

Khalid ibn al-Walid, 55, 292, 435

Khalid ibn Yazid, 450

Khalifa, 130

Khalifat Ahi Bakr , 130

Khalifat Allah, 132

Khalifat khalifat rasul Allah, 130

Khalifat Rasul Allah, 130

Khalil, al-, 57, 363

Khalil al-Rahman, al-, 318-319

Khalil ibn Ahmad, al-, 454, 533

Khalil ibn Aybak al-Safadi, 208-209

Khalji dynasty, 663

Khamr, 860

Khamra, 860

Khamriyya, al-, 844

Khamseh, 560

Khan, 814

Khanqah, 256

Khansa’, al-, 865-866

Khaqan, 814

Kharidat al-'aja’ib wafaridat al-ghara’ib. 139

Kharij shurut al-masha’ikh, 194

Kharijis, 49, 164, 435-436

Kharijism, 105

Kharijites, 341, 625

Kharput, 384

Kharragan, 589

Khasi, 242

Khataba, al-, 679

Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-, 6, 62, 1 1 1, 437, 714
Khattab ibn al-Hasan al-Hamdani, al-, 777
Khattab ibn al-Hasan ibn Abi '1-Haffaz al-Hamdani, al-, 70
Khattabi, al-, 658
Khatun, 121
Khavarannameh , 234
Khawarij, 171
Khawarizimi. al-, 561
Khazaf, 143
Khidr, 29
Khil’a. 160, 181
Khilafa, 130
Khirbat al-Maf]ar
bathhouse at, 516
description of, 62, 711
gardens at, 277
Khirbat al-Minya, 514
Khitan, 156-157
Khitan Liao dynasty, 747
Khittat al-Hamra al-quswa, 273
Khizanat al-Adab, 1 3
Khizanat al-kutub, 450
Khizr, 629
Khojas, 406

Khorasan, 603, 621, 829
Khosrow Anoshirvan, 697
Khosrow I, 148

Khosrow o Shirin. Leili o Majnun, Haft Paykar, 621
Khousro I, 88
Khubayb ibn ‘Adiyy, 197
Khubz, 447

Khudabandah, 687, 725
Khujandi. al-, 74
Khul‘, 211-212
Khulafa al-Rashidin, al-, 667

Khulasat al-Aqwal ft ma’ Rifat al-Rijal, 325
Khuld, al-, 92
Khumarawayh, 834

Khurasan, 8, 319, 437-438, 605-606, 746, 838

Khurramiyya, 403

Khushk-nanaj, 204

Khusrau Shah, 294

Khusraw I Anushiravan, 62

Khusraw Parviz, 712

Khusraw-Nama, 79

Khuwarizmi, al-, 158

Khuza'a, 141

Khuza’i, Ahmad ibn Nasr, 438-439
Khuzi, 397

Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, 773

Khwaja Mahmud Gawan, 108

Khwaja Mu'in al-Din, 152

Khwaja Mu'in al-Din Hasan Sijzi, 152

Khwaju Kirmani, 585

Khwarazm, 829

Khwarazm Shah, 280, 694

Khwarazm-Shah ’Ala' al-Din Muhammad, 540

Khwarazm-shah Jalal al-Din, 508

Khwarazm-Shahs, 112-113,458

Khwarizimi, al-, 76, 77, 139, 285, 483, 567

Khwarizmshah’s Treasure, The, 489

Kiddushin, 481

Kidushin, 861

Kifayat al-Abidin, 546

Kihtiyar ad-Din Altuniya, 675

Kilim, 136

Kilwa, 438-439

Kimiya-yi sa’Adat, 826

Kindi, al- (historian), 68, 220, 440-441, 503, 534, 579, 615, 622

Kindi, al- (philosopher), 441

King Nuh, 453

King Solomon, 418

Kirman, 719

Kirmani. al-, 441-442, 615
Kisa’i, al-, 645
Kishvars, 158, 285
Kitab. al-, 455, 732
Kitab Adab al-Khatib, 680

Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun wa-al-Niza' Bayna Ahliha, 820

Kitab al-Abniya 'an laqa ’iq al-Adwiya, 489

Kitab al-Adwar, 534

Kitab al-af'al dhawat huruf al-lin, 301

Kitab al-Aghani, 13, 272, 532, 534

Kitab al-Amanat, 422

Kitab al-amanat waTi'tiqadat, 685

Kitab al-Arba’a, 648

Kitab al-Atwdl Wa-‘l-urud li-‘l-Furs, 483

Kitab al-'Ayn , 455

Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin, 679

Kitab al-buldan, 138

Kitab al-Dar, 859

Kitab al-Diryaq, 178

Kitab al-Fakhri, 825

Kitab al-faraj ba ‘d al-shidda, 369

Kitab al-Fawa’id Fi Usui ‘ilm al-Bahr wa-l-Qawa'id, 556

Kitab al-Filaha, 23, 326

Kitab al-Filaha am-Nabatiyya, 329

Kitab al-Filaha ar-Rumiyya, 329

Kitab al-fiqh al-akbar, 166

Kitab al-Ghur aba’, 18

128

INDEX

Kitab al-Hadaya wa’l-Tuhaf 296
Kitab al-Hayawan, 46, 260, 326, 411, 612
Kitab al-Hind, 387
Kitab al-Hudud, 370, 811
Kitab al-'Ibar , 359
Kitab al-Ibil, 46
Kitab al-Ifada wa-l-I'tibar , 3
Kitab al-Isharat ila Ma'rifat al-Ziyarat, 313, 614
Kitab al-isharat wa 'l-tanbihat, 167, 370
Kitab al-Jami'i fi-al-Adviyatu al-Mufrada , 492
Kitab al-Jana’iz, 198, 271
Kitab al-Kliail, 46
Kitab al-Kliaraj , 626
Kitab al-Khayl, 326
Kitab al-Khayr al-Mahd, 6 1 5
Kitab al-Khazari, 422
Kitab al-lahw wa I-malahi , 360
Kitab al-luma 301
Kitab al-Maghazi, 357, 754, 859
Kitab al-Manam, 18, 215
Kitab al-Manazir , 344, 722, 811
Kitab al-Manshurat: Sections, 648
Kitab al-Masalik wa l-Mamalik, 139, 359
Kitab al-Masayid as-l-Matarid, 337
Kitab al-Mawdu at, 245
Kitab al-mugni fi’l-filaha, 23
Kitab al-muhadara wa-l-mudhakara, 618
Kitab al-Muhadhdhab fi 'l-kuhl, 578
Kitab al-Muqaffa al-Kabir, 440
Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir, 534
Kitab al-muwashsha’ aw al-zarf wa-l-zurafa' , 161
Kitab al-muwazana bayn al-lugha al- ‘ibraniyya wal- ‘arabiyya,
Kitab al-nafs, 370
Kitab al-najat, 369
Kitab al-qanun fi’l-tibb, 370
Kitab al-Qubur, 18

Kitab al-Qussas wa’I-Mudltakkirin, 680
Kitab al-Rawdatayn fi Akhbar al-Dawlatayn
al-Nuriyya wa-l-Salahiyya, 1 1
Kitab al-Saydalah, 118
Kitab al-Sha, 46
Kitab al-Shifa ’, 167, 369
Kitab al-shi’r wa’l-shu'ara, 364
Kitab al-Sira al-Falsafiyya, 67 1
Kitab al-Siyasa al-Madaniyya, 840
Kitab al-Suluk li-Ma 'rifat Duwal wa-al-MuIuk, 371
Kitab al-Tafhim, 825
Kitab al-Taj, 507
Kitab al-taklif, 36
Kitab al-Tamyiz, 537
Kitab al-Tanbib wa-l-ishraf, 138, 483
Kitab al-Umm, 724, 786
Kitab al-usul, 301
Kitab al- Wuhush, 46
Kitab al-Zumurrud, 522
Kitab Fada’H al-Qur’an, 659
Kitab fasih lughat al-'ibraniyyin, 301
Kitab fi Agani Ziryab, 875
Kitab Fildhat al-Ard, 329
Kitab ghara'ib al-funun wa mulah al-'uyun, 138
Kitab hikat al-ishraq, 384

Kitab Hilyat al-Fursan wa-Shi'ar al-Shuj‘an, 326
Kitab khass al-khass, 705
Kitab ma 'Alim al-Kitaba, 66
Kitab ma ba'd al-tabi’a, 3

Kitab mu ‘jam al-bldan, 139-140

Kitab Rujjar, 380

Kitab Sibawayhi, 300, 741

Kitab sirat rasul Allah, 754

Kitab surat al-ard, 139

Kitab Uqlidus fi ikhtilaf al-manazir, 579

Kitab usul al-ahi'r al-'ibrani, 301, 618

Kitab-i bahriye, 140

Kitabiyyun, 598

Kitab-khana, 450

Kitab-l Dede, 251

Kitab-I djarrahnama, 783

Kitdbu Aazzi ma yutlab, 375

Kitbuqa, 83

Kiya el-Herras, 374

Knights of the Templar order, 50

Knowledge of the Spiritually Learned, The, 776

Knowledge seeking, 714-716

Konya, 442-443

Ku‘ayba bint Sa’d al-Aslanriyya, 868
Kubiak, Wladyslaw, 273
Kuchlug, 280

Kufa, 5, 304, 339, 443-444

Kufans, 300

Kufi, al-, 707

Kufr, 49

Kuhl, 177

Kuhlafa’ al-rashidun, 573
Kulayni, al-, 94, 307, 352, 443, 460, 839
Kulliye, 407
Kunafa, 204

301 Kurdish. 444-445

Kurds, 445
Kushnameh, 234
Kutama Berbers, 250
Kutham Ibn ‘Abbas, 693
Kutham ibn al- ‘Abbas, 694
Kuttab, 641
Kutub al-Lugha, 685
Kutubi, al-, 547
Kutuphane, 450
Kuzari, 282

La Celestina, 683
La Chanson de Roland, 243
Ladder of Ascension, 547
Ladli Begam, 568
Lahore, 90-92
Lajjun, 682
Lake Beysehir, 62
Lake Chad, 770
Lake Tiberias, 682
Lakhmids, 292
Lai Kot, 661

La‘l Shahbaz Qalandar, 751-752
Lala Mustafa Pasha, 189
Lama' at, 774

Lamak ibn Malik al-Hammadi, 522, 777
Lamp of Illumination, 505
Land tenure and ownership, 447-449
Languages
Arabic, 56-58, 361
Aramaic, 61

129

INDEX

Languages ( continued )

Berber, 103-104
Coptic, 172-173
Dari, 397-398
grammar, 299-301
Hebrew, 317-318
Iranian, 397-399
Judeo-Arabic, 283, 422-423
Kurdish, 444

Persian. 397-399, 602-603, 692-693
romance, 682-683
Syriac, 789

Lanson, Gustave, 200
Large Book on Music , 247
Lashkari Bazarin, 62
Last Judgment, 220
Lata'if al-Minan, 807
Late Aramaic, 61
Law

description of, 449
Genghis Khan’s creation of, 281
Hadith as basis for, 307
history of, 702-704
Imami, 731-732
Islamic, 409-410, 449
Jihad as viewed by, 419-420
license to teach, 203
madrasas for education in, 457
Maliki, 187, 702-703, 758-759
Sadiq, al-’s contributions to, 409-410
schools of jurisprudence, 702-704
Shafi’i, 486, 703
Shi’i, 731-732
Law of Slavery, 759
Lawami' al-bayyinat shark , 166
Lawzinaj, 204
Layali al-wuqud, 254
Layla al-Akhyaliyya, 866
Laylat al-Qadr, 196
Learners ’ Guidance to Medicine , 489
Leather bindings, 1 1 5
Legal humanism, 332
Legal opinions, license to issue, 203
Legal theories of politics, 626
Legend of Alexander , 260
Leo III, 125
Leo VI, 557
Lepers, 209
Leprosy, 209
Lesbian activities, 17
Letter of Forgiveness , 7
Letter of Tansar, The, 346
Letter of the Neighing and the Braying, 7
Letter of the Sanctification of the Divine Name, 459
Letter on Forced Conversion, 459
Liher Abaci, 567
Liber Alsaharavi de cirurgia, 783
Liber de causis, 615
Liber Regius, 46 1
Libraries

in Baghdad, 222, 452-453
bibliophiles’ collections, 452-453
in Bukhara, 692
Buyids, 451-452
Fatimid, 450

history of, 450
House of Wisdom, 450-451
listing of. 452
Mansuriyya, 450

of Qayrawan mosque in Tunisia, 450
scholar, 452-453
Spanish Umayyad, 450
Sultan Mahmut. 189
License of audition, 201
License of transmission, 201
License to issue legal opinions, 203
License to teach law, 203
Life of the Hearts, The, 460
Life of the Prophet, The, 357
Light of the Eyes, 489

Lights to Illuminate the Proof of the Imamate, 442

Linguistics, 454-455, 685

Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib al-Gharnati, 385

Lisan al-jawiyya al-samutra’iyya, a!-, 767

Lisan al-mizan, 111

Litanies, 637

Literary Expression of the Qur'an, The, 701
Literary humanism, 332
Literary theory, 658-659
Literature

Arabic, 657-659
Castilian, 683
European, 243
excellenes, 244-245
folk, 260-263
Iberian, 682-683
medical. See Medical literature
Persian, 294, 605
popular, 628-631
Sasanians, 697
Southeast Asia, 766-767
Syriac, 789
Turkish, 294
Little Canon, 490
Liu Zhi, 151
Lives, 688-689
Livestock, 259

Living the Son of Awakened, 372
Lodi dynasty, 564
Loincloth, 159
Lombard, Maurice, 802
Lord of Nayruz, The, 807
Louis IX, 650
Love, 279

Love poetry, 455-456
Lubab al-albab, 692
Luban Jawi, 463
Lum'a, a!-, 732
Lunar calendar, 485
Luqaymat al-qadi, 204
Lurya, Isaac, 547
Lusignans, 188
Lust, 280

Lustre-painted ceramics, 144
Lutfallah Maysi, 725

Ma Laichi, 151
Ma Mingxin, 151

130

INDEX

Mu' a al-anbiya’ fi-l-Qur’an al-karim, 645
Ma'ani al-Qur’an, 166
Ma’arra, 6

Ma’arrat al-Nu’man, 6
Ma’am, al-, 616

Maasim al-Huda wa’I-Isaba fi Tafdil 'AH 'ala al-Sahaba, 442

Ma’bad al-Juhani, 639

Ma’bar, al-, 817

Macedonian dynasty, 126

Mada’in, 604

Madarij al-salikin, 363

Madhhab, 425, 573, 702

Madhhab ahl al-bayt, 524

Madlmmalati, 620

Ma 'din al-Shifa-yi Sikandar-Shahi , 490
Madina, al-, 551-552, 786
Madina al-Fadila, al-, 615
Madinat al-Nabi, 228
Madinal al-Salam, 92
Madinat al-Zahira, 176
Madinat al-Zahra, 4, 62. 176, 277
Madkhal al-Shar' al-Sharif 396
Madrasa
in Aleppo, 28
definition of, 457
description of, 11, 206, 351, 663
history of, 457
Madrasa al-Mutabiya‘, 589
Madrasah sayyarah, 573
Madrasahs, 764
Maghili, al-, 764
Maghrib

description of, 105
Ibadis in, 341
Maghrib, al-, 381
Magic square, 485
Maglova Aqueduct, 51-52
Magog, 239, 548
Magra-El-Oyon aqueduct, 51
Mahabharata, 24, 432
Mahalle, 182
Mahalli, al-, 466
Mahani. al-, 32, 289
Mahbarot ’Itti’el, 314
Mahdi, 500

Mahdi, al-. 1, 105, 224, 238, 250, 314, 393. 424, 516, 752

Mahdi Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Murtada, al-, 731

Mahdids, 70

Mahdiyya, al-, 356

Mahmal palanquins, 642

Mahmud Abr al-Qadir Abu '1-Mafakhir, 413

Mahmud al-Kashghari, 287

Mahmud Caghmini. 490

Mahmud ibn ‘Umar al-Zamakhshari, 878

Mahmud of Ghazna, 8, 458

Mahmud Shabistari, 584

Mahmud Shah, 464

Mahmud Shaltut, 677

Mahmud-al-Kati, 459

Mahoye, 141

Mahr, 647

Maimonides

'Abd al-Latif s work with, 2
biographical information about, 459-460
description of. 176, 431, 488, 710, 807

Majalis al-hikma, 405
Majapahit, 412-413, 464
Majbub, 242

Majd al-Din Baghdadi, 78

Majd al-Din Isma'il ibn Yahya ibn Isma’il al-Fali, 666
Majd al-Sallami, al-, 541
Majdhub, 209
Majhulun, 111
Majilis, 171, 762-763
Majilis al-Hikma, 3 1 1
Majima' al-Bahrayn, 195
Majlisi, al-, 460
Majnun Laila, 496
Majuaddid al-din, 678-679
Majusi, al-, 461
Makhzan al-Asrar, 560
Makhzumite dynasty, 12
Makkah, 765
Makramat Khan, 793
Makran, 525
Makrizi, al-, 647
Maktab, 146
Maktaba, 450
Mala’, 171
Malacca. 412, 818
Malacca Sultanate, 464-465
Malamatis, 633
Malay, 766-767
Malay Peninsula
Aceh, 465-466
early knowledge of, 461-462
Java, 463-464
Malacca Sultanate, 464-465
spices, 463-464
trade in, 461-462
Male servants, 242-243
Mali, 770

Mali Empire, 466-467
Malik al-‘Adil, al-, 742

Malik al-‘Adil Sayf al-Din Abu Bakr Muhammad, al-, 84

Malik al-Afadl ‘Ali, al-, 368

Malik al-Ashraf Musa, al-, 84

Malik al-Kmail Muhammad, al-, 84

Malik al-Mansur Qalawun, al-, 472

Malik al-Mu’ayyad, al-, 396

Malik al-Mu’azzam ‘Isa, al-, 84

Malik al-Mu’azzam Turanshah, al-, 84

Malik al-Nasir Da’ud, al-, 743

Malik al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun, al-, 472

Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Dih Yusuf ibn Ayyub, al-, 83

Malik al-Nasir Yusuf II, al-, 28

Malik al-Salih, 463

Malik al-Salih Ayyub, al-, 84, 226, 470. 472
Malik al-Zahir, al-, 28, 463
Malik al-Zahir Baybars, al-, 232
Malik ibn al-Fariqi, 622

Malik ibn Anas, 49, 187, 203, 468-469, 552, 702, 878

Malik ibn Dinar, 71

Malik Muhammad Jaisi, 620

Malikat al-muslimin, 730

Maliki ibn al-Hajj al-‘Abdari, 256

Maliki jurists, 39

Maliki law, 187, 702-703, 758-759
Malikis, 447
Malikism, 469

131

INDEX

Malikshah

description of, 123, 469-470, 719, 856
Isfahan during reign of, 400
Malkhuth, 431
Ma'mar ibn Rashid, 701
Mamluk dynasty

‘Ayn Jalut battle, 82-83

Azhar, al-, under, 85

Bahri, 516

in Cairo, 331

Copts during, 174-175

court dress during, 180-181

dhimmis during, 206

in Egypt, 226-227

epics during, 232

glassware during, 298

Hijaz during, 54-55

history of, 470-472

metalworkers in, 502

military processions, 643-644

Mongols and, 510-511

polo games during, 769

road improvements during, 682

Salihi, 472

in Syria, 472, 788

Mamluk Sultanate, 226-227, 470-472
Mamluk Sultans
Baybars I, 101-102
colors worn by. 180-181
description of, 155
Qutuz, 82, 101, 541
Mamuks, 131
Ma’mun, al-

Abu Tammam’s work with, 1 1
biography of, 473

description of, 1-2, 110, 116, 141, 255, 367, 473, 544, 678
Dome of Rock inscription, 212-213
Inquisition by, 356

Ishaq ibn Ibrahim’s interactions with, 402
Jahiz, al- and, 411
marriage ceremony for, 295
Rida, al-. and, 35
Sunni revival, 782
Man 'Asha Ba'da al-Mawt, 18
Man la Yahdaruhu al-Faqih, 352
Ma'na, 569
Manaeh al-Hiwan, 46
Manafi'un-Nas, 492
Manakh, 158
Manam, 214
Manamat, 214
Manaqib Abi Hanifa , 6
Manar, a /-, 677
Manazil al-sa ‘irin, 363
Manbudh, 759
Mande, 467
Mandil, 159
Mandub, 171
Manfred, 376

Manhal al-Safi wa al-Mustawfi ba‘d al-Wafi, al -, 371
Ma'ni, 217
Mani, 263
Manliness, 153

Manners and Customs of the Modem Egyptians , 723
Manqalah, 275

Manqib ash'ariyya, 351
Mansa Musa, 466, 474, 764
Mansour, al-, 552
Mansur, al-

achievements by, 1
Baghdad founding by, 641
court dress introduced by, 178
description of, 92, 131, 765
espionage by, 240
House of Wisdom under, 451
Ibn al-Muqaffa”s letter to, 346
Malik ibn Anas and. 468
reign of, 250
Mansur I, 824

Mansur ibn Abi ‘Amir, al-, 176
Mansur ibn Muhammad, 490
Mansur Qalawun, al-, 146, 347
Mansur Ya’qub ibn Yusuf, al-, 51
Mansuriyya, al-, 129
Mansuriyya library, 450
Manteq a / Tayr, 621
"Mantiq al-Tayr,” 79
Manuel, Don Juan, 683
Manumission, 758-759
Manuscripts, 474-476, 704-705
Manzikert, 476-477
Maps

by Idrisi, 380-381
T-O, 138
traditions, 140
Maqala al-Iawdiyya, al-, 546
Maqam, 429
Maqama, 477-478, 618
Maqamah, 311

Maqamah al-Madiriyyah, al-, 312
Maqamat , 116, 167, 532, 585
Maqamat al-Hariri, 178
Maqasid al-Falasifa, 825
Maqbarat al-Bab al-Saghir, 192
Maqbarat al-rabad, 175
Maqqari, al-, 201, 478

Maqrizi, al-, 201, 448, 478-479, 561, 633, 641

Maqsud Hirawi, 74

Maqsuras, 272

Maragheh, 383

Maratib al-'Ulum, 223

Mardin, 384

Ma'rifa, 299

Marinid Marocco, 34

Marinids

capture of Gibraltar by, 295
history of, 479
reign of, 105
Marj Dabiq, 319, 788
Marj Rahit, 292
Mark, St., 173
Markets, 479-480
Marmara Sea, 556
Marrakech

‘Abd al-Mu’min’s conquer of, 37
aqueducts for, 51
Ibn Tumart in. 375
Marriage

Islamic, 480-481
Jewish, 481

132

INDEX

legal dissolution of, 211-212
Muhammad’s encouragement for, 279
Qur’an references to, 279, 480
by slaves, 759
Martel, Charles, 267
Martyr(s)

classification as, 197
death of, 197
Martyrdom, 481-482
Martyriums, 213
Ma'ruf, 164
Marv, 141
Marw, 438
Marwan I, 847
Marwan ibn al-Hakam, 224
Marwan ibn Muhammad, al-, 858
Marwanids, 4, 445
Mary, 192, 279
Maryam, 661
Marzaban, 141

Masabih fi Ithbat al-Imama, 442

Masa’il fi l-Oibb, al-, 347

Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar, 138

Masalik wa l-Mamalik , 95, 285

Mash ‘ala'l khuffayn, al-, 524

Masha’allah, 75

Mashhad, 35-36, 438, 838

Mashura, 171

Mashwara, 171

Masjid, 518

Masjid al-Aqsa, al-, See Aqsa
Masjid al-haram, 487
Masjid-i Jum‘a, 400-401
Masjid-i Shah, 400, 521
Masnavi-e Ma’navi, 621
Masqsura, 519
Masruq ibn al-Ajda‘, 482
Massacre of the Innocents, 192
Massignon, Louis, 719
Mastur, 635
Mas’ud, 294

Mas’ud ibn al-Kamil, al-, 668
Mas’ud II, 873
Mas’ud Sa’d, 228
Mas’ud Sa’d Salman, 619
Mas’udi, al-, 14, 268, 285-286, 399, 482-483,
556, 645

Mas'udic Canon, 113
Matbaq prison, 641
Mater, 73
Mathal, 577
Mathal al-Sa'ir, al-, 229
Mathematical geography, 483-484
Mathematicians, 288-289, 484-485
Mathematics
Islamic, 484-485
manuscripts regarding, 484
by Sasanians, 697-698
Mathnawis, 585
Matira, al-, 696
Matn. 307

Matta ibn Yunis, 229
Matthew I, 689
Maturidi, al-, 640
Ma’turidis, 241

Maudud Shah ibn Ala al-Din, 666
Maulana Daud, 620
Mauss, Marcel, 295-296
Mawali, 131
Ma-wara al-nahr, 694
Mawardi, al-. 132, 206, 486, 780
Mawlana Rumi, 78
Mawlid al-Nabi, 255, 642
Mawlid festivals, 255-256
Mawsil, 573
Maydan-i Kuhna, 401
Maydan-i Naqsh-i Jahan, 401
Maysara, 436
Maysir, 275
Mayyafariqin, 540
Mazdesnan, 877
Mazul Kemer Aqueduct, 5 1
Meadows of Gold, The, 14, 268
Mecca, 526

Companions in, 167
description of, 487
hajj in, 429
markets in, 479-480

Muhammad’s emigration from, 109, 228, 429, 494
pilgrimage to, 642
precincts of, 487
Meccan Qur’an, 44-45
Meccan Revolutions, 349
Medain Saleh, 681
Medical charity, 147
Medical literature
Hebrew, 487-488
Persian, 488-490
Syrian, 491
Turkish, 491-492
Medieval Arabic archives, 66
Medina

Bilal al-Habashi in, 109
Constitution of, 170-171, 228, 528, 535, 596
description of, 35-36, 45, 53, 492. 494
economy of, 528
illustration of, 493
Muhammad in, 109, 170, 528
‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz in, 843
Medinan polity, 170
Medinans, 874
Mediterranean Sea

description of, 494-495, 556
trade via, 818-821
Mehmed I, 520, 580
Mehmed ibn Mahmud, 492
Mehmed II, 856

description of, 63, 65, 82, 581, 813
in Istanbul, 407
Topkapi Saray palace of, 330
Mehmet II, 210, 589
Meknes, 713

Memoirs of al-Harawi on the Stratagems
of War, 313

Menahem Ben Saruq, 618, 710
Menahem ibn Saruq, 302
Menakibnames, 262
Menhuan, 151
Mental illness, 209, 496-497
Merchant and the Genie, The, 577

133

INDEX

Merchants

Jewish. 497-498
Muslim, 498-499
Merits of Ascalon, The , 352
Mesih Mehmet Pasha Mosque, 751
Messianism, 500-501
Metalwork, 501-502
Metaphysics , 68, 827
Meteorology, 502-503
Meteorology, 67, 502, 504
Method of Mechanical Theorems, 289
Mez, Adam, 394
Mezonot, 147
M.F. Abu Hadid, 230
Michael VIII Palaeologus, 102, 126
Middle Ages

Hebrew poetry in, 618
interfaith relations in, 396
Khurasan in, 438
manuscripts in, 475
slavery during, 757
Middle Arabic, 58
Middle Aramaic, 61
Middle East

Arab-Muslim conquest of, 590
Aramaic language use in, 61
weather in, 859-860
Middle Persian, 397, 602
Midrash, 645, 709
Midrashim, 710

Mihna Inquisition, 402-403, 424, 438

Mihnah, 473

Mihrab, 401, 519

Mihrimah Sultana, 51

Mihrunnisa, See Nur Jahan

Mika’il, 45

Milaha, 555

Military architecture, 64-65

Military Campaigns of the Prophet, The, 715

Military matry, 482

Military processions, 643-644

Military slavery, 755-757

Milk, 106

Milky Way, 502-503

Mill technology, 799-801

Millefiori, 298

Mina’i, 144

Minar, 662-663

Minaret, 519

Minbar, 272, 519

Minerals, 503-504

Ming Dynasty, 818

Mingling of the Two Oceans, The, 195

Minhaj al-Bidagha' wa-Siraj al-Udaha', 229

Miniature paintings, 583-586

Mining, 504-505

Minor Feast, 254

Miqattah, 705

Mir ‘Ali Shir, 585

Mir Damad, 43, 505-506, 530, 737

Mir Muhammad Taqi, 80

Miracles, 688-689

Mirador of Lindaraja, 33

Mi’raj al-'ashiqin, 291

Mir ’at al-nm'min, 767

Mir 'at al-tullab, 767
Mir ’at al-zaman fi ta’rikh al-a’yan, 743
Mirdasid dynasty, 27
Mirimah Sultan Mosque, 750
Mirror of Time in the Matter of the History of
Notables, The, 743
Mirrors for Princes, 506-507
Mirsad al-Ibad, 120, 151
Misery, 771
Mishkat al-anwar, 293
Mishneh Torah, 223, 459
Miskawayh, 241, 377, 448, 599, 611
Miskawayhi, 332
Miyan Mir, 195
Miyyara, 187
Mizzi, al-, 1 1 1
Modern Aramaic, 61
Moheet, al-, 104
Monasticism, 507-508
Money changers, 508
Mongke, 82, 383
Mongols

‘Abbasid caliphs execution by, 1

Aleppo rule by, 28

ambassadors, 207-208

army of, 508-5 1 1

‘Ayn Jalut battle, 82-83, 225

in Baghdad, 59, 304

Baiju Noyen, 442

during Baybars’ reign, 102

Bukhara affected by, 121

Chaghatais, 513

in China, 151, 512

composite bow used by, 510

definition of, 511

espionage tactics used by, 510

Genghis Khan, 142, 280-282, 508-512, 540

history of, 511-513

Ilkhanid, 508-510

in Iran, 383, 878

in Isfahan, 401

in Java, 412

Jin campaign by, 512

in Khurasan, 319

Mamluks and, 510-511

Muslims and, 540-542

Nizari Ismaili state destroyed by, 406

Rashid al-Din, 666-667

reputation of, 513

Silk Roads, 748

successor states after decline of, 512
warfare, 508-511
Monorhyme, 229
Monotheistic theology, 68
Months, 196

Monumental painting, 586-589
Monuments of the Lands and the Annals of
Servants, The, 651-653
Moravids, al-, 104
Moriscos, 43-44
Morocco, 765
Mosaics, 514-516
Moses, 29, 192, 517
Moses ben Maimon, See Maimonides
Moses Ibn Chiquitilla, 710

134

INDEX

Moses Ibn Ezra, 354-355, 422, 618, 710
Moses Maimonides, 223, 394, 546, 710
Mosques
Agha Cafer, 189
of al-Hakim, 643
‘Amr, 273

Andalusiyyin, al-, 382

Aqmar, al-, 480

Aqsa, al-, 50, 212, 415

Arab-style, 519

architecture of, 103

Azhar, al-. 130, 451

Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, 90-92

Beyhekim, 515

church conversion to, 176

at Cordoba, 520

dynastic diversity of, 519-521

Edirnekapi, 750

Fatih Pasha, 750

features of, 518-519

functions of, 518-519

Great Mosque at Samarra, 520

Great Mosque in Damascus, 520

Great Mosque of Qayrawan, 19, 650-651

Husayn, al-, 191

hypostyle, 519-520

of Ibn Tulun, 517-518

Iranian, 520-521

Jasmine, 591-592

masqsura in, 519

Mesih Mehmet Pasha, 751

mihrab in. 519

minaret in, 519

minbar in. 519

Mirimah Sultan, 750

origin of, 518

Pattar, 569

of the Prophet, 515

Qaraqiyyin, 450

Qarawiyyin, 382

Qayrawan, 450

Qutb Minar, 661-662

regional diversity of, 519-521

Samarrah, 695

Selimiye, 717-718

Semiz Ali Pasha, 751

Sinan Pasha, 751

Sokollu Mehmet Pasha, 751

Suleymaniye, 480, 751, 778-780

of Three Doors, 651

Turkish, 521

Ukskudar Mirimah Sultan, 750
Umayyad. 191, 514, 845-846
Valide, 407
White, 480
Mosul, 502
Mount Meru, 285
Mount Qaf, 287
Mount Sinai documents, 66
Mountain Qaf, 220
Mrigavati, 620
Mu'aUim-i Thalith, 505
Mu'awiya, 188, 224, 423-424, 434, 443, 494,
631, 846-847

Mu'awiya Ibn Abi Sufyan, 50, 238, 240, 558

Mu'awiya Ibn Hudayj, 649
Mu’ayyad al-Din al-‘Urdi, 78
Mu’ayyad al-Shirazi, al-, 80
Mu’ayyad fi al-Din, al-, 521-522
Mu’azzam. al-, 742
Mu’azzam Turanshah, al-. 730
Mubarak, al-, 694
Mubarakiyya, 404
Mubarek ibn Abdilcabbar, 374
Mubarrad, al-, 300
Mubayyida, al-, 694
Mudar, 53
Mudawanna, al-, 19
Mudejar, 34, 43
Mudhahhab, 179
Muezzin, 109

Mufarrij al-kurub fi akhbar bani Ayyub, 376
Mufti, 424
Mughal dynasty
Babar’s role in, 87
emperors of, 334
Persian language during, 398
qadi system during, 425
wall paintings during, 589
Mughith al-Rumi, 175
Muhabbat-i khass, 773
Muhaddib al-Din al-Dahwar, 347
Muhajirun, 228

Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra. al-, 575

Muhallil, 275

Muhammad

Abu Bak’r’s interactions with. 5
ahl al-bayt of, 36

'Ali ibn Abi Talib as companion of, 36-37

ancestry of, 526

in Aqsa mosque, 50

before battle of Badr, 171

biographical information about, 525-530

birthday of, 255

Blessings on the Prophet Muhammad, 637

children of, 526

circumcision of, 157

commandments given to, 527-528

Companions of, 167-169

Constitution of Medina, 170-171

cosmetics mentioned by, 177

death of, 530, 655

descendants of, 181

Dhu al-Qarnayn and, 29

diplomacy by, 207

divination of, 527

Dome of Rock significance, 214

in dreams, 216

earthquakes and, 219

education of, 526

emigration by, 228, 429

family involvement by, 529

Farewell Sermon by, 529-530

folk medicine, 263

funerary practices, 271

Gabriel’s visit with, 527

gender equality, 278-279

gift giving encouraged by, 295

home of, 330, 518-519, 528-529

humor references by, 335

135

INDEX

Muhammad ( continued )

Husayn ibn ‘Ali, 339-340
Ibn Ishaq’s biography of, 357
Ibn Sa‘d’s biography of, 367
Isfahani, al-’s biography of, 401
Jerusalem journey by, 415
Jesus and, comparisons between, 415
Ka’ba pilgrimage by, 529
Khadija, 167

Khalid ibn al-Walid’s battles against, 435

leadership by, 526

marriage of, 526

in Mecca, 109, 429

Mecca emigration by, 228

in Medina, 109, 170, 528

mosques originating from house of, 518

pacifist practices of, 529

pilgrimages by, 529

prayers, 636-637

Qur’an references to, 525, 530

seeking of knowledge by, 714

Sira, 330

spiritual retreats by, 526-527
ummah of, 535
in Yathrib, 228

Muhammad Abd al-Aziz Marzouk, 801

Muhammad 'Abd al-Muttalib, 230

Muhammad Abduh, 85, 676, 677, 679

Muhammad al-A‘azz, 111

Muhammad al-Amin, 92, 315

Muhammad al-Baqir, 460, 523-524, 737

Muhammad al-Ga‘fari, 274

Muhammad Ali. 85

Muhammad al-Jawad, 35, 737

Muhammad al-Kulayni, 732

Muhammad al-Maghili, 765

Muhammad al-Mahdi, 737

Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, 54

Muhammad al-Niyazi, 548

Muhammad 'Aufi, 692

Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, 824

Muhammad bin ’Abbas al-Mu’tamid, 720

Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Qazwini, 680

Muhammad bin al-Hasan at-Tusi, 838

Muhammad bin Qasim, 751

Muhammad I, 176

Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Lawati, See Ibn Battuta
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Malik Abu Bakr
Ibn Tufayl, See Ibn Tufayl
Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah, 228
Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn al-Hasan ibn
al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali ibn Abi Kalib,

See Nafs al-Zakiyya

Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir al-Mansur, 593
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurtubi, 171
Muhammad ibn Ahmad Zawzani, 825
Muhammad Ibn al-Ahmar, 302
Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, 500
Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, 702
Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Shalmaghani, 36
Muhammad Ibn ‘Ali al-Shawkani, See Shawkani, al-
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. 524-525
Muhammad Ibn Daniyal, 807
Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi‘i, 678
Muhammad ibn Ishaq, 754

Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar, See Ibn Ishaq

Muhammad ibn Isma'il, 299, 404-405

Muhammad ibn Khayrun al-Ma‘arifi, 651

Muhammad ibn Musa, 77

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, 31, 698

Muhammad ibn Nizzal, 622

Muhammad ibn Nusayr, 569

Muhammad ibn Qasim, 387

Muhammad ibn Ra’iq, 312

Muhammad ibn Rushd, 419

Muhammad ibn Salih al-Samawi, 731

Muhammad ibn Sirin, 216

Muhammad Ibn Tapar, 719

Muhammad ibn Tughj, 440

Muhammad ibn Tughj ibn Juff al-Ikhsid, 382

Muhammad ibn Tughluq, 98

Muhammad ibn Tulun, 203

Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Kulayni, See Kulayni, al-

Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Warraq, 95

Muhammad Nizam al-Din, See Nizam al-Din Awliya

Muhammad Saghir, 620

Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III, 406

Muhammad Shah Tughluq, 751

Muhammad Tahir ibn Ashur, 677

Muhammad Toure, 764-765

Muhammad Tughluq Shah, 352

Muhaqqiq al-Hilli, al-, 324

Muharram, 196, 254

Muhasibi, al-, 80

Muhazzi’l-Muwauua’, 375

Muhibb Allah Ilahabadi. 194

Muhsin Fayd Kashani, 531

Muhsin Mahdi, 577

Muhtasar fi 'ibn uEUl al-hadir , 348

Muhtasib. 206, 417, 738-739

Muhyi al-Din, 678

Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-‘Arabi, 75

Muhyi al-Din Muhammad, See Ibn ‘Arab

Muhyi d-Din Ibn ‘Arab!, 431

Muhyi 1-din Ibn ‘Arabi, 321

Muhyiddin Piri Re'is, 140

Mu‘in al-Din Chishti. 152, 773-774

Mu‘in al-Din Hasan Chishti, 563

Mu’in al-Din Unur, 123, 851

Muiz ad-Din Bahram, 675

Mu’izz, al-, 129, 138, 163, 225, 250-251

Mu’izz al-Dawla, 92, 123, 448

Mu'izz al-Din, 662

Mu'izz al-Din ibn Sam, 662

Mujaddid, 678

‘Mujaddid-i alf thani’, 754

Mujahid Ah, al-, 669

Mujahid ibn Jabr, 701

Mu'jam al-buldan, 766

Mu jam al-shuyukh, 351

Mujarrabnama , 492

Mujaz, al-, 491

Mujir al-Din Abaq, 123

Mujiz, 347

Mujir al-Qanun , 490

Mujmal al-Hikma, 825

Mujmal al-Tavarikh va-l-Qisas, 825

Mukarram, al-, 111

Mukarram ibn ‘Ali al-Sulayhi, al-, 70

Mukhannathun, 600, 807

136

INDEX

Mukhlis al-Shirwani, 76

Mukhtar al-jawahir, 355

Mukhtar ibn Abi ‘Ubayd al-Thaqafi, 500

Mukhtar-Nama, 79

Mukhtasar of al-Muzani, 486

Muktafi, al-, 141

Muktasar Anclar ‘ilm-i Tabib , 489-490

Muktasaru Sahihi Muslim, 375

Mul Jawa, 463

Mulla Malik Qummi, 108

Mulla Sadra, 43, 530-531, 615, 737

Mulla Shah Badakhski, 195

Multan, 458

Multazim bi-fal-ahkam, al-, 328

Muluk al-tawa’if 365

Mulyi al-Din ibn Arabi, 545

Mu 'min ibn Mukbil, 783

Mu’minun, 170

Mumtaz Mahal, 194

Munafiqun, al-, 49

Mundhir ibn al-Harith, 292

Mundhir ibn Nu'man, 292

Munkar, 164

Munqidh min al-dalal, 292

Muntaha al-Matlab fi Tahqiq al-Madhhab, 325

Muntahab-i Shifa, 492

Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tafsir al-Ahlam, 215

Muntakhab al-Tawarikh , 620

Muntakhab fi ‘ilaj al-'ayn, 578

Muntasir, al-, 451

Muntazam. al-, 345

Muntazam fi ta 'rikh al-umam wa al-nuluk, al-, 1 1 1

Muqabalat al-mustanir, 385

Muqaddasi, al-, 15, 158, 286, 838

Muqaddima, 359, 499

Muqaddimah, al-. 140, 158

Muqaffaq, al-, 834

Muqarnas, 588

Muqatil Ibn Sulayman, 706, 715
Muqri, 659
Muqrids, 499
Muqta', 448, 599

Muqtabas min abna ' aid al-Andalus, al-, 1 1 1

Muqtadi, al-, 470

Murabits, al-, 375

Murabitun, al-, 38

Murad I. 170, 580

Murad II, 580

Murad III, 63, 82

Muradiye at Edirne, 589

Murder, 198

Murji’a, 6, 410

Murshid, 783

Murshid al-Zuwwar, 614

Murshid Ha t-Tafarrud, 546

Murshida, al-, 375

Muruj al-Dhahab, 268, 483, 556

Muruwwa, 323

Musa al-Kazim, 404, 737

Musa al-Sadr, 386-387

Musa ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi, 360

Musabbihi, al-, 451, 591

Musannaf, 482

Musari' al-Musari', 840

Musaylima ibn Habib, 55

Music

in Andalus, al-, 534
bans on, 194
dancing and, 194
description of, 531-532
historical perspectives, 533-534
instruments, 534
modal systems, 532
overview of, 533
principles of, 532-533
religious controversy regarding, 532-533
singing, 752-753
sources of, 532
sufism and, 534
Music theory, 533-534
Musk, 601, 705
Muslih, 675
Muslim! s)

alcoholic beverage prohibitions, 26-27

astrology as viewed by, 75

in Balkans, 97

baths and bathing by, 101

burial practices, 27 1

in China, 151

in Cordoba, 175

in Damascus, 191

European literature representation of, 243
fortifications by, 65
funerary practices of, 270-272
Hebrew interactions with, 318
heterodoxy, 322
marriage among, 280
merchants, 498-499
Mongols and, 540-542
orthodoxy, 322
Pact of ‘Umar, 205-206
Qur’an’s influence on, 656
Sicilian, 744-745
Muslim community, 535-536
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, 536-547
Muslim ibn Khalid, 203
Muslim-Byzantine relations
description of, 537
warfare, 537-539

Muslim-Crusader relations, 539-540
Musnad, 356-357
Musnad Fatima al-Zahra, 249
Mustad'afun, al-, 109
Mustadi’, al-, 690
Mustafa Ali, 80, 116
Mustafa al-Maraghi, 677
Mustafa ibn Yusuf of Mostar, 97
Mustafa II, 51
Mustafah II, 632
Mustakfi, al-, 124, 866
Mustadi, al-, 225, 250, 252, 405, 778
Musta’min, 267, 598
Mustansir, al-
clothing sold by, 180
death of, 252, 405
description of, 102, 317, 111 , 778
Fatimid rule by, 251
succession of, 405

Musta’sim. al-, 82, 135, 512, 540, 780
Mus'udi, al-, 806

137

INDEX

Mu'tadid, al-, 141

Mutah, 647

Mutalammis, al-, 95

Mu'tamid, al-. 360, 374, 696, 720

Mutanabbi, al-, 11, 27, 167, 542-543, 616

Mutansir, al-, 250

Mu'tasim, al-

Abu Tammam’s work with, 1 1
death of, 696

description of, 2, 328, 356, 441, 695, 755
will of, 403
Mu'tasimi, al-, 869

Mutawakkil, al-, 206, 356, 394, 438, 516, 520, 559,
578, 600, 696, 756
Mutawakkil Abu ‘Inan, al-, 450
Mu'tazila, 132, 410
Mu'tazilah, 165
Mu'tazili, 11, 322, 482
Mu'tazilism, 19, 427, 772

Mu'tazilites, 241, 315, 486, 544-545, 639, 707-708

Mu'tazz, 255

Muthaqqab, al-, 95

Muthaqqal, 179

Muttaqi. al-, 312

Muvatta’, al-, 374

Muwaffaq, al-, 374

Muwahhidun, al-, 105, 375

Muwashshah, 618

Muwatta’, 235, 468

Muwatta, al-, 482

Muwatta’u’l-Imam al-Mahdi, 375

Muwmis al-‘Amva’, al-, 230

Muzaffar Shah, 464

Muzaffarid Shah-i Shuja’, 825

Muzaffarid Sultan Mahmud Begath, 878

Muzani, al-, 724

Muzhir fi ‘Ulum al-Lugha wa Anwa’iha, al-, 785

Mysteries of Rhetoric, The, 426

Mysticism

description of, 316
Jewish. 545-548
Mystics, 80

Mythical places, 548-549

Na Wara’ al-Nahr, 59
Nabat, 60

Nabatean Agriculture, 60, 117

Nabatean Aramaic, 132-133

Nabateans, 132

Nabhani period, 575

Nabidh, 861

Nablus, 591

Nadhr, 571

Nadhr ibn al-Harith, 629
Nadil wa-’l-Baghim, al-, 229
Nadir Shah, 688
Nafh al-Tib , 478

Nafh al-Tib fi Gusn al-Andalus al-Ratib, 478
Nafs al-Zakiyya
in ‘Abbasid period, 552-553
biographical information about, 551
description of, 240, 551
physical description of, 551

Nag Hammadi, 172
Nagid Joshua, 636
Nahdah, al-, 201
Nahj al-Balagha, 37, 679
Nahrawan, 436
Nahw, 300
Najaf, 443
Najahids, 70, 871
Najd. 314

Najda ibn Amir, 436
Najm al-Din Alpi, 608
Najm al-Din Mahmud Shirazi, 490
Najm ud-din Kubra, 773
Names, 555

Naqshbandi Khwaja Baqi billah, 755

Naqshbandiyya, 151

Naqsh-i Jahan Square, 725

Naquib al-Attas, 665

Nard, 275

Nariman, 234

Nasafi, al-, 809

Nasa’i. al-, 307

Nasib, 455

Nasihat al-muluk, 148
Nasihat al-Muluk, 507
Nasir ad-Din Humayun, See Humayun
Nasir al-Dawla, 312, 111
Nasir al-Dawla Sebuk-Takin, 142
Nasir al-Din Abu ’1-Hasan, See Amir Khusraw
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, 78, 241, 289, 505, 574, 737, 839-841
Nasir al-Din Chiragh-i Dihlavi, 152
Nasir al-Din Chiragh-i Dihli, 290
Nasir al-Din ibn ‘Abd al-Rahim ibn ‘ Ali ibn al-Furat
al-Misri al-Hanafi, 342
Nasir al-Din Tusi, 579, 824
Nasir al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali al-Utrush, al-, 875
Nasir Faraj, al-, 226
Nasir li-Din Allah, al-, 313, 696
Nasir Muhammad, al-, 226, 541, 573
Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun, al-, 769
Nasir Yusuf, al-, 82, 540, 730
Nasir-i Khursaw, 254, 287, 405, 522, 591-592
Nasir-i Khusru, 830
Naskh. 134
Nasr I, 691
Nasr ibn Ahmad, 691
Nasr Ibn Sayyar, 121, 141, 694
Nasr II, 691-692
Nasrid sultans, 588
Nastaliq, 135
Natili, al-, 607
Natural death, 198
Navigation, 555-557
Navy, 558

Nawadir al-sultaniyyah wa’l-mahasin al-Yusufiyyah, al-, 368
Nawba, 876

Nawruz, 196, 295, 559-560, 600, 604, 807

Nay l al-awtar fi shark mutaqa al-akhbar, 730

Nazhun Bint al-Qala‘i, 308, 866

Nazir al-Din al-Zanki, 448

Nazir al-Haramayn ‘Ala’, 319

Nazm al-Suluk, 229, 844

Nazzam, al-, 544

Nedina, 170

Negm al-Din, 864

138

INDEX

Negotiations, 207
Neo-Arabic, 57

Neoplatonic Aristotelianism, 611
Neoplatonism, 68, 614-615, 772
Nestorian Christianity, 55
Netira, 497

New Persian language, 397-399, 603, 605-606

New-Ardaxsir, 88

Nezami, 560-561, 620

Nibbing, 705

Nibras al-Diya ’,505

Nicephorus I, 125-126

Niche of Lights, The, 293

Nichomachean Ethics, 247

Nicopolis, 580

Night of Power, The, 196

Nights of Bonfires, 254-255

Nihayat cil-Arab, 66

Nihayat al-Ihkam fi ma'Rifat al-Ahkam, 325

Nihayat al-Maram fi ‘ilm al-Kalam, 325

Nihayat al- Wusul I!a 'Ilm al- Usui, 325

Nikaia, 539

Nile, 561-562, 815

Nilometer, 273

Nisba, 111-112

Nishapur, 78. 141, 428, 562-563, 838, 839
Nishwar al-Muhadara wa- Akhbar al-Mudhakara, 496
Nizam al-Din ‘Abd al-Malik al-Maraghi, 573
Nizam al-Din Awliya

biographical information about, 563
community involvement by, 563-564
description of, 152, 275
disciples of, 564
followers of, 564
legacy of, 564
Nizam al-Mulk

description of, 40, 178, 292, 400, 428, 448, 469,

565, 606, 691, 780, 782, 838, 856, 878
libraries by, 452
madrasas promoted by, 457
Nizamiyya, 839, 856
Nizamiyya college, 452
Nizamiyya Madrasa, 292
Nizari

of Badakhshan, 406
description of, 72-73
Ismailis, 72-73, 406-407
political power of, 406
Nizari Da'wa, 111
Nobles’ houses, 850
Nomadism, 565-566, 712-713
Noria, 51
North Africa
Islam in, 105
trade in. 815-816
Northern Song dynasty, 747
Nu‘aym ibn Hammad al-Marwazi, 237
Nuh I, 692

Nuh ibn Asad ibn Saman, 694
Nuh II, 692, 824

Nujum al-Zahira fi Muluk Mist wa-al-Qahira, al-, 371

Nukat Wa-i-‘uyun, al-, 486

Nu‘man ibn Mundhir, 292

Nu‘man III, al-, 641

Numbers, 567-568

Numijkat, 829
Nun ibn Mansur, 142
Nur al-anwar, 385
Nur al-Din

Damascus under, 192

description of, 11, 50, 98, 184, 351. 689-690, 851
Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman Jami, See Jami
Nur al-Din al-Raniri, 465
Nur al-Din ibn Zangi, 83
Nur al-Din ibn Zanki, 146, 255, 568
Nur al-Din Mahmud, 28, 123, 225, 568, 873
Nur al-Din Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hasanji ibn
Muhammad al-Raniri, See Raniri, al-
Nur al-Din Muhammad Zuhuri, 108
Nur al-Din ‘Umar, 668
Nur al-Din Zangi, 795
Nur al-isfahbud, al-, 385
Nur al-mudabbir, al-, 385
Nur al-'Uyun , 489
Nur Jahan, 568-569
Nur Mahal Serai, 569
Nur Manzil Garden, 569
Nusayba bint Ka‘b, 868
Nusayris, 569-570

Nusrat al-Din Ahmad ibn Yusufshah, 825

Nuwayri, al-, 66, 599

Nuzhat al-Julasa’, 867

Nuzliat al-Julasa’ fi Ash'ar al-Nisa’, 867

Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq, 140, 286, 380-381

Oaths, 571-572
Occidental Berberia, 105

Occurrence of Winds Under the Earth Which Cause
Many Earthquakes and Eclipses , 220
Oceans of Light , 460
Octavian, 30

Ode Rhyming in T-Major, 844

Of the Branches of Knowledge , 799

Oghuz, 719

Oguz, 251

Old Aramaic, 61

Old Persian, 397, 602

Old World Dryland Belt, 712-713

Oljeitii, 572-574, 606

Oljeitu Ilkhan, 541

Oman, 575

Omar Khayyam, 620

Omeriye complex, 189

On Generation and Corruption, 67

On Soul, 68

On the Composite Intellect, 377

On the Composition of Medicines, 607

On the First Philosophy, 441

On the Heavens, 67

On the Immortality of the Soul, 377

On the Intellect, 377

On the Knowledge of the Veins, 489

On the Mixtures and Properties of Simple Medicines, 607

On the Reason for the Luminosity of the Planets, 377

On the Sphere and Cylinder, 32

On the Theriac, 608

On the Uses of the Parts of the Body, 377
On the Virtues of the Turks, 411

139

INDEX

One Thousand and One Nights , 10, 260, 315, 507,
575-578, 768
Ophthalmology, 578
Ophthalmology, 490
Optics, 578-579
Optika, 578

Oral transmission of knowledge, 701-702
Oratory, 679

Orbits of the Stars: On the Stories of the Angels, The, 45

Orchard of Pomegranates, 547

Organon, 680

Orhan Gazi, 262

Orkhon, 491

Orlando Furioso, 243

Ornament of the Saints, The, 402

Orphans, 146, 635

Orthodoxy, 322, 638, 733

Osman, 580

Ottoman Empire

Aleppo rule by, 28-29
Azhar, al-, during, 85
in Balkans, 96

commercial enterprises in, 182
concubines in, 169
Constantinople conquest by, 521
Cyprus conquest by, 188
Damascus during, 192
description of, 580, 836, 850
guildsmen in, 49
qadis during, 425
viziers in, 856
warfare during, 65, 581
Ovejo, 175

Oxus River, 140, 142, 828

Pachomian monastic literature, 172

Pact of Umar, 160, 205, 283, 393-394

Padishah, 814

Padmavat, 620

Pahlavi, 397, 399, 602

Paideia, 332

Pain, 771

Painting

frescoes, 586-589
miniature, 583-586
monumental, 586-589
wall, 588-589
Pakpattan, 275
Palace(s)

description of, 61-62
fortification of, 62
space in, 62

Palace of the Generalife, 33
Palace of the Lions, 33
Palace of the Myrtles, 33
Palembang, 462
Palestine, 590-592
Pancatantra, 148
Pahcatantra, 432
Pangeran Ratu, 413
Panj Ganj, 560
Panjatantra, 506
Panjhir, 505

Panjikent, 89
Pantegni, 461

Paper manufacture, 592-593
Paper mills, 592-593
Papyrus, 475

Paradise of Wisdom on Medicine, 496

Parchment, 475

Pardes Rimmonim, 547

Parnasim, 147

Parsi. 397

Parsi-yi dari, 398

Parthian shot, 509

Parthians, 253, 729

Party Kingdoms, 593-595

Pasha, 814

Pastoralism, 565-566

Pattar Mosque, 569

Payghambari, 563

Pazryk, 136

Peace, 595-598

Peacemaking, 595-598

Peasants, 598-599

Pedro I of Castile, 34

Pentateuch. 418

Pentateuch, 546

People of the Banner, 273

Perfect for Removing Doubt about the Connected and

Different Proper Names or Names of Relation, 716
Perfect History, The, 342
Perfected Book on Ophthalmology, The, 578
Performing artists, 599-60 1
Perfume, 601-602
Peripatetics, 69
Persia

autobiographies in, 80
chess pieces from, 148
earthquakes in, 219
Hasan-i Sabbah’s travels in, 317
philosophy influenced by, 61 1
Persian! s)

Arabic translations into, 823-826
description of, 602-603
in Islamic period, 604-607
in pre-Islamic period, 604
Persian epics, 233-235, 621
Persian folk literature, 261-262
Persian Gulf, 555, 830

Persian language, 397-399, 602-603, 692-693
Persian literature, 605
Persian medical literature, 488-490
Persian poetry, 619, 621-622
Persian titles, 814

Persianate Bahmanid Kingdom of Deccan. 1 08

Persianate Sasanid court, 65

Pesiqa, 147

Pestilence, 235-236

Phaedo, 614

Pharmacology

alimentary products, 609
definition of, 607
Dioscorides’ contributions to, 608
origins of, 607-608
Pliaseis aplanon aspheron, 648
Phillip II, 690
Philo Judaeus, 709

140

INDEX

Philosophers
Kindi, al-, 441
Kirmani, al-, 441-442
Mir Damad, 505-506
Philosophical humanism, 332
Philosophical Life, The, 671
Philosophy
commentary on, 167
definition of, 610
Indian influences on, 61 1
Islamic, 612

Persian influences on, 611
Platoism, 614-615
political, 627-628
theology and, 611-612
translation movement in, 610-611
Phocas, Nicephorus, 27
Physics, 67, 344, 370, 810-81 1
Piacenza Pilgrim, 688
Picatrix, 60
Pigeons, 612-613, 632

Pilgrimages, 309-310, 321, 358, 434, 529, 613-614, 642

Pilgrims’ Guide. The, 614

Pires, Tome, 412

Piyyut, 617-618

Plague, 236

Plague of Justinian, 236
Plaster, 698

Plato, 230, 241-242, 247, 614-615, 810

Platoism, 614-615

Plotiniana Arahica, 610

Plotinus, 68, 610

Pneumonic plague, 114

Poe, Edgar Allen, 200

Poem of the Sufi Way, 844

Poem of the Way, 229

Poet(s)

Hafsa Bint al-Hajj al-Rukuniyya, 308
Harizi, al-, 314
Ibn Basam, 394
Ibn Ezra, 353-354
Ibn Hamdis, 355-356
Ibn Naghrela, 361
Judah ha-Levi, 318, 421-422
Moses Ibn Ezra, 354-355
Mutanabbi. al-, 11, 27, 167, 542-543
Nezami, 560-561
Persian, 620
Sufi, 619
women, 865-867
Poetic criticism, 616-617
Poetics, 232, 323
Poetry

Arabic, 229-230, 616-617, 657, 683
commentaries on, 617
commentary on, 167
elegy, 227-228
epic, 229-230
folk, 262
Hebrew, 617-619
Indian, 619-621
love, 455-456
monorhyme in, 229
Persian, 619, 621-622
Pointers and Reminders, 840

Police, 622-623
Political philosophy, 627-628
Political Regime, The, 248, 840
Political theory
caliphate, 624-625
debates, 625-628
description of, 623
legal, 626

Qur’anic references, 624
reasons for, 623-624
Polo, 768-769

Polo, Marco, 15, 72, 463, 601
Polygamy, 480
Polytheism, 378, 529
Pomponius Mela, 837
Poor Claires, 34
Pope Clement V, 573
Pope Urban II, 184, 719
Popular astrology, 75
Popular literature
Caliphs, 629-630
definition of, 628
Islam and, 628-629
language of, 630
narration of, 630-631
religious biographies, 629
style of, 630
Porphyry, 610. 614-615
Port of Acre, 591

Porter and the Three Ladies, The, 577

Posidonius, 60

Post, 631-632

Postal system, 613

Pottery, 143-144

Poverty

among orphans, 635
among women, 635
conjunctural, 634-635
debt as cause of, 636
foreign, 635
Islamic, 632-634
Jewish, 634-636
Prayer, 485, 636-637
Preaching. 679
Precedence, 637-638

Precious Things of Moment in the Account of the
Princes of Syria and the Jazira, 368-369
Predestination

description of, 638-639
early discussions on, 639-640
Qur’an references to, 638, 640
Primary schools, 641
Prince, The, 856
Princess Zubaida, 51

Principles of the Opinions of the Inhabitants of the
Virtuous City, 248

Principles of the Sufi Path, The, 11 A
Prison of the Syrian Gate, 641
Prisons, 641-642

Procession of the Flower-Sellers, 564
Processions

military, 643-644
religious, 642-643
Procheiroi kanones, 648
Proclus, 68, 615, 827

141

INDEX

Professional guilds, 304-305

Program of Rhetoric and the Lamp of Men of Letters, The, 229

Promptuary for Ophthalmologists, The, 578

Proof of the Veraciouis in Refutation of the Mendacious, 665

Prophet Muhammad, See Muhammad

Prophets, Tales of the, 415, 644-646, 658

Proportioned script, 134

Prostitution, 646-647

Protecting Links to Guidance and the Validation of the

Superiority of ‘Ah Over the Companions. The, 442
Ptolemy

Almagest by, 77, 167, 247, 370, 485, 647
astronomy works by, 647-648
biographical information about, 647-648
description of, 67, 285, 344
influence on Ibn Khurradadhbih, 360
mathematical geography, 483
Optika, 578
Puberty, 150
Public charity, 146-147
Public square, 850
Punishment, 182-183, 622, 641-642
Punjabi, 620

Pure Treatise Concerning the Hallmarks of Religion, 442
Purity, 637
Pythagoras, 289

Qaand Fustat. al-, 129

Qaba. 180-181

Qabaq, 769

Qahasat, al-, 505-506

Qabbalah, 431

Qabbalists, 431, 547

Qabus-name, 149

Qadar, 639

Qadariyya, 410

Qadi, 383, 423-425, 596

Qadi Abd al-Jabbar, 544

Qadi al-Fadil al-, 452

Qadi al-Fadil al-Baysani, al-, 451

Qadi al-Nu‘man, al-, 405, 731

Qadi al-qudat, 255, 669

Qadi ‘Iyad ibn Musa, 468

Qadir, al-, 1, 294, 594, 782

Qadiri Creed, 782

Qadiriyyah, 764

Qadisiyya, al-, 604

Qahira, al-, See Cairo

Qahtanis, 59

Qahwa, 106

Qaidu, 513

Qa’im, al-. 93, 238, 250, 486, 782
Qajar, 233
Qal‘a, al-, 273
Qal‘a Tabarak, 399
Qalansuwa, 159
Qal‘at al-Gabal, 273
Qal'at al-Rum, 541
Qalawun, 102, 156, 184, 226
Qalawunid, 226

Qalqashandi, al-, 66, 201-203, 450
Qamis. 159
Qanbaniya, 175

Qanun fi l-tibb, al-. 167
Qanun fi’t Tib, al-, 492
Qanunja, 490
Qara Arslan, 852
Qara Khitai, 280, 747
Qara Qorum, 208, 748
Qarafas, 850

Qarakhanids. 121. 142, 458, 694, 747, 814, 837

Qarakhitay, 142

Qaraqiyyin mosque, 450

Qarasaray, 62

Qarawiyyin, al-, 382

Qari, 71

Qarmathians, 55, 95
Qarmati, 405
Qasida, 455, 616
Qasideh, 227
Qasim, al-, 352

Qasirn ibn ‘Ali Ibn ‘Asakir, al-, 844
Qasim ibn Ibrahim, al-, 107, 732, 875
Qasim Khan Mir Barr u Bahr, 20
Qasimi imams, 731
Qasr al-Dhahab, 63

Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, 277-278, 587, 711

Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, 277

Qasr al-Hayr East, 64

Qasr al-Hayr West, 64

Qata’i’, al-, 129, 225, 517

Qati’a, 447

Qatifa, 204

Qavurt, 40, 469

Qawa'id al-Alikam, 325

Qawanin al-dawawin, 23

Qawanin hikam al-ishraq, 385

Qawl fi l-Bighal, al-, 426

Qayrawan

description of, 19-20, 436, 450, 649
Great Mosque of, 19, 650-651
history of, 649-650
monuments in, 650-65 1
topography of, 650
Qays ibn al-Mulawwa, 455
Qazi Qadan, 620
Qazi Qazan, 752
Qazvin, 401, 505

Qazwini, al-, 158, 548, 651-654, 686

Qessa-e Sanjan, 877

Qibla, 287

Qifti, al-, 452

Qimar, 275-276

Qimhi. David, 301

Qipchaq Turks, 101

Qira’at, 707

Qira’at al-finjan, 210

Qisas al-anbiya’, 644

Qissa, 232, 644

Qissas al-anbiya, 629

Qissat Abu Zaid al-Hilali wa ’ l-Na 'isa, 630

Qissat al-Amira Dhat al-Himma, 229

Qissat al-Zir Salim, 229

Qissat Bni Hilal, 229

Qital al-mashru' huwa al-jihad, al-, 597

Qiyas, 403

Qizilbash, 687, 725

Qsar al-Qadim, 19

142

INDEX

Quadrants, 76
Quadratic equations, 31
Quanat, 51

Qubbat al-Sakhra, 212-214, 415

Qubilai, 412

Qudat. al-, 440

Quds, al-. See Jerusalem

Queen Arwa, 778

Quires, 475

Qum, 732

Qumis, 219

Qummi, al-, 707

Quppa, 147

Qur’an

Abu Hanifa’s writings about, 6
Abu Shama’s work on, 1 1
aesthetics and. 103
alcoholic beverage prohibitions, 26
angels’ role in, 44
animals as described in. 46
apostasy as described by, 47-49
Aqsa mosque in, 50
Arabic literature and, 657-659
ascetics’ view of, 71
biblical references in. 107
brigandage references in, 327
burial references, 270-271
Christian saints mentioned in, 688
chronology of, 654-655
clothing descriptions in, 1 59
codification of, 57, 474

commandments given to Muhammad, 527-528

commentary on, 166, 486

composition of, 654

copies of, 475, 704

creation of women in, 279

crucifixion denial by, 416

customary law in, 186

death and dying, 196-197

definition of, 654

description of, 1 54, 403

divorce provisions, 212

Dome of Rock passages, 213

dream references in, 214

earthquakes, 220

education references, 222

emigration references in, 228-229

eschatological references in, 500

ethics in, 241

exegetical literature, 706

funerary practices references, 270-27 1

gender references in, 278

hajj, 309-310

Hasan, al-, and, 316

hippology references in. 325

historical origins of, 654-655

humor references, 335

hunting references in. 337-338

illustration of, 655

inheritance references in, 388-389

interfaith relations references in, 393

islah references in, 675

Ja’far al-Sadiq’s interpretation of, 410

Jesus references in. 415-416

jewelry references in, 416

jewish references in, 107
jihad references in, 418-419
jinn references in, 420-421
language of, 57, 707
linguistical issues, 454
literary theory and. 658-659
liturgical uses of, 656
manuscripts of, 134
marriage references in, 279, 480
martyrdom references, 481-482
materials of, 1 14
mental illness references. 496
merchant references in, 498
mineral references in, 503-504
monasticism references, 507
Moses references in, 517

Muhammad references in. 487, 525, 530, 654-655

in Muslim community, 656

navigation references in, 555

oath-related references, 571-572

oral transmission of, 110

peace references in, 596

pilgrimage references in. 613

political theory references in, 624

popular literature references, 628-629

poverty references in, 632

predestination references in, 638, 640

prison references in, 641

property inheritance references in, 388

recitation of, 660-661

reciters of, 659-661

Revelation in, 320, 449

sacredness of, 656

saints mentioned in, 688

scholar education based on, 701

Seven Sleepers references in, 720

shirk references in, 379

shura in, 171

suffering-related references in, 771
synagogue reference in, 786
talisman references in, 794
themes in, 655

theological status of, 655-656
theology, 808-809
translations of, 824
ummah of, 535-536
usury references, 852-853
variant readings of, 660
war and peace references in, 596
wine references in, 860-861
word definition of, 654
zakat references in, 145
Zayd ibn Thabit’s codification of, 874
zina in, 16-17
Qurashi, al-, 66
Quraysh, 170, 526, 624, 846
Qurayshites, 597
Qurra’, 659-660
Qurra ibn Sharik, 224
Qurtuba, 175
Qurtubi, al-, 237, 660
Qusayr ‘Amra, 587
Qushayri, al-, 266, 290, 708
Qusta ibn Luqa, 68, 827
Qutayba Ibn Muslim, 121, 141, 693, 746

143

INDEX

Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, 78, 385, 840
Qutb al-Din Aybak, 661-662
Qutb Minar mosque, 661-662
Qutlughshah, 573
Qutuz, 82, 101, 472, 541
Quwwat al-Islam, 661

Rabbanite community, 282

Rabbanites, 433, 709-710

Rabbul-ul Alemeen, 222

Rabe’eh Qozdari, 621

Rabi' al-Akhir, 196

Rabi' al-Awwal, 196, 255

Rabi' ibn Sulayman al-Muradi, al-, 724

Rab‘-i Rashidi, 574

Rabi'a, 53

Rabi'a al-‘Adawiyya, 866

Radd ’ala Ahl al-Dhimma, 396

Radd 'ala al-Zanadiqa wa al-Jahmiyyah, al-, 676

Raddi-i rawafid, 755

Radhanites, 497

Radi, al-, 382

Rafi’ ibn Layth, 694

Raging Torrent, The, 731

Rabat al-’Aql , 442

Rain, 860

Rain prayer, 637

Ra'iyat, 598

Raja’ ibn Haywa, 843

Rajab, 196

Rajab procession, 642-643

Rajasanagara, 412

Rajputs, 387

Ram Bagh, 569

Ramadan. 196, 254, 546, 573

Ramhurmuzi, al-, 766

Ramla, 590

Rana Sanga, 87

Raniri, al-, 665-666

Raqqa

description of, 64

glass mosaics at, 516

houses at, 330-33 1
Rasa’il, 426

Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa, 118, 229, 355
Rashid al-Din

biographical information about, 666-667

description of, 325, 574, 585
Rashid al-Din al-Sinan, 406
Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani, 572
Rashid al-Din Fadlallah, 490
Rashid al-Din Sinan, 72
Rashid al-Din Tabib. 812
Rashid al-Din Vatvat, 826
Rashidun, 843
Rashidun Caliphs, 53
Rasulids, 668-669
Rattus rattus, 113
Rawashih al-Samawiyya, a!-, 505
Rawd al-Fa'iq. al-, 680
Rawda al-Aniqa. al-, 314
Rawdat al ta'rif hi l-huhh al-sharif 385
Rawdat al-As, 478

Rawdat al-Taslim, Sayr va Suluk, 840

Rawk al-Flusami, al-, 448

Rawk al-Nasiri, al-, 448, 599

Rawks, 448-449

Rawzeh-khani, 339

Rays of Guidance, 11 A

Rayy, 76, 715, 798

Razi, al-, 235, 671-674, 772

Razi, al-, Fakhr al-din, 80, 113, 166, 268, 427, 670-671
Razia Sultana, 674-675
Razmnama, 24
Reciprocal cursing, 185

Recreation for Boon-Companions a propos Poems by Women, 867

Rectification of Judgments, The, 839

“Rectification of the Companions,” 168

Red Sea, 12, 555, 815

Reed pen, 134, 705

Refinement of Character, 241

Reform, 675-678

Refutation of the People of the Pact, 396

Regions of the World, The, 287, 548

Religion, 269

Religious authority, 110

Religious biographies, 629

Religious humanism, 332

Religious processions, 642-643

Remarks About Mules, 426

Renewal, 678-679

Repetition of the Law, 459

Republic, 614-615

Requirements of Surgery, 490

Rete, 73

Revelation, 320-321, 449

Revision of the Optics, The, 579

Revivification of the Religious Sciences, The, 293, 678

“Reyes de Taifas,” 105

Rhakotis, 30

Rhazes, 608

Rhetoric, 679-681

Riba, 852

Rich Room, 176

Richard I, 690

Rida, Rashid. 676-677

Riddles, 262

Rightly Guided Caliphs, 626, 854
Rihla, 353

Risala, al-, 7, 549, 703

Risala al-Ahwaziyya, 824

Risala al-Dhahabiyya fi 'I- Tibb, al-, 36

"Risala al-jami’a, al-”. 118

Risala al-kamiliyya fi l-sira al-nabawiyya, 348

Risala al-Wadi’a fi ma’Alim al-Din, 442

Risala fi l-Daw’, 344, 579

Risala fi Mulk al-'Arab wa-Kammiyyatihi, 441

Risala fi-l-Tlm al-Ilahi, 610

Risala fil-makan, 344

Risdlah, 545

Risalah fi al-Sahabah, 506
Risala-i walidiyya, 88
Risdlat al-Ghufrdn, 1
Risalat al-Qiyan , 866
Risdlat al-Suahil wa l-Shahij, 1
Risalat al-Tawabi' wa-l-Zawabi’ , 807
Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan, 348
Risala-yi Haqq-numa, 195

144

INDEX

Rising Moon, The, 731

River Oxus, 234

Riyad, al-, 442

Riza-yi ‘Abbasi, 589

Road networks, 681-682

Roads of the Travelers, The, 363

Robes of honor, 296

Rock crystal, 503

Roda island, 273

Rodrigo Diaz del Vivar, 594

Roger II, 140

Roman de Mahomet, 244

Romance languages, 682-683

Romanos I Lekapenos, 126

Romans

aqueducts built by, 51
Byzantium, 125
ruling of Alexandria by, 30
Romanus Diogenes, 719
Rosewater, 683-684
Round City, 64-65, 92, 711
Round maps, 287-288
Routes and Kingdoms, 285

Royal Book: Completion of Medical Art, The, 461

Rubrics, 475

Rudaki, 823

Rukn ad-din Firuz, 674

Rukn al-Dawla, 16, 452

Rukn al-Dawla al-Simnani, 80

Ruler, 705

Rules for Authority, 507
Rumeli Hisar, 65
Rummani, al-, 300, 333, 658
Rusafa, al-, 92, 278
Rustam ibn Dustan, 141
Rutzbihan al-Baquli, 80
Ru’ya, 214
Ruzbih, 506

Sa‘ada, 870

Sa‘adia ben Joseph al-Fayyumi, 301

Sa'adia ibn Danan, 301

Sa'adyah Gaon, 318, 433, 618, 685-686, 709

Sab' Banat, 274

Sab’at ahruf, 660

Sabb, 185

Sabiqa, 638

Sabiqun al-awwalun, al-, 638
Sabk-i hindi, 619
Sabr al-Din, 12
Sabuq Bugha, 141
Sabur, 524

Sacred geography, 686
Sacred Precinct, 415
Sa’d al-Dawla, 6

Sa’d al-Dawla Abu al-Ma‘ali, 313
Sa’d al-Din, 12

Sa’d al-Din Muhammad Sawaj, 572
Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, 604
Sadaqa, 145, 858
Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, 350
Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi, 669

Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Shirazi, See Mulla Sadra

Sadr al-Shari‘a, 78
Safadi, al-, 122
Safar, 196
Safavid dynasty

description of, 234, 273, 581, 686-688
Isfahan during reign of, 399
poetry during, 622
qadis during, 425
reign of, 686-687
thought trends during, 735
wall paintings, 589
Safavid Iran, 69
Safawid Shah Tahmasp, 334
Safed, 547-548
Saffarids, 458
Safinat al-Awliya’, 195
Safiyat al-Din, 466
Safiyy al-Din al-Hilli, 261
Safiyya bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib. 867, 868
Sahabi, 109
Sahib al-‘imama, 160
Sahib Ibn ‘Abbad, al-, 311. 452, 798
Sahib ibn al-' Abbad and Abu ’1-Fadl ibn al-'Amid, 798
Sahidic Coptic, 172
Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, al-, 505
Sahifat al-Rida, 36
Sahih, 357

Sahih al-Bukhari, 122
Sahih Muslim, 536
Sahname, 148
Sahnun, 19
Sahykh Arslan, 395
Sa’ib Khathir, 859
Sa'id al-Andalusi, 827
Sa'id al-Samiri, 452
Sa'id Ibn Uthman, 693
SaidNursi, 150
Sailendras, 412
Saint Vincent church. 176
Sainthood. 688-689
Saints, 688-689
Sakinat al-Awliya', 195
Sala de la Barca, 33
Saladin

Aleppo rule by, 27, 689
Aqsa mosque and, 50
'Ayn Jalut battle, 82-83
biographical information about, 689-690
in Damascus, 690
description of, 1 1
iqta’ system, 599
Jerusalem capture by, 690
Salaf al-salih, al-, 402
Salafiyyah, 165

Salah al-Din, 129, 184, 252, 448, 451

Salah al-din ibn Ayyub, 319

Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, 225, 568

Salam al-Farisi, 878

Salama ibn al-Fadl al-Razi, 357

Salaman o Absal, 412

Salamis, 188

Salat, 636-637

Salih Ayyub, al-, 101, 729-730, 756
Salihi Mamluks, 472
Salim Ibn Rashid, 744

145

INDEX

Saljuqs, 142, 521

Salman al-Farisi, 171, 573, 690-691
Salman the Persian, 570
Sama', 534
Sama' shar‘i, 194
Samak-e Ayyar, 630
Samanaids
collapse of, 121, 141
description of, 2, 141
Farsi language under, 398
Ghaznavids and, 294
reign of, 447
translations by, 824
Samanids, 691-693
Saman-Khuda, 691
Samaria, 590
Samarkand, 864

Samarqand, 62, 281, 588-589, 693-694

Samarqandi, 148

Samarra

description of, 62, 92, 259, 694-696
founding of, 2
glass mosaics at, 516
Great Mosque at, 520
houses in, 330-331
Samau‘al al-Maghribi, 3 1 8
Samaw’al al-Maghribi, 80
Samh ibn Malik al-Jawlani, al-. 175
Samsam al-Dawla, 16, 798
Samuel ben Hophni Gaon, 709
Samuel ha-Levi ben Nagrila, 33
Samuel Ibn Naghrela, 223, 618
San‘a\ 776
Sanabad. 438, 838
Sanbusak, 204
Sancak Beys, 188
Sanctuary of Abraham, 318-319
Sanhaja murabitun, 39
Sanjan, 878
Sanjar, 121, 142, 719
Saqaliba, 760
Saqiya, 51, 273
Saraf al-Dini al-Tusi, 32
Sarajevo, 182
Saraqusti, al-, 477
Sargudhasht-i Sayvidna , 316
Sarh al-Qanun, 347
Sarh tasrih al-Qanun , 347
Sarjis ibn Hiliya, 647
Sasanians

administration of, 697
architecture by, 698-699
art by, 698-699
court ceremony by, 697
defeat of, 443, 877

description of, 234, 319, 602, 604, 697

government of, 697

legacy of, 699

literature by, 697

mathematics by, 697-698

Nawruz, 559

palaces of, 698

philosophy of, 698

religion of, 698

science by, 697-698

Satrang, 148

Sawad al-A ’z am, 824

Sayf al-Dawla, 27, 142

Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, 232

Sayl al-jarrar, al-, 731

Sayyid al-Husayn al-Karaki, 505

Sayyid Haydar, al-. See Amuli, al-

Sayyid Muhammad Baqir ibn Shams al-Din

Muhammad al-Husayni al-Astarabadi, See Mir Damad
Sayyid Muhammad Husayni, See Gesudaraz
Sayyid Sabiq, 730
Sayyid Salar Mas'ud, 644
Sayyida al-Hurra al-Malika Arwa, al-, 111
Sayyida ‘Atika, 274
Sayyida Ruqayya, 274
Scanlon, George T., 273
Scholar libraries, 452-453
Scholars, 700-702
Scholarship, 700-702
School(s)

of jurisprudence, 702-704
primary, 641
School of Hadith, 351
Science

commentary on. 167
translation of subjects involving, 825
Scribes, 704-706
Script styles, 134
Scriptural exegesis
Islamic, 706-708
Jewish, 708-711
Sculpture, 711-712
Sea of China, 817
Sea of Harkal, 817
Sebuktigin, 293-294, 458, 837
Second Crusade, 184

Secret History of the Mongols, The , 280, 511

Sedentarism, 712-714

Sedentization, 712

Seeking knowledge, 714-716

Sefer ha-Bahir, 43 1

Sefer ha-'Egron , 685

Sefer Yesirah, 431

Sehzade Selim. 795

Sekandarnameh, 560

Select Work on the Treatment of the Eye, The, 578
Selection of [ the books] in the Libraries of Aleppo. The, 453
Selections for Badi al- Jamal, 490
Seleucids, 602

Self-imposed Compulsion, The, 6-1
Self-narrative, 80-81
Selihot, 354

Selim I, 226, 263, 425, 581
Selim II, 82, 520, 717
Selim III, 753
Selimiye, 189

Selimiye Mosque, 717-718
Seljuk(s)
in Baghdad, 782

description of, 62, 93, 124, 718-719, 833
diplomacy by, 207
Isfahan during reign of, 399
pottery by, 144
Seljuk ibn Duqaq, 40
Seljuk Iran, 588

146

INDEX

Seljuk Ribat-i Sharaf, 62
Seljuq dynasty, 562
Seljuqid Kayqubadh, 2-3
Semitic language family
Arabic as member of, 56
description of, 56
Semiz Ali Pasha mosque, 751
Ser-djarrahin, 784
Sergius, 491
Serjeant, R.S., 802
Servants, 242-243
Seven Heavens, 527
Seven Portraits, The , 560
Seven Secrets, The, 870
Seven Sleepers, 719-720
Seven Thrones , 412
Sevilla, 328-329
Seville

description of, 355, 593, 720
history of, 720-721
Islamic heritage in, 721-725
Sexual intercourse
adultery, 16-17
hadd penalty for, 17
Sexuality, 192, 278-280
Sha’ban, 196
Shabbatay Zevi, 548
Shabbatians, 548
Shadid, 481
Shadouf, 51

Shadow plays, 722-724

Shafi’i, al-, 71, 203, 613, 703, 715, 724, 786

Shafi'i madhhab, 702

Shafi'i school. 187, 486

Shafi’is, 447

Shah, 814

Shah Isma'il, 585

Shah Jahan, 21, 91, 792

Shah jo Risalo, 752

Shah Ni’matallah Wali, 824

Shah Rukh, 142, 320, 812-813

Shah Tahmasp, 80, 210. 234, 505, 585

Shahadat al-alimiyah, 203

Shah-i javanan, 694

Shah-i zinda, 694

Shah-i Zindeh, 864

Shahid al-Awwal, al-, 732

Shahjahan, 194

Shahnama, 63, 144, 323, 585, 605, 727-729

Shahnameh, 227, 233-234, 253, 261, 560, 605

Shahrastani. al-, 840

Shahr-i Sabz, 62

Shahryarnameh, 234

Shaikh-al-Islam , 774

Sha'ir, 233

Shajarat al-Durr, 516, 729-730

Shakyh Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Ahad Faruqi Sirhindi, See Sirhindi
Shakyh Baha al-Din al-’Amili, 530
Shakykh Salim Chishti, 275
Sham, 109

Shamarikh fi Tim al-Ta’rikh, al-, 785

Shamil, a!-, 428

Shams al-Din, 665

Shams al-Din al-Khafri, 78

Shams al-Din al-Sakahawi, 716

Shams al-Din al-Samutra’i, 465
Shams al-Din Ibn Daniyal, 260
Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Shahrazuri, 166, 385
Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn
Ahmad al-Kishi, 324
Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kuhra, 795
Shams al-Mulk, 469
Shams al-Mulk Duqaq, 123
Shams al-Muluk Isma’il, 123
Shapur I, 253
Shapur II, 253
Shaqiq al-Balkhi, 71
Sharab, 106
Sharaf, al-, 329

Sharafaddin Sabunjuoghlu, 492

Sharayit-i Jarrahi , 490

Shark al-hurhan li-Aristu, 167

Shark diwan al-Mutanabbi, 1 67

Shari’ Abi Ahmad, 695

Shari'a, 16, 183, 186, 596, 622

Shari’al-Khalij, 696

Sharif al-Idrisi, al-, 140

Sharif al-Murtada, al-, 75, 452, 732

Sharif al-Radi, al-, 37

Sharif ‘Amili, 733

Sharifism, 257

Shatibi, al-, 302

Shatt al-Arab, 99

Shawkani, al-, 730-731, 731

Shawwal, 196

Shaybani, al-, 6

Shaykh ‘Adi ibn Musafir, 870

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, 678

Shaykh al-Husayn ibn ‘Abd al-Samad, 505

Shaykh al-Islam, 725, 775

Shaykh al-Mufid, al-. 94

Shaykh al-Yunani, al-, 610

Shaykh Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili, 505

Shaykh Baha’i, 725

Shaykh Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakar, 563
Shaykh Isma'il, 256
Shaykh Mubarak, 9
Shaykh Nasir al-Din, 564

Shaykh Shihab al-Don ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi, 384

Shayzar, 851

Shehy ill Islam, 1 88

Shehy Yuyo, 97

Shehzade Cami, 750

Sheikh, 49

Shelter for the poor, 147
Sher Khan Suri, 334
Shi'at ‘Al, i, 132
Shibab al-Din Mahmud, 123
Shibam-Kawkaban, 870
Shibani Khan the Uzbek, 121
Shidda al-‘uzuma, al-, 111

Shifa' al-’AHl fi masa'il al-qada waT-qadar waT-hikma
waT-ta’lil, 363
Shihab. al-, 677

Shihab al-Dawla Harun ibn Sulayman ibn
Bughra Khan Ilek, 142
Shihab al-Din Abu ‘Abdallah Yaqut, 139
Shihab al-din Abu Hafs ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi,

See Suhrawardi, al-
Shihab al-Din al-Shurawardi, 69

147

INDEX

Shihab al-Din Nagawri, 490

Shihab al-Din ‘Umar al-Suhrawardi, 299

Shi'i(s)

defeat of, 500
description of, 169, 315
Karbala pilgrimage by, 434
law of, 731-732
opposition of, 625

scriptural sources recognized by, 733
Shi’i Fatimids, 649
Shi’i festivals, 255
Shi'i Imam
description of, 191
Ja’far al-Sadiq as, 409-410
Shi'i Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, 210
Shi'i Mahdi, 238
Shi'i Muslims, 24
Shi'i thought, 732-736
Shi'is Buyid amirs, 2
Shi'ism

description of, 54, 105, 736-738
doctrinal specificity of, 733-736
dual vision view of, 734-735
eras in. 737-738
gnosis in, 299
imam’s meaning in. 386
Ja’far al-Sadiq’s role in, 409-410
Majlisi, al- in, 460
Nusayrism and, 569

Twelver, 108, 299, 531, 570, 732-733, 735-737
Shipbuilding, 738-741
Ships, 738-741
Shiraz, 524, 585, 621
Shirk, 378
Shirkuh, 873
Shuhada’, 18
Shura, 171-172, 424
Shurta, 622-623

Sibawayhi, 57, 167, 300, 706, 741-742

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, 742-743

Sicily, 744-745

Siddiq, al -, 5

Sifat al-safwa , 345

Significations of the Qur'an, The , 701

Sijistani, al-, 615

Sikka, 163

Silk, 179, 745-746, 803
Silk Roads

in 'Abbasid Dynasty, 746-747
chronology of, 746-748
decline of, 747-748
definition of, 745
history of, 746-748
Mongol influence on, 748
Tamerlane’s influence on, 748
topography of, 745
Silver coinage, 1 63
Silver mines, 505
Simancas, 4
Sinan

aqueducts built by, 51-52
biographical information about, 749-751
Sinan Pasha, 130, 751
Sinan the Great, 750
Sindh. 751-752

Singers, 599

Singing, 752-753, 866

Singing Birds and the Gazelles, The , 229

Sira, 232, 330, 754

Sira al-nabawiyya, al-, 357, 595

Sira al-nabawiyya, al-, 629

Sira ’Antar, 630

Sirafi, al-, 151

Siraj a! Hidayah, 774

Siraj al-Din al-Sakkaki, 427

Siraj al-Muluk, 825

Sirat Ali al-Zibaq, 229

Sirat al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din , 522

Sirat al-Mustaqim, 465, 665, 767

Sirat al-Zahir Baybars, 630

Sirat Antar, 46-47, 153, 229

Sirat Bani Hilal, 232-233

Sirat Bani Hilal al-Kubra, 630

Sirat Saif ibn Dili Yazan, 630

Sirat Salah al-Din, 368

Sira-Tabaqat Fuhul, 867

Sirhindi, Ahmad, 754-755

Sirr al-Asrar, 825

Sirr-i Akbar, 195

“Six Pens,” 135

Siyar al Arifin, 11 A

Siyar a'lam al-nubala’, 1 10-1 1 1

Siyar al-awliya ’, 152

Siyar al-Fazari, 476

Siyar al-muluk, 148

Siyasa, 623, 627

Siyasa al-Shar‘iyya, al-, 372

Siyasat nama, 207, 565, 606, 692

Siyasat-name, 856

Slave trade, 757-758, 760-761

Slavery

in eastern Islamic world, 757-758
entrapment methods, 757
military, 755-757
in western Islamic world, 758-761
Slaves, 757-761
Slip-painted pottery, 143-144
Snow, 859

Social hierarchy, 205-206
Socializing, 762-763
Societal classes. 178
Sogdiana, 140
Sogdians, 829

Sokollu Mehmet Pasha, 751, 856
Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol, See Ibn Gabirol
Solomon Ibn Gabirol, 618
Solomon Ibn Saqbel, 477
Somnath, 387
Song dynasty, 747
Songhay empire
decline of, 765
origin of, 763-764
Sunni kings, 764-765
Sons of Aaron, 497
Sons of Netira, 497
Sophistici elenchi, 377
Sophronios, 205
Soup kitchens, 146
Source of Life, The, 355
South Asia, 773-775

148

INDEX

Southeast Asia
culture of, 765-766
history of, 765-766
languages of, 766-767
literature of, 766-767
trading ports in, 765
Southern Song dynasty, 747
Spark of the Tinderbox, The , 6
Spherical trigonometry, 289-290
Spices, 767-768
Spies, 239-240
Spiritual concerts, 194
Splendid Garden, The, 680
Splendid History, The, 342
Sports, 768-770
Sports gambling, 275
Srivijaya, 462
St. Epiphanios, 188
St. John, 191
St. Mark, 30, 173
St. Sergius, 688
St. Sophia, 82
Stained glass, 298
Stations of the Travelers, The, 363
Steppe humanism, 332
Stillman, Yadida, 802
Stonepaste, 143
Story of Sanjan, 877
Story of the Hunchback, The, 577
Story of the Three Apples, The, 577
Straight edge, 705
Straits of Gibraltar, 294
Stranca Mountains, 51
Stucco, 698, 711
Siibetei, 509

Subh al-a 'Sha fi Sina ’at al-Insha ', 680

Sublimation of Belief, 840

Subtle Blessings, The, 807

Sudan, 770-771

Suffering, 771-773

Sufi(s)

dancing by, 192
description of, 75
Ja’far al-Sadiq’s ideas, 410
moral education promoted by, 280
poets, 619
Qabbalists and, 547
Sufi, al-, 583
Sufi orders, 773
Sufism

in Andalusia, 545
description of, 431, 633, 773-775
development of, 305
epic poetry about, 229
gnosis in, 299
growth of, 38
Ibn ‘Arabi’s work in, 350
institutionalization of, 633
Jewish mysticism and, 545
music and, 534
Sufriya, 436

Sufyan al-Thawri, 389, 552
Sufyan ibn ‘Uyayna, 71
Sufyani, 238
Sufyn ibn ‘Uyayna, 701

Sugar mills, 800

Suhrawardi, al-, 290, 384, 615, 775-776
Suhrawardi Sufis, 774
Suicide, 198
Sulalat al-Salatin, 464
Sulami, al-, 410
Sulayhids, 70, 776-778, 871
Sulayman al-Bustani, 230
Sulayman ibn ’Abd al-Malik, 424
Sulayman ibn Muhammad al-Mahri, 556
Sulayman ibn Qutulmish, 470, 719
Suleyman the Magnificent
aqueducts built by, 51
architectural works by, 521
description of, 581, 688
in Istanbul, 407
judicial system of, 425
Sinan’s work under, 749
Siileymaniye Mosque, 480, 751, 778-780
Sulh, 595, 596
Sullam ha-' Aliyvah , 547
Sultan, 780-781, 814
Sultan al-’adil, al-, 606
Sultan al-qalam, 290
Sultan Barquq, 156
Sultan Husayn, 585
Sultan Ibrahim, 20
Sultan Mahmud, 588
Sultan Mahmut library, 189
Sultan Nur al-Din, 50
Sultan Qalawun, 156, 541
Sultan Qutuz, 82
Sultanate of Mataram, 413
Sultanate of Shawa, 12
Sultanate of Yifat, 12
Sultaniya, 574

Sultan ’s Rare Qualities and the Excellences of Yusuf, 368
Sum of Clarity Concerning the Interpretation
of the Verses of the Qur'an, 701
Sumatra, 462
Sung Dynasty, 817
Sunjata, 466
Sunjata epic, 466-467
Sunna, 307, 403
Sunni Aghlabids, 250
Sunni Ali, 764, 781-782
Sunni hermeneutics, 707
Sunni Islam

apocalyptic works in, 237-238
circumcision practices, 156-157
Ghazali, al-, 292-293
imam meaning in, 386
jurisprudence schools, 187
Mahdi in, 238
Sunni Muslim, 238
Sunni Revival, 345
Sunni revival, 782-783
Sunni theology, 809-810
Sunni ulema, 9
Suq al-Warraqin. 94
Sura[h] al-Ma’muniyaa[h] , 138
Surat al-Ard, 139, 561
Surat al-Buruj, 688
Surat al-Kahf 688
Surat al-Waqi'ci, 638

149

INDEX

Surface areas, 289
Surgery, 783-784
Surgical techniques, 783-784
Surra Mail Ra ’ a , 695
Surur al-sudur , 152
Suryani, 397
Suryaye, 60

Suyuti, al-, 80, 187, 199, 220, 466, 708, 784-786

Sweetmeats, 204

Symposium , 614

Synagogue, The, 22-23

Synagogues, 786-787

Syr Darya, 829

Syria

al-‘Aziz in, 251
Aramaean and, 60
Damascus, 191
description of, 787-788
earthquakes in, 219-220
Fatimids in, 787
glassware in, 298
Greater, 787-788
interfaith relations in, 393
iqta‘ grants in, 448
Khalid ibn al-Walid in, 435
Mamluks in, 472, 788
Muslims in, 238
Nusayris in, 570
Ottoman conquest of, 226
sculpture in. 711
Syriac, 789

Syrian medical literature, 491
Systematic residuary entitlement, 389

Ta'ahhud, 597
Tahaqat, 366
Tabaqat al-Atibba’, 394
Tabaqat al-Kubra, al-, 110, 867
Tabaqat al-shaf‘iyya, al, 362
Tabaran-Tus, 292

Tabari, al-, 171, 232, 357-358, 438, 440, 483, 517,

641, 659-660, 707-708, 715, 754, 791-792, 859
Tabaristan, 791
Ta’bir manuals, 214-215
Table-Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge, 13
Tabriz, 383, 573, 687

Tabyin kadhib al-muftari ‘ala Abi al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, 351

Tactica, 557

Tacuinum sanitatis, 609

Tadhkirat al-abniya, 749

Tadhkirat al-Awliya’, 79

Tadhkirat al-bunyan, 749

Tadhkirat al-Fuqaha’ 'ala Talkhis Fatawi al-'Ulama’, 325

Tadhkirat al-kahhalin, 578

Tadhkirat al-mi'marin , 749

Tadhkirat al-muluk, 1 08

Tadhkira-vi lbrahimi, 108

Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi, 785

Tafsir, 706

Tafsir, 791-792, 824

Tafsir al-Jalalayn, 166

Tafsir al-Kabir, al-, 670

Tafsir-i Para-i 'Amma, 774

Tafsiur al-Jalalayn, 785

Taha Husayn, 200

Tahafut al-Falasifa, 293, 611, 811

Tahafut al-Tahafut , 81 1

Tahart, 341

Tahdhib. al-, 732

Tahdhib al-Ahkam, 839

Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, 241, 615, 826, 840

Tahdhib al-kamal fi asma’ al-rijal. 111

Tahdhib al-tahdhib, 1 1 1

Tahdid Nihayat al-Amdkin, 483

Tahir ibn al-Husayn, 473

Tahirids

Aden capture by, 1 5
Bukhara during reign of, 121
coinage used by, 163
Iranian rule by, 562
lineage of, 141
Tahkemoni, 618
Tahmasp, 210, 687

Tahrir al-ahkam fi tadbir all! al-islam, 780
Ta’if, 843

Taifa kingdoms, 594

Ta'ir al-Anam fi Tafsir al-Ahlam, 215

Ta ‘iyaa al-Kubra, a!-, 229

Ta’iyya al-Kubra, 844

Ta'iz, 871

Ta'izz, 669

Taj al-Alam Safiyat al-Din Shah, 466

Taj al-Din Ali Shah, 667

Taj al-Din ‘Ali Shah Gilani, 572

Taj al-Din al-Subki, 145

Taj al-Mulk, 400

Taj al-Muluk Bori, 123

Taj al-Salatin, 465

Taj Mahal, 792-794

Tajarib al-Salaf 825

Tajarib al-Umam fi Akhbar Muluk al-’Arab wa-l-’Ajam, 825

Tajdid, 678-679

Tajik, 725

Tajikistan, 828

Tajrid al-Ttiqad, 840

Tajrid al-i‘Tiqad, Kaslif al-Murad fi Sharh al-i'Tiqad, 325
Takhkira al-Harawiyya fi ’l-Hiyal al-Harbiyya, 313
Takht-i Sulayman, 63, 588
Talab al-‘ilm, 714
Talaba, 38
Talaq, 211
Talbis iblis, 345
“Tales of the Ancients,” 629
Tales of the Prophets, 415, 644-646, 658
Talib al-Haqq, 54
Taliban, 119-120
Ta'limiyya, 317
Talismanic objects, 794-796
Talismans, 794-796
Talkhis al-Miftah, 680
Talmud
alms in, 147
description of, 283
education about, 223
Tamahar, 104
Tamajeq, 104
Tamasheq, 104
Tamazight, 103-104

150

INDEX

Tamerlane, 401, 490, 502, 513, 580, 748, 796-798
Tamhui. 147
Tamil Cholas, 766
Tamzabit, 104

Tanbih al-Hadi wa 'l-Mustahdi, 442
Tanqih al-manazir, 579
Tanriverdi al-Mahmoudi, 188
Tansuqnama-yi Ilkhani, 490
Tanukhi, al-. 763
Taq Kisra, 62
Taqbaylil, 104

Taqi al-Din ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Sabbagh Kufi, 324
Taqi al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad
ibn 'Umar, See Ibn Qadi Shuba
Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn ‘ Ah al-Maqrizi, See Maqrizi, al-
Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya, See Ibn Taymiyya
Taqiyya, 240

Taqwim al-Abdan fi Tadbir al-Insan , 491

Taqwin as-sihha , 609

Tarcama-i hulasa fi fenni’l-ciraha , 783

Targitas, 837

Ta'rif bi-Ibn Khaldun, 359

Tarifit, 104

Ta’rikh, 440

Ta’rikh al-bahir, al-, 342

Ta 'rikh al-Duwal wa-al-Muluk, 343

Ta ’rikh al-Fattash, 459

Ta'rikh al-Kabir , 122, 859

Ta’rikh al-Khulafa’, 785-786

Ta'rikh al-Mustabsir , 115, 766

Ta’rikh al-Rusul wa’l-Muluk, 140, 791, 859

Ta’rikh al-Yamini, 825

Ta’rikh Baghdad , 111, 402, 437

Ta’rikh ibn qadi shuhba, 362

Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq, 351

Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, 8

Tarikh-i Firuz Shahi, 98

Tarikh-i Jahan-gusha, 667

Tarikh-i Mubarak-i Ghazani, 667

Tarim, 871

Tariq ibn Ziyad, 175, 294

Tariqa Mavlawiyya. 194

Tarjuman al-Mustafid, 466

Tarjuma-yi Tafsir-i Tabari, 824

Tashawit, 104

Tasiwit, 104

Tasliyah, 704

Tasmiyat Wuiat Misr, 440

Tasso, Torquato, 243

Tatars, 511

Tathqif al-Ta'rif, 66

Tavernier, Jean Baptiste, 766

Tawabil, 767

Tawakkul, 71-72

Tawashis, 243

Tawhidi, al-, 426, 798-799

Taxation

Byzantine system of, 173-174
dhimmis, 206
rebellions against. 174
Taylasan, 162
Tayyibi, 406
Tayyibi Da'wa, 70, 778
Tea, 106
Teachers, 641

Technology, 799-801
Tell Dan, 60
Temple Mount, 415
Temuchin, See Genghis Khan
Temujjin, 280

Ten Treatises on the Eye, The, 578

Tetrabiblos, 648

Textiles

in ‘Abbasid dynasty, 179
description of, 801-805
in Famitid dynasty, 180
Textual transmission, 202
Tezkiretii'l Biinyan, 52
Tezkiretii'l Ebniye, 52
Tha’alibi, 89

Tha’alibi, al-, 13, 295, 826
Thabit al-Bunani, 71

Thabit ibn Qurra, 68, 288, 289, 344, 485, 827

Tha’labi, al-, 645, 708

Thaniyyat al-Wada’, 553

Thawb, 159

Thawri, al-, 701

Theater

in al-Andalus, 807-808
Arabic, 806-808
audience of, 805
general features of, 805
historical development of, 805-807
themes of, 805
Thecla, 688
Themistius, 2
Theodicy, 269
Theodosius II, 81, 719
Theologus Autodidactus, 348
Theology

commentary on, 166
description of, 808
Islamic, 416

Jurjani. al-’s work with. 427
Mu’tazilites, 241, 315, 486, 544-545
philosophy and, 611-612
Qur’anic, 808-809
Razi, al-’s views on, 670
suffering and, 772
Sunni, 809-810
Theology mimar I, 61 1
Theology of Aristotle, 610
Theophilus, 126
Theophrastus, 502-503
Third Crusade, 184
Those Who Lived After Death, 18
Thousand Tales, The, 575
313 Edict of Milan, 172
Throne, 272
Thunderstorms, 860
Thurayya, 62
Tibb al-Nufus, 223
Tibrizi, al-, 46
Tibvan, The, 361

Tibvan fi ma’ Rifat al-Adyan, al-, 665

Tien Shan, 287

Tifashi, al-, 876

Tigris, 258

Tigris River, 312

Timaeus, 579

151

INDEX

Timbuktu, 764
Time

Avicenna’s modalities of, 506
concepts of, 810-812
Timothy I, 393
Timur, 87, 502, 796-798
Timur Leng, 121, 694
Timur Lenk, 142
Timur-i Leng, 580
Timurid Miran Shah, 838
Timurids, 273, 513, 585, 812-813
Tiraz, 160, 801
Tirmidhi, al-, 307
Titles

Arabic, 813-814
description of, 813
Persian. 814
Turkish, 814

Toghril Beg, 40, 93, 476, 718-719, 782

Toghril III, 719

Toledo, 593

Toledo garden, 328

Topkapi, 62

Topkapi Palace, 407, 501

Topkapi Saray, 62-63, 330

Torah. 107

Torment, 771

Torre de las Damas, 588

Towns, 849-851

Tract on the Soul , 579

Trade

African, 815-816
Indian Ocean, 816-818
Mediterranean, 818-821
Translation Movement, 336
Translations

Arabic into Hebrew, 821-823
Arabic into Persian, 823-826
pre-Islamic learning into Arabic, 826-828
Transoxania, 68, 87, 140-141, 281, 398, 469, 513, 592,
606, 691, 693, 718, 746, 828-830
Travel, 830-832
Treachery, 327
Treasures, 798

Treasure-Trove of Things Delicious for the Diversification
of the Table 's Dishes, The, 683
Treasury of Adab, The, 13
Treasury of Secrets, 560
Treatise Against the Believers in Free Will, 316
Treatise of Living Creatures, The, 25, 41 1
Treatise of the Garden, 710
Treatise of the Pool, The, 546
Treatise on Asceticism, 316
Treatise on Clarity and Clarification. The, 411
Treatise on Government, 565
Treatise on Legal Verdicts, The , 25, 411
Treatise on Light, 344, 579
Treatise on Place, 344

Treatise on the Here and the Hereafter: On Aphorisms,
Managing People and Ways of Dealing
with Them, The, 411
Treatise on the Soul, 370
Treaty of Carlowitz, 581
Treaty of Devol, 539
Treaty of Hudaybiyya, 171, 529

Trebizond, 539
Trepidation. 78

Tribal customary law, 187-188
Tribal customs, 832-834
Tribal humanism, 332
Tribes, 832-834
Trifsht, 104

Trigonometric quadrant, 76
Trinity, 569
Tughluq dynasty, 564
Tughril, 400
Tughril Bek, 448, 452
Tuhfa-i Mubarizi, 491

Tuhfat al-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ib al-Amsar wa-'Aja'ib
al-Asfar, 352
Tuhfetii‘1 Mimarin, 52
Tulun, 374

Tulunids, 447, 802, 834-835
Tu'ma, 447

Tuman, Dankaran, 467

Tunics, 159

Tunna', 599

Turanshah. 101

Turban, 159-160

Turcopoles, 188

Turkic languages, 835-837

Turkish folk literature, 262-263

Turkish languages, 835-837

Turkish medical literature, 491-492

Turkish mosques, 521

Turkish titles, 814

Turks, 837-838

Tiirkus, 263

Tus, 562, 838-839

Tusi, al- (Muhammad ibn Hasan), 307, 483, 501, 839
Tusi, al- (Nasar al-Din), 839-841
Tustari, al-. 431, 707
Twelver ritual, 94

Twelver Shi‘is, 35, 352, 500-501. 647

Twelver Shi‘ism, 108, 299, 531, 570, 732-733, 735-737

LPahada, 597

Ubada ibn as-Shamit, 188

Ubaidullah Ahrar, 88

Ubay ibn Ka'b, 660

‘Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, 121, 436

‘Ubaydallah ibn Yahya, 791

Uhud, 18

Uighur Turks, 511

‘Ukba Ibn Nafi‘, 649

Ukskudar Mirimah Sultan Mosque, 750

‘Ulama, 19, 179, 181, 594, 764

‘Ulayya, 866

Uljaytu, See Oljeitii

Ulu Cami, 779

Ulugh Beg, 485, 812

‘Ulum al-Din, 678

‘Ulum al-hadith. 701

‘Umar al-Khayyam, 32

‘Umar I, 877

‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, 131, 160, 205, 316, 678, 843-844
‘Umar ibn Abi Rabi‘a, 752
‘Umar ibn al-Farid. 844

152

INDEX

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, 168
‘Umar ibn al-Khassab, 552
‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, 556, 558
Aqsa mosque and, 50
biographical information about, 844-845
description of, 30. 160, 171, 195, 205, 228, 318
Jerusalem’s conquest by, 415
Khalid ibn al-Walid and, 435
property inheritance laws under, 388
‘Umar Khayyam, 400
‘Umar Walashama, 12
Umara al-Yamani, 80
Umar a ’ Misr , 440

Umayya ibn Khalaf ibn Wahb ibn Hudhafa
al-Jumahi, 109
Umayyad Caliphs
’Abd al-Rahman, 425
al-Walid ib ‘Abd al-Malik, 50
classification of, 847
division of, 847
establishment of, 304
judges appointed by, 423
Marwan, 506

Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, 50, 423, 450
mujaddid, 678
palaces of, 62

political theory debates, 625
predestination discussions, 639
qadiship used by, 423-424
ruling period of, 131
Suleiman, 525
Walid, al, 520
Walid II, 480

Umayyad Desert Castles, 330
Umayyad dynasty
Arabs, 59
astronomy, 77
Bahraini tribes, 95
barid during, 632
court dress during, 178-179
Damascus during, 191
description of, 1 , 846
diplomacy during, 207
downfall of, 848
espionage in, 240
eunuchs in, 243
fortifications during, 64
furniture during, 272
gardening during, 277
Hijaz during the, 54
housing during, 330
Idrisids and, 382
library of, 451
origins of, 846-847
shura during, 171-172
significance of, 847-848
spying during, 240
thrones used in, 272
travel records, 285

Umayyad Mosque, 191, 514, 845-846

Umayyad palace, 277

‘Umdat al-kuttab , 115

Umeyyads, 105

Umm Ayman, 868

Umm Habib, 35

Umm Haram bint Milhan, 188

Umm Kabsha, 868

Umm Kulthum, 274

Umm Muhammad bint 'Abd Allah, 693

Umm Sinan al-Aslamiyya, 868

Umm ul Haram bint Sultan, 52

Umm 'Umara, 868

Umma, 159, 170

Ummah, 535-536

Ummalhat al-awlad, 759

Underwear, 159

Universal History, The, 268

University education, 222

Unnatural death, 198

Uns al-Mala’ hi-Wahsh al-Fala, 337

Unshudat al-Matar, 230

Unveiled Secrets, 396

Unveiling the Elucidation of the Exegesis of
the Qur’an, 701
Urban II, 184, 719
Urbanism, 849-851
Urdunn, 590
Urgench, 142
‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, 754
Usama ibn Munqidh, 80, 338, 616, 769, 851-852
Uses of Animals, The, 46
‘Usfurids, 95
Usui al-fiqh, 449
Usui lit tariqat, 774
Usury, 852-853
‘Utbi, al-, 75
‘Uthman, 6, 443, 846
‘Uthman al-‘Amri, 501
’Uthman al-Batti, 6
‘Uthman Dan Fodio, 765
‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, 131, 167, 556, 854, 866
‘Uyun akhbar al-Rida, 35
‘Uyun al-Akhbar, 364, 679
Uzbeg, 687
Uzun Kerner, 51

Vairagyasataka, 88
Vakf, 182
Valencia, 593
Valens, 51
Valide mosque, 407
Valor, 11

Varqa va Gulshah, 144
Vazirs, 606
Veiling, 160

Verified Compendium on the Merits of the Aqsa
Mosque, The, 352
Vers irregulier, 230
Vestimentary system, 160-162
Victory of the Almighty, 730
Virahini, 620
Virgin Mary, 192, 279
Virtues of Holy War, The, 368
Virtuous City, The, 615
Vizierate, 206
Viziers, 252, 254, 855-856
Vowels, 133

153

INDEX

Wadi al-‘AUaqi, 505

Wadi al-kabir. See Guadalquivir River

Wadi al-Khaznadar, 510

Wadi al-Sughd, 829

Wadi Batha, 713

Wadi Fas, 257

Wahb ibn Munabbih, 358, 476, 754
Wahdat al-wujud, 290, 620
Wahdat ash-shuhud, 290
Wahhabis, 434
Wahidi, al-, 708
Wajib, 157, 171
Walashama dynasty, 12
Walayat al-faqih, 735
Wali, 620

Walid, al-, 3, 514, 520, 525, 845, 848

Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik, al-, 50, 191

Walid ibn Yazid, al-, 753

Walid II, 480

Wall painting, 588-589

Wallada, 866

Wallada Bint al-Mustakfi, 308
Waqf, 145-146, 857-858
Waqf deeds, 66

Waqf Nama-i Rab Rashidi, 666

Waqidi, al-, 366, 452, 754, 858-859

Waqifiyya, 35

Waqwaq, 549

War of Ajnadayn, 59

Waraqa, 527

Warfare

Mongol, 508-511

Muslim-Byzantine relations, 537-539
Washsha’, al-, 161
Wasil ibn Ata, 99, 544, 676
Wasiti, al-, 1 16
Wasiyya, 387
Water mills, 799-801
Wathiq. al-, 11, 356, 403, 438
Wattasids, 479
Wayfarers, 635

Weak and Geminate Verbs , 301
Weapons

composite bow, 510
Mongol use of, 510
Weather, 859-860
Weddings
Islamic, 481
Jewish, 481

Weeping over the Ruins, 618
Weightlifting, 769

Well Established Confluent of the Alphabetical Index, 716
Well of Zamzam, 429, 431
Well-Preserved Pearl, The, 548

What Is Desirable in the Pursuit for the History of Aleppo, 341

What is Sufficient in the Knowledge of the Faith, 443

White Mosque, 480

Wiet, Gaston, 801

William of Rubruck, 540

Wind mills, 799-801

Wind's Breeze on the Juicy Andalusian Branch, The, 478
Windstorms, 859
Wine, 10, 26, 860-861
Wine Ode, 844

Wine poems, 27

With the Prophets in the Glorious Qur’an, 645
Wizarisn i Catrang ltd Nihisn i New-Ardaxsir, 88
Women

circumcision of. 156-157

clothing worn by, 181

cosmetics use by, 177

dancing by, 192

economic activities of, 862-863

education of, 862

equality for, 278

in Geniza period, 862-863

jewelry worn by, 416-417

Jewish, 861-863

legal system effects on, 863

license to issue legal opinions, 203

as patrons, 863-865

as poets, 865-867

poverty among, 635

segregation of, 330

veiling of, 160

as warriors, 867-868

Wonders of Created Things and the Oddities of Existing
Things, The, 651-652
Wonders of Creation, The, 651-652
Wonders of Regions, 548
Wonders of the Lands, The, 651-653
Wrestling, 769

Wrestling With the Wrestling, 840

Writers, 201

Writing

“cursive” form of, 134
forms of, 134

“monumental” form of, 134
tools for, 134
Wu Zixian, 120
Wula al-harb, 591
Wuzurgmihr, 88, 148

Xenophon, 328
Xenopsylla cheopis, 113
Xerxes, 604

Xi Xia dynasty, 280, 747

Yahudiyya, 399
Yahya al-Shabihi, 274
Yahya Bey, 97

Yahya ibn ‘Adi, 68, 377, 610, 827
Yahya ibn al-Husayn, 871
Yahya ibn ‘Umar, 39
Yahya ibn ‘Umar al-Lamtuni, 39
Yahya ibn Yaya al-Laythi, 468
Yahya II, 382
Yamama, 55

Yamin al-Dawla Mahmud, 142
Yang, 280

Ya'qub al-Laith, 691
Ya‘qub al-Qirqisani, 709
Ya'qub ibn akhi Hizam, 45
Ya'qub ibn Killis, 623, 869
Ya'qub Lais, 603

154

INDEX

Ya'qubi, al-, 108, 285-286, 291, 483, 645, 696, 826

Yaqut, 287, 686, 869-870

Yaqut al-Hamawi, 80, 799

Yaqut al-Musta’simi, 135, 705

Yaqut al-Rumi al-Hamawi, 869-870

Ya’roub, 59

Yasa, 281, 511

Yathrib, 167, 228, 528

Yatimat al-dahr, 692

Yazdagird III, 729, 825

Yazdgird III, 697

Yazid, 769

Yazid I, 847

Yazid ibn Abi Habib, 192, 434
Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, 575
Yazidis, 870
Yemen

Arab ‘Aribah in, 59

description of, 778, 870-872

Rasulid dynasty in, 668
Yemenite Jews, 547
Yersinia pestis, 1 1 3
Yeshivot, 223
Yilrn al-Iiyal, 392
Ying, 280
Yuan dynasty, 512
Y u'furids, 870
Yuhanna ibn Haylan, 394
Yuhanna ibn Masawaih, 578
Yunus al-Katib, 533
Yunus Emre, 753
Yunus ibn al-A‘la al-Misri, 715
Yunus ibn Bukary, 358
Yusuf 'Abd al-Rahman, 176
Yusuf ‘Adil Khan, 108
Yusuf al-Bahrani, 80
Yusuf al-Basir, 433
Yusuf bin Tashufin, 720
Yusuf ibn Hasan Husayni Shafi’i Rumi, 825
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, 365, 595
Yusuf o Zuleikha, 412
Yusuf-Zulaykha, 620
Yzid ibn ‘Amr, 5

Zabaj, 462
Zabid, 870
Zafarnameh , 234
Zafir, al-, 250
Zagros Range, 713
Zagwe dynasty, 12
Zahawi, al-, 230
Zahir, al-, 145, 250, 516
Zahir ad-Din Babur, 333
Zahir al-Din Tughtigin, 123
Zahir Barquq, al-, 226
Zahir Baybars, al-, 347, 516
Zahire-i Kharezmshahi, 492
Zahra, al-, 249
Zaitoon, 151

Zajals, 365

Zakariya al-Qazwini, 287, 774
Zakat, 145
Zakat al-fitr, 254
Zamakhshari, al-, 300, 708
Zaman, al-, 811
Zamil ibn Jabir, 95
Zamyad Yasht, 727
Zamzam, 861
Zanadiqa

definition of, 48
Malik ibn Anas’ view of, 48
Zanata, 257
Zanj, 95, 99
Zanjan, 384
Zanki, 184, 851, 873
Zankids, 123, 788, 873-874
Zanzibar, 816, 830
Zara Yaqob, 12
Zarafshan River, 121, 828-829
Zaragoza, 593-594
Zarathushtra, 604, 877
Zaratushtnama, 398
Zardushtig den, 876
Zartoshtiyan, 877

Zawiya of Sidi ‘Abid al-Gharyani, 651

Zawiya of Sidi Sahib, 651

Zawiyas, 256

Zayd ibn Thabit. 45, 874

Zaydi-Hasani rebellion, 553

Zaydis, 132, 669, 732, 874-875

Zaydism, 731

Zaydiyyah, 164-165

Zayla, h

Zayn al-Din ‘Ali Ansari, 490
Zaynab, 613

Zaytuna Mosque of Tunis, 19
Zij, 77

Zij al-Hakimi, al-, 376
Zij al-muyassar, a /-, 648
Zij al-Sindhind, 77
Zij Batlamiyus, 648
Zijes, 483
Zij-i Ilkhani, 840
Zina, 16-17
Zir Salim, al-, 232
Zirids, 302
Ziryab, 875-876
Ziyadatallah, 19-20, 744
Ziyadids, 870
Ziyara, 614
Ziyarat, 287

Zoroastrianism, 346, 604, 698, 876-878

Zoroastrians, 206, 234, 253, 397

Zubayr ibn al-Bakkar, al-, 75

Zubdat al-Tawarikh, 812

Zubdt al-halab fi ta'rikh Halab, 341

Zuhri, al-, 660

Zujaj, 297

Zu’l-Hajja, 135

Zuray’ids, 871

155

Revelation

Cover image: Rustam and Zal paying homage to Kay Khusraw after his accession (Iran, 1446).
Shelfmark: Or. 12688 Page Folio Number: f. 1 86 Record Number: 16876.

By Permission of the British Library.

Cover design: Elise Weinger
Printed in the U.S.A.

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g Taylor & Francis Croup

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